Chapter 10

Seeing Wang Bingyan's malicious expression, it was clear she wanted to bring Su Chen to the banquet inside to embarrass Jiang Tingyi. After all, those attending the welcoming banquet for Young Master Ye Xuan were all prominent young people from Qinghe City, while Su Chen was just a disciple expelled from the Zhengyi Sect for theft. If such a person were Jiang Tingyi's cousin, it would certainly ruin her reputation among the young generation in Qinghe City.

"Su Chen, don't go in. Wait outside," Jiang Tingyi said, beads of sweat forming on her pale forehead as she tried to prevent Su Chen from entering the private room and embarrassing her.

Wang Bingyan, however, loudly said, "Oh, Tingyi, how can you be so inconsiderate? He is your cousin, after all. How can you not let him join the banquet?"

Su Chen frowned, not expecting to run into Jiang Tingyi at Zui Xianju, and even more so, not expecting her to completely misunderstand his presence there, thinking he had secretly followed her.

However, Su Chen didn't bother to explain, calmly looking at the two women. "Is there anything else? If not, I'm going upstairs."

"Upstairs?" Wang Bingyan was taken aback for a moment, then covered her mouth and giggled. "You said you're going upstairs?"

"Do you know what's upstairs? It's the 'Di' and 'Tian' private rooms. Are you really going to dine in one of those? Jiang Tingyi, your cousin is really amusing, boasting without any basis, hehe..." Wang Bingyan laughed, her body shaking with mirth.

Jiang Tingyi's face turned ashen, and she inwardly cursed Su Chen a hundred times. Su Chen had truly embarrassed her, shamelessly boasting. After all, the second floor of Zui Xianju was for 'Di' private rooms, and the third floor for 'Tian' private rooms, which only the heads of major families and above could reserve. How could an ordinary person like Su Chen have the right to enter?

But now that it had come to this, Jiang Tingyi couldn't just stand by and watch Su Chen be mocked by Wang Bingyan.

Suppressing her anger, she walked up to Su Chen and said coldly, "Since you're here, come in!"

With that, Jiang Tingyi grabbed Su Chen's sleeve and dragged him into the private room.

Wang Bingyan was taken aback. She had thought Jiang Tingyi would definitely not let Su Chen join the banquet to save face, but she didn't expect Jiang Tingyi to actually bring him in.

However, this was even better. With such an unsuitable cousin, and with Wang Bingyan fanning the flames, Jiang Tingyi would surely be humiliated today.

Su Chen hadn't expected Jiang Tingyi to take the initiative and drag him into the private room. Looking around, he saw a dozen or so young men and women gathered around the table, all dressed in fine clothing, chatting and laughing.

Glancing around, Su Chen inwardly sneered. It was quite a coincidence; this small banquet had quite a few familiar faces from his past life.

Everyone at the table turned to look as Jiang Tingyi brought Su Chen in.

Wang Bingyan followed behind, loudly introducing, "Let me introduce a new friend to everyone. This is Jiang Tingyi's cousin, Su Chen!"

"Su Chen? The one who was expelled from the Zhengyi Sect for trying to steal an elder's elixir and had to come to Qinghe City to seek refuge with relatives?" a young man in fine clothing asked in surprise.

"Tingyi, so this person is your cousin?"

Everyone burst into laughter, teasing Su Chen with their words.

Jiang Tingyi's face turned bright red, feeling more embarrassed than ever. She knew that letting Su Chen into the banquet would make her a laughingstock, but in that situation, if she had left Su Chen outside, she would have felt guilty. After all, he was her cousin.

Thinking of this, Jiang Tingyi glared at Su Chen, inwardly cursing her useless cousin a hundred times.

Su Chen, however, paid no attention to Jiang Tingyi's expression. It wasn't his choice to come to this private room; he was waiting to go to the 'Tian' private room. Jiang Tingyi had dragged him in, so who was to blame?

Wang Bingyan watched everything with amusement and deliberately poured a cup of tea in front of Su Chen. "Mr. Su, have a cup of tea. This is Zui Xianju's special Snow Mountain tea, which you can't find anywhere else."

A young man with a haughty expression immediately picked up the conversation, looking at Su Chen with a mocking gaze. "Indeed, this tea is quite expensive, costing ten taels of silver per cup! A country bumpkin like you probably has never tasted such tea in your life, right?"

His words were blunt and unapologetic. After saying this, he even pretended to slap his forehead. "Look at me, I didn't mean to look down on Mr. Su, I was just stating the facts. No hard feelings, no hard feelings, hahaha..."

The others at the table also looked at Su Chen with various expressions. They were all the pride of Qinghe City, while Su Chen was just an expelled disciple who had come to Qinghe City from afar to seek refuge, clearly not from a noble background.

To them, Su Chen was just a country bumpkin to be mocked and entertained.

"I won't have the tea," Su Chen said calmly. He recognized the haughty young man as the son of a minor family's head in Qinghe City, named Zhou Rong.

A cold look flashed in Su Chen's eyes as he pushed Zhou Rong away and sat down in the nearest chair.

Zhou Rong was taken aback, then his face darkened. "Not drinking? Are you looking down on me, Zhou Rong?"

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became tense with Zhou Rong's words.

Su Chen remained unfazed, looking at Zhou Rong calmly without any intention of backing down.

At that moment, a gentle and refined voice rang out, "A guest is a guest. Why be so confrontational? Let's all have some wine and food; we are all friends."

The voice was not loud, but in the noisy private room, it was particularly clear.

Zhou Rong immediately turned around and bowed respectfully to the speaker. "Yes, Big Brother Ye Xuan!"

With that, Zhou Rong quickly returned to his seat, not looking at Su Chen again, as if the speaker's words were a decree.

Su Chen looked at the speaker, seeing a young man dressed in a moon-white brocade robe, wearing a purple-gold jade crown. His chiseled face was adorned with handsome and profound features, his lips red and teeth white, his eyebrows like swords and eyes like stars, like a tree of orchids and jade, flawless in every way.

Su Chen watched this perfect young man calmly, his expression unchanged, but his heart was in turmoil.

This person was a very important figure in Su Chen's past life, the first genius of the young generation in Qinghe City, the idol of all the young people, and the one who had just returned from the Imperial Capital's Tianyue Academy—Ye Xuan.