Naturally, Wan Hongxin refused to admit that he had ulterior motives. He forced himself to answer, “I didn’t see anything. I just felt… I just felt as though the music made me feel like I was actually there.”
“Exactly, exactly. Miss Su’s mastery of the guqin is extraordinary. We all felt as though we were transported into the scene itself.”
The guests began praising Su Ni’s playing one after another.
Su Ni looked at them with an amused yet unreadable expression. She had no intention of exposing them, however, and merely said lightly, “You’re all too kind. It’s just something I picked up in my spare time.”
Standing among the crowd, Su Mengyao listened to everyone praising Su Ni. Her nails dug deeply into her palms as jealousy burned fiercely inside her.
She had originally wanted Su Ni to embarrass herself, but instead, Su Ni had managed to steal the entire spotlight.
Suppressing her anger, Su Mengyao put on a seemingly sincere smile and walked over.
“Big Sister, you’re so skilled at the guqin, yet I had no idea. Were you afraid I might compete with you?”
What she was implying was that, as her older sister, Su Ni had deliberately hidden her abilities from her and kept her guard up against her younger sister.
Su Ni innocently shrugged.
“You’ll have to ask yourself that. We live under the same roof, yet you didn’t know. That just means you haven’t cared enough about me as your older sister.”
“I…”
Su Mengyao had never expected Su Ni to become so sharp-tongued after coming out of the psychiatric hospital. For a moment, she didn’t know how to respond.
“That’s enough!”
Su Zhengguo suddenly roared. He turned around and scolded Su Ni.
“Su Ni, you’re being completely unreasonable! Today is your birthday banquet and Yaoyao’s as well. How could you play a piece that caused such chaos at a festive occasion like this? Just look at what you’ve done to the hall!”
Su Ni raised her chin slightly and looked at Su Zhengguo with cool eyes.
“I never wanted to play anything in the first place. Your precious daughter insisted that I play.”
“You ungrateful wretch!”
Furious at Su Ni for talking back, Su Zhengguo raised his hand and moved to slap her across the face.
“President Su!”
A cool voice rang out at that very moment, stopping Su Zhengguo in his tracks.
Everyone turned around.
Huo Shiyue and the other two stood at the second-floor railing, his icy gaze fixed on Su Zhengguo’s raised hand.
Su Zhengguo immediately felt a chill run across the back of his hand and hurriedly lowered it.
“President Huo, when did you arrive? Why didn’t you let me know in advance? I would have gone personally to welcome you.”
The ingratiating tone in Su Zhengguo’s voice was completely different from his domineering attitude just moments ago. The speed with which he changed his demeanor was astonishing.
Huo Shiyue paid no attention to his flattery. With steady, measured steps, he slowly descended the staircase. Each step seemed to land on the hearts of everyone present, creating an invisible sense of pressure.
He walked straight to Su Ni and looked down at her hand. In a gentle voice, he said, “You were so focused on playing that you didn’t even notice you’d hurt your hand.”
Su Ni raised her hand and looked at her fingers. Only then did she notice several faint red marks around her fingertips where the strings had pressed into them.
She smiled indifferently.
“It’s been too long since I last played. I’m a little rusty.”
Huo Shiyue’s warm hand closed around Su Ni’s wrist.
“Come upstairs with me. I’ll put some medicine on it.”
With that, he pulled Su Ni upstairs without even sparing a glance at Su Zhengguo, who was still standing nearby waiting expectantly.
As Huo Shiyue led her away, Su Ni lowered her eyes to look at the hand wrapped around hers and blinked.
There was something strange about this feeling.
Huo Shiyue pulled her into a room on the second floor. The Su family had specially prepared it to entertain distinguished guests for the banquet.
The moment Su Ni stepped inside, she saw two other people in the room.
Zhu Xuyao was staring at Su Ni curiously. He immediately greeted her enthusiastically.
“Hi, Miss Su! Nice to meet you!”