Chapter 452: Lunch Banquet

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

The crowd had their own opinions on this matter.

Everyone had different experiences in their life, and therefore, they had different opinions since they harbored different prejudices about certain things.

The netizens bickered and argued over the matter as if all hell broke loose. The netizens also implicated and bombarded Xiang Wan.

Xiang Wan would receive messages on and off while eating her breakfast. The content was mostly about people trying to find out what happened between her and Du Landuo.

People were naturally curious, especially when it comes to gossip.

However, at this time, she did not feel like saying even a word.

“Why don’t you set the volume off?” Bai Muchuan lifted his chin.

“Mm.” Xiang Wan smiled. “I want to eat my breakfast in peace!”

After turning off the volume, peace returned to their world.

After a momentary silence, Bai Muchuan lifted his head and asked a question. “Do you want to go to the Criminal Investigation Unit later?”

Xiang Wan paused for a moment. “The case is under Hongjiang District’s jurisdiction, right?”

“Yup!”

“What a coincidence! Seems like Zhan Yuan is really right when he said that I’m unlucky…”

“Don’t think that way!” Bai Muchuan gave her a disapproving glance. “Hongjiang District is in the central part of Jin City, and it is also the most prosperous and populated area in the city. If we only base on the criminal records alone, this district naturally has a higher crime rate than other districts…”

“Alright, so it is the so-called legendary crime hub with many recorded incidents!”

“… I guess you can interpret it that way too.”

Xiang Wan raised her eyebrow upon hearing that and looked at him for a moment.

“Fine, we’ll go there for a look!”

…

They had no other arrangements that day, so they went directly to the Criminal Investigation Unit.

Xiang Wan knew this place well. She was very familiar with it as she had spent an unforgettable time there.

Qi Canghai was in the office. When he received the news, he came out personally to welcome Bai Muchuan and Xiang Wan to his office.

The couple was holding hands and said some polite words. Qi Canghai then asked a question.

“Captain Bai, are you… going to take on the case personally?”

Hearing this had surprised Bai Muchuan; he knew right away that Qi Canghai must have misunderstood his intentions. “No, no, no,” he laughed.

He pointed at Xiang Wan then explained. “The deceased and Xiang Wan are authors from the same platform, and they had a misunderstanding before everything happened…”

“I see.” Qi Canghai thought for a moment when he looked at Xiang Wan. “I understand now! Previously, we’ve questioned a few authors who were with the deceased at a karaoke outlet. They mentioned an author and I believe they must have referred to Xiang Wan…”

Eh?

This startled Xiang Wan for a moment.

The police had questioned those authors to understand the situation.

They must have explicitly pointed out that Du Landuo had an enemy?

She raised an eyebrow and suddenly smiled. “What we’re trying to say is, I’m here to cooperate with the investigations, Captain Qi!”

Qi Canghai let out an awkward laugh and waved his hand. Then he turned to get some water for them and asked them to sit down. “This case is actually very simple. We’ve already got all that we actually need.”

Xiang Wan took the cup of water and thanked him. “So, do I need to give a statement?”

Qi Canghai looked at Bai Muchuan and smiled. “My advice is, it’s better to get it done!”

“Sure.”

It was a protocol for the police to do that. Xiang Wan would definitely cooperate with them.

Soon, the detectives brought her to the questioning room. They mainly asked her to understand what kind of conflict she had with Du Landuo.

One detective who did the questioning was new while Xiang Wan knew the other one when she worked there. They were polite to her and they finished questioning her within half an hour.

When Xiang Wan finished, she saw that Bai Muchuan and Qi Canghai were still talking.

She then learned that Du Landuo’s autopsy report was out. They concluded that, after considering all pieces of evidence and traces they collected, the possibility of suicide was really high.

“Her emotions must have gone out of control… She’s too young!” Qi Canghai remarked.

“Weren’t there any surveillance cameras at the scene?” Xiang Wan chimed in.

“That window was at the female restroom…” Qi Canghai’s eyebrows furrowed. “From what we gathered, currently, we believe that the possibility of homicide is quite low…”

Everyone knew that after drinking alcohol, it was easy for one’s feelings to leap to the extreme, and it was easy for one to think about pessimistic and depressing thoughts…

“What a pity! Her parents were crying their hearts out…”

“Young people in love tend to be impetuous; they speak of death too easily. It is only when they grow up a little more would they will realize that they can still live on even if they do not have anyone with them.”

Xiang Wan could only stay silent while Qi Canghai expressed his sympathy.

If Du Landuo really committed suicide, people would blame her death on her.

She was not referring to the law; she knew very well that the pressure would come from the public. People would blame her by citing morality and ethics.

Frankly, she felt that this was unjustified and uncalled for.

However… Du Landuo was already dead. What else could she say?

There was a polarizing debate on the internet over this topic which was going ahead at full steam since it involved all aspects of thinking. Xiang Wan and Bai Muchuan just left the Criminal Investigation Unit when she received a few phone calls one after another.

When this incident gained a lot of attention, several famous media companies and small online media companies wanted to do an exclusive interview with Xiang Wan based on her past enmity with Du Landuo. They also wanted to ask her views on the latter’s death.

Once again, the public opinion of the netizens had pushed her to the teeth of a terrible storm!

However, was there really so much resentment between her and Du Landuo that she had to deal with all these?

Xiang Wan turned it down.

However, those words she said about her not having so much resentment with Du Landuo invited a retort from the other party.

“Since you said that there wasn’t so much resentment, why didn’t you forgive her even before her death?”

“…” Xiang Wan found herself at a loss of words.

What else could she say?

Was it still meaningful to say anything at this point?

The overwhelming public opinion pressured her so, and it weighed on her heavily.

Bai Muchuan directly took her mobile phone and talked to the other party.

“I am Bai Muchuan. If there’s anything else you wanted to know, please prepare your information and materials, so I can get a lawyer to contact you!”

Then, he directly ended the call and switched off the phone.

“Little Xiang Wan, you don’t need to waste your breath on these people.” He returned Xiang Wan’s phone and smiled at her. “What plans do you have in mind now?”

“I… don’t know.” Xiang Wan’s brain was addled at this moment. What kind of plans would she have indeed?

“Follow me to the Capital.” Bai Muchuan lowered his head to look at her eyes. “It’s almost Lunar New Year already. My family wanted to meet you… It’s my grandma, she has told me several times about it. If I delay it any longer, she might find me another girl as my wife…”

Pffft! “Isn’t that great for you?”

Going to the Capital was always part of the plan after all.

There was no reason for Xiang Wan to reject that.

Since she had decided to be with this man, then she would have to face his family. It was simply a matter of time.

Meeting them nearing the Lunar New Year was an opportune time as well.

“Fine then! Even if that meant I had to climb the highest mountain or swim the deepest ocean, I’ll accompany you!”

“Is it such a serious matter?” Bai Muchuan pinched her nose gently. “It’s just for formality’s sake. Besides my grandma, you don’t have to bother with… the rest of them.”

“…” Xiang Wan pressed her lips together and saw a gloomy glint in his eyes that only appeared for an instant. She grabbed his sleeve slowly. “You know that Lunar New Year is coming; you see, my mom… Mm, before we go, I need to console her. You didn’t know… when I broke up with you, my family also wanted to find another man as my husband!”

“You dare?”

Bai Muchuan gave a cold grunt.

He had decided to hold a lunch banquet to invite all of Xiang Wan’s relatives. Of course, her mom would have to be there as well, as one of the hosts.

Besides Xiang Wan’s youngest aunt and eldest aunt, they even invited those who learned about how Xiang Wan fell out of love and made sarcastic remarks to her mom to the banquet. His motive was to inform everyone that both of them had patched up. It was his special way of telling them that she was his woman.

Bai Muchuan had arranged for the lunch banquet to be especially grand.

The venue was his very own mansion in Jin City.

The reasons for holding it in his mansion was because Xiang Wan did not have a lot of relatives and friends.

Secondly, it was very convenient to engage a professional chef and catering team to handle the event. Both of them need not worry about anything at all.

“But… goodness! There’s no need for this, right?”

After hearing his grand and magnificent plan, Xiang Wan already felt dizzy with the arrangements alone.

Ever since she was young, she and her mom had never hosted a family banquet before.

Whether if it was her birthday or her mom’s birthday…

Whenever there was a family banquet, she and her mom were never the stars and having such events—they were not accustomed to that thought.

“It’s not me nor my mom’s birthday. Is it really appropriate to invite all of my relatives?”

“I just wanted to treat your relatives to a meal. What’s inappropriate about it? It’s not as if they have to give me presents in return, right?”

“…”

“It’s decided then!”

Bai Muchuan was a person who valued efficiency.

He quickly contacted a professional catering team, and within two hours, the caterer offered them several options to choose from…

Money would always make the world go round!

That afternoon, the caterer had already sent their employees over to clean and decorate the place for the following day.

They even got the theme ready—

“The Relatives Banquet for Mister Bai Muchuan and Miss Xiang Wan.”

That amused Xiang Wan. “This is the first time I’ve heard a banquet with this theme…”

“There are a lot of things that you haven’t heard of!” Bai Muchuan took her waist, and they went upstairs together. “You can go and write your chapter. You need not worry about the banquet.”

“… What about you? Don’t you have to write your chapters too?”

“Is that… an invitation for me to write?” Bai Muchuan showed a meaningful smile.

Xiang Wan realized what he was referring to and her face instantly flushed red. “It’s none of my business if you write or not…”

…

D*rn!

Seemed like it got more difficult to get him to update his novel directly.

She sat in the study while ruffling her hair when she realized that he was so good to her recently that sometimes she felt like she was dreaming…

Even when they had informed Xiang Wan’s mom about the lunch banquet, she was so happy that she made three calls in a row to confirm with her daughter.

“Both of you really got back together?”

“Yeah, we patched up.”

“That’s good, that’s good. Hmph, I’ll see what else those relatives will say to us again…”

For Xiang Wan’s mom, her recent emotions were like the roller-coaster. Just a few days ago, she was still worried about her daughter’s marriage and future. The next moment, she was told that the two of them had gotten back together again. Now that this issue was “solved”, she started to tell Xiang Wan on ‘how to get along with your other half’. For instance, not to throw tantrums whenever she liked and that they must learn how to be more tolerant and patient with each other…

This amused Xiang Wan a lot. “Okay, okay. Mom, you sound like you’re a professional in this…”

“I only ask of you to remember what I’m saying! I don’t want to talk to you anymore. I need to go invite the relatives to come. Little Bai asked me to get all of them to come. I have to say that this future son-in-law of mine really knows how to make us look good before our relatives…”

“…”

Indeed, this was something that would make both mother and daughter look good.

With a son-in-law like Bai Muchuan, which family would not be envious?

The dramatic twists in real life were sometimes even more exaggerated than in novels.

Just not too long ago, those relatives who were sarcastically mocking Xiang Wan’s mom were like emojis, for they immediately changed their stance to them by being warm and friendly again. They also tried to sound her out about Bai Muchuan. Now, Xiang Wan was being depicted as the female “role model” amongst their circle of relatives.

It was a lunch in Jin City held in Bai Muchuan’s mansion.

With a professional catering team, the banquet looked modern and stylish. In addition, the beautifully built mansion where they held the banquet exudes elegance with a strong sense of nobility and social class. That awed those relatives as soon as they saw that, and they couldn’t stop saying how Xiang Wan’s mom got herself a good son-in-law. The relatives also took the chance to look around the mansion, the courtyard, backyard, luxury car… It really impressed them.

Xiang Wan’s mom looked great.

All these years, she had never felt so proud and elated.

This really made her very satisfied with Little Bai, her future son-in-law. With the relatives complimenting Bai Muchuan, she felt like she was over the moon.

When Bai Muchuan toasted to all the relatives, he went up to Xiang Wan’s mom and handed her a bunch of keys.

“Mom! Wanwan needs to follow me to the Capital for Lunar New Year. There will be a long period where both of us will stay there. I will need your help to manage and take care of things here…”

The word ‘Mom’…

It made her jump.

What did those words he said to her earlier mean?

Looking at the big bunch of keys, she didn’t know what to say.

“You’re saying… You’re saying… ?”

There was a sincere smile on Bai Muchuan’s handsome face. “Come on, you’re not that young anymore, and you need to take care of your health. It’s better for you to stop working from now on. Live here instead, we’ll support you in the days ahead…”

Live here? In this mansion? thought Xiang Wan’s mom, who was in a daze.

What was he saying again?…

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