"Welcome, everyone, and thank you for coming tonight!"
Li Yaorui stood up out of her seat and raised her wine glass filled with sparkling water.
"We would like to start by wishing you a happy new year, and we hope that you all live a long a prosperous life," She continued.
This time Long Ao stood up and spoke, "For now, feel free to mingle around and enjoy the entertainment. To the right of the room is where the buffet is, please enjoy Gong Xie Fat Choy!"
After Long Ao's finished speaking, they waited for the short applause from the audience to come to an end before getting off the stage to allow her sister and the infamous Harry Woods to begin performing.
As soft traditional Chinese music started up, the guests began to form their cliques while some of them approached others to talk about business, she assumed.
Samuel had temporarily left her to grab them some food. Her brother had challenged him to see who knew her better. She imagined that they were now arguing at the buffet table.
She giggled slightly at the thought.
"What's so funny?" Wenshi sat next to her sipping her presumably red juice out of her wine glass, "Come on and tell me,"
"Our boyfriends arguing,"
"That's funny, but do you wanna know something more exciting?"
"What?"
"Eating delicious food, they're taking too long, let's go get our own,"
And with that, her best friend dragged her off to the buffet table where Gebao and Sheng Rong were already.
Surprisingly, their lovers were nowhere in sight.
Though slightly bothered, they proceeded to pile their plates with food and invited Sheng Rong and Gebao to their table.
"Where did your boys go?"
"Somewhere," Sheng Rong shrugged.
"Probably with your boys,"
"Yaorui!"
"Angli?"
"I didn't know you were here, when did you arrive?"
"My family got here a bit later because we were moving into a new house today,"
"Congrats, what side of the city is it on?"
"Oh, it's right next door, let me re-introduce myself." He grinned devilishly. "I am Hu Angli, your new neighbour,"
The atmosphere turned awkward after that honestly, she was more worried about how a certain someone would react.
"Rui'er?" Speaking of the devil.
"Samuel~!" He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and smiled.
"I see you have your own food,"
She scoffed, "You took too long,"
"Well, of course, it'd take a bit longer if I'm going out to buy your favourite food,"
A sudden whiff of Fifi's macarons caught her nose. Oh, how she loved that sweet heavenly scent~! Realizing her mistake in scolding him, she quickly praised the handsome young man behind her.
"I'm sorry, dearie, you didn't take too long! Who said that? Not me!" Everyone in hearing distance laughed at her antics.
Pleased, Samuel set the box of sweets in front of her.
"Here, this is Aishi's favourite, can you take it to her? She deserves a break from all the singing," She held up a strawberry macaroon to Samuel.
"Sure thing," he smiled and ran off, not forgetting to send a warning glance at Hu Angli that was missed by her.
"Hey Yaorui~ we've been friends for a long time, right?" Gebao discreetly slid into her peripheral view.
"Yeees," She eyed her friend suspiciously.
"How about a macaroon for your best friend?"
"Hmph! Dream On!"
"It was worth a try,"
______________________
"Xiao Shi!"
"Brother Sam! Is that for me?" Li Aishi looked expectantly at the pink macaroon in Samuel's hand.
"En,"
"Thank you, brother! My stomach will greatly treasure it!" He laughed and left to return to the side of his future queen.
Li Aishi let her signature smile, 'Samuel likes me!'
___________________
The rest of the night went uneventful.
Yaorui engaged in a few business discussions with some businessmen and women. Greeted some of the late guests and made conversations with a few elders and family friends.
To no surprise, Samuel stayed by her side the majority of the night and sometimes her friends would linger around.
Some of her family friends came prepared with red envelopes as per traditions though the families with no personal connections did not. Possibly because they thought that they didn't need the money, though they weren't wrong, it's fun to argue about rejecting the red envelopes sometimes.
Samuel also received some envelopes from a small portion of those guests. Though, mostly he received praise from the grandmas and aunties.
Her brother, on the other hand, was proudly showcasing his wonderful girlfriend while being a jealous puppy at the same time. She didn't know what he was thinking.
Probably something along the lines of: "I wanna show the world she's mine, but I don't anyone to see what's mine,"
That was possibly the closest she'll ever get to his thoughts.
Every now and then, she and Samuel would come across a couple who brought their kid(s) and a few parents that were eager to introduce their son(s).
She'd picked the chubby angels every time!
Their cheeks were so squishy!
The best parts were when she got to watch Samuel interacting with them. They absolutely loved him! Her heart swooned every time she remembered the scenes.
Of course, they didn't love him more than her, they were all never willing to let go of her.
By the looks of it, Gebao was having the time of her life playing with kids while Jiexu did the same, though most of the time, his eyes were focused solely on her bestie.
Sheng Rong, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen. She assumed that she was in the kitchen with Mu Jian Nu eating some of his delicacies while having a mini date night. She was secretly wishing for the two to make their relationship official soon.
Unsurprisingly, the Kahns and the Gu's were clumped together. They were surrounding her two favourite angels Kahn Sunmi and Gu Licheng.
The two little angels wore matching gold outfits that shone and sparkled in the light. Coupled with their constant display of affection, she swooned into Samuel's expectant arms, the cuteness from the two too much for her weak heart.
UwU
Soon some of the elderly guests and parents started to trickle out of the Li Family estate with sleeping youngsters in tow. They were just as cute as they were jumping around with a sparkle in their eyes.
The instrumentalists had taken over, allowing her sister and Xing Wuchen to retire for the rest of the night.
Before the children left, she made sure that the children would be able to watch the lion dancers do their thing. Though she saved the Chinese opera singers for after they left, she too found them a bit scary when she was younger.
Since it was getting late, it was nearly time for her to leave all the adults to her brother and retire for the night.
Samuel and his family were preparing to leave to get some sleep in before their flight tomorrow morning.
Her sister had already gone up to her bed. She was planning to follow behind after she said goodbye to her lover and his family.
Samuel was the last of his family to leave. He kissed her on the forehead and then lips, he squeezed her closer to his body before walking towards his family.
She watched as his back turned towards her, and his feet led him farther and farther away, taking her heart with them.
She let out a sigh and waited for the puff of white air to disappear before she returned to the walls of her home, closing the door behind her.
A few of the guests wished her goodnight and a happy new year as she headed to her bedroom. A few of them watched as she disappeared pass the large archway and turn the corner to take another tiring flight of stairs to her room.
The whole front of the house was for party or event services only, whereas the back of the house was the part of the house where they actually lived. In between those two was their roundabout hallway that was almost impossible to get lost in since they all went back to the front somehow.
Of course, there's the lucky few who took the right turns and ended up on the wrong side of the house.
As she walked down the halls, she passed ancient paintings of her family members, vases worth millions and other artifacts she practically grew up with. Her eldest brother Shen Hui was set to inherit the house should anything happen to her parents. Her grandparents on her father's side had already moved out into the countryside of China by the rolling seas.
Then there was the off chance that something might happen to her brother and Xie Fanlong, then the house would fall to her since her second brother Long Ao had expressed his dislike for the head position of the family.
At the end of the main hallway hung the portrait of Li Shimin, the second son of the last emperor and the empress. He was the royal that she descended from.
Not minding the portrait, she continued up down the halls and took a sharp right.
When she finally reached the doors leading to her bedroom, she entered and changed out of her dress before sinking into the comforts of her bed.
And with that, she drifted away from reality.