Volume 1 Chapter 21: A Fight Breaks Out
“What a coincidence.”
Jiang Song curved his lips, his gaze sweeping over Li Minglan and Shen Zhizhi as the smile at the corner of his mouth deepened.
He was wearing a blue-and-black vertical-striped Hong Kong-style shirt today.
Beside him, Ruan Wan was dressed in a tie-dye blue maxi dress.
Both were in shades of blue.
Earlier in the crowd, it hadn’t seemed like much, but when they stood alone together, they looked perfectly matched.
At this moment, Jiang Song’s fox-like, narrow eyes were filled with amusement, and the hand that had pushed the door still rested on the doorframe.
From the front, it looked as if he had pulled her into his embrace.
Li Minglan’s brow furrowed. “Why are the two of you together?”
Jiang Song raised an eyebrow. “Guangguang is treating today, so I came to freeload a meal.”
Guangguang—the intimate nickname grated on Li Minglan’s ears. “You know each other?”
Jiang Song’s smile widened as he looked at Ruan Wan. “Didn’t you tell him about us?”
Li Minglan’s frown deepened.
Ruan Wan remained silent, her gaze fixed blankly on Shen Zhizhi’s hand looped through Li Minglan’s arm. Her expression stiffened repeatedly, and she instinctively tried to close the private room door.
Just then, her colleagues behind her, still unaware of what was happening, asked curiously, “Team Leader Ruan, why aren’t you letting Brother-in-Law in?”
“President Li even canceled a meeting to be with you—how doting!” Seeing Ruan Wan about to close the door, Lin Yuying quickly stood up and instead pushed it open wider.
Now, everyone could see the young girl clinging to Li Minglan’s side.
Holy shit?
What was going on!
Caught cheating!
The air suddenly fell silent.
Ruan Wan’s fingers gripped the doorframe tightly, her shoulders trembling slightly. “No, you’ve mistaken him for someone else. He’s not.”
Her colleagues exchanged knowing glances and chimed in, “Oh, so we got it wrong. I thought he didn’t look quite the same.”
Having worked together for so long, they all wanted to preserve Ruan Wan’s dignity and tacitly agreed they had mistaken his identity.
Only Lin Yuying shook her head and laughed:
“Sister Guangguang, what are you saying? He is Li Minglan!”
“In high school, Senior Li was a star student—I could never mistake him.”
“Oh my, I didn’t expect Senior Li to bring Senior Shen along too. Speaking of which, back then, the two of them were considered the perfect golden couple by our entire school…”
“Ah, did I say something wrong?”
Lin Yuying covered her lips and blinked. “But that was all in high school, Sister Guangguang. Don’t take it to heart—pretend I never said it.”
“…”
With her embellishments, Li Minglan and Shen Zhizhi looked even more suspicious.
Ruan Wan struggled to suppress the corners of her lips from curling upward, forcing a sorrowful expression onto her face.
“Yu Ying, stop… He really isn’t Li Minglan, not my husband.”
Li Minglan had initially felt somewhat relieved upon seeing others in the private room, but hearing Ruan Wan deny their relationship reignited his anger.
“If I’m not your husband, then who is?” He grabbed Ruan Wan’s arm, trying to pull her outside.
“Minglan, let go, it hurts…”
He had just touched the spot where she had been scalded.
Li Minglan sneered, “Ruan Wan, stop pretending. That trick doesn’t work on me.”
Jiang Song couldn’t stand it any longer and stepped in front of Ruan Wan, warning in a low voice, “Li Minglan, that’s enough.”
Li Minglan laughed, his gaze passing over Jiang Song to fix on Ruan Wan with malice. “You’re really something, aren’t you? Afraid Grandpa will find out about that matter, so you’re already looking for a way out. Seducing Jiang Song—is it so the Jiang family can step in and help you settle things with Grandpa? Did you sleep with him?”
The atmosphere suddenly froze.
Inside the private room, Li Jing muttered, “Is this guy insane? He’s the one who cheated with a mistress, yet he’s slandering his wife?”
Someone else, unable to hold back their anger, took out their phone to take pictures. “I’m going to snap a photo of this scumbag couple right now and post it online!”
Thud—
Accompanied by a dull thump, Jiang Song punched Li Minglan in the face, his eyes filled with fury.
“Li Minglan, if you can’t take care of her properly, then let someone else do it.”
The tension was palpable, ready to explode at any moment.
“Jiang Song, have you lost your damn mind!”
Li Minglan’s face tightened. He spat out a mouthful of blood and kicked Jiang Song squarely in the chest.
Instantly, the two began brawling.
Everyone assumed Jiang Song’s rage was for Ruan Wan’s sake, blaming Li Minglan for failing to take care of his wife.
But Ruan Wan stood coldly to the side, her gaze fixed on Shen Zhizhi, who hadn’t said a word from the start.
She knew Jiang Song’s anger had nothing to do with her—it was because Shen Zhizhi had been called a “mistress.”
Jiang Song had indeed intended to step back and let Shen Zhizhi and Li Minglan be together.
Yet he was furious with Li Minglan for getting involved with Shen Zhizhi before tidying up his previous relationship, causing Shen Zhizhi to be labeled a “mistress.”
Watching the two men go at it, Ruan Wan offered a half-hearted plea, “Stop fighting.”
It was useless.
The fight grew more intense, nearly tearing the entire restaurant apart.
In the end, it was Shen Zhizhi’s slender figure in pale yellow that stepped between them. “Enough, stop fighting! We’re all friends here—can’t we talk this out properly?”