Reborn With A System: Your Bragging Lies; My Fortune

CHAPTER 8 - THE REUNION

LIN FENG'S POV

I bolted the moment the shadow shifted. My shoes skidded against the thick carpet as I threw myself around the corner and pressed flat against the wall of the next hallway.

My heart slammed so hard I thought it might give me away on its own. Footsteps crossed the banquet room behind me, slow and unhurried.

Nothing like the panic clawing through my chest. As I ran, I caught one broken glimpse of the figure, a thin hand pushing back into the shadows, a glint of silver around the wrist and a ring I almost recognized.

Almost, but I couldn't place it quickly enough. My instincts screamed at me to move, and I listened. I didn't stop running until I was three blocks from the Golden Crane.

I bent over against a lamppost, gasping for breath, one hand pressed against my chest while my mind raced through every familiar voice from my old life.

Who had spoken to me like that? Who knew what happened ten years ago? And why did that voice sound so familiar?

Every time I thought I had it, the memory slipped away, close enough to torment me, too far away to grasp.

I forced myself to breathe, panic wouldn't help me. I had already learned that much so I straightened slowly and looked back toward the direction of the Golden Crane.

Whoever that person was, they wanted Ryan afraid and they also wanted me exposed at the reunion, that part was much clear.

The rest would have to wait.

I still had hours before I had to walk into that room, and I intended to spend every one of them preparing instead of chasing shadows through hotel hallways.

By the time the sun dipped low and gold over Heshan City, I stood outside the Golden Crane again.

This time, I entered through the front doors, I was wearing the same worn jacket, the same cheap clothes. But I was no longer the same man who had walked through those doors ten years ago.

My chest was tight, but beneath the tension was something I had fought hard to build all afternoon. Su Wan was waiting near the entrance, her arms were crossed, and her eyes found mine the second I stepped through the doors.

She looked different from how I remembered her ten years ago. I couldn't tell if it was because of the things that changed with me overnight, I couldn't tell.

But the concern on her face when she saw me was unmistakable.

"You actually came," she said quietly.

"I told you I would." I shrugged, half the time, I was playing with the little charm I had left.

She smiled weakly, "I half hoped you'd change your mind." She fell into step beside me as we approached the grand double doors of the banquet hall. Her voice dropped lower, "Whatever happens in there, stay close to me if you can. I don't trust any of them."I nodded once, I was grateful in a way I didn't know how to put into words.

Then I pushed the doors open, the room hit me like a wave. Gold lighting, round tables covered in white cloth. Crystal glasses catching the light and a large banner stretched across the far wall.

TEN YEAR REUNION — HESHAN HIGH CLASS OF SIXTEEN

Faces I hadn't seen in a decade turned toward the entrance, some looked curious while others were already smirking. Whispers rippled outward the moment they recognized me standing in the doorway in the same cheap jacket I had always worn.

For a second, I felt the old instinct to lower my head, to make myself smaller, to find a corner and disappear. I killed that instinct immediately, that man was gone.

I walked into the room, and Vivian Song spotted me first. Her lips curled into a slow, delighted smile as she leaned toward the woman beside her and whispered something. The woman glanced at me, then both of them laughed.

I didn't react. I had spent the last two days learning something important. Let them underestimate me, let them talk. Every word they spoke told me something about them. And if the system was going to respond to their boasts, then I had no reason to stop them from talking.

I found a seat near the back with Su Wan beside me. I kept my eyes moving without making it obvious. Every face, every table, every entrance. I searched for the man in the gray suit from the hotel corridor, but nothing.

I searched for the shadowed figure, still nothing. But I could still feel the night's tension pressing against me, too many things were already in motion. Ryan's debt, the collector, the mysterious voice, the system and whatever Ryan had planned for me.

Twenty minutes later, Ryan arrived. The entire room seemed to shift the moment he walked through the doors, laughter rose.

People called his name, several hands reached out to clap him on the back. He wore a tailored suit that probably cost more than I had earned in the past two years combined.

His smile was wide and easy. Every inch the successful and beloved man he had spent a decade convincing everyone he was.

Then his eyes found mine for just a moment, something flickered behind that practiced smile, then it disappeared.

Ryan raised a glass toward the crowd. "Everyone, thank you all for coming." His voice carried easily across the room, silencing the conversations around him. "Ten years is a long time, and I think we can all agree, some of us have come a very long way."

Laughter rippled through the room, several eyes immediately flicked toward me. I kept my expression blank, my pulse remained steady despite the heat crawling up the back of my neck.

Ryan lifted his glass higher, his gaze locked directly onto mine.

There was a challenge behind his smile now. "Speaking of coming a long way," he continued, "I actually have some incredible news to share tonight." The room grew quieter. "It's something I've been sitting on for weeks, and I think it's finally time everyone heard it."

People leaned forward, hungry for the performance. Beside me, Su Wan's hand found my wrist beneath the table, her fingers tightened. I didn't move, I didn't blink.

I simply watched Ryan, I knew that tone. I had heard it countless times in my first life. It was the tone he used whenever he wanted everyone to believe he was more successful, more powerful, and more important than he really was.

Ryan smiled. "My family just closed the largest real estate deal in Heshan City history." He paused deliberately, allowing the anticipation to build. "Fifty million yuan and three commercial towers downtown are all under my name as lead investor."

Applause erupted around the room, someone whistled. Vivian immediately joined in and Ryan's smile widened. But I barely heard any of it. A cold, familiar click sounded somewhere deep inside my chest, instantly recognizable. 

I already knew what it was and my fingers tightened around the edge of the table. Then the mechanical voice sounded inside my head.

"{Falsehood detected. Verifying.}"

I stared at Ryan, for the first time that evening, I almost smiled.

He had no idea what he had just done.