He quickly ran to the edge of the crowd.

Those attending the auction were older, affluent individuals with purchasing power for antiques. In such situations, their first concern is for their personal safety. So, they contact secretaries, drivers, bodyguards, and call the police... while others panic, scream, cough, and cry. In this state, nobody takes the opportunity to strike up a conversation or flirt to protect the two stunning beauties, Yurong and Yue Yao.

Safety comes first; when life is threatened, beauty loses some of its allure.

For Yurong and Yue Yao, the absence of disturbances is an optimal state, allowing them to face and observe problems more calmly.

Yurong has successfully led a major corporation for over a year. While she may not be accustomed to great storms, she is far more resilient in remaining calm than the average person. In fact, in the past six months, she has experienced the Prince Hotel crisis, the Crown Prince Hotel shootout, being surrounded by Zhang Jing’s men, and being incited by Lan Tianci to have Chen Wen summon hundreds of thugs for a street attack... she has seen quite the storms, so she is very composed now and not panicked.

As for Yue Yao, she needs no further mention. Although she hasn’t executed missions on the front line in a while, she is indeed the "second in command" and actual leader of ’their’ assassin organization. To her, this scene is quite ordinary, especially as she fully understands the night’s circumstances.

While these two were calmer than the average person, standing hand in hand at the corner’s edge, they noticed someone leaning forward and jogging over. Though he covered his nose with his sleeve, they didn’t close their eyes and could clearly see that he was the one who had just stormed in from the entrance, not one of the guests inside.

"What are you doing?" As Li Yan approached, Yue Yao already knew it was him, but she couldn’t alert Yurong, so she pretended to question the stranger softly.

When Li Yan got close to them, he stood up and took a deep breath, coughing a few times. Then he asked, "Yurong, are you okay?"

...

When Yurong saw him approaching, she had some suspicion, thinking this figure was too familiar. As he stood up, she recognized him even before he spoke—wasn’t this Li Yan? Why did he run here at this moment?

Seeing his eyes reddened from smoke and still choking, yet immediately asking if she was okay, made her heart stir with mixed emotions.

"Li... Yan? Why are you here? Did you come specially to find Yurong?" Yue Yao timely acted surprised.

"Yue Yao, are you okay too?" Li Yan smiled.

"I’m fine." Yue Yao said, pulling the hand she was holding with Yurong to signal her to speak.

Yurong’s bright eyes were clear, as she didn’t rush to the door and wasn’t smoked, only feeling slightly uncomfortable. But at this dangerous moment, seeing Li Yan appear by her side just like before, her eyes started to redden.

She sniffed and softly asked, "Why did you come here?"

"Oh, weren’t you planning to attend the auction tonight? I was afraid Dad needed care and you couldn’t handle it, so I came too. However, I don’t have an invitation, so I couldn’t enter. I could only wait in the lobby downstairs. Then, blasts kept happening one after another, frightening me and worrying something might happen to you, so I didn’t care and barged in. It’s just smokey outside, and hard to see the way, so I groped around for a while. I just pulled a cleaner along to come in here and saw you two, so I came over. Were you smoked? These guys are really despicable. Luckily, the bomb didn’t explode here..." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

As he rambled on, Yurong felt her heart choke. But it wasn’t like last time when she heard he stayed overnight with Yu Xiaodi—a different kind of tightness in her chest. She knew clearly this time, it was because she was moved!

Such feeling wasn’t new to her. Perhaps it started that time, when she went out at midnight to meet a client, Li Yan drove over to accompany her, triggering that emotion. The first strong incident was during the Prince Hotel crisis, when she was quarantined in the hotel, and found out he sneaked in by lying under a car, letting her feel scared, worried, annoyed, yet warmed by a complex sense of gratitude.

"Just now... when the explosion happened, I thought... if you knew, would you come to stay by my side..." Yurong said as she looked at Li Yan’s smoke-red eyes, slowly blurring her vision. "Haha... never thought you’d really come... I’m... really happy..."

Yue Yao gave Li Yan a knowing smile. Tonight turned out to be very rewarding. Initially, she came because of the antique issue, and didn’t expect to provide a chance for these two to reconcile.

"But why are you here?... What can you do to help me?... We’ve already been trapped... Why add another trapped person?" Yurong turned to complain.

Li Yan smiled, although he heard complaints, he clearly felt care and worry!

"Let’s go! Although it’s not safe outside, staying here, who knows what might happen; if another bomb comes, it’ll be troublesome..." Li Yan suggested.

"With the outside like this... how to go?" Yurong looked outside with some concern.

"Cover your mouth and nose, close your eyes, I’ll lead you out from the front!"

Since they were already affected by the smoke and achieved their main purpose, now was the chance to reconcile, so Li Yan cherished it. Stay here waiting for the police? Certainly not.

(Thanks to yesterday’s supporting brothers: Cavalry, dongmin8061, pro.Eve, Rain’s Destiny, Cp Pampas, jK Liang) (To be continued, to know what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com, more Chapters available, support the author, and support legitimate reading!)