C20 Chapter 20

Saang Shijuan frowned at Du Yawei as he listened to her tear Xia Bing’s work apart. It rubbed him the wrong way, but it wasn’t really his place to snap at her outright.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed Xia Bing staring at him in a daze. For some reason, his body tensed on instinct, and a thin sheen of sweat broke out across his palms.

A man used to holding power over life and death was actually feeling a flicker of nerves at this moment.

Xia Bing probably wouldn’t recognize him, right?

That month, he had only gone to see her at night, and he had never once turned on the lights. She shouldn’t know what he looked like.

All of a sudden, Saang Shijuan regretted acting so impulsively just now.

He shouldn’t have crossed paths with Xia Bing again. The two of them never should have had anything more to do with each other.

But he just couldn’t help it. He wanted to get close to her again.

Five years had passed, yet every late night, he still tossed and turned in bed, his mind filled with the sound of her soft breaths. It was as if the faint, seductive fragrance at her collarbone still lingered under his nose. Even the way her body had trembled ever so slightly with nerves—half asleep and half awake, he had always felt as though she were still in his arms...

Xia Bing stared at Saang Shijuan for a moment. As shaken as she was, now was not the time to figure out whether this man had anything to do with Xia Yanyou.

Out of nowhere, this woman had pounced on the design she had worked so hard on and started ripping it apart. Xia Bing was deeply annoyed.

Frowning, she turned and shot the woman a cold look. “Who are you?”

Du Yawei, who had been busy nitpicking, suddenly stopped. She turned back to Xia Bing and gave her a calm smile. “Hello. I’m Du Yawei, one of the up-and-coming fashion designers selected for the latest issue of VE magazine.”

Though Du Yawei’s smile looked mild, her tone was thick with pride and arrogance.

Nothing changed on Xia Bing’s face. She kept frowning. “Since you’re a designer too, I’m guessing you’re here for the competition. So what exactly was that supposed to mean?”

Du Yawei looked at Xia Bing and raised an eyebrow slightly.

Seriously? She heard who I was, and that was her reaction?

VE is still the country’s most authoritative fashion and trend magazine—the gold standard of the fashion world. So how could this guy act like he’d never even heard of VE?

If he’d never even read VE, then he really was a complete hick. What was he even doing here at a fashion competition?

Du Yawei sneered inwardly.

She pointed at Saang Shijuan, then at her own design. “Mr. Saang here thinks my work isn’t as good as yours, so I brought him over to take a closer look. While we’re at it, Mr. Saang can also learn what standards really matter in fashion design when it comes to judging a piece.”

Still holding onto Saang Shijuan’s arm, Zhong Xinyi stepped forward and spoke up for Du Yawei. “I may not be a professional fashion designer, but I’ve been in the entertainment industry for quite a while, so I do know a thing or two about fashion design. This designer’s work really can’t compare to that of rising designer Du Yawei.”

“Hm?”

Saang Shijuan turned his head slightly and questioned her coldly.

The smile at the corner of Zhong Xinyi’s lips stiffened. Faced with the chill in Saang Shijuan’s voice, she forced her smile a little wider, trying to look as natural as possible.

She said with a smile, “Shijuan, I know you like this designer’s work, but whether it’s actually good or not, we still have to hear what the professionals think. I think Yawei’s analysis just now was absolutely right.”