Page 37 of He Is My Bride

“Do I sound like a little Shanghai man to you? Who even are you?”

The man, not from the mainland, shrunk before Wang Hao, and as Wang Hao mistook everybody else’s awkward silence for respect, he went on:

“My family is from the part of the country where the men lead and women follow. And speak like men! All you Shanghainese talk like girls, and the Wus really are the biggest culprits of that effeminate accent. It’s really obvious just listening to you all that I’m the only one who has studied in Beijing. ”

“It is obvious, isn’t it?” Lin Yong said lazily, twirling his glass. Some of his fellow Shanghainese dared laugh.

Hanrong didn’t laugh or comment. He sat still and serene as a cold pond.

Huang Xiang blinked as if he were confused. “Doesn’t speaking ‘the tender speech iv ’ only mean these families have a long history in this area?”

“Indeed,” Lin Yong said, still eyeing Wang Hao with disdain. “Unlike some migrant workers who had to come here to scrape the bottom after losing all their lands.” Yet Lin Yong’s words dug too deep into the tragedy of the Wangs:

“You dare?!” Wang Hao closed his fists.

“Just ignore him, sweetie, what does it matter!” said Xiuxiu, who had come to cling herself to Wang Hao’s arm.

“ Me? And what of you? ” Lin Yong realized he’d already gone too far, but proud as he was, he wouldn’t back off either.

“Didn’t your grandfather himself go to the Wus to pledge himself and what little he had left to their service, just for a chance to cling to a fraction of his crumbling status?

And now his grandson has the face to insult the Wu family? Have you no shame?”

Many murmured in agreement.

“What are you saying?!” Wang Hao raged. “It was the Wangs who saved the Wus from falling to ruin back then, yet they’re always posturing as if they’re better than us!”

“And while you insist on separating your lineage from the Shanghai lineages, your speech from ours, remember whose land you are on, Wang Hao!” Lin Yong lashed.

“Ours! Wang land!” Wang Hao yelled, “Half of you pay my father rent!”

“Enough, please,” said Hanrong, not raising his voice but commanding everyone’s attention regardless. “The Wu family will not consider what has been said tonight of any significance, if only this ends now.”

“There you go again, acting all high and mighty, thinking you can give orders to others when you finally bother speaking in their presence!” Wang Hao kept attacking, not aware that everyone was done with him.

“Aww, is cousin Wu not giving you attention? Sit down Wang Hao, your entitlement is making me cringe.”

People turned and saw that Li Ying had returned. He was standing wide like a boss—he was trying to keep his footing while the floor kept rocking—with his hand at his hip and the other one armed with the knuckle duster purse, sucking on a breath mint.

“Please, Miss Li—” Hanrong was cut off by Xiuxiu:

“Who are you to talk here?! If someone here is an outsider, isn’t it you!” Unlike Wang Hao, she’d managed to secure herself allies, and the two girls in her company joined in:

“Yeah, who are you to come here, you chicken v , stealing men and talking like anything concerns you?”

“M-hm, chicken!”

The men looked awkward, and none stood up for Li Ying.

For all they had seen, Li Ying had been acting flirty all night, maybe these girls were right to accuse the foreigner of promiscuity.

And what stakes did the men have in the squabbles of some women?

Only Hanrong thought to defend him, but he saw Li Ying stood unfazed and spoke out for himself just fine:

“Oh, did I even manage to steal your imaginary boyfriend?” Li Ying taunted back.

The other girl gasped and looked at her friends, outraged. “You got some nerve…”

“If I did, well…” Li Ying tossed his hair. “I wasn’t even trying, so what does that tell about you and me?”

“You…! Cheap mongrel bitch!” The girl lost her cool entirely.

“Cheap?” Li Ying, however, just kept smiling wider when he saw he was getting on top. “How much do you pay rent for that bag?” He tilted his head, grinning from ear to ear. He could go on all night like this.

“Be quiet, you cheap chick, you’re causing a scene!” Xiuxiu tried to double back when she found her attack dogs were ineffective and no one else was supporting her, but Li Ying wasn’t going to let her go so easily now that he was having fun:

“I’m not the one who started crying like a baby over not getting enough attention from the Wus or whatever. Tang Xiuxiu, don’t you think you could do better, considering how much you’ve invested?”

Xiuxiu’s voice was trembling with rage, though she tried her best to keep it calm, “You mean like Wu Hanjun, hm? What did you do to even get a Wu to look at you, chicken?”

Li Ying froze the smile on his lips. Should he back off?

To him this was just a game, but to everybody else it was lower-class women fighting for courting rights, and as long as he engaged in this squabble, he would seem no better than these professional gold diggers.

A lady of class would rise above it, right?

Li Ying didn’t care what people thought of him, but he did care what they thought of Hanjun, and as much as he loved a good bitch fight, he was aware his behavior reflected poorly on Hanjun right now.

Wang Hao laughed. “Goes to show what kind of a man Wu Hanjun truly is! What a na?ve tool, letting himself be fooled by such a woman!”

Now Li Ying’s smile died. “Shut the fuck up, Wang Hao!”

“ You shut up, you cheap, mixed-breed chicke—”

A fist met the side of Wang Hao’s face before he could finish. Wu Hanjun had risen fist first from the couch with no warning.

“Whoa!” people exclaimed, and the girls moved away from the table,s clutching their drinks and their purses.

Hanjun grabbed Wang Hao’s collar before the shorter man could keel over from the force of his punch, and pulled his face close to stare him down. Hanjun’s darkened eyes were absolutely deranged. It was obvious he was very pissed and very, very drunk.

“Wu Hanjun, please don’t fight!” his friends called, but Hanjun lifted Wang Hao off his feet while the other man was whimpering, his face quickly swelling up and turning from red to purple.

“Hanjun!” Li Ying tried to run to him, but Xiuxiu didn’t let him pass; she grabbed his hair.

“Don’t you know to stay out of it!” Xiuxiu shrieked .

Li Ying felt her sharp nails dig into his scalp, his voice almost failing as he yelped in pain. “Let go, or I will give you a new rhinoplasty right now!”

Tang Xiuxiu didn’t like that. She sought to throw him down, but Li Ying managed to keep his footing, turning around and grabbing her wrist just in time before her nails came to claw at his face.

Xiuxiu was stopped there, finding this chick’s arms surprisingly strong and herself powerless to move hers as long as Li Ying held them.

“I have a principle that I won’t hit girls,” Li Ying said in his most charming feminine voice, “but for you, I will make an exception if you don’t back off now.”

“Grab her arms!”

Xiuxiu’s friends moved in on command and seized Li Ying’s arms one each and still had to struggle to bring them back, twisting his wrists to make him lose his grip on Xiuxiu’s.

“Ladies, please…” Huang Xiang tried, but he was wholly ignored.

“Quite enough!” said Lin Yong with more authority but no more success.

Meanwhile, Hanjun had tossed Wang Hao and the man had flown a good few meters back, landing on his back on the table and knocking over a champagne bucket.

“Hanjun, calm down!” Hanrong shot up and went to grab him, aided by one of Hanjun’s friends, but Hanjun was not trying to move anymore, only stared at the battered Wang in his terrible silence, his eyes staring down in contempt although there was still a drunken haze over them.

Li Ying struggled, but while he was taller and stronger than any of the girls alone, he wasn’t a gym rat, and it was three against one.

“Get off me!” he tried to retain his feminine voice, but it was becoming difficult while struggling and agitated.

“What are you even trying to show off in that dress? Aren’t you ashamed? ”

Li Ying froze when Xiuxiu grabbed the front of his dress from behind. He feared that if he struggled now, the already low neck and maybe even his bra would get pulled down and reveal just how flat his chest was. Would people suspect something if they saw that? If they saw all the tape?

Fuck, what do I do…?

“I bet even what little she has is just rolled-up socks in her bra,” mocked the other girl.

“Let’s take a look!” Xiuxiu began to tug down on the dress, but she only managed to reveal the lacy edge of Li Ying’s bra before she halted, crying out in pain: a McQueen heel had stabbed her toe, Li Ying having stomped his foot down on hers with full force.

“My foot! You whore!” Xiuxiu cried.

I hope it broke! Li Ying twisted his heel to make it hurt.

He was preparing to do it again, but then his arms came free: the other girls had let go, scattering before Wu Hanjun, who had swooped in and shoved Xiuxiu.

Hanjun had aimed and directed her into the arms of Lin Yong, who had also come to Li Ying’s rescue.

Xiuxiu wailed and clung to Lin Yong, her leg all limp.

“My leg! That bitch broke my leg!” Xiuxiu cried.

I wish I did!

The security was coming in to break up the fight, but Hanjun was already flying towards the exit, half-carrying Li Ying, who turned over his shoulder to shout:

“Cluck cluck, bitch!”

Hanjun led him out of the club and towards the elevators.

“Hanjun, our coats.”

Hanjun did a 180 so fast Li Ying felt dizzy as he got dragged along, and they went to get their coats before proceeding to the elevators.

Once the doors had closed and they were alone, Li Ying started laughing maniacally, his feminine voice failing:

“Shit! You really decked that Wang bitch! Ahaha! ”