Soft jazz music still drifted through the banquet hall.
At one side of the main stage, the "Gift Blind Box" segment had long been prepared.
Blind boxes were piled in a specially arranged area, waiting to be opened.
Xu Qing stood there, staring with her big dark eyes toward the bar area.
What was going on?
She had only gone to help Xiao Jing rig things behind the scenes, secretly placing Tang Song's gift in the "guaranteed selection area."
How had the atmosphere changed as though someone had swapped out the script by the time she returned?
Some guests who had not noticed the commotion earlier also sensed the strange silence. One after another, they stopped what they were doing and hurried over.
The noise gradually died away.
The frozen atmosphere, like an invisible sheet of ice, spread little by little from the corner by the bar throughout the entire venue.
Conrad Mellon, always elegant and arrogant with the aura of a Wall Street elite, had gone pale. Sweat at his temples mixed with hair wax and slid down his rigid cheeks.
The hand holding his wineglass was trembling slightly beyond his control.
Beside him, Meng Chuan had completely lost his composure. He stared wide-eyed in Tang Song and the others' direction, as if he had seen something utterly unbelievable.
Further out, Qin Hua, Tian Chengye, Ni Qingli, Lin Jingming, and the others—
Whether they wore masks or had taken them off, they all stood frozen in place as if under a paralysis spell.
Gazes seemed drawn by some force, flickering back and forth between the blonde beauty and the ever-calm Tang Song with awe, curiosity, and fear.
Annie slowly came to a stop before Tang Song.
Because she had deliberately worn high heels, they should have been at eye