"Qin Ruyan, Lin Feng, consider yourselves lucky today."
Song Zizhou sneered and announced triumphantly, "However, your luck has run out! I just received word that the true reigning beauty of Haicheng, the apple of the Qiao family's eye, Miss Qiao Yuejian, has also awakened!"
This news hit Qin Ruyan like a heavy bombshell, instantly draining the color from her face.
"Qiao Yuejian is hosting a grand recovery banquet, inviting all of Haicheng's top families and enterprises to attend, with the sole purpose of selecting future business partners!"
Song Zizhou's eyes flashed with excitement. "With Qiao Yuejian at the helm, the Qiao family's future is limitless! As for your Qin family, having offended Qiao Yu earlier, you probably won't even get an invitation!"
"Qin Ruyan, you and that so-called 'shield' of yours are completely out of chances!"
Qin Ruyan's heart sank. She knew Song Zizhou was speaking the truth; Qiao Yuejian's return would drastically reshuffle the entire commercial landscape of Haicheng.
However, she failed to notice that Lin Feng, standing right beside her, suddenly stiffened at the mention of the name "Qiao Yuejian."
Deep within those tranquil, fathomless eyes, monstrous waves surged!
That name struck like thunder from the nine heavens, crashing deep into his soul! Countless shattered fragments of memory churned in his mind, finally settling on a face—cold, ethereal, yet blooming with a tender smile just for him.
Dressed in armor crackling with lightning and wielding a spear of pure electricity, peerless in her grace—she was none other than the most powerful of his nine subordinate saintesses, wielder of the divine lightning punishment, the Thunderbolt Saintess!
So those intermittent dreams were not illusions! They had truly existed! Could this so-called mortal trial be a reunion spanning across eternity?
Upon returning to Qin Ruyan's apartment, Lin Feng walked straight to the living room without a word and picked up the laptop resting on the coffee table.
"What are you doing?" Qin Ruyan watched his unusual behavior, a flicker of unease stirring in her heart.
Lin Feng did not answer. His slender fingers flew across the keyboard, typing three words into the search bar—Qiao Yuejian.
He pressed enter.
The next second, an endless stream of news articles and images regarding Qiao Yuejian flooded the entire screen.
[Miracle! Haicheng's Top Beauty Qiao Yuejian Wakes Up Today After Three Years in a Coma!]
[Qiao Group Stock Prices Skyrocket: Qiao Yuejian's Return Ushers in a New Commercial Era!]
Lin Feng's gaze locked dead onto a high-definition photograph right in the center of the screen.
In the picture, a woman lay quietly on a hospital bed. Though her complexion appeared pale, it could not conceal her breathtaking beauty and her air of solitary, otherworldly detachment.
That face, those brows, and those eyes whose crystal clarity could be imagined even while closed—
They were identical to the Thunderbolt Saintess from the depths of his memory: the one who used to pout and act spoiled around him, who fought battles across all directions for him, and who ultimately perished under the Heavenly Tribulation to block a fatal blow meant for him!
Boom!
It was as if millions of stars had exploded simultaneously inside Lin Feng's mind! Not even he, the mighty Immortal Venerable Chonglou, had ever experienced such violent emotional turbulence!
Excitement, wild elation, sheer disbelief, and a trembling trace of a loss recovered—all swept instantly across his entire soul!
He reached out, his fingertips gently and tremulously caressing the stunning face on the screen, as if trying to reach through the cold display to touch the soul he had owed for eternity.
"Yuejian," he murmured softly, spanning boundless time and space with an infinity of longing and guilt.
So, you really are here.
Qin Ruyan walked out of the bedroom, enveloped in a crushing low pressure. She threw herself onto the sofa, her brows weighed down by an unyielding sorrow.
"It's over. Everything is over," she muttered to herself, her voice steeped in despair.
Recovering from the shock of the Thunderbolt Saintess reappearing in the mortal world, Lin Feng looked at her desolate state and asked flatly, "What's wrong?"
"My grandfather just called."
Qin Ruyan offered a bitter, self-deprecating smile, her hollow eyes staring up at the ceiling. "He gave me an ultimatum. Qiao Yuejian's recovery banquet is our Qin family's last chance."
"Either I find a way to make contact with Qiao Yuejian at the banquet and secure a partnership for the family, or I must unconditionally accept the marriage arrangement with Qiao Yu and latch onto the Qiao family through a union."
She paused, a trace of self-mockery in her voice. "If I fail at both, I'll be expelled from the Qin family with nothing, and the shares my mother left me will all be confiscated."
At this, Qin Ruyan's eyes turned red. She had always acted like a rose with thorns, but stripped of all pretense at that moment, she appeared so fragile and helpless.
She sat up from the sofa, as if having made up her mind. "I'll go to tomorrow night's banquet by myself. Even if there's only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, I have to try."
"Maybe—maybe Qiao Yuejian will take pity on me just because I'm a woman and give me a chance."
Even as she said it, she lacked any conviction whatsoever.
"You don't need to go," Qin Ruyan said, looking at Lin Feng with a complex gaze.
"My grandfather specifically instructed that you are strictly forbidden from showing up at the Qiao Family Manor. You already offended the Qiao family by beating up Qiao Yu at the Qin Family Old Residence. If you show up, you'll only make things worse and completely cut off all our routes of retreat."
Hearing this, Lin Feng's face remained utterly calm. He walked up to Qin Ruyan and looked down at her.
"Your grandfather's perspective is far too surface-level."
"What do you mean?" Qin Ruyan raised her head in bewilderment.
"He only saw that I beat Qiao Yu, viewing it as our disadvantage." The corners of Lin Feng's mouth curled into a meaningful smile.
"But he failed to see that we hold a massive advantage—one that no other guest present, not even the Qiao family themselves, can possibly match."
Qin Ruyan was completely baffled. "An advantage? What other advantage could we possibly have?"
Lin Feng extended a single finger, gently tapped his own temple, and then pointed at her. "Me and Qiao Yuejian—what do the two of us have in common?"
Qin Ruyan froze. She followed his train of thought for a moment, and then a brilliant, incredulous luster burst forth in her pretty eyes!
"Both of you were in a coma for three years!"
"And we woke up on virtually the same day," Lin Feng added, his eyes flashing with wisdom.
"Tell me, for someone who has just awakened from a three-year slumber, would she be more attracted to those business tycoons flashing fake smiles, or to a 'fellow traveler' who shares the exact same bizarre experience, capable of sparking genuine curiosity and resonance?"
Qin Ruyan's heart hammered wildly! Lin Feng's words were like a streak of lightning parting the fog in her mind!
That was right! Commercial cooperation, exchange of interests—what hadn't Qiao Yuejian seen? She certainly wasn't lacking in those!
But a fellow sufferer who, just like her, had been trapped in the darkness for a full three years and brought back to the light on the exact same day—that was entirely unique!
This was no longer a simple business meeting; it was a convergence of fate, an innate bond strong enough to pique anyone's curiosity!