CH 29

editor: Storm

As the party was about to begin, the waiters shuffled among the guests. Qiao Yichen and Lin Dongyang stood in a corner of the hall, each holding a glass of champagne in their hands. Lin Dongyang followed Qiao Yichen around to see this and that. His eyes were dazzled, just like when ‘Granny Liu visited the Grand View gardens’. Everything was strange. 

A middle-aged man, with a ‘八’ shaped beard, accompanied by a well-maintained woman, walked over to the corner where the two were standing. The middle-aged man smiled and said, “Young Master Qiao is still such a talented and extraordinary person.”

The woman with exquisite makeup echoed, “Yes ah, I really envy chairman Qiao for having such an excellent son.”

Qiao Yichen smiled slightly. “Mr and Mrs. Shen have praised me too much, this younger generation is clumsy and inferior.”

“You’re too kind.” 

Lin Dongyang was ignored completely. His teeth ached when he heard Qiao Yichen’s polite remarks. He secretly ridiculed: Tsk, this person’s behaviour in private and in public is really different.

Lin Dongyang, who acted as the air, secretly took a sip of champagne from his glass. The sour and fruity taste filled his mouth. He didn’t hear where the conversation went, but Qiao Yichen suddenly said, “Please follow me,” before leading the middle-aged couple in the other direction.

“…” Lin Dongyang looked at Qiao Yichen’s back and hesitated, to follow or not to follow, but Qiao Yichen led the Shen couple away without even looking back at him or giving a statement. He finally felt that it was better to wait where he was. So, he stood in the corner and silently sipped his champagne.

People crowded into the reception hall, to the point that they were rubbing shoulders, but no one paid attention to the corner where Lin Dongyang was. It might be that those rich businessmen with calculating eyes saw him as unworthy of conversation, so they were unwilling to waste valuable time with a young generation.

There was a dessert table not far from the corner. The party hadn’t officially started yet. The exquisite desserts on the table were for the distinguished guests to enjoy before dinner. Lin Dongyang looked around and found that Qiao Yichen hadn’t come back yet. He walked forward and picked up a nice looking piece of dessert and put it in his mouth to taste it. The sweet but smooth taste made Lin Dongyang fall in love with it after just one bite, so he couldn’t help but take another one. Without Qiao Yichen around, he wasn’t afraid of being laughed at by others for his rude actions.

As a blonde man stumbled across this scene the corner of his lips raised. He swirled the wine in his glass as he approached his prey.

The man nodded slightly, like he was inadvertently passing by the cold corner where Lin Dongyang was. Then, he slowly approached the unaware little prey. He was extremely close, so close that Lin Dongyang would bump into him when he turned around.

After several desserts, Lin Dongyang felt a little tired, so he wanted to leave the table. As a result, as soon as he turned around, his shoulder hit the man’s deliberately close arm. The red liquid in the glass splashed on the man’s suit. 

“P’w rbggs!” Olc Gbcusjcu lwwfvljafis jqbibulhfv.

“It’s okay.” The man didn’t get angry. He took out a white square handkerchief and gently wiped the wine stains on his suit. The faint smile on the corner of his mouth was very bewitching. In the blink of an eye, his flirtatious looks charmed all living beings. At this moment, his pair of blue-green eyes were watching the somewhat embarrassed Lin Dongyang.

After hearing the other party’s words, Lin Dongyang was stunned. This person speaks English? Although he didn’t know much English ah, he still understood this first sentence. The other party said ‘it’s okay’, so in order to express his apology, he could only bite the bullet and use his stiff English to go into battle.

“I don’t… don’t… deliberate… eh” F*ck! ‘I don’t mean it’, how do I say that?! 

“Don’t mean it?” The man said thoughtfully, helping him to solve the awkward situation.

“Yeah, yeah” Lin Dongyang nodded and said yes.

Lf kjr rfio-jkjgf jybea tlr ribqqs Scuilrt. Po tf kjr pera ilrafclcu ab batfgr, tf wluta yf jyif ab ecvfgrajcv j ilaaif yla klat rbwf uefrrlcu, yea ab jrx tlw ab rqfjx bg kglaf la bea tlwrfio kjr j pbxf. Llr nbmjyeijgs vlvc’a jiibk tlw ab bgujclhf j mbwqifaf rfcafcmf. Lf tjvc’a ilxfv Scuilrt rlcmf tf tjv mbwf bea bo tlr wbatfg’r kbwy!

Don’t ask him how he got into college. It was the darkest period of his life. He was locked up in his room by his mother, who was a teacher, and forced to learn it! Out of the room, he would also encounter on the spot checks of his vocabulary. After he went to college, and without his mother, he drifted away again. After three years, the English, which had only been attained through training with the devil, had all been forgotten. Hey, let’s not mention the past. 

The man’s smile deepened. “Don’t be nervous, baby.”

Lin Dongyang was a little embarrassed. He really didn’t know what to do. He looked at the man who had a deep smile in front of him, and bit his lips not knowing how to answer.

“Can I invite you for a drink alone in the evening?”

“Yeah.” The other party was an authentic foreigner, who spoke with a pure foreign accent, and the speed of his speech was fast. For Lin Dongyang, whose English was at the lowest level, it was no different from listening to bird language, and it didn’t help that he spoke without pausing. In order to avoid embarrassment, he said ‘yeah’ whether he understood what was said or not. 

“Really? That’s great, here’s my business card.” The man, at some point, had brought out a black card between his two fingers. He then slowly stuffed the card into Lin Dongyang’s suit breast pocket, his three-dimensional handsome face smiling ambiguously.

“You can speak Chinese ah?” Lin Dongyang was surprised to see that the man who had been speaking English just now was also fluent in Chinese. At the same time, he was relieved, thinking that there would be no language barrier now. But, what did he mean by that sentence just now?

“I can speak six languages. Chinese is my favourite. Nice to meet you, my name is Austin.” Mr. Austin stretched out his right hand. His tailored suit made his figure even more imposing.

Lin Dongyang reached out to shake his hand, and Austin’s thumb gently swept across the back of Lin Dongyang’s hand, just for a moment. His seemingly unintentional action didn’t arouse Lin Dongyang’s defense at all. 

“Lin Dongyang.” He gave his name to Austin. This was the second time he had introduced himself at the party.

It was very normal handshake etiquette. After Austin let go of Lin Dongyang’s hand, he looked for topics to talk about with Lin Dongyang. Lin Dongyang had waited for a long time, but didn’t see Qiao Yichen come back. But just when he was in the midst of boredom, suddenly such a funny and talkative person was willing to talk to him. Of course he was happy and the communication process was very pleasant. Lin Dongyang, this little white rabbit, plunged head first into the gentle trap of the big gray wolf.

They started talking about the dessert Lin Dongyang had just eaten, then Austin started to talk about the champagne and red wine in their hands, as well as some new things Lin Dongyang had never encountered before. When touching upon the blind spots in his knowledge, Lin Dongyang acted like he had found a treasure, and he couldn’t help but get closer and closer to Austin.

“There’s something on your collar, let me wipe it off for you.” Austin pulled out a folded and very fancy white square handkerchief. Then, he stretched his claws towards Lin Dongyang’s neck. 

Lin Dongyang instinctively wanted to dodge away, but the other party’s expression and movement weren’t peculiar, and he even asked him, “Don’t you like wearing a tie?” In an instant, Lin Dongyang felt that he had used despicable ideas to speculate on the mind of a decent person.

Just as he was about to reply, Qiao Yichen, who had disappeared for a long time, suddenly appeared behind the two people like a ghost. “Mr. Austin, please maintain the etiquette that a distinguished guest should have. This is not your hunting ground.” His voice revealed a warning.

Qiao Yichen’s face was unpleasant as he stood in front of Lin Dongyang, blocking him from Austin’s hunting gaze. Austin was a little surprised to see Qiao Yichen being so protective of the little prey he had his eye on. His eyes flashed with surprise, “Unexpectedly, you’re Young Master Qiao’s person? Sorry, I have offended you.”

He put one hand on his chest and bowed his head slightly in apology. His elegant posture and handsomeness gave off a particularly good feeling at first glance, making you think that this man must be a gentleman. Austin saw that the time for hunting was over and there was no need to stay any longer. As he was leaving, he winked at Lin Dongyang who was being blocked by Qiao Yichen, and said in an ambiguous voice, “Call me.” 

Qiao Yichen’s complexion turned ashen, and he felt an unknown anger in his heart that he had nowhere to vent. After Austin’s figure submerged in the surging sea of people, he pointed his finger at Lin Dongyang.

“Yeah? Yeah my ass ah. Did you f*cking understand what he said? You answer yeah!” Qiao Yichen exploded. He sent Mr. and Mrs. Shen to the designated VIP room and immediately went back. He was afraid that Lin Dongyang didn’t understand etiquette and would make trouble. After all, this was Qiao Weiwei’s birthday party. As a result, he saw that Lin Dongyang and Austin were chatting happily! He didn’t step forward to disturb them at first, rather he wanted to hear what these two people, who had never met before, could talk about.

It was the first time Lin Dongyang had heard Qiao Yichen explode with such foul language, and he was wearing such a formal vest suit. He had never heard him speak like that in the school before. Even in the underground parking lot when others called him a little brat, he hadn’t exploded. Why is he so angry now? Baffling.

Lin Dongyang: “What? I can’t talk to someone else ah, you care so much.” 

“Then, did you understand what he said?” Qiao Yichen asked.

Lin Dongyang tried to save face and insisted, “I understood ah.”

Qiao Yichen’s face became uglier. “You understood that he’s going to get off with you and you still answer yeah?! You must be out of your mind.”

“Get off…?” Lin Dongyang was speechless, that sentence he didn’t understand was actually asking to get off with him?! 

Seeing his expression gradually turn from puzzled to surprised, Qiao Yichen didn’t give him any face and exposed him. “Heh, didn’t you understand?”

“I… I half understood, I heard ‘like drink’ and thought he asked me if I like to drink, so I just… answered ‘yeah’,” Lin Dongyang was short of breath. He had really thought so at the time. He had used ‘out of context’ words to make up the essence of the sentence.

Qiao Yichen: “Have you passed level four English?”

“No,” Lin Dongyang smiled embarrassedly. 

Qiao Yichen could do nothing but grit his teeth and say, “Stupid!”

Lin Dongyang was still wondering now what that phrase, that he didn’t understand, meant. So he asked again, “What did he say exactly?”

Qiao Yichen arrogantly threw him a view of his back, imitating Lin Dongyang’s previous tone, “It’s none of your business.”