Chased by My Heartless Ex - Chapter 5

Xu You’s hand was released by Zhou Siyu at some point, but the regained freedom brought her no joy whatsoever.

Unwilling to continue the topic or endure the scrutinizing gazes any longer, she spoke up sullenly, tearing a small opening in the awkward atmosphere.

“Sorry, I don’t drink.”

A young woman in her early twenties, working with Zhou Siyu in that kind of business, and claiming she didn’t drink? Who would believe that?

Laughter erupted from multiple directions almost instantly.

Xu You gritted her teeth, forcing herself not to let her pride take over. Stubbornly, she kept her chin up and faced the ridicule head-on.

Across the round table, Lu Ang laughed freely, as if he hadn’t been the one to provoke the situation, merely an amused bystander.

He nodded slowly, as if in approval. “As expected of a student from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Different, truly different.”

He didn’t specify what exactly was different, but Xu You clearly heard the mindless attack on her school.

An individual’s choices were their own, using one person’s actions to judge an entire group was anything but rational. Under the table, Xu You clenched her fist, her blunt nails leaving crescent-shaped purple marks on her palm.

A faint tension began to permeate the air. Zhang Qin, the host of the gathering and the supposed leading lady of the evening, found the spotlight repeatedly stolen by outsiders. Raising her voice to reclaim the stage, she declared,

“Alright, alright, if Xiao Xu doesn’t want to drink, let’s not force her.” She raised her glass. “Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to join today’s gathering. Of course, it’s just an excuse to celebrate my birthday and have everyone together. Let’s enjoy the food and drinks on this happy occasion.”

Having reclaimed the attention, she downed her entire glass of champagne in one bold gulp.

With the drinking officially underway, the awkward standoff naturally dissolved.

After Zhang Qin finished her drink, her friends followed suit, emptying their glasses one after another. Xu You’s cup was filled with yogurt, already an advantage, but fearing it might become a point of criticism, she hastily gulped it down.

She never liked yogurt; drinking it on an empty stomach often made her nauseous. As she set down the empty cup, discomfort churning in her stomach, the others were already chatting and drinking merrily around her.

Lowering her gaze, she hid her frustration beneath the shadow of her lashes and let out a small, quiet hiccup.

No one paid her any more attention, not even Zhou Siyu, who had brought her here.

She didn’t belong.

Zhou Siyu was engrossed in a conversation with a girl on his other side about company matters, or so it seemed. More bluntly, the girl was playing a collection-based game developed by YUYOO, had spent a six-figure sum on it, and was stuck on a level. She was earnestly trying to persuade Zhou Siyu to grant paying players like her a fast-pass option. Zhou Siyu responded vaguely, saying he’d consider it.

With everyone busy drinking, the lavish spread on the table went largely ignored. Feeling almost sorry for the food, Xu You picked up her chopsticks and placed a neatly wrapped Peking duck roll into Zhou Siyu’s empty bowl. Zhou Siyu didn’t touch it, didn’t even glance down. After serving her, she reached to take one for herself, but the lazy Susan slowly turned the duck away just as her chopsticks approached.

Fine, if she couldn’t have duck, she’d settle for something else. But as if conspiring against her, the turntable smoothly rotated every dish she targeted just as she was about to reach for it.

Once or twice could be a coincidence, but after four or five times, Xu You finally realized, someone was toying with her.

The fact that the other person could keep toying with her like a monkey meant they must have been secretly observing her every move. Pretending not to notice, Xu You’s hand hovered mid-air, neither placing it down nor withdrawing it. Her peripheral vision swept the surroundings, confirming it was Lu Ang’s mischief from across the table. Just as she was contemplating how to counterattack unexpectedly, a hand appeared out of nowhere in her line of sight.

She knew this hand all too well, it had teased her countless times, igniting fires across her body.

Zhou Siyu listened to Zhang Qin’s fans’ absurd suggestions with complete indifference. How much could one person possibly spend? Give her a satisfactory number, and she could immediately arrange a team to tailor-make a plan for them.

The problem was, she couldn’t. And yet, these people arrogantly passed judgment on months of hard work by her entire team. The only reason she was willing to listen to such nonsense was that Zhang Qin had organized the gathering, and today was her birthday.

Letting the words go in one ear and out the other, Zhou Siyu noticed the young girl beside her seemed off, stubbornly wrestling with the inanimate lazy Susan. Distracted, she glanced over and identified the instigator across the table.

“Take whatever you want to eat,” she said, pressing her hand against the lazy Susan to counteract Lu Ang’s malicious force.

“Okay.” Xu You glanced at the dish now in front of her, braised eggplant, a vegetable she’d rather starve than eat. She swallowed hard and picked up the smallest piece, placing it on her plate.

The bone plate, even if she put it there, she wouldn’t eat it.

Zhou Siyu understood. She released the lazy Susan and swapped her own bowl with Xu You’s. “You have to try a little bit of everything.”

Xu You perked up like a rabbit, grinning. One of Zhang Qin’s friends remarked sarcastically, “President Zhou treats her quite well.”

The room was noisy and chaotic, and no one noticed the drop in atmospheric pressure around them. Zhou Siyu didn’t even bother to look at her. Propping her elbow on the table, she swirled the liquid in her glass and said coldly, “Do you have a problem with that?”

Xu You, who had just stuffed a Peking duck roll into her mouth, leaned close to Zhou Siyu’s ear and mumbled, “What problem?”

The girl was innocent and endlessly curious. When they first met, she was like a blank sheet of paper. Zhou Siyu blamed herself for being improper and leading her astray.

“Nothing.”

Zhou Siyu picked up a piece of braised pork knuckle and fed it to Xu You, effectively occupying her soon-to-be-idle mouth.

In truth, Xu You had heard it, they looked down on her, thought she didn’t deserve to sit at the same table as them, and were finding ways to humiliate her.

So what? She is here anyway, sitting beside Zhou Siyu, among them all.

She used to be a genuine optimist, raised by her doting grandfather away from her parents for over a decade, never having suffered any hardship or setback. In Shanghai, all her relatives and friends called her “Little Princess.” But everything changed after she came to Beijing and met Zhou Siyu.

Yu Yao said she had gone crazy, infected with lovesickness.

She couldn’t deny it. If she weren’t crazy, she wouldn’t have agreed to let Zhou Siyu keep her willingly. If she weren’t crazy, she wouldn’t have been so anxious about attending this gathering that she couldn’t eat or drink, only to forget it all the moment Zhou Siyu appeared.

A sane person wouldn’t do such things. Zhou Siyu was the catalyst driving her to madness.

Xu You was the only one at the table seriously eating. While others were busy toasting and drinking, she focused solely on savoring the food. Zhou Siyu had told her not to be picky, so she tried a little of every dish until she was seventy percent full. Then, the crowd started clamoring to move the party downstairs to a KTV room for more drinking.

As the group migrated, Zhou Siyu walked at the very back, and Xu You followed closely beside her, carrying a gift.

“Are you going to drink a lot later too?” In the hallway, a drunk man staggered unsteadily. Xu You moved closer to Zhou Siyu, minimizing the chance of a collision.

Zhou Siyu noticed that ever since Xu You entered the bar, she had become like a tightly strung bow, tense, cautious, and unusually quiet. Zhou much preferred her usual self, all smiles and coquettish chatter, murmuring and whining without a care.

Without breaking her stride, she glanced at the back of Lu Ang’s round head ahead and asked, “Are you afraid I’ll drink too much?”

“No, I’m not.” After nearly two hours in the bar, Xu You finally flashed her first genuine, sweet smile of the night.

In the years she had known Zhou Siyu, she had never seen Zhou make a fool of herself from drinking too much. Whether it was casual dinners with friends or corporate banquets, Zhou always returned composed and clear-headed.

However, once alcohol fermented in her system, Zhou would become unusually emotional and bold, her kisses warm and intoxicatingly scented, her positions adventurous and varied…

Hmm, no, she wasn’t afraid. In fact, she loved it.

Cheng Cheng, leading the way, pulled open the glass door of the private room at the end of the corridor. Laser lights and strobes crisscrossed inside, with a few playful beams occasionally slipping past the doorway, briefly illuminating someone’s face before mercilessly moving on.

An arm near Xu You lifted, gently squeezing the back of her neck as if soothing a kitten.

“We’ll leave after we give the gift,” Zhou said. Lu Ang had already entered the room, leaving just the two of them outside.

Xu You nodded and followed Zhou inside.

The L-shaped leather sofa was packed with people, with only a space barely big enough for two left next to Zhang Qin. Who it was reserved for went without saying.

The young masters and misses were all waiting to see Xu You make a scene. With only one spot available, she would either have to storm off in anger or stand awkwardly to the side, either outcome would amuse them.

Lu Ang sat at the far end of the shorter side of the sofa, propping his chin in his hand, his gaze teasing. When his eyes met Zhou Siyu’s, he feigned innocence.

“Looks like there aren’t enough seats,” Zhou remarked, rubbing her fingertips together as she scanned the room.

Some muttered under their breath about an unwelcome guest, while others stared brazenly at Xu You. Zhou turned her gaze to Zhang Qin in the center of the crowd, her eyes questioning. Zhang Qin had been the one to invite them, yet now she was putting Xu You on the spot, who exactly was she trying to embarrass?

Zhang Qin’s pale face was hidden behind the kaleidoscopic lights, her hand gripping the edge of her dress tightly. She reassured herself that Zhou was just saving face, then stood up and pressed the call button to ask for an extra chair.

The bar manager and a server entered with the additional seat, carrying the specially ordered black swan cake for Zhang Qin. Faced with a room full of privileged heirs, they didn’t dare cut corners. Even as they presented the four-figure cake, they worried it might not meet the group’s standards, after all, these people casually ordered bottles of wine starting at five figures.

Fortunately, once the items were delivered, they were allowed to leave without issue.

With the seating arranged and the lighting setting the mood, the birthday song began at just the right moment.

Amid the cheers, Zhang Qin closed her eyes to make a wish. In the dim light, the flickering candle flames cast shadows on her face. As the singing faded, she suddenly opened her eyes, a smirk playing on her lips as she blew out the candles.

Cheng Cheng asked what she had wished for. Zhang Qin demurred, saying it wouldn’t come true if she told, but her eyes kept drifting toward Zhou Siyu.

“Alright, alright, it’s your birthday… you’re the boss,” Cheng Cheng said, fully aware of Zhang Qin’s intentions but choosing not to expose her. She pulled a small box from her bag and slid it toward Zhang Qin.

“Happy birthday,” she said, prompting others to present their gifts as well.

Xu You’s simply wrapped gift stood out starkly among the array of luxury brands. With the table nearly piled high like a small mountain, Zhang Qin picked up Xu You’s present and asked with feigned nonchalance, “May I open it now?”

Once a gift was given, the recipient had every right to decide. Xu You nodded.

The plain-colored wrapping paper was slowly torn away, revealing the item inside.

In the silence, Cheng Cheng’s scornful laugh reached everyone’s ears.

“Just a lousy painting.”