A deep frown was on Jiaying and Rong's faces as they watched both brothers leave. They had both put in extra effort to look good for them but the party wasn't started and they were already leaving?
Maybe Rong liked to keep her cool, but Jiaying didn't. She followed them, disregarding her mother's silent calls.
"I thought the chairman of Yang Corporation had a grandson, why don't I see him anywhere?" A young lady at the next table asked her group of friends.
"Yang Lei. That's his name. I heard he is overseeing a big auction going on in one of their hotels."
"Really? But why would he be doing that instead of coming here? Or rather, why would Chairman Yang allow such when this occasion is more important?"
"Well, according to what I heard, the auction is being held for charity and this doesn't just include Country B alone. It's owned by an international nongovernmental organisation and most of the foreign guests are only free to attend this week."
"Oh.. I see.. his grandson must be so capable for him to have sent him there."
"I guess..."
Rong listened to the conversation and scoffed inwardly. So capable indeed! She had heard the rumour about Yang Lei.. she couldn't blame these ladies who only heard what they wanted to hear.
~~~~~
"Brother Jinhai!" Jiaying called as she tried to catch up with him.
Jinhai had been about to stop a taxi when his brother offered to drop him off so he was waiting for him to come with the car.
He turned around and frowned when he noticed Jiaying approaching him.
"Brother Jinhai?" He asked her..
She blushed and tucked some loose strands of her hair behind her ear.
"I see you are leaving.. these parties are really boring. I was also about to leave when I saw you." She said in a suggestive tone.
She really hoped he would get the hint and ask her to hang out with him..
"Alright.. take care." He said dismissively and sighed in relief when he saw his brother's car approaching.
Jiaying frowned. What was wrong with him? Was he dense or pretending to be? Any other man would have easily gotten the hint so why was he stressing her out?
"Uhm.. can you.. drop me off?" She asked and forced out a smile.
"No.. it's not even my car." He said with forced smile before opening the passenger seat door of Yun's car.
Yun looked at him and then at Jiaying wondering why she was standing there.
Jinhai made eye contact with him and hinted for him to drive away so he did just that, leaving the fuming Jiaying standing there.
"What was that? Is she into you?" Yun asked giving him a sideway glance.
"She is weird." Jinhai said as he shook his head. He had never really liked it when girls threw themselves at him. In fact, he wasn't sure any man liked it.
Even if they didn't like to admit it, most men liked it when ladies played hard to get, it always made the chase fun for them just like with him and Shan. Although Shan wasn't really playing hard to get, she was actually trying.
"All the Mei sisters are weird." Yun chipped in with a nod.
Rong was one lady he had come to dislike. Looking at Jiaying, he could tell she was more like Rong. And Lijuan, she most times acted like she had a multiple personality disorder. Sometimes she was scary, sometimes she was cute. Also weird!
"Are you going to the hotel?" Jinhai asked while looking at him suspiciously. He wasn't in the mood to tease since he was truly worried about Shan.
"What hotel?" Yun asked feigning ignorance.
"Hotel De Classique, of course. Aren't you going to meet Mei Lijuan? You don't want her to go there by herself do you?"
Yun kept his gaze on the road and said nothing.
"What if something happens there? What if she gets into trouble or pick something that may get her into trouble?" Jinhai pressed.
Yun still remained quiet and continued to drive.
"What if–"
"Fine I'm going okay! Now just shut up before I throw you out of this car" Yun hissed at him.
Jinhai smiled and finally relaxed.
************
"What is this? Are we holding a funeral?" Yang Lei asked with a deep frown as he looked at the decoration.
"Mr Yang I..."
"You what?" He cut off one of the hotel's staff and stood in front of him.
"Go on.. you what?"
"I...."
"This is awful. It looks terrible. Get everything redone within the next 10 minutes!" Yang Lei ordered, startling and scaring all of them.
As they hurried to get it done, they complained amongst themselves.
"I can't believe he is doing this right now. This function is going to begin in the next 30 minutes and he wants us to do this now?"
Another staff chipped in, "He has been useless from the moment he arrived here until now. And he decided to be useful at the eleventh hour. He isn't giving us breathing space.."
They grumbled as they hurriedly worked.
"Mr Yang... what are you doing? The event is going to start soon and may make this hotel look bad.
"I saw miss stephanie earlier.. she wore dark clothes... now.. imagine her standing on that kind of stage... what a nice camouflage" He said with a faux smile.
"But..."
"The projection can still be done. Just make sure they use the right colors." He said before patting the hotel manager's shoulder.
Yang Lei also wanted everything to turn out perfectly well. He could not continue to live like that. As far as he was concerned, this was the worse kind of punishment his grandfather could ever give to him.
By the time they were done, he checked the place one more time and smiled when he realized everything was in order.
"Hey! Who are you?" He called the person who just walked past him wearing casual outfits and also a baseball cap which covered the person's face.
Lijuan snubbed him and kept walking faster. She needed to change her outfit really fast so she could blend in with her surrounding.
"Hey! I'm talking to you." Yang Lei called after her as he hurriedly pursued her.
"Who is this mad man and why is he chasing me?" Lijuan asked herself in panic as she hurriedly blended in with a group of young men carrying some equipments backstage.
"Why couldn't he just have said he was part of the musical band?" Yang Lei asked himself with a scoff when he noticed Lijuan was with the musical crew. He returned to his position where he had stood observing the preparations.
"Grandfather is going to be proud of me this time." He said to himself with a proud smile and jumped in shock when he heard a scream coming from the backstage followed by a crashing sound. The lights on the stage suddenly went off and he could hear some noises coming from there.
"What's going on there?" He asked with a frown before catching a glimpse of someone fleeing from the backstage. He recognized the person's back as the same suspicious looking person earlier and turned to chase after the retreating figure but decided to stay back to fix the problem first. Security could deal with security threats, all he wanted to do was make sure the auction was successful not catch a criminal.
After a couple of minutes the light was restored and he heaved a deep sigh of relief. The event was about to kick off and just as he moved over to take a seat he heard loud sounds coming from the ladies' room close to the hall. "What now?" He asked himself in exasperation before going to check what was wrong.
He rushed over to the restroom and walked in without considering the fact that it was the female wing. "What's going on here?" He asked with a frown when he saw the ladies pounding on the door of a toilet stall.
"A young man ran in here. He is a pervert." One of the ladies said as they kept knocking on the door loudly.
"I said I am not a pervert. Can't you hear my voice? Do I sound like a man?" Lijuan asked with a frown as she untied her hair inside. If only she hadn't already taken off the clothes she was wearing, she would have opened the door wide enough for them to see her but she didn't even have the luxury of time to entertain them besides, her things were everywhere and disorganized inside so opening the door was going to be a bit of a problem for her.
"These days a lot of perverts can twist their vocal cords to make them sound like women!" Another lady shot back at her and kept knocking for 'him' to come out.
So this was where the young man from earlier ran into? Yang Lei asked himself with a smirk before going to the door.
"Open this door before I pull it down" He commanded.
"What are you doing in a womens' room?" She asked him with a deep frown on her face as she quickly tried to fit into her dress before he did something silly.
"What?" Yang Lei asked with a scoff. He also believed what the women said about men twisting their vocals to make them sound like women. He had a friend who did silly things like that and he suspected the person inside the toilet stall was also trying to do same, else, why didn't 'she' just open the door then?
Just as Yang Lei reached out to push in the door with his body Lijuan opened it making him fall through. She quickly shifted to the side so as not to be hit by him.
Yang Lei reached out to grab the wall to break his fall before shooting a glare her way but his glare turned into a frown when he realized it was a lady and not a young man. And a really pretty lady at that!
He quickly stood erect and turned to look at the other ladies, "Didn't you say a young man was in here?" He asked them with a frown.
"We... thought so." The ladies said with a shrug before scurrying away with confused frowns on their faces.
"Uhm, I'm sorry." He apologized with a frown.
Lijuan raised her chin with pride and scoffed at him before walking away with her backpack and purse in hand. By the time the event was over and she ended up becoming the highest bidder she would show him just how important she was.
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