-001- The one who could make Zhou Dang surrender.
-001-
"The Perfect Marriage"
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At 2 PM, the plane landed on time at Jingbei City's East Airport. After taxiing for ten minutes, it finally reached the parking spot, and the passengers in the cabin began to stir.
Xuan Yang took her time. She turned off airplane mode on her phone, snapped a photo of the lead-gray sky outside the window, and sent it to her best friend Xie Xinglan to report her safe arrival.
[Landed.]
Xie Xinglan was probably busy and didn't reply.
Xuan Yang didn't wait. She lifted the thin blanket from her legs and stood up slowly.
A flight attendant nearby had already taken her brown vintage handbag from the overhead bin and handed it to her with a smile: "Miss, your bag."
Xuan Yang curled her lips. "Thanks."
Taking the bag, she walked toward the cabin door.
But the flight attendant called out to her again, "Excuse me, miss, would it be convenient to add you on WeChat? ... The dark green knit top you're wearing is really nice—I'd like to buy one for my sister too."
Xuan Yang turned sideways and looked back, her slender and graceful figure frozen in an elegant and poised angle.
The dark green square-neck puff-sleeve sweater highlighted her delicate collarbones, long neck, and fair, supple skin—dignified and refined. Paired with a black velvet mermaid skirt that hugged her hips, it added a touch of gentle, intellectual femininity, making her stunningly beautiful.
The young flight attendant was momentarily stunned.
Until the beauty's soft, low voice coldly asked him, "Is this in line with your work regulations?"
The attendant snapped back to reality, staring at the woman's pure and extraordinary face, finding it hard to believe.
—Such a beautiful person, yet with such an icy mouth.
Xuan Yang slung the brown vintage handbag over her left shoulder, casually brushed the hair hanging over her chest back behind her shoulders, turned her long, fair swan neck away, and gave one last piece of advice: "Don't lose your job over flirting. It's not worth it."
With that, she had already walked out of the cabin, her figure fading away.
The attendant, whose intentions had been seen through, blushed with embarrassment.
Humiliated, he still couldn't help craning his neck to steal one last glance at that silhouette.
So beautiful!
From head to toe, she exuded refined elegance, clearly a young lady from a wealthy family.
No wonder she looked down on him.
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In November, Jingbei City had already shown signs of winter.
Outside the airport, the sky was thick with clouds, dim and overcast, like being covered by a grayish-blue canopy.
Xuan Yang got into a taxi, with her luggage in the trunk. After getting in, the driver enthusiastically asked, "Where to, miss?"
Xuan Yang sat in the seat behind the driver and fastened her seatbelt: "West City, Yujing Bay."
The driver was a bit surprised: "That's a villa area—where the rich live."
Xuan Yang didn't respond; she turned her head and silently looked out the window.
The driver seemed to realize his intrusion and stopped talking, only muttering to himself: Don't rich people have private cars to pick them up? That's how it's always shown on TV.
Xuan Yang watched the rapidly passing roadside scenery for a while, feeling unfamiliar.
Nine years. Jingbei City had undergone earth-shaking changes.
From the airport to Yujing Bay required crossing the city. Without traffic, it would take about an hour and a half.
But there was always traffic in Jingbei, especially on the Third Ring Road.
While Xuan Yang rested with her eyes closed in the back seat, the car got stuck in a traffic jam on a commercial street on the Third Ring Road.
The driver pulled the handbrake and habitually muttered to the passenger, "Looks like there's a car accident ahead. Otherwise, it wouldn't be this jammed at this hour."
Xuan Yang took out her phone to check the time, but she wasn't in a hurry. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the driver roll down his window and light a cigarette. She also rolled down her window to let the air circulate.
A faint cool breeze blew in. Xuan Yang looked out the window, her gaze landing on the LED screen of a nearby commercial building. It was playing an interview from a financial program.
On the screen, a face that was both unfamiliar and familiar caught her attention.
The man was dressed in a suit; his Sino-Russian mixed-race features combined Eastern softness with Western angularity—handsome enough to be unforgettable.
But the cold steadiness in his brows made Xuan Yang hesitate.
Zhou Dang?
Xuan Yang studied him for a few seconds before daring to confirm his identity.
Her impression of Zhou Dang was still from the opening ceremony of their first year of high school—
A seventeen- or eighteen-year-old mixed-race boy, wearing the blue-and-white school uniform crookedly, a dazzling blue diamond earring on his left ear, his silver hair shockingly beautiful, breaking through dimensions.
Anyone who saw him would be amazed.