Lu Liyan: “…”
“Shut up.”
Hearing the slight anger in the man’s voice, Jiang Die immediately pressed her lips together and stopped “provoking” him.
Under everyone’s gaze, the girl stood with her hair pinned up, dressed in a white strapless engagement gown. Her skin was as smooth as jade, and her pair of amber eyes were wrapped in a faint mist, making them look lively and captivating. A tiny mole beneath the corner of her left eye, resembling a small pearl, added an alluring charm to her appearance.
The man whose arm she was holding wore a black suit, his features handsome and coolly composed. The two of them looked surprisingly well matched as they walked onto the stage step by step.
Seeing this scene, the Host swallowed his exclamation. Although he knew the truth, his professionalism prompted him to immediately alter his speech on the spot, removing every mention of Xing Yiming’s name before continuing the proceedings with a professional smile.
Once she was back onstage, Jiang Die did not miss the various thoughts written plainly across the faces of the people seated in the front row.
She took the microphone and said gracefully, “Thank you to all the distinguished guests for attending…”
Jiang Die suddenly fell silent. Pulling the microphone away, she awkwardly lowered her voice and asked the man beside her, “Uh, excuse me, Mr. Lu, may I ask your surname?”
Lu Liyan: “…”
“Lu.”
Seeing that he had only uttered that one word, Jiang Die secretly thought that he really was a man of few words.
Still, she immediately put on a flawless smile and calmly continued, “For attending the engagement banquet of Mr. Lu and me.”
“My man may seem cold on the outside but is warm-hearted underneath. He likes to come up with little tricks to make me happy, so he arranged this little opening. I hope everyone doesn’t mind.”
“…”
As Jiang Die lied without even blinking, the chatter below the stage gradually died down, and the probing gazes disappeared. Some people seemed to want to say something, but in the end, no one spoke.
After all, they had never imagined that someone would be willing to use his own lifelong marriage to cooperate with Jiang Die in putting on an act.
However, when the two people who had just used their marriages to put on a show for each other followed the proceedings to the backdrop for photographs, Jiang Die had already been feeling a chill down her back ever since she finished telling those lies onstage. The man beside her radiated a faint coldness, like sharp blades that threatened to pierce through her flesh.
She stiffened the corners of her lips as she faced the camera, not daring to look at him, and gently “persuaded” him in a voice only the two of them could hear. “Well, Mr. Lu, I feel that when we help someone, we should see it through to the end. Don’t you agree?”
As the photographer asked them to step back a little, Lu Liyan’s Adam’s apple bobbed slightly. He was just about to say something when that earnest voice sounded again.
“Besides, just think of it as some advanced practice. If you ever meet someone you like in the future, being cold on the outside but warm-hearted underneath really is a big plus…”
The moment Jiang Die finished speaking, she suddenly felt dark energy radiating from the man beside her. She swallowed nervously when she noticed his arm loosening, as if he no longer wanted to continue with the act. Instinctively, she tightened her grip around his arm while looking up and smiling for the camera.
“Mr. Lu, I was just talking nonsense. Don’t take it to heart.”
Lu Liyan looked at her, his face tinged with coldness. The corners of his lips curved upward, though it hardly resembled a smile, and his voice carried a chilling edge. “Miss Jiang can make being cheated on sound so fresh and unconventional. Looks like you have rather unique tastes.”
After he finished speaking, Jiang Die barely managed to maintain her expression while desperately brainwashing herself with the same thought over and over again: He’s my benefactor. I have to endure this.
It was the first time this man had said so many words, and every single one had been mercilessly barbed.
Fine, she had brought this upon herself, quite literally.
“I call this knowing when to yield and when to stand firm.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the doors to the banquet hall opened, and the guests began filing out. From time to time, someone would call out to the man and woman still taking photographs, “Happy engagement!”
Jiang Die squeezed out a smile as she responded to them, while wondering why the proceedings had ended so quickly when they should not have been over yet.
At that moment, an elderly woman wearing a khaki embroidered dress looked at them, her expression slightly stern. “Xiaodie.”
Hearing the voice, Jiang Die looked over.
The middle-aged woman who had been following behind the elderly woman said something to the photographer. The woman then stepped aside and made a gesture inviting him to leave, after which the two of them departed together.
The elderly woman took another couple of steps forward, her sharp gaze falling on the girl’s hand wrapped around the man’s arm.
“Xiaodie, the engagement banquet is over. Your grandmother and you need to have a talk.”
Her intention to send the guest away was obvious, and her scrutinizing gaze also fell upon the man.
Lu Liyan’s expression turned slightly cold as he met her gaze without the slightest attempt to avoid it. His imposing aura made even the elderly woman feel somewhat intimidated. Yet in the very next moment, as though he still intended to play along with the act, he said calmly, “Excuse me. I need to make a phone call.”
After saying that, he met Jiang Die’s gaze but gave her no response. As his footsteps gradually faded into the distance, the surroundings fell silent.
Jiang Die looked back at the woman in front of her, and her thoughts inevitably returned to the expression the latter had worn while watching everything unfold in the banquet hall.
From the moment Jiang Die had been mocked and discussed by everyone like a laughingstock until she broke out of the situation, the elderly woman, as the head of the Jiang family and her grandmother, had remained completely expressionless and had never stepped forward to take charge.
It had been the same in the original novel. Even when Jiang Die was later subjected to insults and abuse, she had never said a single word in her granddaughter’s defense.
“I’ve never met Mr. Lu before. Is he your friend?”
Hearing this, Jiang Die noticed that there was a hint of satisfaction in the elderly woman’s eyes regarding the man’s identity. The Jiang family’s waters ran too deep, and besides, he had only helped her out of goodwill today. There was no way she could drag him into this mess any further.
“I don’t know him, but if he didn’t have an invitation, he wouldn’t have been able to attend the Jiang family’s engagement banquet.”
Jiang Die paused before continuing to lie without changing her expression. “He probably wanted to make a good impression on the Jiang family and didn’t want to miss an opportunity for cooperation, so that’s why he stepped in to help me.”
Hearing this, Feng Youmei’s expression relaxed slightly, and she stopped paying attention to Lu Liyan. She quickly changed the subject.
“You saw what happened tonight. Xing Yiming, whom you begged me to approve of you being with, publicly broke off the engagement. Fortunately, you’re not completely foolish and knew how to respond in time. From now on, you don’t need to have anything more to do with him.”
“Since you’re not close to Mr. Lu, next month I will announce that your marriage arrangement is canceled. After that, go meet the eldest young master of the Luo Group. He likes you very much.”
Feng Youmei gently touched the girl’s hair near her temple, her gesture affectionate, yet her expression remained indifferent, as though she were merely issuing an order.
“Jiang Die, the board of directors was already very dissatisfied with your engagement to Xing Yiming. Don’t forget what happened back then… You have to take responsibility.”
In the original novel, what had happened back then occurred when Jiang Die was still very young. Her parents had died in a car accident on the way to J City because Jiang Die had wanted to go there to play. The two of them had protected her with their bodies, allowing her to escape the disaster unharmed.
At the time, Jiang Die’s mother had also been pregnant.
The sudden loss of both her son and her unborn grandchild caused Feng Youmei to place all the blame on Jiang Die, making her resent the girl. Yet because of their blood relationship, the Jiang family could not afford to have no successor, so they continued to cultivate her while keeping everything about her under their control.
It could be said that the attention Jiang Weiling had always wanted was precisely what Jiang Die resisted the most.
Seeing Jiang Die remain silent, Feng Youmei assumed that she was still unable to let go of Xing Yiming and could not accept what had happened so quickly.
“Don’t forget to thank that Mr. Lu later. Whatever he wants, as long as it is within the Jiang family’s means, we can satisfy him.”