The birthday girl seemed quite interested in Lin Wan. She had glanced at her several times through her brother, and then, with a mischievous smile, she teased Chen Jin, "Third Brother, I can see it now. You're the happiest man here today. Out of the three girls in this room, you're sitting next to two of them, enjoying all the blessings of a man with two women."
Chen Jin couldn't help but laugh, tapping her little hand on the table with his chopsticks. "Do you even know what that phrase means? Stop throwing it around, or people will laugh at you."
Chen Xi blinked, then turned to the young man on her right, who wore glasses, and said, "Li Wei, did I get it wrong? I trust your opinion more than others."
The man named Li Wei smiled and casually said, "No, you're right. I envy your brother."
Chen Xi turned back to Chen Jin, grinning smugly. "See, I told you, you can't deny it now. Don't underestimate me. Our English might be a little off, but our Chinese is still solid."
Chen Jin was speechless, but the man on Lin Wan's left couldn't help but join in, laughing, "Alright, alright, A'Jin, why don't you send your sister back to elementary school for some remedial work? With her level of Chinese, foreigners would laugh at us."
Chen Xi immediately shot him with an angry look, retorting like a machine gun, "Fang Waiwai, don't just talk about me. With that little bit of knowledge in your head, you've probably embarrassed the country enough when you were abroad. If I were you, I'd just say I'm a 'mud dog,' or better yet, a 'Korean,' and while you're at it, why not fix up your face a bit? Maybe get your eyes done, a nose job, or a chin lift…"
The man, completely confused by her rant, finally managed to get a word in, "What 'mud dog' and 'Korean' nonsense are you speaking? What language is that?"
Chen Xi beamed with pride, "With you like this, it's better to call you an illiterate. You wouldn't even get what I'm saying."
The man was getting upset too. "Hey, I just said you're uneducated. Why are you insulting me personally? What's wrong with my face? I've been relying on this face for a living."
"Pfft, with a face like yours, if you want to survive on it, you've got a long way to go. Might as well start getting some work done," she mocked.
By this point, the waiter had started bringing in the dishes, and Chen Jin could no longer stand their bickering. He raised his hand and wiped his right cheek. "Enough, enough, you two. Stop fighting, I'm getting sprayed in the face."
Chen Xi glared at him, pouting. "Third Brother, you're helping the outsider?"
Chen Jin laughed and placed a piece of meat on her plate, coaxing her, "I'm not taking sides. When you came in, didn't you complain about being starving? And now you have the energy to argue? If you want to fight, at least eat first."
"Well, now you're talking." Chen Xi seemed to have been exhausted of arguing. She threw a retort at Fang Waiwai, "A good woman doesn't fight with the crooked," and then decided to dig into her food.
As the meal continued, everyone ate and chatted. Chen Jin occasionally talked about business matters, and whenever there was a break, he would feed Lin Wan some food. Lin Wan quietly ate, feeling several sets of eyes still watching her. She looked up and met the gaze of the man who had asked Chen Jin to introduce her earlier. When he saw her looking back, he didn't shy away and raised his glass toward her. Lin Wan smiled slightly, acknowledging him.
Another gaze came from the third woman at the table. She looked about twenty-eight or twenty-nine, with a graceful oval face, elegant makeup, and dressed in a classic Chanel suit. Every movement exuded elegance and poise. Unlike the man's curiosity earlier, there seemed to be a hint of... hostility in her gaze?
Lin Wan glanced to the side at the man who was chatting away, and she understood. Suddenly, she found the situation amusing. So, this was the real reason Chen Jin had invited her. Fine, then she would play the role of the vase, she thought. With that, she shifted her full attention to the food in front of her. While she didn't care for these people, she did appreciate the chefs at a five-star hotel, and more importantly, their skills. As Chen Jin had said earlier, if you're going to fight, at least eat first.
"Miss Lin, are you a college student?" The man on her left, whom Chen Xi had called Fang Waiwai, took the initiative to start a conversation.
Lin Wan looked him up and down and found that Chen Xi had really misunderstood him. Fang Waiwai wasn't unattractive at all—he was fair-skinned, with delicate features, and didn't need any plastic surgery.
"No, I graduated almost two years ago."
"Ah? That's too bad. I was hoping Miss Lin could introduce me to two girls with your kind of charm."
"Two? You want two?" Lin Wan asked curiously, raising her voice just a bit.
"Uh…" Fang Waiwai was momentarily speechless.
At this point, a man from across the table, who had been fixing his hair, chimed in, "Our young Master Fang has probably played with everything, and two girls aren't enough for him."
Fang Waiwai cleared his throat, glaring at him. He then said, in a very serious tone, "Stop talking nonsense. There's a lady here."
"Just imagine someone like him wanting two girls? That's a waste! I'm just helping him find one too, right, Fang Waiwai? Thanks in advance," the man who had raised his glass to Lin Wan teased.
"Oh," Lin Wan nodded in understanding, then, with a voice not too loud but still noticeable, she said to the person on her left, "You almost gave me a heart attack there. I thought you were trying to have your cake and eat it too. That would be quite the beastly thing to do." She purposely emphasized the word beastly and immediately noticed the person to her right stiffen.
The table burst into laughter. Lin Wan feigned innocence, looking around the table, then softly asked, "Did I say something wrong?"
Fang Waiwai glanced at the "beasts" at the table, holding back his laughter as he said, "No, I was the one who said something wrong."
Xiang Yang had always had a question in his mind, which had been bothering him for a while. Just when he was about to let it fester and rot away, a glimmer of hope appeared, so he hurriedly seized the opportunity. As soon as Chen Jin went to the restroom, Xiang Yang followed right behind him.
"I say, this Miss Lin looks awfully familiar," Xiang Yang said with a curious tone.
"You say that about everyone. The last one, what was her name..." Chen Jin trailed off, unable to remember.
"This one's different, the impression's too deep. Last time, downstairs in the office, ah? Was it her?"
Of course, Chen Jin hadn't forgotten the first slap he ever received from a woman. He felt a little embarrassed and gave a casual response with a simple "mm."
"Wow, big brother, you're pretty cool. I didn't expect you to like this kind of thing. I thought with how things were last time, you might've just... well, ended things right then and there."
Chen Jin ignored him, feeling frustrated. God, please make everyone forget that scene.
Xiang Yang, full of curiosity, continued asking, "So, you two, do you get along pretty... intensely?"
Chen Jin pretended not to hear, but he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder, remembering the fiery look Lin Wan had given him earlier. Yeah, it was intense.
When the two of them returned, they happened to see Fang Zheng talking to Lin Wan. He must've said something funny because Lin Wan was smiling with her lips pursed. Xiang Yang stole a glance at the man next to him, who clearly wasn't pleased, and thought to himself, This girl's amazing, she can make someone like him keep eating dirt. Chen Jin, on the other hand, was seething. How could she smile so brightly at a man she'd just met? He was thinking to himself, I'm going to deal with you later.
In fact, just now, Fang Zheng had simply made a correction: "Don't listen to them, my name's not Fang Waiwai."
Lin Wan smiled and asked, "Is it Fang Zhengzheng?"
Fang Zheng coughed again, "No, not so many zheng's, just one."
"Oh," Lin Wan nodded and then changed the subject, "Then you're at a loss."
"What do you mean?"
"You're the 'zheng', and people have negated you twice, so you're still 'wai' (crooked)."
"..."
Ding ding ding! Time for the gifts!
The auspicious hour had arrived, and the birthday girl began tapping her plate with a spoon.
Everyone stood up and started offering their gifts. The gifts weren't large, but the smaller they were, the more substantial they seemed. For example, Chen Jin had given a small key that turned out to be for a Porsche worth millions. Fang Zheng joked, "This guy who can't tell left from right, he'll probably end up crashing into a wall. Tsk tsk, such a waste."
"I'd be happy if it turns into a zebra!" Chen Xi quickly shoved some gifts into her bag, not caring about Fang Zheng's teasing.
Someone else commented, "Little Xi really hit the jackpot this time."
Chen Xi beamed proudly, "Of course! My brother even sent me a limited-edition Chanel bag from Paris. I'll show you guys sometime."
At that moment, Lin Wan hadn't thought much of it. She knew that the Chen family had many cousins, but when someone else said, "When did Chen Zui run off to France to have fun?" her chopsticks trembled slightly, and the dish fell back onto the plate. Nobody noticed this little detail except the man sitting closest to her.
Lin Wan sighed and put down her chopsticks. Her heart began racing, and she couldn't mask the anxiety any longer. Chen Zui… That person had shattered her life, but someone had kept him in a protected bubble. She had no power to change it, so she told herself not to think about it, but could she really do that? She glanced at the man sitting next to her, whose name was just one letter different from the one who had ruined her, and smiled bitterly. She was only deceiving herself. Then she looked at Chen Xi, who was beaming with joy. Wasn't she one of the people Chen Jin wanted to protect? And all these people around her, they were from a world completely separate from hers.
On the way back, Lin Wan didn't say a word. She stared expressionlessly at the sparkling night scene outside the window, while her hand was tightly gripped by the man beside her, not willing to let go even as it grew sweaty. When they arrived at the apartment building, just as the car was pulling into the parking lot, Chen Jin suddenly yanked her into his arms and kissed her. Her lips were soft like petals, and tasted faintly of fruit. He kissed her deeply, but Lin Wan neither resisted nor responded. It wasn't until it became hard to breathe that she pushed his chest. Chen Jin released her, wiped the corner of her swollen lips with his finger, and sighed, "You look beautiful today."
Lin Wan sat up straight, glancing at him without saying a word. He added, "Wouldn't it be nice to live a little more carefree?"
A cold laugh appeared on her face as she retorted, "Carefree? Do you think I can be carefree?" Then she opened her side of the car door and walked toward the apartment building, leaving Chen Jin sitting in the car with a frown.