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nThe mountain club…

nMu Sijue normally came here to see Lu Boyan, just like today.

nHe arrived early, sitting on the couch, relaxing. In front of him was an exquisite glass of wine.

nThe light shone brightly from the ceiling, covering the whole room, but it still couldn’t illuminate his domineering quality, which was covered in darkness.

nA few minutes later, the door was opened. Lu Boyan explained while he was walking into the room, “I went home and had dinner with Jianan.”

n“I knew it.” Mu Sijue showed no surprise. But… “Where is Yuechuan?”

nShen Yuechuan always followed behind Lu Boyan. But today, Lu Boyan arrived and Shen Yuechuan was absent. It didn’t seem right.

n“Something happened to Yunyun, and Yuechuan went there to deal with it,” Lu Boyan said, “so he is not coming today.”

n“You mean Jianan’s cousin, Yunyun?” Mu Sijue was confused. “She works in a hospital. How big could her problem be? Big enough that Yuechuan needed to handle it himself?”

nLu Boyan smirked with special meaning. “He wants to be Jianan’s cousin-in-law. How could I let go of this opportunity?”

nMu Sijue understood immediately.

nHe originally thought that someone like Shen Yuechuan, who was spontaneous and did not have a care in the world, could run away from his destiny of falling in love and be a libertine forever.

nBut it seemed that none of them could go against fate.

nLu Boyan sat on the couch next to Mu Sijue. When the waiter was about to fill his glass, he was stopped by Lu Boyan.

nThe waiter comprehended his action right away. “Mr. Lu, please wait, I will get some tea for you.”

n“I don’t understand.” Mu Sijue lay on the couch comfortably, but with confusion in his eyes. “I know Jianan doesn’t like the smell of cigarettes and wine, but she can’t see you right now. Just gargle before you go home. Is it necessary to be this careful?”

nEver since Lu Boyan married Su Jianan, he barely drank. And especially now that Su Jianan was pregnant, he normally wouldn’t drink, not even a sip, as if Su Jianan was monitoring him 24

/7.

n“I don’t want to lie to her.” Lu Boyan sounded plain, but spoke with complete seriousness.

nMu Sijue couldn’t understand, so he gave up discussing it. “Back to the real problem. I brought Xu Youning for the collapse incident of Fanting Garden.”

nLu Boyan took a sip of his tea and indicated for Mu Sijue to go on.

n“Last time, you asked me to investigate the collapse incident of Fanting Garden, and I brought two people here: Ah Guang and Xu Youning. But the only person who participated in the investigation was Xu Youning. I highly suspect her.”

nLu Boyan was preparing his tea, unbothered. “What makes you suspect her?”

nMu Sijue analyzed it in detail. “It is impossible to make a line of buildings collapse without using bombs. But nobody mentioned any sound of explosion in their testimony. So I think that Kang Ruicheng may have used a kind of newly innovated bomb that we’ve never seen before.

n“However, no matter how new the bomb was, there must be traces of it if it exploded in Fanting Garden. I looked for it twice that day, but couldn’t find a thing. That led to one conclusion—Xu Youning had found something before I did and had hidden it.”

nLu Boyan looked at Mu Sijue. “There was only Xu Youning and you there. Did you notice anything about her?”

nThat night, he did a deep search twice in succession and found nothing. That’s when he felt it odd, but he didn’t suspect Xu Youning at that moment. Even though there was only Xu Youning and him, which was so obvious, he still dressed her wound after they went back to the mansion.

n“She is the best undercover agent I have ever seen.” Mu Sijue chose not to answer Lu Boyan’s question directly. “She used everything that was in her favor thoroughly. Like she always made her best effort to work for me, and she was very close with Ah Guang and the others, as if they were biologically related. If I revealed her true identity to them, they would think that I was insane.”

nLu Boyan was not going to let Mu Sijue keep his words vague. “You knew that she was the insider but you didn’t do anything. This is unlike you.”

nMu Sijue scoffed, “Because she still can be used. Maybe she can help us uncover the truth of the collapse incident of Fanting Garden.”

n“If she really wanted to give us a hand, she could do it when you first took her to the scene.” Lu Boyan asked, “What’s your plan this time to make her help us?”

n“I am gonna wait for her to turn the stuff in herself.” After a pause, Mu Sijue continued, “This is the last chance she will have.”

n“What if she refuses to do so?”

n“This is what I was gonna tell you today,” Mu Sijue said sluggishly. “If she’s still determined to work for Kang Ruicheng, I will ‘take care of’ her. But in this way, Jianan can no longer be kept in the dark.”

nOut of expectation, Lu Boyan didn’t show much concern for Su Jianan. “Jianan would be devastated if she knew the truth. Still, she would move on eventually. But you, you are gonna be sorry for the rest of your life.”

n“What do you mean by that?” Mu Sijue tried to be cool, but his tone became stifled.

nPeople who knew Mu Sijue well would recognize that that was how he reacted when his mind had been exposed.

n“You know exactly what I mean.” Lu Boyan met Mu Sijue when he was 16. They were both clear-minded and had no need to be changed or advised by each other. But this time, Lu Boyan was nearly trying to persuade him. “Sijue, there are only two things that are irreparable—time and people. Make your choice with caution.”

nMu Sijue knew that there was no way he could hide his secret, so he grinned wryly. “Yeah, I have feelings for Xu Youning. But making me fall in love with her could be a part of her scheme. There are so many women in the pool. She is replaceable at any time, and she is just an insider. I wouldn’t feel sorry for it for my entire life.”

n“Replace?” Lu Boyan threw a wet blanket on Mu Sijue. “It’s useless. Even if you can find someone who looks like her and has the same personality as her, deep down, you’ll know that is not her.”

nTrue love can never be replaced in the whole world.

n“What is this?” Mu Sijue said half-jokingly, “Sharing your experiences?”

nLu Boyan didn’t decline. He then talked about something else with Mu Sijue and left the room afterward.

nMu Sijue was anxious. He asked Lu Boyan to use the normal walkway with him. Walking down the hallway, they were heading to take the tourist elevator.

nWhenever Mu Sijue felt upset, he loved to hide in the crowd.

nThere was a lady shouting right before they took the elevator, “Steven!”

nIt was rare to hear somebody calling out Lu Boyan’s English name after he had returned. That’s why he hesitated a little before he was able to react. He turned around and saw a familiar face.

nMu Sijue recognized her quickly. Xia Mili, Lu Boyan’s college friend, was in the same team as Lu Boyan. She was a very hard-working person and was also the only girl who was able to be relatively close to Lu Boyan at college compared to others.

nBack in the old days, Lu Boyan was an influential person at college. Plenty of girls secretly or openly fell for him. However, he was distant to everyone, except for Xia Mili, with whom he would chit-chat a little bit sometime.

nThere was even a bet in college about whether they would get together or not.

nXia Mili was like a heroine in college. The overseas students called her “Badass”. She never failed to get what she wanted. And she liked Lu Boyan in a pretty obvious way. Most of the people believed that she could get him.

nThey never got together though. Xia Mili later said “yes” to a loaded guy’s proposal. They had their wedding after graduation. Xia Mili got a green card and stayed in America, while Lu Boyan moved the headquarters back to City A. They never had any contact since then.

nSome people thought that it was a shame. But Mu Sijue knew why Lu Boyan didn’t turn Xia Mili down now. He wasn’t surprised at all.

n“Emily.” Lu Boyan was used to calling Xia Mili by her English name. He reached out his hand to her. “It’s been a long time.”

n“That’s it? After this long?” Xia Mili beamed and gave Lu Boyan a hug out of courtesy. “Now we’re talking.”

nLu Boyan smiled. “What are you doing here?”

n“I got transferred back to City A.” Xia Mili shrugged. “My company intended to cooperate with you, didn’t they? My boss knew that I was your classmate and that I was from City A, so I got transferred back. I was gonna surprise you in your office as the representative. I didn’t expect that I would run into you here. It’s been a while really. Why don’t we go for a drink and catch up?”

n“Maybe next time.” Lu Boyan checked the time. “It’s a little bit late, and my wife is waiting for me at home.”

n“Okay, I guess.” Xia Mili didn’t appear disappointed nor surprised. She waved at Lu Boyan. “See you.”

n“Bye.”

nThe elevator door opened at that moment, and Lu Boyan got in and went down. Mu Sijue laughed weirdly. “Are you gonna confess to Jianan?”

n“It’s not necessary,” Lu Boyan said. “Xia Mili and I are just old classmates who ran into each other unexpectedly. If I told Jianan all of a sudden, she would think too much into it.”

nSu Jianan was now pregnant. With her unstable condition, the last thing Lu Boyan wanted to see was her emotions becoming unstable as well.

nMu Sijue didn’t say anything. They separated in the parking lot.

nIt was nearly 11 when Lu Boyan got home, but the lights in the living room were still on. Additionally, it wasn’t Su Jianan sitting there on the couch, it was Tang Yulan.

nThe little baby sweater for boys that Tang Yulan had been knitting was nearly done.

nLu Boyan was somewhat astonished. “Mom, what are you doing here?”

n“After having dinner, I wanted to check on Jianan, so I came over.” Tang Yulan didn’t look up. “You hadn’t even come back when I was about to leave. And also it was a bit late, so Jianan asked me to stay for the night.”

nLu Boyan noticed the anger from her tone, and continued, “It’s getting late. Why are you still up?”

n“Jianan fell asleep while waiting for you. And I was afraid that you might feel lonely when you got back, seeing nothing but darkness, so I have been waiting for you here.” Tang Yulan finally raised her head, looking steadily at Lu Boyan. “What took you so long to come back?”

n“Just had some things to discuss with Sijue at the club on the mountain.”

nTang Yulan knew that Lu Boyan had been busy, so she didn’t have the heart to hold her anger any longer. “No matter what, you should come back earlier. Jianan is now pregnant, under this unstable condition. Should anything happen to her, what would you do? When I came over, she even tried to explain to me that you had had dinner with her before you left.”

nIn the middle of the conversation, Tang Yulan suddenly smelled something abnormal. She pulled Lu Boyan over and sniffed. “It’s Chanel No. 5. It seems that the girls who Yuechuan and Sijue have been dating are classy.”

nMu Sijue and Shen Yuechuan took the bullet for him. Lu Boyan had nothing else to say but he explained, “Mom, it was just a friend I ran into.”

nTang Yulan remained suspicious to some extent. “Don’t be an ass at this moment. Stay away from women like Han Ruoxi.”

nLu Boyan smiled helplessly. “I know.”

nAfter all, it was her son. Tang Yulan knew Lu Boyan well and trusted him anyway. She put down the sweater and said, “If you need to work overtime, do it at home if it’s possible. Pregnant women can be emotionally unstable, let alone that Jianan has a special circumstance. You need to accompany her to make her feel secure.”

nLu Boyan promised to do all the things she said. Finally, Tang Yulan let him off. “It’s getting late, go have some rest.”

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