"Zi En, be ready to face reality once we go in."
Standing at the entrance of the suite in the top hotel in Jiangnan, Hyatt, Mi Ren Ci advises Lin Zi En, who is following behind her with pride, as she is about to use the room card to unlock the door.
Lin Zi En pauses for a moment. What is the reality that she says she needs to face? They are going to be engaged tomorrow, and she has brought her here tonight. Is it just because she thinks Lin Zi En has never been in a five-star hotel before?
"Aunt Mi, what I think of this hotel..."
Before she could finish her words, a click echoed in the air as Mi Ren Ci opened the door. The sight that greeted her once the door flung open left her utterly speechless.
Wasn't Mi Ren Ci supposed to bring her here to check the banquet room for the wedding? How did they end up intruding into her classmate, Susan's hotel room?!
On the bed, a semi-naked Susan jolted awake, a blanket slipping from her shoulders to reveal her bare skin. To her stunned horror, the man lying next to her had awoken as well. He quickly grabbed the blanket to cover himself, his face pale as he stared at the door, as if looking at an alien invasion.
"Mom, why are you here? Zi... En, let me explain, I and she..."
"Chu Ce," interrupted Susan, her voice choked with sobs, "You're not going to deny our relationship now, are you? You're not going to say that you were merely using me, and the one you truly love is Zi En, not me?" Without waiting for Chu Ce's response, she snuggled into his neck and kissed him passionately.
Chu Ce struggled uncomfortably, but a foul tasting liquid entered his mouth causing him to collapse before he could push her away.
The sight in front of her eyes was too shocking, Lin Zi En couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Susan had always been nice to her throughout the four years they spent together in college. So much that she never believed anyone when they said Susan had a crush on Chu Ce. But now, the truth was right in front of her...
Without waiting for Zi Lin En to recover, Susan clung onto Chu Ce sobbing pitifully, "Zi En, I'm so sorry. I didn't expect Chu Ce to fall in love with me. I wanted to reject him for you, but as you know, sometimes you just can't control your feelings. We truly love each other. I'm willing to give you a sum of money as a love transfer fee, please give us your blessing."
Does having money make that much of a difference? The engagement announcements with their photos on it had already been sent out. Nobody had given approval to her love life, so how could she approve theirs? Just when Lin Zi En was about to reply, a group of people barged into the room, her gaze fell on the leader, a well-known paparazzo. As realization dawned upon her, she bit her lower lip wondering what Susan’s actual intentions are.
Unsurprisingly, the newcomers’ focus immediately diverted to the bed. The shutters of their cameras kept clicking as they captured the incriminating scene. Thinking about the consequences once these photos leak, Lin Zi En's face turned pale. However, Mi Ren Ci standing behind her suddenly spoke up amidst the chaos:
"Everyone, thank you for attending this unique version of the wedding night of my son and his future wife. You will all receive a token of appreciation in a while, so please, continue capturing every beautiful moment of the loving couple." Her voice was neither loud nor soft, just loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
Suddenly, the room went into an uproar. The paparazzi gave each other confused looks: Weren't we supposed to cause a disturbance tonight using the money from dining tycoon Su family? Why has it suddenly turned into a wedding bed prank mentioned by the jewelry tycoon Chu family? But seeing this common secret of the wealthy family, the paparazzi, who weren't vegetarians either, quickly understood the meaning and began clicking their cameras even more enthusiastically. Money and a free scandal all wrapped in one, it was like a pie falling from the sky.
Did Mi Renci dare to humiliate her so blatantly?
Excluded from the circle, Lin Zi-en seemed to not believe her own ears: If tonight was considered Chu Ce and Su Shan's modern 'wedding bed prank', what did she count as in the engagement banquet tomorrow? Or was it that the Chu family didn't care about her at all? Mechanically, she turned to face Mi Renci, her voice hoarse as she tried to suppress the sour feeling welling up within her, "Auntie, what do you mean by this?"
Mi Renci raised her eyes to meet Lin Zi-en's—that were reddening but still incredibly beautiful—without the slightest hint of softening or shame, "Didn't I tell you my intentions before you entered?"
Before she entered, Mi Renci had told her to face the reality once she came in. Meaning that... Thoughts that had been torn apart gradually came back together, forming a clear string of information. Lin Zi-en's lips quivered the moment she understood, "Auntie, was this intentional?"
To eliminate the threat of the poor daughter-in-law, Mi Renci didn't deny it, "Zi-en, at this point, you should understand. If one is poor, one should know their place. Don't blame me for planning this, blame this deeply rooted concept of equally yoked marriages in people's minds."
Equally yoked marriages. A ripple of emotion flashed through Lin Zi-en's eyes. Slowly turning around, looking at Su Shan's satisfied expression after crying crocodile tears, and the man in Su Shan's arms who had pursued her sincerely from freshman year until their senior year, who had made her emotionally agree to an engagement after graduation but was pretending to be unconscious at the moment—the final bit of attention fell on Mi Renci. In front of click of camera shutters, she gave a conclusion with a look of approval.
"You're right. The poor three-generation Lin family indeed doesn't match up to the Chu family. In that case, I wish a prosperous future to Mr. Chu and Miss Su, who are a match made in heaven!"
With that, she turned around and left—without crying or looking back—as if Chu Ce and Su Shan really were a perfectly matched couple.
Everyone in the room was taken aback. What was going on? At this crucial moment of whom would be the mistress of Chu family, Cinderella, who was Chu young master's official girlfriend, just left?
A farcical drama thus came to an end, leaving everyone more or less puzzled. When no outsiders were left in the room, Mi Renci suspiciously said, "Shan Shan, judging from tonight's event, did things succeed too easily?" She somewhat couldn’t believe it.
Su Shan, who had been striving for many years under a lot of plots and schemes to become Mrs. Chu, scoffed, "Mom, she's a penniless girl, what can she do? You don't have to overthink."
"Overthinking?" Looking at the corridor outside the door that had long been empty, Mi Renci muttered to herself, "I think I've been thinking too less."
After Lin Zi-en left the hotel, she drove alone on the road, driving fast. Although she kept telling herself that everything that happened today wasn't worth being upset about, the tears of humiliation still flowed like a broken dam.
Frankly, she despised Mi Renci more than Su Shan, because she could never forget the look of contempt in Mi Renci's eyes when she found out about her humble background. But she never expected Chu Ce, who always talked sweetly to her, to be just as snobbish and ambitious as Mi Renci, abandoning her and reaching for the better prospect in Su family before their engagement.
It appears that she could only reserve the ancient saying 'one branch is always taller than another' for her own contemplation.
"Toot! Toot! Toot..." The urgent sound of a car horn erupted, and Lin Zi'en's mind, embroiled in feverish thoughts, was jerked back to reality. The glaring headlight from an oncoming car forced her to squint, and subconsciously she yanked hard at her steering wheel to avoid it. Unfortunately, she collided with the guardrails on her right... After a loud "Bam!", her car toppled over the guardrail and sprinted across the boundary line, causing a Ferrari behind her to abruptly stop due to her wrong-way driving.
The sky held the white clouds,
The gentle breeze read the leaf's veins,
Just like I too learned to be natural,
Together with you, stepping into
This minute, I am a passerby...
From Lin Zi'en's car, having narrowly averted disaster, flowed the song from the abruptly halted vehicle through her half-opened window, which she could hear as her heart still raced.
The window of that car was only a third ajar, and the neon lights outside shimmered through, casting an ethereal glow on the male face behind the steering wheel. Despite the dimness of the light, it could not mask his unique charm.