At this moment, only Meng Huange stood alone, holding her wine glass high. Not a single person dared to toast with her.
Of course, except for the black-haired girl standing beside her, who looked slightly dazed and confused.
[Well, although it’s a bit strange to say this now, but…]
Wait, could it be that Meng Huange doesn’t actually intend to settle the score for the offenses I committed before tonight, but is simply helping me fulfill the wish I mentioned earlier?
Looking at Meng Huange’s current stance, she seems completely like someone on my side. There’s no sign at all that she plans to teach me a lesson later…
Tonight? The system didn’t seem to say that I would definitely be treated a certain way by Meng Huange tonight, or that the villainess had to be humiliated at the banquet. All of that was just my own speculation!
If that’s the case, I’m completely here to ride her coattails today. The only one losing face will be Bai Hewei alone!
Good, excellent!
For a moment, Su Wanli’s confidence surged. She pumped her fist inwardly and looked toward Bai Hewei, who was standing in the center of the stage, alongside Meng Huange.
“Indeed, there’s no need to use that kind of method. I’m not some ancestor of the Bai family after all.”
Su Wanli stood up boldly from her chair and took two steps toward Bai Hewei. She curled her lips at him and revealed a malicious smile —
“Hmph. Regardless, this guy couldn’t even take first place in our Baiying Academy’s entrance exam. Making him prostrate himself would be too much of a disgrace to the Su family ancestors.”
After throwing back the words Bai Hewei had just said, Su Wanli, still feeling unsatisfied, lightly stroked her chin and mused ~ —
“How about this, Little Bai? Forget the prostration. You just need to kneel on both knees toward me right now and take back every single one of those shitty things you said. Then I can act like this never happened at all. After that, you walk your sunlit… bah, you walk your single-log bridge, and I’ll walk my sunlit path. We’ll be even. How about it?”
“What? Still not happy? As a loser, doing just this much is already a great deal, isn’t it?”
Sensing that her previous words might have been a bit ambiguous, Su Wanli thought for a moment and added another sentence —
“Oh, when I said ‘loser,’ I meant the ‘failure’ kind of loser, not the ‘Bai’ from your Bai family.”
Pfft.
Of course, Bai Hewei did not respond. Aside from someone who couldn’t hold back a snicker just now, the entire banquet hall was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
After nearly ten seconds of silence, a sudden sliding sound echoed from the side door of the banquet hall.
Along with the sound of the door opening, an aged voice drifted in —
“What’s wrong? It’s been so noisy since a moment ago. What happened?”
Upon hearing this withered voice that carried no sense of intimidation, Bai Hewei’s body immediately shook as if by reflex, and he took two steps back toward the side door ~ —
“Grand…”
After being glared at coldly by the old man, he managed to swallow his voice in time and silently lowered his head toward the newcomer.
“Head of the family.”
The old man nodded faintly. His gaze bypassed Bai Hewei’s figure and looked toward Su Wanli, who was standing in the center of the aisle.
“Wanli, it’s been a long time. I didn’t expect you to have grown so tall already.”
[Ugh, it’s one of those ‘I held you when you were a baby’ old fossils. I hate people like this the most.]
Su Wanli silently rolled her eyes at this old man who had suddenly appeared. She intended to turn around and sit back down next to Meng Huange.
The head of the Bai family had come out to back up Bai Hewei. It seemed that making him kneel was likely impossible now. But fortunately, Bai Hewei had indeed apologized to her earlier, so the task assigned by the system should be considered complete.
However, just as Su Wanli was about to turn around, Meng Huange lightly placed her hand on Su Wanli’s shoulder ) and nodded toward her with a smile.
She stepped forward gracefully and bowed neither humbly nor arrogantly toward Bai Qingyan —
“Mr. Bai, we just made a bet with Mr. Bai Hewei. The stakes were: the loser must kneel and apologize to the winner.”
Hearing Meng Huange’s words, which were devoid of any concealment, Bai Hewei waved his hands in a panic, attempting to explain —
“Grandpa, I didn’t make a bet with them. I just…”
“Quiet.”
Looking at the grandfather and grandson of the Bai family, Meng Huange chuckled and shrugged her shoulders, speaking softly toward Bai Qingyan —
“Mr. Bai, sometimes, humans must learn to give something up. Don’t you agree?”
Bai Qingyan shot a cold glance at Meng Huange and sighed lightly toward Bai Hewei —
“Bai Hewei, go apologize to Wanli.”
“But, Grandpa…”
“Don’t make me say it a second time.”
Looking at Bai Qingyan’s stern expression, Bai Hewei finally gave up his struggle. He dejectedly jumped down from the stage, walked to a position a few meters away from Su Wanli, then lowered his body and bent one of his knees.
“I’m sorry, Miss Su. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have…”
Meng Huange tilted her head slightly toward Bai Hewei and chuckled ~ —
“Mr. Bai Hewei, in a worldly sense, your current posture seems to lead to some ambiguity. Please use a more straightforward method.”
Bai Hewei took a deep breath. While clenching his fists, he bent his other knee —
“I’m sorry, Miss Su Wanli. My words and actions at school caused you great trouble and distress. Here, in front of all the guests, I, Bai Hewei, take back my previous words, and…”
“…sincerely beg for your forgiveness.”
At the same time, outside the side door of the banquet hall, a middle-aged man with a serious, square face was watching the center of the hall from a distance. He frowned silently.
“…Mr. Su, aren’t we going over?”
“Aha? Right now, Wanli and the others are the ones bullying someone else. Why would I run over there?”
Su Heng raised his eyebrows and shook his head at the assistant beside him —
“In this kind of situation, elders like us can only control our own family. We’ll go over once they’ve had their fill of fun.”
“Uh, but, Mr. Su…”
Looking at the CEO in front of him who appeared serious but was actually just joining in the fun with his daughters, the assistant silently wiped the sweat from his brow.
“If news of this spreads later, the public opinion regarding our Su family might…”
“Let it spread then. Anyway, the one losing face is that brat from the Bai family, not Su Wanli.”
The head of the Su family, who usually appeared deep and calculated, spoke quite irresponsibly at this moment. He then waved his hand at the assistant ~ —
“Also, move over a bit more. Don’t block my view…”
almost 200 chapters and afaik not even a week has passed yet…
i’m not sure whether to be impressed or not.