"Uh Luna, is everything alright? Is someone bullying you by any chance? Don't worry, I won't let those bastards get away with it!"
Ronald didn't believe it. There is no way that a heroine like Luna would hug him out of the blue all of a sudden, there has got to be a conspiracy behind it.
Luna didn't reply back immediately, and she kept hugging him as she wept profusely.
She was afraid that this was simply all just a dream still, and she would lose him once again the moment she let go of him.
Now why did she think that she was dreaming?
It's because...
She's a regressor.
That's right, after she had made a huge cultivation mistake that ultimately led to her death in her previous life, she ended up returning back to when she was 20 years old today.
And while she had a pretty good idea as to why she ended up regressing back, it didn't matter to her, nor did she even want to think about it anymore.
All that matters is that Ronald is alive and back again now, and she was given a second chance to make things right this time.
However, she can't let Ronald know that she's a regressor just yet.
After all, there was too much factors currently at play here that forbids her from letting Ronald know at the moment, and more importantly, she didn't want to inadvertently ruin his life again.
When she first stepped into the trade show and saw Ronald just now, she couldn't hold herself back and rushed towards him to hug him, but she realized that her actions were too impulsive and she had to slowly take it one step at a time.
Thankfully, there's nothing that true power and influence couldn't solve in this world.
So she decided that after she stands on top of the world once again and has the ability to completely protect Ronald, she will offer the entire world to him and then tell him her secret.
With that in mind, Luna slowly calmed herself down and hesitantly let go of Ronald.
"No, no, everything's okay. I just missed you, that's all." Luna said as she stared at Ronald with infinite guilt and regret.
'Bullshit, you absolutely hated me more than anyone else in this world in the previous life.' Ronald couldn't help but silently curse in his heart after he heard her comment, but he didn't really know the reason why she acted like this to begin with.
And clearly, all of the onlookers nearby were confused as well, as everyone within a 50 meter radius of Luna and Ronald immediately froze in place when they saw this scene.
After all, since Ronald's notorious reputation was no secret to the public whatsoever, and it was actually widely known throughout the entirety of China that he was Luna's licking dog, they were shocked to see that Luna was actually being nice to Ronald.
"Oh, okay then... anyways, as I was saying earlier, I got you a-"
Before Ronald could even continue on with his role and give Luna The Moonlight's Grace however, Luna immediately reached out and stopped his hand, stopping him mid sentence.
"Ronald... wait." Luna spoke softly as she reached up to straighten the slightly crooked collar of his suit jacket.
She already knew what was about to happen next, and she didn't want Ronald to give it to her whatsoever.
In her previous life, Ronald had given to her The Moonlight's Grace as well after all.
And while back then she had also rejected his gift and had even thrown the ring away right in front of his eyes solely because she felt repulsed by it, especially since Ronald kept chasing after her and had even used his family's power to coerce her family into forcing her to be engaged with him, the reasoning behind rejecting it this time wasn't because she felt annoyed or disgusted or anything like that.
No, rather it was now because she didn't want to be reminded of how badly she had publicly humiliated him in front of thousands of people back then in her previous life every time she sees the ring.
Not to mention that the ring had become forever linked in her mind to the one day in her previous life that she most wished had never happened.
As such, even though she wanted nothing more than to accept the gift and tell him how much it meant to her, she forced herself to subtly refuse it while without hurting him in the process.
"There. Now you don't look like you ran here in such a rush." Luna took a half-step back and smiled brightly after she gently brushed the edge of Ronald's collar back into place.
Everyone around Luna and Ronald became absolutely shocked once again when they saw how brightly and gentle Luna was being, as nobody has ever seen Luna be this nice in public before, and everyone couldn't help but begin giving weird looks and started taking pictures at this rare and legendary moment.
The person who was truly shocked the most by this entire situation however, was none other than Ronald himself.
Not once back when he was reading the novel or in his previous life had he ever seen or even heard about Luna smiling like this to literally anyone else ever besides the protagonist after all!
The only expression she had ever displayed towards other people was always either annoyance, disgust, or indifference.
And that was especially so for him.
'So what gives right now?'
After racking his brain for a few seconds trying to make sense of it all however, Ronald came to the sudden realization that Luna was probably just pretending to like him on the surface for now just so she could siphon more money from Ronald for her company later on.
Knowing her personality, it was definitely the most logical explanation after all.
Luna, aside from simply being known as cold, was quite meticulous, cunning, and above all else, extremely calculative as well.
If something didn't benefit her in any way, shape, or form in some way, there was no way she would bother wasting her precious time doing it.
And while Ronald didn't really understand why she was behaving like this especially since Luna had followed the original storyline in his previous life and made him lose face, or even why he hasn't see Ye Fan anywhere so far, Ronald wasn't really worried about it.
The fact that Luna had rejected his gift again in this life, albeit subtly this time, was already enough proof that the overall plot was still moving in the right direction and could still be completed.
'In fact, I bet Luna has met Ye Fan already and has probably told him to go hide somewhere for a little bit while she's pretending to like me.'
'Haha, as expected of the icey cold female president from a Chinese novel!'
After reassuring himself that the plot was still headed towards the right track, Ronald inwardly let out a small sigh of relief as he shifted his attention back to Luna and laughed.
"Haha, thank you, Luna. I appreciate it. Really, out of the billions of women out there, I'm glad that you're the one I'm engaged to." Even though Ronald didn't originally have a line like this in the original novel, Ronald still said it anyways to throw a light jab at her and hopefully annoy her a little.
"I'm glad as well, Ronald." Not knowing that Ronald was truly trying to provoke her and that he was simply acting like he had always been, Luna simply responded with a soft hum and smiled faintly again.
And just like that, the two continued chatting casually with each other, while the rest of the onlookers were left utterly dumbfounded by the scene in front of them.
'...'
'Sigh, I don't know why, but I have a feeling that this is going to be a long night.'