"Liu Suya, you've really forced my hand now. How dare you treat Cui Ting this way, have you lost your goddamn mind?" The scathing remarks left the mouth of the man who had once sworn to protect her. His arms curled around Cui Ting's shoulders clearly demonstrating just how protective he was of her.
And Liu Suya, his fiancé of 15 years, was seen as nothing but a threat to his beloved. She couldn't stand it.
"Zhou Wei, don't you understand what you're doing right now? I'm your fiancé. How can you...you leave me for her of all people! This...this stupid whore of a common girl, your parents will never agree to it!!"
The altercation had already garnered the attention of everyone in the hall. Various socialites dressed in formal wear were all too keen to listen in on the drama between Liu Suya of the Liu family, Zhou Wei of the Zhou family and the Cui Ting the common girl he was rumoured to have recently become infatuated with. Not to mention Liu Suya's offending position on the floor in front of them. Someone had yet to lend a hand to help her up yet.
She felt a slight itch at the familiarity of those gazes. Zhou Wei glared at Liu Suya, obviously unhappy that she had insulted his Cui Ting. A young man next to him spoke up in refute, "You just don't get it, do you Liu Suya? Cui Ting doesn't have to come from a prestigious family in order to earn our respect. She's not had everything given to her on a silver plate, unlike you that is."
Liu Suya looked in Qian Jing's direction in disbelief, hoping that he would take it back. That this whole debacle was some kind of sick joke and that he knew the struggles that she'd been through to get to where she was today. But all she could find was an unhappy, matter-of-the-fact expression plastered proudly on his face, his stance was confident and resolute. She whipped her head around taking in the rest of their group, specifically two of the girls she had once been fairly close with. But Liu Shan -her cousin - and Que Yanshao, just looked at her like she committed some unspeakable crime. She should have expected it.
"Yeah, Cui Ting doesn't go round spreading rumours or trying to hurt others. She's kind and cares about the other people's wellbeing, something you've probably never understood."
So she gets to steal her fiancé because she's had a hard life? That makes her kind?!
"Yanshao, it's okay. I'm sure she didn't mean it."
There she goes again with her holier than thou attitude. Why was she always like this?
"Cui Ting, you can't let her get away with this sh*t, it's not fair on you. She's not even remorseful about the anguish she's put you through." Zhou Wei pleads with her, but Cui Ting only shakes her head and turns to look at Liu Suya with that nauseatingly determined look of hers. The same look that seemed to enamour this stupid fiancé of hers. Her mousy brown, naturally straight, hair fell past her shoulders framed Cui Ting's face as she gave Liu Suya a sweet but wry smile.
Cui Ting extended her hand, obviously with the intention of helping her up. Liu Suya stared at the offending hand in indignation, obviously not wanting to make physical contact with the b*tch who had so easily stolen away from her fiancé. And more recently friends.
Zhou Wei gazed at her like she was some sort of goddess. Liu Suya refused to cry, so she did the next best thing and she got really, really angry.
What transpired next happened in a matter of seconds.
Liu Suya was livid as she smacked away that damned hand from in front using a surprising amount of force. How dare she?... She steals her fiancé and then has the audacity to ruin her reputation like this.
Liu Suya could barely comprehend what occurred next. All she felt was something trickling over her head, down her hair and dress. The room was static. In this hall full of the capital's most affluent sons and daughters, she had just had a full glass of wine poured all over her, courtesy of her fiancé.
How could he treat her like this? Like all those years of her practically serving him, perfecting every little thing about herself were meaningless, compared to some girl he met a year ago. It was incomprehensible.
Liu Suya doesn't remember much of anything after that. She vaguely recalled Zhou Wei saying something to her, but she left before he could even finish. She wasn't going to cry here. Not in front of all these people.
She made her way out of the main hall and into the woman's toilets. Thankfully, Zhou Wei had only been holding a glass of white wine, so it didn't leave too much of a stain on her pastel green Valentino gown. She pulled her long black hair she'd had straightened that morning out of the meticulous bun atop her head. Her hair ended up reverting to its naturally curly state due to her attempts at washing out the alcoholic beverage. She felt too numb to care.
After cleaning herself up at the sink a little, she made eye contact with a sea of jade-green in the mirror. She took in her sorry state her face surprisingly blank despite having just been utterly humiliated.
What was it that made him so crazy about Cui Ting? Crazy enough to embarrass her like this? To throw her away like this?
Not being able to bear her current appearance any longer, Liu Suya left the restroom into the biting cold of the night, choosing to forego the main entrance and use a side one. She'd asked her chauffeur to drop her off earlier that night and wasn't willing to ruin his night as well. She bitterly chuckled at her earlier assumption that Zhou Wei would drop her off if at least to save face, he hadn't given her the time of day in months, yet she had persistently held on for dear life.
Liu Suya's taxi arrived less than 10 minutes later. Before she knew it, the taxi had pulled up to the Liu Family home.
***
Breakfast the next morning was a struggle, even more so than usual. She had never really gotten along with her older brothers and so the awkward silence that usually prevailed seemed almost deafening this morning.
Her father had always insisted that they share as many meals together as a family whenever possible. This meant that Liu Suya would never seem to get a break from the indifferent gazes of her older 2 brothers and the youngest's provoking sneer. Fortunately, she had used the excuse of being closer to university in order to move out and into her own place. So she really only had to deal with them on the weekend. Regardless, she just hoped to get through the meal without anyone bringing it up last night or without any communication at all.
*Ahem* "Su'er, I've heard that some less than stellar things occurred last night, involving your fiancé." And there it was.
Liu Suya loved her father honestly. He was a good parent if not a little absent, but that was expected when you're the CEO of a multibillion-yuan company. Although he was slowly leaving responsibilities to his sons, he still had ultimate power over the top priority decisions made.
Her 3rd oldest brother sat in front of her and gave her a smirk. "Yes, father." Her voice was monotone as she indifferently glanced away from Liu Jurong and his pathetic attempts at annoying her. "It seems we've had a small disagreement, father."
"Small disagreement?" Her father seemed sceptical.
"Yes, father."
"Well so be it. If anything comes out of this don't be afraid to tell me. There's a lot riding on your engagement."
"Thank you, father." The brief conversation ended and Suya could tell that Jurong was dying to add some sort of sarcastic remark. It had seemed he had learned from the last time father had told him off about them and had urged him to 'get along with his sister'.
The conversation was geared towards the company as her oldest brother Liu Chen, began to list off and explain his most recent company exploits. Her second oldest brother was currently in Shanghai for some business, so after Liu Chen finished father asked some more perfunctory questions about Liu Jurong's and Liu Suya's schooling etc.
As soon as breakfast was over, Liu Suya speedily went to her room to grab her bag and phone to leave. She wasn't willing to stay in this house for any longer than she had to. It was too suffocating. Unfortunately for her, it seemed that the universe just didn't feel like giving her a break.
In the corridor just outside her room stood her brother Liu Jurong. His dashing face had an indolent smirk etched into it. Liu Jurong was a handsome young man, with the type of smile that would make one think he had some sort of inside joke that no one else knew about. One that more than a few of her friends, well ex-friends now that her reputation was ruined, had told her they wanted in on.
It was just too bad that he was an asshole and that more often than not most would end up learning that the joke had been made at their expense. Still, there were many women that didn't mind. It was this same demeanour that had made him very popular with the girls in her class during high school, much to her annoyance.
Liu Suya for the nth time noted that for a 25-year-old, he often took a childish pleasure in tormenting her. "So not only did you thoroughly embarrass our Liu family this time, you can't even keep a fiancé."
She never quite understood Liu Jurong's persistence in annoying her. She could tell that it didn't come from the same friendly rivalry she had seen other siblings possess. The man just really didn't like her, it seemed to stem from something deeper than she could understand. Though she wouldn't be lying if she said she didn't feel the same way. Not that surprising seeing as the only thing he seemed to share with her was a father. Still, though she would much rather prefer to have an indifferent relationship, as she did with the two oldest Liu family sons.
Liu Suya didn't see the point in responding. Or perhaps she stubbornly still didn't want to believe that Zhou Wei would go through with actually breaking off their engagement. After all, no matter how enamoured he was with her, Cui Ting was just a common girl and they came from two completely different worlds.
Walking past him, she heard and faint chuckle as he went on. "I can't believe you lost to some common girl. If you don't have this engagement, what other worth do you bring to this family?"
It was too early in the morning for this.
Luckily for Liu Suya, someone had chosen the most opportune of times to call her. She muttered a quick perfunctory sorry and practically ran for the front door, not wanting to also bump into her oldest brother and risk the chance of a potential stare down.
"Hey, Mei."
"Su, so I just heard about what happened last night! I can't believe that asshole! And after everything you've done for him. I can't believe he would just..."
"It's alright Mei" She tried to pacify her best friend on the other end of the phone. "It's not that big of a deal anyways. It was just a small disagreement; it'll probably all blow over soon."
The other end of the phone went quiet. "Su..." Liu Suya was instantly filled with a sense of dread at An Meiyu's tone.
"You haven't seen it yet have you?"
"Seen...seen what exactly?" Her voice was quiet.
"You might wanna check Weibo..." Liu Suya didn't let her finish. She loaded up the app only to be hit with various hashtags on the trending page.
[#WinstonBlueCharity ball]
[#richgirlrejected]
[#CuixZhouCP]
Mengmenglovefish: can u believe the nerve of this b*tch, that girl tries to help her up but she slaps her hand away like that, this is why I can't stand rich people, good thing young master Zhou rejected her, good riddance #richgirlrejected #cuixzhou
3rilo890: really don't know who she thinks she is, just because she has money, she can get away with stealing someone's boyfriend
Marshymel: Here's the video from Duyin, don't think she deserved to have wine poured all over her but she is still a b*tch in my opinion #cancelled
51piecesofmeat: I respectfully disagree with your opinion, I think she was let off easy
Gxghostly: Woah, she is evil #cancelled +1
Minotry: #cancelled +1
Sulovestingting: #cancelled +56173
rinxy: Still though apparently, it was her fiancé that was leaving her, I'd be mad too
Chimmy345: Yeah, couldn't they have at least talked it out privately rather than to publicly...
All at once, it felt the ground had just disappeared from underneath her. She continued scrolling through the comments being made about her, most of which were negative. She could vaguely hear Meiyu's voice through her phone, trying to get her to answer, but she couldn't hear her over the sound of her own heartbeat. "...ya... Su... Suya!!"
Suya quickly put the phone to her ears, her hands still shaking. "Yeah," she weakly croaked.
"Su..." Concern practically dripping from her voice. "Tell you what Su, come to this coffee shop near Xizhimen station. It's really quiet, we can talk there. I'll send you my location alright?"
"Err...um. Yeah, sure."
***
Liu Suya focused solely on stirring the vanilla latte in front of her. She could feel Mei's tentative looks from across the table. They had chosen to sit in a quiet corner of the café, the silence only interrupted by the muted murmurs of other compatriots and the sound of the spoon hitting the inside of her cup. Feeling that she had stirred the contents of her cup enough to last a lifetime, she placed the spoon down next to it to take a sip. The coffee felt smooth in her mouth and the hint of sweetness from the vanilla syrup used helped soothe her frazzled nerves at least a little.
Liu Suya finally moved her attention towards her very concerned friend and gave her a wry smile. An Meiyu's eyes softened a smile lighting up her pretty face. Her wavy black hair cropped short at her collar bone, framed her face giving her a sweet girl-next-door vibe that made one feel at home.
Liu Suya almost didn't feel the need to say anything, which was refreshing because the last couple of days she felt everyone she met wouldn't let her say anything at all to defend herself. But somehow the fact An Meiyu was here and willing to listen was enough.
"So... Do you want to talk about it?"
"No not really, but I probably don't have any choice in the matter do I?" She sighed. An Meiyu smiled. "Of course not. I'm your best friend, it's my job to force you to do things you may not want to do but should do. Such as when I got you to bungee jump that canyon in the states last year."
"God, don't remind me." Liu Suya winced at the memory before giving a defeated look to her friend, who simply raised a brow as if daring her to say something. The staredown was held for a good couple of seconds before neither of them could take it anymore and they broke out into light laughter.
"I still can't believe you talked me into that."
"What can I say, it's a gift." Liu Suya snorted at her proclamation, but a small tranquil smile was still present on her pretty little face. It was almost strange how at peace An Meiyu made her feel, despite not having talked for the last couple of days it felt like no time had passed at all. For the first time in the last 24 hours, Liu Suya didn't feel like she was suffocating.