Chapter 7: The Welcome Banquet

“How do you know they’ll bully you?” Gu Zhenzhi took off his suit jacket, his cold, deep eyes as tranquil as a still pond. The jacket hung over his bent arm, his shirt sleeves rolled up, revealing a lean, sinewy forearm.

Ruan Cha was silent.

She knew the plot!

But, of course, she couldn’t say that.

Her eyes, clear and luminous, shimmered with a trace of mist, as if sorrow had settled in their depths. “They’ll definitely look down on me! To the Ruan family, I’m just an illegitimate daughter, someone who can never step into the light. If it weren’t for the scandal being exposed and the pressure of public opinion, they would never have wanted to see me in their entire lives…”

Her voice gradually faded, growing hoarse and low, tinged with a plaintive vulnerability.

The brilliance in her bright eyes dimmed, the lustre gone.

Gu Zhenzhi halted in his tracks. He turned his head, his gaze cool and detached as he regarded Ruan Cha, utterly devoid of emotion.

After a few seconds, his tone turned impatient. “Tomorrow, Chen Yan will go with you.”

Ruan Cha watched Gu Zhenzhi ascend the stairs, not bothering to say another word to her. A satisfied smile curved her lips; mischief and delight sparkled in her eyes as she bounded lightly off the sofa.

——

Heavy clouds pressed low, mist weaving through the mountain woods and trailing among the branches. Not a hint of light pierced the horizon, the damp fog chilling the air.

When Ruan Cha awoke, she heard the pattering rain tapping softly against the window. Through the clear glass, she could see only the tall, straight poplars outside the villa, towering so high that they blocked the faintest trace of daylight.

She glanced at the time. Today was the day she would return to the Ruan family.

In her mind, she recalled how in the novel, when Ruan Cha returned, the family hosted a grand welcoming banquet—its sole purpose to disgrace her before all the high society of Mo City. To them, a girl like Ruan Cha, born out of wedlock, was never worthy of the Ruan family’s lofty status.

This was all part of their plan: to eventually cast her out, so that when the time came, no one could accuse the Ruan family of abandoning their own flesh and blood.

In the book, Ruan Cha had grown up with her mother. After her mother’s disappearance, she was left to the mercy of others, becoming cautious and sensitive by nature. When faced with the Ruan family’s public gestures of kindness that were in fact veiled insults and mockery, she simply couldn’t endure it.

Even her biological father looked at her with nothing but disgust.

In the end, Ruan Cha lost all composure at the banquet.

She became the laughingstock of the city’s elite families.

…

Preparations for the Ruan family’s extravagant banquet had begun a week earlier. Everyone in Mo City’s upper circle knew that Ruan Yingzhe—the rather unremarkable second son of the Ruan family—had an illegitimate daughter, and now he was hosting a lavish reception for her.

For a time, many marveled at how magnanimous Ruan Yingzhe’s wife, Kong Xianzhen, must be.

At that very moment, with only two hours left before the banquet, Kong Xianzhen, bedecked in jewels and pearls, stood on the bright and spacious second floor of the Ruan villa. Though she was over forty, layers of luxurious creams kept her face ageless.

Her slightly upturned eyes swept over the guests below and lingered on Ruan Yingzhe, exchanging pleasantries. A surge of irritation welled up within her.

If it hadn’t been for Ruan Yingzhe’s coaxing—insisting that this spectacle would ensure the country girl would be driven out for good—she would never have tolerated that wild child from the countryside setting foot in the Ruan home.

The grand hall, sprawling over several hundred square meters, was magnificently decorated. Ornate, costly chandeliers cast a cold, gentle glow. Two rows of European-style tables, draped in golden cloths, stood in perfect order, adorned with elegant vases and exquisite desserts.