Morning.
Jiangcheng, West Lake Park.
Ye Ling sat on a park bench, quietly watching the faint phosphorescence on the lake, his mind blank.
After leaving Xicheng Old Street, he had come here and sat alone on the bench, watching the sun slowly rise from the other end of the lake.
When he was young, his mother often brought him and his sister here. Later, after he went to college, his parents became busy. Whenever he encountered troubles, he would come here to stroll, feeling the moisture in the air and smelling the fragrance of flowers.
The sunlight on his face and the gentle breeze caressing him made him forget all his worries.
"Six years... the scenery here is still the same, still as comforting."
Ye Ling muttered to himself, a hint of sorrow in his eyes.
What was the point of reaching the supreme realm?
His loved ones were gone, and he was all alone. He could share no joy with them.
That loneliness had tormented Ye Ling for sixty thousand years.
"Hey! Fancy meeting you here!"
Suddenly, someone patted Ye Ling's shoulder, and a familiar female voice sounded in his ear, bringing Ye Ling back to reality.
Ye Ling looked and saw Su Ruoxue, dressed in sportswear, smiling at him.
"You..." Ye Ling looked at Su Ruoxue, still a little dazed.
Su Ruoxue sat down beside Ye Ling generously and asked, "What are you thinking about, sitting here alone?"
Ye Ling smiled and asked, "Why are you here?"
"I always come here for my morning run, almost every day." Su Ruoxue said with a smile. Although she was without makeup, she was still beautiful, and her smile had a healing effect, as if it could melt one's heart.
"You have a habit of morning runs?" Ye Ling was quite surprised. The Su Ruoxue he knew before disliked exercise.
Moreover, Su Ruoxue's home was not close to this place, so it seemed a bit troublesome for her to choose to run here.
"What's with that look like you've known me for a long time? Could it be that we really knew each other before?" Su Ruoxue said jokingly. "But I didn't used to run in the morning. Later, some things happened, and I developed this habit."
As she spoke, Su Ruoxue couldn't help but recall past memories.
Once, she had liked a young man, and that young man's favorite place to go was this West Lake Park.
That young man had once said that the lake view here was the most beautiful, and the morning breeze could make one forget all worries.
Later, the young man disappeared.
She came here, and then she fell in love with this place.
Ye Ling smiled and said, "This place is quite nice. I used to come here often too."
"You used to come here often?"
Hearing Ye Ling's words, Su Ruoxue's heart stirred. She looked at Ye Ling in surprise, and a startling thought suddenly occurred to her.
However, Su Ruoxue quickly suppressed her unrealistic thought. Ye Ling was dead. Even if the person in front of her looked exactly like Ye Ling, he couldn't be him.
After the Ye family incident, she had sent many people to search for Ye Ling's whereabouts, and they eventually found out that Ye Ling's body had sunk into West Lake...
After that, Su Ruoxue cried bitterly and fell ill for three months, unable to emerge from that shadow for a long time.
Although six years had passed since that incident, Su Ruoxue still thought of Ye Ling from time to time.
But she knew that the dead could not be brought back to life.
She shouldn't hold onto such unrealistic hopes.
Ye Ling smiled and said, "Yes... I used to like coming here very much, but then some things happened, and I left this place and never came back."
Su Ruoxue asked curiously, "Did you go abroad?"
"You could say that... I just returned yesterday."
Ye Ling thought about it. Traveling to the East Profound Continent could be considered going abroad.
"Speaking of yesterday, have you heard? The Xishan Manor was burned down, and the Li family father and daughter didn't escape!" Su Ruoxue remembered what happened last night and quickly gossiped with Ye Ling.
She had left after Ye Ling did and hadn't seen what happened later, so she subconsciously assumed Ye Ling didn't know about the Xishan Manor incident.
Ye Ling smiled and said, "Is that so?"
Of course, he knew.
He was the one who did it.
Su Ruoxue nodded and continued, "It's strange, though. All the eyewitnesses at the scene were so scared that no one could say exactly what happened."
"After the fire, all that was left in the manor was a charred coffin and a large number of bronze fragments."
"Now, people there are spreading rumors that the Li family did too many evil deeds and received retribution, being punished by the gods."
"Isn't it funny? It's the 21st century, and there are still so many people who believe in gods and spirits. But the Li family's father and daughter aren't good people either, so it serves them right!" Su Ruoxue's gritted teeth were quite cute.
"You seem to have a lot of opinions about the Li family?"
"Of course, I do. They've done too many disgusting things behind the scenes. You know about the Ye family's affairs too, right? Although I don't know where you heard it, everything you said to怼 Li Ruolan back then was true."
Su Ruoxue gave Ye Ling a thumbs-up and said, "If it were me, I wouldn't dare to say those things to their face."
Ye Ling smiled, not believing Su Ruoxue's words.
He knew Su Ruoxue very well. Among his childhood friends, Su Ruoxue was the bravest. She even dared to reach out and pull a tiger's whiskers at the zoo, almost giving him a heart attack!
The fact that Su Ruoxue didn't dare to do those things now was actually just for the benefit of the Su family.
Once a person grows up, they have to bear corresponding responsibilities, and many things can no longer be done impulsively.
The Li family had developed rapidly over the years. The Su family had also suffered a significant blow due to the Ye family's affairs. Now, other major families were already showing signs of targeting the Su family.
With external threats and internal strife, the Su family could not afford to make more enemies.
Otherwise, Su Ruoxue wouldn't have attended Li Qingshan's birthday banquet.
Just then, a bodyguard in black walked over from a distance and said to Su Ruoxue, "Miss, we should go."
"So soon?"
Hearing the bodyguard's words, Su Ruoxue's expression was clearly a little disappointed.
"Miss, the master ordered that you cannot stay out for too long. Please don't make things difficult for me." The bodyguard in black looked troubled.
"I know! Do you have any paper and pen?" Su Ruoxue asked the bodyguard.
The bodyguard quickly took out a pen from his pocket and handed it to Su Ruoxue. "I only have a pen."
"That's enough."
Su Ruoxue took the pen, took Ye Ling's hand without a word, and wrote a phone number on his palm.
Then, Su Ruoxue made a gesture to call Ye Ling and said with a smile, "Remember to call me!"
Watching Su Ruoxue and the bodyguard leave, Ye Ling glanced at the phone number in his hand and smiled.
"After so many years, the number is still the same."
Spiritual energy flowed across Ye Ling's palm, and the phone number disappeared.
The last four digits were 1314. This phone number... was a gift he had given Su Ruoxue when he was twelve years old.
After chatting with Su Ruoxue, Ye Ling's melancholic mood vanished, and a smile returned to his lips.
He stood up and stretched lazily in the sunlight.
"Next, it's time to settle the score with the Jiang family."
A gust of breeze blew.
Ye Ling disappeared from his spot.