Chapter 096: Dinner Gathering

Perhaps I have simply been overthinking it. Li Jia has already replied, and her parents said nothing was wrong. I cannot keep myself in such a state of unease, lest it affect tomorrow morning’s interview.

With that thought, Huang Yu comforted himself.

That evening, after reading for a while, he went to bed early.

Yet once he lay down, sleep would not come. From time to time he took out his phone and sent Li Jia messages, most of them tender and affectionate words, imagining that when she finished with her work and saw them, she would surely be delighted.

He tossed and turned like this until after midnight before he finally drifted into sleep.

That night, he had a beautiful dream.

In the dream, Li Jia wore a pure white wedding gown, as lovely as an angel, flawless and immaculate.

She kept smiling at him, saying that becoming his bride was the happiest thing in her life.

Huang Yu, dressed in a perfectly tailored suit, looked handsome and distinguished. Standing beside Li Jia, they were the ideal couple, a match made in heaven.

Under the blessings of both families’ elders, the two of them walked hand in hand into the hall of marriage, to meet the most important moment of their lives.

The vows, the exchange of rings, the kiss, and all the rest.

Their love was never stormy or earthshaking; it had not been forged through countless ordeals. From beginning to end, it was plain as water, or perhaps better said, it had all flowed naturally into place.

Both Huang Yu and Li Jia wore the happiest smiles on their faces, and the dream seemed to freeze forever at that very moment.

It was the happiest instant of Huang Yu’s life.

Deep in his heart, he had always believed that only such ordinary love could truly last a lifetime, growing old together with white hair.

And his dream did not end with the wedding. It only just began: their first night together, their honeymoon, preparing for a child, becoming parents, raising their children, and even becoming grandparents.

In that dream, he spent an entire lifetime with Li Jia.

In that life, they traveled all over the world and witnessed the scenery of different nations, along with the unique history and culture of each place.

They raised a son and a daughter. Their daughter was obedient and, when grown, became a rather well-known novelist. Their son, however, gave them no end of worry. In high school he was rebellious; in university he wanted to become a racing driver; after graduation he wanted to become an adventurer and roam the world in search of danger.

It was not until he married and became a father himself that he finally settled down.

When they both entered old age, Huang Yu would always ask Li Jia which of them would be the one left behind.

And every time he asked, Li Jia would answer him with a foolish little smile that it should be Huang Yu who went first, because the one who departed first would suffer a little less heartbreak from memory.

One dream became an entire lifetime.

As soon as dawn broke, Huang Yu woke from that beautiful dream. Though many of the details in it had already faded from memory, he still remembered some of the most important scenes very clearly.

Lying in bed, he carefully went over everything that had happened in the dream once more, and a smile of understanding spread across his face. He also believed that all of it would come true in the near future, and would not remain merely a beautiful dream.

He got up and first checked the time on his phone. It was not yet seven. Then he looked through his messages again, but there was still nothing from Li Jia.

That made him somewhat disappointed. After all, before falling asleep, he had still been waiting for her reply.

That morning, he went to the Institute of African History at the Yunnan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences for his formal onboarding interview.

The interview went even more smoothly than he had expected. It lasted just over an hour, and on the spot he was given a clear admission result, with instructions to prepare well; he could officially begin work on the first day of next month.

A little after ten in the morning, Huang Yu walked out of the Institute of African History at the Yunnan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, his face bright with joy.

Outside, the sun was shining brilliantly. The warm light fell directly upon his handsome face, as though bathing him completely in sunlight, adding still more charm to a person who was already full of it. Coupled with the joy shining from within him, he was especially captivating.

He took out his phone, wanting to share this happiness immediately with Li Jia and with his family. Of course, for him, the most important thing was to share it with Li Jia; his family came second.

However, after checking his phone, he saw that Li Jia still had not sent him anything. There was nothing after the message he had sent her before the interview that morning.

All this dulled his originally jubilant mood a little.

He first called Li Jia, and as expected, her phone was still switched off.

Huang Yu let out a sigh. After thinking it over for a moment, he decided to return to Pu'er City at once to find Li Jia and see exactly what had happened. After all, his interview here was already over, and he would not formally start work until the first day of next month.

Then he typed up a few messages describing the interview and its result, and sent them to Li Jia through a social app.

Only after doing that did Huang Yu call his parents and report the interview results, sharing his happiness with them.

After hearing the good news, his parents naturally congratulated him warmly over the phone, and immediately booked a restaurant to celebrate him properly, while also planning to introduce him to successful people from all walks of life in Kunming.

Huang Tianhua briefly mentioned over the phone that the people he intended to invite included successful businessmen from the corporate world as well as some of Kunming’s top officials, telling him to be mentally prepared in advance.

Hearing this, Huang Yu was speechless for a while. Though he did not particularly like socializing at such banquets, he still agreed.

After all, he understood that everything his parents did for him was for his own good, and he could not refuse their intentions. Besides, in the future he would be living in Kunming with Li Jia for a long time, so building good relations with these people would be necessary.

After he hung up, he temporarily postponed his return trip to Pu'er City.

At noon, in a private room at the Tianhe International Hotel in Kunming.

The room gleamed with opulence. In the center hung a massive crystal chandelier, and around it were neatly arranged seventy-two smaller crystal lamps, all reflecting and complementing one another.

Three meters beneath the great chandelier stood a huge round table about eight meters in diameter. What was placed on it were not dishes, but all kinds of exquisite floral arrangements and works of art.

Only along the rotating outer ring of the table were there a few carefully prepared delicacies for the guests to enjoy.

In the vast private room, including Huang Yu’s family of three, there were fewer than twenty people seated in all, both men and women, every one of them a prominent figure in Kunming.

At the four corners of the room stood beautiful young female waitstaff in immaculate uniforms, ready to serve at any moment.

Huang Tianhua first introduced his son to these important figures of Kunming, and then introduced each of the guests to his son in turn, telling him which one was the head of which company and which one was the director of which bureau.

The banquet went very well, and every single person praised Huang Yu highly.

In the midst of it, there was even a little episode: one of the business magnates seemed quite taken with Huang Yu and insisted on introducing his daughter to him.

No matter how Huang Yu tried to decline, he could not get out of it. Under the pressure of the situation, he agreed to accompany the magnate’s daughter that afternoon to visit some of Kunming’s famous sights and have dinner together, and only then did the somewhat tipsy businessman finally relent.

This little performance made the atmosphere at the banquet even livelier, pushing it to something of a climax.

Yet while everyone was laughing, toasting, and enjoying themselves, only Du Dan noticed that her son was not as outwardly happy as he seemed. He had his own private worries.

“If you don’t like that girl this afternoon, don’t force yourself.”

Huang Yu’s phone suddenly vibrated. Seeing a message arrive, he thought it was from Li Jia, and immediately looked at it without changing his expression. But to his surprise, it was a message from his mother, Du Dan.

He glanced subconsciously toward her, only to find her looking at him with a loving smile, and even winking at him.

“I understand. Smile.”

He could not help feeling amused, and quickly sent a quiet reply to his mother, adding a smiling face at the end.

“Don’t sacrifice your love for the sake of profit or anything else. That would be the least worthwhile thing of all. No matter what kind of partner you choose, as long as it is the one you truly like, your father and I will support you.”

Before long, his phone vibrated again. It was still a message from his mother, and at the end she had even added an encouraging, cheering expression.

Huang Yu looked at the message and was momentarily at a loss for words, though inwardly he was immensely happy.

He remembered that when his father first fell in love with his mother, her family had been fiercely opposed. They had even sent people to threaten his father more than once.

But his father had never given up on his mother, and his mother, for her father’s sake, had fallen out completely with her own family. She had resolutely left Myanmar with his father and come to live in Pu'er City, Yunnan Province, never again having any contact with her family.

As a result, all these years later, Huang Yu had never once met any elders from his mother’s side.

So it was only natural that his parents would support his choice when it came to selecting a future spouse.

And because he had grown up watching how deeply his parents loved one another, and because he had listened since childhood to his mother’s account of the love story between her and his father, he had always been extremely cautious in matters of the heart. He believed love should be constant, faithful, and unwavering, and therefore had never, like those idle rich second-generation heirs, toyed with actresses or indulged his desires.

Huang Yu envied his parents’ love deeply, and he had always believed that he and Li Jia would be just like them: loving one another for life, keeping each other company for life, never abandoning one another, always remaining true.

From the bottom of his heart, he felt that to have been born into such a family, to have met Li Jia, and for the two of them to like one another and be able to love and cherish each other, was truly the greatest good fortune.

“I know what to do, Mom. Don’t worry.”

Huang Yu typed silently on his phone and quickly sent his mother a reply, adding another bright smile at the end.