Wang Shu who was still in wonder saw the garish attired young man from a corner of his eyes; he changed his focus and recognised the young man. He sighed in his heart as he saw the unusual glitter in his dark eyes.
He went back to look at An Bing Qing and company, they were still laughing and jesting; pretty happy but completely unaware of the young man who was approaching with clearly no good intentions.
This situation made him kept his sight there, he was curious about how An Family's young masters will deal with it. If it weren't for this development, he would have already turned his eyes away some seconds ago.
Li Hao Shan was also looking at the scene that was taking part just before him but his eyes and expression were different from Wang Shu's. His eyes contained a kind of anticipation of watching a good show and couldn't help but pay extra attention to the parties. This made him frown an instant later as he regarded An Bing Qing seriously, 'She… why does she look familiar?' he rummaged into his memories.
Shortly after, the young man clad in purple with golden dragons embroidered on it came before the laughing trio and drew the attention of many eyes.
People will normally go to where another family was to greet each other but this usually happened with families in the same standing or that were in some kind of master and vassal family relationship. The young man clearly had a higher position and they hadn't heard about of some connection between their families but maybe there was about to be one as he was going to where the young maidens were and not the elders; this wasn't correct but all knew what temperament this young man had.
Many Elders shook their heads in disapproval from different kinds of reasons; quite of young lads were anticipating the show or sighing in regret; the smarter females where thanking from not being them and the arrogant females with less intelligence were burning with jealousy. Still, there were plenty of people who were uninterested.
An Bing Qing and company were now talking about what they had been doing in the past days so they were in a pleasant mood but their jolly laughs came to a stop when a haughty voice entered their ears, "But what do we have here? This Prince didn't know that Ouyang and An families' young ladies were beautiful like flowers and enchanting like the moon. They truly had both of you well hidden".
An Bing Qing froze for a moment before pulling Ouyang Qiao Qi behind her while An Yu Yong frowned at such pretentious words.
As An Bing Qing recognized the owner of the voice, she was the first to reply with a greeting, "His Imperial Highness, the Crown Prince, Bing Qing of the An Family greets you". She was neither haughty nor humble and she tried her best to put a mild and polite smile but she couldn't; there was a sliver of coldness dancing in her pitch black eyes while her surrounding aura felt detached and distant. He was a despicable man in her eyes; if it weren't because of this man thirsty self, she would have avoided plenty of problems.
'Even though he just is the Crown Prince, he already has tens of beauties in his backyard without counting his bed maids. When Qi'er entered his harem, I think he had a couple of dozens…'
In an instant and before her thoughts were evident in her expression, she thought, 'Yet again, none of those events related to him would have happened if it weren't because I was foolish and weak'. She collected herself and was able to paint a perfect smile, though the boundary she had drawn was still there.
As soon as An Bing Qing addressed the Crown Prince, An Yu Yong followed her greeting with his cynic and enigmatic charm when he recognised him while Ouyang Qian Qi gave a timid greeting; she looked with some pressure in her heart at the pompous young man with long dark hair that was luxuriously dressed.
The Crown Prince got fascinated by An Bing Qing's pristine smile and coolly breathe that he wasn't able to discern the undertones of An Yu Yong's ceremony or the cute response of Ouyang Qian Qi which was the reaction that he loved to see the most in pretty girls.
Thanks to his excellent education, he came back to earth and remembered the main reason of why he had decided to step forward at this time and place when he took a liking in these two girls.
He looked at An Bing Qing as if looking at a cornered prey.
Having such eyes on her made her uncomfortable; she couldn't guess why he was looking at her like that, it wasn't the covetous gaze of the past but one that contemplated her as though he already owned her.
Her smile widened to where her eyes were also smiling but her nonchalant aura remained.
Seeing the looks of her, the Crown Prince couldn't help but gave a step forward and stretch his hand out, hand that stopped just as it began to move as An Yu Yong interceded with his unique charming but cold tone, "His Imperial Highness, the Crown Prince, there are flowers that not even a god can harvest". His meaning was obvious.
An Bing Qing was frozen at the straightforward words her eldest brother had said while the Elders that were listening around dripped cold sweat but they knew it, their young master was more than angry and they couldn't possibly intervene.
The Crown Prince turned his head around to look at An Yu Yong, he deeply scrutinized him.
At the same moment, in Wang Family's post, Li Hao Shan patted his own forehead, 'Ah! I remember now! She is the woman of that…' He recalled with some apprehension that his thoughts weren't completed. He gave a quick thought and then flapped his dark blue sleeves while stepping forward and lowly said, "Let's go and save your beauty".
But after giving some steps, he didn't hear anything behind him; he turned his head back and added with a quick and mysterious wording that only Wang Shu could hear, "Tsk, this is the first time I saw you paying too much attention to someone, if you tell me that you don't like that beauty, I won't be buying that lie. We have been friends for years and I can tell you that you are already hooked by her, you will regret it later if you don't take this opportunity".
He reassumed his steps and said with a slightly sarcastic tone, "Let's go and greet the Crown Prince".
This time, Wang Shu raised an eyebrow, he couldn't make sense of his earlier words and he took them as a joke; he disregarded his latter sentence.
He gave a deep sigh in his heart. His friend had always liked to jest around and join the fun every now and then to the point where he had to clean his mess, as such, he also stepped forward; though he didn't like to take part of noisy occurrences. But at least, he must lessen the damage as the Crown Prince was involved.