Chapter 36: Exchanging Cups of Wine

  "Why don't you go in?" Xi Xi smiled and greeted Xuan Mei, directly ignoring Chen Yan standing beside her.

  "Wait for you", Xian Miao smiled strangely at Xi Xi, turned her head and said to Chen Yan: "The person is here, you guys chat slowly, I'll go in first."

  Before she could take two steps, XiXi grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "Wait for me," she said, following Xian into the private room, not wanting to give Chen Yan any opportunity to be alone with her.

  There were seven or eight people in the private room who had already gotten excited, with a lively atmosphere, four of them playing cards and the others watching from the side.

  "Ahh, why am I paired with you again?" Tang Gongzi exclaimed, his hands shaking as he pointed at Mao Shaoye. He let out a mournful cry, not afraid of a god-like opponent, but afraid of a pig-like teammate. He finally understood that it wasn't about who finished their cards first, but rather who was paired with Mao Shaoye that would be the one to suffer greatly.

  He's always the first to leave, yet he's always dragged down by his teammates. This card is really poorly played.

  "People who are destined to be together can't be separated." Luo Jia played the last card in his hand, directly hitting the nail on the head and dispelling Tang Gongzi's confusion, immediately causing a burst of laughter.

  Xixi's wandering eyes happened to meet Chen Yan's gaze, she hastily turned her head away, her heart in a mess.

  "Rotten girl!" Mr. Mao weakly retorted, having played cards for half a day without winning a single hand, how exhausting!

  "Alright, everyone back to your seats, let's get started with the dishes." Xun Miao stopped the fight from escalating, and upon hearing this, everyone returned to their seats.

  Xi Xi had just pulled out a chair when she was squeezed to one side by Tang Gongzi, "This is my seat, 'Yu Ji' you go sit with 'Xiang Yu'." As he spoke, he pushed her over to Chen Yan's side. All the other seats were already taken, so Xi Xi had no choice but to sit down, secretly shifting her chair a little in the direction away from Chen Yan.

  The table was filled with laughter and chatter, slightly covering up the awkward atmosphere between XiXi and Chen Yan, but someone had to ruin it by making a bad joke.

  After a round of dishes, Tang Gongzi stood up with his wine glass and began to speak eloquently: "The biggest gain from this art festival performance is that I have become very good friends with everyone in the crew. The world is so big, we met in the midst of people, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder..."

  "Stop, you're not even making sense, are you going to let us eat or not?" Tang Gongzi had just started speaking when Chen Yan urgently interrupted him. If he was allowed to continue, they might not have been able to eat even if the dishes were still hot.

  "Haha, no more words, Brother Yan, it's all in the wine." Tang Gongzi rubbed his head and clinked his wine cup against Chen Yan's.

  "Hold on, hold on, Yuji hasn't even had a drink with King Xiang yet, what's the hurry?" Xun Mei said half-jokingly and half-seriously.

  "Cross-cup wine! Cross-cup wine!" As soon as Xuan Mei said this, everyone started cheering. Gossip has always been the most popular topic among the masses, let alone when it's standing right in front of them.

  "I was wrong, you two come first." Tang Gongzi smiled and poured a full cup of wine for Xi Xi.

  Xi Xi was like sitting on pins and needles, neither sitting nor standing. She glared at Xuan Mu with a displeased look in her eyes. Others didn't know about her relationship with Chen Yan, so they thought it was harmless to tease them to liven up the atmosphere. However, as someone who knew the truth, not only did Xuan Mu not help divert attention away from them, but she also kept directing the spotlight towards them.

  "Hurry up, don't be shy!" Luo Jia added fuel to the fire, and everyone echoed in agreement, the atmosphere suddenly reached a boiling point.

  Is Lai sitting on the chair pretending to be a ostrich or getting up and drinking to settle the matter? While Xi was hesitating, Chen Yan stood up beside him.

  He didn't move his own wine glass, but instead picked up the wine in front of Xi Xi, tilted his head and downed it in one gulp, then picked up his own wine and drank the whole cup.

  "The girls shouldn't drink outside." Chen Yan said, without looking at Xi Xi's reaction, sat down and picked up his chopsticks to continue eating. Before he even put the food in his mouth, his phone rang, and he got up to answer it. The whole series of actions was done smoothly, not giving anyone else a chance to say a word.

  The people at the dinner table looked at each other in dismay, their eyes on Xi Xi growing more and more ambiguous. Under such gazes, her face turned bright red, Chen Yan's deliberate maintenance made her slightly moved, a warm current flowing from the bottom of her heart, slowly filling her entire chest cavity.

  This familiar sense of security, she had thought was unique to Lu Dong Qi, until she experienced it with another person, only then did she realize her previous narrow-mindedness.

  If she didn't treat her interactions with Chen Yan as a game or a competition, would she be able to forget Lu Dongqi in his world? Xi Xi wasn't sure, but her mind was racing back and forth, starting to waver.

  "Sorry, I have something urgent, I'll leave first, let's play together next time." Chen Yan hung up the phone and returned to the private room, saying goodbye as soon as he opened his mouth.

  "No way, how can we go?" Tang Gongzi didn't allow it and refilled his cup with wine.

  "Really got something urgent, can I just drink three cups?" Chen Yan picked up the cup again, and almost all of the wine that had just been opened was drunk by him alone. He didn't want to leave now either, it's not easy to see Xia Xi, they hadn't even exchanged a few words before leaving, if it wasn't for the emergency on the other end of the phone...

  After drinking three cups, Chen Yan bowed his head and bid farewell again.

  "See you off," Xia Xi suddenly spoke up and followed him out.

  "I'm going too!" Master Mao saw the situation and also wanted to follow them out, but was stunned by the "hygiene balls" thrown at him with a unified gaze from the people left behind.

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