Realizing that any gift that had been handed over to Lu Ran would be assigned to oblivion, Siyue couldn’t help protesting, “Bro!”
Acting as though he hadn’t heard Siyue’s protest, Tang Shi turned around to greet the next guest as if nothing had happened.
In a daze, Gu Qingcheng could only watch as her gift was being placed on the cart in front of Lu Ran.
She had truly never expected that the day would come when she would exchange positions with Feng Yiyi.
Feng Yiyi, whose gifts Tang Shi had always relegated to the ignore cart without even batting an eye, had now earned a place of significance in Tang Shi’s heart.
In the past, on Tang Shi’s birthday, Gu Qingcheng’s gift would be the first to be presented and the first to be unwrapped. But now, Tang Shi hadn’t even bothered to look at her gift, throwing it onto the cart together with all the other gifts that would soon be forgotten.
It was exactly like three years ago, when he had dumped her mercilessly after a night of passion.
Perhaps because she had watched Gu Qingcheng staring, for too long, at her gift on the cart parked in front of Lu Ran, one of the pile of gifts that were destined for the warehouse, Siyue got concerned. Anxiously, she made some eye signals to Su Nianhua, who shoved his own gift directly to Lin Jinchen and, in order to ease the tension, suggested, “Xiaoyue, Qingqing, come and have a drink with me?”
“Oh, okay.” Taking the cue, Siyue responded immediately and dragged Gu Qingcheng away from the crowd around Tang Shi.
The three of them returned to the isolated spot where Gu Qingcheng and Siyue had been chatting earlier.
Settling in, Siyue and Su Nianhua immediately began to work in tandem to ease the tension and divert the attention away from what had just happened.
But Gu Qingcheng seemed to have lost her energy and the excited aura that she’d displayed earlier during her animated conversation with Siyue. She just sat in her seat, looking desolate and saying nothing.
Siyue and Su Nianhua had originally intended to help Gu Qingcheng by diverting her attention away from Tang Shi’s rudeness with other topics of conversation. But because of her continued silence, they soon ran out of steam and ended up desperately searching for things to talk about.
Eventually, all three of them simply sank into a depressing silence.
Fortunately, at that time, food was served. Siyue broke up the depressing silence, saying immediately, “Qingqing, let’s go get something to eat.”
Although she had no appetite, Gu Qingcheng stood up and followed Siyue to the buffet.
While they’d been in his office the previous week, Tang Shi had mentioned that at his birthday party they would serve up different flavors of birthday cake. This was indeed the case.
While Gu Qingcheng and Siyue were selecting their food, Tang Shi was blowing out candles and cutting cake.
As usual, he was surrounded by a huge crowd.
Even Siyue had joined the crowd with her plate, angling for some cake.
“With so many people celebrating his birthday with him, Tang Shi wouldn’t publicly show his annoyance even if he didn’t like a person. Unless that person was me,” Gu Qingcheng thought.
Gu Qingcheng really didn’t want to be humiliated by him again, especially in front of so many people who were just waiting to gloat and laugh at her.
Very quietly, Gu Qingcheng circled around the cake section and went to a far end of the room where she selected some simple food and walked back to their isolated spot.
Su Nianhua had also joined in the fun at the cake section where most of the guests had congregated. She seemed to be the only one sitting out the fun, all alone.
Seated with her back to the cake section, Gu Qingcheng could hear the continuous stream of boisterous fun in the background, making her feel even more isolated and lonely.