Chapter 54: Are You Supposed To Be Here?
Zhiyi stopped in front of the dark chocolate pastries.
The server had arranged them in three rows, with the pastries containing pale cream placed behind the ones that appeared to be entirely chocolate. There were no labels, and the lighting above the table reflected against the glaze, making it impossible to determine whether the darker filling was mousse, ganache or another layer of cake.
She was considering whether the distinction justified asking when someone behind her said her name.
"Zhiyi?" The voice that called out to her was unfortunately very familiar to her.
She turned and found Qiao Meilin standing several meters away with three young women. All four of them had been approaching the dessert table, but Meilin had stopped so abruptly that the woman behind her had been forced to catch the hem of her dress before stepping on it.
Meilin’s attention moved over Zhiyi slowly. She examined the dark-blue gown, the necklace resting against her throat and the bracelet around her wrist before looking past her, as though someone else might explain why she was there.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
The answer appeared self-evident. Zhiyi had crossed the ballroom, stopped in front of the desserts and spent at least twenty seconds examining the pastries.
"I’m choosing a dessert."
One of the women laughed, but Meilin’s expression tightened as she crossed the remaining distance. "I can see that. I meant what are you doing here?"
Emphasizing the final word expanded the question rather than clarifying it. Here could refer to the dessert table, the ballroom or the Liang residence. Since Meilin already knew what Zhiyi was doing at the first location, she was probably asking about one of the other two.
"I’m attending dinner," Zhiyi answered.
The women exchanged glances before the one in a pale-green dress leaned closer to Meilin. Her eyes remained on Zhiyi as she asked, "With whom?"
That question was clearer, but answering it created another problem.
If Zhiyi named Hanchuan, Meilin would tell her parents. If she mentioned the other four men, her family might conclude that they now possessed a connection to five of the most powerful families in the country. That conclusion would be inaccurate, but correcting it later would require conversations Zhiyi had no intention of having.
"The person who brought me is occupied," she said.
The answer contained all the information they required. Apparently, it wasn’t the information they wanted.
The woman in pale green studied the fitted waist of Zhiyi’s dress. "That looks custom-made. Your companion must be very generous."
"Yes."
There was no reason to dispute an accurate statement. Zhiyi hadn’t paid for the dress, the jewelry or anything else she was currently wearing. She didn’t know the total cost, but Zeyu had instructed the boutique to charge everything to him without asking for the prices first.
Meilin’s gaze dropped to the bracelet. "Did the man you’re staying with buy that too?"
"Yes."
"And the necklace?"
"Another one bought the necklace."
A brief silence followed. The women looked at one another again, and Zhiyi realized they had reached a conclusion without sharing the steps that produced it.
"So it’s true," Meilin said. "You left home to live with not only one older man, but two."
Hanchuan was nine years older than her, as was Zeyu. Although the description could also apply to Jingwei, Shichen and Qinghe, identifying all five possible answers would create the precise misunderstanding she wanted to avoid.
"Yes."
The woman beside Meilin covered her mouth, while another looked around to determine whether anyone nearby had heard. Their reactions were disproportionate to a nine-year age difference, but Zhiyi couldn’t identify which part of the information had surprised them.
"How fortunate," the woman in green murmured. "University must be much easier when an established man is willing to pay for everything."
"My coursework wasn’t difficult before."
The woman’s smile faltered.
Meilin’s cheeks darkened, although no one had contradicted her. "That isn’t what she meant."
Zhiyi waited for the correct explanation. None came.
Since the conversation had interrupted a task Hanchuan expected her to complete from eighteen meters away, she returned her attention to the desserts. The server had moved closer and was waiting with a small white plate.
"What is the pale layer?" Zhiyi asked.
"Vanilla cream, miss."
"I’ll have that one."
As the server lifted the pastry onto the plate, someone behind Zhiyi released a disbelieving breath.
"She really doesn’t care," one of the women whispered.
Zhiyi did care. That was why she had asked about the filling instead of selecting one based entirely upon its appearance.
Meilin stepped closer to the table. "Do you have any idea what people will think when they see you dressed like this?"
Zhiyi looked down. The gown remained properly fastened, the skirt hadn’t caught beneath her shoes, and there were no visible marks on the fabric. Nothing about her appearance had changed since six people approved it at Hanchuan’s office.
"No."
The answer seemed to offend Meilin more than the dress had.
Her friend offered Zhiyi a sympathetic smile that contained no sympathy. "Of course you don’t. If you understood appearances, you wouldn’t be standing here displaying everything your benefactor bought you."
Zhiyi wasn’t displaying anything. Removing the dress would be inappropriate, and the jeweler had been selected because the neckline looked incomplete without it. Still, the woman’s tone suggested that asking for clarification would only produce another sentence whose words and meaning didn’t match.
She indicated a second chocolate pastry. "That one as well."
"Were you even invited tonight?" Meilin asked.
"No."
No invitation had been addressed to her. Hanchuan had told her she was attending, Zeyu had selected her clothing, and Shichen’s family had placed her name beside theirs. None of those actions could reasonably be considered an invitation.
Meilin glanced at her friends. "Then how did you get through the gate?"
"I arrived with the person who brought me."
"Did security confirm your name?"
"No one asked for it."
Another silence passed between the women. This time their expressions changed together, suggesting that the missing steps in their reasoning had finally produced a result they all accepted.
Meilin folded her arms. "So you came without an invitation, no one confirmed who you were, and now you’re helping yourself to the Liang family’s food."
The server had given her the food, and her place card remained visible whenever the guests between her and the table shifted. Zhiyi could correct both inaccuracies, but Hanchuan had been gone longer than ten minutes, and correcting Meilin would delay her return even further.
Zhiyi pointed to one of the fruit tarts. "That one too."
The server hesitated before placing it beside the two chocolate pastries.
Meilin stared at the plate. "Are you even supposed to be here?"
Zhiyi looked across the ballroom.
Her chair remained empty. Hanchuan had instructed her not to leave the table, and she was currently standing eighteen meters away from it. She had determined that remaining inside the ballroom was a reasonable interpretation of his words, but she still didn’t know whether it was the correct one.
"No," she admitted.
Meilin went still.
Satisfaction appeared on the faces of all three women beside her, although Zhiyi had never claimed that Hanchuan had given her permission to leave her chair.
"At least she finally admitted it," the woman in green murmured.
Zhiyi gathered her skirt with her free hand. She needed to return before Hanchuan discovered that she had interpreted his instruction incorrectly and came looking for her.
Meilin stepped into her path. "You need to leave before someone notices you."
"I can’t."
"You just admitted that you aren’t supposed to be here."
"I’m supposed to be at the table."
Meilin glanced toward the tables behind them, but too many guests stood between them and Zhiyi’s place card. "Which table?"
Explaining would require identifying Hanchuan or one of the other men, and that remained information Zhiyi had no intention of giving her sister.
"I need to return now."
She shifted to move around Meilin, but the three women closed the space beside her. The woman in green looked toward the ballroom entrance, where the Liang family’s security guards were monitoring the guests.
Her smile widened as she raised one hand.
"Security!"