Ronald had to admit.
Even though he knew that Luna was only pretending to be nice to him on the surface, and that the trade show plot was still completable as long as he fulfills his villain role properly and didn't mess anything up, he had been somewhat skeptical about it all still when he couldn't find Ye Fan anywhere in the trade show whatsoever while he was talking to Luna.
However, after seeing as though Ye Fan had still managed to get into the trade show and even put on a stunt that allowed him to catch Luna's attention, Ronald couldn't help but happily count his lucky stars.
As expected, Ye Fan was still the same old ambitious and cunning Ye Fan at the end of the day.
If something didn't work out for him in a way, he wouldn't give up on it whatsoever, and would stop at nothing until he had achieved what he wanted.
Truly, he was the typical mercenary Chinese protagonist through and through!
Now the only question that currently remained was how Ronald should proceed with the current plot.
This current plot didn't necessarily play out exactly the same way as it did in the original novel after all, and so Ronald didn't have an exact blueprint on what he should do next.
Of course, he could just simply just do nothing at all and naturally let Ye Fan and Luna meet up with each other, assuming that they haven't met already, but he honestly didn't want to wait around for that to happen.
He didn't want to be around the protagonist and heroines after all, and he'd rather complete the plot as quickly as possible if given the opportunity to do so.
But well, maybe perhaps it was best that he doesn't try anything reckless right now in the case that he might accidentally slip up and reveal something that he shouldn't ever reveal.
Thus, Ronald decided to just keep on chatting with Luna for now while maintaining his villainous persona and naturally wait for Ye Fan to come by on his own and allow the plot to progress by itself.
"By the way Luna, what do you think that clown show was all about just now?" Ronald pointed towards the direction of the exhibition stand where Ye Fan was just at few seconds ago and asked in a casual tone.
Luna didn't respond to Ronald immediately however and simply continued staring at the direction where Ye Fan had walked off into.
It was as though she was deep in thought, and although Ronald couldn't exactly pinpoint what exactly was going on in her mind at the moment, especially since she had an expressionless look on her face, he was certain that it was something positive about Ye Fan.
After staring off into the distance for a few more seconds however, Luna finally adverted her gaze back over to Ronald and looked at him with an unreadable look on her face.
"I don't know. Probably nothing important." Luna stated indifferently as she tried her best to act natural again.
"Haha, right? Well, whoever that pathetic guy was, I hope that he's able to enjoy the spotlight while it lasts. It'll probably be the most attention he'll ever receive in his entire lifetime." Ronald said in a condescending tone and raised his voice just like Ye Fan did in order to garner some attention from him.
"Yeah..." Luna simply nodded her head slightly with her expression revealing absolutely no emotions whatsoever before continuing, "By the way, I-"
Just as Luna was about to say something else however, a voice suddenly called out from nearby.
"That's rather rude to say to someone who just wanted to help prevent people from getting harmed, isn't it?" A handsome figure walked over to Ronald and Luna and interjected.
When Ronald heard this extremely familiar voice, he couldn't help but become cheerful inside.
'Haha, and speak of the devil.'
'Ye Fan finally shows up!'
'Thank fucking god, I can finally continue the plot now.'
'Now let's finish this once and for all so I can get out of here as soon as possible and enjoy the rest of the night celebrating the first completion of the plot in this life.'
Ronald smiled arrogantly as he turned to the source of the voice and began saying his lines according to the original novel while improvising slightly.
"Oh? And who gave you the courage to show your face right in front of me, huh? Do you not know who I am?" Ronald turned to Ye Fan and then looked at him up and down with disdain, as though he was looking at some trash.
"I don't care who you are, nor should it matter anyways. All that matters right now is that you were saying some pretty disrespectful things about me earlier, and I'd like to hear an apology from you." Ye Fan looked at Ronald calmly and stated firmly.
While Ye Fan wasn't actually too bothered by the fact that this arrogant rich second generation by the name of Ronald had just badmouthed him in front of the crowd underneath Luna's exhibition stand whatsoever, he needed a good reason to approach Luna without coming off as too weird.
So naturally, when an opportunity presented itself for him to confront Ronald directly in front of Luna, he took it without a second thought.
After all, this gave him the perfect opportunity to get closer to Luna without raising any suspicion.
And besides, since he had also spent some time overseas researching about the Kuangge and other major families in the city of Jinhai after he had fully built up his power and influence over there, Ye Fan already knew who Ronald was and how much Luna despised him despite their engagement, making it the perfect chance to impress her by standing his ground against someone with such a notorious reputation.
"Huh? An apology? From me to you? Ha, don't make me laugh." Ronald pretended to be arrogant and lightly chuckled at Ye Fan's request, "You're lucky that I'm even bothering to acknowledge your pathetic existence right now, but my patience is starting to wear thin with you, so if you don't want to end up with a broken limb tonight, then I suggest that you get the hell out of my sights now."
After Ronald had finished threatening Ye Fan, everyone in the crowd who was watching this occur couldn't help but start to worry for Ye Fan.
They all knew that Ye Fan was an upstanding individual that had potentially saved countless attendees from getting a terrible skin care product, and they didn't want to see such a person get hurt.
But that's Ronald Kuangge he's going up against!
Other than the notorious reputation he had, everyone knew that Ronald was the Young Master of the Kuangge family!
The family that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and dominated one-sixth of the entire market in Jinhai within just 20 years!
That Kuangge family!
Some theorized that the Kuangge family simply got lucky, some theorized that it was a family with a ton of backers from overseas since the family head was actually a complete foreigner, and some theorized that the Kuangge family was already rich and powerful to begin with and just came out of hiding when Ronald was born in China about 20 years ago.
But whatever the reason may be, it was certainly obvious that the Kuangge family is to never be messed with.
And that's why nobody, or even families, have dared to go up against them, not publicly at least.
Only Luna gets that privilege since she's engaged with Ronald and he wouldn't want his family to do anything to her, but even then, there was only so little she could actually do to him.
As everyone continued watching, both Ronald and Ye Fan, who could see Luna's face clearly, were extremely happy inside.
She had such an angry and disgusted look on her face that they both were certain that she was going to berate Ronald.
Ye Fan's mouth couldn't even help but slightly smile for a brief second.
He knew that his goal of impressing Luna had succeeded, and sooner or later, he was definitely going to make Luna his woman.
As such, Ye Fan didn't hesitate to provoke Ronald even further and calmly took a step closer towards him.
"Oh yeah? Go ahead and try it then. Let's see how well that works out for you." Ye Fan stated confidently and left himself completely open for Ronald to try and attack him.
"Okay then, you're courting death!"
And just like that, Ronald immediately threw a punch at him without any hesitation, intending to complete the first part of the plot again and get slightly humiliated by both Ye Fan and Luna.
However, just before Ronald's fist could even come close to Ye Fan's face though, to the surprise of both Ronald and Ye Fan...
Smack!
Luna quickly got in between both Ronald and Ye Fan, raised her hand, and slapped Ye Fan right across the face.
The slap was so loud and crisp that it echoed throughout the entire trade show and left a red mark on Ye Fan's face.
"Shut up." Luna stared at Ye Fan coldly, and then took out her handkerchief to wipe off the filth on her hand she had gotten when slapping Ye Fan just now.
"..." Ye Fan touched his face in disbelief.
Never in a million years would he had ever expected Luna to literally slap him, and for this loser no less.
Did he somehow get his information wrong? Does Luna actually like Ronald by any chance?
But there's no way!
He researched everything about her thoroughly.
Not to mention that his gut feeling was telling him that Luna was the one for him, and his gut feeling was never wrong.
There must be some kind of misunderstanding!
Ronald on the other hand was just as confused as Ye Fan was.
'...'
'What the hell...?'
'What the actual hell?'
'Have I become the main character or something?'
'Isn't Luna supposed to be the first heroine?'
'Am I even in the right novel right now?'
'Is she crazy, or am I crazy?'
'Yep, seems like I've gone crazy instead.'
"Miss Xuan! I haven't even spoken to you yet, so what did I do to offend you?" Ye Fan furiously shouted.
"Everything. Your name, your voice, your face, your hair, and even your existence. They all offend me." Luna answered coldly.
Although it might've sounded over the top, it really was the absolute truth.
She completely hated every single thing about him.
After all, how could she not?
In her previous life, he had targeted the Kuangge family so much, and practically at almost at every turn imaginable, that by the time he was done with them, nothing left of the family remained.
No money, no power, no influence, and worst of all, no one left to even care for the Kuangge family name.
Only Ronald remained.
Alone, broken, and betrayed by the very people who should have stood besides him, until the weight of it all finally drove him to take his own life.
And the worst part of it all?
She had been one of those people.
The one who should have defended and protected him the most, yet sided with Ye Fan instead, not knowing that the person she truly needed in her life was Ronald.
That was why, when she took a good look at Ye Fan's face now, she couldn't help but want to kill him again...
Just like she had done so in the past when he was significantly much stronger compared to now.
Now of course, since she was now a regressor and all of that now, and had a ton of cultivation knowledge inside of her head, she could easily cultivate for a single day and easily kill him now if she wanted to.
However, the main problem with that was that Ye Fan's overseas background was currently so incredibly strong at the moment that she couldn't kill him without facing the consequences, not now at least.
But fortunately, she knew that Ye Fan's background currently won't help him out in China as long as he's still alive since it was extremely hard to bring over foreign forces to the hearts of China, and so, she didn't mind currently offending Ye Fan at all for the time being as she slowly worked behind the scenes to eliminate him.
There was only one person that she needed to be wary of that was on Ye Fan's side at the moment, but she'll deal with her once that time comes.
"Now get lost." Luna looked directly into Ye Fan's eyes and spat out in a bone-chilling tone.
This made Ye Fan panic inside for the first time in years.
He didn't know why, but there was something deep within Luna's beautiful red eyes that shook him to the core...
Like a monster peering at him through the darkness.
Of course, this dread only lasted for a short bit though, and he immediately felt humiliation afterwards.
And he wasn't simply going to let this slide.
"Miss Xuan, the truth of the matter is that before I had engaged myself in this ridiculous little confrontation just now, I had actually came to your exhibition stand with the sole intention of investing 500 million yuan for only 1% of your company. But after seeing the way you've treated me just now, that won't be happening anymore." Ye Fan crossed his arms and scolded.
For a mid-sized company such as Luna's right now, giving it a 50 billion value evaluation was completely unheard of, and he knew that was the case as well.
That was why he said such a high number, as he knew that Luna couldn't possibly refuse, and would most likely beg him to reconsider.
And he can't wait to see the look on such a pretty woman's face when it happens.
Of course, he had also taken into consideration that she was engaged to someone who would unconditionally give her money every chance he gets, but the difference is that Ronald's money was handout, and Ye Fan knew Luna absolutely hated handouts due to her pride, even though she rarely refused them from Ronald.
Unexpectedly however, after he had finished talking, Luna appeared to be more upset.
"Please, even if you had offered me China's entire GDP, I still wouldn't care." Luna didn't doubt that Ye Fan had the money at all.
Oh no, she knew he had significantly more than that.
But she knew what Ye Fan was trying to play at here.
Unfortunately for him, she's not as dumb as she was in her previous life.
"Now are you done? Or will you continue acting like an annoying pest that can't read the atmosphere."
'Damn.' Ye Fan couldn't help but curse in his head.
As expected of the woman that he had his eyes on, she was extremely tough, more than what he had anticipated.
But he has never once ran or backed out of a fight ever since he became one of the four gods of war, and he's definitely not about to start now.
However, he wasn't too sure how he could further take on this woman without getting physical.
Fortunately for him however, while he was thinking of a way to counterattack, lady luck has smiled on him once more, since...
"What has he done wrong to you?"