In front of the Civil Affairs Bureau in Nanling State of China, a black sedan slowly stopped at the intersection in front of the bureau because the traffic light ahead turned red.
In the backseat of the car, a pair of gray-green eyes surveyed the scenery outside the window through the tinted glass.
Those eyes exuded beauty, with a bewitching hue in their pupils that was even more heart-palpitating than that of a siren.
But at the same time, those pupils were cold, utterly devoid of warmth, forcibly distancing him from the world.
And after those gray-green eyes had swept over the surrounding sights, their gaze finally settled on a figure at the entrance of the Civil Affairs Bureau.
It was a woman.
No, more precisely, a girl.
One of her small hands was pulling a suitcase, while the other held a household registration book.
She wore the simplest of attire, a white blouse and blue jeans. Her black hair, waterfall-like in its length, was tied into a ponytail with a rubber band.
The plain outfit wasn't eye-catching, but the gray-green eyes atop the black sedan lingered on her unpainted, youthful face.
Her little face, reddened by the June sun, appeared pitiable. Yet, the clarity and brightness of those eyes caused Huang Qingtian's gray-green eyes to narrow in an instant.
Is it her?
Isn't her family in Beiling, why is she here?
Upon seeing her face, which looked as if the sky were about to collapse, Huang Qingtian made a move that even he hadn't anticipated.
"Stop the car!"
"Leader, the President and the Vice President are waiting for you to meet," reminded the man with silver-framed glasses in the driver's seat, in a voice that seemed mechanical.
"Fifteen minutes!" Adhering to his usual unorthodox style, he directly pushed open the car door and strode away like the wind.
*
As the man got out of the car, the girl on the side was already silently shedding tears.
Her name is Mu Keren, and she had hurried over from Beiling State this morning, to marry her beloved boyfriend La Chuan. Look, she had even gone behind her father's back to sneak out the family's household registration book.
But to her dismay, La Chuan was entangled with her best friend behind her back. This cruel reality made her leave without looking back, luggage in tow.
Yet, after leaving, she still came to the entrance of the Civil Affairs Bureau as planned. As Mu Keren watched couple after couple emerge from the bureau with their marriage certificates, the bitterness in her heart could no longer be contained, and she burst into tears.
At the entrance of the Civil Affairs Bureau in this unfamiliar city, she cried. She cried so hard she was gasping for breath, like a lost child...
Just then, a deep, magnetic male voice came from above her.
"Mu Keren?"
In the midst of this enchanting voice that seemed to clash with stones, Mu Keren finally opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw were a pair of black men's leather shoes, followed by two long legs that possessed a golden ratio, extremly eye-catching beneath the wrapping of black trousers.
And her gaze ultimately fixed on the face above...
That face was more breathtaking than any handsome face Mu Keren had ever seen. How to describe it?
An unmatched elegance! Yes, an elegance beyond compare, unreachable by others.
Even the La Chuan she once deeply adored couldn't compare to him.
"Do you... know me?" Mu Keren, who had been captivated by the man's stunning appearance, finally came back to her senses and asked foolishly.
This person, who could accurately call out her name in Nanling State, must know her, right?
Such a handsome guy was memorable, and Mu Keren, even with her poor memory, should have some impression of him. Yet strangely, she searched her entire mind and found not a single fragment of memory about this handsome man.
As he observed the girl's tearful and slightly defensive eyes, Huang Qingtian's grey-green pupils faded slightly.
"What are you doing here?" His thin lips curved slightly again, and his expression returned to normal.
But if Mu Keren had been more attentive, she might have noticed the man's rose-colored thin lips lifting slightly. It was like a smile, yet not quite. Only because the curve seemed forcibly squeezed out!
Unfortunately, the questioned Mu Keren's mood plunged into the depths again in an instant, and naturally, she did not notice these subtleties.
"I... want to get married." Gazing at the young couples who kept coming out of the Civil Affairs Office, her face was filled with envy.
"Want to get married?"
The man's thick eyebrows furrowed slightly. His grey-green pupils, as they glanced at the "Civil Affairs Office" sign not far away, were covered with a layer of astonishment.
If he didn't remember wrong, Mu Keren had just turned twenty this year. At such an age, she shouldn't be in such a hurry about marriage.
Just when Huang Qingtian was slightly astounded by this topic, the girl standing in front of him covered her eyes with the hand holding her household registration book and said, "But he's not going to come..."
Although the girl covered her eyes with her hands, Huang Qingtian could still see the tear drops sliding down her delicate chin from his angle.
Her crying voice carried a trembling unease and a tone of despair...
That tear drop hanging on her chin shone like rainwater, reflecting an entrancing glow in the bright sunlight.
It was in that instant that Huang Qingtian's grey-green eyes suddenly flashed with resolution.
"Do you really want to get married that much?" He reached out, pulling her small hand away from her face.
The small hand dampened with tears felt somewhat slippery in his palm but was unexpectedly soft, making him somewhat reluctant to let go.
In fact, Huang Qingtian did just that.
In the girl's dazed and stunned eyes, for the first time in his life, he shamelessly held onto her small hand, without loosening his grip.
Under Huang Qingtian's questioning gaze, Mu Keren nodded: "Yes!"
When she said she wanted to get married, she meant she wanted to marry the clean and untainted La Chuan. Not...
But, before Mu Keren could express this point of view, her hand, which was restrained by the man, was suddenly pulled up, and then he strode with her towards the Civil Affairs Office.
"Where are you taking me? My suitcase..." Mu Keren, being pulled by her hand into the Civil Affairs Office, felt somewhat anxious and scared.
Moreover, her pink suitcase was still left behind, lonely at the original spot, making her as frantic as a little monkey, hopping up and down.
But the man's strength was surprisingly great. No matter how she struggled, she couldn't break free from the bondage of his large hand.
After hearing her words, he suddenly took a couple of steps back and picked up her suitcase, which had been left behind.
"If you want to marry that badly, then let's get married!"
This was what Huang Qingtian said to Mu Keren, while leading her and her suitcase into the Civil Affairs Office and handing over his identification to the staff, all in one smooth motion.