Chapter 55 None of Your Damn Business

"Fine, Chen Fan, I'll remember this!"
"Uh... my pleasure?"
Xiao Sihe was furious, but Chen Fan completely refused to play by the book.
Just wait! During the upcoming banquet, I will have plenty of opportunities to make a fool of you!
He took a deep breath and ignored Chen Fan altogether.
"Ms. Peng, I didn't expect to run into you here."
"Well, I didn't expect it either. How did you even get in?"
There were staff members checking invitations at the entrance, so anyone who made it in must have been vetted. Peng Jiaxin asked this purely to humiliate the man who had been so impolite to her husband.
Sure enough, upon hearing Peng Jiaxin's words, Xiao Sihe's relatively handsome face completely collapsed. Leaving behind a "You guys just wait for me," he hurried into the elevator.
As for the task his aunt had entrusted to him...
Once Peng Jiaxin drank the potion he had prepared and they became a fait accompli, would an apology even be necessary?
At this thought, Xiao Sihe's mood improved slightly.
"Bro, who was that guy?"
"Your sister-in-law's suitor... one of them."
To be safe, Chen Fan added "one of them." After all, two suitors had already appeared in just a few short days. Given his wife's beauty and status, a few more popping up was entirely reasonable.
"Oh~ No wonder he acts like a clown."
"Pfft..."
Peng Jiaxin couldn't help but laugh out loud. Chen Fan's younger sister was simply too amusing.
"Let's go, the auction is about to start."
"Okay~"
...
Meanwhile, at the Sucheng Airport.
A tall, handsome man, whose aura was somewhat ruined by his anime cosplay outfit, was dragged by his ear by a red-haired beauty toward a luxury car that had been waiting for a long time.
"Damn Chen Fan, he sold me out again!"
The only way Ning璐 could have appeared at the train station the moment he arrived to drag him away—aside from Chen Fan that traitor selling him out—was a mystery to Xiang Yongyang, who couldn't think of any other reason.
He had just gotten off the train! Just gotten off the train!!!
"Bang!"
A merciless flick to the forehead interrupted Xiang Yongyang's wild imagination.
Ning璐 tossed a suit at Xiang Yongyang.
"Change into this immediately, we're already late."
The driver in the front sensibly raised the partition.
Xiang Yongyang: "???"
He glanced at Ning璐, who had already started changing clothes, and then looked at the suit in his hand.
"This... isn't quite appropriate, is it?"
"What's not appropriate? What haven't we seen when we were kids?"
Ning璐's pretty face blushed slightly, but in front of Xiang Yongyang, she refused to admit that she was embarrassed too.
"No, I mean, what if you covet my stunning looks?"
The slight romantic tension in the car instantly vanished without a trace, and Ning璐's expression plummeted.
"Are you changing or not? If you don't, I'll change you myself!"
"Changing, changing, changing."
After changing into the suit, Xiang Yongyang stood there in a daze, holding the tie and comparing it against his chest. Ning璐 rolled her eyes, snatched the tie away, and wrapped it around his neck for him.
"So what are we going to do dressed up so formally?"
Xiang Yongyang didn't dare look directly at Ning璐 right now. When she was serious, even he—who proudly claimed to love only two-dimensional girls—couldn't withstand her current level of beauty.
After tying the tie, Ning璐 nodded with satisfaction. When Xiang Yongyang wasn't wearing those bizarre outfits, he was actually quite handsome.
"We're going to the Angel Auction, remember? You were the one who won the bid for it."
That's right, the location of the Angel Auction had been fiercely contested. Everyone knew the benefits of hosting such an auction on their own turf, and this was the very first task the Xiang family had ever assigned to Xiang Yongyang since he grew up.
At the time, he had been thrilled, dragging a certain Comrade Chen around to work busily for days before successfully securing the bid.
The Xiang family seemed genuinely surprised that Xiang Yongyang had actually pulled it off. His old man was overjoyed and consequently handed over the venue decoration job to him as well.
Xiang Yongyang had become one of the people in charge of the Angel Auction, but given his three-minute attention span, he washed his hands of it after a few days, leaving all the subsequent coordination to Ning璐.
If not for Ning璐, he truly would have forgotten he even held such a title.
"Oh! That auction is today."
"Yeah."
Xiang Yongyang looked exceptionally pleasing to the eye in a suit. Ning璐 suddenly felt that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing even when this guy uttered foolish remarks.
"It officially starts at two. We still have half an hour, so by the time we arrive, the timing should be just right."
"That's great. I'll catnap for a bit, wake me up when we get there."
"Fine."
Ning璐's gentleness made Xiang Yongyang very unaccustomed, so he chose to feign sleep to avoid facing it.
...
Inside the venue, Chen Fan and his sister followed Peng Jiaxin to the middle section of the auction hall, taking seats right in the center of the third row.
As soon as they sat down, a waiter stepped forward to ask what they would like to eat.
Sitting at a small round table, Chen Mengting took the menu handed over by the waiter and asked in astonishment,
"You can eat at an auction?"
"Well, mostly just some desserts and tea. Eating a heavy meal in this kind of setting is still a bit inappropriate."
Peng Jiaxin patiently explained to Chen Mengting, who nodded with a half-understanding look.
Chen Fan also put away the thought of ordering "a bowl of beef fried rice"—he had no idea how this hotel managed to make its beef fried rice taste so ridiculously good.
He looked at Chen Mengting.
Bringing you along actually has some use after all, you little light bulb.
Though they couldn't order main courses, desserts were provided in unlimited quantities. Chen Mengting hesitated, finding all the desserts on the menu looking utterly delicious. She wanted to try every single one, but felt too embarrassed to order the whole lot.
"Bring one of everything."
Peng Jiaxin caught Chen Mengting's thoughts and spoke calmly.
"Certainly."
"Mwah~ Sister-in-law, I love you~"
Peng Jiaxin smiled and pinched Chen Mengting's cute cheek.
Moments later, the waiter returned pushing a small cart loaded with a variety of desserts that couldn't even fit properly on the small round table.
Seeing this, a plump woman wearing a mink coat sitting at the adjacent table let out a loud "Pfft" of amusement.
"Country bumpkins who have never seen the world, no idea how they even managed to sneak in."
With that, she picked up her cup of tea and took a slow sip.
The young girl, who was just about to reach out and dig in, froze and withdrew her hand awkwardly.
Peng Jiaxin's expression instantly turned icy.
Before she could speak, however, Chen Fan beat her to it.
"Yo, isn't this the vegetable vendor from the farmers' market? How did you end up wandering in here?"
Hearing this, the woman's expression shifted drastically.
"Who are you calling a vegetable vendor?"
"Whichever shoe fits, I suppose. Hey, big sis, how is it that you suddenly have the cash to attend an auction? Wasn't it just recently you told me your son was getting married and buying a house, wiping out your entire retirement fund, and begging me not to haggle over that extra twenty cents?"
The woman's face turned beet red. Normally, given her temper, she would have slapped him across the face, but in this setting, she had to endure it no matter how furious she was.
"Who do you think you are? Do I know you?"
"Oh~"
Chen Fan's tone dropped several degrees.
"So you don't know me then? In that case, what business is it of yours how much food we eat?"