Since Sheng Xiao had asked her to help, Li Yumei naturally threw herself into the preparations.
Sheng Xiao had some savings of his own from all these years, and he also traded with his comrades for many of the ration coupons they would need. Once everyone heard that he was getting engaged, they were more than happy to contribute.
News of Sheng Xiao’s engagement soon spread, and Yang Xixi had been feeling extremely pleased with herself lately.
Most families considered it a big occasion just to hold a wedding banquet. Yet Sheng Xiao was even throwing Yang Xixi a special engagement banquet before their wedding.
Everyone assumed that Sheng Xiao must think very highly of his future wife.
The families who had previously been holding back now came knocking on her door, showering her with flattery and competing to help her with chores.
The little courtyard suddenly became exceptionally neat and tidy. Although the engagement banquet was fast approaching, Yang Xixi simply became a hands-off manager. Since Sheng Xiao had already asked Li Yumei to handle everything, Li Yumei could take care of it herself.
In Yang Xixi’s mind, Sheng Xiao’s future was obviously much brighter than Sun Jianlin’s, so it was only natural for their family to help out. They might even need to ask Sheng Xiao for favors someday.
Besides, Yang Xixi had developed some faint resentment toward Li Yumei. Although Li Yumei had helped clean things up when she first arrived, she had rarely come by afterward. At most, she would exchange a few polite words without actually helping with anything.
Yang Xixi felt an inexplicable sense of superiority. She had assumed Li Yumei would be eager to help her anyway.
*She was so indifferent to me before, but now look at her—she’s scrambling to do things for me.*
Meanwhile, Li Yumei had been so busy these past few days that she was completely overwhelmed.
Originally, she had thought an engagement banquet would be simple enough. What could possibly be so difficult about it?
She was a warmhearted person and had already helped organize two or three wedding banquets in the military compound.
But this time, she had seriously underestimated things.
The demands Yang Xixi made were almost impossible to deal with.
One moment she complained that the clothes were too old-fashioned and insisted they go to a large department store to buy new ones. The next, she complained that the patterns on the sheets and quilt covers weren’t pretty enough.
Her demands seemed endless, and they drove Li Yumei into a fury.
Even people getting married didn’t make this many demands.
Then Yang Xixi insisted that the “three major items” had to be purchased in advance, saying that it would make things look more impressive when everyone came to attend the engagement banquet.
Originally, Sheng Xiao had only planned to invite a few close comrades and their families.
But after Yang Xixi opened her mouth, it looked as though half the military compound would be attending.
Several times, Li Yumei had been so furious that she nearly lost her temper. But for Sheng Xiao’s sake, she had forcibly swallowed her anger.
Meanwhile, life at home had become difficult for Sun Qinqin. Her mother came home every day in a terrible mood, leaving Qinqin unusually well-behaved lately.
Today, she had simply run out to spend time with Su Man.
“Manman, tell me, what’s so special about Yang Xixi? I really don’t see it. Why is Brother Sheng Xiao so determined to marry her? You have no idea how much she’s been driving my mom crazy lately!”
“We can’t even mention her name at home. The moment we do, my mom explodes! I’ve never seen anything like this before. She’s making such a huge production out of the engagement banquet—what’s she going to do when they actually get married? My mom has been angry and worried lately. She’s terrified that if she doesn’t arrange everything properly, she’ll embarrass Brother Sheng Xiao!”
Listening to her complaints, Su Man was thinking about the same thing.
“Qinqin, does Sheng Xiao actually know about all the demands she’s making?”
Sun Qinqin thought carefully for a moment, then her eyes lit up.
“He’s been busy training lately, so he probably really doesn’t know. When he talked to my mom, he only said to satisfy her reasonable requests as much as possible. He never said that every single request had to be met!”
Su Man nodded and offered her a suggestion.
“Why don’t you ask your aunt to find out what Sheng Xiao thinks? Otherwise, if something isn’t done properly, she might end up getting blamed for it.”
Sun Qinqin thought that made perfect sense and hurried home to tell her mother.
Li Yumei agreed. The main problem was that she couldn’t make the final decision about some of Yang Xixi’s demands. Ultimately, Sheng Xiao would have to approve the expenses himself.
When the timing was right, Li Yumei tactfully explained that there were some things she might not be able to decide on her own when arranging the engagement banquet and that Sheng Xiao would have to make the final call.
After hearing Li Yumei describe everything, Sheng Xiao immediately understood what was going on.
A surge of anger burned fiercely in his chest.
Yang Xixi was simply insatiable. The scale of this engagement banquet was far beyond what it should have been.
He first apologized to Li Yumei, then told her that they should simply hold an ordinary engagement banquet. He would deal with the rest himself.
When Sheng Xiao returned home, he happened to see several military families gathered in Yang Xixi’s courtyard, surrounding her and showering her with praise.
The moment they saw that his expression was grim, they tactfully found excuses to leave.
Yang Xixi had just been basking in the attention, surrounded by everyone like the center of the world. Now Sheng Xiao walked in with a cold expression and frightened them all away, which immediately put her in a foul mood.
“Why do you look so miserable? Can’t you see we were talking?”
Sheng Xiao didn’t waste any time with her.
“Those conditions you asked for aren’t happening. I’ve already told Auntie Li that we’ll do things according to the normal standard.”
Yang Xixi exploded.
She rushed up to him.
“Sheng Xiao, do you have any conscience? I gave myself to you! It’s not as though you can’t afford these things. Why are you humiliating me like this?”
“Did Li Yumei say something to you? I knew there was something wrong with the way she looked at me! Doesn’t she have a daughter? I think she’s just jealous that someone else is marrying you! She’s probably bitter about it!”
“I want someone else to handle it. I don’t want her doing it anymore. Who knows whether that woman will deliberately make things difficult for me later!”
Seeing that she showed no remorse and was instead blaming others, behaving like a madwoman, Sheng Xiao’s veins stood out on his forehead.
For the first time, he regretted taking responsibility for what had happened and agreeing to marry her.
But the feeling lasted only a moment.
He stared straight into Yang Xixi’s eyes and said in a firm, unquestionable tone,
“That’s final. If you have a problem with it, then the engagement banquet doesn’t have to happen at all.”
The words struck Yang Xixi like a thousand-pound hammer.
Her face instantly turned deathly pale.
But she still didn’t stop. In her extreme panic, she clung to her last lifeline and blurted out whatever came to mind.
“Sheng Xiao, have you regretted it? You don’t want to take responsibility anymore?”
“If you dare break off the engagement, I’ll report you to the leaders! I’ll make sure everyone knows what you did!”
“Let’s see if you can still stay in the army after that!”
Sheng Xiao remained completely unmoved by her threatening words.
His voice was cold.
“Then go ahead.”
Seeing how utterly fearless he was, Yang Xixi’s heart began to pound with panic.
She simply couldn’t bear the consequences of Sheng Xiao abandoning her.
She knew that if she lost Sheng Xiao, there was no way her own qualifications could land her a man with such good prospects and circumstances.
She was genuinely terrified now and began to soften her tone.
“Sheng Xiao, you can’t treat me like this. I just wanted to make the engagement a little more lively. You know that I was a virgin when I got together with you. If you abandon me, I really won’t have any way to live!”