When she'd first returned to Beijing, Gu Qingcheng had been very confident about her chances of marrying Tang Shi and thus bringing glory to her family and becoming a respected member of her clan.
In fact, since her return, she had been working hard toward this goal, fighting and enduring… She had always believed that as long as she worked her hardest at doing her best to please Tang Shi, she would fulfill her wish to marry him and become the mistress of the Tang family.
To achieve her goal, she had endured all the insults and humiliations that Tang Shi had thrown at her.
She had assumed that she would be able to hang in there and endure anything until she was officially his wife, until she had achieved her goal.
But now, she realized that she had already reached a point where she could no longer endure.
Gu Qingcheng's lips trembled at this thought as she looked increasingly dejected.
"Qingqing…" Siyue's voice suddenly sounded from very close behind her. Gu Qingcheng quickly suppressed her gloom and swallowed hard to regain her composure. Then she turned her head and smiled.
Siyue and Su Nianhua were walking toward her, each holding two plates piled with cakes of different flavors.
Siyue and Su Nianhua put the plates of cake down on the table. Shaking her wrists to relieve her muscles from their aches of having to carry two plates of cake all the way back to their isolated spot, Siyue said, "Nianhua and I took a slice of each flavor. Qingqing, just help yourself to the flavors that you like."
That said, Siyue looked up at Su Nianhua, "Nianhua, I asked you to remember all the different flavors. Can you tell which is which?"
Su Nianhua, who had a photographic memory, raised his hand and pointed, starting with the plate on the left, to each slice of cake, stating its corresponding flavor.
Gu Qingcheng followed Su Nianhua's finger as he went round describing each slice of cake. When she heard him say vanilla, she used her knife to cut a big slice of that one and put it on her plate.
The cake was good, but a tad too rich when eaten in quantity.
Gu Qingcheng ate half her slice and put down her fork.
There was a boisterous noise coming from a distance away, as though there was a game being played.
After three years, Siyue still looked as slim as ever. As was her habit, whenever she could she would avoid eating too much during dinner. So, after a couple of forkfuls of cake, she stopped eating. Waiting until Gu Qingcheng and Su Nianhua had also finished eating, she then suggested, "Let's go over there and join in the fun, shall we?"
Gu Qingcheng looked toward the area where many of the guests seemed to be enjoying themselves and caught sight of Tang Shi in the crowd. He was sitting calmly in his chair with a glass in his hand.
It was probably her imagination, but she had the feeling that Tang Shi seemed to be looking in her direction, so she quickly averted her gaze. To Siyue and Su Nianhua, Gu Qingcheng shook her head and lied, "I had too much to drink and don't feel so good. I will sit this out, but you guys should go and have some fun."
Being smart people, Siyue and Su Nianhua of course knew that what Gu Qingcheng wanted was to avoid another run-in with Tang Shi in front of all these people.