After finishing the toast, Wang Ningkai and Wang Xiaoyan moved on to the next table. President Li and the others did not expose Wang Cheng’s trick. They had also heard Wang Ningshan come over to tip him off. At first they had been puzzled by Wang Cheng knowingly keeping a bottle of wine he suspected was tampered with, but when he used that very bottle to pour Wang Xiaoyan’s drink, they instantly understood. He had set the trap so quietly. Wang Xiaoyan probably never imagined that the trick she meant to use on someone else would end up being used on herself. One idiom described it perfectly: she had brought it upon herself.
“Ow.”
Wang Ningkai and Wang Xiaoyan had barely reached the next table before Wang Xiaoyan suddenly cried out in pain. Everyone looked over and saw the hand she had linked through Wang Ningkai’s arm move to clutch her stomach.
“What’s wrong?” Wang Ningkai hurriedly asked.
“My stomach hurts a little. Maybe I ate something bad.” Wang Xiaoyan lowered her voice. A mild cramping pain twisted through her stomach, and she was almost unable to hold it in.
Wang Ningkai’s expression changed slightly. They had not finished making their rounds yet, and if the bride had to interrupt the toasts because of diarrhea, it would probably be the first wedding banquet anyone had ever seen like that. Who knew what people would say afterward? But Wang Xiaoyan looked as though she really could not hold it any longer, so he could only let her go deal with it first.
“Everyone, I’m really sorry. We have something urgent to take care of. We’ll come back in a little while and have a proper drink with you.” Wang Ningkai apologized to the table.
Wang Xiaoyan could no longer bear it. Without waiting for anyone to respond, she shook off Wang Ningkai’s hand and hurried toward the restroom. At first she still tried to preserve some dignity, but before long she could no longer hold back and broke into a run. The urgency in her retreating figure was impossible to miss, leaving everyone looking at one another.
“Ningkai, what happened?” Madam Li came over after noticing the commotion.
“Xiaoyan has diarrhea,” Wang Ningkai whispered into her ear.
Madam Li frowned and complained, “Why did she have to get diarrhea now of all times? Did she eat something she shouldn’t have? She really has no sense of occasion.”
Wang Ningkai was unhappy too and did not contradict her.
Five minutes later, Wang Xiaoyan finally emerged. After emptying her bowels, she felt much more comfortable and immediately put a smile back on her face. Holding up her skirt, she had only made it halfway back when her expression changed again. Madam Li had just been about to call to her when Wang Xiaoyan abruptly turned around and rushed back toward the restroom. This happened four or five times. Even guests who had not noticed before began paying attention. Why did the bride keep running back and forth?
When Wang Xiaoyan’s mother noticed that her in-laws had not returned, she came over to look for them. Only after asking did she learn that her daughter had diarrhea and had already gone back and forth several times. Her own expression immediately turned unpleasant. When she returned, Wang Xiaoyan’s father asked what was happening. Seeing everyone around them watching, Wang Xiaoyan’s mother hemmed and hawed instead of answering clearly.
News that the bride could not stop running to the restroom quickly spread among the guests.
Wang Yuru’s face changed at once. To get back at Wang Cheng, she had put a fairly strong dose into the red wine. How had her cousin ended up being the one who drank it instead?
If her cousin learned that this had anything to do with her, Wang Xiaoyan’s petty nature meant she would never let her off. The only solution now was to keep quiet. If her cousin later asked about the plan to mess with Wang Cheng, she could simply invent an excuse and muddle through. That was what she would do. Once she had decided, Wang Yuru calmed down and pretended she knew nothing. Wang Xiaoyan had already been drained almost completely by the diarrhea, but there were still several tables left to toast. In the end, she had no choice but to force herself to continue despite the discomfort. Her face was so pale that even her makeup could not conceal it. While she toasted the guests, many people could barely stand to look at her. A perfectly good wedding banquet ended on an absurd note.
Wang Xiaoyan’s parents and Wang Ningkai’s parents looked terrible, but they still had to force smiles as they saw the guests off. There was no need to guess how everyone would discuss this wedding afterward. Both sets of parents were filled with anger, but Wang Xiaoyan’s parents were the angriest of all. Most of the guests at the wedding were business partners of Wang Xiaoyan’s father. Their daughter had embarrassed herself in public, and in doing so had embarrassed him too. Once most of the guests had left, Wang Xiaoyan’s father immediately went to find her.
“What is wrong with you? You were perfectly fine, so how did you suddenly get diarrhea? Don’t you know today is your wedding day with Ningkai? You have no sense at all. You’ve completely humiliated me!”
“Dad.” After being scolded, Wang Xiaoyan felt terribly wronged. “I didn’t eat anything random at all. Before the diarrhea started, I only ate a little fruit, and then I went with Ningkai to make the rounds. When would I even have had the chance to eat something bad? Wait, I know.”
When she mentioned the toasts, a possibility suddenly flashed through Wang Xiaoyan’s mind.
“Know what?”
“The wine I drank before the diarrhea started was poured by Wang Cheng. Right, it has to be his doing. Otherwise, why was I fine before and then suddenly had trouble right after I drank the wine he poured?” The more Wang Xiaoyan thought about it, the more convinced she became that Wang Cheng was involved. She ground her teeth in hatred. She had known there had to be a reason Wang Cheng came to her wedding.
Standing at the edge of the group, Wang Yuru shrank back guiltily when she heard this. This was absolutely not the time to step forward.
Wang Ningkai frowned. “I don’t think that’s very likely.”
“Ningkai, are you trying to excuse your cousin?” Wang Xiaoyan’s mother disliked Wang Cheng too. Her expression immediately turned displeased when she heard him.
“How could he be? My son isn’t the kind of person who can’t distinguish right from wrong. If he says that, he must have a reason.” Madam Li disliked Wang Cheng as well, but she could not stand someone criticizing her own son.
Wang Xiaoyan’s mother’s expression darkened even further. “So what you mean, in-law, is that I’m the one who can’t distinguish right from wrong?”
“That’s enough. Both of you say less. Let’s hear what Ningkai has to say first,” Wang Xiaoyan’s father interrupted.
Wang Xiaoyan’s mother had not expected him to be the one to say that. She stared at him in disbelief, but she could not very well lose her temper, so she restrained herself. What she did not know was that while Wang Xiaoyan’s father had been seeing off some of the guests, someone had told him what happened outside the hotel before the banquet began. The news had cleared up some of his confusion, but it made him even more nervous. If it was true, then Wang Cheng was not someone their family could afford to offend.
Wang Ningkai said, “When Xiaoyan and I went over to toast them, Wang Cheng did pour the wine. But I drank from the first bottle too. Later he poured Xiaoyan’s drink from a different bottle, but that bottle had just been opened and no one had drunk from it before. If he really tampered with it, the other people at the table couldn’t possibly know nothing.”
“He could have done something behind their backs. Just because they didn’t know doesn’t prove anything.” Wang Xiaoyan was very unhappy with Wang Ningkai for speaking in Wang Cheng’s defense, though in truth Wang Ningkai was only stating the facts.
The matter really had no direct connection to Wang Cheng. If Wang Yuru had not handed him the doctored bottle, it would never have occurred to him to teach Wang Xiaoyan a lesson this way. In short: if you did not go looking for trouble, trouble would not come looking for you. She had done this to herself.
Everyone argued their own position until they finally decided to go back to Wang Cheng’s table and find the bottle. Testing it would settle the matter. But when they reached the table, the hotel staff had already cleared away all the bottles. Wang Xiaoyan insisted Wang Cheng had something to do with it, but without evidence, there was nothing she could do.
Afterward, Wang Xiaoyan’s family and the Wang family discovered that people did not talk much about the bride’s embarrassment at the wedding at all. Most of the guests were instead discussing the ultra-luxury sports car parked outside the hotel. The story later spread through Wang Xiaoyan’s family as well. Once they learned that Wang Cheng and his friend had arrived in the supercar, even if the car was not Wang Cheng’s, anyone able to borrow something that expensive clearly had considerable ability. At that point, even Wang Xiaoyan had no choice but to give up on the idea of causing Wang Cheng more trouble.
Not long after Wang Cheng returned home, he received a call from Mama Wang. She asked about the wedding, and Wang Cheng did not hide anything, telling her the entire story.
Mama Wang gave a cold laugh. “If two families can become in-laws, it proves they’re well matched. Only your Eldest Uncle’s family would dare take in in-laws like that. Chengcheng, stay away from them in the future. As for Ningshan, you don’t need to worry about him. Your father and I will handle that.”
Wang Ningshan had done Wang Cheng a favor, but considering Madam Zhang’s personality, they absolutely could not let their son take on that enormous headache.
Wang Cheng had barely hung up when another call came in. He looked and saw that this time it was Wang Ning’an. Too many things had happened at home recently, and it had been some time since he had spoken with his big brother or little sister.
“Big Brother, don’t you have work today? How come you have time to call me?”
Wang Ning’an only had one day off each week and normally worked Saturdays. He now held a high position, and many company matters required his decisions, so sometimes he even had to go to the office on his day off. It was exhausting, though Big Brother had probably grown used to it.
“I’m off today. I called home earlier. Did something happen?” Wang Ning’an asked. He had heard something slightly off in their parents’ voices at the time. His instincts were sharp, so he had deliberately called Wang Cheng to ask.
The family had always tacitly kept their troubles from Wang Ning’an and Wang Ziyu because they did not want the two of them worrying. They had not expected Wang Ning’an to notice anyway.
“Something did happen. It was Eldest Uncle’s family again, along with Wang Ningkai’s new girlfriend, Wang Xiaoyan. I had a little unpleasantness with her when they got engaged a few days ago. Big Brother, you have no idea how awful Wang Xiaoyan is. She has absolutely no filter. She’s practically a vicious shrew. If I didn’t have a rule against hitting women, I would’ve slapped her flying already. She thinks having a little money makes her something special.” Wang Cheng left out the part about his birth.
Wang Ning’an frowned. “Stay away from them from now on.”
“You don’t need to tell me that. I know. I just went to her wedding with a friend. I got her back during the banquet, so she’s probably furious right now.”
Wang Ning’an knew his younger brother never let himself suffer a loss. “Is the friend you mentioned Mr. Chu?”
Once again, Wang Cheng was impressed by his brother’s sharp instincts. He had only casually said “a friend.” How had Big Brother immediately connected it to Chu Yifeng? Was he really that obvious?
Wang Ning’an already had his answer from the hesitation. “Do Mom and Dad know?”
If Wang Cheng had not known that he and Chu Yifeng only made their relationship official after Big Brother moved to the capital, he might have thought Wang Ning’an was asking whether their parents knew about the two of them. He immediately replied, “Of course. Mom and Dad have known for ages that Boss Chu and I are friends. They don’t object.”
Papa Wang might not always be reliable, but Mama Wang absolutely was. Wang Cheng knew that invoking Mama Wang, his trump card, would make Big Brother about seventy percent more likely to believe him. Sure enough, Wang Ning’an stopped questioning him closely. Wang Cheng chatted with him for a while about the jam business before hanging up. Chu Yifeng, who had taken a call at the same time, was still talking.
Wang Cheng waited another two minutes before seeing him put away his phone. “What were you talking about? Your call lasted even longer than mine.”
“Some things have been dragged out long enough. It’s time to deal with them.” Chu Yifeng’s words carried a deeper meaning.
Wang Cheng did not understand what he meant.