“My car is here.” Yan Dai glanced at her, her tone just as formally polite as before. “Be careful on your way back.”
“Sister Yan.” Chu Yuan called out to her.
“Hmm?” Yan Dai stopped her motion of opening the door and looked back at her.
“Sister, we have a long future ahead of them.”
“I will make you fall in love with me!”
With that, Chu Yuan waved at her from a distance. “See you next time~”
Yan Dai blinked.
The night was thick.
Under the faint moonlight, Chu Yuan’s eyes were exceptionally bright.
Chu Yuan watched Yan Dai’s car drive off into the distance before leaving the spot.
However, she didn’t choose to go straight home. Instead, she drove to Ji Xiran’s Wink Bar.
Whenever she was in a bad mood, she would come here to find people to hang out with.
And to have a wild time while she was at it.
As it happened, a whole group of close friends and acquaintances, including Xue Qinghuan, were having a gathering here today and had booked an entire private room.
Seeing the door being pushed open and the newcomer turning out to be Chu Yuan, the friends were quite surprised.
Xue Qinghuan: “Wow, weren’t you accompanying your Sister Yan today? How do you have time to come over now?”
“Don’t mention it, make some room.” Chu Yuan sat down directly in an empty spot next to them, immediately performing a perfect ‘Ge You slouch.’
Xu Baoni: “Wow, it looks like Little Yuan’s meeting with her fiancée wasn’t very smooth this time.”
Sang Shiqing gossiped: “What happened? You look so thoroughly demoralized.”
Ji Xiran didn’t mince her words: “Suffer a romantic setback? I really didn’t expect you to see the day, Little Yuan.”
“No,” Chu Yuan looked speechless, “I haven’t even said anything yet. How did every single one of you guess it, and none of you guessed anything good?”
The crowd remained silent, only relentlessly talking smack about her in their hearts.
Did they even need to guess?
Given Chu Yuan’s incredibly smug and rather transparent personality, if things had actually gone smoothly this time, she probably would have started chattering and bragging to them the moment she walked through the door.
How could she possibly be lying there like a salted fish right now, completely silent?
Chu Yuan was practically an open book.
It was simply too easy to guess.
Chu Yuan was unwilling to say more. Since they had already guessed it anyway, what was there to talk about?
Besides, since it hadn’t gone smoothly, it was even harder to talk about.
Chu Yuan glanced at the table. “What’s going on? There’s no alcohol today.”
Ji Xiran: “Everyone here is an old acquaintance, and there are no new pretty girls around. What’s the point of drinking? Just have some soft drinks.”
“You’re so stingy. It’s not like drinking would bankrupt you,” Chu Yuan accused her.
Ji Xiran was instantly amused by her anger. “In this world, very few people describe me as stingy. You are one of them… no, wait, you’re the only one.”
“That’s because they haven’t seen your true colors.” Chu Yuan pushed the cola in front of her away. “I want to drink alcohol.”
Ji Xiran summoned a server. “Bring her a mocktail.”
“I don’t want a non-alcoholic cocktail.”
Ji Xiran originally wanted to say something more, but Xue Qinghuan, who was beside her, said, “If she wants to drink, let her drink. It’s not like we’re minors anymore anyway.”
After speaking, Xue Qinghuan even cast a meaningful glance at Ji Xiran. She looks very off right now.
How could Ji Xiran not know that Chu Yuan was a bit off today? It was precisely because she was so incredibly off that Ji Xiran hadn’t wanted to allow her to drink, fearing she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from getting wasted.
But since Xue Qinghuan had put it that way, it wasn’t right for her to keep blocking it, so she had no choice but to agree.
And the consequence of agreeing was…
Chu Yuan truly went ahead and got herself completely drunk.
Ji Xiran instantly felt a headache coming on, thinking that it was indeed just as expected.
When Chu Yuan drank, if she was in a good mood, she would find a comfortable spot and obediently sleep it off.
But if she happened to be in a bad mood that day, she would start throwing a “drunken tantrum.”
Clearly, today’s situation fell into the latter category.
Holding a wine glass in her hand as if it were a microphone, Chu Yuan was pouring out all her little grievances from today.
Being a friend by Chu Yuan’s side meant that one essentially knew at least ninety-nine percent of her secrets.
First of all, Chu Yuan was a straightforward person, she didn’t have any scandalous secrets that couldn’t see the light of day, nor was there anything she couldn’t share with her friends.
Another point was that Chu Yuan simply couldn’t keep a little secret to save her life. The moment something happened, she would turn around and tell her other friends all about it in the next second.
Just like now, Chu Yuan was carelessly blurting out everything that had transpired today.
Including the details of picking her up at the airport, and even down to the minute detail of pouring out everything about the small squab they had eaten for dinner together with Yan Dai.
After finishing her rant, Chu Yuan turned directly into a little crybaby.
“Sister Yan doesn’t like me at all, boohoo…”
“I feel so down, so down~”
“I’m so cute and so good, yet Sister Yan is the first woman who hasn’t fallen in love with me.”
Ji Xiran, Xue Qinghuan, and the other friends present.
Were they not human? However, in Chu Yuan’s heart, this was completely different. The others were friends, whereas between her and Yan Dai, there was only the single option of becoming lovers.
Chu Yuan was absolutely unwilling to settle for just being friends with Yan Dai, from the very first moment they saw each other, there was only one possibility for them, to become lovers.
Looking at Chu Yuan crying so aggrievedly after drinking, Ji Xiran turned her gaze to Xue Qinghuan. “Look at this. This is the consequence of agreeing to let her drink.”
Xue Qinghuan felt a little guilty but still said, “This is fine too, I suppose. It’s better than letting her keep it bottled up in her heart.”
Ji Xiran let out a sigh. Things had already reached this point, so what else could she do? Of course, she had to help take care of this drunken “little ancestor,” Chu Yuan.
Because today was a gathering of very close friends, who among those present didn’t come from a family with a bit of money? They were all little princesses who had been pampered as they grew up.
Yet even among such a group of people, Chu Yuan was a existence akin to the group favorite.
She was able to get so many young ladies who had never soiled their hands with chores to take care of her together.
Chu Yuan was already dead drunk, but when Sang Shiqing handed over a cup of warm sugar water to help her sober up, she was still muttering, “But Sister Yan is still really beautiful. Her biggest flaw is just that she doesn’t like me.”
Ji Xiran’s eye-roll arrived right on cue. “She doesn’t like you, so why don’t you just snap out of it? Why marry her!”
“Marry! This marriage, I absolutely must go through with it!” Chu Yuan’s head shook like a rattle. “Even though she doesn’t like me right now, that’s normal. What if she falls for me after we get married?”
Having finally found such a wonderful wife, how could she easily give up? Wouldn’t that make her a fool?
Chu Yuan might be drunk right now, but she wasn’t completely brainless.
She remained an optimist, dreaming of having a sweet, whirlwind romance of marrying first and falling in love later with her chosen girl.
Ji Xiran cursed, “Knowing you for so long, how come I never noticed before that you’re a pure love-brain?”
But complaints aside, they still helped her sober up and safely sent her back home afterward.
Seeing Chu Yuan drunk to this extent, Liang Mi couldn’t help but feel a wave of heartache. “Heavens, when she left the house today, didn’t she particularly happily say she was going to see her Sister Yan? How did she come back drunk like this?”
But Chu Yuan had already exhausted herself from making a scene at the Wink Bar. Right now, she had absolutely no strength left and just wanted to go straight to sleep.
Liang Mi took the girl over from Ji Xiran’s hands.
Ji Xiran left immediately after delivering her home.
Liang Mi couldn’t help but speculate, “Was it because she had too much fun playing with Yan Dai today?”
However, Chu Mingshuang saw through it at a glance, believing it was absolutely not that simple. “I don’t think so. If they had a good time and things went smoothly, Yan Dai should have been the one to send her back tonight.”
Hearing Chu Mingshuang say this, Liang Mi felt a sudden realization and gradually deduced the timeline.
Right now, Ji Xiran was the one who brought her back, so she must have gone to the Wink Bar after parting ways with Yan Dai.
“Then that means things didn’t go well between them,” Liang Mi frowned. “If she bullies Little Yuan and makes her unhappy, it’s fine if this marriage doesn’t happen!”
Chu Mingshuang shook her head. “But then again, Little Yuan still really likes her.”
“No matter how much she likes her, if the other party doesn’t like Little Yuan back, there’s nothing she can do.”
Chu Mingshuang smiled. “Back when you married me, you didn’t like me either.”
Neither of them had built their fortunes from scratch, their families had been very well-off for the past three generations, and the parents of both sides were also university classmates who shared a great relationship, having arranged a childhood betrothal for them.
At that time, Liang Mi was dead set against it, claiming that this was modern China and that the whole childhood betrothal thing had long gone out of style.
And what happened in the end?
Their marriage resulted in the two of them being happily together for a lifetime, and it didn’t take long for Liang Mi to truly fall in love with Chu Mingshuang.
Completely devoted.
Liang Mi: “The premise is that the other party has to be a good person too.”
Chu Mingshuang: “Don’t worry, when we decided on the arranged marriage with the Yan family, didn’t we already investigate thoroughly? Yan Dai really doesn’t have any issues.”
Liang Mi had nothing left to say to that.
They did indeed require a wealthy arranged marriage.
Otherwise, it would be easy for Little Yuan to be targeted by people with impure motives, or even taken complete advantage of.
And the Yan family was indeed the best marriage partner they had identified after multiple rounds of careful deliberation and deep investigation.
Yan Dai came from a clean family background, her family circumstances were on par with the Chu family, and they could certainly be considered well-matched in terms of social standing.
Not only that, Yan Dai had no exes, was a workaholic with excellent professional capabilities, and was polite and beautiful…
With Chu Yuan by her side, she could indeed learn quite a lot about company management.
Liang Mi ultimately let out a sigh. “I hope so!”
If Chu Yuan ever said she suffered any grievances down the line, Liang Mi would absolutely be the first one to raise both hands and feet in support of completely severing any emotional ties between them.
But that was the worst-case scenario.
The current Liang Mi would still genuinely hope that Chu Yuan could find her own share of happiness.
Chu Yuan wasn’t actually the type of person who enjoyed drinking; on the contrary, she didn’t like alcohol one bit.
She even found it somewhat repulsive.
Because the taste of alcohol wasn’t actually pleasant, it carried a somewhat pungent scent. No matter the price point or the type of alcohol, the smell was never pleasant.
Furthermore, after a person drank, their body would also carry a somewhat foul odor.
The second issue was the hangover.
After sleeping a whole night while drunk, waking up the next morning would bring a dull, throbbing pain that made her feel as if her head was going to completely explode.
And on this particular morning, waking up with a hangover, Chu Yuan.
First, felt that her body smelled unpleasant. Second, felt that her head was hurting to the point of exploding.
Yet the very first thing she did upon waking up, before her brain was even fully awake, was to pull out her phone, open WeChat, and send a ‘good morning’ over to Yan Dai.
Once the message was successfully sent, Chu Yuan finally rose from bed with a sense of satisfaction, gave herself a shower, and finally washed away the scent of alcohol on her body. Once she was smelling wonderful all over, she finally headed downstairs to have breakfast with a contented heart.
The nanny auntie busy working in the kitchen spotted her and hastily called out to greet her, “Little Yuan is awake? Come over and have breakfast.”
“Okay, Auntie.” Chu Yuan smiled, passing through the long corridor to arrive at the dining area.
Liang Mi immediately showed her concern. “Finally awake? Does your head still hurt?”
“It did a little when I first woke up, but it’s okay now.” Chu Yuan pulled out a chair and sat down. “Where’s Mother?”
Liang Mi: “In the restroom, why are you looking for her?”
Chu Yuan: “Nothing, just asking casually since I didn’t see her.”
Besides, looking for one’s mother the first instance one woke up was simply the most normal thing ever.
Right after speaking, Chu Yuan pulled out WeChat to take another glance.
No messages.
Sister Yan hadn’t replied to her.
She couldn’t control the slight feeling of disappointment in her heart.
Chu Yuan bit her lower lip, hesitating for two seconds before preparing to send some more greetings over to Yan Dai. She directly typed out the words. Sister Yan, what are you doing right now?
Only by taking the initiative was it possible for a story to happen!
Just as she hit send, Liang Mi couldn’t help but ask, “Holding onto your phone and playing with it the moment you wake up, who are you chatting with?”
“Probably chatting with ‘someone’ on WeChat, right?”
Before Chu Yuan could even speak, Chu Mingshuang’s voice echoed from behind her.
Chu Yuan was speechless.
What was this called? It was called no one knows a daughter better than her mother!
Chu Yuan wasn’t shy either, correcting her instead, “It’s not ‘someone,’ it’s my wife~”
Liang Mi and Chu Mingshuang exchanged a look, thinking in their hearts that this was truly a lost cause, their daughter had already fallen into the river of love and was unable to extricate herself.
Chu Yuan had been in relationships before and had brought them back to meet them.
Back then, the two mothers had also warmly entertained every single girlfriend, but they had also seen at a glance that those relationships wouldn’t last long, and facts had indeed proven that to be the case.
After all, Chu Yuan and her previous girlfriends clearly just had mutual goodwill, more than friendship, but not quite a romantic relationship.
To say Chu Yuan truly liked them? That couldn’t really be said to be the case.
Now, she was truly trapped.
Liang Mi and Chu Mingshuang didn’t know either whether introducing Yan Dai to Chu Yuan back then and finalizing the arranged marriage with the Yan family was a good thing or a bad thing anymore.