As the music began to play, couples greeted their partners with a small tilt and bow.
Chen Mu extended his hand out with his palms facing upwards, "May I?" Susu hesitated and warned, "I'm not one bit close to being a decent dancer." He chuckled and grabbed her hands, "All fine with me. Dance is not about how great you could do it, but who you're dancing with. Let go of your nervousness and concentrate on feeling me. We can go as slow as you want to."
She nodded as their arms circled around each other and went their own pace. Whenever Susu would try to fasten up their moves, Chen Mu would remind her, "No need to dance like others. Do it at your comfortable pace. We have all night."
Every sense of nervousness diminished as she relaxed and followed the beat of the music better. With his eyes locked to hers, they exchanged a sweet smile with only each other in their eyes. As if this was a dream, it felt magical like a prince matching a princess in their own castle. Their steps matched each other's pace. As they circled around the room, everyone's attention was focused on them.
"Chen Mu," Susu whispered, "Everyone's watching us."
His hand gave hers a gentle squeeze. He let out a soft chuckle, "Oh? I haven't noticed."
"You're going to say that your eyes are filled with me, aren't you?" She was quite used to his sweet lines to the point where she could predict the next.
He spun her once and pulled her to his embrace as they continued dancing, "Oh? Seems like our hearts are connected, my dear. Don't you think I deserve a kiss?"
"Pfft, only you can say these things without being shy. Even if I say no, you will still get it your own way." She naturally moved along his pace and danced the way he guided her to.
Meanwhile, Lin Que and Lily were dancing in their own way as well. "With this fierce flaming hot dress, it's too soft to dance our regular ball dance, hmm? Don't you think?" Lily said at the beginning of the dance.
Lin Que pinched her chin and lifted her head slightly, "Then shall we go with the flow?"
"Oh? Not going to try fighting me for a regular dance?" Lily asked as she took off her heels.
"Heh, too late to discuss that now right? Since the first day that I've met you, the word, normal, never existed in your dictionary. It's exactly because you're like this that I fell in love with you. The difference made you unique and one of a kind. What more can I ask, wifey?"
His voice held the same type of doting as it always did when speaking to her. "You..You always make me speechless hahaha, alright then. Shall we dance? I don't have my ballet shoes, so I can't do much."
"Who says you don't?" He snapped his fingers, and a waiter brought a chair over with a shoebox in his hands.
"Sit down," Lin Que helped her sit on the chair and opened the shoe box to bring out a pair of ballet shoes that matched with her dress.
"Y..You.." Lily was caught between her words as she watched him slip the shoes on her feet.
"I could do it myself," She blushed slightly, but his hands refused to let go.
"Nu uh, is our Lily feeling shy now? Not the first time this happened. Not everyone could wear this pair of shoes, but you definitiely can. Dance as you like, my queen." After putting her pair of heels into the shoe box, he stood up and held out his hand to invite her for a dance.
"May I have the honor?" He smiled meaningfully at her, reminding her of how they first met. "Always." Her hand felt his as they got themselves in their position and waited for the waiter to bring the chair and shoe box away from them before they started to dance. While everyone danced professionally to the music being played, only Lin Que and Chen Mu went accords to what their partners wished.
Karen gritted her teeth when she saw Tian Yuo's eyes on Susu once again. This time, she saw how his arms were placed in mid-air, clearly in a dancing position. Her eyes teared up as she followed his gaze towards Chen Mu and Susu where they were smiling sweetly together and parted once in a while to talk.
"Hate! I hate you all! Every single one of you!" Karen's white knuckles surfaced the skin of her tight fist as she looked around and found kids playing with a bag of marbles. She snatched the bag of marbles impulsively and scattered it onto the dance floor, aiming at Susu and Lily's direction.
Since other couples grew tired of dancing or wanted to have chats with other guests, they only danced for the first few minutes and separated. Therefore, only Chen Mu and Lin Que were still dancing with their girls.
"Let's see how you'll get out of this one." A grin appeared on her face as tears dripped down her face. Lily stepped onto a marble and lost her balance, but with years of ballet experience, she quickly adjusted her position and naturally wrapped her leg around Lin Que's. Noticing a change in her movements, he reciprocated and matched hers perfectly. Her body was leaned against his as her arms circled backwards around his nape.
Elegantly and boldly, her move convinced the audiences that it was an originally planned move. Meanwhile, Chen Mu was in the middle of giving Susu another spin when she slipped from the marbles on the floor. Smoothly, his arm slid onto her back and secured her position in his embrace. With his guide, she found her pace once again and completed the dance.
At the end of the dance, both Lin Que and Chen Mu had leaned in and stole a kiss from their partners before they had to separate. Under the eyes of the audience, the couples were the ones acting the most carefree, winning everyone's applauding.
The four smiled and thanked everyone for their claps. As they exited the dance floor, Lily and Susu's smile froze and turned to Lin Que and Chen Mu who had the same expressions. "Karen." With one look under Lily's ballet shoes, lemongrass and mustard stains were visible.
The four located Karen and cornered her out of everyone's sight. Tian Yuo was the only one who noticed and decided to interfere since he brought Karen to the event. He couldn't let her lose any more face than she already did.
Tian Yuo stood in front of Karen after spotting the five of them together, "Hold on. You guys already avenged her by messing up her outfit. Give me some respect and let her off. This is a grand event after all."
Lin Que and Chen Mu cracked their knuckles and stretched their neck, "We don't hit women, but never said we won't hit men." Both of them said at the same time without showing signs of backing up.
"You guys are unreasonable. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. You've already avenged for the red wine, why insist on further action? Is that how it is, Yin Susu? You like bullying your stepsister like you always did since young?" Tian Yuo was so slow to catch on the ugly expression on Chen Mu's face.
Susu rolled her eyes, "You see, if you don't have a brain, we're not obligated to give you any guides. Think before you speak. If she didn't provoke us, why would we bother giving her a millisecond of our attention? As for bullying, who bullied whom? Want to dig dirt from the past? I'm afraid Karen is the one who should be most afraid of talking about the past."
Karen grabbed Tian Yuo's suit and wrinkled it, "Brother Yuo! You must help me. They're making things up and stirring up trouble. I've already got what I deserved, but they wouldn't even let me off."
Lin Que was quick to take action as he settled Lily on a chair and took off one of her ballet shoes. Chen Mu held out a handkerchief and showed a stained marble with strong mustard and lemongrass scent to it. "This is called not letting you off, huh? Got what you deserved? I don't think so."
"What is the meaning of this? What would that have anything to do with Karen?" Tian Yuo already guessed what she had done, but refused to acknowledge that as a fact.
"This marble is just one out of many that are still scattered on the dance floor." The harshness in Chen Mu's voice could not be contained even though he was trying to suppress his anger.
"And this here, do you dare say it is not lemongrass and mustard on it? I can prove it to you." Lin Que had the shoe in his hand and maintained his calmness. Everyone knew that the calmer Lin Que looked, the angrier he was.
"How do you prove it?" Tian Yuo didn't believe they could do anything as long as Karen didn't admit to anything.
"Oh? This means that you're standing up for her hmm? Alright. Prove it? Easy." Lin Que smacked the bottom of the ballet shoes on Tian Yuo's new white suit, smudging yellow stains on it. The scent of the mustard and lemongrass disgusted him greatly as he stepped backwards and quickly looked for a napkin to wipe it off. The more he wiped, the worse the stain became.
"Did you like your girlfriend's gift to you? A footprint of lemongrass mustard. You should thank her and give her a nice kiss. This is just a warning since the marbles didn't hurt Lily or Chen Mu's Susu. If this marble harmed any of them, she wouldn't be here talking, but behind bars. Don't think that with the power of our families, we wouldn't be able to get a hold of the security cameras here."
Chen Mu continued, "Go home and discipline your woman. Or even better, put a leash on her so she wont go around biting others. She already attempted to bite Susu and Lily a few times today. If these marbles had hurt Susu or Lily, it wouldn't just be jail time. Whichever hand touched the marbles would also be part of the price for doing what she did. Understand?"
This was the first time Tian Yuo had seen Chen Mu like this and also the first time speaking to Lin Que. Everything felt so unfamiliar to him. He tried to reach out to Chen Mu, but failed as Chen Mu avoided his touch and went back to Susu's side.
Behind him, Karen was shivering and hugging her yellow stained arms. She was afraid that the Lin and Chen family would come after her. After hearing Chen Mu's threat, she continued to deny her actions and hoped that Tian Yuo would believe her.
Tian Yuo looked at her with distrust in his eyes, "Did you really not do it?"
"B..Brother Yuo, don't listen to them. I really didn't do it. I swear..." Her voice was cut off by two crying children as they dragged their parents to Karen.
"Mommy, daddy, it's her. The nasty smelling woman who took our marbles from us! Make her give it back to us. Make her! It's our marbles. wahhhh, she even slapped my hand when I refused to give it to her," the little girl and boy cried to their parents.
Tian Yuo walked away the moment he heard the children's cry and Karen was stuck with getting busted once again.