Akiha: An expression of grat.i.tude to the donations of a certain kind anon~
After discussing with Yalin and in regards to the future development of the novel, we"ll be changing “emeralds” to “jades”.
And also, we now have our own logo~ Credits to Yalin for making them~
Translated: Akiha
Edited: Yalin
Chapter 26 The Song Family Banquet
One week after Song Ye left the Song family, the first thing Lu Lan had done after rushing to school was not to reprimand or lecture her in the house, but to drag her to a restaurant. It was a fact that Song Ye was basically the epitome of a Cinderella – doing all the tiring and dirty ch.o.r.es in the house, and not involved in any sort of fun activities; even when the family went to a restaurant during the New Year"s, she was left behind to look after the house.
Thinking it through, they must be up to no good dragging her to the restaurant at this time of day.
But since everyone is present there, some topics will be easier to talk about.
The banquet was reserved at a high cla.s.s restaurant in Yun Cheng. There was even a hostess wearing a Cheongsam standing by the door bowing and welcoming the entering guests. The decorations inside consists of crystal chandeliers and marble; no sound could even be heard when stepping onto the red carpet. All the guests that enter and exit came from either n.o.ble or wealthy families.
For a small employee like Song Yuan Zhi, he of course was unable to spend any money in this type of place. As for Lu Lan, it was her first time here and she almost bow back to the waitress welcoming the guests, causing Song Ting Ting and Song Mei Mei that were following behind feel embarra.s.sed and ashamed.
On Song Ye"s side, she looked as if she was used to it. With a school uniform on her, she was indifferent towards the surroundings.
“Tch, what are you being so pretentious for? You had never been to this type of occasion before. Feeling so curious but holding yourself back from looking around, what a joke.”
Song Mei Mei that was following behind Lu Lan, didn"t know when, had walked to Song Ye"s side. Even though she had such a sweet smile on her face, the words she said were filled with malice.
Song Ye had known from when she was a kid that this youngest sister of hers was in fact the most scheming. She had always manipulated Song Ting Ting to do all the persecutions and prankings. Even though she was mocking her now, she had done it inconspicuously without other people knowing, but,
“You keep on directing your malice towards me, is all because I"m good looking.”
This is not a question, but a statement.
And at that very moment, the sweet smile on Song Mei Mei"s face was like a building crumbling down, crumbled and ruined. Song Mei Mei widened her moist eyes to look at Song Ye, as if she was looking at a mutated monster,
“Song Ye, what are you being all sn.o.bbish for? No matter how good looking you are, you"re just a….”
“Just a what?”
Song Ye stared at her who had stopped her sentence abruptly with a heavy glance.
Song Mei Mei felt that all her thoughts were exposed in sight under that glance, causing her to not daring look straight into Song Ye"s eyes. Until Song Ye had walked further away, she then bit her lips frustratingly and mumbled to herself,
“Let"s see how long you can act like that, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d child….”
When all four of them reached the venue, the suite was packed with people. The four brothers of Song family had brought all their family members and around the number of ten people had fully occupied the table and thus, no empty s.p.a.ce can be seen. Seeing Lu Lan entering, the other three wives of the Song brothers bit their lips, trying their best not to laugh.
Song Yuan Zhi, feeling even more embarra.s.sed and ashamed, pulled down his face and scolded,
“What are you doing slowly over there, hurry and find a place to sit.”
“Eh, ok. h.e.l.lo everyone.”
Lu Lan bent her body down and tried to smile and greet, but since the words she knew were limited, she could only repeat those words.
But when Song Ye entered the room, everyone"s attention were then directed towards Song Ye.
“Aiyo, who"s child is that, so good looking that he can even be comparable to Cheng En.”
“I know right, even though he"s a little short, his face sure is outstanding. Who"s family owns this child?”
……
Except for the eldest sister-in-law, the other two wives had began pa.s.sing the baton, praising Song Ye more and more. While the Cheng En they were referring to was the eldest sister-in-law, Qiao Yue"s son. He was a tall boy and fared well academically, and was the token for Qiao Yue to show off to others every time.
With this comparison, Qiao Yue that was smiling brightly can"t help but feel unhappy and turn the gun towards Song Yuan Zhi,
“Si Di, today was supposed to be a family reunion. If you had told me that you"re bringing another person in, I would"ve been able to reserved another seat.”
What she had implied was that Song Yuan Zhi did not understand the occasion and was also bringing in someone that was not of the Song family.
Song Yuan Zhi had lost his words when he saw the exquisite face of Song Ye. As if his thoughts had gone back in time to that snowy night, where the beautiful and pitiable woman was standing right in front of him properly, just like it had only happened yesterday.
After a while, he then lowered his gaze awkwardly when he heard Qiao Yue"s voice,
“*Da Sao, this is my eldest daughter, Song Ye.”
“Song Ye?”
Everyone sitting by the table was then stupefied, dropping their gaze onto the calm and exquisite face at the corner of the suite. No matter how much they tried to relate it, they were unable to relate the one in front of them to the one in their memory – timid and having messy hair that covered her whole face.
After dealing with each other for more than ten years and was unable to recognize their own family member, it had then became quite a joke. Qiao Yue that had thought that she was able to deal with all sorts of situations had also felt awkward and can only try to cover it up,
“Haha, a lady does changes a lot when they grow up. You had become such a fine lady even though we had not met only for a few years. With your hair so short, I had thought you were a boy at first.”
After that, everyone had laughed to go along with it and just like that, the whole thing was covered up.
No one had noticed the calculative shimmer in Qiao Yue"s eyes that was gone instantly and the mockery on Song Ye"s lips.
Shortly after the ruckus, everyone had went back to do what they were originally doing at the table and no one planned to give up some seats and s.p.a.ce to Lu Lan, and so, the four of them were then ignored at the side without a place to sit; even Song Yuan Zhi did not dare to speak up.
The brothers at the table now had brought all their children along and fitted into the table by adding seats. Qiao Yue had even let her son and daughter sit at the left and right of the center position.
Even the young ones had places to sit. For Lu Lan that was ignored, no matter how low of a self-esteem she had, she had slowly felt herself getting angry.
Song Ting Ting and Song Mei Mei felt embarra.s.sed and ashamed to the core and took the chance to add oil into Lu Lan"s fire.
“Mum, they are way too much. Even Cheng Mei had a place to sit, so what makes you having no place to sit? They are being too harsh.”
Lu Lan was also thinking the same thing, but Song Cheng Mei is Qiao Yue"s daughter. How was she comparable to this strong and wealthy woman…. Thinking this far, she can"t help but tugged at Song Yuan Zhi"s clothes, wanting her husband to talk sense into them.
Song Yuan Zhi was a very prideful man. Before that, no matter the situation, he would help Lu Lan out, but he was feeling distracted today. When his shirt was tugged a few more times, he felt frustrated and reprimanded,
“Are you done with this or not. Just eat when you"re able to, what more do you want?”
This had caused quite the scene and everyone one looked over while placing down their chopsticks.
Lu Lan felt wronged and tears began acc.u.mulating but she did not dare to talk back. Song Ting Ting on the other hand had some other idea and began sobbing,
“Dad, don"t blame mum. Song Ye had ran from the house for a week. When mum found her after much difficulty in the school, she then dared to say that she wanted to cut off the relationship with us. How cam mum be able to eat anything?”
With the pitiable voice resounding through the room, it would make people pity her, but the content of her words were bizarre.
Song Yuan Zhi had yet to regain his senses from Song Ye"s face was dumbfounded at those words.
And the one who had attacked first was the eldest aunt Qiao Yue.
With a loud pang, Qiao Yue slammed the chopsticks onto the table heavily with a dark face,
“Cutting the relationship? What a good daughter. The Song family"s fifteen years of raising her had gone to waste and ended up raising an ungrateful soul.”
Note:
*Si Di=四弟 referring to the fourth brother of the family
*Da Sao=大嫂 eldest sister-in-law
Rather than calling uncle (name) or aunt (name), Chinese tends to go for (number) uncle/aunt, to indicate their position (of birth) in the family. There are also times when they did the (name) if they grew up calling it that way. (Both are also the case for my family)
Yalin: On another note, I start my college cla.s.ses on Aug 21st (╥_╥)
Akiha: And my a.s.signment deadline are within these few weeks + finalssss on 4/9-17/9~ No hiatus since Yalin"s here, unless the translated chapters are exhausted~
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