In the private room number 1 of the bar tonight, several girls were letting loose, celebrating the last of their single life before their good friend's engagement.
“Come on, after this drink, You Ran will transition from a maiden to a married woman. Ouch, who threw that at me, it hurt...” The clinking of glasses echoed delightfully in the room, accompanied by the occasional smack and laughter.
“You Ran, we all wish you good luck as you're the first among us to explore the graveyard of marriage. Stay strong!” Jiang Qin Qin, hiccuping from alcohol, held up her glass high, proposing a fiery toast to tonight’s star, Chu You Ran.
Chu You Ran of the Chu family, who was infamous and thus a hot topic of gossip, had become increasingly popular over the past few days.
What was the reason, you ask?
It was because Chu You Ran was about to defy all the spiteful curse that nobody dared marry her. The man who was about to marry her was none other than the most illustrious young master of Yun City’s Jiang family.
Tsk-tsk, such good fortune was like a thorn in the heart of the countless young girls waiting to get married in Yun City. All of them were gnashing their teeth in envy, deriding the situation as a beautiful flower growing out of cow dung.
Yes, the delicate flower was none other than the noble young master of the Jiang family, Jiang Zi Xuan. She, Chu You Ran, was the piece of stinky cow dung.
The source of all this scandal and resentment, Chu You Ran, seemed untroubled. She held a glass of red wine, lazily leaning on the sofa, and occasionally took a sip. Her exquisite face, glistening with traces of wine, looked even more radiant.
“You Ran, are you really going to get married like this? I heard your never-before-seen fiancé doesn't have any interest in women. What were you thinking? Isn't it going to be tough after marriage?”
A tipsy Jiang Qin Qin approached her and began to nag.
Chu You Ran tilted her head, giving Jiang Qin Qin a side-eyed glance filled with undisguised disdain and mockery, "If you are willing, I wouldn't mind you taming him for me."
Pfft-
Jiang Qin Qin spat out a mouthful of wine, causing the others in the room to roar with laughter and cough.
Chu You Ran maintained her expression, ignoring the showoff Jiang Qin Qin. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she wiped the wine drops off her hand.
Jiang Qinqin asked persistently, "Hey hey hey, Youyou, don't you have any thoughts at all?"
Thoughts?
Chu Youyou smiled, her gaze filtering through the wine-colored scenery in front of her, chaotic and mottled, just like her inner world at this moment. Without any specific reason, Chu Youyou suddenly felt an indescribable disgust, a revulsion for all hypocrisy, all manipulations!
Does she really not have any thoughts? Of course, she does. However, she could never have imagined that her own mother and stepfather would loathe her to such an extent, their impatience was palpable. She had only graduated from high school a year ago; they couldn't even afford her the chance to experience life at university before they surreptitiously sold her off.
"Youyou, don't overthink it," she says. "If we can't change our fate, we might as well go with the flow and accept what destiny has in store. As the ancients used to say, 'Enjoy wine today, worry about tomorrow's problems tomorrow.' Let's drink and make the most of your last moments of freedom."
Interrupted by Jiang Qinqin's babbling, Chu Youyou snapped back to reality, her lips curling into a mocking smile.
Taking the wine from Su Yue, Chu Youyou's red lips touched the rim of the glass and she drank it down with gusto. She said, "Jiang Qinqin, you do know how to sugarcoat your words. Imagine a person like me, Chu Youyou, who is scorned wherever I go. Being burdened with a worthless fiancee like me, the one who should be worried is not me, but the young master of the Jiang family."