Already Engaged
Li Chen froze on hearing his daughter's faint call.
His heart thumped in excitement and his frosty expression melted a smudge. Looking at Qing Yue, he gently nodded.
"You've already met your Aunts and Uncles. Why don't you meet your cousins now?" He stepped to the side and went to sit with his brothers.
Qing Yue looked at her Dad's side profile and smiled.
It felt familiar, good to call him Dad.
"Qing Qing, what took you so long? Come, let's go to the Sitting Room and chat." Yan Su grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the sitting room.
The other ignored cousins exchanged glances and followed.
"Hold on, we're coming!"
"Brother Heng, Brother Mu, I'll come along as well." Yei Yi saw her targets and stood. Bowing to Uncle Wang and the others, she elegantly walked out of the Main Hall before chasing after the two men.
Qing Yue, Li Wei, and Yan Su sat on the same couch as Yan Bi and the Li cousins sat on a separate couch.
"Sister Yue, happy birthday." Li Wei took out a small package and nervously handed it to Qing Yue.
"Wow, Sister Wei, I think this is the first time you've ever given me a gift, right?" Qing Yue smiled and took the package.
"Of course, it's the first time. Because she wants something from you this time." Yan Su sneered disdainfully.
"Yan Su, what is your problem? Whether I do this for favors or not, why do you care?"
"Girls, relax. No need to argue. Li Wei, tell me. What do you want?" Qing Yue was very sensitive to noise. The moment the two cousins began arguing, she stepped up to put a stop to it before the matter got out of hand.
They would argue to their hearts' content, but at the end of the day, she'll be the one suffering.
"That...Sister Yue, I heard you have the exclusive invitation card to YueTian's promotion sale launch. Hmph! Can I have one?" At the end of her words, even Li Wei felt a little embarrassed at her bluntness. But what could she do? It wasn't easy to get an exclusive invitation to YueTian's promotion sales...
"It's fine, Li Wei. I'll give you one when I receive them."
"Ahhh! I'm getting an invitation card to YueTian's promotion event. Sister Qing, you're great!" Li Wei screeched in joy and hugged Qing Yue.
"Haha...Sister Wei, there's no need to be so formal. Things like exclusive Invitation cards are difficult to obtain only for people like us. But for Qing Qing, all she has to do is stand and smile, and others would flock to her side. The name Li Qing Yue alone is enough to garner invitation cards to the most exclusive of events." At this moment, Yei Yi entered the Sitting Hall.
Hands smoothing out her dress, Yei Yi softly smiled at Li Wei and glided across the hall to sit beside Li Heng and Li Mu.
"This Yei Yi...why are you friends with her, Qing Qing? No matter how I look at it, the two of you aren't the type to mix."
"We aren't the type to mix? What do you mean Yan Su?" Qing Yue couldn't help but smile helplessly at the girl. This wasn't the first time Yan Su had said something like this. In fact, she'd said it so many times that Qing Yue had stopped listening to her.
Yan Su conspiratorially bent down and whispered in her ear.
"You know what I mean, Qing Qing. If Li Wei is an opportunist, then this Yei Yi is a greedy, bottomless pit. You can satisfy an opportunist, but you cannot satisfy a bottomless pit. Just now, her words sounded jarring. The way she spoke and excused Li Wei as if she were you...Aye, just be careful around her."
Qing Yue frowned and glanced in Yei Yi's direction. The girl looked as she always did; pretty and prime, outgoing and assertive. Nothing like the greedy pit Yan Su described her to be.
"Yan Su, I think you're misunderstanding Yei Yi. She's nothing like you say. Maybe you should try to get to know her?"
"Qing Qing, I want you to be careful because I care for you. But don't try to make me befriend that hypocrite!"
"Brother Heng, Brother Wu, I haven't seen you in a while. How have you been?" Yei Yi looked at the two handsome young men and delicately smiled.
Good looking, refined with noble auras, and from a wealthy family. Even though they weren't as wealthy as Li Chen, at least they were part of the Li Family.
And if everything worked out well, then...
Yei Yi's delicate smile widened, her eyes and entire face practically glowing from the light she radiated.
"You are...?" Li Heng confusedly looked at the delicate girl sitting across from them. Long black hair and shining dark eyes with delicate nose and lips. The girl was pretty enough to arouse any young man's heart. If Li Heng hadn't seen Qing Yue's subdued beauty, he would've fallen for the girl's charming smile.
"Brother Heng, I can't believe you don't recognize me...I am Yei Yi. We meet at Qing Yue's birthday every year." He doesn't remember me as well? Yei Yi felt her heart plunge to the bottom of her stomach.
She had been working on pleasing the relatives from the Li Family for years. But from the look of things, all her efforts were meaningless. Because none of the Li members remembered her after leaving the Li Mansion.
"Brother Heng...you really don't remember me?" Her eyes pooled with tears not necessarily fake, as she aggrievedly looked at the young man.
"Ah...that...the Li family is too large to remember every relative. Sorry, Xiao Yi, I didn't mean to forget you." Li Heng apologetically said, his heart aching on seeing her eyes fill up.
"Hmph! Brother Wu, don't tell me you don't remember me as well?" Li Mu was snacking on pastries when he heard his name. He confusedly looked up and blinked.
"Huh? Am I supposed to remember you?" Unlike his cousin, Li Mu wasn't the sort of gentleman that felt pained on seeing the opposite gender's tears. Faced with the wet eyes of Yei Yi, he only innocently blinked and focused back on his pastries.
"This..." Yei Yi felt stumped. How was she going to communicate with a brainless idiot?