Page 33 of He Is My Bride

Turning around, Li Ying and Wu Hanjun saw a man who was rather the epitome of ostentatious: he was not ugly but not particularly handsome either, with too much gel in his hair, which made it look greasy.

His gaudy red satin shirt was too tigh,t and while it revealed his trimmed body, he was way overdoing it by letting the three topmost buttons hang open, revealing a golden chain that was too big for his frame.

He also wore many rings and a golden Rolex.

Clinging to his side was a young woman who would surely have been beautiful even without the heavy makeup and plastic surgeries, which were subtle and well enough done, but didn’t escape Li Ying’s notice; no one had that slim of a nose, and her lip filling had begun to migrate upwards.

She had a slim stature, upon which her breast augmentation was over-proportioned.

She was dressed head to toe in brand clothing, logos well on display. They made quite a pair.

“Hello, Wang Hao,” Hanjun greeted in his usual impassioned tone, but Li Ying thought he had sensed Hanjun’s air growing cold, so he got on his toes as well.

Wang Hao, the second cousin, uncle of A-Yu?

Li Ying recalled, thinking how his uncle couldn’t be more different from the humble Xinyu.

Wang Hao seemed rather like a cheap knock-off of his father, who had also seemed like someone terribly arrogant, but at least his cockiness had been based on something—at least he had style.

“Is it true that you found yourself a girlfriend from America?” Wang Hao eyed Li Ying from head to toe and back again, smiling at him in a way that Li Ying guessed was supposed to be charming.

“Cousin, this is Li Ying.” Hanjun introduced him, and now his reluctance seemed obvious to Li Ying although his tone hardly changed. “Li Ying, my second cousin Wang Hao.”

“Hello, Wang Hao.” Li Ying rose above his poor first impression and briskly held out his hand, smiling politely.

Wang Hao took his hand, and his grip was limp, weak. “Hello, pretty! ”

“…We should go,” Hanjun said abruptly, wrapped his arm around Li Ying’s shoulder, and led him away.

“Ah, alright. See you at the party?” Li Ying still tried to be polite to Wang Hao and the woman, though Hanjun was fast dragging him away.

“You really have found yourself a pretty one, Wu Hanjun!” Wang Hao called after them. Li Ying noted the girl by Wang Hao’s side seemed pissed.

“What an odd person your cousin is. He didn’t even introduce his companion,” Li Ying whispered while they walked towards the club. “Do you know her?”

“No. Stay away from Wang Hao.”

“Tch! As if I would look twice at such a sleazebag!”

Hanjun seemed content with that. He led Li Ying through the architecturally interesting corridor, fashioned from dark metal slats to be asymmetrical, flooded with blue light.

On the other side of this futuristic element opened a wide space with a round bar at the center where formally dressed bartenders shook elaborate cocktails that sparkled, foamed, and emitted smoke, and sent out champagne by the bucket.

There were tables and booths with sleek leather couches.

Large windows gave out to the city, and in the distance one could see the iconic landmarks of Pudong, lit up in the night.

There was only a small dance floor and the house DJ was playing at a rather modest volume.

There were only a few foreigners there dancing it off.

Maybe the party will turn up later. Li Ying hoped. For now he followed Hanjun as he looked around.

“Hanjun! Here!” Hanrong had stood up and waved at them, and they joined him and a bunch of others at a group of reserved tables by the windows.

“Everyone, welcome my cousin, back from America!” Hanrong said with a hand on Hanjun’s shoulder, and many cheered and hurried to greet Hanjun.

These were all old acquaintances from college, although everyone was being polite towards Hanjun. It seemed that even among friends he was only close to his second cousin. The friends were curious about Li Ying, some more politely and some more eagerly:

“And nice to meet you, miss…?”

“Li Ying. Hello!”

“So, you’re from America?”

“That’s right. Brooklyn, New York City.”

They knew New York at least, recognition in their expressions and underlined enthusiasm in their nods to signal they were in the known; ‘right, right, New York City!’

“Are you Wu Hanjun’s ‘mystery woman,’ then?” asked a young man with a cute round face, probably Li Ying’s age. Li Ying had sat down on his left side on one of the couches surrounding a long table.

The young man was the most fashionably avant-garde person at the party, wearing his hair untraditionally long, with half of it in a top bun.

He wore oversized 80’s-style glasses and a gray twill suit with a pale pink shirt.

Pocket square with a colorful abstract design, tan oxfords.

He looked like the creative type and stood apart from all the business majors.

He wouldn’t have been out of place among Li Ying’s circle of queers back in New York .

“You haven’t been reading those attention-grabbing articles have you, Sir Xiang?

” criticized an extremely comely, delicately built man who spoke haughtily in a soft accent similar to the Wus.

He was dressed lavishly, still tasteful but pushing it with all the bling and champagne-colored silk vest worn over a white button-up and a matching silk tie fastened with a golden tie pin.

Sir Xiang blushed and scratched his neck awkwardly. Despite the other young man’s criticism, it spoke for itself that he understood what had been referenced. Sir Xiang’s question was probably the one on everyone’s minds, and they looked eagerly to Li Ying for his answer.

“I suppose that’s me,” Li Ying laughed. “I’m not actually all that interesting!” Li Ying winked and flashed a smile. His ‘not-actually-that-interesting’ star power pulled a flock of people to strike up conversation with him.

“Is that…?” Someone noticed the ring on Li Ying’s finger, “Has Wu Hanjun gotten engaged?!”

All conversations around the table stopped.

Li Ying smiled at Hanjun and rubbed his arm. “Hanjun proposed to me on Christmas Day. You wouldn’t guess he’s a romantic like that!”

“Congratulations!” Sir Xiang raised his glass first.

Other people followed his example, congratulating the newly betrothed and toasting.

Another round was poured. A waiter readily brought two new bottles in ice-filled buckets, and fresh snack bowls followed. Li Ying noted that not everyone, mostly some of the ladies, had smiled nor emptied their glasses during the toast, but looked at the new pair sourly. Li Ying ignored them.

“What was your name again?” Li Ying asked the queerly dressed Sir Xiang. Li Ying was more interested in him.

“Huang Xian,” the man answered .

The name rang a bell. “…Oh!” Li Ying exclaimed. “Are you one of the meat industry Huangs?”

Huang Xiang rolled his eyes, sighing in defeat. “I suppose that would be all Miss Li knows me for,” he bemoaned.

“Sir Xiang is also an avid patron of the arts and an artist in his own right,” Hanrong said.

“Sir Hanrong is exaggerating!” Huang Xiang rushed to say, though he seemed pleased that someone took notice of him.

“But your designs are very good,” insisted Hanrong, “if you decided to pursue your passion fully, perhaps you could do a collaboration with one of the brands Mister Lin has acquired?”

Huang Xiang sighed against his champagne flute again. “If only I had time from my studies. My father insists I must continue my business education in Antai, even if my grades suck.”

The haughty, pretty man who had been criticizing Huang Xiang before spoke, “Don’t go around making any such promises, Hanrong. My father is not a charity.”

“Of course not,” Hanrong saved with an unwaveringly polite smile. He was trying so hard to be nice and give everyone face, but not everyone in the room was quite so gracious.

Lin? Li Ying had recognized another name. The silk exporters and hopeful fashion moguls. Both Huang Xiang and Lin Yong must be the family heirs, then.

“Li Ying,” Hanjun brushed his thigh, “I’m getting myself tea.” He stood up and looked at Li Ying for an affirming nod before going—he didn’t want to leave him alone abruptly into a potentially overwhelming situation, but of course Li Ying was like a fish in water in sociable crowds.

“That Wu Hanjun hasn’t deviated from the Wu ways during his time in America, I see. Only they would drink tea at a party!”

Hanrong laughed and raised his teacup to that.

“So, what does Miss Li do?” asked the eccentric Huang Xiang .

“Yes, tell us about yourself, sweetheart.” It was Wang Hao.

He leaned against the couch right behind Li Ying, looming above him.

Li Ying didn’t want to turn to look, didn’t want to see his face at all, really, but he got shivers and felt like he wanted to cover his cleavage which, although petite, was very exposed in the skimpy leather dress.

He was sure the sleazebag was looking. Meanwhile, his female companion sat next to Li Ying, smiling at him, but her eyes were cold.

“I’m a medical student.” Li Ying responded.

“I see, which university are you going to? Are you close to graduating?” Huang Xiang followed up.

Li Ying wouldn’t have wanted to expose too many details in case someone got nosy and started digging up information about him, but he didn’t skip a beat answering:

“New York University, I’m finishing my third year.”

Avoiding such simple questions would have been more suspicious, and lies would have been too easily exposed.

“Oh, so you will be a doctor?” asked the woman seated next to Li Ying. Her coquettish way of speaking was grating to the ear.

Li Ying smiled at her, thinking she might have been a nice girl stuck on a bad date. He should be nice to her.

“Yep! By the way, I don’t think I got your name?”