The Soaring Swan hotel was the kind of hotel which had ten butlers lined up outside in sharp dark suits, long white cloaks on their backs and wore white gloves on their hands. They always looked neat and noble, like royal knights plucked straight out of the old days.
It was the kind of hotel which had lanterns that had seen dynasties change, chandeliers that once dripped with blood of beheaded nobles and paintings that once hung over beds of the rich from many centuries ago. So of those paintings had been smuggled out of their empires of origin during wars and changed many hands before finding a ho in the grand hotel which was one of the few to sit in the center of the capital city.
It was a combination of four royal castles and maintained most of its original appearance on the inside but exuded modernness on the outside. It hosted royals, nobles, rock stars, movie stars, affairs and divorces.
The Soaring Swan had been the breeding ground for more than a few scandals in the empire and the peep star had written about it a total of fifty one tis. Always...always...scandal related.
This night, it was hosting sothing that was scandalous in the eyes of so people: the engagent of Rong ihua and Duan Siping.
ihua, twenty nine years old and one of the heiress to the Rong luxury empire was walking like a goddess from out of space, which she sort of was because of all the shiny teor stones on her dress.
Siping, on the other hand ca from a humble long line of scholars. Most of them his family consisted of professors, philosophers, linguists and others that were scattered in the education related professions. He was more reserved and letting ihua do all the talking for them.
Their relationship was sowhat of a scandal in the eyes of so people because ihua was older than Siping by five years. She had paid a dowry to his family and everyone knew that she had had been involved with another man no more than two months ago.
So thought she was marrying just to spite her ex boyfriend who was also already engaged to a young woman from the noble Qin family.
The extravagant engagent party was the Rong family’s idea and ihua supported the grand affair naturally. She planned to marry only once in her life. If she ever got divorced, she planned to date but not to remarry. And if she did remarry, she did not want a grand affair. So, she was going all out for the only wedding she planned to ever have.
The venue was the top floor of the hotel. The most sought after ensemble in the empire was playing love songs. Huaqi’s pastry chefs, led by Madam Feng were sculpting a life-sized cake of ihua carrying Siping in a princess style at the venue. He had a book in his hand and his glasses were hovering over the grass, having slipped from his eyes.
So guests were watching it all, witnessing a Huaqi team at work for the first ti in history.
Siping was blushing as his sister teased him about the cake which made him appear like a damsel in distress in the arms of his knight.
His mother was gasping because she was still reeling from all the luxury and extravagance in place. It was like they had all been transported to another universe. Two swan fountains were rotating and eting in the middle to kiss. The swans were obviously a pair of lovers. One fountain had champagne and the other had chocolate.
The liquid was being turned into a blended alcohol mixture that so guests seed to be enjoying at the open bar where it flowed to like a river. His father was muttering sothing about the economy and capitalism.
All of his relatives had sothing to gasp or whisper about, depending on what they saw. Like his cousin who had just bitten into a golden coin candy only to discover that it was real gold.
It was all sitting in decorative baskets at the bar and tied to strings of lights that dangled down.
Siping was certain that his cousin was having an existential crisis. He stepped away from his family and walked back to ihua. She was talking to her friends.
"Darling." She pulled his arm and kissed him on the cheek. "You look adorable tonight. Doesn’t he?"
i i laughed as Siping blushed. "Oh, he is so cute." she gushed.
At her side, Jingzhe nearly hissed at Siping, as if he was warning him to take his cute self away.
"Seductress." He whispered to Siping.
Siping blinked. Who had he seduced? He had just co over to continue greeting the guests by his fiancee’s side.
"Look at his champagne colored bowtie." i i giggled. "He truly is adorable, ihua. Better than sour faced....." She closed her mouth.
ihua had been strict. There was no ex talk tonight.
Taiyuan jumped in before things could beco awkward. "Better than the sour faced Emperor. I did not think that we would be blessed with royalty tonight? Shouldn’t he be behind closed doors and mourning his dead wife for a year?"
Siping nervously adjusted his bowtie. Where they allowed to badmouth the Emperor?
"He is sour faced because my silly younger brother is trying to flirt with Kang Zhenzhen." i i whispered and she pointed them all in the direction of Kang Zhenzhen and Jun Jie laughing together.
Zhilan sniggered, "Who knew that the almighty Junjie would soday be jealous. I guess he already considers Zhenzhen to be his woman. I don’t think he ever got that jealous over you i i."
"Because he never loved that much romantically." She answered. "He just thought we were compatible on paper. It looks like Junjie is finally going to have his true romantic awakening."
i i sighed. This was like watching her child finally growing up. Zhenzhen’s efforts to win Junjie’s heart were paying off.
"And your brother is going to lose his hand or leg." Jingzhe said quickly and dashed away to save Jun Jie because he was trying to invite Zhenzhen to dance and the Emperor had gestured at his secret agents to move in and stop them.
They were probably going to orchestrate so kind of accident and ensure that Jun Jie did not dance with Zhenzhen. Or he would not dance at all for the rest of the year.
Jingzhe pulled Jun Jie away and dragged the young man to a circle of his age mates. "Stop shooting for stars buddy, Zhenzhen is older than you."
"And my sister is older than you." Jun Jie retorted.
Jingzhe nodded. It was an undeniable fact. "Your sister is not the future Empress, Zhenzhen is, and you know this. Try not to provoke the Emperor into having you assassinated for the rest of the night genius."
Jun Jie rolled his eyes. He was only talking to her because his mother had instructed him to do so. His intentions were 100% percent pure.
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