Chapter 20

After the faintly trailing “okay?” there was a long silence in the car.

A few seconds later, Su Miao Miao finally came to her senses and slowly moved towards the car door.

“…Not okay.”

During this brief exchange, a faint pink color slowly spread across the girl’s delicate, pale neck.

Shang Yang chuckled softly.

“Why not?”

“I…” Su Miao Miao choked for a couple of seconds, “I don’t eat spicy food…”

“Then we’ll eat something else.”

Su Miao Miao held her breath, speaking softly, “It’s also not good to get something for nothing…”

“Who told you,” Shang Yang tongue lightly touched his palate, smiling, “that winning the lady’s favor is getting something for nothing?”

Su Miao Miao looked up blankly at him.

Shang Yan could clearly see her eyes, bright and clean, contrasting sharply in black and white.

Like a blank sheet of paper.

She doesn’t understand anything.

…Any color is yours to paint.

Shang Yan clenched his fists, slowly exhaling.

He turned his head away, his dark pupils narrowing slightly, aimlessly staring out the window.

“How should you address me?”

Confused, Su Miao Miao looked at the boy’s back, but obediently answered:

“Master.”

…

Shang Yan did not respond.

He merely squinted his eyes, gazing at the reflection of their overlapping shadows on the window, and clicked his tongue internally.

A role model, Shang Yan.

At least…

Be a person.

A line of flashy taxis eventually stopped outside a very famous private club in City C.

The club’s security in black, seeing the four taxis, looked perplexed.

The two standing on the outskirts exchanged glances, shook their heads confirming no recognition, and one approached the leader of the group, Wu Hongbo, blocking their path.

Then the security guard frowned and said:

“Sorry, but we only welcome VIP members and their guests here, not individuals. Please leave—”

Before he could finish, Wu Hongbo, who had been fumbling around as soon as he got out of the car, finally produced a light purple invitation and thrust it under the security’s eyes.

Seeing the invitation, the guard’s expression barely changed, just his eyebrows relaxed, and he took it.

Dissatisfied, Wu Hongbo said, “Brother, what era are you living in to judge by appearances? Haven’t you been educated on socialist core values? Besides, a taxi is still a car. What’s this discrimination? Let me explain, this construction means…”

Wu Hongbo looked ready to lecture the security guard for another two hours.

Stepping out of the second taxi a step later, Shang Yan came over.

His demeanor was nonchalant. As he approached, he feigned a kick at Wu Hongbo—

“What time is it, aren’t we going in?… Do you want us to stand outside and catch a cold?”

Wu Hongbo dodged, looking pitiful.

“You can skip meals, but you have to make things clear to them.”

“Go give a lecture on the side, don’t block the door.”

Shang Yan bypassed Wu Hongbo and approached the security guard.

The guard, who had inadvertently looked up two seconds earlier, hadn’t looked down since, and now stared blankly at Shang Yan as he approached, making no move.

Shang Yan stopped, slightly raised an eyebrow, his gaze lowered, pressing down on the invitation—

“Any problem?”

…

In that electrifying moment, the security guard finally remembered who the very familiar-looking young man in front of him was.

He suddenly snapped back to reality, his face changing dramatically, almost panicking as he bent his neck—

“Mr. Shang…”

“If there’s no problem, let us through.”

Shang Yan interrupted the security guard’s unfinished words with a calm demeanor—

“Let’s go inside.”

“Sorry, sorry… sorry.”

The security guard quickly stepped aside, stumbling a bit in the process.

Wu Hongbo, standing close to the two, clearly saw that within just a few seconds, the security guard’s forehead had already broken out in sweat.

Wu Hongbo looked at Shang Yan curiously.

Shang Yan, however, acted as if he saw nothing, merely turning slightly to look at Su Miao Miao a few meters away.

“Let’s go, kid.” He chuckled. “Be careful not to get lost and be taken away to ‘press the village.’”

…

Su Miao Miao’s steps faltered, and she lowered her head slightly annoyed.

Beside them, Wu Hongbo laughed, “Hey, Brother Yan, what’s this ‘press the village’ joke?”

Shang Yan slowed his pace, waiting for Su Miao Miao to catch up beside him.

He dropped his gaze, with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, “Kid, you explain it to him.”

…

This time, Su Miao Miao couldn’t hold back any longer.

She slightly tilted her head up, her dark pupils shimmering with annoyance and yet also seemed watery, looking discontentedly at Shang Yan.

Wu Hongbo found the scene quite amusing.

“Brother Yan, I see little Su is getting bold, daring to glare at you.”

Shang Yan didn’t mind, laughing it off.

Su Miao Miao, however, paused.

—If it hadn’t been for Wu Hongbo’s comment, she might not have noticed herself…

She didn’t know when it started, but her interactions with Shang Yan seemed increasingly unconstrained; she expressed all her emotions without the careful concern she had with others, worried about displeasing them.

For Su Miao Miao, this was a depth of relationship with others that she had never experienced or reached before.

Beneath this depth, for her, was a completely new world:

Like a sprout first emerging from the soil, everything in this new world filled the girl with curiosity and anticipation.

…

The private club in City C occupied a vast area, featuring four different themed building complexes.

Following the “Modern Pavilion” index on the invitation and with the guidance of a receptionist who suddenly appeared, the group quickly reached the private room where Shu Wei’s party was being held.

The room looked like a small concert hall.

Unlike a concert hall’s orderly seating, this private room featured high stools along the bar, tables and chairs scattered in an aesthetically pleasing disarray, and several groups of stylish leather sofas positioned around the corners of the wall.

The lighting in the private room was adjustable.

From the moment Shang Yan and the others entered the room and walked towards a table, they experienced several shifts in lighting from bright to dim and back to bright.

This was Su Miao Miao’s first time in such a place.

From the moment she stepped inside and was introduced to the lighting, she felt a bit uneasy, instinctively moving a few centimeters closer to Shang Yan’s direction.

Shang Yan noticed this and ignored the additional glances from around.

He stopped walking, frowning.

“Are you uncomfortable?”

“…”

Su Miao Miao shook her head.

After a moment, she spoke again softly, “I’m fine if it’s not too noisy, Master.”

Perhaps it was the dim lighting at the moment, but the girl’s tone sounded particularly gentle and soft, and her utterance of “Master” seemed to carry an extra touch of tenderness, causing Shang Yan’s brow to twitch.

He looked away.

“…If you feel uncomfortable, you must tell me.”

“Okay,” the girl responded.

The two then continued into the private room.

Bar, square tables, leather sofas… scattered around were many invited students who had arrived early.

However, the host of the party, Shu Wei, had not yet appeared.

Most of the attendees already there were Shu Wei’s classmates from senior year of high school.

They were all well aware of Shu Wei’s intentions and plans for this party, and thus their gazes, both overt and covert, were all fixed on Shang Yan.

As Shang Yan stepped into a brightly lit area, the room fell eerily silent.

Someone opened their mouth to speak.

Just then, the door to the private room was pushed open again.

Entering from outside was Shu Wei, dressed up for the occasion.

It was just as the room’s lights brightened to their fullest that Shu Wei, seeing Shang Yan’s figure, joyfully raised her hand.

“Shang—”

But the next second, she froze in place.

Staring at Su Miao Miao next to Shang Yang, Shu Wei’s face turned ashen—

“Why is she here?!”