Chapter 54
Chapter 54
The Deep Blue Hotel was the most luxurious hotel in Haicheng. Mr. Li and his wife were holding a celebration there tonight for their third wedding anniversary.
Liu Ruyan personally came to deliver Zhu Yin an invitation.
Zhu Yin: ?
She said to Barbara, “I don’t remember the doctor and the female lead being this close in the original plot.”
The male and female leads’ third anniversary celebration counted as a fairly important plot point. After all, it was one of the few sweet memories from their marriage.
The doctor was not supposed to be involved in the original plot. Within this story, the doctor was nothing more than a surgical tool through and through.
Zhu Yin reflected on herself. “Have I not been cold enough toward her?”
Liu Ruyan knew nothing of Zhu Yin’s thoughts. Compared with before, Liu Ruyan herself was radiant with joy.
Happiness showed in every line of her face. “Doctor, you have to come on Saturday night.”
Zhu Yin found this strange. “Does Mr. Li know you’re giving me an invitation?” That man was clearly terrified of her Scumbag Slayer aura.
To her surprise yet again, Liu Ruyan nodded. “Nanfeng knows. He agrees that I should invite you.”
A question mark slowly appeared over Zhu Yin’s head. After a moment’s thought, she said, “All right. I’ll come.”
She did not even have to think about it. An occasion like this was bound to offer a good show.
On Saturday evening, Zhu Yin attended the banquet in a simple black gown.
Liu Ruyan was unquestionably the center of attention. She wore an ocean-blue mermaid gown, her long hair swept into an elaborate updo adorned with pearls and jeweled ornaments. She looked poised and regal.
Clinging tightly to Li Nanfeng’s arm, she nodded to the crowd wearing ingratiating smiles.
Zhu Yin sat in a corner with a small piece of cake, leisurely feeding Barbara one bite at a time.
“How can you feed cake to a cat?” A crisp female voice rang out beside her.
Zhu Yin looked up and saw a young woman with curls arranged in a princess-style half-updo.
She did not know her.
The young woman looked furious. “If you keep a cat, you have to take responsibility for it! Don’t you know cake is bad for kittens?”
Once the words were out, she seemed to realize something and asked suspiciously, “How did you even bring a cat in here?”
Zhu Yin put the cake down on the table and said innocently, “Miss, what are you talking about? What cat?”
The young woman: ?
She peered more closely. Aside from Zhu Yin, the sofa was empty. Where was the cat?
Had her eyes deceived her? But she had seen it so clearly just now. There had been a remarkably solid cat sprawled beside Zhu Yin. She had never seen one that fat. How could she possibly have imagined it?
With a strange expression, she walked all around the little corner. Sure enough, she could not find so much as a single cat hair.
Throughout her search, Zhu Yin simply sat there, smiling as she watched.
I must look like an idiot, the young woman thought.
Her face grew hot. “Sorry,” she said quietly. “I must have been mistaken.”
“It’s fine.” Zhu Yin had gotten the better of her, yet still played innocent as she accepted the apology with a beaming smile.
Perhaps the young woman thought Zhu Yin looked bored sitting there alone, or perhaps she felt guilty over the misunderstanding. Either way, she simply sat down on the other end of the sofa to keep Zhu Yin company.
Zhu Yin had no need for the company, but she would not rebuff a kind gesture.
The young woman was inexperienced and had no guile. She struck up a conversation with Zhu Yin and revealed everything about herself within a few sentences.
Meng Qingqing?
Zhu Yin thought the name sounded familiar.
Barbara had turned invisible when someone approached. Now it whispered a reminder, “The vicious supporting female character.”
The vicious supporting female character?
Zhu Yin dug the plot out from the corner of her mindscape where she had crumpled it into a ball and tossed it, then skimmed through it.
Oh. Meng Qingqing was Li Nanfeng’s little fangirl. She had a crush on him and also shipped Li Nanfeng with his idealized love. She despised the female lead, Liu Ruyan.
She believed Liu Ruyan was only a counterfeit, and that once his idealized love returned to the country, Liu Ruyan should know her place and leave the Li family of her own accord.
Zhu Yin: “…”
What could she say? It was an utterly deranged character setup, but the moment she remembered what world this was, it somehow became reasonable.
By now, Meng Qingqing had already started badmouthing the female lead.
Yes. Right in front of Zhu Yin, a stranger she had only just met, she launched into a tirade against the female lead without the slightest concern that Zhu Yin might be an old acquaintance of hers.
On second thought, these people dared look down on the female lead right to her face. Speaking ill of her behind her back was already a show of considerable respect.
“…How could Nanfeng possibly fall for a woman like Liu Ruyan?”
Meng Qingqing was muttering with great enthusiasm when the cool beauty in the black gown suddenly spoke. “What kind of woman?”
Not expecting Zhu Yin to join in, Meng Qingqing answered without hesitation. “Lowborn, childish, and not good at anything.”
She made no attempt to hide her disdain. “She can’t compare to Wanwan at all.”
“Oh,” Zhu Yin said.
Meng Qingqing waited for her to continue, but Zhu Yin truly fell silent.
The unaccountable frustration left Meng Qingqing searching for another topic herself.
Given the occasion and how smug Liu Ruyan looked, there was naturally only one subject she would choose.
She began educating Zhu Yin on the excellence of his idealized love and recounting all the sweet moments Wanwan and Li Nanfeng had shared in their youth.
At the end, she summed it up. “Nanfeng doesn’t love Liu Ruyan at all. He only married her because she looks a little like Wanwan.”
“If she had any self-awareness or sense of shame, she would step aside and let Nanfeng and Wanwan be together.”
Then she heard a loud laugh.
She looked at the woman beside her in confusion. Afraid Meng Qingqing had not heard clearly, Zhu Yin laughed again.
Meng Qingqing frowned. “What do you mean by that? Are you laughing at me?”
Zhu Yin said with a bright smile, “Not at all. I just think the stories you’re telling are rather funny.”
“That expression clearly says you’re mocking me!” Meng Qingqing did not believe her for a second.
Then realization struck her. “You! Do you know Liu Ruyan? Are you her friend?”
Even one second’s hesitation over that question would have felt unlucky. Zhu Yin denied it at once. “I’m not.”
She explained, “I simply think the logic shared by everyone in your circle is self-centered and completely rotten.”
Meng Qingqing: ?
Zhu Yin said, “How about this? Answer a few questions for me.”
“First, if your precious Nanfeng loves his idealized love so deeply, why did he marry Liu Ruyan? By marrying Liu Ruyan, didn’t he choose to give up that relationship?”
Meng Qingqing retorted instinctively, “Because Liu Ruyan looks like Wanwan! He couldn’t be with Wanwan, so he chose Liu Ruyan instead.”
“Ew–isn’t that even more disgusting?” Zhu Yin’s face filled with revulsion. “Before, he was merely betraying one relationship. If that’s what he did, hasn’t he betrayed both women at the same time?”
Meng Qingqing went blank for a moment.
“Second question. Look, your precious Nanfeng isn’t divorced. Right now, he’s holding a celebration with his wife for their third wedding anniversary. But lately, everyone in Haicheng knows he’s been entangled with his idealized love, tending to her every need while their old flame refuses to die.”
She clapped her hands once. “That’s cheating!”
Meng Qingqing stared vacantly.
Zhu Yin watched her at leisure. “Third question. You just said you support Mr. Li and his idealized love being together. Does that mean you want your precious Nanfeng to cheat, let Wanwan steal another woman’s husband, and drive out the lawful wife?”
Meng Qingqing’s head buzzed.
Zhu Yin added more fuel to the fire. “Wow. What a vicious set of morals!”