Chapter 25: This Hand Is Tainted Now

"Congratulations on your engagement, Young Master Liu and Young Miss Zhao! We wish you a happy and fruitful marriage."

"Congratulations on your engagement..."

Amidst the chorus of congratulations, Zhao Yingyue was constantly nodding and thanking all of the families there. This had been the first time the top five families had all joined together in a long time from what she heard. And it was all for this engagement announcement.

She was trying her best to be polite with people more powerful than her being so formal and respectful toward her. She didn't want them to harbor any resentment toward her and say she lacked the ability to know her place.

The only thing was that she was hungry and none of the servers with the trays of hors d'oeuvres could cut through the crowd of people.

Zhao Yingyue lightly tugged on Liu Haoyu's hand in hopes that he would get the message. He turned, looked down at her and smiled softly at the pitiful look on her face.

"Excuse me everyone. You see, this crowd is really so hot that it's almost suffocating and I don't want my poor fiancée to suffer a heat stroke."

People immediately started backing away from the couple and let them through.

Zhao Yingyue softly said, "Thank you, Liu Haoyu."

Liu Haoyu leaned down to her ear and whispered, "If you really want to thank me, you can finally drop the family name, darling."

Zhao Yingyue's eyes widened in shock as she looked up at him. She thought that he definitely wouldn't pull any tricks or tease her during the party but apparently she was wrong!

However, he did help her and he's her fiancé so shouldn't she be able to? It just felt awkward since she wasn't used to being intimately close to people.

Her voice was extremely low as she said, "Thank you, Haoyu."

Liu Haoyu had barely caught it but it made him smile regardless.

"That's what you can continue to call me from now on, darling."

At that moment, a server passed them with a tray of hors d'oeuvres.

Zhao Yingyue happily grabbed whatever was on the tray without looking at. She was happy to finally have something to put in her stomach. She'd been so nervous throughout the entire day that she hadn't remembered to eat until it was too late.

As she was chewing on her first bite, two couples—one old, one young—and their daughter approached them.

The Cheng family.

The first to speak was Elder Cheng.

"Congratulations to you, Liu Haoyu, and to you, Young Miss Zhao, on your engagement."

The rest pretty much repeated the same thing—all except Cheng Huiying. She was still upset about their last encounter. Since then, Liu Haoyu hadn't replied to any of her calls or messages. She just knew it had to be that fiancée of his. Otherwise, why else would he be ignoring her after they had been so close for so long?

"Brother Haoyu, it's been a while since we've last spoke. How have you been doing?"

Liu Haoyu was upset. Not only had she not acknowledged the engagement, but she also had completely disregarded Zhao Yingyue. She was entirely too comfortable with the idea of disrespecting his fiancée and he found it infuriating.

"Right now, I'm confused, wondering why it seems that you're the only one in this room to forget the reason why you're here in the first place. You've yet to acknowledge my fiancé or our engagement yes ask how I am."

Zhao Yingyue peered over at him and lightly pat his arm to calm him down. His expression softened when he looked down at her before he turned back to the family with a cold expression. This time, he tried to make sure his expression wasn't too fierce and he risk worrying Zhao Yingyue.

Cheng Huiying put on her sweet face before saying, "I apologize Brother Haoyu. It's just that I'd assumed Ms. Zhao was preoccupied as I saw she was unable to speak at the moment. I didn't mean to be rude."

Liu Haoyu simply said, "Well, you were. If there's nothing else, my fiancée was trying to put something in her stomach. Hearing her stomach grumble breaks my heart too much."

Cheng Huiying grabbed onto his hand as she called out, "Wait!"

Liu Haoyu roughly pulled his hand away from her's. She slowly pulled her hand in after he treated her hand like poison. He didn't want his fiancée to get the wrong idea about his relationship with another woman. Especially one who believed she was engaged to marry him previously.

Liu Haoyu looked toward Zhao Yingyue and said, "Darling, I'm sorry. This hand is tainted now so I'll have to leave you to go wash them before I touch you with it. I won't be too long."

Cheng Huiying felt anger bubbling up.

Tainted? He had never had a problem before. It always grabbed his attention and she'd have to admit that she'd take advantage of it to be able to hold his hand. Still, she never thought that he'd caught on or would ever treat her that way.

Zhao Yingyue, who was caught in the crossfire, nodded her head in understanding. What else could she do? She even had to admit that she appreciated how protective he got over her and her feelings. Even childhood friends weren't exempt from his loyalty to her.

Liu Haoyu then turned to Cheng Huiying again, his voice and expression not nearly as gentle as it had been when he addressed his fiancée only a few seconds ago.

"Don't you ever grab my hand again. That action is only reserved for my woman. Now what do you want, Cheng Huiying?"

She fidgeted as she awkwardly said, "Well, you haven't been replying to my calls or messages. I know you can be very busy but the game season hasn't started yet so you shouldn't be too busy. I was just concerned about you Brother Haoyu."

Liu Haoyu tightened his arm around his woman's.

"It's not your job to worry about me as I already have someone who will do that for me. Whether I reply to you or not is not your business. If that's all, then we'll get going first. We have many other guests to speak to who will respect my fiancée and our engagement much more."

He didn't wait for her to reply before gently guiding Zhao Yingyue past her while Cheng Huiying stood frozen in place after he left.

Meanwhile, Gu Yanya was leading Gu Yan around the room, introducing her to every man that she considered qualified. She wanted to find someone who could protect and treasure her Yanyan. Especially if Zhao Yingyue was going to get married into the Liu family. Even if there was no better position for Gu Yan, she at least needed her to not be easily bullied.

Many who spoke to them had aims to make connections with the Liu family through the Zhao family. Even if Gu Yan was only extended family, she was family none the less and obviously loved by the Madame Zhao. It was a no brainer that marrying her would get them on the Liu's good side by extension.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Ms. Gu. I can't believe that I never knew that Young Miss Zhao had such a beautiful cousin."

Gu Yan politely replied, "Yes well, my cousin and I do live two different lives. After all, she is the Young Miss and should be treated as such. I've always just been grateful to my aunt and uncle for taking me in like they did."

"Oh Ms. Gu, don't think like that. Even if you don't have Zhao family blood, you're still a member of that family. Come, why don't I take you to meet my son."

Gu Yan politely followed the middle aged woman. She was beautiful so she assumed her son would be handsome, too. It didn't help that any guest there was guaranteed to be well off and provide her a good life. Once she was built up, she wouldn't be bullied by anyone anymore.

When she saw the man the woman led her to, Gu Yan was pleased that the assumption she had made was correct. He was very tall and handsome. She had to stop herself before she started staring too long at his handsome face. She couldn't see desperate in the eyes of the man.

She bowed to him.

In return, he bowed back out off politeness.

His mother said, "Gu Yan, this is my son that I told you about, Gong Xiaosi. My son, this is the first cousin of the Young Miss Zhao. She's such a lovely young lady."

Gong Xiaosi looked at her more critically before he nodded in approval. He always thought that looks came before personality—though both along with status were important. He was pleased with how she was a very naturally beautiful woman.

Seeing how she would soon be married to the Liu family, becoming acquainted with her may lead to benefits in the future, too, with a change in status.

When they were deep enough into conversation, Gu Yanya left the pair on their own to get to know each other better. She was satisfied that she had found someone for her Yanyan to get acquainted with and his family wasn't bad off either. She hoped that everything would go smoothly after that and soon there would be a marriage worth her celebration.

She walked over to her husband, who was surrounded by some of the powerful men in the room. Everyone was now interested in their Zhao family even more—even if they weren't bad off before.

Zhao Xiang peered at his wife who had come beside him and held his hand. He wouldn't pull away from her when surrounded by others and he'd already decided that maybe he would fix things with her so that they could live harmoniously again. This would be a fair enough first step.

He laughed before saying, "Apologies. It seems my wife has something to say to me. I'll come find you all later?"

The men all nodded before backing away. Zhao Xiang was satisfied as he had just discussed potential business deals with all of these men and he left them off on a good point. And his wife approaching him allowed for him to present himself as a family man with good values.

"What's wrong, Yanya?"

Gu Yanya, who was happy her husband was genuinely acknowledging her for the first time in a few days, smiled. It seemed everything was finally going her way again. Not only was her husband putting aside his anger, but Gu Yan was speaking with a potential marriage partner.

"Nothing's wrong. I was just thinking that it's just about time for speeches. We really should publicly congratulate the couple, shouldn't we?"

Zhao Xiang peeked at his watch. It really was almost time for the speeches. Time really had flown with the amount of socializing that he'd been doing all night. He scanned the crowd for his daughter and Liu Haoyu, wanting to make sure that neither missed their speeches. It was supposed to be a heartfelt, vulnerable moment between the children and parents.

Thinking of parents, he also looked around for Liu Haoyu's parents. They also needed to make a speech congratulating the children and wishing them well.

"Come then. Let's make our way toward the front."

Gu Yanya intended to use the speech to get into everyone there's good graces and play the role of the doting mother. Especially for the Liu's, who obviously had less than ideal opinions about the woman. If this was happening, she needed them to like her.

However, Liu Haoyu had other plans for her speech.

Now that everything was going well for her, she had socialized and thought she would come out tonight on top, he would drag her down deep into the depths of hell.