“Uh-huh.” Strangely, Tang Yuanyuan was feeling nervous as she feared that Meng Kefei would reject her invitation.
“Got it.”
Meng Kefei’s response remained cold. At this point, Tang Yuanyuan felt that her enthusiasm had almost run out. So, she pursed her lips and carefully inquired, “Fei, will you come?”
Tang Yuanyuan was fully expecting to receive the answer that she was afraid to get. However, much to her surprise, Meng Kefei answered, “Yes. I’ll be there. Don’t worry.”
Her response pleasantly surprised Tang Yuanyuan, who instantly got out of her bed and stood there.
“Really? You will?”
“Of course, it’s your coming-of-age ceremony, so I’ll definitely be there. When should I be there?”
“Either tomorrow or the day after that. I also would like my designer to design a dress for you.”
Meng Kefei responded after a moment of silence, “I’m afraid that won’t work for me. I have a lot to take care of recently. Maybe I’ll go over on the day of the ceremony.”
“Ah. Okay then.”
Tang Yuanyuan was slightly disappointed by the fact that Meng Kefei could not join her for the preparation, but her willingness to be there still delighted Tang Yuanyuan.
After the phone call, Tang Yuanyuan gave the designer a call to tell him Meng Kefei’s height and weight, so that he could also design a dress of the same style for Meng Kefei. The designer agreed to it, and Tang Yuanyuan happily hung up the phone.
That night, Zhang Xiaolu and Yuan Yuehan sent Tang Yuanyuan a message on WeChat asking if they could come to the ceremony.
After receiving that message, Tang Yuanyuan was reluctant to invite them as she felt that they were up to something. In the end, she decided to let Mrs. Tang know about their request.
Mrs. Tang patted her head. “Sure. Otherwise, they might talk behind your back to your friends. There are going to be many people during the ceremony, so I don’t think they would be able to make a scene.”
Furthermore, Mrs. Tang felt that there was only one reason these two would like to come, which was because they had their eyes on the resources and connections of the Tang Family.
Once they showed up, they would be able to get to know some people.
Even though the Tang Family was not as affluent as the Ye Family and the Han Family in North City, they were still very wealthy. Also, because of Yuanyuan, the Tang Family had had a lot more interactions and business activities with those two families. As such, the Tang Family had become increasingly prominent.
Speaking of the Three Great Families of North City, despite being the third of the three, the Tang Family still attracted a lot of attention.
So, since the two girls dared not approach the other two families, they naturally turned to the Tang Family.
“Sure, Mom.”
Thus, Tang Yuanyuan acceded to their requests.
Having achieved their goal, the two girls later said a lot of things to please Tang Yuanyuan and even promised to bring her some birthday gifts on that day.
However, Tang Yuanyuan could not be bothered by them.
So, she put her phone away and placed her hands underneath her jaw while staring into the peaceful night.
There was only one reason why she looked forward to the coming-of-age ceremony: Yuchi Yishu had promised her that when she became an adult, they could start talking about being together. Before this, he had been resistant to talk about it as she was still a minor and should focus on her studies.
But now that she was almost an adult, he should not have any reason to put it off.
A few days later, the designer had made the two dresses and brought them over for Tang Yuanyuan to try out.
After putting it on, the designer stood in front of her and was amazed by how graceful and ladylike she looked. He could not help but sigh in astonishment. “You look dazzling, and you did a good job at maintaining your weight. This dress fits you perfectly. We’re two days away from the ceremony, so you have to make sure to keep it up.”
“Uh-huh.”
Tang Yuanyuan nodded. “Will do.”
To welcome a new stage of her life, she was willing to control her diet just so that she could look her best.
“By the way, is your friend here for the other dress?”
“Ah. I think she can’t make it today. She’ll only be here on the day of the ceremony.”
The designer nodded. “That’s fine. I was hoping she could put it on today so we would be able to see if any alterations need to be done. Good thing I added the elastic band so she can tighten it around her waist if the dress happens to be too loose for her.”
Tang Yuanyuan took a look at the elastic band design on that dress and thought it looked amazing.
“It looks great. Thank you.”
After confirming that the two dresses were okay, Tang Yuanyuan hung them up together in her closet. She also sprayed her favorite perfume on them before closing the closet doors.
Then, she sent Meng Kefei a text.
‘Fei, I got your dress from the designer today. Since you couldn’t be here to try it out today, the designer added an elastic band to your dress. The color and style are amazing. It’ll look great on you.’
However, Meng Kefei did not respond.
Tang Yuanyuan went over the chat history and saw all her messages to Meng Kefei. Throughout this year, they had not been contacting each other as much as before, and it was more like Tang Yuanyuan was having a monologue in her chat with Meng Kefei, even though from time to time, Meng Kefei would respond with a few simple words or a short sentence.
Tang Yuanyuan had some feelings as to what that meant but chose not to believe it.
After all, the two had been best friends for so many years. They could not just fall out like that.
In the end, Tang Yuanyuan tried comforting herself by thinking that perhaps Fei had been busy, and everything would be okay once everything was back to normal.
Tang Yuanyuan did not think she could console herself for very long, but she still had her hopes up that they could still be close friends.
As such, she fully anticipated the day of the ceremony.
The night before the ceremony, Little Sprout insisted on having a sleepover with Tang Yuanyuan. Little Sprout told her that also wanted to be in a dress with her and attend the ceremony together.
But Tang Yuanyuan corrected her, “You’re not there yet, Little Sprout.”
“I don’t care! I want to have that experience too since I’m almost there.”
She could not stop shaking Tang Yuanyuan’s arm. “Can I, Yuanyuan? Please?”
Tang Yuanyuan was feeling slightly dizzy, but she did not agree to her request.
“Little Sprout, perhaps you should talk to your parents about it. The coming-of-age ceremony is a serious thing, so you—”
“As my sister-in-law, can you please let me join you? I just want to know how it feels, and I’m not going to participate in any of the rituals.”
The phrase ‘sister-in-law’ made Tang Yuanyuan blush. Feeling embarrassed and surprised, Tang Yuanyuan looked her in the eye. “What did you say that I am?”
“You’re my sister-in-law!” Little Sprout happily hugged Tang Yuanyuan by her waist, and the two cuddled up to each other. “I never addressed you as ‘sister-in-law’ before because you weren’t an adult yet. But now I think it’s about time. You like my brother, don’t you?”
Tang Yuanyuan responded, “W-Who says that?”
“Huh? You don’t like my brother?”
Tang Yuanyuan was rendered speechless.
All of sudden, a sad look washed over Little Sprout’s face. “Yishu is such an amazing person. If you don’t like him, who do you like?”
“Listen, Little Sprout; this is not something that you should be asking. So what if I like Yishu? Please don’t think that just because you addressed me as your sister-in-law, I will let you do whatever you want.”
