Jiang Cheng deserves a break

Chap 7: Meddling Siblings

Narrator's Pov:

Hua Yuan looks around the banquet hall and he notices that all the preparations were done already. He scans the room for Er-jie, but she ends up spotting him first. She was seated at a grand dining table which was long enough to fit fifteen people.

Er-jie appeared furious to see him. Hua Yuan felt a drop of sweat roll down his forehead as his sister marched up to him like a soldier set out to kill.

Er-jie reached up to his head and twisted his ear, pulling on it so hard that Hua Yuan had to lower his head so that his ear wouldn't tear off. "Ah-Rui! Where were you? Didn't I say to be quick?"

Hua Yongrui apologised with a wince, pleading Er-jie to show mercy and let go of his ear. "I'm sorry, Er-jie. We ran into Ba on our way here, and you know how he can be—"

"Don't use Ba as an excuse!" Er-jie scolds, letting go of her brother's ear.

"Right, sorry! Sorry!"

Jiang Cheng glances at Hua Yongrui, and feels sorry that he has such a terrifying older sister. Jiang Yanli had been strict with him and Wei Wuxian, but she never terrorised them.

"Forgive us, Second Lady Hua. Hua Yongrui speaks the truth, your father—" He tries to defend Hua Yuan, but ends up on the receiving end of Second Lady Hua's glares. She didn't even bat an eye at Jiang Cheng, despite the huge gap in their cultivation level and status.

"I beg your pardon, leader Jiang?" Jiang Cheng withered at her stare. Her glare was as cut-throat as Yu Ziyuan's, and as icy as Lan Wangji's. It was a terribly scary combination.

Jiang Cheng ended up shaking his head, dropping the topic. He hopes Hua Yuan doesn't see him as a spineless person.

Er-jie lets out a sigh and rolls her eyes so far back that Jiang Cheng thought that they might get stuck there. "What's done is done. The decorations have all been put up and the tables have all been set, anyways."

Unexpectedly, she dons a kind expression. "You boys enjoy your time together, now." She says and returns to her seat at the table where her husband was.

Jiang Cheng blinks once, twice, at Hua Yongrui's older sister; still stunned at her sudden change in mood. He feels a tug on his clothes and looks down to see Hua Yuan holding onto his sleeve.

"Let's get seated, shall we?" Hua Yuan says, and Jiang Cheng gets easily charmed by his smile.

Jiang Cheng dismisses his disciples and tells them to go take their seats at the tables designated for them. There were four tables meant for both Hua and Jiang disciples in total, with two on either side of the gentrys' table in the centre.

When Jiang Cheng takes his seat beside his advisor, he's once again saddened that the seating arrangements had placed Hua Yuan so far from him.

Meanwhile, as Hua Yuan was about to sit, San-mei¹ and her husband arrive. He greets them cheerily, "San-mei, mei-fu²! Welcome–ah." But they both ignore him.

Hua Yuan used to be very close to San-mei when they were growing up, since their age gaps weren't so far apart, just a mere three years age difference.

However after San-mei got married and she had moved out to live with her husband (as was customary with marriages), her personality completely changed.

And now, for whatever unknown reason, San-mei is always cold and passive towards everyone, and her husband acted just as bitter. She especially didn't like Hua Yuan.