Three days later.
Mu Jinyu, following Mei Yinxue's suggestion, decided to hold Yu Linglong and Lin Qiaoxia's birthday party on the third floor banquet hall of the Kaiyan International Hotel.
The Kaiyan International Hotel, while not the most luxurious hotel in River City, was decently grand—not too big, not too small.
Originally, Mu Jinyu wanted to have their birthday party at the most expensive and best hotel in River City, but Mei Yinxue thought it wasn't a good idea, fearing it might intimidate Lin Qiaoxia and her family, so they settled on this place.
Indeed, after being reminded by Mei Yinxue, Mu Jinyu also invited Lin Qiaoxia's parents to join the fun, as it was their daughter's birthday after all, and it wouldn't be nice to leave them out.
He didn't have any ulterior motives anyway; he thought, what could be wrong with her parents attending when he wasn't planning to get Lin Qiaoxia drunk and take advantage of her at the birthday event?
After spending the afternoon shopping with Mei Yinxue, Mu Jinyu picked out a few gifts for Yu Linglong and Lin Qiaoxia's birthday. Seeing it was getting late, he said to Mei Yinxue:
"Let's go, let's head out."
Mei Yinxue stood still, slightly annoyed, and reminded him, "You bought a few gifts, why not buy a bit more for Xiyan and the others?"
Mei Yinxue solemnly reminded him, "You've been with them for a while and seem to have never given them any gifts, have you?"
"Ah, that's right." Mu Jinyu nodded, realizing, and gratefully smiled at Mei Yinxue, "That's true, let's pick out a couple more gifts then."
Hearing this, Mei Yinxue really wanted to bite him!
Although with her status, she really didn't lack anything, she had stated when choosing to be with Mu Jinyu that she did not care about status or identity.
But she still hoped that Mu Jinyu would pay more attention to her.
She would have been truly happy if Mu Jinyu bought her a small gift, but he had never cared about her feelings, only coming to her when there was a need, or when Xiyan and others weren't at home, which made her feel quite upset.
Mu Jinyu laughed, "Don't worry, there is definitely something for you. I haven't forgotten you. Look at how aggrieved you look."
As he spoke, he took out a small gift box from his pocket, opened it, and revealed a platinum necklace inside.
The necklace wasn't very expensive; Mei Yinxue had seen it a few times and clearly liked it a lot, so Mu Jinyu sneakily ran back to buy it while she was in the restroom.
He had planned to give it to her later, but seeing her a bit upset, he decided to give it to her now.
The pendant of the platinum necklace consisted of two hearts pierced by an arrow, adorned with numerous small diamonds, and looked quite appealing.
Upon seeing the necklace, Mei Yinxue's face lit up with surprise and joy, her eyes slightly reddening as she excitedly hugged Mu Jinyu, completely disregarding the glances of passersby on the street, and gave him a kiss.
After a long moment, they separated, and Mei Yinxue, feeling a bit embarrassed, lowered her head with a blush and said, "Thank you."
"No more sulking now, huh?" Mu Jinyu wiped the lipstick mark from the corner of his mouth and said with a smile.
At his words, Mei Yinxue couldn't help but playfully hit Mu Jinyu lightly and countered, "Who was sulking?"
Despite being a twenty-five-year-old older sister figure, she was behaving like a little girl at the moment.
But this was normal, as Mei Yinxue had never been in love before. Being with Mu Jinyu, and not receiving much attention from him, always left her feeling insecure and anxious.
Now that Mu Jinyu finally showed her a bit of attention, she was naturally overjoyed.
Mu Jinyu held her hand, no longer teasing her, and said, "Come on, let's pick a few more items, then head to the Kaiyan Hotel to celebrate their birthday."
"Hmm."
Soon, the two of them finished buying the gifts, and then Wang Zhengbiao drove them to the Kaiyan Hotel.
At the hotel, they went to the third floor, ready to check on the birthday party's venue setup, when they saw someone arguing with the lobby manager.
"What do you mean by this? Didn't we reserve your banquet hall for today a week ago? How can you now go back on your word and deny it?!"
A somewhat sharp and harsh woman's voice arose.
Then, the lobby manager's calm and composed voice followed:
"I'm sorry, ma'am, you're right that you called a week ago to reserve the banquet hall in advance, but firstly, you didn't pay a deposit, and secondly, you didn't specify which banquet hall. Naturally, we couldn't just reserve the large banquet hall for you. We managed to keep the smaller banquet hall available, which is the biggest commitment our hotel could offer. If you don't want it, I can arrange for others right now..."
Upon hearing this, the woman became even more infuriated and said angrily: "Pay a deposit first? Do you think someone of my status would be short of that money? And you've arranged a small banquet hall that can only accommodate twenty tables, do you think that's appropriate for my grandmother's grand birthday?"
"Hurry up and vacate the large banquet hall for us!"
The Kaiyan Grand Hotel's third-layer banquet hall has two rooms, one of which is the largest and can accommodate fifty tables, while the other is smaller, fitting only twenty tables.
The woman, of course, wanted the one with fifty tables.
"Sorry, the large banquet hall is already booked. We can't provide it for you. If you think the small banquet hall isn't enough, I'm truly sorry about that..."
The lobby manager said apologetically. Although he didn't use any harsh words, his meaning was clear: he thought the smaller banquet hall was too small, so he was effectively telling her to leave and find another hotel, so he could quickly arrange for someone else.
The woman, upon hearing this, was furious and started to scold sharply and harshly again.
Mu Jinyu frowned slightly as he listened, feeling that he had heard this woman's voice somewhere before.
Then, he and Mei Yinxue walked to the entrance of the banquet hall, and upon seeing the woman's appearance, he finally realized why her voice felt familiar.
It turned out to be Lin Qiaoxia's classmate, Chen Jiahui.
Standing by her side was her boyfriend, Wang Chaoyong.
"So it's them!"
Mu Jinyu muttered, frowning.
Mei Yinxue asked, "Do you know them?"
She thought if they still had a good relationship, she would step in and arrange something for them.
If not, then she would leave them be.
Mu Jinyu said, "Sort of, but we don't get along. They were Qiaoxia's college classmates. We met them at dinner the other day, and they were quite rude, even vilifying Qiaoxia over a few ambiguous photos..."
Having heard this, Mei Yinxue's expression darkened, and she said, "This hotel is mine. Since they are being so impolite, should we kick them out?"
Mu Jinyu hesitated for a moment. If the small banquet hall was just for ordinary use, kicking them out wouldn't matter much since they indeed had spoken rudely. But since it was for their grandmother's grand birthday...
"Let it be." Mu Jinyu shook his head and said, "Go over and tell them, take it or leave. If they still want to make a scene, then kick them out!"