At this moment, a car was speeding down the road.

Inside the car, a man was gripping his phone, and on the screen was a message from his business partner:

“President Pei, you didn’t attend the engagement party in Jiangsu today, so you might not be aware of what happened. But regarding the project you suggested for the Su family to help finance, I now think there might be some risks.”

Pei Jingyan was on his way to the airport when he saw the message.

There was an overseas project that he could either attend in person or not, but last night, he changed his mind and told the other party he would go today.

Upon seeing the message, Pei Jingyan instinctively furrowed his brows: “What happened at the engagement party?”

He didn’t even realize it, but after sending his message, he kept staring at the screen, watching as the words “typing…” appeared, frustrated by how slow his older business partner was at typing.

Finally, the other side sent a paragraph: “For some reason, Jiang Shao not only arrived late to the engagement but also brought another woman to embarrass Miss Su. The engagement between the two families has now fallen through, and it’s unclear whether this will lead to a feud. Given your relationship with the Jiang family, I’m concerned that the Su family might hold a grudge, and it may not be appropriate to involve them in the project.”

Pei Jingyan didn’t even read the rest of the long message; his eyes focused on the first sentence—

Jiang Chenlin arrived late to his engagement and brought another woman!

A wave of indescribable shock and anger surged in his chest, and his dark eyes almost seemed to flicker with flames. He told the driver, “Head to the Haiyue Hotel.”

As the driver turned the car around, Pei Jingyan suddenly reacted and typed to his partner: “Did you just say it was Su Qingran and Jiang Chenlin?”

His fingers trembled slightly as he hit send.

His partner was still at the scene, so he simply sent a photo.

In the photo, chaos was visible.

The life-size cardboard cutouts of Su Qingran and Jiang Chenlin had already fallen to the floor, torn in half by someone, with one half on each side.

Pei Jingyan wasn’t sure what he was feeling. The outcome of the two not getting engaged should have been the best possible scenario, but he found that the anger in his heart was even worse than if he had been deceived himself.

He didn’t respond to his partner’s message and instead picked up his phone to send a message to Su Qingran—

“Miss Su, are you there?”

After sending it, he felt that it wasn’t right and completely forgot the option to recall messages. He quickly typed again: “Don’t be sad.”

But looking at those words, he felt they seemed too empty.

How could she not be sad?

He didn’t even dare to ask his partner to take a picture of what Su Qingran looked like now.

But he could already imagine it—so many guests, all of their mutual friends, business partners, so many eyes, all witnessing the groom’s tardiness and him bringing another woman!

Pei Jingyan didn’t dare to imagine the pain and humiliation. He just urged the driver to speed up.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a rush hour in Beijing, and Pei Jingyan’s car stopped nearby. Without bothering to find a parking spot, he quickly walked toward the venue.

In the banquet hall, Su Qingran was wiping her tears with a tissue, but the more she wiped, the more tears came, so she simply gave up.

She forced a smile: “Sorry to have made a fool of myself.”

It wasn’t just embarrassing. After today, the fact that the Su family’s daughter was humiliated and abandoned by her fiancé at her engagement would likely hit the trending topics.

At that point, it wouldn’t just be the people here laughing at her, but millions of gossiping netizens.

Su Qingran stepped off the stage. Lu Ruolan, worried about her, tried to support her, but she insisted on walking alone.

She had already stood under the spotlight and didn’t want her parents to be subjected to more scrutiny because of her.

She would walk this path of shame alone.

The red carpet felt long, and every step in her high heels was like walking on clouds, uneven and unsteady, but she kept her back straight and her chin slightly raised, just like her etiquette teacher had taught her.

No matter how deep the valley, never let your neck be bent.

It wasn’t until she walked out of the hall that she bumped into a man rushing toward her.

Pei Jingyan, having run all the way, was breathing slightly unevenly. His hair was a bit tousled from the wind at the entrance, making him look less refined than usual.

But clearly, Su Qingran had no intention of giving him even a glance.

When she saw him, she was no longer as distant and polite as she usually was. She walked right past Pei Jingyan without a word.

Almost instinctively, Pei Jingyan stepped to the side, blocking Su Qingran’s path.

In that moment, Su Qingran finally let her gaze fall on Pei Jingyan.

It had to be said, Pei Jingyan and Jiang Chenlin, though half-brothers with different fathers, did share a slight resemblance in their facial features. However, because their temperaments were so completely different, Su Qingran had never associated the two of them together.

But now, things had changed.

As she looked at those slightly similar brows, anger slowly ignited in her eyes.

And this man before her had the audacity to block her path, refusing to let her leave.

The thread of rationality in Su Qingran’s mind, stretched to its limit, finally snapped under this tiny bit of pressure.

Using a tone she had never used with Pei Jingyan before, she practically shouted, “So, you’re here to laugh at me too?”

Pei Jingyan silently looked at her.

He had never seen her like this before.

Today, she was beautiful—beautiful but utterly shattered. Everything around them was dreamily and beautifully decorated, but the ground was littered with scattered balloons and torn cardboard cutouts.

Su Qingran stood amidst this mess, standing just within his reach.

“No,” Pei Jingyan heard himself say, “I’m here to ask you if you want to marry me.”

The moment he uttered the last word, it was as if the caged beast in his chest—his heart that had been suppressed for so many years—was finally freed. It thrashed wildly, crashing from side to side, sending numbness throughout his entire body.

His fingertips were trembling slightly.

Yet his face remained as calm as ever, without any obvious emotion. Even the color of his eyes remained that deep, unyielding black, devoid of any light.

There was a brief moment of silence.

Su Qingran thought she must have misheard him. At this moment, her ability to think had nearly vanished.

So after she yelled that out, she didn’t even care about what Pei Jingyan had said, and simply replied, “Can you move out of the way now?”

Saying this, she once again tried to walk past Pei Jingyan.

This time, the man grabbed her arm.