The room next to the bridal dressing room was a lounge for relatives. No one was there at the moment because everyone had gone out to help receive the guests. The moment Madam Li pulled Madam Zhang inside, Madam Zhang immediately shook off her hand.
“Eldest Sister-in-law, was what you were saying just now true? Is Wang Cheng really gay?” Madam Zhang stared at Madam Li with shining eyes. This was fantastic news. If she had not suddenly needed to come find Madam Li, she would never have heard something so astonishing.
Madam Li instinctively wanted to warn her not to spread it around, but then she reconsidered. What did Wang Cheng being gay have to do with her? If not for him, Ningkai would never have had to settle for getting engaged to Wang Xiaoyan. With that thought, Madam Li admitted it without hesitation.
“It’s true. Xiaoyan showed me the pictures on her phone just now. One of the men really is Wang Cheng.”
“My God. You really can’t judge people by appearances. Wang Cheng looks so good, yet he turns out to be one of those disgusting men who likes other men. If his parents found out, wouldn’t they be furious enough to die?” Madam Zhang had never felt so triumphant in her life.
“Furious enough to die? Maybe the two of them already know.” Madam Li sneered.
Madam Zhang’s eyes shifted, and she immediately understood what Madam Li meant. She knew all about the argument between Guan Lanfang and Wang Cheng last time. But afterward, nothing seemed to come of it, and mother and son made up within a couple of days. So she said, “I don’t think so. If the two of them really knew Wang Cheng was gay, even if they didn’t cut ties with him on the spot, they couldn’t possibly act as if nothing had happened. At the very least, they’d force him to change. But look at the way they get along. It doesn’t look like anything’s wrong at all.”
Madam Li frowned. What Madam Zhang said made sense. Her youngest brother-in-law was an honest man, but Guan Lanfang was different. She was decisive and strong-willed. If she knew her son was gay, there was no way she would be this calm. Had Madam Li guessed wrong?
“Looks to me like the couple probably still doesn’t know,” Madam Zhang said, already making calculations in her head.
“Even if they don’t know, something like this is still a disgrace to the Wang family. We can’t just let it go.” Madam Li had made up her mind to grab hold of Wang Cheng’s weak point and use it to hammer his whole family properly, repaying them for the last time North Mountain was taken away.
“Exactly. We all thought Youngest Uncle had picked up a lump of gold, but before that lump of gold could bring them any good fortune, it created this scandal. Youngest Uncle and his wife must regret ever bringing home that troublesome burden,” Madam Zhang said gleefully.
Whatever society’s tolerance for homosexuality might be, a backward rural village like Guanjia Village would certainly not accept this kind of scandal. No matter how good the Wang family’s reputation was in the village, after this, surely no one would speak up for them anymore.
A man who liked men? It sounded disgusting just hearing it.
Madam Li did not disagree.
Neither woman, each absorbed in her own thoughts, noticed that someone was standing outside the half-closed door and had heard their entire conversation from beginning to end. Surprise, shock, then delight flashed one after another through that person’s eyes before disappearing. By the time Madam Li and Madam Zhang came out, the listener was already gone.
Although they had unexpectedly learned such explosive news, Madam Li and Madam Zhang agreed not to reveal it today. They would choose a more suitable time later. When the auspicious hour arrived, the two main figures of the engagement banquet, Wang Ningkai and Wang Xiaoyan, entered the hall accompanied by their parents. Nearly all the guests had arrived, and thunderous applause filled the room as everything proceeded smoothly according to plan.
Wang Ningkai, dressed in a white suit, and Wang Xiaoyan, in a red dress, completed the engagement ceremony under everyone’s eyes. Beautiful engagement rings glittered on their fingers as though set with diamonds, drawing plenty of envy. In the countryside, people rarely bothered with formal engagements. Usually, if two people liked each other and thought they could live together, they simply got married.
Accompanied by her female friends, Wang Xiaoyan went downstairs and changed into a lighter pink dress. The skirt was full and fluffy, her shoulders were bare, and below it she wore only a thin layer of stockings. In the middle of winter, everyone felt cold just looking at her, yet somehow she could endure it.
Next came the toasts. To avoid confusion over seniority, the seating at every table had been arranged in advance, much like the first time Eldest Uncle invited people to eat at Fugui Restaurant. That time, however, the arrangement had been loose, with only adults and juniors seated separately. This time, to avoid awkwardness or hurt feelings, even among the adults there were distinctions of precedence, and the same was true among the younger generation. By Guanjia Village custom, wedding banquets normally toasted respected village elders first, then the couple’s own parents. But Eldest Uncle’s family came from Wangjia Village and had little interaction with Guanjia Village’s elders, so the original plan had been to toast the family elders first and the village elders afterward. Old Madam Wang and her husband worried that would offend people in Guanjia Village. Since Eldest Uncle had to consider that his parents would be living there from now on, he changed the order back.
By the time the elders had all been toasted, the wine bottle had already been replaced with a new one. The atmosphere remained lively.
After switching to a bottle of red wine, Wang Ningkai and Wang Xiaoyan carried their glasses toward the two tables where the younger relatives were seated. Everyone still gave them face and noisily urged Wang Ningkai to drink another glass.
Wang Cheng sat at one of those tables. Most of the people seated with him were relatives from Wang Cheng’s family and Wang Xiaoyan’s family. Second Uncle’s son Wang Ningshan sat on his left, while several other relatives from the Wang clan sat on his right. Farther along were members of Wang Xiaoyan’s maternal family. Their style of behavior needed no explanation; they were all cut from the same cloth.
If Wang Ningkai’s company had not been roughly on par with the company run by Wang Xiaoyan’s father, these people would never have been so enthusiastic. The moment Wang Cheng took his seat, they openly began asking about everyone’s jobs and incomes. Every other sentence was “our Xiaoyan,” spoken with such pride that one might think all of Wang Xiaoyan’s family’s money belonged to them personally. Then they began criticizing Fugui Restaurant, mouths full of disdain, constantly comparing it with star-rated hotels in the city and saying the hotels where Xiaoyan had treated them to meals were far more upscale.
Wang Cheng had no desire to speak to them at all. Wang Xiaoyan had probably said plenty of bad things about him. Once they learned his name, two out of every three sentences contained some jab at him. A smart person surrounded by a pile of idiots. Wang Cheng felt the pressure was tremendous.
At that moment, someone walked up to him.
Wang Cheng looked up and saw Wang Xiaoyan. What did this woman want? Because of her movement, everyone else at the table turned to look as well. “Wang Cheng, let me toast you.”
The groom had not even come over to toast him yet, and the bride was already impatient to drink with Wang Cheng?
Seeing this, Wang Ningkai remembered something and his expression changed slightly. He walked over in two or three quick steps, caught Wang Xiaoyan by the arm, then raised his glass toward Wang Cheng with a smile. “Wang Cheng, your sister-in-law and I will toast you together. After this glass, let’s leave the things from before in the past.”
Since Wang Ningkai had taken the initiative to say this, Wang Cheng had no reason to refuse him face. He picked up his own glass and was about to clink it against Wang Ningkai’s when Wang Xiaoyan suddenly yanked Wang Ningkai back. The wine in his hand nearly spilled on him. Irritation flashed through Wang Ningkai, but since this was their engagement day, he forced it down.
“Why are you pulling me?” Wang Xiaoyan put on an innocent face. “I just don’t want you standing too close to him. Who knows whether homosexuality is contagious?”
“Do you even know what you’re saying?” Wang Ningkai was completely baffled.
Everyone else at the table froze too. Homosexuality? Was she saying Wang Cheng was gay? Was this some kind of joke? Wang Cheng, who had originally planned to stay out of everything, finally went cold. His gaze fixed icily on Wang Xiaoyan. Very few people knew about his relationship with Chu Yifeng. Even those who did would never go around broadcasting it to someone like Wang Xiaoyan, who had no connection to them. Mama Wang certainly would not tell her. She had not even dared tell Papa Wang, so how could she possibly tell this foul woman? How did Wang Xiaoyan know?
Wang Xiaoyan looked smugly at Wang Cheng’s slightly altered expression and said provocatively, “Of course I know. I have photographic proof. Wang Cheng is gay, and a disgusting one at that. I was only being kind by warning you because I’m afraid you’ll catch it. Everyone else should stay away from him too, just in case it spreads.”
She deliberately spoke very loudly. The people at the next table heard her as well, and an uproar immediately broke out.
“I’d like to see this so-called photographic proof of yours.” Wang Cheng crossed one leg over the other and stared at Wang Xiaoyan with a chill in his eyes. The coldness had already seeped into his expression. He truly did not believe Wang Xiaoyan could have photographed him and Chu Yifeng together.
Wang Xiaoyan was not afraid of him. She took out the phone she had prepared in advance, pulled up the photograph, and handed it to Wang Ningkai.
Because the idea had already been planted in his mind, the first thing Wang Ningkai saw when he looked at the picture was the same thing everyone else did: two men leaning together as though kissing. His expression changed. The others took the phone from him one after another, nearly all reaching the same conclusion, until finally it was passed into Wang Cheng’s hands.