Chapter 55: The Banquet
As the heat in the coffee cup had dissipated and the coffee had gradually cooled off, the room was filled with the mellow fragrance of the coffee.
Song Mingxiu took off his suit and coat at the door, handed it to Uncle Rong who was standing by and waiting. Then he walked towards Song Qinghuan who was sitting in front of the French window of the living room, and said gently, “Sorry, it took some time on the way back. Waited for a long time, Huanhuan?”
Song Qinghuan nestled in the sofa of the villa, with her hand stirring a cup of black coffee, just from which came the fragrance.
Today was Saturday, and the Old Lady phoned her in person. After exchanging greetings, the Old Lady hinted that Song Qinghuan had not been home for some time. The home she mentioned was not the one in Lin’an, but the one in Wan’ning.
When Song Mingxiu said he would pick her up on the phone, Song Qinghuan told him that she was already on her way back. Then she hung up the phone and took a taxi back.
“Well, that’s OK.” Song Qinghuan lowered her eyes and did not look at the man standing in front of her. Song Mingxiu was tall and handsome, and when he was dressed in the formal clothes and kept solemn, his eyes behind the lens seemed very formidable.
Song Mingxiu had also been very busy recently. He had the capability, and even if he didn’t rely on the Song family, he could make his own career take off. That was why he took the initiative to withdraw from the Song family’s internal strife and came to Wan’ning for development.
When Kaiyue was in chaos, Song Mingxiu successfully entered the company with his uncle’s recommendation, and then he restructured Kaiyue with fierce measures. In order to incorporate into the business circle of Wan’ning City, he was so busy with social engagement every day that he had no time to care about Song Qinghuan.
Now the situation had finally stabilized. Song Mingxiu went home and learned from Uncle Rong that Song Qinghuan had never returned since she was at odds with Song Shuyao in front of everybody.
When Song Mingxiu called Song Qinghuan himself, either no one answered or the phone was powered off. When Uncle Rong called her, he could not even connect the line. Song Mingxiu realized something was wrong and thought of the Old Lady.
As expected, after receiving the call from the Old Lady, Song Qinghuan immediately came back on her own initiative. In Song Mingxiu’s view, Song Qinghuan was still a good girl, and she was just unhappy with him.
Song Mingxiu looked at Song Qinghuan with eyes full of love. He bent over and said in an affectionate but helpless tone, “Still angry?”This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.
Song Qinghuan just smiled and did not say anything, because she thought there was no need to explain since her brother had already misunderstood her.
“Where is Shuyao?” Song Qinghuan had already gone upstairs when she came back, and found her bedroom had traces of being rummaged. Fortunately, she had brought all her important belongings to the dormitory. The bedroom in this villa was no different from the guest room to her.
After hearing these words, Song Mingxiu thought instinctively that Song Qinghuan was still angry, so she didn’t want to live in the same house with Song Shuyao. In fact, Song Shuyao had been discharged from the hospital. Actually, this young sister had suffered a lot in the past six months.
She was hospitalized during the summer vacation, but not long after she was discharged from hospital, she began goofing around before full recovery. The Grandma gave her a lesson when she went back on the National Day holidays. Fortunately, her legs were fine and she was able to move freely again.
After her legs recovered, Song Shuyao went out for fun again, and that was her.
She said in front of the Old Lady that she was wrong but that was just a lip service.
“Shuyao is not bad in nature, and I hope you can understand that, Huanhuan. There must be some misunderstanding between you two. You can’t leave home just because you are angry with Shuyao, your young sister.” Song Mingxiu raised his hand to touch Song Qinghuan’s head. His tone was sincere and his eyes were full of love. He treated Song Qinghuan like a child who did not get her way.
Song Qinghuan stood up and once again avoided Song Mingxiu’s hand. She walked slowly towards the dining room with her coffee cup in hand. “I know, I’m going back to school if there is nothing serious.” She said without looking back.
“Huanhuan!” Song Mingxiu’s tone increased somewhat. He frowned wearily and said, “I’ll find Shuyao a house near her school and let her move out.”
This was a concession made by Song Mingxiu.
Song Qinghuan put down that cup of coffee, which she did not drink at all after she was back home. She grabbed the wet towel and wiped her palm. “I remembered you said in front of Grandma that you would discipline her, but now you want her to move out.” Song Qinghuan raised her head and looked straight at Song Mingxiu. She really wanted to jeer at Song Mingxiu by saying that ‘you two are brother and sister exactly in this way of lip service.’
“It is just because you overlook even your elder brother when you are angry.” Song Mingxiu smiled, and his eyes showed a sense of tolerance.
“Still angry? There’s a banquet tonight, and we’ll go together.” Then Song Mingxiu added without giving Song Qinghuan the opportunity to refuse, “Grandma enjoined that.”
“…” Song Qinghuan nodded, “I know.”
She had to wait. When she had a certain reputation and had enough strength to fight against the Song family, she would not be afraid of them anymore.
Since Song Shuyao was expelled from the house by the Old Lady, Song Qinghuan also thought about whether it was feasible to use a similar ‘method’ to disappoint the Old Lady and thus have herself expelled as well. But she dismissed the bold idea afterwards. She had a hunch that even if she acted as Song Shuyao in that way, the Old Lady wouldn’t drive her out.
On the contrary, it would even make her unable to go to school, and then she would be taken back to the Song family to accept strict “discipline”, which was not the situation Song Qinghuan was willing to face.
She could not risk her future life.
All she had to do was waiting, and everything would be over as long as this year passed.
The banquet to be attended was a birthday dinner party. Perhaps they hadn’t seen each other for too long, so Song Mingxiu decided to take her out on the pretext of buying her a formal dress for the banquet.
When she lived in the Song family, the family had a professional team to measure and make different dresses in different seasons. In those cases, Song Qinghuan just stood aside in the dark watching the modeling teams busy around Song Shuyao and Xia Ru’nan.
It was just because Xia Ru’nan would never take her out to any banquet. The excuse was even more ridiculous: It was not safe outside and she’d be better stay at home.
Wan’ning City, as the capital city, certainly had high-end shopping malls, which never lacked customers. There were both international famous brand stores and well-known designer’s stores in the malls. The service of these high-end stores was very considerate, because only in this way were guests willing to spend their money.
Song Mingxiu was the new president of Kaiyue, and his profile and photos had been published in media reports and financial magazines earlier. In addition, Song Qinghuan was also at least a popular online celebrity now. Therefore, as soon as these two eye-catching customers entered the store, some salesclerks immediately recognized them.
As a salesgirl saw the big boss Song Mingxiu carried shopping bags and followed behind Song Qinghuan just like a “good boyfriend”, she was dazed immediately. But such an expression lasted for just a second. Then the salesgirl went forward with a professional smile in an instant.
“Welcome.”