Su Ziran was momentarily stunned when she saw Zhong Xuyang.
She hadn't seen Zhong Xuyang for several years. He was more mature than he was in college, still tall and straight, wearing a long black coat, gentlemanly and upright, with an imposing air about him.
His gaze remained as focused as ever, except that he used to look at Lin Wenwen, but now he was looking at Xiao Yao.
He walked straight to Xiao Yao's spot and stood there, but Xiao Yao acted as if she couldn't see him and kept drinking, even clinking glasses with Dong Ruicheng.
Zhong Xuyang didn't stop her. He held onto the back of the chair with one hand and propped himself up on the round table with the other, leaning over to gaze at Xiao Yao. When beer dripped from the corner of her lips, he affectionately wiped it away with his thumb.
The atmosphere at the scene was eerily quiet.
The intimacy between Zhong Xuyang and Xiao Yao at this moment made Su Ziran feel like she had been slapped in the face, as if all her boasting about how good Zhong Xuyang and Lin Wenwen were was a lie.
She couldn't help but call out, "Brother-in-law."
Xiao Yao's hand holding the beer bottle trembled slightly at the sound of "brother-in-law," and then she choked on the beer and started coughing.
Zhong Xuyang quickly took a tissue to wipe her mouth, took the wine bottle from her hand, and gently patted her back.
Xiao Yao tried to push him away, but Zhong Xuyang whispered in her ear, "I'll do whatever you want with me, just don't be angry yet, okay?"
Xiao Yao didn't respond to him, acting as if he didn't exist. With so many people watching at the dinner table, she didn't struggle at all.
Zhong Xuyang stared at Xiao Yao for a moment before raising his head, and the moment he looked up, he also put away the gentleness on his face.
When Su Ziran saw Zhong Xuyang looking at her, she immediately tried to call him "brother-in-law" in a flattering manner. However, before she could even utter the word "sister," he suddenly placed the wine bottle in his hand on the turntable on the table. With a "clatter," the fragile sound of glass breaking made people inexplicably uneasy.
His cold gaze swept over her, his tone devoid of any warmth, "Didn't I tell you not to call me that?"
Su Ziran was taken aback.
When Zhong Xuyang was with Lin Wenwen, he was very kind to her because he loved her so much, but she forgot that it was many years ago.
Su Ziran's ingratiating smile froze for a moment, and she wisely apologized, "I'm sorry, Brother Yang, I just got used to calling him that."
However, Zhong Xuyang was unconvinced. "We haven't seen each other for years, so what's this talk about habit? Besides, didn't I tell you long ago that you should call Liu Yang your brother-in-law, and never call me that? You haven't forgotten, have you?"
Back then, Zhong Xuyang saw the ambiguous chat history between Lin Wenwen and Liu Yang on Lin Wenwen's phone, and he also saw Su Ziran's words encouraging Lin Wenwen to choose Liu Yang.
After Zhong Xuyang and Lin Wenwen's relationship broke down, he also warned Su Ziran not to call him brother-in-law anymore and not to greet him when they met.
Zhong Xuyang chuckled as he looked at Su Ziran's expression, "Looks like you haven't forgotten."
"Since you haven't forgotten, then calling out to Xiao Yao in front of her is clearly just an attempt to make things difficult for us. In that case, it wouldn't be right for me not to make things difficult for you."
Su Ziran immediately thought of something and frantically tried to apologize, but Zhong Xuyang didn't give her a chance to speak.
"I called President Su on my way here. Starting today, all cooperation between Zhongxu and the Su and Lin families is terminated. I told them to ask you for the specific reasons. Think carefully about how to explain it to them."
Su Ziran was stunned.
The reason she was unhappy about Xiao Yao and Zhong Xuyang being together was that over the years, her family and her uncle's family had made a lot of money by supplying raw materials to Zhong Xuyang's factory. However, in the past year, while the sales of Zhong Xuyang's factory had increased, the number of orders from them had decreased. Since Zhong Xuyang was their biggest customer, their income naturally declined as Zhong Xuyang's orders decreased.
Zhong Xuyang gave some seemingly reasonable reasons to explain the past, such as changes in the process and therefore changes in raw materials, but Su Ziran and Lin Wenwen both knew that Zhong Xuyang was doing it because of Xiao Yao.
If Zhong Xuyang and Xiao Yao continue their relationship, and even get married in the future, Zhong Xuyang will definitely sever all cooperation with Lin Wenwen's family, including Su Ziran's family.
Therefore, both she and Lin Wenwen wanted to break up Xiao Yao and Zhong Xuyang.
Su Ziran took out her phone from her bag. She had put it on silent, and only now did she see that there were more than a dozen missed calls on the screen, including calls from her father, her uncle, and Lin Wenwen.
Thinking about the criticism she would face from both families when she got home, Su Ziran was already sweating profusely. She hadn't expected Zhong Xuyang to come today, let alone that he would be so heartless. Even though he and Lin Wenwen had broken up, their parents still had a good relationship. How could he just cut ties like that?
But she knew that Zhong Xuyang wasn't just talking casually, because now Zhong Xuyang's father was gradually giving him more power, and his father generally wouldn't interfere with the decisions Zhong Xuyang made. In other words, Zhong Xuyang was in charge of Zhongxu.
Su Ziran quickly realized the situation, picked up her wine glass and stood up, "Brother Yang, Xiao Yao, I had a few drinks today and said the wrong thing. I apologize to you. I will never say anything like that again. Please forgive me, okay?"
Zhong Xuyang remained silent, looking down at Xiao Yao.
Xiao Yao acted as if she hadn't heard anything and began to slowly eat her food while spinning the turntable.
Xiao Yao remained silent, Zhong Xuyang remained silent, and Su Ziran simply kept holding her wine glass.
After an unknown number of minutes, Wang Qian noticed that Su Ziran's hand holding the wine glass was trembling, and said to Xiao Yao with dissatisfaction, "Xiao Yao, Su Ziran has already apologized, you should stop now."
Xiao Yao raised an eyebrow and smiled, wiping her mouth with a tissue. "Since Wang Qian says so, Su Ziran, you shouldn't drink this glass of wine."
Su Ziran's hand trembled, and the wine spilled out.
Refusing to drink means not forgiving, and I won't speak up for her to Zhong Xuyang.
She made her hold the wine glass for so long; she was deliberately humiliating her.
Xiao Yao looked up at Su Ziran and saw the hatred in her eyes. She smiled and said, "Don't hate me. You asked me to come to the class reunion, and you started this whole thing. You think you can make up for all the hurt you caused me tonight with a drink? You think too highly of yourself and underestimate me."
She'd already performed all the roles she was forced to play, so there was no need for her to stay at the class reunion any longer.
Xiao Yao turned to Gu Yueji and Situ Ying and whispered, "I'm leaving now. I'll make plans with you tomorrow."
Gu Yueji looked up at the man behind Xiao Yao. "Do you need us to accompany you?"
Xiao Yao noticed that Zhong Xuyang was holding her clothes and bag. "No need, I was just thinking of talking to him alone."
As soon as she stood up, Zhong Xuyang took her hand and politely apologized to everyone present, "Dear classmates, I'm very sorry to have disturbed your gathering. Tonight, Xiao Yao and I will treat everyone to dinner. Please forgive us."
After he finished speaking, he nodded to everyone and then took Xiao Yao's hand and left.
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