Page 53 of He Is My Bride

The party was held at the French restaurant in the Peninsula hotel. At the front of the hotel there was a queue of nice cars and limos, bringing the crème de la crème of Shanghai to show off and connect.

Okay, Cindy, it’s ball time, Li Ying thought as their ‘carriage’ rolled up to the courtyard.

The trio waited in the car until the driver opened the door for them.

Hanrong went first. Li Ying was not surprised to see the flash of a camera the moment someone exited the vehicle.

This was a hired event photographer though, not a paparazzi.

Hanrong acted as if the camera wasn’t even there, but Li Ying noticed he was giving it his best side while he waited for them.

Hanjun went next and assumed a position next to his older cousin. He didn’t look like he was posing. Simply standing there, he exuded a regal presence.

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

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

It was crazy to think 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.

He’s not afraid of me, is he?

Not at all: Lin Yong’s eyes lit up, and he turned their way.

No, don’t come here you smug fuck! What are you doing! Li Ying turned away and tugged at Hanjun’s sleeve, and they managed to escape before Lin Yong could take another step.

Hanrong left them to go talk with some friends of his, leaving Hanjun and Li Ying to handle a group of young professionals and their wives .

“I love her,” Li Ying said and gestured at the glamorous jazz woman performing on the small stage, trying to lead a conversation with the ladies while Hanjun was locked in one about Formula One.

“Yes, she and the band are quite good,” said one of the girls in their group. “By the way, who are you wearing?”

Finally someone asked, Li Ying thought. “This is Huang Xiang collaboration with Anne Lü, commissioned especially for the New Year, actually.”

“Huang Xiang… You don’t mean the Shanghai Huang Xiang?”

“Precisely! For now he works exclusively on private orders, but I heard he’s planning on starting a boutique in New York.

The mainstream hasn’t gotten a whiff of him yet, but if he’s planning to hit the high street I think he’ll be everywhere soon.

” As Li Ying had hoped, he had sparked the interest of the ladies for his friend’s benefit.

“I didn’t know he was a designer,” one lady commented in surprise.

Li Ying chuckled. “He’s a hidden gem. I met him two months ago at a party and he showed me his designs.”

“The Antai alumni party?” One of the husbands turned his attention to Li Ying. “I heard there was a ‘situation’ there?” He looked at Hanjun, and his grin died when he understood the man was not amused, and that it would be wise to drop the subject.

Li Ying didn’t mind addressing said ‘situation,’ “We were playing ‘Two Little Bees’ and things got a bit wild, yeah.” He chuckled. “It was a fun night!”

The men resumed talking about the Grand Prix, and Li Ying tried to join in a conversation about raising kids with some of the young mothers in the group, but frankly their parenting methods terrified him, and he found himself biting his tongue.

Eventually the group dispersed, leaving Li Ying and Hanjun alone.

“Hanjun, I can’t do this,” Li Ying mumbled while sipping the last of his drink.

Hanjun’s heart was uneasy. “Are you okay? ”

“How am I supposed to act as the wife of Wu Hanjun of Wu Pharma when I can’t even remember any of these big names, let alone relate to any of them?”

Hanjun tried to sound assertive even as he worried that Li Ying was ready to let their entire plan fold, “Don’t mind them.”

“What? These are your peers! And everyone is talking about everybody else while I can’t even tell one very important person from the next at this point.”

“They are not important.”

“Wow.” Li Ying finished his drink. He was going through so much trouble to impress these people, and now Hanjun said they weren’t important?

Hanjun looked at Li Ying with a frown. “You wanted to come.” Hanjun didn’t mean to sound so accusatory. He wished he could have chosen his words better, but he was afraid that Li Ying would tell him he didn’t want to be ‘the wife of Wu Hanjun of Wu Pharma’ next, and had spoken without thinking.

“Yeah.” Li Ying was annoyed and didn’t bother hiding it. “And now I want a smoke.”

“Have you caved in?”

Hanjun’s frown had deepened and he sounded disappointed. It pissed Li Ying off; who was Hanjun to lecture him?

“Not really. I mean, yes, I may have had one when I was out, but otherwise, not once. I only want to smoke when I party now.” Li Ying knew he was making up excuses, and it pissed him off even more.

“That’s how you fall back into the habit, don’t do it.”

Li Ying glared at him. He could see Hanjun was caught off guard by how frustrated he was.

At first Li Ying felt bad for feeling so angry all of a sudden, but then he became even more annoyed: he had come here to have a good time, but right now he was getting stressed out, and all Hanjun did was dismiss and lecture him.

Why should Hanjun be surprised that he didn’t much appreciate it, Li Ying thought .

“I’m just gonna have that smoke.” Li Ying walked off, leaving Hanjun standing there, alone and dumbfounded.