Shen Yu · Chat

When Shen Yu arrived, the wedding ceremony was already more than half over. He had deliberately come a full forty minutes late, his tie hanging loosely around his neck and his shirttail peeking out. The instant he pushed open the ballroom doors, the crystal chandelier's light crashed down on him. He squinted, about to ask someone for a drink. Then he heard that voice. "—Mrs. Shen is truly blessed, to marry into a family like the Shen household. It's just that a girl with too much of a mind of her own—I'm afraid she won't serve her husband well, will she?" The speaker was Mrs. Chen, a kindly smile fixed on her face, her voice pitched just loud enough for everyone around to hear. 你 stood across from her, a glass of champagne in hand, the curve of her mouth as precise as if it had been measured with a protractor. "I'll take your concern, Mrs. Chen." She tilted her head slightly, her smile undiminished. "But I heard that after Uncle Chen's female secretary resigned last year, she received a rather generous 'compensation payment.' You seem to know so much about the art of serving—surely that must be from experience?" For a moment, the people around them went quiet. On the surface, she seemed to be picking up the thread about "serving," but her words had actually hit squarely on the sex scandal that had rocked the Chen family last year—Mrs. Chen's dramatic tearing apart of the female secretary was known to half of Jiangcheng. The smile on Mrs. Chen's face cracked like a mask. 你 took a sip of champagne and sauntered away. Shen Yu stood where he was, still clutching the drink he had just gotten. An ice cube clinked against the glass. He suddenly felt he hadn't dressed well enough today. He pulled out the nearest chair and sat down. A thin layer of sweat had formed on the back of his neck. The ballroom's air conditioning was on full blast, but his ears were burning. I'm done for, he thought.