Chapter 80

Almost the moment Nie Lingbo appeared, Song Pianxian recognized her.

It was Qing Lu, without a doubt.

Song Pianxian was accustomed to using rational thinking to solve problems, but when it came to recognizing Qing Lu, she couldn’t provide any evidence or data.

For her, this transcended reason, coming from a deeper place within.

The moment she saw Qing Lu, it was like the clear cry of a phoenix, making her soul tremble with numbness.

Song Pianxian widened her eyes, carefully observing the Qing Lu of this world, also known as Nie Lingbo.

Compared to the previous two worlds, the Nie Lingbo of this world was more mature.

Song Pianxian remembered that Nie Lingbo was now 29 years old, with experiences and knowledge far beyond her peers.

She broke through generational barriers, able to sit on negotiation tables opposite to uncles and elders effortlessly, even overshadowing them. This was something the current male lead, Xi Heng, couldn’t achieve yet.

Song Pianxian suddenly had a subtle feeling.

Having traversed through various worlds, what she saw were different versions of Qing Lu, at different stages of life and in different social positions. They each displayed unique charm in front of her, but fundamentally couldn’t escape from the shadow of Qing Lu.

In this world, it was the first time Song Pianxian intentionally sought out Qing Lu.

After seeing Nie Lingbo, Song Pianxian became certain that Qing Lu should be different for her, and the two should have a deeper connection.

Otherwise, Song Pianxian couldn’t explain why, upon seeing Nie Lingbo for the first time, she felt no sense of unfamiliarity, but instead felt an indelible sense of intimacy and familiarity.

Affectionate emotions appeared in Song Pianxian’s eyes, which in Nie Lingbo’s eyes, were even more touching.

Her thumb, wiping away that tear, lingered at the corner of Song Pianxian’s lips, restraining its force, yet showing no more emotion on her face.

Even the next second, she withdrew her hand.

If it weren’t for Xi Heng’s embarrassment on the side, even his awkwardness, if it weren’t for the guests staring wide-eyed, their gazes constantly shifting between the three, it all seemed as if it had never happened.

Xi Zihua didn’t dare delay this time, walking out directly to reprimand Xi Heng:

“You’ve made a mess of things. Do you need Ms. Nie to explain some truths to you before you understand? Hurry up and thank Ms. Nie.”

Xi Heng clenched his fist, unable to say a word. In this situation, he even had to thank Xi Zihua for helping him out.

He had finally overcome his psychological barriers, choosing to lower his head in front of everyone for Nie Lingbo, but Nie Lingbo seemed indifferent, turning away and saying softly:

“No need.”

Xi Heng’s words were stuck in his throat.

After watching Nie Lingbo leave, Xi Zihua turned around and scrutinized the girl in the white dress in front of her, curiosity and scrutiny in her eyes. It wasn’t until she saw that face, so similar to Nie Lingbo’s features yet lacking her spirit.

Xi Zihua instinctively frowned, her gaze shifting to Xi Heng, and politely said, “Miss, someone will escort you home.”

As she finished speaking, she noticed the girl’s gaze following Nie Lingbo’s figure.

Xi Zihua interpreted this as dependence, after all, Nie Lingbo had just saved her from Xi Heng, so it seemed the girl was still a bit afraid of her ex-boyfriend Xi Heng.

Thinking this, Xi Zihua also looked at Xi Heng, who was watching Nie Lingbo’s figure, and said, “Ms. Xia is still waiting for you to dance. You should go over.”

Xia Lei, inexplicably prompted, felt a little annoyed. Why was Xi Heng sent to find her? Was she some kind of substitute?

The bootlicker that Nie Lingbo ignored, the ex-boyfriend that Song Pianxian dumped, now handed to her.

No, she wasn’t a substitute. Xia Lei looked at the slowly approaching, stern-faced Xi Heng, and suddenly realized.

So she was the garbage collector.

Since Nie Lingbo had left and Song Pianxian didn’t linger, she thanked Xi Zihua for her kindness and went home on her own, but she felt a bit heavy-hearted.

The mission had progressed smoothly as planned, and Qing Lu had been found. It could be said that the progress was extremely smooth, but Nie Lingbo treated her as if she were a stranger.

Her upbringing prompted her to intervene in a scene, but apart from that, she didn’t pay any more attention to herself.

09 murmured, “New humans have no memory. They may need more contact to become familiar.”

This was the first time 09 had encountered something related to teaming up with new humans. She wanted to dig up some experience posts on the forum, but found very few, and the few that existed were not very informative.

However, 09 carefully compared and found that after the mission members teamed up with the new humans, they basically needed to cultivate some goodwill before they could establish friendships or romantic relationships.

She recalled and said, “Look, in the first two worlds, we both had prolonged contact with each other. Perhaps that’s the process of awakening the new humans.”

Is that so?

Song Pianxian had no evidence to refute this, so she chose to temporarily believe 09.

Moreover, more contact couldn’t hurt.

Song Pianxian made a decision. It seemed that in this world, she needed to take the initiative to interact more with Nie Lingbo.

The difference in their current identities was like night and day. She hadn’t had the opportunity to acknowledge the Song Family yet, so how could she contact Nie Lingbo—

Song Pianxian carefully recalled the occasions where the two of them had contact in the text. Fortunately, for the sake of creating conflicts, the stand-in and the protagonist always had various interactions due to coincidences and reasons.

Song Pianxian took out pen and paper and meticulously noted down each point from the plot materials.

On the day Xi Zihua finished everything, Nie Lingbo had already been taken back to the Nie Family.

It wasn’t until the next day when Xi Zihua went to visit that she had the opportunity to inquire.

“Why are you meddling in their affairs?”

She found it odd because Nie Lingbo wasn’t someone who liked to meddle in others’ business.

While others were unaware of where Xi Zihua had been for the past three years, only a few knew that she had spent some time learning from Nie Lingbo before going to one of Nie Lingbo’s subsidiary companies for training. Although their relationship wasn’t particularly close, she was still considered a privileged connection.

But even when Xi Zihua was overworked to the point of falling ill and crying with grievances, Nie Lingbo just glanced at her as she passed by, without stopping, and only instructed her assistant to send a blanket over.

Yet, for that girl named Song Pianxian, not only did Nie Lingbo offer verbal comfort, she even wiped away her tears personally?

She remembered clearly that when she sent the dry-cleaned blanket back, Nie Lingbo didn’t even accept it, revealing her cleanliness obsession.

Why was it different this time?

Xi Zihua couldn’t understand. She had no jet lag to deal with, and after uncovering some information, she decided to come over and communicate face to face.

Nie Lingbo was still adjusting to the time difference. She was wearing a black silk robe, her skin exposed was startlingly white, and her curly hair was casually draped over her shoulders, exuding a lazy charm.

On the dressing table beside her were a few freshly picked roses from the garden, still dewy.

She wiped her hands with a handkerchief and said gracefully, “She’s different.”

“You’ve noticed too?” Xi Zihua said, “I really didn’t expect Xi Heng to have such intentions.”

She felt a bit embarrassed, feeling ashamed to bring up to Nie Lingbo. Although she had returned to the country and would definitely clash with Xi Heng in the future, Xi Heng bore the surname Xi, like a persistent plaster, carrying the Xi Family name.

It was only after seeing Song Pianxian that she realized Xi Heng had done such things in the country. He even approached Nie Lingbo yesterday and broke up with his girlfriend on the same day, all signs pointing to Nie Lingbo.

She had no interest in knowing about Xi Heng’s mistresses until yesterday when she sent someone to investigate and found out about it.

And when Nie Lingbo stood with Song Pianxian, even those like her who were originally unaware could deduce something.

It could be said that rumors outside were flying around secretly, but they dared not speak openly because of Nie Lingbo.

Xi Zihua was furious with Xi Heng. When she first found out, she wanted to slap him. What had Sister Lingbo done to deserve being treated so disgustingly by him!

He really thought highly of himself, doing so many disgusting things and still daring to approach Nie Lingbo. With so many outstanding suitors, did he really think Nie Lingbo would fancy him?

Xi Zihua briefly explained the situation to Nie Lingbo and concluded, “But Sister, I’ve checked, it’s not Song Pianxian’s fault. When she was with Xi Heng, she was just an ordinary college student, a bit naive and believed in Xi Heng’s sweet words. She didn’t deliberately cause a scene in front of you yesterday, and they’ve already broken up.”

Nie Lingbo’s movements paused. “Her name is Song Pianxian?”

“Huh? Oh, yes.”

Nie Lingbo nodded. She didn’t explain more to Xi Zihua, just yawned lightly and lazily asked, “Are they really broken up?”

What kind of question is that? Xi Zihua was a bit puzzled but replied truthfully, “Song Pianxian originally worked as a receptionist at Xi Heng’s company. She has already submitted her resignation letter, so it should be true.”

“But as for the romantic relationship, it’s not impossible for them to reconcile in the future.” Xi Zihua said cautiously.

After saying that, she saw Nie Lingbo give a cold smile, her red lips lifting slightly as she uttered a few words, “It’s impossible.”

Xi Zihua carefully pondered the meaning behind this statement. It seemed that Sister Lingbo really disliked Xi Heng’s actions. Look, she’s firmly opposed to the idea of Xi Heng supporting his replacement.

Xi Zihua believed she understood Sister’s thoughts very well, completely overlooking another possibility.

After she left, Nie Lingbo received a document.

Her fingertips lingered on the face of the girl in the photo for a long time, as if there were still remnants of the feeling of wiping away her tears that day.

Nie Lingbo looked at the fingertip that had touched the girl, brought it to her lips, lightly, tenderly, pressing it between her lips.

For some reason, she slightly opened her lips, grinding her fingertip with her teeth.

Slowly and dangerously.

When Nie Xingzhou learned that her aunt who had just returned to the country wanted to have a parent-teacher meeting with her, she looked bewildered and aggrieved.

After hanging up her father’s secretary’s call, she said to her girl friends, “It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve failed a test. Why is it being so cruel to me this time?”

Nie Qianjin’s tone was so assertive that her girlfriends could hardly argue back. After some thought, one of them cautiously said, “Maybe it’s a combination of old and new grudges…?”

Nie Xingzhou pouted unhappily, “Forget it, if Auntie wants to come, she’ll come.”

Ms. Nie Xingzhou, the young lady of the Nie Family, was unhappy. Her girl friends all tried to cheer her up, trying various ways to make her smile. After a while of fun and jokes, Nie Xingzhou finally showed a little smile.

When the bell rang for class, Nie Xingzhou stayed in the corridor chatting with her girl friends, showing no intention of going to class, and even preparing to leave the school for some fun.

Leaning against the corridor wall, her smile brightened. She caught sight of Song Fei from the Song Family walking to the classroom with a water cup, accompanied by other female classmates who seemed to be having a good time.

Song Fei was quiet, studious, and modest despite being wealthy. She was always regarded as the opposite of Nie Xingzhou. However, these people had no idea that Song Fei was not actually a biological member of the Song Family.

To avoid attracting attention, the Song Family kept this fact low-key, and Nie Xingzhou wouldn’t say anything to offend them.

Her gaze shifted to another female classmate sitting at the back of the classroom, not far from a temporary trash bin.

This classmate was one of the few students admitted based on academic performance, making her an outlier in the elite school. It was easy to imagine the difficulties she faced.

Although Nie Xingzhou loved to play and fool around, she didn’t have much impression of this quiet classmate. But today, she felt a bit unsettled seeing someone else acting arrogantly.

Seeing the student in front of her throw a pile of paper balls onto the girl’s desk as if she were a trash can, Nie Xingzhou left her group of giggling friends, walked to the window, and knocked on the glass.

The student in front opened the window, wearing a forced smile, “Xingzhou, what’s up?”

“Do we know each other well?” Nie Xingzhou tilted her head, scratching her ear.

The student’s smile froze on her face.

Nie Xingzhou then pointed to the window next to the girl.

“Trash should be thrown away by oneself, understand?”

The student in front was a bit slow to react, but didn’t dare to delay. She immediately picked up all the paper balls and threw them away at the back.

At some point, the attention of the whole class was focused on this corner.

But the other person involved didn’t stop writing wrong answers in her exercise book.

Nie Xingzhou looked at her dark and silent hair, and curiosity arose in her:

“Hey, what’s your name?”

The girl finished writing a line, capped her pen, lifted her head, and revealed a beautiful and calm face:

“Xiang Sixi.”

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Translator: Glariosa
Editor: Ruu

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