Zhang Jingjing looked in the direction Luo Qianqian had indicated and her eyes lit up with delight as she exclaimed, "Brother Cheng!"
Li Xiancheng faced the little ancestor before him, feeling overwhelmed for a moment, "Jingjing, how have you been recently? Your academic performance hasn’t slipped, has it?"
"Xiancheng? You’ve arrived and didn’t even greet me?" Zhang Hongru looked at the man with surprise in his eyes before breaking into a wry smile, "You came here just for that bottle of wine reserved for the finale, didn’t you? Haven’t seen you for months, kid, and aside from that keen nose of yours, you really have no other merits."
Zhang Hongru addressed those he had previously slighted, "Let me introduce everyone, this is a graduate student from Q University, the future CEO Li Xiancheng."
"Director Zhang is too kind," Li Xiancheng waved his hand as interpersonal relations were clearly not his strength, "I’m just in an industry with a promising future."
Li Xiancheng looked at Zhang Hongru, who wouldn’t let the matter rest, and smiled helplessly, "I really did come for that bottle of wine, been waiting half the day already."
"Haha, Younger Brother Li is quite straightforward. Us few old timers with one foot in the grave are getting impatient too. The world will belong to the young people in the future, Director Zhang, don’t keep us hanging any longer," one of the men who had been talking with Zhang Hongru said, glancing at him. The man clearly noticed Zhang Hongru’s better treatment of Li Xiancheng and seized the opportunity to curry favor, in case a chance for collaboration arose in the future.
Luo Qianqian was dumbfounded at the moment. What had she just heard? Li Xiancheng? The slovenly man she had suspected was Li Xiancheng? The initiator of that online shopping platform? How could someone like him possibly be that kind of woman’s lover? What was she thinking?
"Luo Qianqian, you see that woman over there? She’s a good friend of my stepmother’s and comes to our house often," Zhang Jingjing pointed out a woman who had been talking with the plump woman earlier.
"You see that uncle over there? Rumor has it he’s the one who introduced that woman to my dad," Jingjing pointed in a different direction, indicating a middle-aged man with a large belly who was past fifty.
"You see that fat lady with rings on every finger? She’s the uncle’s wife, dressed like a newly rich. She has quite the gaudy look," Jingjing whispered covertly, gesturing at the plump woman trailing behind the middle-aged man.
"By the way, do you recognize that fat woman?" Luo Qianqian indicated the woman who had cursed at them earlier and motioned to Zhang Jingjing.
"I know her. Before I went to pick you guys up, I overheard her and a few other women who are close to my stepmother gossiping about how her family raises one flag at home that never falls and flies colorful flags outside. They said she was the flag, but I have no idea what that means," Zhang Jingjing spoke in a low voice.
Luo Qianqian looked around and, being a young woman with less social experience, even defended them. She decided to start with the young friends of the Zhang family stepmother.
"Do you know your stepmother’s name?" Luo Qianqian asked quietly.
"Ma Lina, and that woman’s name is Liu Yajing," Jingjing had just finished speaking her stepmother’s name when she saw Luo Qianqian staring at that woman and casually said it out loud.
"Okay, I got it. Keep an eye on Xiao Yu, I’m just going to have a look around," saying that, Luo Qianqian took a plate and approached Liu Yajing. Observing Liu Yajing fiddling with a ruby ring on her ring finger the size of a soybean, Luo Qianqian thought to herself that the stone was so large she couldn’t afford it even if she sold herself.
"Auntie, are you the Aunt Liu that Aunt Nana mentioned?" Luo Qianqian asked with an innocently naive expression, while Liu Yajing looked at the kid she had just seen and smiled warmly.
"Can’t you reach something you’d like to eat?" the woman asked Luo Qianqian kindly, "Do you know Nana? Did Nana say something about me?"
"No, no," Luo Qianqian feigned nervousness, not daring to meet the woman’s gaze, enticing Liu Yajing to keep questioning.
"What did Aunt Nana say about the auntie? Let me get you an egg tart to eat," Liu Yajing’s curiosity led her to press further, while Luo Qianqian mentally gave herself a thumbs up.
"Aunt Nana didn’t say anything. She didn’t talk about the pretty auntie and that uncle..." Luo Qianqian hastily covered her mouth, looking as if she had inadvertently slipped up and then watched Liu Yajing anxiously.
Liu Yajing’s expression turned frosty as she glared venomously in Ma Lina’s direction, though she maintained a gentle tone towards Luo Qianqian, "What happened between the auntie and which uncle?" Her gaze didn’t even drift to Luo Qianqian.
Luo Qianqian mused internally that maybe this was the benefit of watching too many soap operas; could she really bluff her way through a situation like a blind cat stumbling on a dead mouse? She looked up at the glaring chandelier, feeling how surreal everything seemed, but she continued to act scared, quickly shaking her head, "Aunt Nana didn’t say anything, she didn’t talk to Uncle Zhang or any other uncles." After speaking, she turned and swiftly ran away.