Chapter 272 Nostalgia

her stomach hurt.Cai Xiaojing twisted the corner of her lip; they had it coming!Tang Shuwen and others drank and watched the fun, letting them play around freely.At this moment, everything was beautif...Chapter 272 Flashbacks

In her early blossoming, despite her sister's opposition, she wrote a love letter to Lin Ning. (Plain text)

Back then, the school風氣was not as open; middle school students were forbidden from dating. As a first-year student, it was even more unacceptable, so she secretly managed to deliver the letter to Lin Ning.

She had thought that Lin Ning wouldn't like someone like her—back in those days, he was a big figure at school, with many senior and junior female students admiring him. Just mentioning his name would cause hearts to flutter.

She was one of them.

To her surprise, she received Lin Ning's response after sending the letter, agreeing to date for a while. She was overjoyed but had to keep their relationship secret due to school regulations.

Her sister said that Lin Ning was a playboy with many women around him and even had an official girlfriend at school as well as others from other schools. He wouldn't fancy someone like her, and it was just casual fun for him.

In those days, she was very innocent and didn't listen to her sister's warnings. During the time of their relationship, although it was only a short month, it was the most precious memory in her life. Before the college entrance exam, Lin Ning suddenly broke up with her.

He also brought his official girlfriend along; she was a senior girl who was very beautiful and had a good figure. He said that he hadn't dated any junior girls before, so it was just an experiment, not to be taken seriously.

The tone back then deeply hurt her as a first-time lover.

Lin Ning told her she was stiff, boring, and merely a young girl. Her kisses were too inexperienced; he preferred mature and sexy women.

After the breakup, her grades plummeted.

The final exam results placed her at the bottom.

She was heartbroken and distressed. She never saw Lin Ning again after that. He didn't take the college entrance exam; instead, he went abroad for studies with his fiancée. Cai Xiao Jing completely gave up on him.

Later, her parents divorced, and she followed her mother to remarry, even changing her name from top to bottom, as if severing all ties with the past.

After that first love, her character changed significantly. Back then, she was gentle, lively, and cute, but none of those traits could be found in her now.

I later heard a lot about Lin Ning, including his womanizing and emotional infidelity. I also heard how he treats women cruelly. I secretly laughed at my own foolishness; it turned out that I was just another fleeting object of his curiosity.

I gradually forgot this man.

Later in high school and college, I dated several boyfriends—about seven or eight altogether. I started playing the field myself, saying it was just for fun. With my looks, figure, intelligence, and cunning, dabbling in such activities wasn’t a problem at all.

In my second year of university, my stepfather’s family went bankrupt, leaving me and my mother to face an enormous debt. He donated money and fled, leaving us heartbroken and helpless. I had no choice but to drop out of school and work to support the family and pay off our debts. Although my stepfather escaped, he was quite generous with me during those years.

Cai Xiaojing willingly took on this debt burden. Since I studied finance, I wanted to find a job related to it. By chance, I saw Lin Ning… At that time, Lin Ning had already become famous in the entertainment industry. Not being much of an entertainment fan, I didn’t watch movies or listen to songs, but he happened to be promoting his new film.

I found out that he was a director at Anning International.

Even though I had secured a decent job offer already, I decided to take the chance and enter Anning International as an agent.

I was lucky enough to meet my mentor Cheng Anya.

This is how I got where I am today.

From taking on my first client, I became quite successful. The artists under my management quickly rose to fame, and so did my reputation. My performance earned me more recognition from Cheng Anya, who gave me the responsibility of grooming new talent—often managing four or five at once before passing them off.

Han Bi was one of those talents I managed then.

At Anning International, I gradually heard a lot about Lin Ning. This man still retained his reputation as a womanizer and emotional opportunist. He used women and discarded them ruthlessly. Along with Su Ran, Lin Diyun, Tang Shuwen, and Director Gu, he was infamous for being heartbreakers who were both loved and loathed by women.

Time had been kind to him; in his thirties, he showed no signs of aging, looking more graceful and commanding than even the male stars he promoted. He remained as handsome and coldly alluring as ever.

Hearing so much about him, Cai Xiaojing realized that her youthful infatuation with him was purely due to a lack of life experience.

When she first met him with Han Bi to talk about movies, he was frivolous and **, which greatly offended her. Yet, deep down in her subconscious, she wondered if he might still remember the old her.

Unfortunately, all he saw was complete unfamiliarity.

In that moment, Cai Xiaojing suddenly felt that she had been utterly foolish for indulging in this game just for his sake over these many years. It simply wasn’t worth it at all.

If he has completely forgotten you, then whose revenge are you seeking

Nothing more than punishing your younger self who didn't know any better.

Who hasn't had their youthful days There's no need to seek vengeance for anything.

Losing a lover happens every day; without him, she could still live life carefree.

After that, she truly calmed down. Her heart ceased beating for him, and those past memories became nothing but history.

She finally understood that she had grown up, and her mindset had changed.

He too matured, yet remained unchanged in his essence.

Later on, due to work reasons, they gradually got acquainted. He was an international film director while she was a talent agent; it wasn’t bad for her to cultivate a relationship with him since they worked under the same roof and would see each other frequently.

So over the years, their relationship remained that of acquaintances who occasionally exchanged greetings but never made special visits.

She didn't expect that after bringing warmth into her life, she would start to cross paths with him again.

But what game was he playing this time

Was it still the same youthful curiosity-driven game

She was past that age; after years in the entertainment industry, she had long since mastered the art of backstabbing and using every trick in the book to make her artists popular. She had also been through more than ten relationships, so inside and out, there wasn’t a single flaw left.

Trying to play the same tricks as before Hmph.

Cai Xiao Jing gave a cold laugh; she would see who could outplay whom.

Now that he was interested in her, she wanted him to fall completely in love with her and then discard him. If he wanted to play games, she would follow through until the end.

The bicycle slowly rode over the path lined with kapok trees, turning a corner before arriving at a small farmstead.

It was a very beautiful farmstead; it had a stone bridge connecting to it. The river flowing past it was clear, and after crossing the stone bridge was an island farm surrounded by water. On both sides of the river were many vegetable gardens filled with various vegetables such as cucumbers, bitter melons, and green eggplants. In one of these gardens, there was a young girl watering plants.

The girl was around 12 or 13 years old, her hair in two buns, wearing a white shirt, yellow vest, and shoulder straps; she wasn’t as trendy as urban girls but had an entirely different flavor to her appearance.

Lin Ning waved his hand at the young girl and greeted her. He stopped pedaling, got off his bike, and entered the girl’s vegetable garden. Cai Xiao Jing didn’t know what he was up to and followed him in. In the garden, there were seedling tomatoes growing very well, with rows of small red tomatoes hanging from their branches.

"Little girl, do you sell your tomatoes"

The little girl blinked her eyes, a bit confused as to why he was asking this—was he trying to buy tomatoes

Cai Xiao Jing tugged at his sleeve. "What are you doing"

"These tomatoes taste very good; the farmstead is fully organic and doesn’t use any pesticides. These small tomatoes are much better tasting than those sold in markets, being very sweet."

"I don’t like eating this," she said with a shrug—she had to admit that it was indeed beautiful here by the mountains and water, but tomato and egg stir-fry would be okay, though she hadn’t tried eating tomatoes raw before.

“Big brother, are you buying small tomatoes” The little girl asked sweetly. Cai Xiao Jing burst out laughing: "Little girl, you should call him uncle; he might even be older than your dad."

Lin Ning turned his head and glared at Cai Xiao Jing viciously, causing the little girl to exclaim in surprise and laugh innocently: "How can that be My dad is already 32 years old—big brother looks so young!"

Cai Xiao Jing clutched her stomach laughing; this guy who pretended to be younger.d once they had one boy and one girl, they wouldn't have any more kids, so as to finish what needed to be done early and live an easy life afterward.So it wasn’t long before the couple had another dau...