"By the way, where's Old Master Xi? Why hasn't he arrived yet?"
Xi Yan shook his head. "He's not here yet."
Xi Defeng's expression stiffened. Then he laughed and turned to smooth things over with the others. "Thank you all for honoring us with your presence today. The old master hasn't arrived yet, so please bear with us."
After all this back and forth, everyone had lost their tempers completely, but they didn't dare voice any complaints. They could only grumble silently to themselves.
Every member of the Xi Family made a grander entrance than the last. That, at least, ran in the family.
After another ten-odd minutes, Old Master Xi finally arrived. Once the greetings were over, he got straight down to business.
"Most of you here today are young people, so an old man like me doesn't have much to say. I'm tired of putting on these celebrations for my birthday every year, so today we'll do things the way you young people like."
With that, he gestured for everyone to enjoy themselves, and the guests all began to relax.
Bai Le looked around and found that, sure enough, most of the guests were young people, with roughly equal numbers of men and women.
Remembering what had been said in the group chat, Bai Le remarked, "There really are this many men here?" He had thought the Xi Family was old-fashioned, but he hadn't expected them to be so open-minded.
Wu Hua gave him a curious look. "What does that have to do with being open-minded?"
Before Bai Le had time to think about what he meant, he saw his father and Chen Suqiu hurrying over to speak to Old Master Xi. Xi Yan was beside them, too, and they paid no attention to the forgotten son still standing here.
"What are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking the old man's had it too easy lately. Maybe I should call my mom."
Although he really didn't want to join the crowd, it still felt bad to be ignored so openly.
Wu Hua knew nothing about that. His eyes kept sweeping over the women in the crowd.
"Lele, quick, help me see if there's anyone right for me."
Bai Le looked at him. "It's not like you don't know what this party's for. Don't tell me you're planning to steal someone from under his nose?"
"They're not all Fourth Master's. I only want one. Can't I even have one?"
He nudged Bai Le's arm, his eyes fixed on someone. "What do you think of that one? She's my type."
Bai Le looked and saw that it was the girl from the Xie Family. He said bluntly, "Good taste, but forget about her."
While the two were talking, Bai Le saw Bai Huizhang wave him over, though the smile on his face was somewhat strained.
Bai Le was suspicious. He'd only been talking when he said he would call his mom. Could the old man have heard even that from all the way over there?
Full of doubts, he walked over, only to find it wasn't what he'd thought. It seemed Xi Yan had brought him up.
"Lele, this is Old Master Xi. Come and say hello."
Bai Huizhang introduced the most senior person first. Watching Bai Le obediently greet him, he breathed a sigh of relief.
He had deliberately avoided calling Bai Le over to say hello because he was afraid Bai Le would offend someone by saying the wrong thing, leaving him to clean up the mess.
He hadn't expected Fourth Master to mention Bai Le, whether on purpose or in passing, and ask if he hadn't come. What else could he do but call him over?
"Bai Le, is it?" Old Master Xi swept him with a hawklike gaze, turning a string of beads in his hand as he gave him a lukewarm nod.
Bai Le didn't feel awkward. Old Master Xi had been like this in the original story.
Before the conversation here had even warmed up, someone from the Xie Family came over. Xi Defeng walked up with Xie Qizhi and said with a smile, "What are you talking about? What's got everyone gathered around having such a lively time?"
At the sight of them, Bai Le silently grumbled, It wasn't lively before, but now that you're here, it is.
Sure enough, Chen Suqiu grew nervous. She kept pinching the flesh at Bai Yin's waist with one hand, urging her to be quick-witted and not stand there without saying a word.
Xie Qizhi didn't look like the vicious villain Bai Le had imagined. Instead, she carried herself with poise, and her delicate features had a quiet charm. She looked every bit the refined and well-mannered young lady of a prominent family.
Seeing that her daughter wouldn't speak, Chen Suqiu was terrified that Xie Qizhi and Xi Yan might take a liking to each other. She kept awkwardly butting into the conversation, making Bai Huizhang's expression turn ugly.
Even Bai Le, an outsider, felt uncomfortable all over. It seemed Chen Suqiu was determined to marry into a family above their station; otherwise, given their family's circumstances, there was no need to make such an embarrassing spectacle.
So he quickly slipped away on the pretext of going to the bathroom. Now he didn't mind being ignored at all.
The bathroom was on the second floor. After going upstairs, Bai Le found the winding corridors dizzying. Luckily, he caught a servant who was cleaning, and the servant pointed him in the right direction.
After coming out of the bathroom, Bai Le shook the water from his hands and yawned with narrowed eyes. He checked the time. It was only a little past nine in the evening.
He didn't know what had gotten into him lately, but he had been going to bed especially early. Everyone at home found it unbelievable.
When Bai Le reached the place where the servant had been, he saw that the door to a room wasn't fully closed.
He was about to look away when he caught an accidental glimpse of something inside, and his feet stopped in their tracks.
A large glass aquarium took up an entire wall. Inside were aquatic plants, ornamental rocks, fine sand, and everything else one could want.
But what really caught Bai Le's eye was that the aquarium held no other valuable, rare fish, only a handful of goldfish. They looked somewhat out of place in the excessively large aquarium.
Something stirred in Bai Le's heart. He counted exactly three, the same number he had given Xi Yan the last time he was in Japan.
As he stood there in a daze, a low, chilling voice suddenly came from behind him.
"What are you doing?"
Startled, Bai Le hurriedly turned around. Because of the angle, an areca palm in the corridor blocked the light streaming in. Most of the newcomer's body was hidden in shadow, and Bai Le couldn't make out his expression.
But Bai Le could tell who he was from his voice.
With the sound of a wheelchair turning, the man slowly emerged from the shadows. A hint of a smile appeared on his pale face, and his voice was softer than ever before.