The girl in the black dress looked like an angel descending with the night. Under the moonlight, her snow-white skin glowed like smooth porcelain.
Her delicate side profile carried a natural coolness. When she lowered her head slightly, her brows and lashes cast soft shadows, revealing a pale expanse of her slender nape, together with the graceful slope of her shoulders forming a painting-like beauty, pure and ethereal.
For a moment, Lou Mingshen couldn’t tell whether the moonlight above was more beautiful, or the girl standing beneath it was.
Perhaps sensing something, the girl suddenly turned sideways, her gaze landing directly on him.
Jiang Fuyue raised a brow.
She had only stepped outside to wait for Han Ke, yet in just that short time, she happened to run into Lou Mingshen.
The man was already striding toward her. Jiang Fuyue stayed where she was, quietly watching his approach.
“Miss Jiang, we meet again.” Lou Mingshen stopped one step away from her.
Jiang Fuyue said nothing.
Her expression was calm, her eyes steady.
He didn’t mind. Smiling faintly, he said, “If I remember correctly, this should be our third meeting. First on the plane, second at Laurel Manor, and today is the third.”
Jiang Fuyue replied, “Then it seems we’re not familiar at all.”
The man shook his head. “You’re wrong. There’s a saying, once is unfamiliar, twice makes us acquainted. This is the third time, so we should be even more familiar.”
“Sorry. My standards for making friends aren’t that low.”
He didn’t get angry. Instead, he chuckled good-naturedly. “Even if Miss Jiang doesn’t consider me a friend, I have a deep impression of Miss Jiang.”
The last four words, he pronounced slowly, meaningfully.
Jiang Fuyue’s expression remained unchanged. “I have things to do. I’ll be leaving.”
With that, she neatly smoothed her skirt and turned around.
A soft laugh came from behind her. “Miss Jiang, are you leaving in such a hurry because you feel guilty?”
Her steps paused but she didn’t look back like he expected.
The next moment, she continued walking.
Lou Mingshen’s smile faded. “Miss Jiang, your calmness is truly… admirable. Even after becoming a thief, you’re still so composed, impressive. Truly impressive.”
As he spoke, he began clapping.
Jiang Fuyue replied lightly, “I don’t understand what you’re talking about, but let me remind you: words have consequences. Accusations without evidence are slander.”
“Yes, after investigating for so long, I still didn’t find a single piece of evidence,” Lou Mingshen said, hands in pockets as he paced. Without needing her to turn back, he stepped around and blocked her path, lips curved in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m very curious, Miss Jiang, how did you manage it? Hmm?”
“I think you may be asking the wrong person.” The girl met his probing gaze without flinching, her expression perfectly calm.
“Still refusing to talk?” he murmured, the downturn of his eyes suddenly making him look bleak, as though wrapped in sorrow.
At first glance, he even looked… wounded?
He spoke softly. “To you, it may just be a titled scroll and a photo. But to me, they are priceless. If possible, I hope you’ll return them. Or… name a price. Any amount is fine.”
Jiang Fuyue remained unmoved. “It has nothing to do with me.”
Lou Mingshen seemed not to hear, tugging weakly at the corner of his lips. “Those two items… were the only memories left to me by a very important person.”
Important person?
Jiang Fuyue sneered, cutting him off. “Are you trying to gain sympathy?”
His lowered lashes trembled, barely noticeable.
“Some things, once lost, are simply lost,” Jiang Fuyue said, mercilessly tearing open the most hidden wound in his heart. “No matter how you try to remedy it afterward, it’s useless.”
In an instant, pain surged through him: raw, bleeding.
That wound had never healed. It only scabbed over on the surface. Underneath, it had long festered and rotted into bone.
“Besides,” Jiang Fuyue continued, ignoring his sudden pallor and the way he nearly collapsed inward, every word stabbing deeper, “if it was truly as important as you say, how could you lose it?”
Lost is lost.
If it mattered… how could it be lost?
Lou Mingshen’s body swayed. He stumbled half a step, nearly failing to stand.
Jiang Fuyue made no move to help him. Instead, she stepped back, standing tall and cold.
Under the moonlight, she looked like a deity delivering final judgment—
Life or death, heaven or hell, decided with a single thought.
Lou Mingshen lifted his head and froze, pupils tightening sharply.
For a moment, he thought he saw her—
That same cold expression, silent gaze, looking at him with faint mockery.
“What do you know?!” he roared hoarsely, eyes reddened, veins standing out on his neck. “You know nothing!”
Jiang Fuyue nodded calmly. “Indeed.”
She was a complete outsider.
“The items truly aren’t with me,” she said honestly, her eyes clear.
They weren’t because they had already been burned.
Lou Mingshen frowned, some reason returning to him. He still didn’t believe her, but he no longer pressed. Instead, he spoke casually—
“Those two items were left twenty years ago…”
Jiang Fuyue kept her gaze forward, her eyes steady and unmoved.
“They were left by my sister. The scroll was written by her—‘A beautiful time, a pleasing sight.’ It was just something she wrote casually, so she didn’t stamp it. She only wrote a date, Summer of 2027.”
“That year, I was nineteen. She was twenty-two.”
Jiang Fuyue didn’t want to hear this. She moved to walk around him.
Lou Mingshen seemed to sense this and blocked her again. “And the photo, it was taken by a passerby. I bought the film and secretly developed it. I planned to give it to her as a gift. But before I could… she was already gone.”
“Enough.” Jiang Fuyue cut him off sharply. “I don’t want to hear your story. Move.”
But he didn’t budge. He continued, “Laurel Manor was built for her because her name, like yours, also had the character ‘Yue’ in it. She was like the moon: noble, bright, born to be above everything, hanging high in the sky.”
Jiang Fuyue let out a cold laugh. “Why are you telling me this? Is it necessary? If you want those items returned, then I’ll repeat this one last time. Listen clearly, they are not with me.”
A crack spread in his façade. The earlier pitiful, gentle, fragile expression instantly shattered, replaced by cold anger.
“You think I’ll believe that?” he stepped forward, voice turning sharp. “The display case was bulletproof glass with a password lock. It used a new encryption algorithm. Ordinary thieves could never break it!”
Jiang Fuyue: “If they couldn’t open it, why are you so sure it was me?”
“IOI full-score gold medalist. Is that reason enough?”
She snorted. “There are plenty of IOI full-score winners. Why not suspect them?”
“I don’t need to suspect them. Because the only person present in the exhibition hall at the time was you.”
“Winning an IOI gold medal doesn’t mean you can crack encryption algorithms.”
“I don’t want to waste time,” he said, impatience appearing. “Hand the items over. Otherwise—”
She raised a brow. “Otherwise what?”
“Don’t blame me for being rude.”
“Heh.” Jiang Fuyue laughed. “And how exactly do you plan to be rude?”
Lou Mingshen’s gaze darkened. Suddenly, he reached out his hand…
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