She spoke in a casual tone, not as if she were announcing a monumental event, like the cancellation of an engagement between two prominent families, but rather as if she were discussing what to eat or drink today, perfectly at ease.
The elder who had been trying to mediate between them froze for a moment, his expression stiffening, unable to immediately grasp what was being said.
Then his face quickly shifted to disbelief, followed by overwhelming shock.
His movements stiffened, and he awkwardly glanced at Gu Zhaoping’s face, then turned to look at Shen Yifeng.
His first reaction was,
“No way, how could this be?”
He had never heard of such a thing, and the last time he spoke with Shen Yifeng, Shen hadn’t refuted anything!
If they had already decided to call off the engagement, why hadn’t there been the slightest rumor about it, and why was Shen Yifeng’s reaction so…
At that moment, watching Shen Yifeng, who didn’t utter a single word of rebuttal, the elder suddenly had a moment of clarity and understood.
Then came an overwhelming sense of embarrassment.
He wanted to say something, but the awkwardness was so intense he couldn’t find the words.
Oh—he suddenly realized.
In that instant, he understood everything.
With Gu Zhaoping shining so brightly now, if he were Shen Yifeng, he wouldn’t dare loudly proclaim in public that they had already called off the engagement either!
His heart was filled with embarrassment; he had originally wanted to get closer to Gu Zhaoping and chat more, but he hadn’t expected to make such a huge blunder right from the start.
Earlier, when he saw Gu Zhaoping talking with another young man, he had felt uneasy, worrying for Shen Yifeng.
Now it seemed he had completely overthought it—
Shen Yifeng had no right to meddle at all.
From the attitudes of the two, it was crystal clear who wanted to end the engagement more and who was still lingering in the past, unable to move on.
The elder endured the awkwardness for a while, but being a seasoned entrepreneur, he soon burst into hearty laughter again: “Oh, I see, so that’s how it is! You two kids didn’t even tell your uncle. We old folks just want to see the younger generation lively and happy, but we didn’t know you two had already parted ways peacefully. Well, it makes sense—when the engagement was set, you were both young. Now that you’ve grown up, it’s only right to find your own paths. Very good, very good.”
“It wasn’t exactly a peaceful parting,”
Gu Zhaoping said, nodding politely to him with a hint of apology.
Though it wasn’t ideal to keep putting this uncle in an awkward position, this was the perfect opportunity she had been waiting for to completely sever ties with Shen Yifeng.
Announcing it now would make the cancellation of the engagement carry greater impact.
She said calmly,
“In the past, I was the only one maintaining this engagement. Shen Yifeng didn’t care about it, so I naturally decided to cut my losses and focus more energy on my career. The engagement has already caused enough worry for Grandpa; I can’t let the Gu family’s affairs go unattended as well, can I?”
She didn’t mind letting others cast more judgmental glances at Shen Yifeng.
“When I was younger, I was too emotional and couldn’t help Grandpa with his burdens much. Now that I’m older and more sensible, I understand what I should prioritize as the eldest daughter and granddaughter of the Gu family. So, this engagement was canceled long ago. Thank you all for your concern.”
She subtly reinforced her identity as the eldest granddaughter in everyone’s minds, leaving no room for any other interpretation.
In other words, she was also signaling to those who knew her before that her past recklessness was due to her responsibility for this engagement, which had clouded her judgment and drained her energy, preventing her from appearing by her grandfather’s side.
Now, free from the engagement and Shen Yifeng’s influence, she was naturally starting to shine.
This made Shen Yifeng sound almost like a jinx.
There’s an old saying: the right person will stand in the path of your future.
Clearly, Shen Yifeng wasn’t that person, so he was out.
The others listened in shock, holding their wine glasses, turning to look at them in small groups.
The old man had been casually chatting with Theodore, but upon hearing the sudden silence in the room followed by his granddaughter Gu Zhaoping’s voice, his heart skipped a beat, nearly dropping the glass in his hand.
He knew about the engagement’s cancellation, but he had thought the Gu and Shen families would discuss it privately and part amicably.
He hadn’t expected Gu Zhaoping to announce it so directly at today’s banquet.
Still, the old man didn’t mind too much.
After all, they hadn’t invited Shen Yifeng— who was he to show up uninvited?
With so many outstanding candidates waiting nearby, whatever way Zhaoping chose to slap Shen Yifeng’s face, he’d turn a blind eye and pretend not to see.
Did they expect him to side with the Shen family’s so-called dignity and criticize his own granddaughter in public?
He wouldn’t do something so foolish.
Gu Zhaoping would need to meet many people in the future; she needed to establish her authority and solidify her image.
The old man had to be her unwavering supporter.
If outsiders saw any discord between him and his granddaughter, it would give them opportunities to sow division, which wouldn’t benefit the family’s development.
As long as it didn’t involve Gu Zhaoye, the male lead of the original story, the old man’s mind remained remarkably clear.
He pretended not to notice, turning back with a calm expression to chat more with Theodore:
“Did you attend my granddaughter’s speech today? Heh, she did well, didn’t she?”
The other guests were initially stunned, but seeing the Gu patriarch’s attitude, they quickly understood— this was tacitly approved by the Gu family.
They had known about this internally; they just hadn’t informed outsiders.
Many who were unaware had been shocked earlier, thinking Miss Gu already had a confirmed fiancé.
But it turned out this guy couldn’t keep up with her pace and was quickly left behind by Miss Gu.
This sparked ideas in many minds.
They began quietly assessing whether their own relatives or younger generations could outshine this Shen Yifeng.
From looks to education to character, they evaluated everything, using Shen Yifeng as a reference point to measure and weigh.
It was a critical perspective, as if appraising a commodity.
Everyone wanted to seize an outstanding prospect, and everyone wanted to figure out her tastes.
But to their regret, Miss Gu seemed very proper, open, and somewhat aloof— not the type easily swayed by charm.
Many male entrepreneurs had fallen for beauty traps, but female entrepreneurs rarely did.
Shen Yifeng was clearly a failed case.
Shen Yifeng felt a chill run through him, standing rigidly in place.
For such a long time, he made no move to extricate himself from this awkward situation.
As the heir of the Shen family, so outstanding, so admired, always handling things with ease, with many people revolving around him, including the Li siblings who had always been his followers.
It could be said that from childhood, he had always been a model and example in others’ eyes, even to the former Gu Zhaoping.
Despite the repeated blows to his confidence and pride from Gu Zhaoping in recent days, no moment had struck him as heavily as this one, leaving him utterly chilled.
The last time Gu Zhaoping announced this in front of those young people, even in front of young master Valentine, he had still managed to maintain a semblance of dignity, letting them leave.
That time, he was the host, it was his home turf, so he still felt in control, maintaining his so-called grace by not interfering with Gu Zhaoping walking with another man.
But now, he was a guest.
In that instant, it was as if he were lost in a daze, looking around, only to realize this wasn’t some prearranged banquet by entrepreneurs— it was hosted by the Gu family.
He saw that among everyone present, the Gu patriarch was dressed in the brightest, most eye-catching red, clearly in the role of the host.
And before he arrived, Gu Zhaoping had been calmly conversing with others.
In this moment, Gu Zhaoping’s presence before him was stronger than ever before.
And he was painfully aware that this public discussion meant his loss was no longer just about becoming the laughingstock of their circle or the subject of their whispered mockery behind his back.
It had escalated into something more—a loss of status, a subtle but undeniable diminishment in the eyes of others.
Yes, because a woman, Gu Zhaoping, had abandoned him, he had suffered a slight but real loss of power.
Though this feeling was subtle, his pride had keenly picked up on it.
And he clearly saw that Valentine, upon hearing Gu Zhaoping’s unwavering words, paused for a moment, then a faint smile appeared on his handsome face.
But as if realizing it was impolite, he quickly suppressed that smile.
It was absurd.
Shen Yifeng had once thought such a scene shouldn’t happen among people like them.
In his vague understanding, such confrontations at a banquet— where people vied for recognition or faced humiliation over the status of fiancés— should involve a reversal of roles.
It should be some CEO’s fiancée being announced as jilted, with another woman smugly watching from the sidelines.
That’s how he thought it should be.
But Gu Zhaoping had repeatedly turned his expectations upside down, reversing the scene entirely, leaving him unable to control the situation or predict what would come next.
Gu Zhaoping even showed him one last shred of courtesy.
She asked,
“Mr. Shen, if you insist on staying for this banquet, we don’t mind hosting one more guest.”
But after saying this, she made no real effort to accommodate him— no instructions to the waitstaff to bring him a glass or offer any hospitality.
She simply looked at him calmly, almost indifferently, as if waiting for him to take the hint and leave with some dignity.
The Gu Zhaoping who had once mistakenly sent him a video of a male model.
The Gu Zhaoping who, despite her lack of learning, came to him with professional questions.
The Gu Zhaoping who, in his memory, he thought was vague but whose image was now so vivid.
She was gone, completely vanished.
Now Shen Yifeng had no doubts.
He felt utterly ridiculous, and if others knew his thoughts, they would find him laughably absurd.
He had once thought Gu Zhaoping’s new hobbies, like learning jujitsu, were just her latest ploy to grab his attention.
He thought her spending money on male models, swiping her card, was a petty trick to provoke him, to make him care more.
But at this moment, he finally realized with stark clarity: it wasn’t.
He had been too narcissistic, too self-assured.
He had never truly known Gu Zhaoping.
And as more people came to see the real Gu Zhaoping, he would feel this punishment of ignorance more and more deeply.
Perhaps as her fame grew, more people would gleefully bring up him, her jilted ex-fiancé, as a trivial footnote in her scandalous past, adding a touch of color to her dazzling future.
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