Just When They Were Young
Today was Fang Anyan’s birthday party.
His seventeenth birthday party.
For the Fang family, who had already begun making a name for themselves in Qiuhai City, their only son who might inherit the family business in the future truly did need a suitable occasion like this to be introduced to the upper circles of Qiuhai City. So this birthday banquet could not be called anything less than grand.
Almost half the adults who could touch the edges of the circle had been invited. As for the various wealthy young masters and young ladies in their teens, nearly all the students from the aristocratic school Fang Anyan was about to transfer into had been invited too.
Because they carried the idea of using this event to let the Fang family enter this circle in one move, the banquet venue was chosen inside the courtyard of the Fang family’s newly bought villa. A professional banquet team had been hired. A huge transparent dome covered the area, coloured lights and flowers arranged in staggered layers. Although it was clearly a boy’s birthday party, the setup looked like an engagement banquet for some young lady from a wealthy family. It was extremely exaggerated.
This was also why, in the following ten-odd years, whenever Fang Anyan walked through the business world and met people who had attended his birthday party that day, they would tease him with a line about “Princess Fang.”
The more his family had wanted to do things well, the more they had become a joke. It was like a village girl with two thick braids insisting on wearing a professional suit. People in the circle laughed about it in secret for a long time.
However, whether overt or hidden laughter, most of it happened behind their backs and later on. On the actual day of Fang Anyan’s birthday party, guests had indeed gathered in great numbers. Anyone in Qiuhai City with a little status had arrived. Even if the older generation was too important to come personally, their younger generation would certainly be there.
After all, this circle was like that. The Fang family had indeed begun showing strength in the business world. It was always best to leave some room when dealing with others. Who knew whether there would be cooperation with them in the future?
So at eight o’clock in the evening, when the banquet began, inside the dreamlike and dazzling banquet dome, guests gathered thickly. The men were dressed in suits and leather shoes, chatting and laughing elegantly. The women wore exquisite gowns, each competing in beauty.
As for Fang Anyan, the handsome boy wearing a little bow tie and a custom suit, his face cold and aloof, he too was surrounded by a circle of boys and girls from the wealthy second-generation circle of Qiuhai City — also the classmates from the aristocratic school he was about to transfer into.
Transferring schools in the final year of high school was a top-tier death wish. Fortunately, Fang Anyan’s grades were good, strangely good, so he was not afraid of Father Fang and Mother Fang going through all this trouble. Moreover, this aristocratic school in Qiuhai City was said to have teachers comparable to those in Heji Province. It had been specially created by the circle pooling money together to cultivate their own heirs. The courses offered were all related to the best-performing industries of each family and the most promising fields for the future. It could be called a school specifically designed to train successors.
Fang Anyan was not used to this kind of occasion.
His whole body was tense. Some boy, acting familiarly like those adults, came over and put an arm around Fang Anyan’s shoulders to talk. Fang Anyan held a wine glass and responded stiffly, not like the host of the banquet, but like Cinderella who had accidentally entered a prince’s ball. Even though the suit on him had been custom-made, it did not quite suit the rapidly changing body shape of a teenage boy. Fang Anyan found it awkward and unbearable.
In truth, was the business world not changing with each passing day too?
Every year, or every few years, there would be family enterprises like this, beginning to show themselves, desperately wanting to integrate into the circle and have their children blend among these heirs. This was nothing unusual. Children truly born into wealth had mostly seen this all before and did not find it strange. Nor would they genuinely befriend newcomers from the start. After all, perhaps one day, this family would collapse. Those who dropped out or jumped from buildings were everywhere. There was nothing rare about it.
So these boys and girls usually approached newcomers to the circle at first with the mentality of watching a monkey show.
Only, tonight was a little different.
Because although Fang Anyan was inexperienced, he did not make any obvious fool of himself. Besides, he was genuinely handsome, cool and unsmiling, with the aura of a good student. In this circle, that was truly a very rare kind of aura.
Girls liked fresh things. Boys also knew their limits and understood not to go too far. So nothing unpleasant happened. Instead, among the girls, someone had a very good impression of Fang Anyan and suggested, “Your villa is really big. Can you take us on a tour?”
Fang Anyan’s birthdays every year had actually been very simple. This time, it had become so grand, and his mother had repeatedly instructed him that he absolutely had to get along well with this group of classmates he was not yet familiar with. So even though he felt uncomfortable, he forced out a smile and nodded, leading everyone to tour the house.
However, although the banquet had already begun for an hour, someone was late.
It was none other than the Jun family, whose momentum was currently very strong.
Of course, Old Jun was not someone the Fang family could invite. This time, the representative sent by the Jun family was the Jun family’s troublemaking eldest young lady, Jun Yue.
The Jun family was large and powerful. As brilliant as its rise had been, the later fight between brothers had been just as tragic. Now, apart from Old Jun, the Jun family only had two underage girls left, and one of them had become paralyzed in an accident. This eldest young lady of the Jun family could be said to be its only heir. Old Jun was already old; it was too late to make a new person from scratch. So in outsiders’ eyes, Jun Yue was practically the treasure in the Jun family’s palm.
She was even more unruly than many boys, but the Jun family did not care at all and continued indulging her. In Qiuhai City, there truly were not many people who dared provoke her.
Today, Jun Yue had originally gone bungee jumping with Wu Zhenfei. She jumped three times and had not been back for long before her grandfather informed her that she had to attend some birthday banquet for the Fang family’s young master turning seventeen.
Jun Yue almost laughed.
A seventeenth birthday party this grand — were they afraid he would not live to see eighteen?
However rebellious she was, she did not dare completely ignore something her grandfather had personally said. But she arrived late. And when she reached the Fang family’s gate, she only then called one of her little sisters.
“So? Is he another little country bumpkin?” Jun Yue’s lazy voice came through the receiver.
She had twisted her ankle today, and wearing heels made it hurt. After getting out of the car, she held the phone between her shoulder and ear while simply lifting her foot and taking off the high heels. Holding them in her hand, she walked barefoot into the Fang residence.
A seventeen-year-old girl was still young and green. But Jun Yue had developed well and knew how to dress up. From the front, she looked older than her actual age. But in the end, she was still young. Her slender back and waist, from any angle, looked like a flower bud about to bloom.
If one had to distinguish her from her peers, at most, her bud was a little bigger. It was not pure white; a tender pink colour had already begun seeping from the base of the bud.
Just looking at her, one could imagine how bright and dripping with beauty she would be once she truly bloomed.
The little sister on the other end replied in a very low voice. She was currently following behind Fang Anyan and touring the rooms of his house. With one hand partly covering the receiver, she reported to Jun Yue over the phone, “Honestly, he isn’t rustic, but… the house decor really is rustic.”
Jun Yue’s laughter was clear and bright as she listened to her friend complain. “Me? I’ve entered the Fang house. Which way do I go? I’ll go see this cool little bumpkin you mentioned.”
“Okay.”
Jun Yue hung up the phone, bypassed the banquet dome, and followed her friend’s instructions, taking a small path directly toward the Fang family villa, preparing to meet up with her group.
The small path was quiet, completely different from the domed banquet. Jun Yue walked for a while holding her shoes, then began to feel pain. Her pace slowed as she chose easier places to step.
But as she walked, she unknowingly deviated from the small path leading to the main entrance of the Fang villa and instead took another flat path.
The banquet was not far away. Although it was dark here, she was not exactly afraid. She stopped in place for a moment, realized she seemed to have taken the wrong path, and became somewhat annoyed as she prepared to turn back.
Her ankle hurt badly. The smile on Jun Yue’s face was scattered by the night wind.
She was unhappy.
Whenever she was unhappy, she liked to torment people. The unluckiest were always her little companions. Usually, apart from that fool Wu Zhenfei, no one actually liked playing with Jun Yue. She was an oddity among them. In this circle, there were also many wealthy second-generation kids who liked to play around, and some played outrageously, but always within a certain boundary.
Jun Yue did not just play beyond the line. She disregarded consequences. Many times, she seemed like a fallen girl who did not care whether she lived or died. Anyone with a normal brain did not dare provoke her too much.
Originally, the unlucky one tonight would probably have been that supposedly cool boy who wanted to integrate into their circle.
But according to Fang Anyan’s personality, he would definitely not give Jun Yue face. Wasn’t there a type of novel that wrote things like this? Someone who was always flattered by everyone meets a rebellious one, then feels he is different.
And then she turns around and likes him, pursues him crazily, and disregards everything to be with him?
Only, tonight was very special.
Special not because it was Fang Anyan’s birthday, but because just as Jun Yue turned around to head back, a light suddenly came on not far away.
The light happened to shine at Jun Yue’s feet. Warm yellow, gently spreading across the road she had come from.
Jun Yue stopped and looked over. Not far away, there was a small greenhouse. Inside seemed to be someone standing, looking in her direction.
This kindness of turning on a light was not at all unusual to Jun Yue. She had received too much flattery and so-called goodwill. Once there was too much of it, it all seemed very fake.
This light did not even stir her desire to investigate. She only looked over instinctively.
The greenhouse was transparent. The person standing inside had nowhere to hide.
But just as Jun Yue was about to turn her head and leave, the light went out.
Jun Yue: “…The fuck?”
She stood there for a moment, snorted in laughter, and prepared to leave again.
The light came on again.
Jun Yue: “…”
She was very certain now. This person was deliberately messing with her.
Jun Yue turned her head and looked over. The figure inside the little house had disappeared.
If Jun Yue’s personality had been just a little gentler, even only a little, she would not have endured the pain in her foot and walked, gritting her teeth, toward the greenhouse in the direction of the light.
She did not know that by walking this short path covered in warm yellow light, her entire life would change.
The encounters of life came from the combination of every accident and every choice. She had seen too much flattery, so she mistook simple kindness for teasing. Furious, she pushed open the greenhouse door.
And with that, she opened a life that should never originally have belonged to her.
“Who is it? Get out!” Jun Yue clung to the door. As soon as she entered the greenhouse, the light was dazzling. After adapting for a moment, she saw a corner of clothing hidden beneath the flower rack. She immediately let out a cold laugh.
“Get out. I saw you!” Jun Yue’s tone was arrogant.
But after waiting for quite a while, the person behind the flower rack did not move at all.
He could not be discovered. That was what his mother had told him.
Fang Anyu shrank behind the flower rack. The light had indeed come on because he saw someone had lost her way.
But when that person looked over, he quickly hid.
The light in the greenhouse was enough to illuminate that small road. Once she left, he could come out.
Mother had said today was his younger brother’s very important day. He could not be discovered.
Fang Anyu was crouching there, guessing whether that person had left, when he was suddenly caught by the wrist.
“Caught you. You dared mess with me, and now you’re hiding?” Jun Yue’s tone was contemptuous.
This person was really too stupid. This little greenhouse could be seen through at a glance. How could anyone hide here?
But very soon, she felt the wrist she had grabbed tremble violently.
Then she met a pair of panicked eyes, clear and bright as ice flowers forming on winter branches.
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