Lu Yanbei how could he know she was here, and why would he be so kind as to pay her bill? Su He couldn't figure this out even as she walked into the lobby.
Just as she opened her phone, preparing to message Lu Yanbei, a girl in a white camisole dress bumped into her. Su He stumbled, and her phone clattered to the floor.
Su He froze for a moment and looked up at the other person.
Talk about bumping into an old enemy.
"What are you doing here?" the one who bumped into Su He was Zhou Yingzi, whom she hadn't seen in a long time. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Su He.
After all, this place operated on a membership basis; it wasn't somewhere just anyone could enter.
Su He raised an eyelid, feeling that today was utterly unlucky, encountering scumbags wherever she went.
She initially intended to ignore them and leave. But seeing her shattered phone screen, it felt wrong to just walk away. "You bumped into me, and you didn't even apologize?"
"Yingzi, who is she? Do you know her?"
Zhou Yingzi arrogantly tilted her chin and said mockingly, "She's Su He, the ex-wife my brother dumped!"
"Ah, she's the one who married into the Lu family for three years but never made a public appearance? I didn't expect her to look like this!"
"Look at her disheveled appearance; no wonder Young Master Lu doesn't want to spare her another glance!"
"A while ago, I heard Su An'an say she had an elder sister; so it's her..."
Su He listened to their sour remarks with a blank expression. "Let's not get into all that. You broke my phone, and you have to take responsibility."
"What's your broken phone worth?" Zhou Yingzi felt even more disdainful seeing how petty Su He was.
Her friends chimed in.
"You weren't looking where you were going, what's it got to do with anyone else!"
"Exactly! I think you're trying to extort money!"
"Hey, you're no longer the young madam of the Lu family. How can you speak to Yingzi like that? It's so rude!"
"Right! You have no manners at all!"
Seeing that some people were backing her up, Zhou Yingzi smiled even more smugly. "See, everyone has eyes! You bumped into me yourself, and now you're blaming me? I haven't even settled accounts with you yet!"
"Do you know how expensive this outfit is? It could buy several phones!"
It was Zhou Yingzi's birthday today. Zhao Yafen had specially obtained a membership card for Spring Breeze Pavilion from Lu Yunting, hoping to host her daughter's birthday banquet with a bit of flair.
Originally, she had persuaded Lu Yunting to host it at the Lu family villa, thereby proving her status in the Lu family. However, a while ago, Lu Yunting and his father had a falling out, and they were kicked out of the villa. She couldn't afford to lose face, nor did she want her daughter to be looked down upon, so she came up with this idea.
Su He watched her coldly, her anger flaring up. "So you're not planning to compensate me?"
Zhou Yingzi scoffed. "Are you out of your mind for money? What, did swindling my brother out of five million yuan not suffice, and you want to keep extorting me?"
"What, five million yuan?"
"My God, isn't that too much to ask for!"
"I never expected the former young madam of the Lu family to be so desperate for money! It seems the Lu family never truly considered her one of their own!"
"Look at her pathetic appearance! And they call her a daughter of the Su family!"
Zhou Yingzi's hangers-on covered their mouths and watched the spectacle.
"What's so strange about that! She was lost and wandering since she was a child, suffering untold hardships, which is why she values money so much... Tsk tsk tsk, how pitiful..." Zhou Yingzi took the opportunity to reveal Su He's background, as if afraid others wouldn't know how she had lived before.
"Yingzi is too kind! She's already showing you a bad attitude, and you still pity her!"
"Some people, the more you indulge them, the more they push their luck!"
"I heard the family that adopted her made a living by picking up trash? Living with such low-class people for so many years, she must have picked up all their bad habits!"
"No wonder the Su family doesn't like her. If it were our family, no one would like her either!"
Su He clenched her fists, grinding her teeth in anger. She had heard so much of this gossip in recent years and had become numb to it; she could simply dismiss it as fart. But they shouldn't have insulted her adoptive parents.
On the second floor, Gu Yuheng and a few others coming down the stairs couldn't help but glance at Lu Yanbei beside them.
"Brother Yan, those people have some nerve, daring to cause trouble in your territory!"
"And the one being bullied is your ex-sister-in-law!"
"That woman who's the center of attention looks familiar; I feel like I've seen her somewhere?"
Despite the clamor around him, Lu Yanbei's expression remained unchanged.
He casually put his hands in his pockets, not saying a word, as if watching a play.
Downstairs, Su He was so angry her lungs were about to explode. "Zhou Yingzi, just because you have more people doesn't mean you're right. See the surveillance camera on that door? Do you dare to pull up the footage and let everyone judge?"
"Su He, don't push your luck!" Zhou Yingzi, relying on her numbers, reached out and pushed Su He.
Zhou Yingzi's sudden move caught Su He completely off guard. She stumbled back a few steps, about to fall to the ground. Laughter erupted from the surrounding crowd, all eager to see Su He embarrass herself.
However, the expected fall did not happen.
Suddenly, several tall men appeared behind Su He. The leader, with a stern face, his thick eyebrows slanted towards his temples, dressed in a black suit, with impossibly long legs and brightly polished leather shoes, exuded an extraordinary aura.
The moment Su He began to fall, he reached out and steadied her by the shoulder.
"Yan... Young Master Yan..."
Su He, still in shock, reacted a beat too late. By the time she wanted to thank him, Lu Yanbei had already let go of her and returned his hands to his pockets.
The moment Zhou Yingzi saw Lu Yanbei, her eyes lit up involuntarily.
She preened and tidied her clothes, then stepped forward to greet him. "Brother Yan, you're here too?"
Zhou Yingzi's entourage heard the intimate address, filled with both envy and jealousy.
"Oh my god, it's really Young Master Yan! We're so lucky today!"
"Quick, see if my makeup is smudged... I must make a good impression on Young Master Yan..."
"Young Master Yan, look at me, look at me..."
The girls excitedly fiddled with their fingers, their faces flushed with excitement.
To show off in front of her friends, Zhou Yingzi deliberately acted as if she knew Lu Yanbei very well. "Brother Yan, I didn't expect to run into you here. Are you... here for dinner with friends?"
She glanced at the men behind Lu Yanbei. All dressed in designer brands, around 1.8 meters tall, some refined, some handsome, some dashing, but with Lu Yanbei present, they were destined to be overshadowed.
Lu Yanbei remained silent for a long time.
Zhou Yingzi's heart sank, and a bad premonition suddenly struck her.
"Who are you?" Lu Yanbei asked with cold eyes.
Zhou Yingzi's face instantly turned pale.
Lu Yanbei had no interest in talking to irrelevant people.
He glanced at Su He beside him and said, "Aren't you leaving?"
Su He blinked, finally coming back to her senses. "She knocked my phone to the ground."
"Su He, don't slander me!" In front of her idol, Zhou Yingzi would never admit it.
Her friends quickly spoke up for her.
"Young Master Yan, we all saw it clearly. Su He dropped it herself and then blamed Yingzi."
"Yes, Yingzi is innocent!"
Lu Yanbei's companions couldn't help but look up at the sky.
Were these people's heads full of mush? Brother Yan's attitude was already very clear! What was Zhou Yingzi to him? Brother Yan didn't even acknowledge knowing her, and he was clearly biased towards little sister Su He. Were they blind? They dared to speak up for Zhou Yingzi in front of everyone.