Volume One, Chapter 112: Remember Your Place and Do Not Harbor Foolish Delusions!

After Mu Fangfei, this was the second time someone had asked her to confirm her identity.

As if she had become rather famous lately.

Sang Wan felt her heart leap into her throat. “Old Master, I am Sang Wan! May you enjoy blessings as boundless as the eastern sea and longevity as steadfast as the southern mountains.”

When people grew old, the whites of their eyes clouded over, and their gaze lost much of its force.

Yet when Old Master Jiang looked at her, Sang Wan felt a pressure so heavy that even the air around her seemed to freeze.

“You’ve been here before?”

“Yes. On this day two years ago, President Lu of the Lu Group and I came to wish you a happy birthday. It was here as well.”

“You didn’t come last year?”

“We did. You had guests, so we left our gift and went straight to the banquet hall. We paid our respects to you there.”

“You’ll come again next year?”

“...”

Her stomach had been tight with nerves; now her head was full of confusion.

She could not quite make sense of Old Master Jiang’s meaning.

At first it had sounded like an interrogation, as though he were probing her background.

And yet now he was asking about next year?

Who could say what next year would bring?

With her own standing, let alone the banquet hall in the front courtyard, she could not even set foot in the street leading to this estate.

In years past, she had had Lu Jinnian. This year, she had Lou Ye.

If next year Lou Ye had someone beside him, and she could never again have anything to do with Lu Jinnian, then perhaps, probably, most likely... she would not come.

But could she say that?

Clearly not.

“I will,” Sang Wan said with a smile. “Having an elder of your great age and stature among us is our good fortune. I would be delighted to come every year and celebrate your birthday.”

“Well, that’s more like it!”

Old Master Jiang gave a soft snort. As he shifted his gaze, he happened to notice the agarwood bead bracelet on Sang Wan’s wrist.

After first delight, then anger, then shock, Sang Wan saw on Old Master Jiang’s face an expression of utter disbelief.

As though, just when everything had finally settled, the world might plunge into chaos in the very next instant.

“Settled?”

Old Master Jiang asked.

What?

What was settled?

Sang Wan looked blank.

Beside her, Lou Ye answered lazily and casually, “Mm, settled.”

“All right then...”

Old Master Jiang let out a long, faint sigh, the worry in his eyes seeming to have been nothing more than Sang Wan’s imagination.

When he looked at Lou Ye again, a glint of sharp light appeared in his eyes. “I used to think I didn’t have many years left, and that life was dull and tedious beyond bearing. But now it seems you’re still a dutiful boy... In that case, I’ll just sit back and enjoy the show. Remember to make it lively!”

“Will do!”

“Grandfather, what are you talking about? I don’t understand a single word!”

“Great-Grandpa, Yueyue will be dutiful too!”

The room was filled with people, old and young, men and women alike, all descendants and great-grandchildren. Their voices overlapped in chatter, making the place lively beyond measure.

Sang Wan finally relaxed. Turning back, she asked Lou Ye in a low voice, “What are you and Old Master Jiang speaking in riddles about? What do you mean, settled or not settled?”

“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you!”

Lou Ye brushed his fingers over the agarwood beads on Sang Wan’s wrist, then changed the subject. “You like it?”

Sang Wan nodded.

Lou Ye lifted his eyes and cast a dark, warning look at Jiang Huai.

A chill crept up Jiang Huai’s neck as though he had sensed something. His grinning face abruptly froze the moment he turned and met Lou Ye’s gaze.

Then he saw the agarwood bracelet being toyed with in Lou Ye’s hand.

He understood at once.

[Brother, you can’t blame me!]

[If I wait until you find some proper excuse to give it, the chance will be long gone!]

[Besides, even if you dared to give it, would sister-in-law dare to accept it?]

[Your younger brother calls this cutting the Gordian knot!]

Lou Ye calmly withdrew his gaze.

The steward came over to say that the guests had arrived and the auspicious hour had come. Old Master Jiang rose to his feet, taking the youngest, the little great-grandchild who toddled along in a crooked, wobbly fashion, by the hand, while Jiang Huai supported him by the arm.

The whole procession moved grandly toward the banquet hall.

Sang Wan’s sense of strangeness only deepened. “Aren’t these all younger members of the Jiang family? How did you get mixed in with them?”

Lou Ye smiled. He turned toward her and whispered, his lips brushing her ear by design or by accident, “The Lou family ancestral home is right next door. When I was little, I used to climb over the wall every few days to steal that old man’s pastries.”

The image was so vivid that Sang Wan laughed, her eyes curving.

Lou Ye curled his lips and went on, “Once, the tea in his purple clay teapot was switched out for wine. I didn’t know and drank a whole pot. I was drunk for two days.”

Sang Wan gasped. “And then?”

“And then...” The smile on Lou Ye’s face faded a little. “Then someone paid the price.”

One look at his expression made it clear that the one who suffered was not him, and that the memory itself was enough to darken his mood.

Sang Wan’s eyes flickered. “A-Ye, it’s all in the past.”

Lou Ye came to a halt.

Turning to look at her, he saw no pity in Sang Wan’s eyes, nor any sorrow.

Those eyes were bright, as if they held only pride and admiration for the fact that he had endured the darkness and cold to reach this day.

She was proud of him.

Just as she had said, it was all in the past.

“Yes, Sister is right!”

Lou Ye nodded, laughter spilling into his eyes.

Beneath the blazing noon sun, he looked like the handsome, harmless boy next door out of a comic book.

Sang Wan lost herself for a moment.

She could not help pressing a hand to her pounding chest.

Beauty was indeed dangerous; the ancients had not lied.

“Old Master Jiang, may you enjoy long life! We’ve come to offer our congratulations!”

“Wishing Old Master Jiang blessings as vast as the eastern sea and longevity as steadfast as the southern mountains...”

“Grandfather Jiang...”

As they spoke, they entered the banquet hall, where a flood of blessings poured over them in endless variation.

Across the dense crowd, Lu Jinnian spotted Sang Wan at once.

The Lou and Jiang families had been friends for generations. It was no surprise that, on Old Master Jiang’s birthday, Lou Ye and Jiang Huai were mingling among the younger generation.

But Sang Wan?

What was she doing here?

Even if she had come to celebrate the birthday, she should have stayed in the banquet hall and come forward only when Old Master Jiang appeared.

Since when had her relationship with the Jiang family become so good that she could enter the inner courtyard freely?

Or was it... because of Lou Ye?

When Lu Jinnian looked up again, he saw that the Jiang heir, who had always held himself above everyone else and never put anyone in his eyes, was now grinning like an idiot, eagerly offering Sang Wan champagne and inviting her to sit, all but fawning over her.

For a moment, Lu Jinnian thought either his eyes had deceived him or Jiang Huai had gone mad.

He turned and took his seat. Then, to see Sang Wan sitting at the side table beside the main table, only a single step away from Old Master Jiang, he felt that the world had become even more surreal.

After three rounds of drinking, Sang Wan turned around and saw Lou Ye and Jiang Huai standing on either side behind Old Master Jiang, serving as his drinking shields.

Across the packed crowd, Lou Ye seemed to sense her gaze.

He turned back to look at her, and the meaning in his eyes was unmistakable: Do not leave! If you dare abandon me here alone, you’re dead tonight!

Sang Wan: ...

People were pressing in around her. Taking advantage of standing up to give up her seat, Sang Wan slipped under the corridor eaves.

She had barely let out a breath when she heard footsteps behind her.

“Sang Wan...”

His face was smiling, but there seemed to be anger burning in his eyes.

Lu Jinnian strode up and stopped in front of Sang Wan. “Lou Ye has a girlfriend. Did you know that?”

Sang Wan froze.

Seeing that she was unaware, Lu Jinnian smiled with malicious delight. “I saw it myself. He had his arm around that woman when he left. And later, he admitted it in front of me!”

“Sang Wan...”

He stared straight into her eyes, as though trying to smash the brightness from the depths of her gaze.

Lu Jinnian said in a low voice, “For the sake of our marriage, I’m warning you. Remember who you are, and don’t indulge in wishful thinking.”