Chapter Eight

The Zhan family's villa was huge, and they had invited plenty of guests, especially young people.

As soon as they arrived, Dong Zhenghao and his wife began chatting with people they knew, leaving Liu Mumu and Dong Yue standing beside a dining table. It was piled with all kinds of little pastries that looked tempting.

"Can I eat these?" Liu Mumu whispered to Dong Yue.

Dong Yue gave a slight shake of her head. "Better not right now. Once Uncle cuts the birthday cake later, no one will be paying attention."

"Rich people..." Liu Mumu muttered, reluctantly pulling her gaze away from the little cakes.

"There seem to be a lot of people our age here today. Don't you know anyone? Shouldn't you go say hello?" Liu Mumu asked, looking around at everything with curiosity.

Dong Yue shook her head. "Xiao Qi knows them better."

The most famous private school in Qingcheng was called Deyu. It taught students from elementary through high school, and most of the people here had attended the same school. They certainly knew one another, though how close they were was another matter.

Dong Qi had plenty of pocket money and could fit in with these people. Dong Yue was different from him and hadn't made many friends.

Just as Dong Yue had said, no one came to talk to her before the banquet began.

The young people seemed to have their own little cliques and paid no attention to outsiders.

It wasn't that no one had noticed Liu Mumu. The young people in one of those cliques were talking about her right then.

Dong Zhenghao wasn't an obscure figure. It was only natural that people would notice him bringing an unfamiliar girl to the banquet.

Some people in the know had heard that the Dong family had gained a new daughter.

Watching Liu Mumu, someone sneered, "I don't know what's gotten into everyone lately. Suddenly, the 'lost pearl returned to the sea' act is all the rage."

Someone who knew the speaker glanced at him. His family had recently found an illegitimate son, so no wonder he was in a bad mood.

Someone else objected, "That young lady looks older than Dong Yue. Maybe she was born before Mr. Dong got married."

"Born before or after the wedding, she's still illegitimate. What makes one more respectable than the other?"

The group bickered for a few moments, then quickly changed the subject.

But one person was utterly stunned when he saw Liu Mumu.

Zheng Xuan had just had minor surgery, so he was holding orange juice rather than red wine at the banquet.

He was sitting with a few friends. Their parents had dragged them along at the last minute, and they were already bored. As they listened to the people nearby gossiping, he followed the conversation and spotted the girl they suspected was Dong Zhenghao's illegitimate daughter.

The fortune-telling master's granddaughter!!!

What a bizarre turn of events!

Ever since leaving the hospital, Zheng Xuan had been unable to shake the feeling that he might be living in a fantasy world. He'd stayed up all night searching for a cultivation manual, then gave up on his dream of becoming an immortal after failing to "draw qi into his body" for three days straight.

He'd thought that with the master gone, he was destined to remain an ordinary person for the rest of his life. Who could've guessed he'd run into the master's granddaughter here?

It was... a pleasant surprise.

Zheng Xuan hurried over to Liu Mumu, but when he reached her, he suddenly felt a little nervous. Would she remember him?

Luckily, Liu Mumu had a good memory and recognized Zheng Xuan at a glance.

The main reason was that during those few days at the hospital, Zheng Xuan had made it so obvious he wanted to report her and her grandfather to the police that Liu Mumu couldn't help remembering him.

"Hi, I'm Zheng Xuan. Do you remember me?" Zheng Xuan greeted her tentatively.

"I do. You're the guy who had surgery for hemorrhoids in the room next to Grandpa's."

"...Ahem." Zheng Xuan choked on his own saliva and blushed with embarrassment. "Good, good. I'm glad you remember me."

"Hello, I'm Liu Mumu, and this is my younger sister, Dong Yue," Liu Mumu introduced them.

"I know, I know. What a coincidence running into you here today. Could I add you as a friend?" Zheng Xuan usually wasn't this shy around girls, but Liu Mumu had the master's aura around her, so naturally he wasn't acting like himself.

Liu Mumu had no reason to refuse. They added each other as friends and exchanged phone numbers. She saved him in her contacts as: Potential Client One—Piles Xiao Zheng.

Zheng Xuan's sudden approach caught the attention of Dong Zhenghao and his wife. Seeing that they seemed to be coming over, Zheng Xuan waved his phone at Liu Mumu. "Let's talk another time."

Then he quickly left.

Dong Zhenghao came over and glanced in the direction Zheng Xuan had gone. "That's a boy from the Zheng family. He's a bit of a slacker, but he's a decent person."

He was rather pleased that a young man had approached his eldest daughter the first time she'd appeared in public.

The girl was undeniably pretty, and the young people these days had pretty good taste.

When Liu Mumu didn't react, Dong Zhenghao assumed she was embarrassed and added, "You're not that young anymore. You can start dating if you like. Don't worry, your family won't object."

The Zheng family didn't do much business with him, but they'd been established in Qingcheng longer and had plenty of connections. It wouldn't hurt to get to know them.

If Liu Mumu and Zheng Xuan developed a relationship, it would benefit the Dong family in the future, too.

He was starting to think that having another daughter wasn't such a bad thing.

But after Dong Zhenghao finished speaking, Liu Mumu looked at him with disappointment.

Dong Zhenghao's brow twitched. "What's wrong?"

"Dad, don't I have a fiancé I was betrothed to as a baby?"

Dong Zhenghao was utterly confused. "What fiancé?"

"Every rich family's daughter who gets reunited with her family has a fiancé. We're so rich, and you didn't even assign me one?" That was how all the books she'd read went.

She could accept not being assigned a fiancé, but having to find a boyfriend herself was just too heartbreaking. She'd even been a little excited about it.

"...Should you have one?" Dong Zhenghao looked baffled.

"I think I should."

Blind Liu had said she'd definitely find a boyfriend before she turned twenty-five, but Liu Mumu thought that with her fate, she'd need a little help from the people around her.

For example, she wouldn't mind her dad assigning her one. If he assigned her two, then she'd know he was definitely her real dad.

Dong Zhenghao pondered for a moment, then told her with complete certainty, "You definitely don't."

He regretted never having thought of it before. What a terrible oversight!

Before long, the hosts entered with their children.

Zhan Hongye was refined and elegant, and he and his wife, Jiang Jia, made a well-matched pair. Behind them was a pair of siblings. The older one was Zhan Hongye's eldest son, Zhan Huitian. He looked a lot like his father. Although he'd only just graduated from college, he was already helping out at the family company.

The girl was Zhan Ni, who had just been brought home. Her skin was a little dark, and yet she was wearing a pink dress that evening. It looked glaring and out of place.

It was Zhan Ni's first time facing so many people, and she was bound to be nervous. Under everyone's gaze, she looked timid and uncertain, making people think even less of her.

Jiang Li took one glance and knew this had to be her younger sister's handiwork. Unfortunately, her own daughter was much harder to deal with than the girl from the Zhan family. She seethed inwardly.

Zhan Hongye first thanked the guests for coming. Then Jiang Jia brought out a small but exquisite cake and said their daughter had made it for him herself.

With the music adding to the moment, the atmosphere was warm and touching. Only Zhan Ni looked stiff.

Anyone could tell that she couldn't possibly have made the cake herself, but that wasn't important. What was obvious was that Zhan Ni was uncomfortable.

"Old Zhan's daughter isn't much," Dong Zhenghao remarked.

Plenty of people thought the same. They wouldn't consider the girl's past circumstances or the deeper reasons behind her behavior. Their first impression alone was enough to make them judge her that way.

It wasn't yet clear what would happen, but in the future, she would be shunned by this social circle because of the poor first impression she'd made.

In fact, she didn't have to wait for the future. After the usual program of making wishes and such had ended, Zhan Hongye and his wife shared the opening dance, and the atmosphere gradually grew livelier. Zhan Ni was inevitably pushed into a corner.

No one went up to greet her, even though she was one of the stars of the evening. Her blood-related brother had already been pulled away by his friends, her father was talking with business partners, and her stepmother had only glanced at her from a distance.

She was like a primitive person stranded on an island, exposed to the cold wind and shivering.

Just then, she spotted Liu Mumu in the crowd, her high school classmate.

Back in high school, she and Liu Mumu hadn't gotten along. She came from a single-parent family, while Liu Mumu didn't even have parents. But the teachers and students at school liked Liu Mumu more. Even though Zhan Ni's grades were better, the teachers treated Liu Mumu more warmly.

Even so, she walked over to Liu Mumu.

Zhan Ni took a breath, put on a smile, and greeted her. "Liu Mumu, long time no see."

Running into someone familiar in an unfamiliar city made her feel closer to them than to anyone else, even if they'd had a few minor conflicts before.

Zhan Ni thought that was true for her, and for Liu Mumu, too.

They were both outcasts.

The two of them went out into the little garden. No one was there, and the lights were dim, making it a good place to talk.

"How did you end up in Qingcheng?" Zhan Ni asked.

Liu Mumu answered frankly, "I found my biological dad, so I moved in with him while I waited for school to start. What about you? What happened to Aunt Zhang?"

Aunt Zhang was Zhan Ni's mother. She used to work in the school cafeteria, and Liu Mumu had always liked getting her meals there because Aunt Zhang never shook when serving food and always gave her a little extra.

Zhan Ni fell silent. After a long while, she said, "My mom's gone."

Liu Mumu was stunned. "How?"

She'd seen Zhan Ni's father at school the previous year. Not long afterward, Aunt Zhang had quit her job in the school cafeteria, and Liu Mumu hadn't seen her since. But Aunt Zhang had a good physiognomy. She might not have been wealthy, but she had the look of someone who would live a long, peaceful life. There was no reason she should have suddenly died.

Thinking of her mother's death, Zhan Ni suddenly grabbed Liu Mumu by the wrist and stared at her, lowering her voice. "I know your grandfather was incredibly accurate at fortune-telling and knew a lot of things. My mom's death was really strange. Could you ask your grandfather about it for me?"

"But my grandfather has passed away."

Zhan Ni was struck as if by lightning. She was utterly dazed. Liu Mumu's grandfather, the incredibly accurate fortune-teller, was dead?

"Why don't you tell me about it?"