What could be said about Su Yicheng that night could only be: He was in high and vigorous spirits.
His well-designed, graceful dark-black suit with supreme texture, as well as his perfect figure, made him look even more handsome.
He hosted the reception, so naturally, he became the focal point of the entire banquet hall. What seemed strange was that he was alone, without a female companion.
During those months, Su Yicheng had never taken a girl with him whenever he attended a reception or a party.
No one knew why he had done that.
With a glass of wine in hand, Su Yicheng greeted each person with ease that came over to congratulate him, but as soon as he was free, he would look toward the hallway entrance.
Luo Xiaoxi would have arrived early at the reception, as she usually did. However, it had been 30 minutes since it began and she hadn’t shown up yet.
In that case, everything he had prepared for that night would be in vain.
Su Yicheng looked away from the entrance for the nth time upon hearing an old voice say, “Yicheng.”
He looked over and it was the previous chairman of Shao Enterprises. The chairman took a young girl to walk toward him, saying, “Yicheng, this is my granddaughter, Shao Qi.”
Su Yicheng stretched out his hand as a courtesy, saying, “Miss. Shao, nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too.” Shao Qi politely shook hands with Su Yicheng.
The chairman laughed and said, “Yicheng, she just returned after studying in Australia. She has read about your business cases and admires you a lot. So today I took her here to meet her idol. May you… enjoy yourselves?”
Obviously, “enjoying yourselves” meant more than it appeared to be.
While Su Yicheng was thinking about how to politely decline this weird blind date, the doors were opened and a light of dazzling brilliance shone all through the banquet hall.
Like all the other guests inside, he unconsciously looked toward the entrance—
It was Luo Xiaoxi.
Luo Xiaoxi could be a shining star if she wanted to be—Su Yicheng always knew that. That night, however, not only did her beauty surpass everyone’s but she had also shown up with her irresistible brilliance.
She was in a dress that had been designed and made by Levine. She looked very elegant, as well as attractive and feminine, without losing her grace and style.
Her proper sex appeal was a kind of nobility.
Luo Xiaoxi was tall. That night she was wearing a pair of 10-centimeter high heels, but she could still stride into the banquet hall without concealing her pride at all.
As she walked, her hemline waved back and forth, forming a charming line. That just served as a foil to her brilliance.
That night in the hall, no one could match Luo Xiaoxi’s glamour.
If Su Yicheng didn’t mishear, some men in the hall were gasping in surprise.
Luo Xiaoxi walked into the hall while looking steadily forward without looking over at Su Yicheng. Shao Qi felt a sense of threat and oppression, saying in a low voice, “Grandpa, who’s she?”
“She’s my girlfriend,” Su Yicheng replied while staring at Luo Xiaoxi. “Mr. Shao, Miss Shao, excuse me.”
Then he walked toward Luo Xiaoxi, but at that moment, she was surrounded by reporters.
“Xiaoxi, you’ve told us that you have been wooing Mr. Su. But he didn’t respond to it. So what’s your feeling?” The reporters wanted nothing but to see Luo Xiaoxi whining.
Luo Xiaoxi just shrugged her shoulders indifferently, saying, “It’s none of my business. May I… say that I felt nothing?”
The reporters could say nothing, so they asked, “Xiaoxi, have you been invited here or…”
Luo Xiaoxi turned her lips into a smile and pointed to the waiters at the entrance, saying, “Go and ask them, then you’ll know if I got an invitation.”
Within seconds, the waiters were surrounded by the reporters, who were eagerly asking questions. They had to say, “Ms. Luo didn’t show an invitation.”
In fact, Luo Xiaoxi didn’t need to show it because Su Yicheng had asked them to open the doors for Luo Xiaoxi as soon as she arrived and to tell him about it.
At that moment, there was no need to do that. Was anyone in the banquet hall not aware of her arrival?
“Xiaoxi,” the reporters asked her again, “so you came uninvited?”
Luo Xiaoxi, with an incomparable beautiful face, burst into a mysterious smile, saying, “Where Su Yicheng is, is where I’ll be. And maybe you’re right, I turned up uninvited.”
Her straightforwardness made the reporters no longer dare to ask her any questions. Luo Xiaoxi seemed to have nothing to fear, so they were unable to embarrass her and they chose to leave her alone.
Luo Xiaoxi thought that it was real fun, her gaze sweeping rapidly around the banquet hall. Then she saw Su Yicheng standing not far away staring at her with a mysterious smile.
“Huh, you’re awesome tonight. We’re ideally matched!” she thought.
However, she decided to do what she had planned.
Luo Xiaoxi gave Su Yicheng a charming smile and then turned back, walking toward Su Jianan, as if she didn’t want to talk to him at all.
Su Jianan was the first to notice Luo Xiaoxi, and she saw how Luo Xiaoxi had played a trick on the reporters. She kindly reminded Luo Xiaoxi without hesitation, “I saw someone trying to introduce a girl to my brother. Why did you act that way, aren’t you afraid that he would put on a show?”
Maybe he would hold Shao Qi in his arm and mislead the reporters as Luo Xiaoxi did…
Luo Xiaoxi laughed confidently, saying, “I dare him!”
However, only Lu Boyan knew that Su Yicheng dared to act that way. He was just not that free.
Then Xiao Yunyun ran up to Su Jianan and said in a low voice, “Jianan, I’ve looked for Yicheng, and I suddenly found the decoration arrangements in this banquet hall are quite unusual.”
Su Jianan hadn’t noticed that, so she subconsciously asked, “What’s unusual here?”
“I can’t tell. In short, it has been decorated differently from normal ones.” Xiao Yunyun thought for a while then asked, “Do you think it’s for something special?”
In an instant, Su Jianan recalled what had happened not long before and realized something. With great surprise, she looked at Luo Xiaoxi, who obviously realized nothing.
Luo Xiaoxi glanced at Su Jianan suspiciously, saying, “What are you two talking about?”
“Nothing.” Su Jianan smiled as she took Lu Boyan’s hand and stealthily pinched his arm—If she had guessed it, Lu Boyan surely would have known about it.
He hadn’t told her a single word about it. “How dare he!” she thought.
Lu Boyan then knew that Su Jianan guessed it. Luo Xiaoxi was right beside them, and it was the most critical moment, so he could do nothing but hold back the pain in his arm.
Just then, the reporters who were certified to make inquiries in the banquet hall walked toward the rostrum. Su Yicheng stepped on it as the emcee announced the beginning of the interview.
They asked Su Yicheng about some business issues as usual. Then it came to his personal affairs, in which the entertainment reporters had always been interested.
A reporter asked, “Mr. Su, we know that your younger sister was married. And how about you? When do you plan to get married?”
“Me?” Su Yicheng turned his lips into a smile, which was the first time he had smiled gently like that. He said, “Soon.”
He didn’t say much, but the reporters thought they could dig out endless information behind his words, so they became extremely excited.
“Mr. Su, who’s the lady you will be married to, will she be one of your ex-girlfriends that the public already knows? As far as we know, recently you’ve had no girlfriend.”
“Mr. Su, how did you meet and get to know her?”
“Mr. Su, what do you think of her compared to Ms. Luo? Have you ever cared about Ms. Luo’s feelings when you decided to announce your plan to get married?”
“Mr. Su…”
Su Yicheng raised his hands to make the reporters quiet down, and the banquet hall became silent at once, with hundreds of eyes fixed on Su Yicheng standing on the rostrum.
“I’ve faced more complex situations, but—tonight is the first time that I’ve felt nervous.” Su Yicheng tried to calm down, and after a long pause, he added, “I’ve known her for a very long time… Let me see, it has been more than 10 years.”
Su Yicheng then began to recall:
“She’s six years younger than me. When I met her, I just returned from abroad. In my eyes, she was just a little girl. So I didn’t care when she told me that she liked me. I used to think that the next day she would forget what she had said to me. Later on… She has told you what happened after that. She tried her best to pursue me. Of course, she was laughed at. However, she thought what she was doing was right.
“Before she finished studying abroad and returned, I had a lot of girlfriends. Most of the time, I just wanted her to give up, saying that she was not my cup of tea. But she only said, ‘Su Yicheng, I bet you won’t marry that lady, and you’ll fall in love with me one day.’ I didn’t admit it to her, but she was right; I haven’t married any lady.
“I thought I would love a brilliant and capable lady. That’s why I told her I would never love her. However, later I found that I only needed those kinds of women to be my workmates because they would not annoy me nor make any trouble.”
With that, Su Yicheng stopped.
A female reporter was still lost in his words, so she asked, “Then, what was it that made you change your mind?”
Su Yicheng smiled and said, “Later on, she changed and began to do what she liked. She was shining on the catwalk, pursued by more gentlemen, and she was even arranged to marry somebody. I then realized that this was my bottom line—how could she give up at that time since she had pursued me for so long?
“And then, I began a relationship with her. She didn’t seem to be delirious with joy, nor did she act cautiously after that. She was still what she had been, never interested in business, and she would only do what she liked. Sometimes, she made trouble, so I had to stop working and go help her. I couldn’t tell why I loved to be with her when she troubled me so much.”
“Mr. Su, could you please describe how you felt?” the reporter asked cautiously, for fear that she might damage the mood in the hall.
Su Yicheng paused for half a second then said, “If you fall in love with someone, you will love everything about her and care about her all the time. That’s how I felt.”
The reporter said with a smile, “However, the ‘she’ told us in a recent interview that you have been disdaining her.”
Su Yicheng replied with a serious look on his face, “In fact, she left me some time ago. When she returned, the flight she was on met with an accident that nearly killed her, then I rushed to the airport…”
“Even though you were there, you could do nothing.” The reporter asked, “What was in your mind then?”
“I was thinking, why I hadn’t taken that flight? That way, I would have done nothing to deal with the accident, but at least I could die with her.” Su Yicheng seemed to think of something, shaking his head while smiling. He said, “I don’t want her to leave me anymore.”
Hearing that, Luo Xiaoxi’s nose twitched. She could not hold back anymore and burst into tears…