Chapter 2394 - 2200: No One Dares to Bully You Anymore (3)

"Mm..." Chu Xianling nodded.

This seafood barbecue beer plaza clearly had great business. Even though it was already late autumn, the outdoor seats were almost all taken. In a place where every inch of land costs a fortune, they'd carved out a whole open space just for setting up outdoor barbecue tables—across the street from them was the high-rise of a star-rated hotel, no less.

Chu Xianling and Song Xiaodong had just been about to walk into the main entrance of the seafood barbecue beer plaza when three people came over from the other side of the road, heading toward the star-rated hotel across the street. Spotting Chu Xianling, one of them called out her name.

"It's really you?"

Chu Xianling turned her head and saw a man and two women walking toward her and Song Xiaodong.

"Huang Qingyuan?" Chu Xianling was genuinely surprised.

Huang Qingyuan was Chu Xianling's classmate from university. Back then, Chu Xianling was a campus belle known far and wide, and on top of that, she was the eldest daughter of the Chu Family, with a status people could only look up to. Even so, there were still loads of suitors charging in one after another; Huang Qingyuan was one of them.

But Chu Xianling was razor sharp. Of course she knew that some of these suitors really were just enamored with her looks, but even more of them had their eyes on the Chu Family's status and power. So, during her university days, she was known as the Ice Queen, and everyone who tried pursuing her ended up running headfirst into a wall.

Huang Qingyuan was, naturally, one of those people.

Chu Xianling's standards were sky-high—never mind her university classmates, even those already out in society, successful and all, barely warranted a second glance from her. Not until she met Song Xiaodong.

As the saying goes, the tortoise finally meets the green bean, brine finds its tofu—there's always something that can keep the other in check.

Chu Xianling's eye for people was spot-on. This Huang Qingyuan was the textbook example of a social-climbing, snobbish phoenix man. After his hopeless attempts at chasing Chu Xianling, he went after another rich businessman's daughter instead. Then graduation came, she and her old classmates lost touch one by one, and how Huang Qingyuan eventually turned out was anyone's guess.

Chu Xianling sized Huang Qingyuan up from head to toe. His whole face had puffed out a size, and he was sporting a beer belly now. Back in college, his clothes were shabby and worn, but now he was in full suit-and-tie gear—and at a glance, Chu Xianling could tell they were all pricey designer brands.

That alone showed that Huang Qingyuan was doing pretty well for himself these days. No idea which rich family's daughter he'd managed to latch onto.

"Miss Chu? It really is you! It's been ages!" Huang Qingyuan opened his mouth and immediately addressed her as Miss Chu.

"Yeah, long time no see." Chu Xianling also put on her professional fake smile, nodding as she spoke.

"Miss Chu, after graduation you never kept in touch with me. I asked our classmates about you, but there was zero news. I thought you might have gotten married and had kids already. Never expected you'd move from Beijing to Minghe after graduation!" Huang Qingyuan said cheerfully to Chu Xianling.

"Yeah, after graduation I barely kept in touch with any of the classmates." Chu Xianling echoed.

"Let me introduce you. This is Zheng Lulu, my fiancée, daughter of President Zheng from Pengcheng Development Bank." Huang Qingyuan pointed at the woman beside him—a girl with a pretty average face and a somewhat short, chubby figure—as he spoke.

"Wow, the daughter of a bank president! You really are blessed!" Chu Xianling acted "very surprised," her eyes going wide.

"This is the Chu Xianling I always talk to you about, the eldest daughter of the Chu Family."

"Hello. Miss Chu really is as beautiful and classy as Qingyuan said." Zheng Lulu generously extended her hand to shake with Chu Xianling. She looked like she was sincerely complimenting Chu Xianling, but there was a faint trace of jealousy and disdain in her eyes as she sized Chu Xianling up and down several times.

"Yeah, Miss Chu is just as beautiful as she was in college—actually, you could even say she's even more beautiful now. You really haven't aged at all. I'm the one who's different; time to me is like pig feed—my face got rounder, my belly's sticking out, and I've started losing hair." Huang Qingyuan said cheerfully to Chu Xianling.

Standing next to him, holding onto his arm, Zheng Lulu heard him praise Chu Xianling's looks and turned to glare at him coldly. She reached out and gave his arm a little pinch.

The smile on Huang Qingyuan's face froze.

"This is Zhou Xuan, Miss Zhou, Lulu's best friend." Huang Qingyuan introduced the other good-looking woman standing beside Zheng Lulu to Chu Xianling.

"Hello." Zhou Xuan politely shook hands with Lu Yaobing.

"Fiancée? So you two are already engaged?" Chu Xianling asked Huang Qingyuan and Zheng Lulu.

"Yes, we've been engaged for over half a year now. We've decided to get married during May Day next year, so you have to come and drink our wedding wine!" Zheng Lulu said cheerfully to Chu Xianling.

"Sure, sure, absolutely." Chu Xianling replied.

"So what brings you to Minghe?" Chu Xianling asked Huang Qingyuan.

"Well, we're here to talk business. I'm a manager at Pengcheng Development Bank now. Minghe is planning to open several new branches, so I've been coming over here a lot lately." Huang Qingyuan answered.

"Wow, you've really made something of yourself, already a manager now." Chu Xianling's professional fake smile was so wide her eyes were practically disappearing.

"It's all thanks to her, you know!" Huang Qingyuan tilted his head toward Zheng Lulu as he spoke.