Chapter 1: The Eye-Catching Wedding

  The phone call was from Tong Yao, which made Ning Fan somewhat puzzled. She should have returned to the provincial city long ago, shouldn't she?

  Ning Fan thought for a moment and then answered the phone: "Hello, what's up?"

  "I'm going back to the provincial city tomorrow, want to have dinner together tonight?" Tong Yao's tone was very casual.

  "Haven't you gone back yet?" Ning Fan was somewhat surprised and immediately said, "Not tonight, I have classmates coming over, and I'm getting ready to pick them up now."

  "Whatever." The nursery rhyme seemed a bit unhappy and hung up the phone.

  "Mysterious." Ning Fan muttered to himself, went upstairs to take a look at Ye Zi who was practicing, and then quickly left the house. After giving instructions to two bodyguards, he drove to Minsheng Square.

  Ning Fan arrived at Minsheng Square and had just parked his car when he received another call from Gao Feng. Ning Fan turned around and saw a familiar figure in the distance.

  "High!" Ning Fan shouted directly.

  Gao Feng turned around, a smile spreading across his face, and quickly ran over, raising his hand to give Ning Fan a hearty slap on the shoulder: "Haha, Ning Fan you little scamp is still so handsome!"

  "You're still so thin." Ning Fan's face also showed a smile, Gao Feng was quite tall, about the same as Ning Fan, but his figure was so slender, looking like a bamboo pole.

  "Alas, no choice, brothers are tired all day like dogs, eating worse than dogs, can this nourish?!" Gaofeng poured out his grievances and immediately beckoned to the back, "Hey, come over here."

  Three boys and four girls walked over, familiar faces everywhere, all classmates from Ningfan University, everyone greeted each other, a warm exchange.

  "Whatever, let's not chat for now, find a place to eat first." Gaofeng interrupted everyone at this time, "You guys aren't hungry, but I am, Ningfan, where should we go eat? You lead the way."

  "Over there, there's a wild vegetable restaurant with quite some character. I don't know if you're interested." Ning Fan pointed to a nearby location.

  "Wild Vegetable Restaurant?" Gao Feng frowned, "It can't be all wild vegetables, right?"

  "It's not that there aren't any, actually there are other dishes too, but that place always has a few special wild vegetables, if you don't like them we can change to another place, there are quite a lot of places to eat around here." Ning Fan was fairly familiar with this area.

  "Let's go to the wild vegetable restaurant, I haven't eaten yet." A girl named Lu Qing chimed in, she was quite pretty and one of the popular girls in class back then.

  "Let's go then." The other three boys immediately echoed in agreement.

  Another three girls quickly expressed their agreement, and so the nine of them set off in a grand manner under Ning Fan's leadership to the Wild Vegetable Restaurant.

  It's unclear when it started, but some cities have begun to popularize eating wild vegetables. Now, the price of wild vegetables is actually quite expensive, even more so than ordinary home-cooked dishes. As a result, someone joked that in the past, poor people could still eat wild vegetables, but now even poor people can't afford to eat them.

  "I'm going, business is still quite booming here." As he walked into the wild vegetable restaurant, Gao Feng couldn't help but exclaim that business was indeed very good.

  Fortunately, Ning Fang and the others were still lucky. Although the small private room was gone, there was still a large private room available, and surprisingly, the private rooms here were also named after wild vegetables. This one was called Jicai Hall.

  "Jicai restaurant? It has character, should we order a dish of jicai?" Gaofeng said with a smile after sitting down.

  "The shepherd's purse dumplings actually taste pretty good, I wonder if there are any left." Ning Fan said casually.

  "Would you like two more, sir?" The waiter chimed in immediately.

  "How much is it?" Ning Fan asked.

  "Eight." The waiter replied.

  "I'll take both." Ning Fan said hastily, it seemed that this thing was in high demand here, and those who were slow would be left with nothing.

  "Alright." The waiter immediately took note of it.

  "Ning Fan, you seem quite familiar with this place, why don't you take charge of ordering?" Gao Feng said with a hearty laugh.

  "It's not that we're familiar with it, let's just say you might not be used to wild vegetables, I'll take care of ordering the wild vegetables, and the rest of the dishes, you all order what you like." Ning Fan said casually.

  "Let's go." Gaofeng picked up the menu. "I'll start first, I'm too thin, need to eat meat, let's have braised pork in brown sauce!"

  Everyone ordered a dish soon, and Ning Fan also ordered three wild vegetables, one cold-dressed horse tooth violet, one stir-fried fiddlehead fern, plus one clear-stirred horse hoof vegetable.

  When the dishes were served, everyone naturally started chatting again. The first thing they talked about was work. Ning Fan originally studied law, but later took the civil service exam and became a police officer. Although all eight people present had studied law, only half of them still worked in the field after graduation.

  Gao Feng used to be a lawyer, but before he became successful as a lawyer, things were tough for him. Now he's working himself to death and still doesn't have much money. In comparison, Lu Qing's job is relatively easy; she works at a bank.

  "Ning Fan, you seem to be a cop? Speaking of which, you and Hu Qiang are colleagues! " Lu Qing looked at another slightly introverted boy with her beautiful eyes, "Hu Qiang, can you take care of Ning Fan? You're from the Provincial Bureau, right?"

  "I was actually just a small role in the provincial government." Hu Qiang looked a bit embarrassed, his family had some connections with the Provincial Public Security Bureau, so after graduating from university, he directly took the civil service exam for the provincial government and passed the written test, so the interview was naturally not a problem.

  "In fact, I'm no longer a police officer." Ning Fan said.

  "Really?" Lu Qing was somewhat surprised, "What are you doing now then?"

  "I guess I work for a security company." Ning Fan replied.

  "When did you become a security guard?" Lu Qing was taken aback, then smiled awkwardly, "Uh, actually being a security guard isn't bad, it's not as dangerous as being a police officer."

  "Lu Qing, don't give him any face, nothing is wrong with him, he was fired by the police department and had no choice but to become a security guard." A girl next to Lu Qing suddenly spoke up.

  The girl's name is Ding Yu, her appearance is ordinary, but her figure is good. She works as a clerk in a private enterprise, and since she came in, she has been chatting with someone on her mobile phone almost all the time.

  "Ding Yu, what are you talking about? How is it possible for Ning Fan to be expelled?" Gao Feng was somewhat dissatisfied. "Where did you hear the news from?"

  "My boyfriend told me that he is from Qingyun City, and everyone in Qingyun City knows about Ning Fan being expelled. If you don't believe it, go ask around." Ding Yu said with a tone of disdain.

  "Ding Yu, when did you have a boyfriend?" The speaker was a slightly chubby boy named Zhao Lei.

  "What's the point of telling you again?!" Ding Yu said irritably. Zhao Wei had been chasing her, but he wasn't doing well, running errands for some unknown company, and Ding Yu naturally looked down on him.

  "I was indeed fired." Ning Fan also spoke up at this time, he heard a hint of disdain in Ding Yu's tone, but didn't take it to heart, some people always had the habit of looking down on others.

  "Really kicked out? I'm telling you, this is unreasonable! Is it because you didn't go along with them and they're ostracizing you?" Gaofeng cursed loudly. In his impression, Ning Fan had always been someone with a strong sense of justice.

  "It's not that reason anyway." Ning Fan smiled and said, "Forget it, let's not talk about this. Being fired is just being fired, after all, it's just a job."

  "Alright, never mind that. By the way, how's it going with your girlfriend? I remember you two were as sweet as honey back then... Hmm, what's wrong with you, Hu Qiang? Why are you pulling me like this? What's with that look in your eyes?" Gao Feng was somewhat perplexed, what was wrong with Hu Qiang?

  "What business do you have with my girlfriend?" Hu Qiang said somewhat discontentedly.

  "My god, Hu Qiang, did you eat gunpowder today? Can't I just show some concern for my buddy?" Gao Feng said with some bewilderment.

  Ning Fan looked at Hu Qiang with a hint of surprise and then sighed: "Hu Qiang, did you know that I broke up with Tongtong?"

  "Ah?" Several people exclaimed at the same time.

  "Broken up?" Gaofeng's eyes widened.

  "Impossible?" Lu Qing also looked disbelieving.

  Apart from Ding Yu, the other two girls, Zheng Mei and Wu Xiaofang, were also shocked. Ning Fan and Tong Hua, this couple, who had some fame in Haicheng University, were always thought to be a fairy-tale-like love, but they actually broke up too?

  "Ning Fan, I'm sorry, actually, when Tong Hua got engaged earlier, I also attended the engagement banquet." Hu Qiang looked embarrassed, "At that time, I wanted to call you, but didn't know how to say it."

  The private room suddenly fell silent, and both Gao Feng and Lu Qing looked at Ning Fan, unsure of what to say for a moment.

  "What the heck, is there still true love in this world?" whispered another boy sitting next to Hu Qiang.

  "What's the big deal, Tong Hua is so rich, Ning Fang is just a small police officer, now he's even been fired, if I were Tong Hua, I would break up with him too." Only Ding Yu looked unconvinced.

  "Ding Yu, can't you speak more pleasantly?" Gao Feng said with some annoyance. "We're all classmates, and when others aren't doing well, you're so happy about it?"

  "I'm just stating the facts." Ting Yu retorted: "We're not students anymore, we can't be as naive as before!"

  "Gao Feng, never mind, it's okay, actually Ding Yu didn't say anything wrong." Ning Fan quickly mediated, he didn't want Gao Feng and Ding Yu to quarrel here.

  "That's right, I wasn't wrong in the first place!" Ding Yu hummed, "Someone like me can find a boyfriend who is much better than Ning Fan. With my conditions, of course, I have to find someone many times better."

  "Ding Yu, you're getting more and more excited, aren't you?" Gao Feng was really annoyed. "Is your boyfriend better than Ning Fan? You? Alright, bring out your boyfriend and let's take a walk, is he a mule or a horse, bring him out and show off!"

  "Don't worry, he'll be here soon." Ting Yu said with a proud look on her face.

  Just then, someone pushed open the door of the private room. Ding Yu turned his head and looked over, a look of joy suddenly appearing on his face: "Li Wu, come in quickly, it's just here."

  Ding Yu shouted as he stood up and waved his hand, while the crowd also saw Lei Wu's appearance at this moment. For a time, many people showed strange expressions. This Lei Wu seemed to be a bit ugly?