Chapter 67: No, You Came at Exactly the Right Time

Song Jiaru clearly felt that finger carrying real body temperature gently slide past her sensitive ear and lightly hook the strap of the black mask.

At that instant, the entire world seemed to have the pause button pressed on it.

She could hear her own drum-like heartbeat, and could feel the subtle trembling transmitted from his fingertips—it turned out, he was also nervous.

In the hazy faint light of the West Lake morning, in the gentleness of the willow branches swaying with the wind, that hand, firmly and slowly, pulled downward.

Like the most moving slow-motion shot in a movie, an exquisitely beautiful face, carrying undried tear marks, shocked bewilderment, and ecstasy suppressed for ten years, was unreservedly and completely exposed to his gaze.

She could even feel the slightly cool morning air brushing past her hot cheeks, bringing a shudder.

"Tsk tsk, this young man's girlfriend... is really beautiful!"

The stall owner uncle next to them stared blankly, unable to help but praise in a low voice, even forgetting the movement of the spoon stirring the soy milk in his hand,

"Like a movie star!"

Xu Yunzhou gazed at this face that appeared even more delicate and touching in tears, his breathing rapid. His voice carried a trace of undetectable trembling, yet clearly transmitted into her ears:

"Do you still remember? At Binzhou No. 5 Middle School, I told you... that my first love was you."

This sentence, carrying a power spanning across spacetime, completely shattered all of Song Jiaru's psychological defense lines!

"Big Brother..."

The tears accumulated for ten years instantly burst the banks.

Choking with sobs, she abruptly reached out and tightly grabbed his hand resting by her cheek—it was warm! It was real! It had flesh and blood, having a solid touch!

This is not a dream!

She could no longer hold back the torrent of her emotions, throwing herself into his arms with absolute desperation, locking her arms around this tangible, living body as a loud, heartbreaking sob escaped her throat.

Within that weeping voice were the accumulated grievances of ten long years, an endless and agonizing longing, and, above all, the profound, trembling relief of surviving a lifetime of isolation.

Like a lost child who had wandered through a desolate wilderness for far too long and finally found her way home, she cried as if her heart would break.

"Big Brother! I finally... I can finally hold you! It's real! It's real! You actually have a physical body?! Wuwuwu... I'm not dreaming, right? Please tell me I'm not dreaming!"

While crying, she incoherently sought confirmation, her hands still haphazardly groping his back, as if to confirm that every part of this body truly existed.

"Mhm, it's really me. Genuine and guaranteed."

Xu Yunzhou was knocked back slightly by the sudden impact of her warm, soft, and fragrant body, but he immediately adjusted his stance to catch her securely.

Feeling the exquisite, slender curves wrapped in his embrace trembling violently from her uncontrollable crying, he watched her scalding tears instantly soak through the fabric of his shirt.

That intense heat seemed to burn its way directly into the deepest recesses of his soul.

A tempest of turbulent emotions surged within his own chest. His arms naturally and firmly locked around her slender waist, his palm gently patting her back in a rhythmic, soothing motion, as if comforting a terrified, wounded little animal.

This tactile sensation... was infinitely better than anything he had envisioned during those countless nights staring through a digital monitor.

To her, this moment was the culmination of a grueling ten-year vigil.

To him, how could this not be the grand resolution to a profound yearning that had spanned across his entire chaotic adolescence and desolate youth for over a decade?

Today, he finally personally took off her mask and tangibly hugged this vibrant person who could cry, laugh, and had flesh and blood.

This was not one of those dreams that abruptly ended late at night, leaving only disappointment.

"I missed you so much... thinking of you every single day..."

As time ticked past, Song Jiaru showed absolutely no intention of letting go at all. Her arms exerted force, as if wanting to rub him into her bones and blood, her body restlessly pressing closer into his warmth.

"Holy shit! Wait! Th-this couldn't be that pop star, Song... Song Jiaru, right?!"

That stall owner from just now rubbed his eyes, finally seeing Song Jiaru's side profile clearly. He instantly widened his eyes, the spoon in his hand almost falling into the pot.

He looked at Xu Yunzhou in shock, lowering his voice, full of disbelief:

"This young man has skills, able to make a big star cry like this, and hug so tightly?!"

The two of them were entirely submerged within the overwhelming euphoria of their reunion.

Aside from the nearby stall owner, they completely failed to notice that slightly further down the stone path, a fashionably dressed woman on her morning commute had suddenly ground her footsteps to a halt.

She stared at Xu Yunzhou in utter astonishment, swiftly pulling out her smartphone to snap a rapid succession of high-resolution photos. Opening WeChat, she immediately selected a contact saved under the alias "Su Qianran."

"Ranran! Something big happened! Look quickly! Isn't this your Xu Yunzhou? Hugging and cuddling with another woman by the West Lake early in the morning!"

"Look at this woman's figure, it's incredible! Motherfucker, as expected, when men have money they turn bad! You have to investigate properly, don't be kept in the dark and deceived like a fool by this scumbag!"

Xu Yunzhou felt a vague, prickling sensation of being watched, but the morning mist prevented him from identifying the bystander as Su Qianran's close friend, Han Fei.

Helpless and doting, he lowered his head, carrying a trace of teasing warning:

"Hey, Great Queen of Pop Song, restrain yourself a bit... I think there are paparazzi lenses actively locking onto us out there."

"If you keep clinging to me like this and squirming around in public, tomorrow's absolute number one trending hot search is going to be: #SongJiaruSpotting:PassionateEmbraceWithMysteriousManAtWestLake#."

"Now, I don't particularly mind achieving global notoriety overnight, but I am deeply concerned about the meticulously curated goddess image your agency spent a decade building..."

Song Jiaru buried her scalding cheeks in the crook of his neck, shaking her head forcefully, whimpering and acting shamelessly:

"I don't care! Let them take whatever pictures they want! I will literally announce my absolute retirement from the entertainment industry at my stadium concert tomorrow! All I want is to hold you!"

"Do you even know how long I have waited for you? Do you have any idea how I... how I managed to survive those grueling nights alone, missing you to the point of literal madness, forced to rely entirely on fading memories and desperate fantasies just to fall asleep for the past ten years?"

Her words were stripped of all armor, overflowing with raw, unfiltered invitation and absolute devotion.

Like a stray spark hitting dry tinder, her vulnerability instantly incinerated Xu Yunzhou's long-stifled desires.

Right at this moment, a cold female voice cut through the morning air nearby:

"Cough, it seems... I came at a bad time."

Song Jiaru's body abruptly stiffened, like a child caught red-handed stealing candy. Like touching electricity, she bounced away from Xu Yunzhou's embrace, frantically wiping the tear marks on her face.

She looked at Lin Ruoxuan, who had quietly appeared at some unknown time, incoherent:

"President L-Lin? Why... are you here too?"

"Huh?! There's another one looking for him?! Sweet mother of heaven!"

The eyes of the stall owner next to them went straight, looking at Lin Ruoxuan, who suddenly appeared with an even more powerful aura, her appearance and temperament not inferior to Song Jiaru in the slightest, even adding a few points of elegance and mature charm settled by the years.

He looked at the two women, and finally his gaze landed on Xu Yunzhou, who was "surrounded" by them, muttering to himself:

"This kid... is a god walking among mortals! Could this be the Crown Prince of some hidden wealthy family coming out to experience life?"

Xu Yunzhou raised his head and saw Lin Ruoxuan standing quietly to the side.

His heart beat violently again; it was an indescribable, concrete thrill of having his past achievements tangibly verified, also mixed with a massive sense of achievement of "my family's daughter has grown up."

Lin Ruoxuan! The first "game character" he "nurtured"!

That girl whom he ruthlessly spurred on with "electric shocks," gently comforted with the "hand of light," accompanied in countless late nights to chew on boring reports, and who finally issued a fragile questioning to him at the peak of glory when ringing the bell on NASDAQ!

As expected, she also truly existed!

Just standing before him alive and so dazzlingly!

Looking at Lin Ruoxuan's familiar cold face, which had been polished with sharp edges by the ups and downs of the sea of commerce, and then looking at Song Jiaru beside him, who was too shy to raise her head yet still subconsciously gripping his hand tightly seeking reliance...

An unprecedented sense of achievement, overriding reality, swept through his entire body!

As expected, everything was true.

He was the "Creator" who truly intervened and personally shaped the legendary lives of two women! He was that most mysterious, most powerful, and most indispensable "golden finger" in their destinies!

This massive sense of achievement and soul-deep shock of overriding reality, controlling and witnessing the birth of legends, made every cell in his body shudder!

He looked at Lin Ruoxuan, who was forcing calmness but whose depths of eyes were equally surging with turbulent waves, and smiled:

"No, you came at exactly the right time."