Volume One, Chapter 106: “This is a matter for a lifetime—have you thought it through?”

A cold wind swept past, and Xu Zhi seemed to wake from a nightmare. She stared at the man before her, eyes wide.

A tide of grievance surged in her chest. Her foot moved forward on instinct, as if she wanted to throw herself into his arms, but she forced herself to stop.

Liang Jinmo studied her in silence. Today, she was dazzling beyond words, yet that same beauty was now dressed in something far too thin, trembling in the freezing wind atop the rooftop, despair etched into her eyes.

He held the cigarette in his mouth. His hand, which had been in his trouser pocket, twitched before he could stop it, as though he meant to take off his coat for her, but in the end he did not. Instead, he lowered the cigarette and asked evenly, “What happened?”

Xu Zhi’s voice was dry. “Liang Muzhi... may have run off with Chen Jing.”

She did not hide it, and she could not have hidden it anyway. He would know soon enough. Perhaps he would sneer at her choice in his heart. In her confusion, she wondered: would he, like the guests below, look at her as if she were a clown?

Liang Jinmo’s expression did not change. His gaze was dark and unreadable. “So you came here thinking jumping would solve the problem?”

Xu Zhi had been pierced through by his words. Her eyes flickered, and she lowered her head, turning her face away.

Silence spread between them. She was nearly frozen stiff, and a shiver ran through her. She folded her arms around herself.

Liang Jinmo’s thin lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but no sound came. He bit down on the cigarette at last, then took off his coat and walked over to drape it over her shoulders.

Her shoulders suddenly grew heavy. The coat, carrying the warmth of his body and a faint, distinctive woody scent, shut out the cold wind. Xu Zhi’s nose stung, and tears welled in her eyes.

“You won’t jump,” a deep male voice sounded above her.

Xu Zhi looked up at him.

“You wouldn’t be willing to jump,” he said, looking directly into her eyes, his tone certain. “You’re not that weak.”

For a brief moment, time seemed to stand still. Xu Zhi felt something surging violently in her chest, like an earthquake.

The haze in her mind also seemed to clear at his single sentence.

Liang Jinmo pulled the lapels of his suit more neatly around her. “It’s too cold here. Let’s go down.”

When he finished speaking and was about to withdraw his hand, she suddenly seized his wrist.

A mad thought had sprung up in Xu Zhi’s mind in an instant.

Those people all did not want her to be with Liang Jinmo. Liang Zhengguo, Fu Wanwen, Old Master Liang, Xu Heping, and...

Liang Muzhi.

In the past, she had always taken everyone else’s feelings into account, careful and restrained, looking ahead and behind at every step. But sincerity had not earned sincerity. Liang Muzhi had betrayed her, and the others had blamed her without knowing the facts. None of them cared about her.

But now, she was no longer afraid even of death. What else was there to fear?

“Brother Jinmo...” She hardened her heart, and the thought at the bottom of it all burst out of her mouth: “Would you be willing to get engaged to me?”

Liang Jinmo seemed to freeze.

After a few seconds, he frowned, as if he did not quite understand the question.

Xu Zhi was uneasy, but she did not regret asking. A person had to fight for themselves at least once in a lifetime. The one she wanted to be with had always been him.

Yet she also knew that after how she had treated him before, it would probably not be easy for him to forgive her.

As time ticked by, her heart slowly sank. She let go of his hand. “If you don’t want to... then forget it.”

She felt a little miserable, but comforted herself that at least she had tried.

This was the sort of question she would never have had the courage to ask before. The way she had been raised, girls were meant to be reserved and self-respecting. How could she so openly and urgently tug at a man’s hand and ask whether he would agree to an engagement?

Still, being rejected hurt. She lowered her eyes and was just about to go downstairs when she took a step and Liang Jinmo suddenly spoke.

“Xu Zhi.”

She stopped, embarrassed, unwilling to look up at him.

The man’s voice was measured and unhurried. “I’m rather old-fashioned. Once I’m engaged, I marry that person. And until death, I don’t change my mind.”

She paused, then turned to look at him.

He asked, “This is a lifetime decision. Have you thought it through?”

His gaze was deep and fixed on her, carrying immense pressure.

A lifetime... could she hand it over so hastily?

But when she met his eyes, she felt strangely at peace.

If she was going to entrust her life to someone, there would be no one other than him. Even if this meant revenge, even if she had to walk into a trap, she would accept it.

She replied, “If I hadn’t thought it through, I wouldn’t have asked. This time, I won’t turn back.”

The situation downstairs was still in complete chaos.

The hotel checked the surveillance footage and found that Liang Muzhi had come down the stairwell before leaving through a side entrance. He had probably not gone to the parking lot to get a car.

He had been moving quickly, even running for a few steps, clearly anxious, and all the while he had been holding his phone, occasionally lifting it. It was obvious he had been on a video call with someone.

In the end, his figure vanished from the hotel cameras. The wedding company assistant had already gone to search in the direction he had left, but found nothing.

If he had hailed a taxi, or if someone outside had picked him up, by now no one knew where he had run off to.

Liang Zhengguo called a friend at the traffic bureau, hoping to use road surveillance to continue the search.

Fu Wanwen was at a loss. Five minutes had already passed since the planned start of the ceremony. By rights, Liang Muzhi and Xu Zhi should have been waiting backstage by now, ready to go on stage as soon as the emcee finished speaking.

She did not know whether bringing the person back would only spark more gossip among the guests. After all, in what family’s engagement ceremony of such grandeur could the bride and groom be late?

“What are we supposed to do...” She had just started to speak to Zhao Nianqiao when the music outside stopped without warning.

Everyone in the dressing room froze, because immediately after that, they heard the emcee’s voice. The opening speech had already begun.

Had Liang Muzhi come back?

The whole group hurried outside, wanting to see what was going on in the banquet hall.

Outside the backstage entrance behind the stage, Liang Jinmo and Xu Zhi stood side by side. He looked straight ahead and asked her, “Are you sure you don’t want to discuss this with them?”

They had come directly here, not even entering the dressing room. Xu Zhi had only spoken a few words to the emcee, and the ceremony was already about to begin.

Xu Zhi knew that if they discussed it, it would all be over. Those people would never let him go on stage, and she would become a disgraced woman known throughout Beicheng.

She wanted everyone to see that she was not someone no one wanted just because Liang Muzhi was gone.

She took a deep breath, then suddenly turned toward him, raised her hand, and fastened his buttons properly, straightening his tie. She lifted her eyes to meet his. Her red lips parted, but her words were ruthless: “Let them go to hell.”