Chang Jingqiu was not looking down on the general public. On the matching of family status, since the Qi family did not mind, she had nothing to say about it. Considering the precedence of Song Yu’s example, the Qi family probably would not care.

However, Ruan Danchen’s identity, wasn’t that just disgusting?

Turning away someone from an honorable and reasonable background, just to get married to Ruan Danchen.

A wedding also involves the in-laws. Presented with a shameless woman the likes of Liu Ronghua, how would the Qi family be at peace?

“That’s not all, if it’s only about her identity, I would not be this unwilling. When I went to look for Qi Chenglin, how did I know he was married? Then Ruan Danchen had to accuse me of being a mistress, and she did so by baiting me to twist my words while hiding her identity, just to make a fool of me. After that showing off her relationship with Qi Chenglin in my face, with all her words filled with insults,” mid-sentence, Change Jingqiu started to cry, “Moreover, she was saying all those things in the first floor’s main hall in Qilin. That place was full of people coming and going, with so many of Qilin’s employees, and the front desk girls were just listening on the side. After I left, won’t this incident spread all over Qilin, even to our circles? Who knows what those people talked about behind my back.”

“She ruined my reputation.” Chang Jingqiu continued to cry, rubbing her tears with the back of her hands, looking pitiable, “Now that I think about it, I’m not sure if she was doing it on purpose, intentionally say all those stuff in front of others to slander against me just to take revenge on me. I didn’t know that Qi Chenglin was married, how could she treat me like that.”

Grandmother Chang grew more furious as she listened. “That’s over the line. With that kind of personality, how can she marry into Qi family!”

Based on Chang Qingqiu’s description, Ruan Danchen was many levels below her granddaughter. To think that Qi Chenglin would choose someone like that over her own granddaughter, Grandmother Qi feel aggrieved in her heart and that grievance could not find an outlet.

“It’s because of her acting skills. It took her so much effort to leech onto Qi Chenglin. In order to have the Qi family accept her and to get Qi Chenglin’s heart, she must have put on a gentle and generous facade, while revealing her despicable and mean personality behind their backs. Grandma, after some thoughts, I think she might have had a grudge on me since high school. However, I was still young and ignorant so I did not realize it. Now that I’ve grown up, stepping into society and started to slowly understand the way this world works, it’s starting to make sense.”

“Isn’t our family rich? I transferred schools midway, so on the third year of high school, I did not enter into Jixia High School, but instead, went to a public school. At that time, Chen Libai and I were the only ones with good family background. I was also quite popular. It would seem that Ruan Danchen did not like me much all the while, but during that time she was keeping a low profile in the class, keeping to herself. It may be due to her mother’s issue, she had quite the inferiority complex. At that time most people in our school knew about her mother’s incident, so her relationship with the students were not close. I did not realize it then, but now that I think about it, she treated me more coldly compared to anyone else. Whenever I initiated a conversation with her, she always ignored me, and even the way she looked at me was always cold.”

“Hmph!” Grandmother Chang harrumphed. “That’s her being envious, jealous! Behaving that way from such a young age, now that she’s grown up, at her current age, it’s no surprise that she turned out to be like you said. Especially with a mother without self-respect like Liu Ronghua, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, the daughter can’t be any better.”

Chang Jingqiu sniffled with her nose full of snot, finally stopping her tears, and said with puffy eyes, “If Qi Chenglin chose someone great, I wouldn’t mind. If he can’t recognize my value, that’s his loss, but to find someone like Ruan Danchen, how can accept it? Qi Chenglin and the whole Qi family is obviously tricked by Ruan Danchen. I don’t want to be a mistress, but I really want Qi Chenglin to see through Ruan Danchen’s real personality. I can’t allow him to be scammed by Ruan Danchen for his whole life.”

Chang Qingqiu did not go into detail, but Grandmother Chang understood fully. No matter what she said, Qi Chenglin was the Prince Charming in Chang Qingqiu’s life.

Now that Qi Chenglin was married to Ruan Danchen, by Chang Qingqiu’s perspective, it was as though casting pearls before swine.

Chang Qingqiu’s respect and veneration of Qi Chenglin could not accept that a woman like Ruan Danchen is destroying her Prince Charming’s image.

Grandmother Chang let out a long sigh and patted Chang Qingqiu’s back in consolation, “I can understand your feelings. To see such a good boy like Qi Chenglin to be tricked by Ruan Danchen, even I feel that it’s unfair. We must definitely not be a mistress. Tearing apart another family is also something we should not do. However, if it’s possible to have Qi Chenglin see Ruan Danchen’s true face and have him rid himself of such a despicable woman, that will be great. Of course, if Qi Chenglin already knew Ruan Danchen’s true face, yet pick her without a care of all consequences, then our hands are tied. We have done what we could.”

Chang Qingqiu nodded her head depressively. Grandmother Chang hugged her, consoling, “Isn’t Grandma’s birthday coming up? I will ask your uncle to send an invitation to the Qi family. They will have to give your grandmother some respect, they will come. At that time, I’ll personally talk to that Ruan Danchen.”

Chang Qingqiu was not afraid that her lies would be revealed since she already told Grandmother Chang that Ruan Danchen was two-faced. With that she had no fear that Grandmother Chang will feel that Ruan Danchen was likeable after meeting with her.

Rather, Grandmother Chang might even think that Ruan Danchen’s acting skills were just too good.

“Oh yeah, Grandma, there’s something else.” Chang Qingqiu lifted her head from Grandmother Chang’s embrace, frowning slightly. “Ruan Danchen claims that Qi Chenglin’s son is her biological son. Do you think they have been together back then?”

“Hmph, if that’s true, how old was Ruan Danchen when she was pregnant?” Grandmother Chang pouted, feeling even more annoyed.

“She’s the same age as me,” Chang Qingqiu said obediently.

“That means she’s only 19 years old when she was pregnant?” Grandmother Chang glared, already disliking Ruan Danchen even more before they even met. “Having a child for another man at 19 years old, what kind of morals! At that time she must have held onto Qi Chenglin unwilling to let go, yet somehow broke up afterwards.”

“Regardless, they are now together again.” Chang Qingqiu said. “I’m afraid Ruan Danchen is using the child to grab hold of Qi Chenglin. I heard the Qi family adored Qi Chenglin’s son greatly. If Ruan Danchen is really the biological mother, they might extend that love for his son over to her.”

Grandmother Chang groaned for a moment, then ruffled Chang Qingqiu’s hair, “alright, don’t think too much. This terrible incident has made you feel depressed. Take the afternoon off and go take a nap. You’ll feel better after a nap.”

Chang Qingqiu obediently nodded and stood up with droopy shoulders. Seeing her made her way upstairs dejectedly, Grandmother Chang felt aggrieved.

Chang Qingqiu went back to her room, sat on the bed and frowned in deep thought.

When she was bringing Ruan Danchen’s matter to Grandmother Chang, she thoguht of something.

Back then Qi Chenglin was engaged to Shen Zhijing, then later cancelled the engagement, and later without any notice brought a son back to the Qi family. Now Ruan Danchen suddenly appears and claimed that she was the biological mother.

Chang Qingqiu frowned as she paced within the room. Was this matter somehow related to Shen Zhijing?

No matter how you put it, Shen Zhijing was one of the persons involved in this.

After some thoughts, Chang Qingqiu took out a phone from her bag and gave Xia Zishan a call, “Zishan, are you close to Shen Zhijing?”

“A little. We have met a few times. What’s the matter?” Xia Zishan asked in confusion.

“Oh, nothing much. Invite her over for some fun when if she’s free,” Chang Qingqiu replied.

Xia Zishan was dumbfounded, and asked out of curiosity, “I don’t think you have met Shen Zhijing before right? Why do you suddenly want to meet her?”

“It’s just some minor things, no need to let her know. Just treat it as getting to know each other through some fun times. Be natural.” Chang Qingqiu said. “Don’t tell her that I’m trying to know her.”

“What’s going on?” Chang Jingqiu’s mysterious behavior was making Xia Zishan more and more curious.

“Don’t ask. Think of it as helping a friend,” Chang Qingqiu was getting a little impatient, but she did not want to voice it out.

“Sure, it’s just a small matter, nothing I can’t help with,” replied Xia Zishan. When it comes to Chen Libai’s matters, Chang Qingqiu was quite helpful. With Chang Qingqiu’s request being nothing too difficult, she would naturally agree to help.

“Let me see, how about tomorrow? I’ll give her a call and ask her out for dinner and karaoke. I’ll call along a few friends too. That should look more natural, and I’m sure she won’t think too much about it.”

“Alright, you take care of it,” Chang Qingqiu replied.

“Okay then, I’ll call her and make an appointment with her,” Xia Zishan said.

They then ended the call.

…

The news of Ruan Danchen personally going downstairs to confront her love rival spread quickly and got to Qi Chenglin’s ears. Even the words used by Ruan Danchen on Chang Qingqiu brought to his knowledge.

Why would he know about it?

If was none other than the girls impatiently chatting with others, spreading the news that the director’s wife allied with the General Manager’s wife to fight with a mistress in full details. Ruan Danchen and Song Yu’s words were all repeated word for word.

When Jiang Yuan came to notify him, Qi Chenglin was laughing uncontrollably while listening. He felt that the way Ruan Danchen talked with Chang Qingqiu had a similar effect to Qi Youxuan in the way that it will make someone speechless.

After work, Qi Chenglin went directly to the design department’s door and waited for Ruan Danchen.

At first Ruan Danchen still had some unfinished work, but it was not worth going overtime or bringing it home, so she decided to finish it right here as it would only take another five or six minutes.

However with Qi Chenglin standing there at the door, everyone was heavily pressured.

Manager Zou had to stay for overtime that night so he took his mug and walked towards the pantry, wanting to get some coffee, yet unexpectedly ran into Qi Chenglin the moment he exited the door.

“General Manager!” Manager Zou panicked and blurted.

“Chill, I’m just waiting for Danchen,” Qi Chenglin said, making Manager Zou more nervous.

From his vantage point, Ruan Danchen kept working with her head down, not raising her head at all and continued to be oblivious to his presence.

“General Manager, please wait a moment, I’ll go notify Mrs. General Manager,” Manager Zou did not mind the troublesome title of ‘Mrs. General Manager’, but rather said it in all seriousness.

Without waiting for Qi Chenglin’s affirmation, Manager Zou had walked back with his empty mug.

He walked up to Ruan Danchen’s desk, then asked in a polite manner, “Mrs. General Manager, you’re not going back yet?”

It took Ruan Danchen quite some time before she realized that Manager Zou was speaking to her. She was not used to being addressed this way, especially in this office and Manager Zou being her superior.

Ruan Danchen raised her head and touched the tip of her nose with a pen, then said uncomfortably, “Manager Zou, how you have addressed me and talked to me in the past, you should interact with me in the same way in the future. All these Mrs. General Manager and ‘You'[1], I feel very pressured when you address me like that during working hours.”

“…” Manager Zou hesitated for some time before he spoke, “With a Manager’s spouse working under me, I’m feeling pressured too.”

“…” Ruan Danchen noticed that extremely stern facial expression on Manager Zou’s face, then sighed, “then let’s make a deal. In private you can call me Mrs. General Manager all you like, but during working hours we address each other based on our seniority. Will that work? You see, even if I’m the General Manager’s wife, our company does not have a position of Mrs. General Manager. During working hours, you are my superior. We’ll just handle this professionally, okay?”

Manager Zou gritted his teeth, then reluctantly agreed, “Alright.”

Ruan Danchen smiled, “What do you need me for?”

“Oh right, the General Manager is waiting for you right outside,” Manager Zou quickly replied after he remembered the reason he looked for Ruan Danchen.

Ruan Danchen looked over and saw that Qi Chenglin was waiting outside. She had forgotten about the time while working. She quickly called out to Qi Chenglin, “You wait a minute, I’ll pack up now.”

To have Qi Chenglin waiting outside for her to finish her work, she felt greatly pressured.

At that moment she could really empathize with Manager Zou’s feelings.

As she was busy packing up, Qi Chenglin got tired and walked right in. He looked at her draft that was almost finished, “How much left?”

“It’s just five minutes of work. I’ll bring it home to finish it,” Ruan Danchen said and packed everything.

She followed Qi Chenglin and left the office. When they arrived at the carpark, she saw from afar his black Mercedes-Benz.

At that moment, Xiao Yang got out of the car and stood to the front car. The back car window wound down and Lil’ Qi Youxuan’s head poked out from the car.

During Winter time, Ruan Danchen insisted that he put on a hat while being outdoors. That day he went to Jade Field Park with Guan Liya. When Xiao Yang brought him over from Jade Field PArk, Guan Liya also insisted for him to put on his hat.

That was why he did not style his hair that day. The soft and fine hair stuck to his head smoothly, making him look even cuter than usual.

“Daddy, Mommy!” Qi Youxuan immediately waved at them, causing the other coworkers in the parking lot to look over. Seeing Qi Youxuan’s cuteness, they all could not help but smile.

“Why did Youxuan come along?” Ruan Danchen quickened her pace while asking Qi Chenglin.

“We’re getting the ring tonight, and I’m afraid he might be impatient at home, so I brought him along. We’ll just have our dinner outside as well.” Qi Chenglin held her hands, raised them, and then rubbed them. “We’re already married. I feel that I should put on a ring to avoid others mistaking me to be single.”

Qi Chenglin threw a look at her, that pair of black eyes full of warmth and gentleness, smiling, “Next time if any woman tries latch on to me, I don’t have to say much and just show them my left hand.”

“You know of the incident this afternoon?” Ruan Danchen put on a smile that did not look like a smile. Qi Chenglin felt that she was making fun of him for leaving her with such a mess, throwing so many love rivals for her to get rid of.

“Cough.” Qi Chenglin raised his head and looked upwards. “I did not expect her to be that smart to think of using you to enter the company.”

Unfortunately for Chang Qingqiu, her attempt at being a mistress ran right into the legitimate wife. Was that not looking for trouble?

Ruan Danchen harrumphed angrily. If not for him being too attractive, why would a woman take the initiative to come all the way to the company to find him?

Nowadays women can behave in a scary manner when they take the initiative. Discovering a man with good conditions, they would fight for him to no end.

Even though this incident was not Qi Chenglin’s fault, but to express her dissatisfaction of him being too attractive, she insisted to sit in the backseat with Qi Youxuan.

Qi Chenglin looked at her, feeling wronged. He did not purposely attract them.

However, since Ruan Danchen was angry, he did not dare to voice out. Instead, he secretly felt rather happy. The angrier she gets meant the more she cared for him. Later he would put in the extra effort to coax her. His heart was bubbling up with feeling of sweetness.

As he entertained those thoughts, the corner of his mouth started curling upwards, driving away happily.

Ruan Danchen saw Qi Chenglin’s lips curling upwards via the rear-view mirror, thought to herself that he seems to be in a good mood with her being angry. However, considering Qi Chenglin’s temper, she could somewhat guess the reason behind him being in a good mood and then could not help but smile.

Qi Chenglin’s brows twitched, his pair of black orbs smiling.

He thought to himself that his wife was just that cute and so understanding. Without needing any coaxing, her anger was gone just like that. Thinking about it, the smile on Qi Chenglin’s handsome face got even brighter. He was thinking that he could now legitimately and openly proclaim ‘my wife’. Just silently saying it to himself in his mind was already so exhilarating, he needs to find a chance to announce this loudly and feel the excitement.

Qi Youxuan had some snacks during the day while he was at Jade Park Field so he was not really hungry. Only after Ruan Danchen had made sure he was not hungry did she agree to Qi Chenglin’s suggestion to head to the shop for ring purchase first.

…

When they reached the store, Qi Chenglin picked a simple ring for himself. It’s just a simple round ring with no patterns or diamond inlays worn over his ring finger on his left hand, yet it looked extremely elegant on him.

His long slender fingers elegant and distinct, the ring simple and majestic.

After that, the manager went into the backroom, took out a tray from the safe with a ring on it. When the manager came out, he was surrounded front and back by two serious-faced bodyguards dressed in black.

Looking at the seriousness of the two bodyguard’s expression, Ruan Danchen felt greatly pressured. Even Qi Youxuan felt nervous and leaned in closer to Ruan Danchen’s leg.

The manager put the tray down and removed the flannel on top, revealing a little transparent box underneath.

It was obvious the box was made with some sort of anti-theft glass. Ruan Danchen did not know if there were any more technologically advanced and more amazing materials. The bottom bracket underneath the box came with a passworded lock.

Through the glass, Ruan Danchen could see a diamond ring within it. The blue diamond was more towards the hue of powder blue instead of a sharp blue color. The craftsmanship of the cut was exquisite, unlike the classy flair of modern craftsmanship. However, it looked more beautiful than any other ring out there.

This store’s brand was famous. Ruan Danchen had only ever heard of it. The commonly priced ring in this store was something she could afford, but would definitely be unwilling to buy. If it were the better looking designs, then she really could not afford them.

When she entered the store, Ruan Danchen felt a little dizzy. She felt that every design here had its own uniqueness, refined and beautiful.

However, after looking at that particular ring, the rest of the rings were incomparable.

Even though the band of this ring was not a complicated or rare design, but instead just a simple ring.

___

A hearty celebration of the supplementary edition for reaching the 100th chapter. Applause ~

Qi Chenglin: “Hearty celebration of the love between my wife and I to the 100th chapter.”

Qi Youxuan: “Hearty celebration of our family living harmoniously to the 100th chapter.”

Yan Beicheng: “Hearty celebration of our gang being sidelined all the way to the supplementary edition.”

Han Zhuoli: “Did you guys not notice QI Chenglin was only taking this opportunity to say the words ‘my wife’?”

Gui Zhiqian rolled his eyes: “We noticed, that’s why we ignored him and let him stew. Yet must you mention it and give him the pleasure.

Qi Chenglin: “‘My wife’ are lovely words.”

Chu Zhaoyang: “Hehe.”

Qi Chengzhi: “‘Asking for tickets’ and ‘my wife’, which is more lovely?”

Gramps: “For me, ‘asking for tickets’ is more lovely.”

Qi Chenglin: “Of course it’s ‘my wife’.”

- - -

The store manager smiled and explained. “I’m not sure if you’ve seen the news, but a rich English aristocrat declared bankruptcy and all his jewels were sold at auction. Among them was a blue gem that was bought by our store. It was originally a gift given to the Qing dynasty’s Qianlong Emperor by a foreign delegate. Sometime later, the stone was embedded on a phoenix’s coronet. When the Qing dynasty fell to ruins, the artifact passed through many hands, but all that’s left today is the gem itself. Modern coronets don’t have this jewel, with other jewels taking its place.

“This blue gemstone retains the original cutting and workmanship from back then, and has not suffered any damage. In the present day, it can be classified as a gem of the highest quality. The cutting may not be on par with the techniques were have now, but it still looks exquisite, and a comparison with the workmanship prevalent during that period shows that it far exceeds the skills known at that time. It is valued much more than the kind of workmanship we have in modern times, which was why we refrained from refining it after it had been acquired. Its natural state is preserved, and we proceeded to set it in a ring and put it up for sale,” the manager smiled and said. “Plenty of customers wanted to buy this, including a friend of our company’s director, but Mr. Qi was willing to pay our selling price and even double it, so it’s now his.”

Ruan Danchen was so shocked that she could not even say a single word. Judging from the manager’s words, she could not possibly fathom the kind of price they had to pay just to bid successfully for the item. Setting it into a ring would increase the price even more, but Qi Chenglin went and doubled all that. She no longer had the courage to ask how much it costed.

She wanted to kick Qi Chenglin for his unnecessary spending. If she were to wear it, she would be constantly plagued by the worry of losing it.

“Because of its high value, it was specially flown from our headquarters in England, with bodyguards accompanying it through its entire journey. It just arrived yesterday, and for safety reasons the bodyguards are still here to keep watch. But don’t worry, Mrs. Qi, we maintain a strict confidentiality about our clients so one knows the ring is with you,” the manager smiled and assured.

It would have been better if the manager did not tell her that, because her stress levels increased after what he said.

Ruan Danchen poked Qi Chenglin’s arm. “I feel really pressured to wear that ring. What if I accidentally lose it? My finger will feel heavy when I’m walking.”

Her voice was soft, but the proximity of her distance with the manager allowed him to her everything. He nearly burst out laughing, but in order to keep it in, the corners of his lips were twitching.

Qi Chenglin spared her no blushes and immediately exploded with laughter.

“…” Ruan Danchen looked at him begrudgingly. It was such an expensive thing, and yet he had the decency to poke fun at her and laugh.

“Then we’ll keep this one at home. Wear it during our wedding ceremony, or if there’s any other important event,” Qi Chenglin suggested. Worried that Ruan Danchen still stressed over it, he added, “I already spent the money anyway.”

Ruan Danchen scrunched her face up and nodded. That bitter, forced appearance made her look as though she was forced to swallow down the ring.

Qi Chenglin could not help but laugh. He felt that her expression was simple too cute, and his pupils were glimmering with delight too as his eyes resembled a downward crescent-shape that was filled with precious stones. His well-defined fingers pinched her cheek lightly.

He did not exert too much force, but when he retracted his hand, her cheek was already slightly red. Qi Chenglin frowned immediately and pained to see her cheeks redden because of his pinching.

Anxious and worried, he asked, “It is painful?”

“No, it’s not painful.” Ruan Danchen smiled in order to try and ease Qi Chenglin’s worry. She kneaded her face, intending to rub the red away, but her actions merely increased the intensity.

“Stop rubbing.” Qi Chenglin frowned, holding her hand to stop her from rubbing. “Is it really not painful?”

“Yes, you didn’t pinch me too hard. Don’t you know how much force you were using just now?” Ruan Danchen asked. With their hands holding each other, she took the opportunity to rub his fingertips, tickling the emotions in his heart.

Her fingers were very soft, and were much different from his. It was as if softness was the only thing present in her fingers and she was devoid of bones. He felt as though her finger was a feather that stroked him endlessly.

Unable to resist it anymore, he grabbed her finger and pressed softly on her fingertips. The tenderness was overwhelming, making him dread letting it go. The more he touched, the more aroused he became.

He made a mental note to himself that he would fiddle with her fingers properly when he got home, and kissing them too. He recalled the time he guided her hand to help him rub one out, and the softness of her touch led him to lose himself tremendously.

He shifted his eyes to Ruan Danchen and thought about persuading her to do it again that night.

Ruan Danchen’s hair stood on end after being on the receiving end of his gaze. His luminous eyes gave her the feeling that he was not thinking of anything good.

Just as she was thinking of asking him what kind of thoughts made his gaze so penetrating, he lowered his head and planted a kiss on the redness of her cheek. All Ruan Dancgen could feel was moistness and tenderness on her face. For a brief moment, she felt like she had been jolted with electricity, making her entire body feel numb.

“Not painful anymore?” Qi Chenglin’s tone resembled that of a person coaxing a child, although his voice was magnetic and smoky. His tone suggested that he was trying to cajole children, but his sexy voice suggested otherwise. It was clearly suggestive of his intention to bed her.

“…” The red mark on Ruan Danchen’s face was no longer visible because her entire face turned red, covering the original mark in its entirety.

The manager looked on shyly from one side. From the sky-high price that Qi Chenglin offered for the ring, it could already be discerned that Qi Chenglin placed great importance on his wife. Otherwise, even the richest of the rich would not have bought such a thing to please their wives.

Previously, it was rumored that the others who contacted the company’s director were intending to buy the diamond for collection purposes, rather than letting their wives wear it every day.

From the looks of it, Qi Chenglin would have told Ruan Danchen to wear it, if not her stressing out over it. The manager wondered, if Ruan Danchen really did lose the ring, what would Qi Chenglin do?

Judging by how Qi Chenglin ignored everyone else around him and teased his wife, the manager could not help but feel that Qi Chenglin would just pat her head if she lost it and say, ‘Be good. If it’s lost, then it’s lost. I’ll buy you a new one.’

The manager had no idea why he was so confident about that, but the helpless look Qi Chenglin gave to Ruan Danchen was an ineffable signal that the exact same scenario would happen in real life.

Qi Chenglin held her hand and brought her to look at some of the other rings there. Since she was afraid to wear such a high-priced ring every day, she had no choice but to let Qi Chenglin buy her another one.

As for pricing and value, Ruan Danchen did not think about it anymore. The blue gem ring was too expensive that her head became dizzy.

However, since it was a wedding ring, Ruan Danchen made sure to pick one out carefully. She did not think too much about saving his money, and he did not like it when she was frugal with it. Arguments were bound to occur if that happened.

Qi Chenglin chose a few that he liked, and it turned out that Ruan Danchen liked them too. Amongst the few that Qi Chenglin laid out, she picked one and tried it on.

“How’s this one?” Ruan Danchen asked. She was torn between that and another one that she liked.

“Put them on both hands to compare them,” Qi Chenglin said.

Ruan Danchen then put the other ring on her right ring finger. Under her close comparison, each seemed to have its own merits.

“Why not just buy both, then,” Qi Chenglin was basically announcing his intention.

“That won’t do. There can only be one wedding ring,” Ruan Danchen said.

“One of it can be treated as a wedding ring, while the other can be treated interchangeably,” Qi Chenglin answered. He was showcasing his rich man persona right then.

“We’re choosing the wedding ring now, right? Even if you buy both, you still have to choose one as the wedding ring,” Ruan Danchen lamented.

Qi Chenglin was not in a hurry. He was happy to accompany her as she chose them, saying, “Don’t worry too much. Look slowly. The more you look at them, the easier you’ll be able to choose the one that’s looks nicer.”

All Ruan Danchen could do was stare at them. The manager did not rush them either, since Qi Chenglin was such a huge client, and the buyer of the blue gem no less. He had no complaints even if he was asked to stay with the couple throughout the night.

Ruan Danchen did not let him wait that long, though. All of a sudden, she raised Qi Chenglin’s left hand—he had already chosen his ring and worn it.

She looked at it for a moment before deciding to lift up her hand, remarking, “This ring seems to match yours.”

Qi Chenglin looked at it and felt the same way too. He smiled at her and gave her a warm gaze. “Then we’ll get these.”

“Mm!” Ruan Danchen answered happily, then took out the one she was wearing on her right hand.

The manager took out the blue gem ring from the glass box and gave it to Ruan Danchen.

She could feel its weight on her hands.

“Wear it,” Qi Chenglin said.

Ruan Danchen kept quiet and looked at him, with her face expressing her worry at losing it.

“If you don’t wear it, we wouldn’t even know if it’s lost,” Qi Chenglin said with a cocked brow.

Ruan Danchen heard that and wore the ring at once. She then put on the normal ring too. With two big rings shining brightly on her finger, she felt like a parvenu but was aware that doing so was much safer than keeping it in the bag.

Qi Youxuan scrutinized Ruan Danchen and facepalmed, thinking, ‘Mom is growing up!’

As they left the shop, Qi Chenglin had already made reservations for a Western restaurant within Dynasty, bringing with him the little boy. Having chosen the rings and worn them, Qi Chenglin was beyond elated, and he suggested for them to eat out because he wanted to celebrate.

The family of three went into Dynasty, with Manager Qian coming over immediately to welcome them. “Young Master Lin, Miss Ruan.”

“She’s now my wife,” Qi Chenglin appeared to have waited so long for that moment as he proclaimed it very proudly.

Manager Qian was stunned, but came back to his senses quickly. “Hehehe, congratulations Mr. Qi, Mrs. Qi. When did you two get married?”

“We got our marriage certificates yesterday,” Qi Chenglin answered Manager Qian’s question very patiently. He then raised Ruan Danchen’s hand and said, “We went to choose our rings tonight and decided to come here and celebrate.”

Manager Qian paused for a moment. He was blinded by the glimmer of both rings on her finger, thinking to himself that Qi Chenglin must have bought two rings for her out of sheer happiness with the marriage.

“I wish you both a prosperous, happy marriage.” Manager Qian brought Qi Chenglin to the Western restaurant and said, “Tonight’s dinner is one the house. Our sincere treat.”

“Thank you, I appreciate the gesture,” Qi Chenglin nodded in acceptance without any sign of being modest. “When its time for our wedding ceremony, please do me the honor of attending.”

“Of course, of course!” Manager Qian was overwhelmed by the favor. No matter how big a Qi family’s wedding was, and no matter how many guests were there, it was not the kind of even that he would ordinarily be present at. He became even more courteous as Qi Chenglin was kind enough to invite him to the wedding.

The distinguishing feature of the Western restaurant within Dynasty was its lack of a private room. Everyone dined together in the dining hall, but the innermost part of the hall had a raised platform with three tables. Those three tables were covered by a wooden screen. Unless one was discussing business, most couples who wanted to savor the moment would ordinarily choose not to sit there.

The primary reason for that was because the floor was made out of glass, resembling the sea. Beneath the glass was a plethora of colorful fishes, including clownfish, and some aquarium décor of valleys and seagrasses. During the course of the meal, one could just look down and see the beautiful scene under them.

Before the dishes were served, Qi Youxuan sat on the chair and wiggled his buttocks from time to time. The myriad of vibrant-looking fishes made him incredibly happy.

After observing for some time, he looked up at Ruan Danchen. His big, grape-like eyes were shimmering brightly, looking particularly handsome under the dim light of the restaurant.

“Mom, would you like to send me to class when school reopens?” Qi Youxuan asked eagerly with his sparkling eyes.

School would reopen in about half-a-month, as the winter holidays were short. As of late, Qi Youxuan was constantly mulling over how he would go to school and show his mother off.

Ruan Danchen understood Qi Youxuan well and caught on to his thinking. She replied without the slightest hesitation, “You bet.”

Once dinner was served, Qi Youxuan ate happily.

…

Returning to Prestige Residences after dinner, she gave the little boy a bath before telling him a bedtime story and coaxing him to sleep. By the time all that was done, two hours had passed.

Ruan Danchen hurriedly tidied up her things, and after she finished her bath, Qi Chenglin was already in the bed, watching television. He took his bath much earlier when she was busy coaxing Qi Youxuan to sleep.

The remote was placed not far from him, and the blanket only managed to cover him to his stomach. He was half-naked from the waist up, and even though he was just sitting there, there was no flab at all, only muscles. They were extremely seductive.

“Aren’t you cold?” Ruan Danchen felt cold after the bath, and she hurriedly tucked herself in the blanket. Qi Chenglin then hauled her into his embrace.

Ruan Danchen was no longer feeling cold. Instead, she was getting hotter and hotter, as she could feel Qi Chenglin’s breath on her forehead. She got so nervous that she forgot how to breathe.

Qi Chenglin stopped watching at the television, he embraced Ruan Danchen and rubbed against her. Her body was so soft that he was in a state of bliss. His thin lips moved from her forehead and traveled downward, letting his scalding hot breaths brush against her face. Ruan Danchen’s breathing became more and more erratic.

As he kissed her, he did not neglect to feel her, holding her hand and touching the tips of her tender fingers. A burst of passion, followed by him gulping a couple of times, led him to press her hand down.

Ruan Danchen inhaled sharply due to the shock. She wanted to pull back, but he pushed her down. It may not be very forceful, but she could not break free of his grip.

“Help me rub one out,” Qi Chenglin kissed her and said shamelessly.

Even if she did not want to, she was unable to evade him, but when it came to that man, she could never say anything. His wish was her command, and she wanted to satisfy him. There was not a single body part of his that she disliked.

Though she was blushing and trembling, she still jerked him off.

Qi Chenglin closed his eyes in ecstasy and pulled her other hand to his lip. Softly, he began kissing them, as well as his lips. “I’ve been thinking of this ever since we were choosing our rings.”

With what little brainpower she had left, she remembered his burning gaze from earlier and understood why he looked so naughty at that time.

Ruan Danchen’s misty eyes stared at him, she pursed her lips and chastised weakly, “Shameless.”

Qi Chenglin smiled and finally allowed her hand to break free. He flipped he over, pushed her down, and went in.

…

…

Xia Zishan acted in accordance with the instructions from the prior night and contacted Shen Zhijing, saying that she wanted to go out since they had not met for so long. Shen Zhijing did not suspect of his presence, and since she had nothing to do that night, she agreed.

In order to make things look as natural as possible, Xia Zishan invited Chang Jingqiu and another friend to have a meal together.

Due to what happened with Qi Chenglin, Shen Zhijing’s circle of friends no longer kept in touch. Most of those who still kept contact were those who were not on the Shen family’s level, a good example of which was Xia Zishan.

Shen Zhijing however, was aware of her situation and did not make too much a fuss. Xia Zishan did not alienate her, so Shen Zhijing maintained a good relationship with her.

Rumors circulated that the Xia family was busy trying to set Xia Zishan up with Chen Libai. If it turned out to be a success, then the Xia family would be raised to another level—all the more reason for Shen Zhijing to maintain good relations with Xia Zishan. That was one of the reasons why she was so willing to show up after only one phone call from Xia Zishan.

In addition, one of the friends that Xia Zishan also invited was Chen Libai’s sister, Chen Pinyan. Shen Zhijing knew of Chen Pinyan, but was not too familiar with her, although they previously met before when some of the rich families’ daughters came out to have fun.

Another one was Chang Jingqiu, whom Shen Zhijing did not now.

After Xia Zishan’s introduction, Shen Zhijing was slightly taken aback. The Chang family was no ordinary family—they had the potential to be related be marriage to any one of the Eight Great Families. It was surprising that she would accompany Xia Zishan there.

Just as those doubts began surfacing, Xia Zishan explained, “Jingqiu is my high school classmate.”

Shen Zhijing immediately understood how two people of different societal hierarchy could become such good friends.

Chang Jingqiu and Xia Zishan were both well-acquainted with Chen Libai, so Chen Pinyan knew them both too. Everyone was in high spirits during the meal. Everyone was laughing and smiling, and their conversations were littered with topics such as makeup, clothes, travel, and non-surgical cosmetic surgery. They all had a blast.

Shen Zhiing held Chang Jingqiu in high regard, as she felt that the latter did not have the mannerisms of a rich daughter and was easy to talk to.

“Zhijing?” a voice called out.

Shen Zhijing’s gleeful laugh disappeared instantly. She turned around coldly and saw Liu Ronghua standing hesitantly behind her, barely two feet away. The woman looked unsure and reluctant.

Shen Zhijing looked at Liu Ronghua briefly and turned back to see Chang Jingqiu and the others. She was worried that she might lay her eyes on looks of disdain from the group of girls.

Their faces did not seem to have any such looks, only suspicion.

Seizing the pause, Liu Ronghua took a couple of steps forward and asked, “Zhijing, are you here to have a meal with your friends? Such a coincidence, so am I.”

“You are…” Chang Jingqiu seemed as though she was unable to find a word to describe Liu Ronghua. It took her some time to smile and say, “…Auntie, right?”

“My aunt,” Shen Zhijing nodded. She did not dare to address her using her full name in front of the others.

At home, Shen Zhjing usually addressed Liu Ronghua by her full name.

“You’re here alone, Auntie? Why not join us for a meal?” Chang Jingqiu smiled and offered.

—-

Bonus scene:

You Think Having A Wife Makes You So Great!

Han Zhuoli: “I hate this kind of behavior from rich people, buying two wedding rings just to show off.”

Qi Chenglin: “I have a wife.”

Han Zhuoli: “Flaunting your wealth is soooooooo un-classy.”

Qi Chenglin: “I have a wife.”

Han Zhuoli: “If you have what it takes, don’t use such low-end means to show-off your wealth!”

Qi Chenglin: “I have a wife.”

Han Zhuoli: “If you have what it takes, don’t show-off your wife!”

Qi CHenlin: “I have a wife.”

Han Zhuoli: “… Someone take this trash away please. I can’t take it anymore. You think having a wife makes you so great!”

- - -

“Its fine.” Liu Ronghua spotted Shen Zhijing’s expression and said immediately, “I’m here with some friends. I thought I’d stop by and say hi. Go on ahead girls, don’t mind me.”

Shen Zhijing pulled a long face and remained quiet. Liu Ronghua looked at her expression and said, “I’ll go back to them.”

She smiled at Chang Jingqiu after saying that and returned to her seat, continuing the chat with her friends.

Chang Jingqiu glanced briefly at Liu Ronghua and retracted her gaze seamlessly. She continued smiling and talking, as if the incident with Liu Ronghua did not happen at all.

Slowly but surely, Shen Zhijing went back to normal.

After a while, she placed her cup down and said, “I’m going to the restroom for a bit.”

Soon after she left her seat, Liu Ronghua received a text: [I’m waiting for you at the restroom. Come here now.]

Chang Jingqiu noticed that Liu Ronghua got up and went to the toilet, so the former excused herself from her seat on the pretense that she was going to take a call.

Xia Zishan had no idea what was there about Shen Zhijing that Chang Jingqiu wanted to take advantage of, but she knew that Chang Jingqiu came because of Shen Zhijing. Xia Zishan thus went along with Chang Jingqiu. On the other hand, Chen Pinyan knew nothing at all, and thus did not suspect anything.

Once Liu Ronghua entered the restroom, Shen Zhijing locked the door.

With no one else inside, Shen Zhijing said unhesitatingly, “If you see me outside next time, just pretend not to know me. Don’t come up to me and acknowledge me.”

“…” Liu Ronghua put on a pitiful expression, angering Shen Zhijng even more.

Shen Zhijng was so exasperated that she wanted to give Liu Ronghua a slap. Annoyed, she said, “Don’t give me that pitiful look. I’m not a man. I won’t have any pity on you. Besides, you’re already so old. Would men even take pity on you? Isn’t it disgusting for such an old lady to act all pitiful like a young woman?”

Liu Ronghua stared at Shen Zhijng dolefully and sadly, “Zhijing, why must you say something like this? For better or worse, we’re still family, and I…”

“Who are you calling family, huh? Don’t disgust me,” Shen Zhijing cut her off unhappily. “Oh yes, you don’t have any family now, because Ruan Danchen’s not even your own daughter. She doesn’t even acknowledge you now. I just don’t understand why you’re still clinging on to our Shen family? Qi Chenglin gave you a lot of money, right? With that money, you can live by your own outside and be comfortably well-off. You’ll still be like a rich woman. Why must you suffer the mistreatment of the Shen family? My dad doesn’t like you, and I hate you even more. What are you planning exactly?”

Shen Zhijng regarded Liu Ronghua as a brainless woman who just had to tell everyone that Ruan Danchen was not her own daughter. If she kept her mouth shut, she would still be useful and could still take advantage of Ruan Danchen. With the truth revealed, Ruan Danchen did not even acknowledge her as her mother. Liu Ronghua’s usefulness was all but gone.

Moreover, if Shen Zhijing were in Liu Ronghua’s shoes, she would have long deserted the Shen family and seized the opportunity to mend relationships with Ruan Danchen. Sucking up to Ruan Danchen was the normal, proper thing to do. She could have endless riches if she could be on good terms with Ruan Danchen and had Qi Chenglin as a son-in-law.

Even if Ruan Danchen was not her own child, Ruan Danchen might—at the very least—feel some form of gratitude for being raised by Liu Ronghua. If Liu Ronghua were to acknowledge all those mistakes in front of Ruan Danchen and get the latter’s forgiveness, Ruan Danchen might just be filial to her as if she was Ruan Danchen’s own mother.

Shen Zhijing wondered what Liu Ronghua’s brain was filled with, as the women was adamant on clinging to the Shen family, repulsing Shen Zhijing daily.

“Zhijing, how could you say such a thing?” Liu Ronghua was beginning to feel unhappy and looked disappointedly at Shen Zhijng. “I did so much for you, for the Shen family. I don’t want you to like me that much, but you should at least treat be courteously. Isn’t it good if we lived peacefully together! All those years ago, on your behalf, I was even willing to let Ruan Danchen…”

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH!” Shen Zhijng expression changed in an instant, cutting off Liu Ronghua’s 1 [1] words at once. “You’re not allowed to bring up whatever that happened in the past. None of that happened during that time. If you dare to bring it up again, I’ll make sure you’re completely exiled from the Shen family! Forget about everything that happened in the past! Also, don’t talk to me about all that as if I should be grateful for your help. You agreed to it because it’s a condition that we brought up. It’s a like-for-like exchange and we each got what we wanted, so we’re even!”

Liu Ronghua’s lips were trembling, and so was her lower jaw. She may be cutting a sorry figure, but her words were thus, “Now that you’ve mentioned all that, I guess I don’t need to keep wishing for you to treat me slightly better. You asked me why I’m still clinging to the Shen family?”

Tears were puddling at the rim of her eyes, and it seemed as though it would flow out at any given time. Her lips began twitching and trembling.

“Because I’ve given you so much, and yet none of you have ever been grateful to me. You use me when you need me, and then treat me like your servant, telling me to do this or do that, as if that’s the proper thing to do. If I can’t do it then I’m useless, or I’m stupid. It’s like I owe you all the world, and no matter what I did for you, you’ll never say a word of thanks to us. You never even show me a warm expression, let alone a smile. Why should I continue to be treated like your bull or your horse?

“You’re correct, Ruan Danchen isn’t my daughter, and I made sure to say that to the Qi family because I don’t want any of you to continue using me. I know that no matter what I do for all of you, none of you will treat me even the slightest bit better. Why should I keep letting you reap benefits from me then? As long as Ruan Danchen knows that she isn’t related to me, she wouldn’t even care about me after what you did to her by using me. If you don’t treat me well, why should I treat you well? Let’s see what you can do without Ruan Danchen’s relationship with me!”

Liu Ronghua pursed her lips and snickered. “You asked me why I’m still purposely hanging on to the Shen family? It’s because I want to do exactly that. I know you don’t look kindly on me and feel disgusted to see me, so I want to make sure I show myself in front of you and disgust you to death. Now that I have money, there’s nothing for me to be afraid of if you cut me off and remove my means of survival. I live in the Shen Residence, but I don’t need you to show me your good side. The more you despise me, the happier I’ll be! Even if I don’t get my status, just staying in the Shen family is good enough, at least I don’t need to spend money to buy a house.”

“You…” Shen Zhijng did not think that Liu Ronghua would sink into such a crazed despair. The woman was completed undaunted—like a dead pig that did not fear scalding water—and in that split second, Shen Zhijing found herself unable to deal with the situation at hand.

“Shen Zhijng.” Liu Ronghua smiled coldly. “You don’t need to think about chasing me out. I know that you treat me as if I’m an idiot, but I don’t think you’re that smart either. There’s no need for you to think about chasing me out of the Shen family. If you really dare to do that, or let’s put it this this way, if you still dare to treat me rudely, I’ll reveal everything that happened in the past!”

“I don’t care how Ruan Danchen might end up, but I thought about it before. She has already given Qi Chenglin a son, and I heard that they’ve already gotten a marriage certificate. Even if news gets out, divorce is unlikely even if Ruan Danchen’s reputation gets tarnished and everyone starts to say things about the Qi family. They won’t divorce, not unless Qi Chenglin really get disappointed in her.

“You, on the other hand, are nearly thirty, but still no one wants you. If everything about your past was exposed, you’ll be done for, and it’ll be even more impossible for you to find a good husband. You’re not happy with those whose status is lower than you, but anyone who has a higher status than you doesn’t want you. I think you’ll be spending your entire life in solitude and ending up worse than me,” Liu Ronghua chided. The pitiful look on her face was no longer present at all.

“If you want to maintain your reputation, then you’d best be treating me nicer, don’t order me around!” Liu Ronghua sniggered. “I’ve never held anything against you, but now you’re in over your head!”

Shen Zhijing was trembling in anger, but she was in such stupor that she could not even say out a single word. Even the ‘You’ that she uttered earlier could not escape from her mouth.

At the door, Chang Jingqiu heard everything and left quietly. She wanted to hurry back to her seat before Shen Zhijing came out.

She looked down, wondering about the things that she had just heard.

‘What did Liu Ronghua mean when she said all that?

‘What was the secret thing happened in the past?’

She did not expect that Qi Youxuan was really Ruan Danchen’s child, but from Liu Ronghua’s words, the couple’s relationship was not as simple as breaking up and then getting back together.

The incident that Liu Ronghua referred to involved the Shen family, Shen Zhijing, Liu Ronghua, and Ruan Danchen.

‘What was their connection?’

Chang Jingqiu was in such deep thought that she did not notice Shen Zhijing’s presence.

Shen Zhijing even reeked of tobacco. Liu Ronghua was the first to leave the restroom, leaving Shen Zhijng alone there. She smoked a cigarette to vent out the anger that Liu Ronghua had incited.

“Jingqiu, Jingqiu,” Chen Pinyan called out a couple of times, finally snapping Chang Jingqiu out of it.

“What’s wrong? What are you thinking about?” Chen Pinyan asked.

Chang Jingqiu smiled immediately and replied, “Nothing, I’m fine.”

…

After the four of them finished their meal, Shen Zhijing had no mood for karaoke after Liu Ronghua’s appearance. The remaining three decided not to carry on, and each of them left respectively.

All four of them drove there, so they each left on their own.

Chang Jingqiu was in no rush to go home. She sat inside her car and waited at the entrance. Then, she saw Liu Ronghua coming out with the friends, and after those friends waved their goodbyes, Liu Ronghua stood by the road with the intention of calling a cab.

Due to the fiasco with the Qi family during the new year, Shen Jialiang no longer spared her any honor, leading her to feel a pain in her heart. The more pain she felt, the more unjust she regarded everything to be, and the more wronged she felt. Although she had accumulated some resentment toward the Shen family, that resentment grew slowly, to the point where she truly hated the family.

Liu Ronghua no longer cared about whether she continued having a happy life. As long as the Shen family had it worse than her, she would feel slightly better.

If she could not live happily, she was going to do her best and wreck the hell out of Shen Jialiang and Shen Zhijing.

Ever since the last day of the lunar new year, when Liu Ronghua came back from the Qi family and the truth about her relationship with Ruan Danchen was revealed, Shen Jialiang felt that Liu Ronghua’s usefulness had diminished significantly. Perhaps there might be another opportunity to use her, but no one knew if that kind of opportunity would ever arise.

In order to punish Liu Ronghua’s stupidity, Shen Jialiang took away the keys for the car that was provided for her to get around. In addition, her pocket money was cut in half.

Liu Ronghua stood by the side of the road, letting the cold wind blow on her. As she thought of what happened that night, Shen Jialiang might not even give her the pocket money that he halved.

Never mind, then.

Liu Ronghua thought about how she did not care that much for Shen Jialiang’s money. Qi Chenglin gave her more than enough, and she did not need Shen Jialiang’s money at all. Annoying the father-daughter duo was good enough.

Nevertheless, cabs were hard to come by at that time. Most of them had passengers, and even those that were empty chose not to accept passengers as they were rushing to get off the job.

“Auntie, where are you heading? I can send you.” Chang Jingqiu drove to Liu Ronghua and lowered the windows.

Liu Ronghua was stunned, but she soon smiled and said, “It’ll be too troublesome. You’re too kind.”

“It’s alright. You can’t get a cab around this time. It’s a cold day too, and you might be left to stand out here for a long time.” Chang Jingqiu opened the door to the front passenger seat immediately. “Come on up. I know the road to the Shen family home. It’s not that far away.”

Liu Ronghua nodded and went in, bringing the gush of cold wind with her.

After closing the door, she said while putting on her seatbelt, “Thank you. Oh yes, I don’t know your…”

“My name is Chang Jingqiu. Just call me Xiao Chang or Jingqiu, whatever you like,” Chang Jingqiu said with a smile before driving off.

“Hehe, Jingqiu, thank you for today,” Liu Ronghua smiled and thanked.

“It’s not that big a deal. If I bump into someone I know, I won’t just let her stay out in the cold,” Chang Jingqiu remarked.

“Sigh, I’m so lucky to meet you here tonight, if not…” Liu Ronghua shook her head and smiled bitterly. “Oh right, are you friends with Zhijing?”

Knowing that Liu Ronghua had a bad relationship with Shen Zhijing, Chang Jingqiu said, “We met for the first time tonight. An ex-classmate of mine from high school knew her. We agreed to come and have dinner together, and my friend asked Miss Shen out too.”

“I see.” Liu Ronghua remained silent after saying that, and she began silently cooking up a plot.

Silence filled the car for quite some time, before Liu Ronghua finally spoke up, albeit awkwardly, “Would you feel weird about Zhijing’s attitude toward me?”

Chang Jingqiu paused and said, “Not really. Although Miss Shen didn’t talk about your relationship, but her attitude, I think I can understand why. This is the first time I met her, but I can see that she’s a very proud person.”

Chang Jingiqu said nothing further after making those remarks.

“She…doesn’t like me, and doesn’t look kindly on me,” Liu Ronghua said softly. “I was shocked that you’d send me so willingly. I thought you were her friend and that you’d stand on her side.”

Chang Jingqiu smiled. “That’s a private matter between the both of you. It’s not right for a third party like me to side on anyone. I can understand her thoughts and yours as well, so I don’t think anyone’s at fault here. The interaction has to come from yourself. I have no right to judge on things that happen at your home.”

“Sigh, if only Zhijng thinks like you. Jingqiu, I never expected you to be so rational,” Liu Ronghua said gratefully.

Chang Jingqiu smiled. “Auntie, don’t say that.”

As the car was getting closer to Shen Residence, Liu Ronghua told her to stop about a couple of hundred meters away.

Liu Ronghua explained, “If you stop at the door and Zhijng sees you, I’m worried it might affect the relationship between both of you.”

Chang Jingqiu nodded and left it at that. She merely took out her name card and handed it over to Liu Ronghua, “Auntie, this is my name card. You can see my contact information there. If there’s anything you need me to help, just call me. Don’t worry.”

“Thank you.” Liu Ronghua seemed to be very happy when she took the name card, but still, she sighed, “Speaking of which, I’ve lived here with Zhijing for nearly eight years, and I’ve known her far earlier than that. Still, the way she treats me could never compare to you, a girl whom I’ve just met.”

“Auntie, don’t say that. I feel like Miss Shen will one day come around,” Chang Jingqiu consoled.

“Hehe,” Liu Ronghua chuckled. Eight years passed and Shen Zhijing still did not to come around. How much longer did she need? “I’m not thinking of all that anymore. So sorry to have bothered you tonight. It’s late and I had you take a detour just to send me.”

“No worries. It’s dark, so be careful,” Chang Jingqiu advised.

Liu Ronghua smiled and said not another word, save for a couple more thanks. She then got off the car.

Utilizing what little illumination from the streetlights, she glanced at Chang Jingqiu’s name card while walking, and a cold little twitch appeared on the corner of her lip.

…

In recent days, Ruan Danchen had been living a rather peaceful life. She went to work and got off work with Qi Chenglin, as husband-and-wife, while an adorable little Qi Youxuan awaited her when she came home. Once a week, they would gather at the manor, and from time to time she would even have a girls’ day with Song Yu and Qi Chengyue.

On the other hand, Liu Ronghua and Chang Jingqiu met on a regular basis to chat or take a stroll. Chang Jingqiu listened to Liu Ronghua’s lamentations, and their relationship thus began improving.

It was Sunday, and Qi Chenglin brought Jiang Yuan to Jinshi City because of some urgent, last-minute matters. Something happened there and it was an pressing issue, but before he left, he told Ruan Danchen that he would be rushing home on the same day itself.

Ruan Danchen, worried that it would tire him out too much if he insisted on rushing back, told him not to be hasty. “If its already very late, don’t rush back. As long as its dark, don’t come back. You can come back tomorrow. Don’t drive so late at night.”

Previously in Chengshi, she had gone on a night journey to Jinshi City for a business trip. At that time, Director Zhao did not want his employees to request leave and be absent from work, so he was adamant that they leave for the destination at night and come back home the night after. That way, their working period for the day would be left untouched.

Sitting in the car at that time, she looked at the dark highway, lit only by some inferior lights. Even their driver was unable to keep his eyes open, keeping her on her toes. She knew exactly how dangerous it was to drive so late into the night.

“Okay,” Qi Chenglin answered. “I’ll go there early and I expect to be back at about four or five in the evening. It’s an urgent matter, but not something that’s tricky to handle. The other party is just insisting that I show up.”

Ruan Danchen nodded and sent Qi Chenglin off.

Then, she brought Qi Youxuan to the mall. His height was increasing rapidly by the day, and his clothes were no longer wearable, forcing them to get new ones.

She had no idea why the boy had was predisposed to going shopping in the mall. The minute she mentioned buying him new clothes, his spirits went up and he was incredibly excited. He followed Ruan Danchen out buoyantly, and although it was cold, the temperature did not dampen his energy. His little face was constantly red and she did not feel cold at all.

Since Xiao Yang was driving Qi Chenglin for the latter’s business trip, Ruan Danchen was fine and capable of making do all by herself. She would never let her son suffer, so she ordered a cab through an e-hailing app and made sure that they did not need to wait in the cold.

Ruan Danchen brought Qi Youxuan to Wei Ziqi’s luxury mall. It was filled with internationally-renowned high-end brands as well as domestic luxury goods, all of which were equally expensive.

When Qi Youxuan was in kindergarten, he was given normal clothes to wear. However, going to school at Jixia Elementary was a different thing altogether. All the kids there were from strong backgrounds and were brought up differently from normal kids. Comparing them with the Qi Youxuan of kindergarten was a futile exercise. Kindergarten kids were naïve, and Qi Youxuan’s good behavior were equal parts due to family teachings and the kindergarten environment.

At Jixia Elementary however, dressing mediocrely would make him the butt of jokes, leading to an outcast scenario. Ruan Danchen decided to discuss with Grandmother Qi and Guan Liya about it, with the elder ladies feeling that Qi Youxuan would need to wear something that befitted his family’s status, since he was attending Jixia Elementary School.

Ruan Danchen had the utmost confidence in her son, knowing that he would not be used by anyone.

Qi Youxuan did not think too about anything at all. He knew nothing of those brands and never looked at the price when buying clothes—if it looked good, he tried it, and he particularly enjoyed various suave-looking clothes.

Ruan Danchen was not keen on buying too many clothes for him and only bought a few seasonal ones, since he would grow out of them really soon anyway.

In the blink of an eye, she was carrying many bags for Qi Youxuan. Upon deciding that it was all enough, she led him out. Just before one of the escalators, they saw an eye-catching advertisement promoting the new indoor amusement arcade. It was a famous Japanese one, with replications of various anime scenes.

Amongst all the ads was the AE86 that Fujiwara Takumi drove in Initial D. He got incredibly excited, pointing to the drawing with his tubby fingers and saying, “Mom! It’s the AE86, it’s the AE86! Let’s go and play!”

Ruan Danchen looked at it for a moment before lowering her gaze, saying plainly, “Are you legs long enough to press the accelerator?”

“…” Qi Youxuan was speechless. Mom spent too much time with Dad, and it showed in the similarity of their speech.

“You drive, I’ll sit beside. There’re also many other things that I can play, right? Let’s go! Let’s go!” Qi Youxuan swung Ruan Danchen’s arm. Her hands were full with various bags, and she shook it to the point where Ruan Danchen struggled to hold everything.

“Okay, okay, okay. We’ll go,” Ruan Danchen agreed immediately. She thought to herself and decided to spend the entire day having fun with the little one.

She brought the boy to store their all their bags. With her hands free, she brought Qi Youxuan to the amusement arcade, which was located on the fifth floor.

Due to being newly opened, the arcade was filled with people. Each section had a long line, but the boy shrugged it off and happily stood in line.

By noontime, he had only managed to play in two sections. Ruan Danchen brought him to have lunch first, promising to bring him back after they had their meal.

“What do you want to eat for lunch?” Ruan Danchen asked.

“How about McDonalds?” Qi Youxuan looked up and suggested. On the one hand, he wanted to have some fried chicken, on the other he felt that fast food would speed things up and enable him to quickly get back in line. Any other restaurant would have needed a long time for dishes to be served.

“Okay, I’ll let you have it today,” Ruan Danchen nodded and said.

Qi Youxuan had few chances to eat such fast food, since the school lunches were all incredibly nutritious and it was Ruan Danchen who often cooked at home. If they went out, Qi Chenglin would usually bring him to Dynasty.

Fast food like McDonalds was something he probably ate only once a year.

Ruan Danchen seated him down on the chair and made sure he did not run around. Having chosen his Happy Meal, Ruan Danchen went and stood in line.

A grey-haired old lady stood in front of Ruan Danchen and seemed to be incredibly old of age. Ruan Danchen figured that the old lady brought her grandchildren with her and they wanted to eat McDonalds too.

The old lady’s eyesight was not good. She was shortsighted and had unclear vision, making her unable to see the menu on the wall.

When it was her turn, she narrowed her eyes but still did not place her order. Both the servers and customers behind her were getting impatient.

“May I know if you’ve already decided on your order? If you haven’t decided yet, you can stand at one side and look slowly. Let those behind you order, is that okay?” a young, chubby, bespectacled server asked.

“That’s no good. I waited for so long and its finally my turn. If I go to one side and wait, wouldn’t I have to stand back in line again if I made my choice? Look at my old arms and legs, I can’t stand long!” the old lady said unhappily and remained rooted to the ground.

The server did not say anything further, as that old lady did not look like a good person. If the server voiced out her opinion, she might just be labeled disrespectful to elders.

In the end, the old lady stood there for a further ten minutes without deciding what to order.

Qi Youxuan sat on his seat and stretched his neck, noticing that Ruan Danchen was already second in line.

They were in the middle of a peak hour, and being a Sunday, parents with children were aplenty. Kids usually prefer fast food, so there was a large number of people there.

Some of those who were at the tail end of the line decided to switch to another line out of sheer frustration.

Ruan Danchen was also wondering if she should change to another line.

She looked at the old lady and suggested, “Auntie, are you here with you grandson?”

“I am,” the old lady replied with a nod.

“Don’t let the kids wait. You have time to look at the menu, but the kids are waiting to have lunch. How about you take a McShare Chicken Box? The packaging style is a minion now, which kids nowadays love. The portion is enough for the both of you too.” Ruan Danchen pointed at the advertisement on the counter.

Though the old lady was unable to see things from afar, she could see the poster advertisement very clearly. The box really did look appealing to kids, and she usually saw her grandson acting like a minion, so she nodded and said, “Alright then, I’ll take that one.”

The server breathed a sigh of relief, quickly assembled the set meal, and gave it to the old lady.

Ruan Danchen usually did not pay much attention to all those other things, but when she saw the minion, she felt that Qi Youxuan would like it a lot. Other than the Happy Meal that Qi Youxuan wanted, she took the box set with the minion too. Realizing that minion toys were available for sale, she asked the price before buying two.

Since the minion design was at random, so she bought two with full awareness that they might turn out to the be same. If that were the case, she could give them to Little Muche and Little Youjin.

Ruan Danchen held the minions and carried the tray back to their seat. Once Qi Youxuan laid eyes on the box set and the minion, he exclaimed in surprise, “Mom! You bought these?!”

When he was stretching his neck to see the counter earlier, he saw a photo of the minion box hanging on the wall. He wanted it immediately, instead of the happy meal.

He thought of going over to tell Ruan Danchen about it, but he was afraid to leave his seat because there were too many people. Someone would definitely take his seat if he left, as there were already plenty of people asking him if there was anyone seating beside him.

It therefore came as a surprise that Ruan Danchen bought it for him.

“I saw this and I thought you’d like it, so I bought it for you,” Ruan Danchen smiled and said. She looked on as the little boy opened the box like a present, with his black, grape-like eyes glistening with joy.

“Mom, you’re the best!” Qi Youxuan exclaimed gleefully and rejoiced at how good it was to have a mother!

If he went out with his father, the man would not even bring him to McDonalds, let alone buy the toy for him.

Going out with his grandma would be the same, as the lady knew nothing about those things.

“There’s more where that came from. Give Mom a kiss,” Ruan Danchen smiled and said, before leaning toward the little boy.

With so many people around, Qi Youxuan was feeling rather shy. His face was slightly reddened and he looked around furtively. Everyone seemed to be busy eating and chatting, with their attention placed elsewhere.

Qi Youxuan planted a smack on Ruan Danchen’s cheek.

She then smiled and took out the bunch of little minions, leaving the boy quite looking stumped. “Wow! Mom, you bought so many!”

“Mm, since the design is random and we couldn’t choose, we might end up with the same design, so I bought a few more,” Ruan Danchen explained.

Qi Youxuan did not even care about his food. He was entirely focused on the toys, but Ruan Danchen put them away and said, “Eat your lunch. You can open them after you’re done. Don’t forget, if the fried chicken wings get cold, they won’t be crispy anymore, and they won’t taste good.”

As a foodie, Qi Youxuan’s greatest fear was if his food did not taste good. He stopped opening the toys and grabbed a chicken wing to begin munching. His other hand was occupied too, as he raised his Cola for a drink before grabbing a Chicken McNugget.

Feeling content from eating, he forgot about his toys and focused on his chicken wings.

When he was finally too full to have any more, he took a paper napkin to wipe his hands and mouth. Ruan Danchen took out her antibacterial hand gel and told the boy to rub his hands, before using a wet tissue to wipe it all off.

She pulled the tray toward herself to clear up the space on the table. Then, she brought the toys up. Ruan Danchen finished the chicken wings that Qi Youxuan was unable to and watched as the boy opened his toys happily.

There were a few repeated designs inside, which Qi Youxuan separated, intending to give his future brother-in-law.

Seeing all those minions made him feel overjoyed, and he spontaneously leaned over to kiss Ruan Danchen on the cheek. “Mom, you’re the best!”

The two of them put away everything, and Ruan Danchen brought Qi Youxuan to the toilet in order to wash his hands. After that, they went back to the amusement arcade.

As they were standing in line, a little boy stubbornly jumped queue and stood in front of Qi Youxuan. The boy looked to be about the same height and age as Qi Youxuan.

Faced with that queue jumper, Qi Youxuan was resoundingly unhappy. He poked the boy and waited until the boy looked behind before saying, “You can’t cut in line. Can you please go to the back and line up?”

“Why? Which one of your eyes saw me cut in line? This is my spot, I just went to the toilet for a while, and now I’m at my original spot,” the young boy said confidently.

Ruan Danchen frowned. Both she and Ruan Danchen had been standing there for nearly half an hour, and the particular game was the most popular attraction in the entire amusement arcade—it was the car from Initial D that Qi Youxuan saw from the advertisement.

In front of the car was a large screen, depicting the gameplay with roads winding around the mountains. The car was suspended midair, moving along with the turn of the steering wheel, giving it a sense of realism when playing. Therefore, there were plenty of people standing in line.

When they came, the little boy was not even there yet, and no one goes to the toilet for half an hour. It was obvious that the boy was lying.

Ruan Danchen looked at the boy and shook her head. What kind of family upbringing did that kid have? Lying was second nature to him.

Just as she was about to open her mouth, Qi Youxuan asked, “Alright then, tell me. How long ago did you go to the toilet?”

The other kid paused for a moment and rolled his eyeballs around, saying, “About twenty minutes.”

Qi Youxuan was pleased with that answer. “We stood here for more than half an hour. If you went to the toilet twenty minutes ago, we would’ve seen you. But when we came, we didn’t even see you. We only saw the big sister in front of us.”

The lady was elated to hear a little kid calling her ‘big sister’, so she turned around immediately.

Qi Youxuan looked much cuter than all those other kids who called her ‘auntie’.

Seeing the lady turn around, Qi Youxuan tugged at the clothes of that girl, aged twenty or so years old. “Big Sister, since you’re in front of us, you stood here longer than us, right? How long did you wait in line?”

“I think about forty minutes,” the girl looked at her phone before answering. “The line’s too long, so many people behind me left instead of continuing to stay in line.”

Qi Youxuan nodded and made a show of being earnest. “In that case, did Big Sister ever see him standing in line?”

The girl was amused by Qi Youxuan’s adorable actions. He looked like a cute little ball of dough, but he spoke seriously and with an eye for detail, just like a detective. It was too cute.

“No. He never stood here. Behind me there were some who stood a while and left. A few high school students, some adults, but other than you, there were no children,” the girl answered honestly.

“What do you have to say now?” Qi Youxuan turned to the other kid. “You not only cut in line, you even lied!”

The other kid’s face soured immediately. As a little kid, he felt uneasy after his lie was exposed and looked somewhat embarrassed. Ruan Danchen was about to go easy and tell Qi Youxuan to just let the kid stay in line, but the kid said, “So? Why are you so nitpicky? It’s just one person. How much time will I take from you? In any case, I can just let you all stand in front of me!”

The kid noticed that adults formed the bulk of people lined up behind Qi Youxuan. He figured that Qi Youxuan and Ruan Danchen would feel embarrassed to argue with a child.

“How could you saw that? It’s not about how long the wait is. Cutting in line is not the right thing to do! Haven’t your parents ever taught you about this? Haven’t your teachers ever taught you?” Qi Youxuan got angry.

His temper was actually quite good initially and he was magnanimous—as long as the kid knew those actions were wrong and apologized, Qi Youxuan would have let the kid continue to stand in line.

Surprisingly, the kid not only refused to apologize after his lie was exposed—he even reaffirmed his stance, angering Qi Youxuan even further.

Ruan Danchen patted Qi Youxuan’s head. He was still very angry, but Ruan Danchen’s soft touch decreased his anger by half.

She knelt down and hugged Qi Youxuan, saying, “Okay, that’s enough. You’ve already made a spectacle of him after exposing his lie and teaching him a lesson. I think he wants to apologize to you, but is too embarrassed and angry that he felt ashamed. Don’t be angry. Let’s be tolerant okay. You see, our friend is all alone here. He’s been standing for so long but his family hasn’t shown up. It’s lonely for him.”

Qi Youxuan pouted, but after some thought, he nodded and said to the little boy in front of him, “I won’t criticize you for standing here in line, but due to your actions of cutting in line, you must say sorry to me. And since I allowed you to stand here in line, so you have to thank me for that too.”

The other kid remained obstinate. He stubbornly refused to utter an apology to Qi Youxuan, but he did not leave the spot either.

Someone from behind criticized, “Which family does this kid belong to? Jumps queue but doesn’t apologize. Does he even have any manners?”

“He’s a kid, you can’t hold that against him.”

“From the looks of it, his family didn’t teach him well.”

“Nannan, why did you come here alone? Grandma was looking all over for you,” a shocked and agitated voice was heard.

Ruan Danchen turned to look, and to her surprise, it was the same indecisive old lady that stared so long at the menu in McDonalds and left everyone behind waiting for so long.

The old lady had a cup of hot milk tea in her hand. She probably went to buy the drink for the boy, but instead of standing in line, he cut it, causing the old lady to be unable to find him.

That Nannan boy saw his grandmother as a saving grace and wailed loudly all of a sudden, crying and shouting, “Grandma,” before throwing himself over to the old lady.

“What is it, what is it? Who bullied you? Who did something bad to you?” the old lady asked as she shielded her grandson in her arms. Her first line of sight was Qi Youxuan.

The reason was because he stood with Nannan, and squabbles among kids were common.

“It’s him!” Nannan pointed blatantly at Qi Youxuan.

Ruan Danchen frowned and protected the boy behind herself.

Before she could say anything, she heard Nannan complain, “They bullied me. They thought I was alone, so they bullied a small boy like me. His mommy said that I stood here for so long but no one came to look for me!”

The old lady was not happy to hear that. She said to Ruan Danchen, “I thought you were a reasonable young woman when you helped me at McDonalds just now. Who knew you were such an irrational person? How do you teach your child? Saying those kinds of things to a little boy is too much! How can you bring up your child like this? Not only did you not stop an argument between children, you yourself make nasty comments about my grandson. How could you have the heart to say all that out loud! Based on all this, your son doesn’t have any manners too!”

Ruan Danchen could not stand it if people said unsavory things to Qi Youxuan. She could bear with it if it was directed at her, but saying those things to Qi Youxuan was a big no-no. More so, when Qi Youxuan did nothing wrong to deserve all those words from the old lady.

Taking a deep breath, Ruan Danchen decided to pull Qi Youxuan before her and protect him. She made sure his back was facing the old lady, so she did not have to look at the old lady’s fierce-looking face.

Ruan Danchen was caressing Qi Youxuan’s head, letting him ease his worries while she turned to the old lady. “He’s a young kid, but he already knows how to twist the truth. I’m the one who should be asking whether your family taught any manners. I didn’t say anything out of respect for an old lady like you, and I expected you to be a rational person. Seems like I overestimated you.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?!” the old lady berated. She pointed at Ruan Danchen in anger and was trembling madly. “How dare you speak like that? You should be respecting the old and cherishing the young!”

Compared to Ruan Danchen’s calmness, the old lady seemed violent and sinister. Onlookers were sweating just by looking at her, wondering if she would exert herself too much after getting so worked up.

There were too many instances where people scammed someone by setting up an ‘accident’ to make it seem as though the ‘victim’ sustained some sort of injury from the target. If the old lady really did faint, no one would dare to step forward and help her up.

Moreover, the old lady did not seem to be a reasonable person. What if their kindness was repaid by a beating from the old lady?

None of the bystanders took pity on the hag.

Ruan Danchen ignored the old lady’s anger but remained calm instead, saying, “Our little friend here cut in line for no reason and stubbornly wanted to stand in front of my son. My son told him to line up at the back instead of jumping queue. Your grandson said he went to the toilet and he originally stood in front of my son. He said he was merely getting back to his original position after coming back from the toilet.”

Looking at the cup of milk tea in the old lady’s hands, Ruan Danchen said, “I think, if our little friend went to the toilet, you wouldn’t’ve left him alone and went to buy milk tea, right? We’ve been waiting in line for half an hour, so my son asked our friend how long ago he went to the toilet. He thought about it and said it was twenty minutes. He was smart. He told us he was gone for a long time, but he didn’t know that we had been standing here longer.”

The old lady’s expression was already very sour. Ruan Danchen continued to speak calmly, “We’ve exposed his lies, but not only did he not apologize, he insisted that him cutting in line was only going to add an extra one person to wait. In my son’s eyes, this has nothing to do with how long the wait is; this is a question of a person’s character, and a question of right and wrong. In the home and in school, my son was taught that cutting in line is a very rude thing to do. He would never do such a thing, and he won’t ever let anyone do the same. I saw your grandson being alone, with no one accompanying him to play here, probably because the adults were away for some time. So, I told my son to just let him stand in line before him.

“This isn’t a big issue, but in a kid’s eyes, what’s wrong is wrong, and what’s right is right. Although this isn’t something major, my son was the wronged one and yet he tolerated it. Your grandson likes this kind of game and my son does too. Kids are all excited. As for your grandson’s rude actions, my son compromised, saying that he would allow your grandson to be ahead of him in exchange for an apology and a word of thanks. How could he twist all that and say that we’re the ones bullying him?”

“You… You youngsters know how to talk. Of course my grandson couldn’t win an argument against you. You’re using that to bully my grandson, what kind of person are you!” The old lady’s expression changed.

The rest of them who stood in line could not take it any longer and began criticizing them.

“How can an old lady like you not know the difference between right and wrong? You just go around blaming others after hearing whatever your grandson says. And you’re saying that her son has no manners? What did her son say? Her son didn’t even say a single word!”

“Yeah, all of us saw it. Your grandson is the one who cut queue, lied, and was rude. The other boy tried to compromise with your grandson, but your grandson didn’t budge. When he saw you coming, he lied and twisted the truth. From whom did the young kid learn from, I wonder?” someone insinuated angrily.

Children were blank canvasses, and bad behavior was almost certainly learnt from someone else. People were enraged that such a small kid was given wrong treatment by an adult.

“You’re an unreasonable old lady. Why are you looking down on others just because you’re elderly?”

“Her son didn’t tell lies. Right is right and wrong is wrong. It was your grandson that lied again and again. You accuse others of not teaching their child well, so I’d like to ask you a question: if your family teaches your grandson well, does that mean you’re teaching him to lie and all that?”

“Her son was so kind to compromise with your grandson, but you’re now accusing them of having no manners. What kind of person are you?”

“Exactly, look how much the child has to suffer!”

“Looking at you, old lady, your attitude can never be a good role model for children. No wonder your grandson is like that even though he’s so young.”

“You should learn to control your temper. Once the child is taught the wrong things, it’ll be too late.”

One after another, the crowd hurled criticisms at the old lady. They could not help it, since they saw everything unfold with their own eyes. The things Ruan Danchen said to Qi Youxuan were not heard by those further away, but anyone who was nearby managed to hear it all.

With so many people vouching for the truth of the matter, the old lady could never be in the right even if she had a hundred mouths to counter them with.

The old lady was trembling with anger, and her face was even turning green.

‘What kind of people were they!

‘Saying that our family did not teach children well. Does all these ordinary people even know what her family status was?!’

“I’m telling you; you can never hope to be on the same level as my family!” the old lady remarked exasperatedly. “Hmph! I won’t take offence with all of you today. The atmosphere in today’s society is getting worse. Everyone only knows how to bully the old and the young. What kind of people are these!”

She began bringing her grandson away as soon as she said that. As she walked off, she said, “Nannan, don’t get angry. Don’t go to their level. They’re all useless people who bullied us.”

Everyone was utterly speechless.

Unreasonable old ladies made the news frequently, but none of them foresaw that they meet one in person.

The crowed rolled their eyes and could not resist commenting, “What kind of person is she!”

Qi Youxuan’s mood took a turn for the worse after what happened with the old lady and her grandson. He was not as excited to stand in line as before and simply hugged Ruan Danchen, looking incredibly listless.

Ruan Danchen was heartbroken to see that. She comforted him immediately, “Youxuan, it’s okay. It’s not your fault. Don’t keep thinking about it. You were a good boy just now.”

Qi Youxuan knew that, but his spirits were dampened and he remained very downcast.

Those two rows of people lining up found the little guy to be very adorable and handsome. They had all took a liking to him from the start, and some even smiled and teased him with their facial expressions when they lined up.

Seeing the boy’s wronged appearance made them feel heartbroken too. They thought about how good a child he was, as he had manners and knew how to compromise. He listened to his mother and heeded her advice, making sure that he did not put a burden on his mother. In the end however, he was bullied by the irrational grandmother-grandson duo.

Everyone began consoling him, although some rued that they did not have any candy or junk food that they could use to coax him.

One young lady, who came with her boyfriend, held a Spiderman figurine that she managed to win from a claw machine. It was not big, but it took a lot of effort to get it out.

She gave it to Qi Youxuan and said, “Little friend, don’t be sad. Here, have this.”

Qi Youxuan shook his head. “It was difficult for you to get that, right? I can’t take it. My mom bought a lot of minions for me today.”

The young girl’s heart shattered because he was such an obedient and considerate kid!

The first in line was a young man who looked like a high school student. His turn was next.

He turned around and told his friend to hold his spot, before walking over and kneeling before Qi Youxuan, “Little Brother, my turn is up next. Would it be okay if I let you play first?”

The little boy hesitated for a moment but eventually shook his head. He had earlier shown despise toward the other kid’s actions of jumping queue.

“Don’t worry. It’s not cutting in line. I’m the one who’s willingly letting you play. I don’t think anyone will have any objections against that,” the young lad smiled and said.

He was a handsome, the archetype of a radiant young man. With his courteous and graceful demeanor, he resembled Qi Chengzhi or Qi Chenglin, but was even more similar to Qi Chengji when still in Jixia High School.

After Qi Chengji went into the military however, all that refinedness disappeared, only to be replaced by pure masculinity.

Everyone seemed to be conveying that they had no issues with Qi Youxuan going first.

Blushing, the little boy looked yearningly at the car that was swaying from side to side.

“How about, you join me and we play together, Big Brother?” The little boy then began explaining. “Since I’m too short, I can’t reach the steering wheel or the accelerator, so I’ll sit on the passenger side while you drive. I’ll experience it with you from one side. I stood in line with my mom and she was supposed to drive while I sat beside her, but I think her driving skills aren’t as good as you.

Ruan Danchen, “…”

The little boy dragged his mother down without sparing her blushes at all!

Qi Youxuan never saw his mom drive before, since it was always his dad or Uncle Xiao Yang who drove him when they went out. Even if she had a driver’s license, she might not pass the levels with the skills she had. In particular, the game had so many sudden turns, which were even harder for her. It would have been a waste if she drove for a while and it was already game over.

Bystanders who heard that could not resist laughing, although they held it in almost immediately.

“…” Ruan Danchen stared speechlessly at the blissfully unaware Qi Youxuan, but thankfully the boy had already reverted to his buoyant character, making her slight embarrassment entirely worth it.

The young lad agreed immediately. Qi Youxuan was elated, because he got the chance the play earlier in addition to not offending anyone, thereby achieving both his aims in one fell swoop.

Qi Youxuan followed the young lad into the car, and the elder boy’s skills were not bad at all. He drove for a long time, satiating Qi Youxuan’s craving for the game.

Qi Youxuan then came down with his reddened cheeks, looking incredibly excited with no trace of the dispiritedness he had earlier.

Ruan Danchen thanked the young man and brought Qi Youxuan to play other games.

Even so, they were not able to try out most of the games, since the line was too long.

Ruan Danchen looked at the time and realized that it was almost five. When Qi Youxuan got down from one of the games, she brought him out of the place.

Qi Youxuan looked as though he did not have enough. Ruan Danchen booped him on the nose and said, “Don’t be so greedy. We can still come here and play next time. There’re too many games, and even if we don’t need to line up, we can’t play all of them in one day.”

“We can still come next time? Next time can we ask dad to come with us? I want him to drive the car. I’ll sit beside him. Dad’s driving skills are really good,” Qi Youxuan suggested excitedly.

“Okay, I’ll tell him,” Ruan Danchen smiled and said.

As she spoke, Qi Chenglin’s call came.

“Where are you?” Qi Chenglin asked after hearing all the ruckus from the phone.

The indoor arcade was filled with noises of machines, music, and laughter. It was very noisy. Once Ruan Danchen brought Qi Youxuan out, everything was silent.

“In the mall. I brought Youxuan to buy some clothes today, and it just so happened that an arcade opened in the mall, so I brought him to play. Are you still in Jinshi City?” Ruan Danchen asked.

“I’m back. We’re entering the city now and heading home. Which mall are you at? I’ll go get the both of you.” Ruan Danchen heard Qi Chenglin’s magnetic and warm voice. It even had a twinge of glee in it.

Ruan Danchen told him the name and heard Qi Chenglin chuckling. “Coincidentally, I’m near. Wait half an hour for me.”

“Okay.” Ruan Danchen hung up and said to Qi Youxuan, “Dad’s coming back from Jinshi City and he’ll come fetch us. He’ll be here in about half an hour. Are you tired? Let’s go find someplace to sit.”

“Another half an hour, can we still go and play?” Qi Youxuan wanted to go back after hearing that.

“No.” Ruan Danchen did not indulge him any longer. “You’ve already played the entire day and you can’t go and play again. We will come back some other day. It’s too noisy inside, and it’s not good for your eyes and ears when you play too much. Letting you play the whole day is already excessive enough.”

The little boy saw how resolute Ruan Danchen was and knew that no amount of cajoling could persuade her. All he could do was pout slightly sadly and mumble, “Okay.”

Since they had to wait another half-hour more for Qi Chenglin to come, there were plenty dessert shops around the mall. Ruan Danchen brought him to the nearest one and asked for a bowl of mango pomelo sago and some mango crepe.

The portion was not that big and she was worried that the boy might get hungry. The desserts would fill his tummy a bit for the time being, and after Qi Chenglin arrived, they would all go to dinner together.

Mango crepes were cold and it was also a cold winter’s day. Despite the heating in the mall, Ruan Danchen allowed him to eat only one.

Although Qi Youxuan’s delectable treats were limited, he was happy that Ruan Danchen controlled him.

‘So this is how it feels like for Mom to control me!’

The little boy was dismayed that he met Ruan Danchen too late on. Six years had gone to waste already.

As he was drinking his mango pomelo sago, he pointed behind Ruan Danchen and asked, “Mom, isn’t that the Big Brother that played the game with me?”

Ruan Danchen turned around to look, spotting the young man who sat in the car with Qi Youxuan as well as his friend. The two young boys came into the shop and was about to find a place to sit.

Qi Youxuan waved amicably. “Big Brother!”

The young lad saw him and smiled warmly too, before proceeding to bring his friend over.

There was still some space with Ruan Danchen and Qi Youxuan, so the two young boys joined them.

After chatting for some time, they found out that the young man was in year three of senior high. He was a top student in the school and was recommended to A University’s Department of Mathematics. His friend on the other hand, was accepted by a famous overseas university. The two of them, therefore, did not have any stress with their exams, so they came out during the weekend to enjoy themselves.

Inevitably, the two of them introduced themselves.

The young man’s friend was Li Yiming.

“I’m Ruan Zeer,” the young man smiled and said.

“Oh! My mom’s surname is Ruan too, you’re both from the same clan!” Qi Youxuan exclaimed excitedly. He was trying hard to be friendly with Ruan Zeer, causing the three of them to chuckle.

Ruan Danchen smoothed Qi Youxuan’s hair. The little boy’s logic was that all those with the same surname were of the same clan.

Chatting while they ate, Ruan Danchen slowly found out that the two boys’ families were not very rich. They were merely ordinary people. Li Yiming’s family was in the tea leaf business. Although it was not a large-scale operation, it raked in much more money than other people, so he could be considered quite well-off. Due to that, his family was able to bear the burden of sending him to study abroad.

“Ah, he, he’s the genius in math. It’s in the family,” Li Yiming pointed and Ruan Zeer and smiled. “His grandfather is a scholar in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is also professor in the A University’s math department, with a few disciples following usually. His father is also a math professor at A University and a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences as well. His uncle used to be at J University, and if he’s still around, he’s probably going to join A University of B University.”

Ruan Zeer smiled somewhat dolefully. “I’ve never met my uncle before, but my dad says he would’ve achieved much more than my dad. His natural genius far surpassed my dad, even when they were young, and he was the one who had the most potential for taking over from my grandfather.”

“So, his family is just filled with math geniuses.” Li Yiming then quickly changed the subject after bringing up Ruan Zeer’s sad moment.

Although Ruan Zeer’s family was not rich, they were very knowledgeable scholars. All of them were, and no ordinary scholars at that.

All of a sudden, Ruan Danchen felt a gush of academic aura hitting her in the face. It was a bit stressful to be facing Ruan Zeer.

Having chatted for some time, Qi Chenglin called again to inform that he was already at the mall. Ruan Danchen then told him the name of the store they were at and its location.

Not long later, Ruan Zeer—who was sitting beside Qi Youxuan—saw a handsome man at the door. He stood proudly, with a grey wool overcoat worn over his suit, and although it looked travel-worn, the frost lent the man an abundance of masculinity.

The man standing at the door was the kind of man that could turn straight men gay.

His energy was one-of-a-kind, with no one in the entire mall, let alone the shop, who could possibly come close to him.

The man’s face was stiff and cold, but undeniably handsome. The frost on him gave him an extra layer of coldness.

Ever since the man showed up, Ruan Zeer noticed that many women’s gazes were pulled toward the man. None of those gazes ever shifted away.

The man however, seemed to ignore all their looks. His handsome face remained cold and he appeared to be looking for someone in the shop.

All of a sudden, the little boy beside Ruan Zeer raised his hand and waved, calling out, “Dad, here!”

Ruan Zeer looked on in shock as Qi Chenglin’s originally irritated expression softened upon seeing mother and child.

Qi Chenglin’s pupils were so soft, as if they were melting. He was all smiles, making for a complete contrast between his earlier stern expression. His eyes looked like it was filled with glitter, and his restrained warmth made him look even more charming.

The women in the crowd were incredibly disappointed after hearing the little boy shout ‘Dad’. Such high-quality men were either married or gay!

Qi Chenglin’s eyes no longer strayed in any other direction, so he was completely oblivious to their disappointed expression. All his attention was affixed to Ruan Danchen’s body, with his lips smiling ever so gently.

Li Yiming made way immediately and sat beside Ruan Zeer.

Both he and Ruan Zeer had never come across such a magnificent man before.

Li Yiming’s tea leaf family business was at most, a small business, raking in about two or three million a year. He was still a high school student who did not try his hand in dabbling with the family business. He might meet a few customers on occasion, so he could never have the same aura as Qi Chenglin had.

Ruan Zeer had plenty of contact with academicians, especially the colleagues and students of his father and grandfather. Nevertheless, the characteristics exhibited by academicians were entirely scholarly, like a knowledgeable gust of wind, which was different from businessmen, particularly someone like Qi Chenglin.

Qi Chenglin looked at all of them seated together, giving the impression that the two lads knew Ruan Danchen and Qi Youxuan. He was curious as to when Ruan Danchen got to know that kind of half-grown kids.

Ruan Danchen explained voluntarily, “I brought Youxuan out to buy clothes today, and the they opened an indoor arcade in the mall. I brought Youxuan to play and we got to know these two young men.”

She refrained from saying ‘kids’ even though she regarded them as kids.

Nevertheless, she also knew that such grown-up kids regarded themselves as adults already and hated being called kids.

Referring them as ‘young men’ made them feel very happy.

Ruan Danchen introduced them to Qi Chenglin and then told them, “This is my husband, Qi Chenglin.”

The two boys had no idea about the intricacies of the upper circle, and although Li Yiming did not admit to being a child, he was still one. The Qi family was a family he heard before, but other than that, he knew nothing more.

Ruan Zeer, on the other hand, was a downright nerdy scholar. He was the best person to study mathematics, but anything about business issues would be all Greek to him.

Thus, none of them knew anything about Qi Chenglin’s identity. They only felt that this family was extraordinary based on his temperament alone.

Qi Chenglin greeted them politely, but he knew Ruan Danchen would not be acquainted with others simply especially when they were playing arcade games, and besides, the kid had a strong vigilance towards strangers. Even though the kid accepted Song Yu and Ruan Danchen easily, those two were the exceptions, it did not mean that he would accept strangers easily too. Something must have happened here.

Qi Chenglin did not question them immediately and took the half bowl of mango pomelo sago from Qi Youxuan’s hands in silence instead.

“Dad, order it yourself, I’m not done yet!” Qi Youxuan puffed his cheeks immediately and glared at Qi Chenglin anxiously after his mango pomelo sago was pulled away from him, but he did not dare to snatch it back.

“It’s dinner time soon. You won’t have much appetite for dinner later if you eat so much now. It’s good enough for you to have a taste of desserts but you must have your proper meals,” Qi Chenglin finished the half bowl of mango pomelo sago in a blink of an eye and returned the empty bowl to Qi Youxuan.

“…” Qi Youxuan felt despondent as he stared at the empty bowl. Then, he noticed a leftover sago pearl in the bowl, which he picked up quickly and put it into his mouth. His unhappy expression induced pity and compassion, but at the same time he appeared like a loser too.

Ruan Zeer and Li Yiming could not bear the sight of Qi Youxuan’s expression, whereas Qi Chenglin merely felt speechless staring at his son.

“I always have proper meals,” Qi Youxuan protested.

Qi Chenglin raised his eyebrows and glanced at the minion toys which were placed on the ground beside their table. The toys were even placed inside a McDonald’s plastic bag which made the origin of the toys especially obvious.

Coincidentally, Qi Chenglin passed by a lot of McDonald’s restaurant with minion toys advertisement in Jinshi City today, so he was familiar with the toys at their table now.

“Well then, tell me what you ate in the afternoon,” Qi Chenglin had the “just you wait” look on his face as he pouted and stared at Qi Youxuan from the corner of his eye.

The kid’s spirit withered away immediately. This sort of junk food such as McDonald’s which lacked in nutrition was not considered as a proper meal for Qi Chenglin.

“Well, I’m so hungry right now since I didn’t have much dessert just now. Let’s go for dinner now!” Qi Youxuan said quickly. Then, he picked up the bag of minion toys and hugged it tightly in fear that Qi Chenglin may snatch it away.

Staring at his son who was acting like a loser now, Qi Chenglin pouted and ignored him as he was not bothered to argue with the likes of him.

“We’re going for dinner now. Come and join us,” Qi Chenglin invited Ruan Zeer and Li Yiming kindly.

Even though Qi Chenglin had no idea what had happened, he figured that the duo had given some assistance to Ruan Danchen and Qi Youxuan and thus was able to have afternoon tea together with them.

Qi Chenglin had to express his gratitude no matter what assistance they had given.

“No need,” Ruan Zeer and Li Yiming stood up and rejected since they had their afternoon tea.

Ruan Zeer and Li Yiming would not dare to accept the offer since they were just acquainted with the trio today.

“We’re going back home soon. Our family members will get worried if we return home late,” Ruan Zeer said and took his jacket off the chair.

Qi Chenglin nodded without insisting on his offer.

Qi Youxuan lifted his head and grabbed onto Ruan Zeer’s shirt. “Elder brother, give me your phone number.”

Ruan Zeer was slightly surprised at Qi Youxuan’s enthusiasm since they just met for the first time and he merely gave Qi Youxuan a small assistance. However, he liked the little kid so he typed his phone number into the kid’s Totoro-designed cell phone.

Qi Youxuan nodded. “Okay, so I’ll find you when I can’t solve any mathematics questions.”

“…” Ruan Zeer was left speechless.

This was the kid’s intention all along.

“Sure, no problem,” Ruan Zeer agreed without hesitation.

The duo bidded farewell with Qi Chenglin and his family before leaving the restaurant.

Qi Chenglin and his family decided to have their dinner in a Thai restaurant in the mall instead of going to any restaurant which was far away.

Qi Chenglin asked after they ordered the dishes. “What happened in the amusement arcade just now?”

Ruan Danchen was stunned upon hearing the question, and before she reacted to it, Qi Chenglin continued, “Otherwise how do you get to know the two teenagers?”

Ruan Danchen finally realized what Qi Chenglin was asking about, so she explained the situation regarding the granny and her grandson to him.

“It’s not a big deal, just that Qi Youxuan was wronged in this issue,” Ruan Danchen said.

“You did a good job,” Qi Chenglin commended Qi Youxuan with a smile on his face.

Even though Qi Youxuan had put this matter to rest, he still felt discomfort deep down in his heart. However, he was completely alright now that Qi Chenglin praised him and even consumed a large portion of dinner due to exhilaration instead.

None of them bothered about the granny and her grandson and had completely forgotten about it afterwards.

…

…

Today was Grandmother Chang’s birthday in a blink of an eye.

The Chang family had decided to celebrate Grandmother Chang’s birthday at Dynasty’s banquet hall in order to make it grand. The Chang family invited The Great Eight Families too, which they accepted the invitation as a token of respect.

The elders of The Great Eight Families would not attend the banquet itself. They would send the youngsters instead which were more than enough as a sign of respect.

The Chang family would not have such honour at normal times, but today was Grandmother Chang’s seventieth birthday which was also known as the platinum jubilee. Even though not all the members of The Great Eight Families would attend the banquet, they would send a few representatives from each family as their tokens of respect.

For example, Qi Zhongliang did not attend the banquet but he sent Qi Chengzhi and Song Yu as his representatives. Qi Zhongxun brought Guan Liya along to the banquet due to the rumours about Chang Jingqiu went to Qilin on purpose to court Qi Chenglin and even acted discourteous towards Ruan Danchen despite the fact that she was Ruan Danchen’s high school classmate.

Ruan Danchen did not mention anything regarding this matter to the Qi family. However, since this rumour went flying thick in the company and naturally, Qi Chengyue knew about this too.

Ruan Danchen would not notify the Qi family as it may appear that she was complaining to them.

However, the same did not apply to Qi Chengyue. Ruan Danchen was Qi Chenglin’s wife-to-be no matter what happened, and yet Chang Jingqiu acted rudely towards her. Had Chang Jingqiu ever given any consideration to the Qi family?

Moreover, Qi Chengyue had a bad impression of Chang Jingqiu, so she informed Qi Zhongxun and Guan Liya regarding this issue when she returned home from work.

Guan Liya had decided to attend the banquet and take a look at Chang Jingqiu after hearing about this issue. Furthermore, as Ruan Danchen’s mother-in-law, she had to stand on Ruan Danchen’s side and give her some support and encouragement.

Since Qi Zhongxun and Guan Liya had decided to attend the banquet, naturally Qi Chenglin did not need to attend too. However, he deemed it necessary to bring Ruan Danchen along to show off their affection publicly. Not only did he want Chang Jingqiu to give up, it would be best if he could make her feel ashamed too, thus he brought Ruan Danchen and Qi Youxuan along with him to the banquet.

Qi Chengyue, on the other hand, merely wanted to join in the fun so she insisted on bringing Cheng Dongge along too.

Since Qi Chengji was in the army, it was good enough for him to take military leave for own family issues. However, taking military leave just for Grandmother Chang’s birthday banquet was a little too much. There was no need for him to grace Grandmother Chang with his presence as she did not have that high of a reputation.

In the end, it seemed like the Qi family gave too much respect and honour to the Chang family.

Initially, Xia Wenna wanted to join in the fun too but Grandmother Qi stopped her as it would mean that almost all the members from the Qi family would grace Grandmother Chang with their presence. What a huge honour for the Chang family!

Grandmother Qi, Guan Liya and Xia Wenna would always gossiped together at normal times, so naturally Guan Liya told Grandmother Qi and Xia Wenna regarding Chang Jingqiu’s issue.

Grandmother Qi figured that the Chang family was indifferent than the rest after listening to the whole story. How good could the elders be if this was how they educate Chang Jingqiu?

Thus, Grandmother Qi did not have much respect for the Chang family. If it was not for Ruan Danchen, she would not even allow any members of the Qi family to attend Grandmother Chang’s banquet since there was absolutely no need to give them any respect at all.

…

…

Chang Zhiyuan and Chang Zhixing brought their wives respectively to welcome all the guests at the main entrance of the banquet hall.

Chang Zhiyuan was forty-six years old now. His eldest son went to England to further his studies last summer while his youngest daughter was studying in Jixia High School.

Chang Zhixing was forty-two years old now. It was not too late when he got married but his wife could not conceive for a long time after marriage. Grandmother Chang even wanted them to divorce just because of this issue which gave quite a lot of stress to Chang Zhixing’s wife, but after various methods and a great deal of effort and attempts, Chang Zhixing’s wife finally conceived when he was at the age of thirty-four years old. His son was seven years old now, which was about the same age as Qi Youxuan.

His wife conceived a baby at an advanced age after they had endeavoured for a couple years. Fortunately, his wife gave birth to a boy, which silenced Grandmother Chang and induced exhilaration in her. After that, Grandmother Chang’s attitude towards Chang Zhixing’s wife improved.

Naturally, the Chang family would love the grandson dearly since they had wished for a grandchild for so long. Grandmother Chang even pampered the grandson excessively to the extent of overindulging and spoiled him.

When Chang Zhiyuan saw that the Qi family sent so many representatives to attend the banquet and gave the Chang family such a huge honour, a wide grin broke across his face as he felt highly respected in the presence of other families now.

Qi Zhongxun and Guan Liya even attended the banquet despite the fact that they were seniors, unlike the other Great Eight Families who sent only the youngsters like Yan Beicheng and his gang as a token of respect to the Chang family.

Little did Chang Zhiyuan knew Qi Zhongxun and Guan Liya came all the way here just to give their daughter-in-law support and encouragement.

Chang Zhiyuan could not help but stare at Ruan Danchen when he was greeting Qi Chenglin.

Grandmother Chang was exasperated at the news regarding Qi Chenglin’s marriage and she had been talking about it repeatedly for these past few days. She was convinced that the coquette must had forced Qi Chenglin into marrying her and that was the reason why Qi Chenglin did not accept Chang Jingqiu in the first place.

However, now that Chang Zhiyuan saw Ruan Danchen personally, he felt that the young lady gave him a sense of comfort. She did not show off and was not overly gentle and quiet too. Everything about her was natural and poised without being ostentatious.

Chang Zhiyuan liked Ruan Danchen more than Chang Jingqiu if blood relation was disregarded. Both of them conducted themselves well in society, but Chang Jingqiu was more calculative and adept at schemes, and she always planned carefully before making any decisions. Her every words or actions would let others feel that she was not being entirely sincere at all.

However, Chang Jingqiu was his niece. Chang Zhiyuan would express his aversion if she was a stranger.

Thus, Chang Zhiyuan did not bother about Grandmother Chang and Chang Jingqiu’s comment on Ruan Danchen and treated her kindly instead.

Chang Zhiyuan would not mind Chang Jingqiu trying her best to win Qi Chenglin over if he was not married with Ruan Danchen at that time. Now, there was no need to destroy their family since they were officially married and even their son had grown up too.

“Congratulations on your marriage! Don’t forget to invite me to your wedding dinner!” Chang Zhiyuan congratulated them with a smile on his face.

“Of course,” Naturally, Qi Chenglin would not make Chang Zhiyuan feel embarrassed since he had taken the initiative to congratulate him openly, and especially when both of them had business cooperation.

Chang Zhiyuan and his wife, Mo Yuxin shook hands with Qi Chenglin and Ruan Danchen respectively. When Mo Yuxin noticed the blue diamond ring on Ruan Danchen’s left ring finger, her eyelids twitched in astonishment.

Mo Yuxin was unsure how impressive was the origin of the blue diamond, but even a normal blue diamond was worth a king’s ransom.

It seemed like Ruan Danchen was Qi Chenglin’s love of his life and the elders in the Qi family was very fond of her too, or else she would not wear such costly ring and acted so high profile.

As a matter of fact, Qi Chenglin wanted Ruan Danchen to put it on before they left the house.

He thought that since they were attending Grandmother Chang’s birthday banquet which was considered a big occasion, he wanted Ruan Danchen to put the ring on to show off to the Chang family.

Then, Chang Zhixing and his wife, Liu Xiangwen shook hands with Qi Chenglin and Ruan Danchen, and naturally, Liu Xiangwen noticed the ring on Ruan Danchen’s finger too.

The Qi family entered the banquet hall and there was no new guests which required their attention.

Liu Xiangwen then grabbed Chang Zhixing’s arm and said unhappily, “Did you notice the ring on Ruan Danchen’s finger? Why did she attend grandmother’s birthday banquet with such a high profile? Was she worried that the others were unaware of her identity status in the Qi family? Maybe she felt diffident and had to wear it on purpose to brag about her identity status.”

Mo Yuxin stared at Liu Xiangwen coldly. She snickered deep down as she truly felt a deep repugnance for Liu Xiangwen.

In the Chang family, Chang Yuehuan was Chang Zhiyuan’s sister who passed away and thus Chang Zhiyuan merely wanted to treat the orphan, Chang Jingqiu, well. Liu Xiangwen, on the other hand, got close to Chang Jingqiu only because of Grandmother Chang’s love for Chang Jingqiu and merely wanted to gain some benefits from her. Moreover, Liu Xiangwen did it purposely so that Grandmother Chang would feel happy and treated her better.

Liu Xiangwen did not have a high status in the Chang family due to her difficulty in conceiving a child at a younger age which induced loathe in Grandmother Chang. Moreover, Grandmother Chang despised her family due to the lack of reputation. If it was not for her family’s wealth, Grandmother Chang would not even allow her to marry into the Chang family.

Thus, Liu Xiangwen had no choice but to ingratiate Chang Jingqiu. Chang Jingqiu was smooth and slick in establishing social relations too in order to gain advantages from either parties, so she would not reject Liu Xiangwen’s active flattering. Thus, she built a harmonious relationship with Liu Xiangwen as if they were biological sisters.

Mo Yuxin would not mention anything since Chang Jingqiu was the daughter of Chang Zhiyuan’s deceased sister, but deep down, she detested Chang Jingqiu.

Mo Yuxin did not want to associate herselt too intimately with Chang Jingqiu due to her extremely calculative mind. It was difficult to say whether Chang Jingqiu was exploiting Liu Xiangwen for her own benefits or vice versa in her opinion, but Mo Yuxin would have goosebumps galore whenever she saw Chang Jingqiu and Liu Xiangwen closely associated with each other.

Mo Yuxin was getting extremely impatient at Liu Xiangwen’s jealousy tone now since there was no need to put all the blame on Ruan Danchen despite being envious.

Mo Yuxin fought the urge to yell at Liu Xiangwen that Ruan Danchen could wear the beautiful ring was all thanks to her man who bought it for her.

Liu Xiangwen did not even have the chance to show off since her man did not buy it for her!

However, Mo Yuxin kept all these to herself since both of them were sisters-in-law and today was Grandmother Chang’s birthday.

Thus, Mo Yuxin put on a flat expression and started chatting with Chang Zhiyuan, ignoring Liu Xiangwen completely.

“Keep those nonsense to yourself! It’s crowded here and there’s always a possibility that your nonsense will travel to the Qi family’s ears. What benefits will you gain from offending the Qi family?” Chang Zhixing was starting to get annoyed.

The Qi family was within Liu Xiangwen’s field of vision when she took a glance at the banquet hall.

The Qi family radiated an invisible aura in the banquet hall, which induced hesitation in other families to engage a conversation with them. They did not dare to act rashly and fought the urges to be acquainted with the Qi family even though they felt extremely anxious deep down.

However, members of The Great Eight Families such as Yan Beicheng and his gang walked over and joined the Qi family naturally, which formed an invisible force field around them. As a result, no one dared to get close to The Great Eight Families now.

Liu Xiangwen felt more envious when she noticed Ruan Danchen chatting calmly and happily with Yan Beicheng and his gang.

Ruan Danchen was born with a normal background unlike Liu Xiangwen, but how was she able to find such an awesome man with a kind family?

The Qi family was not bothered about Ruan Danchen’s background at all and did not give her the cold shoulder. Instead, Ruan Danchen was able to join in every occasion gracefully and chatted happily with all the members of The Great Eight Families as if she was closely associated with them. This scenery made Liu Xiangwen felt extremely unfair for her current life.

“There’s no one around us so who can hear our conversation? Besides, Mom clearly stated that she disliked Ruan Danchen, so what do I have to fear?” Liu Xiangwen said unhappily as she felt truly unfair deep down.

“That’s enough! I told you to keep all these to yourself and now you’re making it worse. Mom mentioned it at home and there’s no outsiders, but take a look at the situation now before you make any irresponsible remarks. How sure are you that none of your nonsense travelled to others’ ears? Do you think that you can even compare yourself with Mom?” Chang Zhixing rebuked Liu Xiangwen with lowered voice.

Liu Xiangwen felt disgraced when Chang Zhixing criticized her in the presence of Chang Zhiyuan and Mo Yuxin.

She recalled Qi Chenglin’s loving and caring attitude towards Ruan Danchen even though Qi Chenglin did not mention anything. The image of blue diamond ring on Ruan Danchen’s finger emerged in her brain and she took a glance at her own diamond ring. Even though the diamond on her ring weighed one carat, it appeared ordinary and bland as compared to Ruan Danchen’s blue diamond.

All of these induced jealousy and envious in Liu Xiangwen’s heart. Everything on Ruan Danchen was indicative of Qi Chenglin’s diligence and love for her.

However, Chang Zhixing scolded her in front of their family members.

Chang Zhiyuan whispered just as Liu Xiangwen was about to protest out of recalcitrance, “That’s enough, guests are coming.”

Liu Xiangwen pursed her lips tightly and exhaled heavily before standing still at Chang Zhixing’s side. Mu Huili, Fang Anci and Mu Huaisheng had arrived but Mu Sisi was nowhere to be seen.

Mu Sisi and Gao Jingqiu divorced not long ago and the outside world had no idea that she had a miscarriage which was all thanks to Gao Jingqiu. The public only remembered that she had copulations with a pervert whom she assumed was Qi Chengzhi and refused to let Qi Chengzhi go afterwards. None of them had forgotten about this issue since it happened only recently.

Thus, it was expected that Mu Sisi would not appear in public for quite a long time.

“Director Mu, Mrs. Mu, Mr. Mu. Welcome and thank you for coming, please come in,” Chang Zhiyuan greeted the trio politely.

Mu Huili and Fang Anci chatted with Chang Zhiyuan politely while Mu Huaisheng took a glance at Liu Xiangwen.

His glance gave Liu Xiangwen a shock. Did Mu Huaisheng overheard her complaint just now despite the lowered voice?

However, Mu Huaisheng shifted his gaze elsewhere momentarily as if nothing had happened.

Liu Xiangwen comforted herself to avoid overthinking regarding this issue as this was probably just a coincidence.

She did not dare to make any further remarks after the Mu family entered the banquet hall.

Mu Huaisheng noticed Ruan Danchen in the banquet hall from afar but he did not walk over to greet her. He was not an overly persistent man, or maybe his affection towards Ruan Danchen was not strong enough. He merely liked Ruan Danchen and wanted to start a relationship with her.

Mu Huaisheng would not force her if she had no intention to do so.

Since Ruan Danchen was married now, Mu Huaisheng refrained from performing anything that could potentially lead to misunderstanding or disgust and caused troubles to her.

…

…

On the other end of the hall stood Chang Jingqiu’s best friends—Xia Zishan and Chen Libai. Chang Jingqiu invited them on purpose so that Xia Zishan could have a chance to start a relationship with Chen Libai and she would owe Chang Jingqiu a favour upon success. This way, both Chang Jingqiu and Xia Zishan could gain benefits from each others.

Beside Chang Jingqiu’s best friends stood Gao Xiaoyang.

Gao Xiaoyang was just a normal girl born in an ordinary family who studied hard and furthered her studies in the renowned University F. She returned to B City after graduation to seek for job, and finally accepted an offer of employment in a newspaper company.

The top management of her newspaper company found out regarding Grandmother Chang’s birthday banquet, so they instructed Chang Jingqiu to bring Gao Xiaoyang along to get in touch with the business mogul. It would be easier to appoint an interview with them once Gao Xiaoyang had familiarized herself with those business mogul.

Chang Jingqiu managed to agree on it despite the reluctance and sent an invitation to Gao Xiaoyang.

Xia Zhishan was trying her best to engage in a chit chat with Chen Libai in order to gain his favouritism while Gao Xiaoyang came tonight just for work. Even if she could not get to know every business mogul tonight, she could probably gained some shocking information, no matter if it was a sign or not, by watching and listening to them.

Thus, Gao Xiaoyang shifted her gaze across the hall repeatedly and suddenly, her gaze made an emergency U-turn and rested on Ruan Danchen. Then, she rubbed her eyes repeatedly thinking that she had recognized wrongly.

After staring at that person for a long while, that was Ruan Danchen, right?

She saw Ruan Danchen and a child in the buffet area, piling up the plate in her hands with food for her child.

Ruan Danchen brought the kid to search for food since he was hungry. Qi Chenglin wanted to follow initially but was stopped by Ruan Danchen, claiming that they were just going to get some food. His persistence in following them everywhere would end up being a laughing matter to Yan Beicheng and his gang so she thought that it was for the best for Qi Chenglin to continue chatting with them.

Moreover, this banquet hall was not considered big and Qi Chenglin could notice them straight away by simply turning around.

Guan Liya, on the other hand, was surrounded by a group of women who were busy expressing their compliments. She continued the conversation with them gracefully despite the annoyance, but she too had no time to attend to Qi Youxuan.

Thus, Ruan Danchen was the only one left who could accompany Qi Youxuan.

Gao Xiaoyang then poked Xia Zishan immediately. Xia Zishan was in the middle of a conversation with Chen Libai and felt unhappy instantly upon disturbance. Gao Xiaoyang asked when she turned around, “Look, is she Danchen?”

Xia Zishan shook her head and laughed before she even looked at the direction Gao Xiaoyang gestured. “Impossible, I think you’re mistaken, or maybe Jingqiu invited her too?”

Xia Zishan thought to herself while looking at the direction Gao Xiaoyang pointed, Ruan Danchen was really shameless if this was the case.

Ruan Danchen dared to attend the banquet despite the fact that all guests were of much higher status than her. Was it possible that she brought her son here to get a free meal again?

In the end, damn, Ruan Danchen was here!

Xia Zishan pouted disdainfully and her eyebrows were raised in contempt. “What a shameless lady, she really brought her son here to get a free meal. She dared to bring her son here to embarrass herself and even threw away her dignity just for a free dinner. Why would Jingqiu invite such a shameless person?”

Chang Jingqiu did not mention anything about Ruan Danchen and Qi Chenglin’s marriage to Xia Zishan especially when she needed Xia Zishan to introduce Shen Zhijing to her, thus she did not want Xia Zishan to notice her true intention from here.

Gao Xiaoyang was not present when they met Ruan Danchen at Shengyue last time.

To be honest, Chang Jingqiu and her gang despised Gao Xiaoyang who was just a lady from an ordinary family. They normally would not invite her unless it was for high school gathering.

Gao Xiaoyang knew that she would not get along well with Chang Jingqiu and her gang too so she never tried to show excessive passion towards them.

Gao Xiaoyang disagreed on Xia Zishan’s harsh statement, so with her eyebrows raised, she said directly without hiding any facts, “Do you think what you have said just now is appropriate in Libai’s presence?”

Xia Zishan’s expression changed immediately. Ruan Danchen disgusted her since Chen Libai had a crush on Ruan Danchen. Thus, Xia Zishan would forget everything whenever she saw Ruan Danchen and would insult her with all her might.

Xia Zishan immediately took a glance at Chen Libai anxiously after hearing Gao Xiaoyang’s statement.

To be honest, Xia Zishan was unsure what Gao Xiaoyang meant by her statement. Did Gao Xiaoyang meant that it was inappropriate for her to criticize Ruan Danchen since Chen Libai had a crush on Ruan Danchen, or Gao Xiaoyang was aware that she had a crush on Chen Libai and he would feel disgusted at her due to her harsh criticism on Ruan Danchen in his presence?

Gao Xiaoyang was indeed a reporter to be able to speak with such a high standard.

Gao Xiaoyang left them alone and went to find Ruan Danchen when Xia Zishan was getting anxious.

There would be standard proper meals for Grandmother Chang’s birthday banquet, thus the food in the buffet area consisted mainly of desserts for guests to have a bite when they were hungry.

The cakes were cut to miniature sizes until one would not get his mouth full when biting one full piece of cake, but they were delicate and tasted delicious too.

Ruan Danchen took two small pieces of cake and a small piece of fruit tart for the kid as she did not want him to consume too much desserts.

Then, she held the plate and was prepared to bring the kid back to the seat.

“Danchen,” Ruan Danchen turned her head and saw Gao Xiaoyang walking towards her with an astonished look. Gao Xiaoyang was purely surprised as to why Ruan Danchen was here without any harsh thoughts.

Sure enough, Gao Xiaoyang asked when she was near Ruan Danchen, “Why are you here?”

Then, Gao Xiaoyang noticed the kid beside Ruan Danchen who was eager to consume the desserts in his plate. There were glimmers in her eyes as she stared at the kid’s chubby but good looking face. Gao Xiaoyang asked again before Ruan Danchen could respond to her, “Is this your son? So cute!”

Ruan Danchen smiled and touched the kid’s neck instead of his hair.

The kid purposely fashioned his hair into a stylish design tonight, so Ruan Danchen took extreme care in avoiding any potential damage to his hair.

Qi Youxuan could feel that this auntie was different than those he met in Shengyue last time, so he greeted politely, “Hi, auntie.”

“By the way, why are you here too?” Ruan Danchen asked.

Gao Xiaoyang explained everything to Ruan Danchen and snorted. “I feel extremely stressed in this sort of place, and yet my boss instructed me to familiarize myself with them. How shameless should I get in order to make myself known in their social circles? My boss sent me here because he was worried about losing his dignity.”

Ruan Danchen smiled. Then, Gao Xiaoyang asked again, “By the way, why are you here? Did Chang Jingqiu invite you too?”

Gao Xiaoyang frowned in confusion and said, “She isn’t the friendly sort of person though.”

Xia Zishan and Chen Libai walked over just when Ruan Danchen was about to answer. Xia Zishan said harshly before Ruan Danchen could mutter a word, “Danchen, why are you here? Did Jingqiu invite you?”

Then, she laughed lightly after noticing the kid beside her. “No one at home to take care of your son again?”

Gao Xiaoyang frowned as Xia Zishan went a little too far in her criticism now..

Ruan Danchen answered before Gao Xiaoyang defended her, “Yes, my whole family is here now, so naturally there’s no one left at home.”

Xia Zishan did not give much thought to this matter as she assumed Chang Jingqiu had invited Ruan Danchen to this banquet which allowed Ruan Danchen to bring her son and husband here shamelessly.

“You’re quite smart,” Xia Zishan pouted. She was lazy to hide her disgust now.

However, Xia Zishan did not realize that Ruan Danchen was the actual one feeling surprised upon seeing them. The Chang family was well known for putting the rich within his reach and the poor beneath his contempt. Since the Chang family had a higher status than the Xia family, they would not invite the Xia family to the banquet.

Thus, Xia Zishan was the actual one attending the banquet using Chang Jingqiu’s fame and she felt too embarrassed to even bring her family members over to the banquet.

Chen Libai frowned slightly too. He did not understand why Ruan Danchen mated with a useless man and put her future to waste, and she even acted shamelessly by bringing her family over to this banquet.

He thought Ruan Danchen’s life must be difficult to attend the banquet for a free meal just to save money.

Qi Youxuan already gulped down all the cakes in his plate while the adults were talking.

Qi Chenglin, who was chatting with Yan Beicheng and his gang, would turn around from time to time to check on Ruan Danchen and wondered why she had not returned yet.

This time, he saw Chen Libai talking to Ruan Danchen when he turned around to look for her.

When Qi Chenglin was investigating Chen Libai on the internet, his photographs were attached too. Even so, he did not recognize Chen Libai at first glance due to a difference between the actual person and photographs. However, he had confirmed Chen Libai’s identity after taking a few more glances at him.

Qi Chenglin raised his eyebrows and walked towards Ruan Danchen without hesitation. His sudden act without any warnings gave Yan Beicheng and his gang quite a surprise.

Yan Beicheng and his gang were too embarrassed to yell at Qi Chenglin and asked what was going on in this sort of occasion.

Gui Zhiqian blinked and stared at him with narrowed eyes. “Why do I feel an intense aura radiated from Qi Chenglin?”

“Yo, something fishy is going on,” Han Zhuoli stood beside Gui Zhiqian and narrowed his eyes too.

The two of them appeared like fortune telling demigods which kind of destroyed their images.

“Why are we staring at him? Let’s follow him,” Yan Beicheng waved his hand and marched forward.

Han Zhuoli and Gui Zhiqian followed closely behind. Chu Zhaoyang was about to give his comment but since everyone was gone, he froze for a while and looked at his surroundings before following behind them too.

“Dad!” The kid saw Qi Chenglin walking towards him with his keen eyes and yelled at the top of his voice before Qi Chenglin even arrived. He did not care whether it was embarrassing or not since he was just a child. He deserved special privileges.

Everyone, especially the excited Xia Zishan, turned their heads after hearing Qi Youxuan as they were eager to know the true identity of Ruan Danchen’s husband. However, they only saw Qi Chenglin walking towards them followed by Yan Beicheng, Han Zhuoli, Gui Zhiqian and Chu Zhaoyang.

All of them were on the top of the food chain and way out of league for the Chang family, not to mention the Xia family too.

Xia Zishan did not notice anyone else other than them.

Who was Ruan Danchen’s husband then?

Qi Chenglin walked past Chen Libai without any attempt to make eye contact and stood beside Ruan Danchen, slipping his hand on her waist naturally. He raised his eyebrows and stared at Chen Libai and Xia Zishan with a hostile gaze. “Acquaintance of yours?”

“Yes, they are my high school classmates. I didn’t expect to meet them here,” Ruan Danchen answered lightly without any intention to introduce Xia Zishan and Chen Libai to them.

Ruan Danchen was not a doormat too so there was no way that Ruan Danchen would give Xia Zishan a chance to get acquainted with Qi Chenglin and his gang.

This might sound arrogant and shameless, but it would be an honour to let Qi Chengin and his gang acknowledged one’s name especially for the type of social class which Xia Zishan was categorized into.

Which was exactly why many wanted to introduce themselves to The Great Eight Families shamelessly.

Ruan Danchen did not have much antipathy for Chen Libai. He was merely a victim which was all thanks to Xia Zishan.

Since Ruan Danche did not want to introduce Xia Zishan, naturally she would not introduce Chen Libai alone too.

Ruan Danchen’s main worry was not Xia Zishan’s dignity issue but Qi Chenglin’s narrow-mindedness.

Xia Zishan’s expression changed immediately as she stared at Qi Chenglin full of surprises. Meanwhile, Yan Beicheng and his gang stood beside Qi Chenglin as if watching a show, with Chu Zhaoyang acted ever so slightly restrained than the rest.

Her expressions kept changing in disbelief. Then, her gaze shifted involuntarily to Qi Chenglin’s hand on Ruan Danchen’s waist.

Could it be that… Qi Chenglin was Ruan Danchen’s husband?

This was impossible!

This was not real!

Xia Zishan was unwilling to accept the truth even though everything was pointing towards it.

This matter was totally unreal for her anyway!

However, this was the truth. She had no choice but to accept it.

She did not understand how would Ruan Danchen get to know Qi Chenglin and even married to him. How fortunate would Ruan Danchen be to have found such a good opportunity?

Xia Zishan felt a great sense of discomfort at the thought of Ruan Danchen as a young madam in the Qi family now.

Ruan Danchen was the most ordinary person in high school whose existence was almost close to none. However, a person with a family background which was worse than normal initially had turned out to be one who Xia Zishan must look up to now.

Xia Zishan was left speechless now.

“Is Youxuan full now?” Qi Chenglin ignored Xia Zishan and Chen Libai who were frozen to the spot due to shock and asked Ruan Danchen with a soft tone.

“He ate some desserts but it wasn’t much since dinner will be served soon,” Ruan Danchen answered.

“Do you still need to catch up with your classmates? Are we disturbing you?” Qi Chenglin asked as if he had just realized that Xia Zishan and Chen Libai were standing in front of him.

“No, they were just here to say hi,” Ruan Danchen smiled.

Qi Chenglin nodded before giving a perfunctory statement to Xia Zishan and Chen Libai. “Excuse me, we’re leaving now.”

Then, he ignored the duo and walked away with Ruan Danchen and Qi Youxuan.

Ruan Danchen bid goodbye to Gao Xiaoyang only before she left.

Xia Zishan remained submerged in the sea of astonishment at the moment. Gao Xiaoyang remained on her spot too instead of following them since they were in a totally different social category than her.

She did not have the courage to acquaint herself with them even though the top management had instructed her to familiarize herself with the business mogul.

Then, she heard Xia Zishan’s dispirited mumbling. “How is this… How did Ruan Danchen start a relationship with Qi Chenglin, what is this…”

Xia Zishan lifted her head suddenly after regaining consciousness from mumbling for quite a while and said, “Ruan Danchen was so atrocious that she even schemed to embarrass us on purpose! She purposely kept his husband’s identity a secret just to show off at this very moment, right? What a calculative woman! Why would she treat us badly when we didn’t offend her at all?”

“She hid her husband’s identity during the high school reunion. She didn’t clarify the misunderstanding when she brought her son to Shengyue last time. She didn’t even make it clear when I was just standing right in front of her!” Xia Zishan turned to face Chen Libai suddenly. “Libai, you noticed her expression just now, right? She didn’t reveal that Qi Chenglin was actually her husband on purpose and attended this banquet with him just to set a trap for us. This is just great, I wonder what sort of complaint she’ll give to Qi Chenglin now. She acted malicious towards us when we didn’t even offend her! Look at her expression when she finally showed off to us! She even acted low profile at usual times. What a pretentious b*tch!”

Gao Xiaoyang was fed up with Xia Zishan now. No wonder Xia Zishan was able to get on intimate terms with Chang Jingqiu. Their personalities and attitudes were compatible after all!

“Xia Zishan, you were the one who treated Danchen harshly at first, and now you said Danchen was the one setting up traps for you? If you didn’t treat her with hatred and disgust, then you wouldn’t worry about her complaining to Qi Chenglin now, right? Even if she did complain to him, it would still be the truth, so how was it considered a complaint?”

“Danchen mentioned that she had a good boyfriend and even had a child too at the gathering last time. She even said that their relationship was stable and they were planning on marriage too. Do you think she should tell you that her husband is actually Qi Chenglin? Who do you think you are to ask her to report to you on every single matter? You saw it with your own eyes when Qi Chenglin drove Mercedes-Benz to fetch Danchen, right? Even so, you had doubts that he was actually a chauffeur and he probably rented the car from somewhere. Will you believe even if she tells you the truth? Will you think that she’s just bluffing and pretending?”

“I had no idea what happened at Shengyue since I wasn’t there so I have no comment on it, but you were criticizing her for no absolute reasons tonight. What did she say? Was she wrong when she said all her family members were here? You were the one who assumed that she was pitiful. Normally, you would start to figure out her true identity when she said so, right? Her whole family members were here, which means they were one of the families here, then you should have realized that she most probably belonged to one of those families.”

“Besides, you insisted that she was showing off even though she was merely telling the truth. You speculated in a negative way and assumed that she was in a pitiful state when she acted low profile, then you insisted that she was showing off when she acted high profile. Now you were saying that she pretended to stay low profile and framed you on purpose when she told you the truth. Everything she did was wrong since you disliked her anyway. Have you ever thought of your own behavior? Would you feel scared right now if you socialize honestly?”

Gao Xiaoyang pouted disdainfully. “To be honest, you feel happier when she’s in a more pitiful state! You merely felt angry when she had achieved so much instead and you were unable to achieve the same goal in your lifetime.”

Xia Zishan’s expression paled with anger as Gao Xiaoyang’s every words meant exactly what she was thinking right now.

Chen Libai remained silent. He knew Gao Xiaoyang was right even though he was unwilling to admit it. He assumed that Ruan Danchen’s husband was nowhere as good as him and categorized her husband as useless initially as a form of self-comfort. This way, Ruan Danchen would feel regret for missing out such an awesome man like him.

“Gao Xiaoyang!” Xia Zishan roared through suppressed voice. She did not want to embarrass herself among the crowd disregarding the facts whether they were strangers or acquaintances.

“Why are you condemning justly and righteous now instead of mentioning all these before? You just want to ingratiate Ruan Danchen after knowing her true identity now, right?” Xia Zishan scoffed.

Gao Xiaoyang remained calm and smirked. “I don’t care what do you think about me, but now you have no chance to ingratiate her again.”

Then, Gao Xiaoyang turned around and left.

She did not search for Ruan Danchen to avoid arousing suspicions as Ruan Danchen and the Qi family would think that she was seizing the opportunity to fawn over them.

However, she did not have any other acquaintances in the banquet hall and it would be unwise to introduce herself to the business mogul rashly. Thus, she had no choice but to enter the washroom.

Then, she saw Ruan Danchen washing her hands upon entering the washroom.

Gao Xiaoyang felt awkward now that she realized Ruan Danchen’s true identity, but she gave Ruan Danchen a smile nonetheless.

Ruan Danchen pulled out a piece of tissue paper to wipe her hands and threw it into the wastepaper bin. Then, she smiled at Gao Xiaoyang and said, “I wasn’t keeping it a secret from you on purpose. In fact, I wanted to tell you just now but then Xia Zishan came over.”

Gao Xiaoyang felt at ease after hearing Ruan Danchen.

Then, she washed her hands and touched up her makeup since she was not here to answer nature’s call. “Xia Zishan was beaten up after you left. Do you know that they assumed you’re living a poverty-stricken life now?”

Ruan Danchen nodded. “I can see that from their expressions and tones.”

Then, she looked at Gao Xiaoyang and asked, “You’re not here to answer nature’s call?”

Gao Xiaoyang snorted. “I came here to relax myself since it was out of my elements out there.”

She recalled that perhaps Ruan Danchen would worry about his son, so she said, “Don’t need to care about me, you can leave first.”

Ruan Danchen then said after giving this a little thought, “Why don’t you come with me?”

“Hey, there’s no need for that. All of them are from the Qi family, I’ll feel more stressed if I go with you,” Gao Xiaoyang rejected immediately.

Ruan Danchen grinned. “Your boss sent you to familiarize yourself with the business mogul, right? I’ll introduce you to The Great Eight Families then.”

Gao Xiaoyang panicked since this was a rare opportunity but she was reluctant to seize it due to extreme nervousness.

Ruan Danchen laughed upon noticing her expression and said, “They’re quite fun, so don’t need to feel nervous.”

“Only for a close friend like you,” Gao Xiaoyang stared at Ruan Danchen plaintively.

Ruan Danchen grinned. “Well, I can’t help you with anything about interviews but I can introduce you to them. I cannot guarantee that you’ll be able to interview them since it’s all up to you now, but at least you have connections, right? So, do you want to go or not?”

Gao Xiaoyang grabbed Ruan Danchen’s arm, summoned up her courage and nodded through gritted teeth. “Go!”

The duo then exited the washroom, and before they walked further, Ruan Danchen noticed Chang Jingqiu and a granny walking towards them. Coincidentally, she recognized the granny—she was the one who brought her grandson and bickered with Ruan Danchen at the amusement arcade last time.

Ruan Danchen was taken by surprise at the unfortunate coincidence. Looking at the intimacy between Chang Jingqiu and the granny, she figured out the granny’s identity too.

Grandmother Chang was stunned too as she did not expect to meet the ill-mannered young lady who quarreled with her before.

Chang Jingqiu pretended as if nothing had happened and introduced Ruan Danchen with a polite smile. “Grandma, these two are my high school classmates—Ruan Danchen and Gao Xiaoyang.”

Grandmother Chang was not bothered about Gao Xiaoyang and ignored her straight away. Instead, she fixed her slightly cloudy eyes on Ruan Danchen and pursed her wrinkled lips tightly before walking with Chang Jingqiu and stood right in front of Ruan Danchen closely.

“Humph!” Grandmother Chang smirked. “Young lady, didn’t expect to see me so soon, right?”

“Hello,” Ruan Danchen greeted lightly with a flat expression.

There were no signs of nervousness, fear or regret, which further irritated Grandmother Chang.

She clung to the mistake instead of correcting it!

“Why are you here? Since when did the Chang family acquainted with such ill-mannered young lady? Why did we allow any random ill-bred to attend my birthday banquet?” Grandmother Chang pretended to have known nothing and asked Chang Jingqiu.

“Grandma, I think there’s a misunderstanding here. She’s Qi Chenglin’s wife,” Chang Jingqiu replied but her gaze on Ruan Danchen was full of disdain.

“Qi Chenglin’s wife? She was worthy for him? How did Qi Chenglin believe her? She must have acted well in front of him but ill-mannered behind his back! She brought her son and bullied me and Nannan in the mall that day! What kind of attitude was that? Did she think everything will be fine when the Qi family knew nothing about this? Well, she didn’t expect to meet me here!”

Grandmother Chang gave Ruan Danchen a disdainful stare. “The Qi family must have felt ashamed to have such an ill-mannered person like you! Young lady, you must improve your manners and don’t push your luck. The Qi family will know the truth one day if you continue damaging the Qi family’s reputation. You encountered me today and you’ll encounter another person in the same social circle tomorrow. You’re still young, so best to perform your duty well and improve your personality and behaviour.”

Gao Xiaoyang was exasperated before Ruan Danchen could make a statement.

Grandmother Chang took advantage of her seniority and made such a derogatory criticism.

Every statement she made was meant to criticize Ruan Danchen’s ill mannerism, but she did not realize that she was the actual one who behaved rudely now!

Then, Ruan Danchen pinched Gao Xiaoyang’s wrist stealthily as a hint to prevent her from acting rashly.

Grandmother Chang continued when Gao Xiaoyang managed to contain her anger. “It is understandable when I recalled your family background. A crooked stick casts a crooked shadow. How good can a daughter be with such mother? I really don’t know why the Qi family accepted you.”

“It’s fortunate that the Chang family doesn’t have such worry. There’s no need to trouble you as to why the Qi family accepted me and about my attitudes, my family will be the judges. Besides, don’t assume that you were absolutely right regarding what happened in the mall that day, there were witnesses who were able to judge what was right or wrong. If you think that your grandson’s lies and shameless acts at such a young age was considered well-mannered with proper attitudes, then I am truly doubtful about your standard and criterion. At the same time, I’m truly happy and relieved that my attitudes and behaviors are not up to your standard.”

Gao Xiaoyang made no attempt to hide her laughter. She did not expect Ruan Danchen to speak ferociously and criticized Grandmother Chang tactfully.

Gao Xiaoyang was considered at the bottom of the social hierarchy since she did not have any strong backgrounds, thus it was unwise for her to speak rashly. It would be fine if the other party felt unworthy to argue with her, but Grandmother Chang would take her sweet revenge and inevitably, her only outcome would be disastrous.

Grandmother Chang was indeed this type of person based on her behaviour just now.

Which was exactly why Ruan Danchen reminded Gao Xiaoyang to keep quiet and let her do all the talking. Ruan Danchen had the Qi family’s support and thus there was no need for her to worry too much if the Chang family was offended.

The Qi family was quite protective in this sort of matter.

“So rude and disrespectful towards elders! Look at where you stand and whose birthday banquet is today before you start speaking rudely! The Qi family must have been cursed to have a daughter-in-law like you! You will never get up to standard when you don’t have a good mother to educate you properly.

A chicken will always be a chicken even if it stays in a phoenix’s nest

!”

It broadened Gao Xiaoyang’s mind to hear Grandmother Chang’s criticism getting harsher. Each of them was born in a silver spoon but their behaviors were incompatible with their supposed temperament.

Grandmother Chang was criticizing Ruan Danchen since the beginning without realizing something. What did Ruan Danchen mentioned so far, and what did she said up to this point?

What sort of double standard was this?

Ruan Danchen inhaled deeply as she was on the brink of losing her cool. “I don’t know who is my biological mother or how does she look like, so I won’t judge her simply, and none will have the right to judge her without any evidence.”

It was obvious that Grandmother Chang was taken by surprise at her statement. Initially, Gao Xiaoyang thought that her conscience had gotten the better of her.

However, Grandmother Chang ignored Ruan Danchen straight away and patted gently on Chang Jingqiu’s hand before saying sincerely, “I think I overestimated her. The problem wasn’t with her mother giving an improper education to her, she didn’t even have a mother to begin with.”

Grandmother Chang went a little too far now!

Even Gao Xiaoyang felt indignant as an onlooker, so one could imagine how exasperated Ruan Danchen was right now.

Gao Xiaoyang met with all kinds of people as a reporter, but she had never seen such detestable individual before.

They could potentially retaliate recklessly if their opponent was younger, but Grandmother Chang acted without the slightest scruple just because she was an elder. All Grandmother Chang had to say was that they were disrespectful towards elders if they argued a little too much, so they felt especially helpless towards this elderly individual.

“Grandma, don’t say that. I was born without a mother too, but luckily I had grandma and uncles to educate me,” Chang Jingqiu said softly and appeared especially lovely right now.

Grandmother Chang felt extremely satisfied after hearing Chang Jingqiu and patted the back of her hand softly in response.

Before Grandmother Chang could continue her criticism on Ruan Danchen, another voice interrupted. “Old Madam Chang,”

Grandmother Chang turned towards the voice and saw Mu Huaisheng walking towards them from the back.

Grandmother Chang was criticizing Ruan Danchen unscrupulously since they were alone in the corridor, thus she was unsure if any of her words travelled to Mu Huaisheng’s ears.

She knew her statements were too harsh in the first place.

Mu Huaisheng gave quite a good impression on Grandmother Chang. The Mu family would be perfect if it was not for his dumb sister.

Even so, Grandmother Chang shifted her target and intended to introduce Chang Jingqiu to Mu Huaisheng since Qi Chenglin was married now. She just needed to know if Mu Huaisheng was interested or not.

Grandmother Chang was worried if Mu Huaisheng overheard her criticism towards Ruan Danchen just now and resulted in a bad impression on Chang Jingqiu.

Grandmother Chang calmed herself down before putting on a natural smile. “Huaisheng, ha ha, why did you appear behind us out of nowhere?”

“I went to the washroom just now,” Mu Huaisheng replied calmly with a flat expression.

Grandmother Chang sighed in relief. Then, there was a sudden racket coming from the banquet hall.

They could hear the commotion clearly since they were quite close to the banquet hall.

“Old Madam! Old Madam!” A woman in her forties rushed forward anxiously and her nervousness increased upon seeing Grandmother Chang.

“What’s going on? Why the rush?” Grandmother Chang asked annoyingly.

“It’s Little Young Master, he is fighting with a child,” The babysitter who was hired by the Chang family to take care of Chang Jianan said.

Grandmother Chang did not bother about Ruan Danchen anymore and hurried towards the scene with Chang Jingqiu.

Ruan Danchen thought of Qi Youxuan all of a sudden since there were not many children who attended the banquet and they had an argument with Grandmother Chang and her grandson not long ago. Thus, she ran pass Grandmother Chang whose pace was much slower than hers and arrived at the scene before Grandmother Chang did.

There was an area in the centre of the banquet hall which was more hectic than the rest. She could even hear a loud cry from a child faintly but it did not belong to Qi Youxuan.

Ruan Danchen rushed into the crowd and saw Guan Liya carrying Qi Youxuan up.

The kid’s face was flushed red due to anger and when he saw Ruan Danchen, he yelled, “Mom!”

Ruan Danchen then hurried forward and saw Guan Liya’s angry expression. “Mom, what happened?”

“I don’t know whose child is this but he is very rude!” Guan Liya frowned.

Qi Chenglin came and took Qi Youxuan over from Guan Liya into his embosom.

Then, Qi Chenglin put him down since the kid was struggling in his embosom.

It was expected that the other kid was indeed Nannan, who was Grandmother Chang’s grandson from the amusement arcade that day.

Chang Jianan was soaking wet and there was ice falling from within his shirt while he was jumping around repeatedly on the same spot. Judging from the scattered ice on the floor, it was obvious that his wet clothes were a result of melted ice.

The freezing Chang Jianan was crying while hopping around repeatedly. It was winter now and even though the environment of the banquet hall was warm, he could not withstand the cold from the pile of ice in his shirt.

Chang Jianan saw his parents first before Grandmother Chang and immediately felt that his support was finally here. He wailed and threw himself straight into Liu Xiangwen’s embosom.

This is a proverb in chinese “野鸡就算是混进凤凰窝里也还是野鸡” which means one cannot alter his character by joining the upper social classes.

- - -

“What is this, what is going on?” Liu Xiangwen was wearing a dress, while she was hugging Chang Jianan her bare forearms and shoulders stuck to his wet shirt, and had felt the cold very soon, and goosebumps formed on her forearms.

Liu Xiangwen asked worriedly, “why is it so cold?”

When she saw the ice cubes all over the floor, she understood.

Chang Zhixing hurriedly took off his jacket, and without caring about the fact that there were lots of people around who were looking, removed Chang Jianan’s shirt and covered him with the jacket.

Liu Xiangwen’s heart ached at seeing her son shivering from the cold.

“Mommy, daddy, he bullied me!” Chang Jianian said, bursting into tears. They didn’t know who Qi Youxuan was, and even if they did, they hadn’t yet realized how serious things were.

“What’s going on?” in the confusion of the crowd, Liu Xiangwen had not yet been able to see that the members of the Qi Family did not have pleasant looks on their faces, kneeling down to ask her child, while wiping away his tears.

Chang Jianan just kept crying, “He bullied me! He bullied me, why is he here! He even splashed ice on me!”

Chang Jianan was crying in a particularly pitiful manner, and in the end even Grandmother Chang came with Chang Jingqiu rushed over, and upon seeing her grandson’s pitiful state, she nearly burst out cursing in anger.

“What’s going on?” this time it was Qi Chenglin who asked, looking down at Qi Youxuan, but his face was not stern, he knew his son, and knew that his son was not the kind to cause trouble without reason.

Qi Youxuan huffed at Chang Jianan dismissively, before recounting what had happened in full.

While Ruan Danchen was at the washroom, Qi Youxuan was surrounded by people, and Grandfather and Grandmother Qi were not around. Therefore Qi Youxuan ran off to the buffet’s dessert table to grab something to eat.

Unfortunately, he bumped into Chang Jianan who was also there to get something to eat.

The Chang Family was hosting the banquet tonight, making Chang Jianan think that this was his territory, and so he was rather relaxed, and just a little bit prideful.

Therefore when he saw Qi Youxuan, it was as though two enemies had met in an alley, reopening old wounds.

Chang Jianan was not aware of who Qi Youxuan was, and only thought of the history between the two of them, and rushed up to flip the plate of cakes in Qi Youxuan’s hand.

The plate fell onto the floor and shattered with a crash.

In the bustle of the banquet, this sound was not particularly audible. Only the service staff of Dynasty saw it, but just assumed that it was the carelessness of the child who dropped the plate, and rushed over to clean up.

However, just as the service staff arrived, and had not yet been able to start cleaning up, Chang Jianan savagely shoved Qi Youxuan, charging towards him with the intention of pushing Qi Youxuan to the floor so he would be cut by the shards of the plate.

Qi Youxuan wobbled slightly, his body tilting to the back, his arms oscillating back and forth constantly to maintain his balance.

At that time he was terrified, knowing the consequences of falling over, it would be no big deal if his buttocks were pierced and bled, fortunately just before he fell, his little hand held onto a table, and with great difficulty he stabilized himself, and didn’t injure himself falling down.

However Chang Jianan was still not letting it go, and strained his tonsils shouting, “How are you here? This is my grandmother’s birthday banquet, it’s my family’s territory, you’re not welcome here, get out! Get out! Get out! You’re not allowed to eat my family’s food! This was all bought with my family’s money, you’re not allowed to eat it! You miserable thing, the audacity to come and eat my family’s things!”

Chang Jianan kept shoving Qi Youxuan as he shouted, this time not to push him down, but with the intention to chase him out.

“What are you doing, I’m here with my daddy and mommy, we were invited.” Qi Youxuan evaded him, explaining.

However Chang Jianan was not listening, and Qi Youxuan was getting tired of being pushed, the little boy was not to be lightly bullied, and being pushed by Chang Jianan made him angry.

Qi Youxuan turned to look, and saw a few slices of ice cream cakes, to maintain the temperature, there were layers of ice cubes on the plate.

The little boy grabbed the plate, and along with the pieces of cake, and threw them at Chang Jianan.

Apart from the slices of ice cream cakes, the entire pile of ice cubes splashed over Chang Jianan’s body with a clatter.

Chang Jianan screamed from the shock of the cold, and jumped around without pause, he felt ice around his neck, and he shivered from the cold.

Qi Youxuan looked around once more, and saw a small bucket of ice on the side, it was for guests to cool their drinks, and so he nonchalantly grabbed the bucket, and with one hand opened up Chang Jianan’s collar, and poured the contents of the bucket into it. The ice cubes slid down Chang Jianan’s skin, making him cry from the cold.

At that Qi Youxian was finally satisfied, and rubbed his palms, which were cold.

After hearing Qi Youxuan’s words, Guan Liya looked over, because the incident involved the two Young Masters fighting, the greatest priority was still the Young Master of the Qi Family, the service staff very wisely did not clear away the evidence of the shattered plate, but kept watch there to prevent any guests from getting injured.

Guan Liya saw the broken plate on the ground, if Qi Youxuan did fall from being pushed, being injured on his hands and arms would be fortunate, what if he fell on his head?

Guan Liya was so furious her eyes were red, and hearing Chang Jianan wailing next to her added on to her ire.

Her grandson wasn’t crying, what was this Chang Jianan crying about!

It was at this moment that Grandmother Chang and Chang Jingqiu arrived late to the scene, and upon seeing her grandson crying so pitifully, Grandmother Chang did not inquire into what happened, but asked instead, “Nannan[1], what happened, who bullied

you?”

“Bullied him? Our Youxuan isn’t an undisciplined brat.” Guan Liya could not stand Grandmother Chang’s overbearing demeanor.

Without asking about what happened, or who was right or wrong, she immediately assumed someone had bullied Chang Jianan.

What was this!

“Your grandson wanted to harm our Youxuan, and our Youxuan let him off lightly by teaching him a lesson like this.” Guan Liya was not one to be discreet, on account of her status not even Grandmother Chang would dare to be brazen before her.

“I don’t know how the Chang family educates their children, to have such venomous thoughts at such a young age. He knocked down my grandson’s plate, and doesn’t have any courtesy towards guests as a host, I can still accept it as him being young and immature. Kids will be kids, and it’s normal for them to get into scuffles and fights, we as adults can understand that. But for him to try and push my Youxuan onto that broken plate, how venomous can one get?”

“If my Youxuan fell there, if he were to simply be cut that would be fortunate, but if he were to be seriously injured or die, which one of you will give me back my grandson!” Guan Liya said furiously.

Qi Zhongxun stood aside with no intention to intervene, it was better for women to take the lead in matters like this, and he would support her fully.

Qi Youxuan was the treasure of their family, how can he be bullied here!

Grandmother Chang almost lost her temper from Guan Liya’s remarks, generally it was she who would subdue others with her fury, and nobody had the right to do the same to her.

With great difficulty, Grandmother Chang replied stiffly, “isn’t it fine now?”

“It’s fine now, but if it were not fine it would have been too late! Fortunately nothing bad happened, and you should be thankful for that! If my grandson were to suffer any injury because of you, the Qi Family will not let you rest easy!” Guan Liya retorted.

She had already lost a son, so this was a trigger for her, if anything happened to anyone in the family, it would get on her every nerve, no matter who it was, even if they suffered a bit of misfortune or injury was something she could not tolerate.

Grandmother Chang just had to provoke her on this matter.

Chang Zhiyuan and Mo Yuxin rushed forwards, and seeing Grandmother Chang trembling with rage, her fierce visage looking like she was about to respond, Chang Zhiyuan quickly stepped in front of Grandmother Chang, saying, “we apologize, our Nannan was wrong in this matter.”

He still had a business relationship with Qilin, and could not allow that to deteriorate over this.

Grandmother Chang was displeased upon hearing that, “why is it Nannan’s fault, it’s Nannan who has been splashed with ice, shivering in the cold!”

Grandmother Chang looked at Guan Liya, “no matter what, your grandson should apologize!”

Qi Youxuan clenched his jaw, he was just defending himself, to tell him to apologize, the words just would not leave his mouth.

He felt victimized, and a layer of tears clouded his black irises.

Ruan Danchen was still imagining in fear what would have happened if Qi Youxuan was really pushed onto the shards of the plate.

She shivered, and quickly picked up Qi Youxuan to hold in her arms, no matter what was said she would not let Qi Youxuan apologize to Chang Jianan.

She could see from Qi Youxuan’s eyes the indignity he felt.

Qi Chenglin saw it too, and his large hand ran over his son’s head, comforting him.

“Grandmother, right now Nannan is shivering, shouldn’t we get a room for him, and change him into fresh clothes to warm him up? If we leave him cold like this any longer he’ll catch a fever.” Chang Jingqiu reminded quietly.

The volume wasn’t particularly loud, but everybody around heard it clearly.

Everybody now could not help but feel somewhat sorry for Chang Jianan.

His prior motives were no longer the focus, the end of it was that Chang Jianan was the one who came out worse off, so nobody thought about the cause of the two boys’ scuffle, and the venom in Chang Jianan’s intentions.

Qi Zhongxun looked at Chang Jingqiu coldly, this young lady had a plan, and a simple sentence could completely change the focus of the crowd.

But this plan was used at the wrong place, even if Qi Chenglin had no girlfriend, based on her character, the Qi Family could not possibly accept her.

Qi Zhongxun lowered his head, and asked Qi Youxuan gently, “why did you fight with Chang Jianan? Did the both of you know each other before? If not he wouldn’t run up and knock your plate over for no reason.”

The crowd realized that was true, there must be a reason for the fight, it may well be that it was the Young Master of the Qi Family that started it at the very beginning.

However, Qi Zhongxun had faith in his grandson, that he definitely would not be the kind to make trouble unprovoked, and that was why he asked.

Qi Youxuan lifted his face from Ruan Danchen’s abdomen, turning to look at Qi Zhongxun, his black irises still clouded over by tears, his nose red, looking really pitiful.

Qi Youxuan then retold the incident of queue cutting at the indoor amusement park as it happened.

The crowd looked at Grandmother Chang and Chang Jingqiu in a different light, in the end it was still the grandson of the Chang Family that had started it!

Cutting queue and then lying, lying and then still being unreasonable, the upbringing of the Chang family was problematic. On such an important day, with all the various families present, the grandson of the Chang Family did not know his place.

Those who were originally a little sympathetic towards Chang Jianan were also shaking their heads, feeling that if this child was not educated properly soon, it would be too late.

Grandmother Chang’s face changed and changed again, who knew that at this time that trivial matter would be brought up again.

“Such a small matter and he recalls it so clearly, he’s so petty!” Grandmother Chang said, “furthermore the mere words of a child shouldn’t be believed.”

“My grandson never lies.” Guan Liya smiled proudly, looking condescendingly at Grandmother Chang.

Grandmother Chang was shaking in rage, Guan Liya was insulting her grandson through her!

“Furthermore, no matter how immature a child is, how could he kick up a ruckus on his grandmother’s birthday banquet, and want to wound my grandson. Grandmother Chang, you’re getting on in years, if there were to be such bad luck as blood being spilt during a birthday banquet, that wouldn’t be good.” Guan Liya said coldly.

That reply left Grandmother Chang flabbergasted, and she was unable to think of a reply.

“Today I think I can say I know the Chang Family, and I didn’t think they would be so unreasonable.” Guan Liya laughed in fake politeness, “a little boy can lie and blame others, it’s no wonder Ms. Chang can be so thick faced as to go to Qilin, knowing full well that our Qi Chenglin is getting married, and still pester him to take her as a mistress.”

When Guan Liya said that, the entire crowd gasped.

The implications of Guan Liya’s words were extreme!

Who would have thought the Chang Family was such an immoral one!

Ms Chang, the daughter of Chang Zhiyuan, was underaged, she was not even old enough to be a mistress, so was Guan Liya referring to Chang Jingqiu?

The eyes of the crowd fell on Chang Jingqiu, looking at her gentle and elegant appearance, you really could not judge a book by it’s cover!

“Mrs Qi, you… how could you smear my name like that!” Chang Jingqiu said in a panic, looking as though she might burst into tears, her face flushed red.

Grandmother Chang was also besides herself with anger, Guan Liya’s words had ensured that Chang Jingqiu’s name was ruined among the circles, in the future none of the capable young men would want her, which family would accept a woman who had once been a mistress?

Guan Liya’s words, were far too venomous!

Grandmother Chang could already see that some among the crowd were looking at Chang Jingqiu with disdain, some were already shaking their heads, showing their loss of interest in her, and many among them were those whom Grandmother Chang viewed as good candidates!

“Today my grandson was nearly wounded, and if things went badly his life would be threatened, I don’t have any desire to stay here. Just based on your attitude just now, Grandmother Chang, I also cannot bring myself to make any felicitations. The Qi Family says farewell.” Guan Liya said, and grabbed Qi Zhongxun’s arm.

Qi Zhongxun did not make any attempt to hide his intentions, and turned to leave with his wife.

Qi Chenglin took Qi Youxuan into his arms, and holding Ruan Danchen’s hand, left without saying another word.

Ruan Danchen looked back, and gave Gao Xiaoyang an apologetic look, she originally wanted to introduce Gao Xiaoyang to the Eight Great Families, but who knew this would happen?

Gao Xiaoyang mouthed back “it’s fine” soundlessly to Ruan Danchen, and gestured to her to just go.

She was a reporter, and she had a job to do today, she couldn’t just leave because she wanted to, so she could only just stay here.

Qi Chengzhi and Song Yu made no delays, and nodding their regards to Yan Beicheng and others, and left, Qi Chengyue also made a hasty exit along with Cheng Dongge.

Yan Beicheng’s phone suddenly rang, and he picked it up for a moment, before replying, “aiyo, something came up at the company, I must go now, I’m so sorry.”

Han Zhuoli looked at his watch, “my grandmother wants me home early tonight.”

Gui Zhiqian saw Han Zhuoli and Yan Beicheng had already turned and left, and cursed them for not having any comradeship, and not giving him a reason why.

He suddenly took out his phone, and pretended to pick up a call, and didn’t hesitate in throwing his eldest sister under the bus,” What? Big Sis and Brother In Law are fighting again? Okay okay okay, I’ll go home and break it up, wait for me!”

He then left.

Chu Zhaoyang was not one who spoke much, and he couldn’t be bothered to even produce a reason, he only spoke two words to Chang Zhiyuan, “good bye.”

Wei Ziqi at this point also pretended to pick up a call, “huh, Muche’s crying? Okay, I’ll bring Weiran home now.”

“…” the crowd watched as these people all left with flimsy lies, and out of 5 of them 3 of them slipped away using their phones, Han Zhuoli even used his grandmother, since when was he so obedient?

Chu Zhaoyang was even better, without bothering to make up an excuse, he just said “goodbye” and left.

Therefore the remaining guests, were all not that important.

In a moment, an air of awkwardness settled on the venue.

An originally boisterous birthday banquet, with representatives from all Eight Great Families, but now in the blink of an eye everyone was gone. The entire banquet hall felt like it had emptied in an instant.

Everybody was at a loss of what to do in the awkwardness, and no one spoke, making the entire venue seem dead cold.

Chang Zhiyuan was besides himself in rage, he wasn’t angry at the Eight Great Families leaving just like that, he was angry at his own mother, for not being able to control her temper, and not realizing who she was talking to, daring to be so unreasonable.

If they were in the right, it would still be fine, but they were clearly in the wrong, if they would just apologize this would be settled, but they just had to make this matter worse.

Chang Zhiyuan let out a depressed sigh, and turned to Liu Xiangwen, “Bring Nannan to the room to change, don’t let him sit around here.”

Liu Xiangwen quickly picked up the still crying Chang Jianan, who seemed to be completely unaware of the circumstances, and carried him away.

Grandmother Chang could not have thought that her birthday banquet would have gone this way, and her chest hurt in her rage.

Chang Zhiyuan turned to Chang Jingqiu, “bring mom to rest first, when the banquet starts, bring her back.”

Chang Jingqiu felt as though she had suffered an irrecoverable disaster tonight, and it was all brought about by Chang Jianan. If it was not for his fight with Qi Youxuan, things would not have gotten this bad.

But the Qi Family was influential, and they could not touch them, so she could only lead Grandmother Chang away with a pained face.

Grandmother Chang massaged her chest as she walked, “I’m going to die from anger! I’m going to die from anger!”

When Grandmother Chang had gotten a fair distance away, only did Chang Zhiyuan humble himself and apologize to the other guests, “everyone, my apologies, our family has made a fool of ourselves tonight. This incident tonight was the fault of the Chang Family, our hospitality is lacking, we ask for your forgiveness. As for the Qi Family, I will personally apologize to them, let’s not spoil the mood over such a trivial matter.”

The guests finally dispersed slowly, and conversation resumed, but this time, the topic of the conversation was all focused on gossiping about what just happened.

Gao Xiaoyang did not look for Xia Zishan and Cheng Libo, Chang Jingqiu had just been embarrassed for no good reason, and would not be back soon.

Gao Xiayang thus sat alone in a corner, and took out her phone to write a draft. This trip tonight wasn’t a waste, when she went back to hand in her draft to the editor-in-chief, she even had the title thought out: The Eight Great Families Retire From The Birthday Banquet of The Matriarch of The Chang Family, Will The Markets in B City See A Shift?

With an explosive topic such as this, the editor in chief was sure to be happy, but what was unknown was whether he would hesitate on account of Chang Jingqiu.

As the Qi Family exited Dynasty, Qi Chenglin turned to see Yan Beicheng and the others had followed them out.

Yan Beicheng then explained, “all of you aren’t around, there’d be no reason for us to stick around, and there’s no need to stay there and give face to Grandmother Chang.”

[1] This is a nickname for Chang Jianan, a repetition of the final syllable of his name.

- - -

The members of the Qi Family knew, Yan Beicheng was helping the Qi Family, standing on the same line as them, and pressuring the Chang Family.

“All of you.” Qi Zhongxun smiled, before saying sincerely, “thank you.”

Yan Beicheng and the others did not feign modesty, especially since they did so specifically to support the Qi Family.

That was the reason the Eight Big Families were so well respected, besides the warmth and close ties in each individual family, it was also because all of the Eight Big Families stood together, prospering and suffering together, to insult one family, was to invite the wrath of the other seven.

If only one of the families were out to get you, one might be able to handle it, but if one family causes you loss here, and another causes you loss there, these losses would start to accumulate into a big loss, and nobody could bear that.

Yan Beicheng and the others went their separate ways, and the members of the Qi Family all got into their cars, but they didn’t go their separate ways, but they all returned to the old residence of the Qi Family, to tell Grandfather Qi and Grandmother Qi what happened.

When Grandmother Qi heard what happened, she tutted, and sipped her tea, before saying, “that Grandmother Chang must have gone mad.”

“Who said she hasn’t! When I heard that old lady’s words, I was so angry I could laugh, how could there be such an unreasonable person. Even though her grandson instigated this entire affair, it’s fortunate that Youxuan didn’t suffer any injury, and actually splashed ice on her grandson. If someone in the Chang Family had been reasonable, and talked reasonably, I would have told Youxuan to apologize to Chang Jianan, since he did use violence. But that attitude of Chang Jianan, as though it were always Youxuan’s fault, why would I let our child be humiliated like that.”

Grandmother Qi’s heart ached too, thinking about how today the little boy went whole, but may have returned unwhole, it made her shudder to think about it.

She quickly gestured the little boy to come over, and carried him onto her lap, touching his little face, arms, and legs, “all of you rushed here, you haven’t eaten have you?”

Having said that, she quickly told Aunt Liew to make something for them to eat.

While they ate, Grandmother Qi made her viewpoint clear.

In this matter, Grandmother Qi’s intentions were that, since the Chang Family were unreasonable, then there was no reason for the Qi Family to be reasonable. If anything, they had all the right to be unreasonable.

If Qi Youxuan had really fallen on that broken plate, his life would have been in danger.

There was a news article once, a female star had installed an aquarium walkway in her house, and because of an accident she fell, and broke the aquarium in her fall. Unfortunately, her wrist had fallen on a shard of glass from the aquarium, and she died from the cut to her artery.

If Qi Youxuan had fallen on his head or wrist, what then?

After everyone had finished their meal at the old residence, they went their separate ways home.

In the car, Ruan Danchen sat in the back seat, and didn’t put Qi Youxuan in the child’s seat, holding him in her arms. She still felt afraid at the thought of what could have happened.

Qi Youxuan blinked, in the blackness of the car’s interior, his eyes were especially bright and clear.

Knowing that Ruan Danchen was still worried, he shook Ruan Danchen’s hand, and said reassuringly, “mommy, I’m fine.”

Ruan Danchen looked down and looked at the little boy’s angelic face, as he grew with each year, his appearance changed minutely, unnoticeably, until one day, one would realize he had grown up.

The small face was no longer round like a ball, it was still rotund, but it was starting to slim down, and the first signs of Qi Chenglin’s attractive outlines were showing.

Ruan Danchen bemoaned the fact that her son was growing up, and she was not ready or willing for it, she wanted time to return to six years ago, and see the little boy’s cuteness back then.

She could not help but squeeze his soft face, and kissed him enthusiastically.

Qi Youxuan was slightly bashful at Ruan Danchen’s actions, and he blushed, in the past he would shy away bashfully, but thinking of the shock that everyone had tonight, he let his mother kiss him more.

Qi Chenglin drove into Prestige Residences, and arrived at the ground floor of the house, and just as he was about to drive into the garage, he saw a champagne colored Bentley parked to the left of the door.

Just as the Mercedes was about to drive past the Bentley, the door of the Bentley opened, and someone stepped out of it.

It was Chang Zhiyuan.

Qi Chenglin did not pretend he did not see him, and stopped the car, rolling down the window, and Chang Zhiyuan hurried over, standing next to the car door, saying, “Young Master Lin.”

He wore a black trench coat, but it was still so cold he had huddled his shoulders, and his breath fogged in white puffs from his mouth.

Qi Chenglin nodded blankly, but did not speak, driving directly into the garage, and killing the engine.

He spoke to Ruan Danchen, “bring Youxuan up first.”

Ruan Danchen nodded, and brought the little boy from the garage into the elevator.

Qi Chenglin put on his leather gloves, and walked out of the garage, stopping in front of Chang Zhiyuan.

“Young Master Lin,” Chang Zhiyuan greeted again, “I should have gone to your parent’s home to apologize first, but I was worried it was late, and Mr and Mrs Qi would have gone to bed, so I didn’t dare disturb them.”

“Grandmother Chang’s birthday banquet has ended?” Qi Chenglin asked lightly.

Chang Zhiyuan nodded awkwardly, if it had not ended, he would not leave early. If Grandmother Chang knew he came here just to apologize, there would be no peace.

Qi Chenglin smirked snidely, “if you really were sincere in apologizing, you’d have done so at the scene. At the worst, you could have chased after us as we were leaving to apologize. Not waiting for the end of the banquet, and apologizing to us while hiding it from Grandmother Chang.”

“Young Master Lin, my mother is old, it’s inevitable that she’d become a bit befuddled. The older one gets, the more defensive they are of their shortcomings, please don’t take her seriouly. I did not want her kicking up a fuss at home, and that’s why I came here secretly.” Chang Zhiyuan said, rather awkwardly.

“Director Chang, do you speak for your entire family?” Qi Chenglin arched his eyebrows, “don’t be apologizing here, and later Grandmother Chang throws slander at us. The Qi Family’s grace isn’t that cheap.”

“I most definitely cannot represent my mother, Young Master Lin please just consider her as old and senile, and don’t take her seriously.” Chang Zhiyuan could only say, thinking of Grandmother Chang, he instantly felt powerless.

“Even if we don’t take her seriously this time, what about next time? The next time she slanders us, and is unreasonable, and we still don’t take her seriously, one time after another, wouldn’t Grandmother Chang feel like reason is on her side?” Qi Chenglin’s gloved hands slid into his pockets, wanting to take out a cigarette to smoke, his hand was already on the box, but he thought better of it and relaxed his hand. However, he kept his hands in his pocket.

Chang Zhiyuan remained silent, he had already prepared himself before he came, he knew Qi Chenglin would not easily forgive the Chang Family.

“As for our cooperation, we’ve already signed the agreement, I will not go back on it, but as for the future, it will depend on the circumstances at the time. As for the incident tonight, it’s not a question of whether or not we can forgive the Chang Family, we are just disappointed.” Qi Chenglin said deliberately, “we can always separate work and private life, and as for our working relationship, as long as you are not derelict in your obligations, I see no reason to change who I cooperate with. You can be assured of that, Director Chang.”

At that point, Chang Zhiyuan could breathe a sigh of relief, at least Qi Chenglin was not so angry as to let it affect work related matters.

“As for private matters, the Qi Family never really had any interactions with the Chang Family, and in the future our ties will not be all too close as well. If Grandmother Chang acts unreasonably again, we will not be courteous as usual.” Qi Chenglin said, a flash of impatience crossing his face.

He nodded curtly at Chang Zhiyuan, “my son has suffered quite a shock tonight, I should go back and check on him, so I will not be inviting you in Director Chang.”

What else could Chang Zhiyuan say? He could only agree politely.

While Qi Chenglin opened the door and went in, Chang Zhiyuan could only sigh, and return to his Bentley, returning home instead of going to Grandmother Chang’s house.

Ruan Danchen had just changed Qi Youxuan into his pajamas, and was just about to help him brush his teeth and wash his face, when she looked up to see Qi Chenglin standing at the door of Qi Youxuan’s room.

He hadn’t changed yet, and he brought in the cold from outside, his shoulder resting against the doorframe. Despite his easy, relaxed pose, his body posture was still fairly straight, and it made him look more natural than usual.

It was unknown for how long he had been standing there, their backs were to the door, and never noticed him.

This man always walked soundlessly.

The moment Qi Youxuan saw Qi Chenglin, he didn’t feel comfortable being clingy to her anymore.

“Mommy, I can wash up myself.” he immediately said.

He waddled off after finishing his sentence.

Ruan Danchen didn’t go after him, and instead walked to Qi Chenglin. He took off his gloves, and put his hand on her face, his palms were warm.

“Chang Zhiyuan came to apologize.” Qi Chenglin explained softly.

Ruan Danchen nodded, but said nothing, when it came to matters that involved two families, she did not get into it. With too many matters to be involved in, at the end of the day she’d follow Qi Chenglin’s intentions.

She could guess the intention of Chang Zhiyuan’s visit, but as Chang Zhiyuan came alone, it had little use.

“His apology is mostly meaningless,” Qi Chenglin said eventually, “in the future just do what we need to do, when it comes to Grandmother Chang, if she gets unreasonable, you don’t need to be polite.”

Ruan Danchen smiled, “I don’t think I’d get many opportunities to see her in the future.”

In a moment, the little boy had finished cleaning up, and after making sure he wasn’t too affected, they turned off the lights for him to sleep.

The next day, Ruan Danchen received a call from Gao Xiaoyang while at work.

Gao Xiaoyang wanted to tell her what happened after the Qi Family left.

“Last night after you left, Chang Zhiyuan sent Grandmother Chang off to rest, before apologizing to the guests, I don’t know what was in their minds, but they all smiled and looked as though it were no big deal. Grandmother Chang only showed her face again when it was just about time to start the banquet, and she still looked displeased. Chang Jingqiu came with her, but she looked so withered and didn’t speak at all, this is the first time I’ve seen her so honest, throughout the entire time she didn’t mix with the other heiresses in her age group.” Gao Xiaoyang said.

“After the banquet, I intentionally took my time leaving, and could still hear Grandmother Chang kicking up a scene.”

Ruan Danchen could imagine what Grandmother Chang was complaining about, it would be the same few things over and over again, if it wasn’t the Qi Family using their position to bully people, it would be them making light of her position.

“Yesterday was a special circumstance, I didn’t even get the chance to introduce you to them, one of these days I’ll find the chance to invite you out to a gathering for you to get to know them.” Ruan Danchen said.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. If it’s too intentional I’d worry they’d think I had an agenda.” Gao Xiaoyang said hurriedly, “these days I make a call to people in all Eight Great Families. In the morning once I clock in, I don’t do anything else, I make over ten calls, from Qi Chengzhi’s assistant to Gui Zhiqian’s assistant, in a continuous circle, I don’t believe that if I call daily, I won’t get a lead?”

Ruan Danchen could not help but burst out laughing, as she imagined the sight of Gao Xiaoyang relentlessly making calls in the morning. She didn’t know the other assistants, but she knew Cheng Dongge and Jiang Yuan very well, and when she thought about the two of them having to deal with Gao Xiaoyang first thing in the morning every day, she found it particularly funny.

Gao Xiaoyang’s dogged professionalism, and she didn’t have any ulterior motives, made Ruan Danchen admire her a lot, and she didn’t say much more.

It wasn’t good for them to chat too much while at work, so they both ended the call.

Gao Xiaoyang hung up the phone, and returned to the office, and met Chang Jingqiu’s gaze.

Chang Jingqiu’s eyes narrowed, and looked as though she had a score to settle with her, and she stood up and walked towards Gao Xiaoyang. Chang Jingqiu was halfway there when her phone rang on her desk.

Chang Jingqiu pursed her lips, and looked at Gao Xiaoyang unhappily, before turning back, when she saw who was calling, she was slightly surprised, and took her cellphone out of the office.

“Aunty.” Chang Jingqiu said as she picked up the call.

Recently her and Liu Ronghua’s relationship seemed to be getting pretty close, whenever Liu Ronghua had any problem she would call Chang Jinqiu, and complain to her.

A majority of what she had to say was to do with her mistreatment at the Shen family. How Shen Jialiang treated her harshly, how Shen Zhijing got on her nerves, and how she didn’t respect her.

Whenever Chang Jingqiu came crying to her to complain, she felt that her ear would fall off, but for the sake of getting closer to Liu Ronghua, she had to endure it. Listening to her complaints, and still having to reply every once in a while, comforting her, and also sympathize with her in blaming Shen Jialiang and Shen Zhijing.

Everytime Liu Ronghua called, it was the same old thing every time. It made Chang Jingqiu’s heart sink every time she saw a call from Liu Ronghua.

“Jingqiu.” the sound of Liu Ronghua’s crying came through the phone.

“Aunty, what happened?” Chang Jingqiu had a look of impatience on her face, but her voice sounded concerned and urgent, “Did Shen Jialiang and his daughter bully you again?”

Liu Ronghua sobbed, “Jingqiu, I can’t take it anymore, I can’t take that father and daughter pair of ungrateful animals. Are you free now? Can you come out? I feel really bad, and I don’t know who to talk to, I’ve held this in for so long, if I don’t vent it out, I’m going to go crazy.”

“Aunty, don’t panic, are you at the Shen residence?” Chang Jingqiu asked, feigning worry in her voice.

“I just left, I can’t stay there for a moment more, but I don’t know where to go.” Liu Ronghua sobbed.

Chang Jingqiu thought for a moment, then said the name of a cafe, it was not near the office, as she did not want to be seen interacting with Liu Ronghua, and if someone did some digging based off of that sighting, she did not want her reputation to be spoiled by Liu Ronghua.

“That cafe, do you know it aunty?” Chang Jingqiu asked.

Liu Ronghua nodded, and held back a sob to say, “I do.”

“Okay, let’s meet there then.” Chang Jingqiu said.

Knowing that someone was willing to listen to her vent, it didn’t matter that the place was a little further away, Liu Ronghua was happy, and hung up.

Chang Jingqiu then returned to the office, and took her bag before leaving.

As a reporter it was normal to always run out for an interview, so for her to leave, she could just use the excuse of an interview.

Chang Jingqiu arrived at the cafe agreed upon by her and Liu Ronghua. This cafe had bookshelves lined along the walls, the shelves were full of books, for patrons to read while they drank their coffee, and the atmosphere was quite artistic.

Chang Jingqiu spied a few young women scattered in the cafe, some of them had an air of sophistication, some of them looking like white collar elites, with laptops in front of them, looking like they were working hard.

The cafe was very quiet, and Liu Ronghua had picked a small meeting room.

Chang Jingqiu was led by a service staff into the room, and Liu Ronghua sat there, looking unhappy, a glass of tea in front of her, there was a cat of unknown origin, which was in Liu Ronghua’s arms.

Liu Ronghua’s anguished face was lowered, petting the cat at times, stroking it’s fur from front to back, the black and gray cat was closing its eyes in contents, occasionally letting out a meow.

Upon hearing the door open, Liu Ronghua looked up and saw Chang Jingqiu, and she suddenly stood up.

The cat was not at all ready for that, and meowed in surprise, as it saw that it was about to hit the floor, it quickly stretched out it’s limbs, and ran out the open door.

“You’re here!” Liu Ronghua sounded as though she had met a lover when she saw Chang Jingqiu.

“Aunty, have a seat.” Chang Jingqiu said hurriedly. They sat down, and ordered a glass of tea from the waiter. When the waiter left, Chang Jingqiu asked, “aunty, what happened?”

“It’s always Shen Jialiang and his daughter, they don’t treat me like a human.” Liu Ronghua took a napkin from the table and wiped her tears, “they treat me as though I’m invisible at home, as though I don’t exist, they ignore me no matter what I say. Shen Zhijing always mocks me. I know, she wants to throw me out. The father and daughter are so ungrateful, and don’t have any decency!”

“They always assume that I’ve got ulterior motives, but they never thought that just based on the current state of the Shen family, what could I possibly want from them? I’m not poor, even if it’s not as much as the worth of the entire Shen family, but it’s a lot more than what I currently get living with them, I shouldn’t need to deal with them!”

As she spoke, the waiter returned with a pot of tea, and Liu Ronghua had to stop, waiting for the waiter to put the tea on the table, fill up Chang Jingqiu’s glass, and refilled Liu Ronghua’s glass, before leaving the room.

Chang Jingqiu use a pair of tongs to pick up a slice of lemon, and squeezed some juice out, mixing it into the tea, before asking with a worried face, “if that’s the case aunty, why are you still staying at the Shen family? If you live alone, even if you’re alone, nobody’s there to make you angry through their attitude, you’d even feel better on your own, why should you continue to stay in the Shen family? In any case, you don’t even need them now?”

Liu Ronghua sobbed again when she heard that, “I just can’t. I’ve given so much for the two of them, wasn’t it all just for their recognition? But I never thought that after all these years, without counting my time before I came to Shen Residences, just ever since I’ve been at Shen Residences, it’s been 8 years. 8 years of living together, even complete strangers would develop some measure of a bond? But they still ignore me, no matter what I do for them, they still despise me.”

“I see it now, from beginning till the end, Shen Jialiang has always just been using me, one promise after another, just like some form of transaction, if I do everything they asked of me, they’d give me some favor, but if I don’t succeed, they will just ignore me. It’s no wonder after all these years they don’t give me any title, because in their eyes, I’m just their employee.”