148 1.3.70: Beginning or Ending?

"What are you doing here?" Zhou Ming mused, his eyes taking in her face after not seeing her for so long. Yes he had seen her from afar, but to be this close to her...he hated to admit it, but he missed her.

"I-I..." Xiao Yunhua gulped nervously. What should she say? She didn't expect to be caught, especially by him. "I'm going on my way." Her wrist by gripped by his strong hold, preventing her escape.

"Who let you in?"

"I snuck in." She lied without thinking. She couldn't implicate Qiang Yue, so it was better to uphold all the responsibility herself.

"Did you really sneak in despite all the security here?" He easily caught her bluff and her face reddened in embarrassment. She remained silent and he began to question her again. "If you won't tell me how you got in, you might as well tell me why."

"I-I wanted to congratulate you." Lying again.

From his humored eyes, he knew she was bullshitting every word that came out of her mouth. In realty, she wanted to cup his face and bring it closer to hers because she missed him. She wanted to tell him that he shouldn't do this. She wanted to selfishly chain him with her by making him feel guilty about her impending death. Xiao Yunhua wasn't a saint, but she also couldn't find it in herself to swallow down her pride and continued to distort the truth.

"Did you really? Well, you should've just told me that in the first place so I could've sent you a proper invitation. Come on, I'll take you inside after sending you for a quick makeover. There, you can congratulate my fiancée and me."

Xiao Yunhua was stuck. If she denied it, it meant that she was admitting to lying. If she did go, that meant she was willing to trample over her heart and congratulate that woman. In the end, she bit down any words and followed him. Thirty minutes later, she came out and he was stunned.

The ladies—that were instructed to make her as beautiful as they can—had dressed her in a strapless, nude dress that was covered with a long, lavender flowery lace coverup. The dress also exposed her long legs, which appeared even longer with the nude pumps she wore. Her hair was styled to be wavy with a waterfall braid, simple yet stunning along with her nude lips and light makeup that accented her honey-colored eyes.  Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

"Is it too late to go home?" She mumbled, thinking he didn't hear her but he did.

"Why? Don't you want to congratulate my fiancée the way you congratulated me?" Zhou Ming teased her, dismissing the ladies and leaving them alone.

Xiao Yunhua frowned and shook her head. "I regret sneaking in here, I want to leave. Please allow me to go."

Zhou Ming quietly looked at her. He then asked, "Aren't you bothered that I will be marrying someone else?"

His question shocked her. Why did he ask that out of the blue? What was she supposed to say? Was this a test? He told her that they shouldn't have anything to do with each other, then she told him; it was an endless cycle and now he wanted to break it by asking her this? "No."

"Liar."

"I'm...not...lying." Each of her words were unknowingly dragged along, like she was forcing herself to say then.

"Liar."

She was quiet and softly admitted, "I know."

"Then what are you going to do?" He was testing her limits and teasing her. Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He was clearly shocked but quickly took the lead and slipped his tongue in her mouth. Xiao Yunhua didn't know how long they were kissing but she pulled away and breathed hard.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...I should get going before I wreck anymore havoc."

"You're just leaving after doing that?"

"Then do you want me to watch you get engaged to another woman?" She snapped, not wanting to cry. "I just wanted to see who she was then leave. Getting caught was not on my agenda and for the sake of my pride, I didn't want to explain myself either. But here I am exposing myself... let me leave."

"You saw her?"

"Yes..." Xiao Yunhua sighed, "She's beautiful and suits you well."

"Really? Then I think you owe her an apology." Before Xiao Yunhua could protest and try to leave, he turned her face to the mirror. "Apologize."

"I-I don't think I understand." Why was she looking into a mirror? Was the foreign woman here?

"You heard me. Apologize to my fiancée." Zhou Ming saw her conflicted eyes and her naïve behavior and couldn't help but chuckle. Once it clicked in her mind what he meant, she gasped.

"M-Me? But how, isn't it that foreign woman?"

"Ailee? That's Zhou Lu's girlfriend." The revelation stunned her. So she had been feeling envious and already wishing them a good, married life for nothing?

"Then who is your fiancée?"

"You."

Did she lose part of her memory because she didn't understand how she ended up being the elusive woman who was getting married to this man. Her honey-colored eyes met his pitch black ones and demanded an explanation.

"I waited three months for you to try to reach out to me, but could only use this method to get your attention."

"How did you know I'd agree to being engaged to you?" This cunning man was too much. He took her sneaking in here as a confirmation of getting engaged to him.

"Should it be someone else as you thought?" His words were joking but were a warning as a dark glimmer flashed across his whirlpool of black eyes. She shivered and shook her head.

"B-But I only have a few years at most—"

"I will use every resource available of the Zhou family to make sure you don't." His words were reasonable and Xiao Yunhua remembered that she could always use points to exchange for things to help her health. This bastard, if he hadn't pushed her away in the first place, would she had ever thought of death to move on? But even to this point, she hadn't done anything to get his heart...at least during the marriage, she could have time to get the points.

He grabbed her hand and escorted her to the center, where the guests were waiting to see the mystery girl along with the Zhou heir.

On their way, they heard a sudden movement and Zhou Ming shifted her away from the open and blocked her body with his. "Don't move." He whispered, on alert.

He used his phone to quickly call for his assistant but the sound of a gunshot interrupted him. Xiao Yunhua turned to the source and saw a woman that she remembered was with Ling Xiu at Zhou Ming's birthday celebration long ago. She was dressed in black and had a vicious look on her face.

Zhou Ming cursed incoherently and continued to shield Xiao Yunhua. "Jing Xue, what are you doing here?"

Jing Xue was her name? Why did that surname sound so familiar?

Jing Xue...Jing Hao! She was related to Jing Hao?

"I'm here to kill you! You were the only target I couldn't assassinate and you humiliated me, along with my family name. Bastard, you've bullied and suppressed my family for the past few months enough." Xiao Yunhua's interest was piqued. For the past couple of months, he had been suppressing the Jing family? She tried to assassinate him before?

"Only if you have the ability." She tried to shoot again, but he dodged and the security guards were beginning to corner her as they heard the noise. The guests were scared but couldn't go outside because they were told to stay in the center for their safety.

Jing Xue angrily began to shoot the people coming for her while dodging their attempts of stopping her. Like a madwoman, her eyes darted back and forth until they fell on Xiao Yunhua. A feeling of dread fell on her and in the next couple of seconds, she felt something pierce her chest and her vision blurred. She heard yelling and found herself in someone's big and strong arms, who were very comfortable and made her sleepy.

"Yunhua, you can't close your eyes!" The person said, his teardrops falling on her face.

She wanted to comfort him, telling him that she will sleep for a little bit. But her shoulders were fervently shook, making the dull pain in her chest intensify. She painfully raised her arm and her hand touched the face of the person who was crying as she smiled gently.

Her eyelids were growing really heavy and she really wanted to sleep. Her eyes took in his handsome face one last time before she saw darkness.

And in the midst of the darkness, she heard a sound she hadn't heard in a long time...