Page 124 of He Is My Bride

For a hot second of flashing and clicking, the two men stood side by side, projecting every bit of their Wu regalityas the pharmaceutical princes of Shanghai.

And that serious one is mine.Unreal, Li Ying thought.

It was crazy tothink what they had just done in the limo—who would have guessed the stolid Wu Hanjun was such an adventurous lover?

Hanjun held his hand out for Li Ying. The man’s eyes were warmer when he looked at him. Li Ying returned his smile and took his hand. He swung his feet out of the car, legs firmly together, and let his heels hit the red carpet, stepping into the limelight.

How do I pose on the red carpet? We didn’t cover this in training!

Li Ying gave it his best, smiling faintly while avoiding looking directly at the camera. He wondered if he looked as nervous as he felt.

Li Ying took Hanjun’s arm and they proceeded to the entrance. From the lobby they were guided to the elevators that took them to the thirteenth floor. There, outside the restaurant there was another hired professional taking pictures of the revelers in front of a photo screen. Hanjun walked Li Ying past it and he didn’t protest. Li Ying thought he didn’t need any more exposure, thank you very much.

Hanjun presented their invitation to the doorman, and they were led into a restaurant-turned-cocktail venue.

The French restaurant had modern design, balanced by an illuminated display of traditional Ming-style vases. Several large fireplaces were alight, their black marble mantles adorned with abstract paintings. All red upholstery. Around a black grand piano, a big band was playing shidaiqu, a fusion of Chinese folk and American jazz. Huge floral arrangements adorned the space with hundreds of red chrysanthemums and flamingo flowers, tropical palm leaves and towering bundles of dyed pussy willows. The open bars dished out classic prohibition era -inspired cocktails, served along with French-style canapés. It was all top-notch.

Li Ying marveled at everything as they meandered their way to the bar.

“Good evening, sir, miss,” the bartender greeted. “What’ll it be? Something fresh or sweet?”

“Fresh, please,” Hanrong said.

“How about I stir you a lime rickey?”

“Two, please,” Hanjun said. “Hold the gin.”

“And for the miss?”

“Hmm, can you do a Corpse Reviver?” Li Ying ordered off-menu after checking the bottles on the shelf.

The bartender thought for a second before admitting defeat: “What goes in it?”

Li Ying loved to show off his knowledge by ordering obscure cocktails and getting to advise bartenders.

“Half an ounce of Lillet and Cointreau, as much gin, and a dash of lemon juice and absinthe.”

“Wow, I see miss likes them strong!”

“Haha, I’m drinking for the two of us!”

They got their cocktails and went to mingle. Li Ying saw that his reputation indeed preceded him: many gave him long, curious looks and turned to whisper amongst themselves as he walked past. As they’d come within earshot, the ladies would only smile and say: ‘I like your dress.’

But of course, Li Ying was Wu Hanjun’s fiancée and this was his first major debut in the Shanghai elite circles; people were bound to talk. What’s more, he was a foreigner. Outsider.

From what Li Ying had picked up, some high-class Shanghainese didn’t typically even marry across the river: if you were born in Puxi you married Puxi, if you were born in Pudong you married Pudong. And he was from across the Pacific.

Sure, some of these people must have heard of the incident at the club two months back, so sure enough there would have been gossip even if he was a local. It was extra juicy though, wasn’t it, a feisty foreign girl telling a Wang to fuck off an proceed to break his girlfriend’s toe.

None of this really bothered Li Ying, but as they stopped to greet people and Hanjun introduced him, Li Ying began to realize he may be in over his head.

Everyone at the party were on the younger side, meaning anything between eighteen and forty, bold and beautiful, heirs and heiresses of big businesses, a few new-money entrepreneurs, some models and actors. This was an event for Shanghai’s next generation of elites and those who currently amused them. It was a much bigger affair than the little gathering at the club had been, with many more powers at play and a complex web of rivalries, alliances and other influences binding them all together in a political tangle that was beyond Li Ying’s capability to comprehend. He could only tell it was there, just below the surface of all the polite inanity. Yet he was going to be the next ‘Madam Wu,’ and as such, he was to play in the high league of this political game. He had to try.

Li Ying tried to commit to memory the names and occupations of those he met, jot down in his mind at least one thing about each person. It was exhausting, as no one was all that interesting, or didn’t let themselves be. Every other woman looked like she had come from the table of the same plastic surgeon, and all the men talked about was golf and real estate.

Li Ying saw familiar faces too, but none so far he particularly wanted to meet: Wang Hao was there, but their groups avoided each other. Li Ying noted the young Wang had a new side piece.

Suddenly Li Ying met Lin Yong’s eyes through the crowd. Lin Yong had completely frozen, looking stunned as they stared at each other across the room. Li Ying found it amusing and grinned at him.