Chapter 30: A Complete Mess p2
The birthday banquet even had an emcee. The congratulatory speech was very well-delivered, and there was a round of applause. The banquet began, and the emcee started his work. There were even performances invited for the banquet: Huangmei opera, Sichuan opera face-changing, and a two-person crosstalk.
The hotel staff were coming in and out, serving the dishes.
The host’s children were singing to their great-grandmother. The emcee asked everyone to applaud and encourage them.
Zhou Wanfeng was immersed in her meal, occasionally looking up at the stage. She saw someone setting up a piano, and after someone had played a piece, the emcee created an atmosphere and called for someone to go up and perform a piece to wish the birthday star a happy birthday.
Yang Yijun looked at Yun Jingya, and then Yun Jingya stood up gracefully and went on stage to perform a piano piece.
Zhou Wanfeng watched. Under the stage lights, Yun Jingya was as beautiful as a portrait of a young girl.
After the performance, there was a warm round of applause. Yun Jingya said a few words of birthday wishes and walked down slowly. Her posture and temperament were indeed outstanding, and she was surrounded by praise.
Hearing this, a smile appeared on Yang Yijun’s face. She was proud.
“Is there anyone else who wants to perform a program for the birthday star?” the emcee continued to liven up the atmosphere, walking back and forth on the banquet stage.
Zhou Wanfeng lowered her head and picked up some food.
Suddenly, she heard a voice in her ear. “Wanfeng, aren’t you going to go up and perform a program for your great-aunt?” The voice was not loud, but not soft either. It was from Yang Yijun.
The main table was close to the banquet stage. The emcee heard that someone was going to perform and approached.
“Who else wants to perform? Is it the girl in the pink dress?” the emcee’s voice began to warm up.
Zhou Wanfeng put down her chopsticks and looked at Yang Yijun with a cold expression.
Diao Yufeng watched with a smile. Yun Lang tugged at her wrist, telling her to say something. It was obvious that his aunt wanted to put her on the spot. She was eating her meal happily, and yet she was being forced to go up and perform.
Diao Yufeng pushed Yun Lang’s hand away. She just wanted to watch the show.
The emcee was still extending the invitation. Yang Yijun smiled at Zhou Wanfeng and said, “It’s alright, child. Just go up and perform something and then come down. Don’t keep everyone waiting.”
Yun Lan was serving Zhou Zhiru food. Zhou Zhiru hadn’t looked at Zhou Wanfeng once from beginning to end. He had no intention of helping her out. Before she graduated from high school, he would not place any bets on her, nor would he interfere in any of her affairs.
She was the one who had wanted to come to Yunhai City, and she was the one who had insisted on staying. So she had to solve the problems she encountered on her own.
Even Yun Lang felt that the atmosphere was getting tense. He was about to get up and go on stage to sing a random song to get it over with.
But before he could get up, Zhou Wanfeng next to him stood up.
She followed the emcee and stood on the stage.
Zhou Wanfeng didn’t respond to the emcee’s warm-up words. “Hahahaha, a shy and quiet little girl, huh?”
Zhou Wanfeng scanned the things on the banquet stage, walked straight to the red eggs, longevity noodles, and peach-shaped buns, and casually picked up an egg and shook it.
She smiled, turned to the emcee, and said into the microphone, “I’ve recently learned a hand trick. If I mess it up, please forgive me.”
With that, amidst the applause, she first placed two eggs in the emcee’s hand, then took two and tossed them into the air, catching and tossing them. Then she took another one from the emcee’s hand and added it to the mix.
Three eggs, two hands, tossing and catching, with precise timing and rhythm.
Yun Lang threw his chopsticks and stood up to applaud.
Yang Yijun looked at Zhou Wanfeng on the stage, then at the elegant Yun Jingya. She just felt that the performance on stage was like a juggling act, not fit for the stage.
She even deliberately glanced at Zhou Zhiru.
She was angry at Zhou Wanfeng’s white-eyed wolf behavior before. If she had just explained, she wouldn’t have been humiliated by Diao Yufeng.
Now, seeing her perform like a juggler, especially in comparison to Jingya’s performance before, the anger in her heart subsided quite a bit.
She lowered her head and picked up a napkin to wipe her mouth. Suddenly, she heard a cry of “be careful” from the stage.
Yang Yijun subconsciously looked up. She didn’t even see clearly before she heard a splat. Something had landed on her head, and then a slimy liquid, mixed with a yellow substance, dripped down from her forehead.
Everyone was shocked to see Yang Yijun with egg yolk on her head. The next second, splat, another red egg accurately hit her, right on the forehead.
Yang Yijun’s mouth was agape, her expression horrified as she watched the egg yolk drip down. She immediately stood up and screamed.
But Zhou Wanfeng on the stage was not finished. She continued to toss and catch the two eggs, and then, as if the egg had a mind of its own, it slipped from her palm. Before she could even shout “be careful,” it flew out like a bullet and hit Yang Yijun squarely in the chest. The egg broke, and the white and yolk dripped down her clothes.
Yun Lan frantically tried to wipe it with a napkin, but she didn’t know where to start.
Zhou Wanfeng still had one egg left in her hand. She tossed it back and forth between her hands, leaned closer to the emcee’s microphone, and said in a small voice, “I’m sorry. I haven’t practiced enough.”
The emcee was completely dumbfounded and didn’t know how to save the situation. He just watched the little girl go down.
“Zhou Wanfeng!” Yang Yijun roared, almost losing her composure. Her eyes were wide, but she was too much of a mess.
Zhou Wanfeng’s lips held a smile. “I told you I hadn’t practiced enough. You insisted on me going up to perform. Look, I messed up, and you’re still blaming me,” she said, lowering her head to play with the remaining egg in her hand.
Yang Yijun was panting with anger, her hand trembling as she pointed at Zhou Wanfeng.
Diao Yufeng was trying her best to hold back her laughter. “Big Sister-in-law, the child didn’t do it on purpose. Besides, weren’t you the one who asked the child to go up and perform? You can’t blame the child. Don’t be angry. Hurry up and… pfft…” Halfway through her sentence, Diao Yufeng turned and leaned on the back of her chair, laughing out loud.
Her boisterous laughter showed that she was not a refined person. She was trying so hard to hold it in that she was slapping the chair and couldn’t help but turn to look at the egg yolk on Yang Yijun’s head. She would look, then turn and laugh, look, then turn and laugh.
Yun Lan took Yang Yijun to the restroom to clean up.
The scrutinizing gazes from all around made Yang Yijun tremble with anger.
Yun Jingya looked at Zhou Wanfeng, who had quietly sat down to eat, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she got up and followed her mother and grandmother to the restroom.
The neighboring tables were buzzing with discussion. The gazes on Zhou Wanfeng had increased. Anyone could see that this was clearly intentional. To accidentally hit one, but then two, and then three?
Zhou Zhiru looked at Zhou Wanfeng. “Apologize later.”
“You’re not playing blind now?” Zhou Wanfeng sneered.
Yun Haisheng was also a little angry. He glared at Zhou Wanfeng, but was ignored.
When it was time to share the birthday cake, the emcee asked all the children to come up and receive a piece of cake from the birthday star, which symbolized receiving good fortune.
Yun Lang, considering himself still a big kid, pushed Zhou Wanfeng to go up and get a piece of cake with him.
The Yun family’s old great-aunt was thin and had a kind face. It was clear that she liked children. Whenever a child got close, she would touch their little hands.
When she handed over the cake, she would look at their little hands and touch them. “Good child, you’re a fortunate one.”
When it was the little fatty, Yun Chengbin’s turn, the old great-aunt even touched his chubby face. “This little boy will be a great man in the future. His palm lines are long and deep, his body is good, and the circles on his finger bones mean wealth.”
When Yun Jingya went up, the old great-aunt opened her brown eyes, squeezed her hand, looked at her palm, and handed her a piece of cake with a smile. “A kind and intelligent good child. You will have great fortune in the future.”
Yun Lang didn’t want the cake. He just held out his hand. “Great-aunt, quickly look at me. What will my future be like?”
The old great-aunt looked down carefully, then slapped his hand. “You rascal, your heavenly line is thick and shallow. You’ll have a lot of romantic debts in the future, and you’ll make a lot of little girls cry. You’re a bad boy.”
Yun Lang looked at his palm. What thick and shallow? How am I going to make little girls cry? That’s not right. He turned to argue. “Great-aunt, you’re not accurate. I’m not in a relationship.”
Zhou Wanfeng didn’t go up, nor did she reach out her hand.
But the old great-aunt smiled and beckoned to her, holding a piece of cake for her.
Zhou Wanfeng was taken aback and reached out to take it.
The old great-aunt’s dry, shriveled hands squeezed her palm, and she squinted, leaning closer to Zhou Wanfeng’s face.
Zhou Wanfeng could even see her own face in her brown pupils, and the dense age spots on the corners of her eyes and cheeks.
The old great-aunt still seemed to be unable to see clearly and leaned even closer. Zhou Wanfeng frowned and turned her face away.
“Oh, is this also our family’s child?” the old great-aunt asked her family.
The family looked at Zhou Wanfeng and nodded sheepishly, saying that there was some relationship by name.
“A formidable child. The Ming Tang in her palm is a general’s bone. Tell the family to cultivate her well. In the old days, this would have been a great family’s choice,” the old woman said, turning to her own family and giving them detailed instructions, and then she started to talk about her own family’s old stories.
Zhou Wanfeng pushed the cake to Yun Lang, who was still pestering his great-aunt to tell him more about his romantic debts.
It got to the point where the old woman got anxious and left with her cane.
On the way back from the birthday banquet, the atmosphere in the car was very heavy.
Yang Yijun was in another car with Yun Haisheng, along with the little fatty, Yun Chengbin.
In this car, Zhou Zhiru was driving, Yun Lan was in the passenger seat, and Yun Jingya and Zhou Wanfeng were in the back.
Yun Jingya broke the stiff atmosphere and pulled on Zhou Wanfeng’s hand, asking with a smile, “I haven’t asked you how your school exam was. Was the test paper difficult?”
Zhou Wanfeng knew that her relationship with Yun Jingya would sooner or later become stiff, because of Yang Yijun.
Now, seeing the twelve-year-old girl take the initiative to show goodwill, she let out a breath and forced a smile. “It was more difficult than I expected. I should have done okay. We should know the ranking and scores on Monday.”
Zhou Wanfeng didn’t ask Yun Jingya how she had done. After speaking, she turned to look out the window.
Yun Jingya’s grades had always been very good. She had never done poorly on an exam. She knew that.
Because of a banquet, the relationship between Yang Yijun and Zhou Wanfeng had suddenly dropped to a freezing point, with a tendency to become irreconcilable. But since she was at school and didn’t see her all day, it didn’t continue to deteriorate.
On Monday morning, all the grades at Shuangshu Model Middle School were quite busy. The monthly exam results were out, but the scores for each subject had not yet been tallied. They had just started to hand out the test papers and explain them in class.
The first period was Chinese. Li Jianbang came with the test papers and had the students hand them out.
The full score was 120 points. When Zhou Wanfeng got her paper, she saw the 108 written in red pen. As she was looking at the paper, Li Jianbang at the podium was looking at her with his teacup in hand. When he saw her look up, he took a sip of water and said with a look of disgust, “The composition was a complete mess.”
While Class Nine was explaining the monthly exam’s Chinese test paper, a black car drove into the school gate and went straight to the administrative building.
A moment later, a teacher led them directly to the first-grade homeroom teachers’ office.
“Teacher Sun, this is Coach Guo from the Municipal Sports Bureau.”