Time flew by quickly and soon enough, it was night time. Yang Zhi arrived at the living room where his children were awaiting him with each one of them dressed absolutely remarkably. He nodded. He was very satisfied.
His eyes trailed to the hall leading to Yang Xue's room and he sneered. The internal organs of that foolish son of his must be filled with regret. He'd like to see the look on the mandron's face when Yang Liu manages to grab the general for herself.
Speaking of Yang Liu.... His eyes moved again.
She had on a beautiful green dress that was fitting at the top and flowed into layers from the waist down. Her hair was done in a way that exposed her neck with a few strands released to give off a natural feel. Her make up was minimal and her skin glowed beautifully.
Yang Zhi nodded again. This was good. Yang Liu had always been the most sensible of his children. With how pure she looked, it would be hard for the General to resist. He motioned at her. "A'Liu, come."
Again, the other three looked eyed each other strangely after the father and daughter walked away. Yang Teng was the most perplexed. Yang Liu had been acting odd for days now and it all started when she'd been called into their father's study three days ago. What really was going on?
In the study, Yang Zhi pulled out three small medicinal packets and handed them over to his first daughter. "You know what to do."
Yang Liu's heart leaped in both nervousness and excitement as she placed the package into her small purse but she maintained her calm expression and slowly nodded.
Five minutes later, the Yangs were all comfortably seated in a very expensive maglev limousine that Yang Zhi had rented with pain in his heart. If his daughter was going to end up with the General, he had to make sure that the Yangs appeared worthy.
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The Grand hotel was bubbling with excitement as numerous elite guests from different Plexar Federation Planets should up one after the other. The venue was even more lively than the best award ceremony as the reporters interviewed one guest after the other with extreme joy.
The majority of civilians watching from their homes had mixed feelings about what they were watching. They were happy to see tons of outstanding figures but sad that all they could do was watch.
A lot of them logged on the Federation network to express their grievances and online debates were at an all time high as various people identified elites from their Planets and compared them against each other.
[[ #Kayla: Just an engagement party is this lively. I wonder how the wedding will be!
#ILoveGeneralDing: If my engagement party isn't like this then I don't want it!
#Singledog: General Ding has set the bar so high, how are the rest of us going to survive?
#Leo; Look to the left! It's Mr. Ankr, the CEO of the Q group on Planet Neo!
#Somewherefaraway: It's too bad the main event would be private. I really hoped to see General Ding and Lieutenant Jin. I bet they would both look amazing.
#Bolin: AAAHHH! I can't breathe~ I found President Jin! So handsome~
#Udnic: @Bolin, Where? Where?! Why can't I spot him?!
#Bolin: @Udnic, He's at the far left being interviewed by that reporter from the Earth times media. I wonder what he has to say about his sister's engagement?
#Wallflower: I'm just a passerby here to fill my eyes full of handsome men. Such a wonderful sight! *already on my third nose bleed*
#LuoYun: The beauty, the glamour, the outfits, the jewelry. I've never felt so ugly in my entire life but I can't look away! *internally shedding happy-sad tears*
#User7633848: It's the famous twin movie queens from Andron and the twin movie kings from minor Planet Dhae at the same event! A sight I thought I would never get to see. If I die today, I die a happy man! ]]
The 'red carpet'' moment was almost coming to an end when the Yangs arrived. The surroundings stilled for a moment as people stared in confusion. No one expected them to show up here after the Dings clarified the rumours.
Although Yang Xue was absent... Did they not feel shame?A few reporters tried to rush up to them but were a step too late as the assigned security chose that moment to set up a metal barricade in front of the Grand hotel to seal off the entrance and keep the reporters from sneaking in.
[[ #Userhdj7899: No, no, no. Don't seal off the hotel just yet! I need to know why the Yangs are here!
#Anuraj: Rather than that, I'm more surprised by the fact that they actually had an invite. What's the story here?
#Gyuk: Why must the engagement party be private? I need to know what's going on!
#GuHua: At least let one or two reporters in, the Ding and Jin families cannot leave us in the dark like this! We're every bit as invested in General Ding's and Lieutenant Jin's relationship as the two people involved are!
#IUseTheNetwork: Pleading with General Ding to make the engagement party public!!!....]]
The wave of comments continued on the Federation network but, sadly, there was no one to answer the numerous questions left behind by the netizens.
Meanwhile inside the Grand hotel;
Every single guest in the watched in awe as the dashing Ding Weimin walked down the classic staircase with the stunning Jin Qi hooked on his arm.
Taking in the stares of admiration, jealousy and envy from a lot of the people present, Jin Qi preened inwardly. When she looked to the man at her side, she couldn't help but smile brightly.
She'd always been in love with Ding Weimin. In fact, she had met before Yang Xue did but had given up on pursuing him when he had the accident. It wasn't that she wanted to but she had was no choice. Since her elder brother was business oriented, it was up to her to work her way up the ranks in the army and take over from her grandfather, the Second marshal.
The Jin family was a military family so if there was no one to take over her grandfather's position then the family would go downhill from there. It had hurt her terribly to give up on Ding Weimin but she really had no choice.
Fate must have taken pity on her situation and Ding Weimin survived the energy crisis. Only that... there had been a no name mandron clinging to her Weimin after.
At that thought, Jin Qi's eyes roamed around the hall before landing on the Yang family. She tsked in disappointment when she noticed Yang Xue was absent. She'd been the one to secretly send the invite to the Yang family.
This was because she had a very strong dislike for the mandron and desperately wanted to see him absolutely crushed at having to watch her get engaged to Ding Weimin.
The Ding family could be delusional all they want and Ding Weimin could argue otherwise but she knew for a fact that Yang Xue had been involved with Ding Weimin!
How could she not? When she'd secretly monitored them! She'd ended up expending a lot of effort in order to get Ding Weimin to date her. The only reason she'd managed to succeed was because she'd figured out Ding Weimin's intense fear of judgement so she'd used that to her advantage and slowly manipulated her way into his life.
When she finally had Weimin in her grasp, she realized that he wasn't as into her as she was him. This angered her so she wanted Yang Xue completely out of the picture.
To do that....Jin Qi held Ding Weimin tighter as her mind drifted back to the events at the Second Xor queen cave.
Ding Weimin had the misconception that Yang Xue had been too slow hence was caught by the Second Xor queen somewhere along the line as all three of them were focused on escaping but that wasn't the case.
[[ Back then, the second Xor queen had been really agitated and had crazily smashed into the walls of the cave, causing the entire cave to become unstable and begin crashing. Ding Weimin rushed ahead to hold up the collapsing exit for them whilst she had been far behind with Yang Xue.
-As Jin Qi and Yang Xue ran to the exit, she'd seen the perfect opportunity so she turned around and sneakily slipped a gravity device into the mandron's pocket before pushing him behind and running forward with all her might to pull Ding Weimin's hand and runaway.
-The wall had collapsed right after.]]
Jin Qi was pulled out of her thoughts as she arrived at the bottom of the staircase with Ding Weimin.
"Congratulations, my darlings." Xia Yueyu cried out then stepped forward to hug Ding Weimin and place a kiss against Jin Qi's cheek happily. She'd been in a really bad mood when she caught sight of the Yangs a while ago but she maintained her composure.
Even if there were no reporters present, she was certain that with the amount of people present, any mishap would eventually find its way on to the Federation Network. Besides, they'd left the mandron behind so she felt a bit more tolerant. It wouldn't be too late to handle the issue of how they laid their grubby hands on an invite once the party was over.
After Xia Yueyu, the guests began to move forward one after the other to offer their congratulations and gifts.
Over where the Yangs were seated, Yang Liu clutched at her purse and stared at Ding Weimin with burning eyes. She absolutely couldn't wait for her opportunity!
Yang Xiang calmly eyed her elder sister before rolling her eyes and slipping away. She had a different goal.
Jin Yusheng was at a different section, engrossed in a conversation with a couple of popular business giants. Yang Xiang's eyes trailed to the half full glass of wine by his side and a smile bloomed on her face. She quickly grabbed two glasses of wine from a passing waiter.
'...' He Yuan blinked as he watched Yang Xiang walk away with the glasses of wine she'd taken from his tray. He'd spent all day waiting in a worker's closet for the engagement party to begin and an hour before it began, he switched his human skin mask to a different one, changed into a waiter uniform he'd found in the closet and sneaked into the Grand hall.
His goal was, naturally, Ding Weimin but he couldn't help but notice that since the Yangs stepped into the hall, they had all been acting weird... Well all except Yang Teng.
He cleared his throat. "888, can you materialize and keep an eye on the Yangs for me? I need to get to Ding Weimin and I can't divide my attention."
[Sure.]
As soon as 888 materialized, He Yuan casually looked over and then he stiffened.