“Xiao Su’s girlfriend looks gorgeous. How old is she? What did she study in school? What does she do for work? What do her parents do?”
The small crowd of people began to probe into Jiang Xiaobai’s life. When a group of relatives got together, it was inevitable for the nosy ones among them to get their hands on every piece of information possible. They were mostly harmless; they were just bored and ran out of things to say so they decided to ask questions—just like what they were doing to Jiang Xiaobai now. Besides, the questions were not malicious as they would do the same to whoever Xiao Su’s girlfriend was. Therefore, these questions did not upset Jiang Xiaobai, who was getting ready to answer each of them.
Before she could do that, Xiao Su, who had been remaining silent, inquired, “What time does the wedding start? Do we go in now?”
“It’s almost starting; maybe twenty more minutes. You guys came right on time. Perhaps you’d like to have some wine first.”
Wine? A smile flashed across Jiang Xiaobai’s face when she heard this, as she reckoned it was a good idea to have some wine at this point.
Very quickly, the topic was changed. Seeing the nonchalant look on her son’s face, Liang Yahe realized that these people had asked too many questions and made it embarrassing for Jiang Xiaobai to talk to them so much about herself. At this moment, Liang Yahe quickly smoothed things over. “That’s right. We shouldn’t be standing here anymore and be in the way of people trying to go in. We should all head inside now.”
So, the group of people started walking. Jiang Xiaobai and Xiao Su followed them from behind, and she let go of his arm when no one was noticing. Since it was only a show that she put on, after letting go of his hand, she kept some distance from him.
“I’ve told you before that this is your cousin’s wedding, and I don’t care if you don’t want to save your face. But, I want to save my face. Even if you want to lose face, you can do so yourself because I don’t intend on embarrassing myself today. So, if I need you to cooperate, please do so. We can tell the truth when we get back home.” She sounded cold and indifferent while Xiao Su silently glanced at her from the side. “Did you hear me?” Jiang Xiaobai stopped walking. With a long face, she confronted him, “If you don’t promise me now, perhaps we shouldn’t go inside. I can find a ride and leave here right now.”
Not expecting her to react this resolutely, Xiao Su stared at her for a while, speechless. “I can promise you that. You’re right—since we’re already here, I won’t let you embarrass yourself. We will tell the truth only when we get back home.”
“Okay. It’s agreed upon then.”
Even though the two had promised each other, they were still feeling slightly uncomfortable whenever they thought about the argument they just had and letting the cat out of the bag. They could not communicate comfortably anymore. After they entered the wedding venue, Xiao Su was needed somewhere else, so he left Jiang Xiaobai on her own. In the end, she found a seat at a table and sat down.
As Xiao Su was one of the closest relatives, he was invited to sit with the immediate family members at the wedding banquet. Since Jiang Xiaobai refused to be there, she found an empty spot at a table and sat down. Liang Yahe tried prompting her to sit with them, but it was to no avail. In the end, Liang Yahe told her that she would come looking for her slightly later after telling her to make herself comfortable.
At this table, there were a few ladies who were of the same age as Jiang Xiaobai. Noticing Liang Yahe’s care for her, they all became interested in knowing who she was.
“Hello there, I heard you’re Su’s girlfriend. Is that true?”
“Wow, Miss, you’re so pretty. How did you and Su meet?”
Jiang Xiaobai looked at them and realized that they were around the same age. It was probably out of respect for Xiao Su that they were addressing her as ‘Miss’. She responded with a smile, “You can call me Xiaobai, and I’m not his girlfriend.”
“Ah?” They were startled. “But didn’t you say…”
“I’m kidding.” Jiang Xiaobai smiled and continued, “I was just pulling your leg. Why would I come to this wedding with him if I weren’t his girlfriend?”
“That makes sense. So, Miss Xiaobai, what do you do?”
Whilst she was conversing with them, Jiang Xiaobai saw a glass of wine right in front of her and had an idea. After finishing half a glass, she topped it up for herself. Seeing how she drank the wine, the few ladies gasped in admiration. “Miss Xiaobai, do you drink often? Will you get drunk?”
Upon hearing this, Jiang Xiaobai realized that these ladies must have never tried any alcohol. She patiently explained to them, “Wine has a stronger after-effect, but taking just a little won’t be too bad. If you’re drinking it for the first time, perhaps you should go a little easy.” Truth be told, Jiang Xiaobai did not usually have too much of it as well, but when Fang Tangtang’s boyfriend began to work as a singer at the bar, she would always be dragged there by Fang Tangtang. Slowly, she picked up some drinking habits.
“Sounds good. Thanks for the heads up, Miss Xiaobai.”
The few ladies proceeded to start drinking with Jiang Xiaobai. Very quickly, all the wine on their table was finished—Xiaobai finished two-thirds of it. The other ones at the same table who were older than them saw this and remarked, “You shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach. What if you get drunk?”
“She’s right, Miss Xiaobai. You should eat something since you’ve been drinking so much.”
Jiang Xiaobai shook her head, believing that she was still fine. “I’m fine. You guys can dig in. I’ll ask for more.”
When the server came to serve up the dishes, Jiang Xiaobai asked for more wine. Since they had more females at this table, it was red wine that they had been consuming. But this was not the case with the main table where there were older male guests, who had been asking for hard liquor. Xiao Su thought that he could get away with it since he had to drive, but he was wrong.
“Today’s your cousin’s wedding; how can you not get wasted? If you’re drunk, just stay the night. Aren’t you tired after a day of driving? Your cousin has booked many rooms upstairs, so you and your family should just stay the night.”
Before Xiao Su could reject the offer, he thought about Jiang Xiaobai’s motion sickness after sitting in the car and her retching sound in the bathroom. It was horrible. Even though he could make his way back tonight, that might not be the case for Jiang Xiaobai. Since she had not been feeling well, they should just stay the night and only depart tomorrow.
Thus, Xiao Su accepted the offer even though he never liked alcoholic beverages and was not a good drinker. But on such a special occasion, everyone was drinking in celebration; if he did not follow suit, he would appear to be an outcast. After all, they were family. Seeing that Xiao Su did not reject the offer, they began to drink.
When Xiao Su’s cousin came with the bride for a toast, he nudged Xiao Su and whispered, “Su, you’re amazing. I saw your girlfriend earlier; she’s gorgeous.”
Xiao Su paused for a second and replied with a gentle smile, “Thanks.”
“All the best to you, Su. Please marry her soon so I can give you a toast.”
