But Qi Sui's skin crawled. She kept her head down, trying to hide in her garish outfit. She couldn't sing or dance, nor could she smile sweetly and speak cleverly like the other girls.
The room was so big that Qi Sui couldn't even see the guests' faces. She carefully sat in a corner, afraid to move, staring at a color projector on the wall. The blurry images couldn't hold her interest. Her eyes darted around frantically, her mind blank.
The girl holding the microphone sweetly finished the first song, and the guests applauded loudly. One man with slicked-back hair was especially loud. He laughed, gums showing, and elbowed the man silently drinking beside him, excitedly saying:
"Xiao Yu, go up and sing too!"
Lin Shanghuai downed the rest of his drink and gave him a cold look, warning: "Don't call me that when we're out."
His old man was a pretentious fool with no real culture, yet he had the disease of a literatus. He had all his descendants' names arranged by a fortune teller.
So, Lin Shanghuai had the style name Qingjue, meaning 'flawed jade,' and his friends called him Xiao Yu to tease him.
His friend swayed to the music, still excited:
"Ah, Huang San'er really knows how to run this place. I wonder how much revenue he makes in a year. I'd love a piece of that."
Lin Shanghuai snorted.
"Dong Qing'an, I'm warning you, this place is dirty."
Dong Qing'an turned, grinning widely:
"Oh? Then why do you stay here all day? What, are you really going to cut ties with the Lin family? That's the famous Lin family~"
His tone was clearly sarcastic.
It was unclear if he meant to humiliate the young master, but Lin Shanghuai didn't get angry as he used to. Instead, he calmly closed his four fingers around the cup's rim, deftly spinning the empty glass on the table.
A girl nearby saw him, smiled, and tried to lean in to pour him a drink, but he subtly raised his arm to block her.
"I don't need you. Go somewhere else."
Dong Qing'an watched him and laughed:
"Aren't you the same as always? I thought you'd really fallen into the beauties' den, like the old man said."
"Beauties?" Lin Shanghuai sneered. "You flatter me—"
He was about to continue.
But for some reason, he didn't immediately refute Dong Qing'an's words. A sudden image popped into his head—
A long, supple calf, half of it stamped with his shoe print and covered in gold powder. A woman's stupid face, her cheeks still round, making her look twice as ridiculous. Her stubborn, stubborn eyes, how annoying...
How strange. Why did he think of that woman?
"Yes, yes, I know," Dong Qing'an drawled. "Our Young Master Lin wants a fairy from heaven. Mortals on earth can't catch your eye."
Fairy? That village girl was more like mud...
Lin Shanghuai instinctively spun the cup with his fingertips, his mind blank.
Just then, the girls finished their performance and came over with smiles to toast. At the end of the line, a colorful pheasant followed.
Lin Shanghuai happened to glance at her. He squinted, staring for a long time, until the pheasant glared back at him, and then he burst into laughter, confusing Dong Qing'an.
According to the order, the pheasant was right in front of Lin Shanghuai, who was at the far left. The "pheasant" held her wine glass with both hands, her eyes darting, and mumbled along with the girls: "May you have many more years like this," and "Eat, drink, and be merry." From Qi Sui's mouth, it all came out like a parrot's squawk.
Under the dim yellow light, Qi Sui blocked all the light in front of her, leaving only a top light slanting onto Young Master Lin's face. His features were flat, giving a cold appearance, but his eyes sparkled in the weak light. He looked up and smiled with crescent eyes, unexpectedly beautiful.
Even if his intention was to mock Qi Sui, this look was enough to defuse most of the anger from the observer.
Qi Sui reluctantly finished her auspicious words but only dared to show a small temper. She shoved the wine glass into Lin Shanghuai's hand, spilling some on his collar, but he didn't care. He held the glass and eyed her teasingly, his expression clearly malicious.
"Hey, what's that outfit?"
"Wh-what about it!" Qi Sui was extremely insecure but still puffed out her chest.
"Isn't it good-looking?!"
"Hmm..." Lin Shanghuai squinted, looking her up and down from her reddened face to her crystal sandals. His shoulders shook as he suppressed his amusement and gave a reluctant compliment:
"It's okay. It just looks like—"
A bad-tempered little bird pecking at people, with some gaudy colored feathers stuck in its tail. Even more eye-catching than her last outfit.
He couldn't stop laughing, hiding his uncontrollable smile behind his glass, only his bright eyes showing, making him look almost lively.
Qi Sui knew he was mocking her.
Infuriated, she gritted her teeth and threatened:
"Hey! What's so funny? If you laugh again, I'll—I'll—"
Lin Shanghuai asked:
"You'll what? You'll go out and say I hit you and scolded you, that I'm no good?"
He comforted her: "Don't worry. It may not look good, but at least it's funny."
Qi Sui took a deep breath. His chattering mouth was so annoying. She stubbornly raised her head, staring at his lips, distorted by the glass, thin and narrow, infuriating!
Fueled by anger, she grew bold.
She reached out to grab the cup from Lin Shanghuai's hand, but her knee landed first in the space between his legs. She leaned down, her puffed-up face looking ridiculous, dusted with white powder like a round peach, soft fuzz visible.
"Hey! What are you doing! You country bumpkin, so rude!!" Lin Shanghuai was startled by her sudden attack and reflexively turned to look at the others.