Chapter 87: An Audience Alone

After tidying himself up a little, Lin Yu asked his mother, Wang Chunhua, for another three hundred yuan to keep in his pocket, then took his time heading downstairs.

Tao Kele’s bicycle was a red ladies’ model from Flying Pigeon, and it rode quite comfortably.

All the way there, Lin Yu pedaled leisurely, watching the crisscrossing utility poles along the roadside and the crowds coming and going. For once, his mood felt oddly at ease.

He had little fondness for Hu Bin, but with Hu Rongqiang standing in the middle of it all, he kept things neither warm nor cold, thinking it best to stay at a proper distance.

More than ten minutes later, Lin Yu finally rolled up to the entrance of the Radiant Hotel. Looking at the glittering parade of sedans around him, like some auto show, he felt that the little bicycle beneath him was as conspicuously out of place as a fresh, innocent flower among a crowd of widows.

Having learned from the previous time when his bicycle had been toppled, this time Lin Yu parked it carefully at the edge of the hotel steps.

Just as he was strolling in without hurry and in a fairly good mood, a group of girls who had come for the gathering happened to see him locking the bike.

One of them, rather pretty and dressed in a gorgeous yellow gown, said, “See that? That’s the humble tragedy of the poor. Look at us—we can go anywhere and leave our car keys right in the ignition. These kids with no money have to lock up even a bicycle as if it were priceless.”

“Jiang Lele, don’t you think that’s a bit much?” another girl, plain in appearance but refined and bookish, objected.

“Xiaoshui, you’re defending an outsider like that. Don’t tell me it was love at first sight? Though I have to say, this young man does look clean. More pleasing to the eye than those trashy types at our university,” Jiang Lele teased with a grin.

“I just think he looks decent enough. But you know the saying: the material foundation determines the level of happiness. Rather than suffering with a handsome boy, I’d still rather chat with trashy types in a BMW every day,” Hu Shui, who looked quite untainted by the dust of the world, said with a smile. She laughed first at her own words.

“Well, there you have it,” Jiang Lele said with an amused smile. She thought that since everyone shared the same values, why pretend to be so pure?

The other girls burst out laughing as well. The several of them were well-known social butterflies at Binhai University, the kind who had admirers no matter which classroom they chose for self-study.

While a group of irrelevant strangers were sizing him up and talking about him, Lin Yu walked into the lobby of the Radiant Hotel with his hands in his pockets.

Looking up at the crystal chandelier sparkling on the ceiling, the antique, weighty presence of the Foster-August piano at the center of the hall, and the classic white European decor throughout, Lin Yu suddenly felt as if he had stepped out of a slum and straight into a noble castle, as though he had himself become a nobleman in an instant. It was like slipping into Cinderella’s glass slipper.

Yet at that moment, seeing the small clusters of people in the lobby chatting and laughing, Lin Yu felt that his arrival was rather abrupt.

No familiar faces, no acquaintances, and Hu Bin was nowhere in the lobby. Standing there alone as if cut off from the world, he really did feel a little awkward.

“Why, not used to this kind of atmosphere?”

Just as Lin Yu was wondering where to go and what to do, a voice both strange and familiar suddenly sounded behind him.

Lin Yu turned and saw Liang Jing, the manager of the Radiant Hotel. Remembering some of the things Lin Lie had once said, he felt that an air of mystery seemed to shroud her.

After a brief moment of surprise, Lin Yu smiled lightly and said, “Yes. I don’t know anyone here. It makes me feel a little out of place.”

“First time attending an event like this?” Liang Jing asked, her voice still soft and gentle, as tender as a little bird seeking shelter, very pleasant to the ear.

“Yes, my first time. I’m not wealthy to begin with, so I never really had the chance to attend such things.” Lin Yu brushed aside the hair falling in front of his eyes and thought he really ought to get a haircut.

“Oh, come now, young master,” Liang Jing said with a bright laugh. “Look at the Patek Philippe on your wrist. Conservatively speaking, it’s worth well over one hundred thousand. There aren’t many people in all of Binhai who can afford to wear one.”

Seeing her formulaic smile and her standard display of eight teeth, Lin Yu shook his head and said nothing. Since they were not close, there was no need to say more.

As the official start of the banquet at eight o’clock drew nearer, the invited guests arrived in an unbroken stream.

In terms of numbers and scale, it looked nothing like a high school birthday party. It resembled far more a business dinner hosted by some accomplished figure.

“By the way, you looked so composed and dashing that day at the Phoenix Bar,” Liang Jing said. Then, noticing a middle-aged man in a suit, she immediately said to Lin Yu, “Excuse me.”

She hurried straight toward the middle-aged man in his thirties, who wore gold-rimmed glasses.

He was a man of remarkable bearing, unmistakably a success in society, with a trace of domineering ambition in his eyes, as though he coveted the whole world.

But what struck Lin Yu most was that the man looked both like someone in his late twenties and like someone in his thirties, while his bearing also carried a certain weathered quality unique to men in their forties.

“Very charismatic. A lady-killer.”

That was Lin Yu’s assessment of him. Standing before such a man, he felt like a rough barnyard chicken before a phoenix: the difference was enormous, not even in the same league.

“Will there ever come a day when I become like him? Or even brighter?” Lin Yu thought wistfully as he watched the man surrounded at the center of the crowd.

In that instant, this man from a humble background seemed like Zeus standing in the middle of humanity, radiant beyond measure.

As more and more guests arrived, Lin Yu realized that those attending the banquet were not only people his own age. There were also middle-aged men who looked every bit like successful figures, and even elderly guests.

“So this isn’t just a birthday party,” Lin Yu thought. But the next moment, he was furious.

They had invited so many people, yet they had not invited his mother, Wang Chunhua. Wasn’t that just looking down on them?

“It must be Hu Bin’s mother, Wang Yue’e, meddling behind the scenes!”

At that thought, Lin Yu turned directly toward the lobby entrance, feeling there was no need to stay any longer.

But before he had gone far, he saw the Yang family approaching head-on. Yang Xiong walked in the center, holding his wife Xia Ling in his left hand and Yang Zhilin, dressed in a black evening gown, in his right. It was a scene of unmistakable happiness.

“Xiaoyu, you’re here. Where are your father and mother?” Before Lin Yu could speak, Yang Xiong asked first.

“They had something to do, so they couldn’t come,” Lin Yu replied casually. Naturally, he could not say that his father had gone to the county town on business and that his mother had not been invited.

After speaking to Yang Xiong, he also called out, “Aunt Yang.”

“Hm.” Xia Ling’s cool snort made Lin Yu feel somewhat embarrassed.

Seeing that his mother had put Lin Yu in an awkward position, Yang Zhilin let go of Yang Xiong’s hand and said to Lin Yu, “Come with me to the restroom.”

“Oh, all right.” Lin Yu answered and walked shoulder to shoulder with Yang Zhilin toward the interior of the hall.

Watching their figures disappear around the corner of the corridor, Xia Ling’s face grew even paler, clearly very displeased.

Seeing his wife attend someone else’s banquet with such an unhappy expression, Yang Xiong smiled and said, “Look at you. Why get angry at a child?”

“How can I not be angry? You don’t know this, but Aunt Wang, the hourly housekeeper, said that while we were away for those few days, Zhilin often didn’t come home at night!” Xia Ling took a deep breath, her lips bitten blue, clearly furious.

“Didn’t Xiaolin say she was staying upstairs at Qi Yue’s place?” Yang Xiong said with a chuckle.

“Nonsense! Aunt Wang’s son lives in Xinyuan Community. One morning he saw Zhilin coming out of the stairwell of Old Lin’s building!” Xia Ling grew angrier the more she said.

“This...” Yang Xiong was also stunned.

His precious daughter had actually spent the night at a boy’s house? Even though that family were old friends, still...

“It should be all right. That child, Lin Yu, has a good character. Besides, Xiaolin is sensible too. And Chunhua is home every day as well.” After thinking it over, Yang Xiong tried to comfort Xia Ling.

Having calmed down a little, Xia Ling muttered unhappily, “The world is going downhill, people are unkind, and one hardly knows what to make of it...”