Actually, Gu Qianqian had been frozen in place ever since he started talking with his mother. He was calling his mother Miss Lin, meaning she was his elder, right?
She had already been embarrassed enough, but now it turned out he was... her elder!
Humiliated, Gu Qianqian met Lu Zhanbei's gaze, wishing she could find a hole and crawl into it.
But with so many people watching, all she could do was pretend to stay calm and stand up to greet him politely, "Hello."
"Hm."
He responded indifferently, his cold gaze briefly sweeping over Gu Qianqian's face before moving downward…
She wasn't sure if she was imagining it, but it seemed like his gaze was landing in inappropriate places…
He was so blatant, not seeming to care at all about others' reactions. It was as if everyone else was merely decoration, completely out of his field of vision…
Gu Qianqian felt her face get hot again.
This embarrassment was overwhelming, and Gu Qianqian sat down as though her thoughts were suddenly aflame.
But just as she sat down, her mother reached over and gave her a harsh pinch.
Feeling the pain, Gu Qianqian belatedly realized how impolite her behavior must seem to her elder.
But she cared about her dignity too!
How thick-faced would she have to be to sit still as her elder stared at her in that way?
And why was her mother acting so favorably towards a man who had tried to make her leave right when she arrived?
"Zhanbei, Qianqian is still young and doesn't fully understand manners. Don't blame her."
"Hm."
Again, that noncommittal response.
Having responded, Lu Zhanbei began to use his chopsticks gracefully, not caring at all about other people's varying expressions, eating as if nobody else was present.
Everybody else was waiting, but he…
He ate with such elegant bearing, immediately portraying him as a well-educated individual.
Whether it was the way he held his chopsticks or the look in his eyes as he lowered his gaze and took a sip of soup, she didn't hear him make a single sound.
Just as she was marveling at this, her stomach suddenly growled loudly…
Startled, she quickly covered her stomach, which was already growling due to hunger. Almost at the same time, Lu Zhanbei's icy gaze swept across the table towards her.
With just that one look, Gu Qianqian's face heated up again.
She felt humiliated, overwhelmingly humiliated…
This was undeniably humiliated in front of the whole family!
While she was silently wailing over her growling stomach, a sudden bang resounded. It was Lu Zhandong slamming down angrily on the table.
"What are you doing?"
Lu Zhendong seemed greatly displeased by this, his tone lacking the gentleness of an elder, sounding downright rude: "The guests haven't arrived yet, how can you start eating?"
"I'm hungry."
Being a man of few words, if he could solve a problem with fewer words, Lu Zhanbei would never say more than necessary, and it was precisely this nonchalance that made Lu Zhendong even angrier.
"Lu Zhanbei!"
All three words were filled with suppressed rage, with Lu Zhendong's finger pointing at him trembling.
But Lu Zhanbei seemed not to care at all, he put down the bowl in his hand and looked up, "If elder brother doesn't like me coming down for dinner, then I'll leave…"
And with that, he actually stood up!
Seeing that he seemed really about to leave, a furious Lu Zhendong yelled, "You, you... you stand right there."
Lu Zhanbei did stop, but the look in his eyes as he turned back was piercing, filled with an untamable defiance…