Hearing his wife say that made Ye Chen very happy.
It seemed the place he had chosen would surely satisfy her on their wedding anniversary!
The two arrived at the Hanging Garden and sat down at their reserved table. Dong Ruolin arrived shortly afterward.
"Churan!"
"Ruolin!"
The two best friends threw their arms around each other, their joy plain to see.
Afterward, they held hands and chatted about the old days for a long time before gradually calming down.
Dong Ruolin said, "Churan, you really went overboard, choosing the Hanging Garden for our meal!"
Xiao Churan smiled and said, "You came all this way! Of course I had to splash out!"
Dong Ruolin giggled. "That's my best friend!"
Xiao Churan said, "To be honest, I'm not even qualified to make a reservation here. I asked Wang Dongxue, the vice chairwoman of Dihao Group, to book this table for me using her membership card!"
Dong Ruolin exclaimed, "The Hanging Garden really does seem to have strict requirements. You have to be a diamond member or something, right?"
"Mm." Xiao Churan nodded. "To be honest, this is my first time up here!"
Dong Ruolin smiled and said, "Thank you so much, my dear Churan!"
Then she added, "By the way, when I came up just now, I saw a notice outside saying someone had booked out the Hanging Garden three days from now?"
"That's right," Xiao Churan said. "It's so strange. The Hanging Garden never accepted bookings for the whole place before. I don't know what's different this time."
Dong Ruolin nodded and remarked casually, "A little while ago, there was a god-tier tycoon from Jinling on a short-video platform. He brought more than a dozen Rolls-Royces, dozens of men in black, and over ten million in cash to buy a necklace. Did you see that video?"
Ye Chen shook his head, while Xiao Churan said, "I saw it. It was quite a show."
Dong Ruolin said, "Everyone's guessing who he really is."
Xiao Churan said, "What's there to guess about..."
Dong Ruolin smiled. "It's gossip! Everyone wants to know who's so domineering. Some people say it must be the new chairman of Dihao Group."
Beside them, Ye Chen's expression froze for an instant.
But he quickly returned to normal.
Dong Ruolin went on, "Now someone's booked out the Hanging Garden at the Buckingham Palace Grand Hotel. I have a feeling the person who booked it is the same one who bought the jade in the video."
Xiao Churan sighed helplessly. "It's been so long since we last met, and you're still such a gossip!"
Dong Ruolin smiled and said, "Gossip is what keeps women going!"
Then Dong Ruolin added, "I'm coming here in three days to see just who has enough clout to book out the Hanging Garden!"
Hearing this, Ye Chen, who was sitting beside them, felt an enormous headache coming on.
He had only wanted to give his wife a surprise and make up for the wedding he hadn't given her back then.
But he didn't want everyone's attention on him all at once.
He seemed to have underestimated the impact of the Hanging Garden, however.
There were probably many people in Jinling who thought the same way as Dong Ruolin, all eager to see who had booked out the Hanging Garden.
That made things a little tricky.
He needed to give Chen Zekai a heads-up and make thorough preparations in advance. No matter what, he couldn't let his identity be exposed.
During the meal, Dong Ruolin said to the two of them, "Now that I'm in Jinling, I've also made plans with our old classmates. Everyone said we should take this opportunity to have a class reunion. What do you two think?"
Ye Chen immediately said, "If you're having a class reunion, I won't be going."
"Why not?" Dong Ruolin said. "We may not have been university classmates for all four years, but we did spend a year studying together!"
When Old Master Xiao took Ye Chen in, he had sent him to Jinling University so he and Xiao Churan could get to know each other beforehand. Ye Chen spent their senior year in the same class as her.
The two had married immediately after graduating.
But Ye Chen had only spent one year with those classmates, and most of them had always looked down on him. They weren't close, so he had no interest at all in a class reunion.
Xiao Churan didn't particularly want to attend either, so she said, "Ye Chen and I won't go. I haven't kept in touch with most of our classmates since graduation."
Dong Ruolin hurriedly said, "The main reason for the reunion is that Wang Daokun from our class has opened a restaurant, and it's opening tomorrow. He's been getting everyone together to support his restaurant and have a meal while we're at it."
Then Dong Ruolin added, "It's his grand opening. Wouldn't it be awkward not to go?"
As soon as she finished speaking, all three of their phones chimed with a WeChat message.
Immediately afterward, a flurry of WeChat messages popped up.
They each took out their phones and saw that Wang Daokun had created a group chat for their classmates. It quickly grew to more than thirty people.
Wang Daokun said in the group, "Dear old classmates, the little restaurant I invested in will officially open at noon tomorrow. It's here in Jinling. I invite those of you in Jinling to honor us with your presence and catch up. Let's make it a class reunion!"
"As it happens, our classmate Dong Ruolin, one of the two golden flowers of our class, has also come to Jinling for work. She'll be joining us too. I hear Ruolin is still single, so the bachelors in the group had better make their move while they can!"
A whole crowd of people promptly replied.
"Wow! Congratulations!"
"Oh, Ruolin's come to Jinling? How come I didn't hear about it? I'll definitely be there!"
"What about Xiao Churan, the other golden flower of our class? Is she coming?"
"I heard Churan got together with Ye Chen, the transfer student who joined our class later. I also heard Ye Chen married into the Xiao Family?"
"I heard that too. I don't know if it's true or not. I haven't seen either of them since graduation..."
"I heard they're just going through the motions as a married couple, married in name only. I don't know if it's true?"
Seeing these messages, Xiao Churan said to Ye Chen, "Don't take it to heart."
Ye Chen smiled faintly. "It's fine. What they said is true anyway. I got used to it a long time ago."
Dong Ruolin hurriedly said in the group, "Don't gossip about them without knowing the facts! I'm having dinner with the two of them right now! They're very much in love!"
"Oh, it's Ruolin!"
A whole crowd of bootlickers quickly swarmed around her.
At that moment, someone tagged Ye Chen in the group. It was Wang Daokun, the group owner: "Ye Chen, even though you weren't in our class for long, we two brothers got along pretty well at school. You and your wife have to come tomorrow!"
Ye Chen had a good impression of Wang Daokun. He really was a decent person, friendly to everyone and never one to casually mock or ridicule others. He was one of the few classmates Ye Chen got along with fairly well.
Seeing him put it that way, Ye Chen replied at once, "All right, we'll definitely come and show our support tomorrow."
Wang Daokun immediately said, "That's wonderful! We have to have a proper get-together tomorrow!"