It seemed all these years of tempering had still not been enough! By contrast, Wei Zhao wore the same faint expression as ever, as though he did not even know him. Chen Yutian could not help but sigh: the distance between himself and Wei Zhao was one he would never, ever close.

Shen Yushu found her brother's attitude toward Wei Zhao rather odd as well. Why did he seem to bear him no hostility at all? Was Shield Bro simply too pathetic to stir her brother's hostility, or was he too formidable for her brother to dare feel any?

Once the group was seated, An Jianwen told the waiter to start bringing out the dishes, and ordered a good deal of red wine as well.

The food had been prepared in advance, the seasoning already added; the moment Gu Mengyao and the others arrived it could be rushed to the table, so it would not take long at all.

"Brother Yutian, since we parted ways back then, I never imagined you would already be a major. We have all grown up!" An Jianwen, as the host of today's banquet, naturally raised the first glass. "In the blink of an eye, we are all to settle down and make our own way. I miss those carefree days of old!"

"Heh, people are bound to grow up." Chen Yutian picked up his glass too and spoke mildly, though a trace of bitterness stirred in his heart. If not for Qiu Lingshan, he would never have set foot on the straight path, would he? Would he have gone on being a wastrel to the very end, as before?

Chen Yutian would never forget the contempt in Qiu Lingshan's eyes back then, that loathing from the bottom of her heart for a spoiled young master. That was what had roused him to pull himself together. Yet he had never once managed to surpass Qiu Lingshan. However hard he tried, he had started too late and lacked her foundation; no matter how he chased, he could never catch up.

What struck Wei Zhao as strange was that Gu Mengyao actually raised her glass as well and drained it in one go!

Was the young lady not thoroughly unimpressed by An Jianwen? Why would she drink off an entire glass of red wine at his suggestion? Wei Zhao glanced at Gu Mengyao in some surprise, and saw that her expression was utterly desolate.

Wei Zhao was briefly taken aback, then understood at once: the young lady was still brooding over that business with her mother, her spirits had not recovered, and just now she was simply drowning her sorrows in wine. Wei Zhao had long since come to terms with the matter of his parents, but Gu Mengyao, he supposed, was not like that at all.

She had seen her mother as a child, whereas Wei Zhao had never once laid eyes on his parents; the two feelings were not the same. So Gu Mengyao would miss her, would grieve. This feeling had always been hidden away in her heart, yet Zhong Yongliang had happened to drag it out into the open, and she had no way to vent it.

It was a suffocating sort of feeling; if it found no release, a person would be gloomy through and through. So Gu Mengyao's drowning her sorrows in wine just now was, after all, not a bad way out.

And in fact that was exactly what Gu Mengyao had in mind. Had she been asked to come out and dine alone with An Jianwen, she would never have touched a drop; who knew whether An Jianwen might harbor ill intentions once she was drunk? But now that Wei Zhao was at her side, she let down her guard.

She did not believe Wei Zhao would leave her alone if she got drunk. With this shield at hand, she might as well make use of him.

Seeing Gu Mengyao drain her glass, a flicker of astonishment crossed An Jianwen's eyes, only to be replaced at once by excitement! He had feared she might refuse to drink and embarrass him; in that case he could hardly drink much himself, and if he did not drink much, the post-drinking confession could not proceed.

He and Su Taizao had thought up any number of pretexts for pressing her to drink; now it seemed they would not be needed. Still, An Jianwen was rather put out. What had gotten into Gu Mengyao today? Why was she not playing by the script? All those brain cells spent dreaming up pretexts had been wasted for nothing.

"Yaoyao, why are you drinking so much?" Shen Yushu had noticed something was off as well.

"Nothing. I just feel like it," Gu Mengyao said mildly, admitting nothing of the unhappiness in her heart.

"Oh. Then can I drink too?" Shen Yushu smacked her lips, eyeing the red wine in the glass with a touch of envy. She did not normally drink either, since such things were seldom to be found at home. Gu Mengyao usually would not let her drink; she had asked several times and been sternly refused. Who would have thought that today Gu Mengyao would take the initiative and drink herself?

"You may, but not much." Gu Mengyao hesitated, then nodded in agreement.

"Oh!" Shen Yushu helped herself to a wine glass. She had not drunk when the toast was made just now; now that no one was toasting, she savored it with great relish.

Fortunately, everyone present was long accustomed to Shen Yushu's ways, and no one said anything more.

"Sour and sweet. It seems quite tasty?" Shen Yushu took a sip, then gulped down the whole glass. It was not a top-grade wine, but since An Jianwen was the host, the red wine he ordered would certainly not be cheap stuff.

"If you like it, drink more." An Jianwen was only afraid they would not drink. He filled the glasses and raised his own again. "Come, another round. Little Shu, Yaoyao, may you always be beautiful, forever young..."

Shen Yushu was quite ungracious: before An Jianwen had even finished speaking, she had drained her glass and poured herself another, paying him no mind whatsoever. "Yaoyao, this tastes better than juice!"

"Even so, you must not drink too much. Too much and you will get drunk." Gu Mengyao said this aloud, but in her heart she truly wished to get dead drunk, so that she might forget the sorrow in her heart; and when she woke, she would be the same strong self as before.

"What wine is this?" Shen Yushu drank another glass, then suddenly took up the bottle and asked.

"I don't know. So long as it can be drunk, that's enough." Gu Mengyao seldom drank either; how would she know so much? Even born into a wealthy family, she was only a girl in her third year of high school, and Gu Pengzhan would never allow her to drink as she pleased.

"This is a 2009 Lafite." An Jianwen showed off with some complacency. It seemed neither Gu Mengyao nor Shen Yushu knew anything about it, which gave him just the opening to fill the silence. "Lafite is one of the world-renowned Bordeaux wines of France, produced at Chateau Lafite. Every wine lover knows that in 1855 Bordeaux classified the great estates of the region. From among the countless chateaux they selected sixty-one of the finest, known as the classified growths. Those sixty-one were divided into five levels. The first level comprised four: Chateau Lafite, Chateau Latour, Chateau Margaux, and Chateau Haut-Brion, and among the four, Lafite ranked first."

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