Gathering of Beauties Banquet, Section A.
"Well done, Xie Guan!"
Li Yutong's star-cold eyes nearly spat fire.
"Xie Renfeng! Explain this to me! How could Madam Gongsun's finale poem have been written by Xie Guan?"
The gilded hairpin at her temples trembled wildly, while wave after wave of cheers drifted over from the distant stage.
At today's Gathering of Beauties Banquet, Xie Guan had utterly stolen the limelight.
Xie Renfeng's face, mottled blue and white, was hidden in shadow, the muscles beneath his brocade robe drawn taut.
He had spent a fortune on the assassins of Dark Moon Hall, yet he could not even buy Xie Guan's corpse.
As his Adam's apple bobbed, he suddenly slammed a heavy palm onto the table.
Xie Renfeng abruptly broke into a smile, though his knuckles dug cracks straight into the railing.
"Yutong, stay calm."
"How long can grasshoppers after autumn keep hopping?"
Li Yutong was even more doubtful.
Now that Xie Guan's fame had soared, Xie Manor would surely value him greatly.
Why, then, was Xie Renfeng so certain that his good days would not last?
Xie Renfeng's voice was gloomy. "It would have been fine if Xie Guan had kept his head down, but he insisted on being so flamboyant."
"Xie Manor settled the matter of his marrying into the family long ago."
Hearing that, puzzlement surfaced between Li Yutong's brows. "Now that Xie Guan's reputation has risen like a magpie, wouldn't that be exactly what Xie Manor needed for a marriage alliance?"
"If an elder within Xie Manor intervened, this matter of taking in a live-in son-in-law might well be dropped."
Xie Renfeng sneered and said no more, but the chill in his smile made one's hair stand on end.
"Does little sister truly think..."
"That the ancestral incense burning in