Chapter 154: The wine is good, the river view is beautiful, and there is someone who is very worried about me...

"Huh? Yunzhou?"

Gu Suizhou had followed him out, and just happened to reach the vicinity of the riverbank with Lu Yunzhou when he suddenly heard such news.

Subconsciously, Lu Yunzhou thought something had happened to Shen Zhaoxi.

Seeing Lu Yunzhou rush over anxiously, Gu Suizhou furrowed his brow.

Retaining a shred of rationality, Gu Suizhou grabbed a passerby and asked, "What on earth is going on?"

At that moment, the onlooker replied, "I have no idea. A film crew from Nanjiang was shooting here, apparently filming a few night scenes, and the safety harness on the actress snapped."

"Next thing you know, she fell right into the river."

It had terrified everyone who was by the riverbank at the time.

Hearing this, Gu Suizhou knitted his brows, a sense of relief washing over him internally.

As long as it wasn't Shen Zhaoxi, that was fine.

Meanwhile, having rushed to the cordoned-off riverbank, Lu Yunzhou saw one of the crew members swimming toward the deeper part of the river to rescue the person who had fallen in.

At that exact moment, Lu Yunzhou's heart constricted as he stared at the drenched figure being pulled from the churning river against the biting river wind.

Until he could see the person more clearly.

It was not Shen Zhaoxi.

The frown on his face slowly relaxed, and the blood surging through his veins seemed to calm.

His pale, slender fingers clenched tightly beneath the cuffs of his black shirt.

His breathing hitched.

Knowing that the person who had met with an accident was not Shen Zhaoxi, half of the boulder weighing on his heart finally lifted.

Yet, because he still had no idea where Shen Zhaoxi was, a deep anxiety remained in his heart.

His dark gaze grew murky. Dressed in a black shirt and black tailored trousers, his tall and straight figure stood alone by the riverbank.

With tightly furrowed brows, he gazed into the boundless darkness of the river, feeling a wave of apprehension spreading from the depths of his heart.

The very second he turned around to continue his search, Lu Yunzhou caught sight of a slender figure ahead, and his pupils constricted.

For just beyond the crowd of onlookers, amidst the chilly river wind, a young girl with long, loose hair and a black suit jacket draped over her shoulders had appeared.

Right there before his eyes, not far away.

The river water surged, the night wind blew bitterly cold, and the endless river wetlands stretched out behind her, shrouding the entire area.

Only the dim light spilling from the resort hotel on the shore cast a faint half-glow upon her face.

He knitted his brows, his heart contracting as if time had frozen. He raised his gaze to look at her, while she lifted her eyes, her gaze locking onto him.

Their eyes met directly.

Naturally, Shen Zhaoxi also saw the tension on the man's face and the lingering worry in his eyes.

Her gaze darkened slightly.

The next second, just as her fragile figure stood quietly there, a tall, imposing shadow suddenly enveloped her, pulling her tightly into an embrace.

The man held her close.

His breathing was slightly hurried.

His breath erratic and faintly cool.

As her body was embraced and her soft hair fluttered in the wind, Shen Zhaoxi did not pull away.

Instead, she felt the cold river breeze sweeping over them both.

The temperature was dropping, and the wind off the river was biting.

"What's wrong?"

Shen Zhaoxi asked subconciously, her voice instantly swallowed by the sound of the river waves crashing against the shore.

Behind them, the surroundings were chaotic. Many onlookers had witnessed the actress's harness snap during the shoot, plunging her straight into the turbulent river.

The river was fierce, and a rising tide at night was the most perilous of all.

Therefore, everyone's attention was entirely focused on the distant scene where crew members were rescuing the victim.

Naturally, no one noticed the two figures embracing tightly outside the crowd.

Clearly, the riverbank was freezing, and the ambient noise was deafening.

Yet Lu Yunzhou seemed completely oblivious to the surrounding din.

His brow was slightly furrowed, carrying a trace of lingering anxiety, and his slender fingers betrayed a pale, chilled hue.

Lu Yunzhou did not speak.

The chilly river breeze brushed against their faces off and on, carrying a thread of biting cold.

Yet she could feel the man's warm breath brushing against her earlobe.

With his gaze lowered, his thoughts were churning in turbulent waves within his eyes, an utter mess, yet his expression remained entirely calm.

What he said next was not a question of where she had been.

Instead, his Adam's apple bobbed as he said in a low voice, "I thought the person who fell into the river was you."

Shen Zhaoxi arched a delicate eyebrow.

She had heard everything that happened by the river.

As she walked this way just now, she had also heard that someone had fallen in.

In fact, her original intention in coming over was to help with the rescue.

Only to find that someone had already gone in.

Lifting her gaze, she happened to lock eyes with Lu Yunzhou standing by the riverbank.

"Looking at it that way..."

Lowering her voice slightly, Shen Zhaoxi spoke up.

She raised her head, meeting his deep, dark eyes.

A light laugh escaped her lips.

"Is Young Master Lu so nervous about me?"

He lowered his gaze, his thin lips pressed tightly together. The moment he laid eyes on the young girl, his heart finally settled.

The man's cold and handsome facial features were half-concealed in the interplay of light and shadow by the river. His tall and upright posture, clad in that black shirt, gave off an even stronger aura of ascetic restraint than usual.

Especially his slender, distinct-jointed fingers, which, in the darkness, mirrored his entire person—radiating a profound coolness from head to toe.

His ascetic detachment made him somewhat alluring.

Shen Zhaoxi's gaze darkened for a fraction of a second.

She merely lifted her eyes quietly, studying his expression.

However, as she looked at the man before her,

The undisguised tension and worry etched across his cool brows were completely captured in her eyes.

Based on her understanding and perception of him,

and remembering when he was in Dongzhou—even when deep inside the sandy city, surrounded on all sides, and both he and his subordinates faced mortal danger, he had still remained coldly ruthless and capable of issuing calm, decisive commands—

such an expression had no business appearing on his face.

Even if the person who had fallen into the river tonight truly were her,

so what?

Could it be that he actually thought she couldn't swim?

Realization dawning on her, Shen Zhaoxi's brow knitted.

It seemed Lu Yunzhou genuinely believed she couldn't swim.

The last time they were at Sanqing Peak, it was he who had "saved" her.

She had almost forgotten about that.

Yet, even as Shen Zhaoxi muttered internally, Lu Yunzhou's attention was fixed elsewhere.

"Were you drinking?"

As she spoke, his gaze darkened.

He had caught the faint, mellow scent of alcohol lingering on her.

"Drinking?"

Hearing this, Shen Zhaoxi thought of the hour and a few minutes she had spent away from him under the pretext of going to the restroom.

Lifting her eyes, she stared directly into his pitch-black pupils and replied,

"Yeah. The wine was good, and the river view was lovely."

"And someone out there was terribly worried about me..."

Her delicate, soft lips parted and closed, looking infinitely seductive.

Lu Yunzhou's brow furrowed even deeper.

He stared at the young girl before him.

Shen Zhaoxi wasn't drunk.

Yet she somehow managed to look entirely intoxicated in Lu Yunzhou's eyes.

His Adam's apple bobbed.

In truth, Shen Zhaoxi had never considered what she had actually been doing during that hour she had vanished.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have gone off to drink with Sheng Ting either.

She simply hadn't expected that, in his eyes, she could possibly matter this much.