CH 77.3

When the two of them finally stepped onto the red carpet laid out in front of the hotel’s main entrance, Ji Fanyin casually picked a ‘Queen of Sweden’ rose from the flower archway and handed it to Bai Zhou.

Bai Zhou retracted the umbrella before looking at Ji Fanyin with a questioning look.

“Your birthday present.” Ji Fanyin inserted the rose into the folds of the umbrella and teased, “I didn’t go back on my word.”

Bai Zhou, “What the f… These flowers are Li Xiaoxing’s!”

“Throw it away then.” Ji Fanyin coolly waved her hand and walked away. 

At the turn of the corner, she spotted Song Shiyu standing by the main entrance with a half burnt cigarette between his fingers. There was a long ash trail sticking to the end of his cigarette butt, suggesting that he had been standing still for a long period of time. 

“Hey, Ji Fanyin…” Bai Zhou chased after her with the umbrella in one hand and the rose in the other. As soon as Song Shiyu appeared in his view, he subconsciously slipped the pink rose into his breast pocket.

“Young master Song.” Ji Fanyin acknowledged Song Shiyu’s presence with a nod as she continued making her way into the hotel.

Song Shiyu hurriedly extinguished the cigarette. “Fanyin, can I have a word with you?”

Ji Fanyin halted her footsteps to take a good look at Song Shiyu. 

He looked like he had aged a few years. His gentlemanly appearance was marred by his inconcealable dark eye circles and fatigued look on his face. 

With a polite but cold voice, Ji Fanyin said, “For work-related matters, please contact Zhang Ning or my personal assistant, Shen Qi.”

“It’s not work-related…”

Ji Fanyin interrupted, “Then there is nothing to be said between us.”

In a bid to separate them, Bai Zhou thrust the wet umbrella between the two of them, mainly toward Song Shiyu, and exclaimed, “Make way please. You’re blocking the path.”

Song Shiyu glared at Bai Zhou, but the latter did not seem bothered by it. He even gleefully flaunted his rose.

Ji Fanyin ignored the two bickering men and headed right into the hotel lobby.

The two stars of the day were not at the entrance to greet the guests. In their place were Father Ji, Mother Ji, and a beautiful lady.

It was Ji Fanyin’s first time seeing the lady, but she could tell that the latter was Li Xiaoxing’s relative through her facial features. 

Now that I think of it, Li Xiaoxing has a younger sister named Li Mingyue. Their name corresponds to the line in a poem, ‘A rendezvous of fireflies and the bright moon’.

Li Mingyue was surprised upon catching sight of Ji Fanyin. It took a moment before she finally snapped out of it and stepped forward to shake hands with Ji Fanyin, “Hello. You must be Ji Xinxin’s older sister?”

“Hello.” Ji Fanyin took out her invitation and chuckled, “I am, but I’m a guest of Mr. Li.”

Anger and awkwardness tainted Father Ji and Mother Ji’s faces.

Li Mingyue shot a glance at Father Ji and Mother Ji. There was a trace of surprise and dissatisfaction on her face. Then, she turned back to Ji Fanyin and said, “Alright. Let’s get you registered over here.”

Ji Fanyin took this opportunity to casually look through Li Xiaoxing’s guest list. Unsurprisingly, she found many of Ji Xinxin’s fishes.

It’s almost like Ji Xinxin’s edition of a marine life illustration book..

She flipped to the page indexed with ‘Ji’, found her name, and signed next to it..

“... Ji Fanyin!” Someone suddenly shouted her name from behind. “Why didn’t you reply to my text? 

Ji Fanyin turned around to take a look. It was Cheng Lin, so she capped the pen and replied, “I was busy.What did you want to tell me?”

“I asked if you really aren’t intending to…” Cheng Lin halted her chiding mid-sentence upon noticing the prying eyes all around. She gestured to the side and said, “Let’s talk over there.”

Before she left, she shot a sharp glare at Father Ji and Mother Ji.

Ji Fanyin courteously nodded at Li Mingyue before following Cheng Lin.

Upon arriving at a corner filled with greenery, Cheng Lin finally turned around and glared at Ji Fanyin. She questioned, “I thought that you have already started making changes to retaliate against Ji Xinxin, but why do you still let her step all over you?!”

Ji Fanyin raised her eyebrows.

Does Cheng Lin know the truth? I guess Ji Xinxin is bound to have slipped up at least a couple of times over the years. 

… That would explain the exasperated and disappointed attitude she had towards ‘Ji Fanyin’.

“I’ve told you many times in the past that you have to fight back, but you said that you were content with how things were. I thought that you have changed. Are those changes just for show? Don’t you want to make her pay for the things she did to you?”

This matter should have been none of Cheng Lin’s business, but somehow, she looked even more agitated than Ji Fanyin. 

Her angry outburst is kind of cute.

Looking at Cheng Lin, Ji Fanyin couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

That further fanned Cheng Lin’s anger. “How could you still laugh! Do you even know what’s happening? She’s about to be engaged to Li Xiaoxing!”

Li Mingyue’s voice suddenly piped up from behind. “Pardon me, but I would like to join the conversation too. What does this have to do with my brother’s engagement?”

---

StarveCleric:

I’m a bit overwhelmed by the number of projects at the moment, so I got another translator to help me with 100kPSI so as to allow updates to be more constant. This chapter was done by the new translator, and I edited it. 

There’ll inevitably be some discrepancies in our translation style, which I don’t think I’ll be able to look through and fix because it takes me a lot of time to do a proper job. For reference, it took me 2 hours with over 215 edits just for chapter 77 ~~