Chapter 198

Chapter 198: My Seat Got Stolen!

After hearing all this, Du An Rao was amazed at how fast Mr. Yu’s family acted. In just two days they had caught the culprits, exposed the truth, crushed the scheme, gotten a divorce, moved the household registration, and cut off all ties. It was all done in one go, so clean and decisive, it was simply… insanely cool.

She asked: “Those two, the mother and daughter… they did not react at all? Like resisting or refusing or something?”

It was easy to guess that the love-brained former Madam Yu still did not realize how serious things were. What Du An Rao was really curious about was Yu Ya Qi’s reaction.

This Miss Yu did not have much brain, but she still had a little.

“Madam Yu did not really react. You could even say she could not wait for it,” Jiang Chang Bin said. He could not help shedding a tear of sympathy for Papa Yu at that thought.

He had treasured his wife for more than twenty years, yet in the end all her feelings were for another man. She even felt he had held her back and wronged her. It was impossible to understand how her mind worked. Did all the kindness he had shown her for those twenty-plus years suddenly become a mistake?

Du An Rao could not understand it either and ended up feeling sorry for Mr. Yu as well.

[This is why you should not be a doormat! Do not be a doormat! In the end you will end up with nothing. You should say it clearly from the start. Mr. Yu has money and looks. Why should he hang himself on your one tree, give so much, and still be disliked? That is just too miserable!]

Jiang Chang Bin: “…” Exactly. It was not like Uncle Yu could not find a wife. Why did he have to pick up trash out of the garbage can like her?

“That sister Chu Hui was crying snot and tears, saying she knew she was wrong and begging Uncle Yu not to drive her out. Sadly, her mother had made too much trouble, and she herself was too vicious, so Uncle Yu ignored her and still kicked both mother and daughter out together.”

Du An Rao was not surprised by Yu Ya Qi’s reaction. She shook her head, a little wistful.

[Sure enough, you do not have to fear godlike enemies, only pig-like teammates! Yu Ya Qi had clearly already seen her scummy dad’s true face. She knew that once she was thrown out of the Yu family, her life would fall into endless hardship, so she was still trying to save herself. But her mom’s head was full of unrealistic dreams about using love to climb up. With a mother like that, this girl is going to have a hard life.]

She sighed to herself, but when she remembered all the nasty things Yu Ya Qi had done to Yu Chu Hui, she felt that bad people would be punished by other bad people. She decided to respect other people’s fate and let go of any urge to step in and help.

After the two cousins finished gossiping about the Yu family, Jiang Chang Bin finally realized something was off.

He asked: “Why is he sitting here?”

Pointing at Xi Jing Yue sitting on Du An Rao’s other side, Jiang Chang Bin’s expression changed.

“Mr. Xi was sitting there from the start,” Du An Rao said.

Jiang Chang Bin was choked speechless. He suddenly remembered that the invitation had seat numbers, so he quickly took it out to look. His seat number was indeed here, with Du An Rao beside him, Xi Jing Yue on her other side, and then the Qiu family mother and son further down. Clearly this whole row was numbered in order.

“…” What a miscalculation. He had left for a little while and come back to find… his spot had been stolen!

“An An, can we switch seats?”

“Huh?” Du An Rao was confused by Jiang Chang Bin’s suggestion. “Why?”

“I am not used to sitting on this side. Can I switch with you?”

“I mean, we can…” Du An Rao turned to look at Xi Jing Yue, her face hesitating.

Xi Jing Yue knew what she was struggling with. His eyes flashed slightly, and he said considerately: “Since you are not used to sitting on the aisle, Mr. Jiang, I will switch with you. My seat is a bit further in.”

“No need. I can just switch with my cousin. We do not have to trouble you, Mr. Xi,” Jiang Chang Bin said.

His original plan had been to separate the two of them so they would not sit together. If he swapped with Xi instead, would all his effort not be for nothing?

“But An An and I just agreed that I would help introduce her to as many of the bidding guests as possible,” he added, so that she could enjoy even more fresh and juicy gossip.

Jiang Chang Bin blinked, then could not help letting out a quiet laugh. He said: “If I remember right, Mr. Xi, you are not from City B.”

Xi Jing Yue probably guessed what he was hinting at, but he did not panic at all. He said calmly: “I am indeed not from City B.”

“In that case, where does your confidence come from, thinking you know these… seniors better than someone who grew up in City B?”

“Probably because most of the people here already do business with my family, and some of the others, though we have not worked together yet, plan to cooperate with us in the future,” Xi Jing Yue replied.

Jiang Chang Bin: “…” Wow, having money really is everything. He had nothing to say.

Du An Rao looked at her cousin, then at Xi Jing Yue, and her instincts told her the air between them was a bit off.

She could not help asking in a low voice: “Cousin, do you still want to change seats? The auction is about to start.”

“Let us… not switch for now.” He really was a local of City B, but given his family’s situation, he did not usually get to deal with people at this level.

Right now, in this whole venue, he was only familiar with Yu Qing Ting and his dad. He did not know most of the others. If he really switched seats with his cousin and she started asking him about the guests later, and he did not know anything, would that not be even more embarrassing?

Facts later proved that Jiang Chang Bin’s worries were not wrong.

Because most of the items in the early part of the auction had already been displayed in the exhibition hall, the first half moved very quickly. As soon as the host finished introducing an item, people below were already calling out their bids.

The raw stone that Du An Rao liked was scheduled toward the back. The antique calligraphy and paintings being auctioned early on, in her opinion, were nothing especially eye-catching or rare enough to make her want to buy them and take them home.

After a few rounds, she was no longer as excited as before and even felt a little sleepy, until…

The host said: “Next up for auction is this jewelry set, the final work of world-famous jewelry grandmaster Master Liang Yong Shun, Heart of the Ocean.”

As soon as the host said that line, Du An Rao almost choked on her drink with a “pfft,” scaring the people on both sides of her into quickly patting her back to help her breathe.

“Drink slower, drink slower. No one is stealing it from you. How do you even choke just drinking water?”

“I, cough, cough… I am fine now, I am much better,” Du An Rao said, patting her chest. She finally caught her breath, but her eyes were locked tightly on the jewelry set on stage.

This made the people around them start guessing that she was interested in this famous set of jewelry.

Only the two people sitting on either side of her knew that she was not interested in the jewelry itself at all, but in the gossip that might come with this jewelry set.

[Here it comes, here it comes, the famous prop Heart of the Ocean that shows up in ninety-nine percent of romance novels. It has appeared! Fifty percent of the time, it is used by the male or female lead as a token of love. Another forty-nine percent of the time, it is used by a villain or cannon fodder to frame a poor male or female lead for theft. And there is that one percent chance it becomes the killer’s motive for murder in some mystery story.]

[Tonight, who will win this key prop? Whose bedside will it show up by later? Let us wait and see!]

Jiang Chang Bin: “…”

Xi Jing Yue: “…”

They were both speechless. There was even a way to look at it like that?!