Chapter 70: These Two Are Definitely More Than Just Acquainted
Wu Zongbai stopped himself in time and changed the subject. “Miss Su thinks that woman is pretty? I actually think you’re prettier than her.”
Su Keke didn’t dwell on the half of his sentence he hadn’t finished. Instead, she grew a little shy and touched her cheek. “Assistant Wu, that’s way too fake! How could I possibly compare to that great beauty? Still, hearing that really makes me happy.
Hehe, Master was right—lies really do sound nice. But you should only listen to them once in a while. If you hear them too often, you’ll get inflated. You absolutely mustn’t praise me like that again in the future.”
Wu Zongbai sighed. “It’s not a lie. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In my eyes, you really are prettier than her. That woman is the Bai Group’s heiress. I’m guessing she happened to run into the eldest young master on the way, so they came in together.”
Su Keke went “oh, oh,” her dark, bright eyes fixed on him as she waited for more. “Anything else?”
Meeting her innocent little face—still full of childlike naïveté even with makeup on—Wu Zongbai fell silent.
After quite a while, he spoke again, his expression hesitant. “This Miss Bai… she and Fourth—”
“What?” Su Keke widened her eyes at him.
Wu Zongbai brushed it off vaguely. “Forget it, it’s nothing.”
Su Keke pouted. What was that supposed to mean—starting a sentence and not finishing it? It was really uncomfortable to hear.
While they were talking, the group that had drawn so much attention had already entered the main hall. The two elders of the Qin family led the younger generation over to pay their respects to Old Master Xu.
That Miss Bai followed along as well.
Old Master Xu, supported by a junior from the Xu family, stepped forward to greet them. The elderly man looked radiant and energetic.
Even from far away, Su Keke could hear his hearty laughter.
The group chatted together for quite a while. Su Keke was too far to hear what they were saying, but she guessed it was probably the usual birthday congratulations.
When it was Miss Bai’s turn, Old Master Xu’s smile visibly faded, though he still nodded politely.
Su Keke was a little surprised and asked Wu Zongbai, “This Old Master Xu seems not to like Miss Bai? From her face, she has excellent features—a tolerant personality, refined intelligence, and at the same time frank and generous. Someone like that should be very likable.”
“The Xu family has some old grievances with the Bai family. Old Master Xu isn’t targeting Miss Bai personally—he just dislikes everyone from the Bai family,” Wu Zongbai said, stopping there.
Su Keke nodded and didn’t probe further, continuing to watch her uncle.
Qin Mochen seemed to have just finished a conversation. He turned his head and looked toward Wu Zongbai and Su Keke.
After a brief sweep, his gaze landed precisely on Su Keke.
Suddenly meeting her uncle’s gaze, Su Keke instinctively straightened her back and stood up very straight.
The man walked over.
Su Keke grinned, eager to tell her uncle that from the moment they’d arrived until now, she hadn’t wandered around at all—she’d been especially dutiful.
But she lost her chance to say it, because just as her uncle took a step forward, someone behind him called out.
“Mochen.”
Qin Mochen halted, his brows knitting slightly, and turned back to look at the woman who had called him.
Bai Yuexiang looked at him and smiled faintly. “Long time no see. Aren’t you going to catch up with an old friend when you see one?”
Qin Mochen was silent for a moment before asking, “When did you return to the country?”
“I came back two days ago…”
Watching her uncle get intercepted halfway, Su Keke asked curiously, “Assistant Wu, my uncle knows this Miss Bai? They look pretty familiar with each other.”
Look at that—they were already chatting. He’d been about to come over, but the moment she called him, he went right to her. They were probably more than just casually acquainted.
“Uh…” Wu Zongbai struggled for a long time before finally deciding to tell her the truth.
Some things—even if he didn’t say them—Little Cutie would hear about them from someone else sooner or later. That would only make things worse.
“I’ve been following Fourth Master for seven or eight years. In all that time, there hasn’t been a single woman by his side. Everyone thought Fourth Master was frigid.”
When he said the words frigid, Wu Zongbai lowered his voice.
“But actually, a small number of people in the circle think they know another ‘truth’—that Fourth Master has been saving himself for this Miss Bai.”
Su Keke’s mouth immediately formed a perfect O. She was utterly shocked.
“That’s obviously false!” Wu Zongbai said with slightly more emphasis. “I’ve followed Fourth Master for so many years—wouldn’t I know whether there’s someone in his heart? It’s just that before I started working for him, Fourth Master did have some contact with this Miss Bai. I don’t know the specifics—after all, I’m just an assistant, and it’s not my place to ask about my boss’s private affairs.
“When I began following Fourth Master, Miss Bai had already gone abroad. It wasn’t until three years ago that she returned and met Fourth Master once. After staying at the Bai residence for a month, she went abroad again. That’s the entirety of Fourth Master’s connection with Miss Bai.
“So don’t overthink it. Fourth Master and her are absolutely not the kind of rela—”
But Su Keke’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Now that you mention it, Miss Bai and my uncle do look pretty good standing together. Talented man and beautiful woman—they’re quite well matched.”
Wu Zongbai: …
Little Cutie, are you missing a screw?
After confirming that nothing urgent was going to happen with her uncle for the time being, Su Keke stopped watching him. Her uncle was chatting with a great beauty—wouldn’t it be rude for her to keep staring at the two of them?
Before long, the birthday banquet began. Old Master Xu’s eldest son went onstage to deliver a speech, thanking this person and that, rattling off a set of official platitudes.
Su Keke examined his face and secretly curled her lips. She didn’t like him.
Next, the younger generation of the Xu family went up one by one to offer birthday wishes, each blessing sweeter than the last—fortune like the Eastern Sea, brilliance like the sun and moon; longevity like pine and crane, endless blessings to come.
Su Keke swept her gaze over them and didn’t like any of them much.
Two grandchildren wheeled out a multi-tiered cake. After Old Master Xu symbolically cut the cake, he smiled at the guests and said, “Everyone, make yourselves at home.”
The banquet officially began, and the guests’ laughter and conversation became noticeably more uninhibited.
After casually eating a bit, Su Keke continued standing guard, extremely conscientious.
To avoid boredom, every few minutes she’d glance at her uncle. After each glance, she’d recall some practice problems she’d done over the past few days or recite English vocabulary in her head.
By the tenth glance, her uncle had already finished talking with Miss Bai. Neither of them showed any obvious emotion.
On the eleventh glance, Miss Bai had left. Her uncle was chatting with that eldest nephew instead. The nephew seemed to be saying something, wearing an expression of disappointment and frustration.
On the twelfth glance—
Su Keke let out a soft sigh. If she kept watching her uncle like this, there was no way she could seriously review her studies.
She withdrew her gaze and decided that she’d only look again after memorizing a hundred words.
As she was reciting, her wandering eyes landed somewhere and she suddenly froze.
Huh? That person…
All the guests were chatting and laughing in the main hall, yet Su Keke spotted someone else hiding in a corner just like her.
It was a young man in a silver-gray suit. He stood sideways to her, his tall, slender figure fully visible. His lowered brows and eyes were focused intently on something on the table.
All the surrounding sounds seemed to be shut out by him. This small space belonged solely to him—quiet, mysterious.
A man as gentle and refined as jade like this would suit white even better. Perhaps he himself preferred white, but since white would offend the birthday celebrant, he had chosen silver-gray instead.
The man lowered his head, arranging several stemmed glasses on the long table.
Su Keke swept a glance over them. When she noticed the positions of those glasses, her heart jolted.
Yin–Yang and the Eight Trigrams?
