Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I shouldn’t have been at Lu Chenzhou’s engagement party.

At the very least, I shouldn’t have been wearing a black uniform, holding a tray of champagne, and standing right in front of him and Song Mingzhu.

Crystal chandeliers hung overhead.

The room was filled with the scent of expensive perfume and the rustle of silk.

Just as I lowered the tray, my aunt squeezed through the crowd and grabbed my wrist.

“Wen Qiao?”

Her voice was shrill.

So shrill that several ladies nearby turned to look.

I tried to pull my hand away.

But she gripped me even tighter.

“What are you doing here? Working as a waitress?”

The excitement in her eyes was almost impossible to hide as she finished her sentence.

It was as if she had finally found the spectacle she’d been waiting for.

I said calmly, “I’m a temp.”

“A temp is fine too,” my aunt smiled. “It just so happens that you and Young Master Lu knew each other once. It wouldn’t be right if you didn’t offer a toast on his engagement day, would it?”

Someone nearby whispered, “Who is she?”

My aunt immediately chimed in.

“Who else could it be? Just a girl who didn’t know her place when she was young and almost managed to climb her way into the Lu family.”

Someone let out a laugh.

It was soft.

But it felt like the back of a blade scraping across my face.

I looked up.

Lu Chenzhou stood three paces away.

Black suit.

Silver cufflinks.

He was colder than he had been four years ago, looking more like the heir the Lu family wanted him to be.

Song Mingzhu was leaning on his arm-beautiful, elegant, with a smile that looked like it had been practiced in advance.

Only Lu Chenzhou wasn’t smiling.

He was looking at me.

His eyes gradually darkened.

My aunt shoved a glass of champagne into my hand.

“Qiaoqiao, hurry up. Wish them a long and happy marriage.”

She called me Qiaoqiao.

Yet, she had never been this affectionate when she sold the house my mother left behind.

I raised the glass.

The surrounding crowd fell into a cooperative silence.

Everyone was waiting for me to be humiliated.

And I had indeed been humiliated before.

Four years ago, I waited outside the Lu family gates all night.

The rain fell until dawn.

Lu Chenzhou never came out.

His mother only sent someone to hand me a check and a single sentence.

“Miss Wen, we can provide the schedule for your brother’s surgery, but we can also take it away.”

After that day, I never saw Lu Chenzhou again.

I thought that when we met again, I would cry.

I would run.

I would be a wretched mess, unlike myself.

But now that the moment was here, I only felt tired.

So tired that I couldn’t even be bothered to waste tears.

I raised my glass and looked at Lu Chenzhou.

“To Mr. Lu and Miss Song.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly.

I smiled.

“May you grow old together.”

The ring box slipped from his hand at that exact moment.

With a soft thud.

It wasn’t loud.

But it shattered the dignity of the entire engagement party.

Song Mingzhu’s smile froze on her face.

Lu Chenzhou stared at me, his voice low and raspy.

“Who told you to come here?”

Before I could answer, my aunt laughed.

“What a thing to say, Young Master Lu. She’s just a server now; the hotel must have sent her.”

After she finished, she looked at me again.

“Wen Qiao, don’t just stand there. You haven’t finished the toast yet.”

I held the glass out to Lu Chenzhou.

“Mr. Lu, won’t you drink?”

He didn’t take it.

Song Mingzhu reached out, intending to take it for him.

But Lu Chenzhou suddenly grabbed my wrist.

Champagne sloshed over the rim, spilling onto the back of my hand.

It was freezing cold.

He asked, “Wen Qiao, do you have any idea where you are?”

I looked at his hand.

Long, clean fingers, with knuckles white from the force of his grip.

In the past, this hand had blocked wine bottles for me, wiped away my tears, and held mine all night when I had a fever.

Now, it gripped me as if gripping a mistake that should never have appeared.

I looked up.

“I know.”

“It’s your engagement party.”

“That’s why I’m toasting you.”