Li Shaobin raised his hands and the deck of new cards opened up into the shape of a fan in his palms. Then he opened both hands and the cards fell like a waterfall on the table neatly.
Changqing was completely dumbfounded.
Li Shaobin raised his brows proudly. “Let me show you a few more tricks. Opening a white fan, Dovetail shuffle, Ribbon spread…”
Changqing was dazzled, as though she was watching the film the God of Gamblers.
Li Shaobin saw the admiring gaze from Changqing’s eyes. He was secretly delighted. How impressed was Song Chuyi’s wife at him? If Song Chuyi saw this, he would definitely be infuriated.
“Wow, you’re amazing.” Changqing applauded excitedly.
Ruan Yang clapped along and smiled lightly, saying, “Not bad. Same as the professional shufflers they hired when I was filming the God of Gamblers.”
Li Shaobin wasn’t happy upon hearing that. No wonder she was so calm; she had already seen this before. “You even shot the God of Gambling film? I really didn’t know.”
Changqing couldn’t tell that something was off and said, “The film was aired last year. It was very popular.”
“Really? I’ve really never heard of it.” Li Shaobin lifted his chin with pride.
Ruan Yang was speechless. This man was really petty. “Let’s play.”
After playing for a while, Changqing suddenly realized that she was very lucky. She actually drew several hands of bombs while Li Shaobin won some and lost some, and Ruan Yang basically didn’t win a single hand.
As she won, Changqing felt a little embarrassed. “Ruan Yang, I’ll let you pass with this card.”
She purposely discarded the smallest card.
“My hand is too lousy. I can’t play.” Ruan Yang showed the cards in her hand. They were all small cards.
“Wow, that’s terrible.” Li Shaobin glanced and shook his head with sympathy and shuffled the cards after that.
“I think we should have the winner shuffle.” Ruan Yang suddenly stopped him.
“Don’t tell me you think my shuffling made your hand bad?” Li Shaobin raised his brows.
“You’re right. I think changing shufflers would give me a better hand,” Ruan Yang said lightly with a smile.
“Ruan Yang…” At the side, Xin Ziao, who was dressed in a suit made of expensive fabric walked over. His short, brown hair was slightly curled alluringly.
Ruan Yang lifted her head and was stunned before she frowned complicatedly. The man sitting opposite her suddenly stood up and blocked the table, saying with a grin, “Oh, this old classmate. What kind of wind would blow over such a busy person?”
“Cai Li also gave me an invitation card.” Xin Ziao’s brows knitted slightly and he said lightly, “Li Shaobin, can you move over?”
Li Shaobin moved his lips in a very annoying way. “No.”
Xin Ziao walked around him.
Li Shaobin moved once again to block him, causing him to only be able to see Ruan Yang holding a knife and fork, eating fruit gracefully.
Xin Ziao frowned with annoyance. “Li Shaobin, can you stop it?”
“What did I do? I was talking to you. Why do you keep looking behind me? Are you looking at the pretty ladies?” The corners of Li Shaobin’s eyes curled up.
Changqing felt an immense satisfaction hearing that from the back. It was the first time she found Li Shaobin pleasing to the eye. He was too cool.
She really couldn’t stand this Xin Ziao. She gave him a piece of her mind last time and he still had the cheek to show up in front of Ruan Yang, pestering her.
Xin Ziao retracted his gaze from Ruan Yang silently and said, “Who do I look at if not pretty ladies? You? You have nothing good to look at. Every time I see you, your tastes have already upgraded to a point that would make me see you in a new light.”
“I don’t take the normal path, do you understand?” Li Shaobin couldn’t tell that Xin Ziao was mocking him at all and patted the expensive, tailored suit on his chest. “Right. I heard that you got someone from Rui Zhuo to work for the Hong Ye case in the end. I remembered when I approached you, you said you had no intention of taking up that project any time soon. What did you mean by that? You just don’t want to work with me, right?”
The corners of Xin Ziao’s brows twitched. You just had to understand things like that yourself; was there a need to say things like that out loud? Of course, he was different from Li Shaobin. He would often leave people some face when doing business. On top of that, this Li Shaobin was simply like a damn dog. He couldn’t shake Li Shaobin off after getting bitten no matter how hard he tried.
Li Shaobin scoffed. “Forget it. Do I still not have a clear understanding of what you think about me? You just think that I’m from the underworld and am different from your Xin Family who does legitimate business.”
Xin Ziao’s pretty eyes became gloomy. “Enough. I’m not here to quarrel with you.”
“Yo, no wonder you didn’t come back up after so long. So you saw an old classmate.” Behind, Zhan Mingwei’s languid voice drifted over.
He had chatted with Song Chuyi for quite a while upstairs. In the end, Li Shaobin, went to get food and didn’t return for almost an hour. He was really hungry, so the two came down. In the end, he saw Li Shaobin, Yan Changqing, Ruan Yang and Xin Ziao together.
Song Chuyi, who came down with Zhan Mingwei, had his gaze on Changqing first. Then he saw the cards in her hands and his gaze suddenly became dangerous as he squinted.
Changqing’s anger towards Xin Ziao just now was gone. She hid behind Ruan Yang subconsciously.
Ruan Yang patted her hand and stood up, reaching her hand out. “Mr. Song, Chief Zhan, hello.”
“Miss Ruan, it’s been a while.” Zhan Mingwei shook her hand first before looking at Xin Ziao and Li Shaobin at a standstill and laughed. “Why are the two of you still like before, opposing each other the moment you meet?”
Li Shaobin scoffed. “You’re right. We might only be enemies in this lifetime.”
Xin Ziao sighed softly. “I really had no choice with regards to the Hong Ye case.”
Li Shaobin snorted. “The feud between the two of us extended way before the Hong Ye case.”
Xin Ziao was stunned. “Don’t tell me it’s just because I told on you a few times, causing you to be punished when we were still in school?”
Zhan Mingwei laughed out loud. “Of course it’s not that simple. Back then, our Shaobin had a crush on Zhou Shuyun from the same class for a long time. He had finally mustered the courage to write her a love letter, but in the end, she said that she liked you. Haha.”
Hearing that, Ruan Yang swept an unnoticeable gaze at Xin Ziao again.
Xin Ziao said coldly, “Zhou Shuyun? Who’s that? I don’t even remember.”
“You, you, you, don’t be too shameless.” Li Shaobin was so furious he wanted to mince up Xin Ziao. He actually didn’t even remember the girl he had a mad crush on in junior high. “I don’t believe you don’t remember. Our class’s music representative, the one who sang really well…”
Xin Ziao’s brows twitched silently. He must be doing it on purpose, saying all this in front of Ruan Yang. “I really don’t remember. Don’t push all these old things on me; if you have to blame someone, blame yourself for not being charismatic.”
“Who’s not charismatic? When we were still in school, so many people secretly stuffed love letters into my drawer.” Li Shaobin felt angrier the more he thought about it. This was the biggest embarrassment of his life. “If it wasn’t you who purposely moved your seat next to her, whispering things into her ear from time to time during class, treating her to ice cream after class and making her so happy, would she have liked you? The worst part was that you gave the chocolates she saved up to buy for your birthday to other female classmates. Do you know how badly Zhou Shuyun cried after that?”
Changqing wasn’t very interested in their conversation at first. However, she felt more excited as she listened on and started to sympathize with Li Shaobin too.
To think that he was a faithful and protective person.
However, she knew very well what it felt like to be in a one-sided love. Especially when you saw others insult the person you liked.
However, she really didn’t think that Xin Ziao would be so good at hooking up with girls in junior high.
No wonder Ruan Yang couldn’t escape from his clutches.
Changqing looked at Ruan Yang with concern. She had been eating fruit quietly with her head lowered. Just as she finished a piece of dragon fruit, she used the napkin to wipe the corner of her mouth and lifted her head up into a graceful smile. “I really didn’t think that CEO Xin would know how to win the favor of a girl so well in junior high.”
Xin Ziao’s expression changed slightly from anxiousness. He really wanted to kick Li Shaobin all the way to the Pacific Ocean. “I didn’t.”
“You didn’t? Do you dare say that you never treated her to ice cream?” Li Shaobin scoffed. “Old Song, you were in our class then. Tell me if he treated her or not.”
Suddenly, everyone shifted their gaze to Song Chuyi. Song Chuyi lifted his chin slightly and said in a cold voice, “It’s all in the past; forget it. Let’s sit. It’s getting late and we’re all hungry.”
Zhan Mingwei also shot Li Shaobin a gaze secretly before saying with a smile, “That’s true. We were all from the same school. It’s quite a rare opportunity to be able to gather together. Even if we’re squabbling and reminiscing about those things, it’s quite rueful. We’ve all grown so old in the blink of an eye.”
He had always been good at being politically correct. Xin Ziao quickly nodded gently. “That’s true.” He paused slightly and looked at Ruan Yang, saying, “Ruan Yang, sit here. I think it would be better to let Chuyi and his wife sit together.”
Song Chuyi looked at Ruan Yang without saying a word.
Ruan Yang’s exquisite eyebrows moved a little. Then she looked at Changqing beside her, who was starting to become tense. She pondered for a few seconds then still stood up with a smile.
“Thank you…” Song Chuyi smiled gently and sat on her seat. After that, he placed his arm naturally around Changqing’s shoulders.
Changqing’s shoulders froze and she continued eating her ice cream bread, pretending to have not noticed anything.
Li Shaobin libelled secretly in his heart: Stinking, shameless Old Song. He was still saying that she ignored him upstairs and now, he even shamelessly pretended to be very intimate with her. He must be trying to take advantage of her while they were out in public.
He rolled his eyes and realized that Ruan Yang was sitting on the other side. Seeing that Xin Ziao was about to sit next to her, he flew over subconsciously and sat beside Ruan Yang.
Xin Ziao’s handsome face darkened. “Li Shaobin, this is my spot.”
“Your spot?” Li Shaobin blinked innocently. “Is your name written on it?”
He turned his head around and asked Ruan Yang, “Miss Ruan, are you okay with me sitting here?”
“… Of course.” Ruan Yang smiled.
Xin Ziao’s face slowly became gloomy. Even the gleam in his eyes started to be suffused with a chill like thin blades. He cast a deep glance at Ruan Yang once again and said lightly, “Forget it. I think I’ll go upstairs. I happened to run into a few business partners earlier, so I’ll have a chat with them.”