บท 15: Chapter 15: Cleo
Saturday came, and Qiao An was busy doing her makeup and hair in her house. Amy Shen came to help her for a bit before returning to her home since she had something important to do.
In reality, Amy Shen had nothing to do for the weekend, but since she determined to play Cupid, she agreed to the invitation the newly hired manager in their company.
As of why Amy Shen had a date - it went like this; The next day after Amy Shen told Qiao An to accompany her brother, Amy Shen was thinking on how she could have an alibi for skipping the charity dinner so that Qiao An won't suspect her to play cupid. Coincidently, that time, the newly hired manager asked Amy to have dinner with him during the weekend.
Amy rarely went out with someone else, moreover if that someone was with the opposite sex. But the new manager was quite cute, and he looked kind too. So, Amy agreed almost immediately.
After helping Qiao An to set her hair, Amy went back to her house to get ready herself. She didn't expect much from the dinner date actually, so she didn't try so hard to make herself impressive.
"Finally, you are hanging out with someone else. Have fun" Shen Jun Shan sat on the sofa in the living room while waiting for Qiao An. When he saw that his sister walked past him, he was quite happy to see that Amy went out for a date.
"Have fun with An An too. Don't make her annoyed" Amy Shen walked towards the door and stopped before she went out."An An is so pretty today. If I'm a guy, I'll fall in love with her. Bye".
Dinner party seemed to have its magic. During his university day, most of his female coursemates did not act or look like a delicate girl, but when it came to course dinner or they called it "Engineering Nite", everyone looked like a princess. The tomboy image will be gone.
Shen Jun Shan was busy reminiscing his life during university when his phone vibrated. A text came.
"I'm outside. I knocked a few times but nobody is answering. Are you in?" The text was from Qiao An. Shen Jun Shan got all his things before he went towards the door.
"You should call my name or knock harder next time. I might not be able to hear you if you knock normally". Shen Jun Shan looked at the stranger in front of him. Then he looked left, right and at the back of the person."An?"
The woman in front of him smiled. "Stop acting like you don't know it's me". The woman walked down the stairs first. She was obviously in a good mood. She was walking down the stairs carefully as she was wearing silver heels.
Shen Jun Shan looked at the woman in front of him who has now turned her back and walked down giddily ahead of him. The woman wore a long silver dress with a heart neckline. She curled her long hair and put up half of her hair in space bun.
Qiao An looked younger with the hairstyle, and when Amy Shen told Shen Jun Shan that Qiao An looked pretty tonight, he was not expecting this kind of changes. Wasn't there supposed to be a limit to someone's attractiveness?
As the two sat in the car, Shen Jun Shan remembered the question he had wanted to ask for about a few days now. "An, why are you attending the dinner alone? Did your workplace received the invitation too?"
Qiao An was contemplating whether she should tell the truth or not. She was anonymous all these while, and she wanted to keep that as long as she could. Even though Shen Jun Shan was her friend, she did not think that they were close enough to tell each other's secret.
"I like supporting charity events. I think it is essential for people to be kind and to use money in a way that could benefit humankind" Qiao An's answer was noble and was able to avoid the question from Shen Jun Shan.
The place where the charity dinner being held was in the ballroom of the Wu Hotel, the biggest hotel in City L. Shen Jun Shan parked in the designated parking lot and walked towards the direction of the hall. When both of them reached the entrance of the hall, Shen Jun Shan held out his hands towards Qiao An.
Qiao An looked at the hands, and she couldn't understand why. Qiao An had this puzzled look on her face, and Shen Jun Shan got the idea. He went closer towards Qiao An and smiled. "Since we are a partner for today, we need to go in together. My sister usually held my hand and pretend that I walk her down the aisle."
After the explanation, Qiao An got the idea, and she nodded before holding on to Shen Jun Shan's arm. Qiao An was awkward, and she was more towards clinging instead of holding Shen Jun Shan's arm. Shen Jun Shan felt it was too funny, but he kept his laughter in case Qiao An will feel embarrassed by it.
Since Qiao An went to the dinner in place of Amy Shen, she will be sitting next to Shen Jun Shan. Her original seat was at the table next to her family's table. Shen Jun Shan's table was in the middle so Qiao An could see her family from where she was sitting.
Qiao An did not want to greet her family when there were a lot of people around as she could see her mom, her stepfather and Jin was talking to the people around them. A woman was sitting beside Jin. From the back, Qiao An could guess that the woman must be Jin's new girlfriend. She was wearing a blood-red dress, and the colour was so striking that Qiao An was curious about the identity of the new girlfriend.
A few people came to talk with Shen Jun Shan in their table. Qiao An was trying her best to stay invisible, but the people won't let her off. They kept on asking if Qiao An was Shen Jun Shan's girlfriend. Qiao An did not mind the questions, but one woman ticked her off.
A woman in maroon came to talk with Shen Jun Shan. From her question, Qiao An could feel that the maroon lady was sarcastic towards her. She didn't do anything, but somehow she was dragged in some drama she was not aware of.
"I haven't seen you for quite some time. Your new girlfriend?" The lady was looking at Qiao An from top to bottom. "She's beautiful. Chloe is here too. Have you seen her?"
Qiao An could see that Shen Jun Shan froze after hearing the name. Qiao An didn't know why but this kind of things happened to people as if fate is playing a game with their love life, but as long as it does not involve her, Qiao An couldn't care less.
Qiao An pretended to play games on her phone and decided to ignore the maroon lady as nothing good will ever come out from her mouth. She did not hear the conversation between Shen Jun Shan and the lady, but after talking for some time, the lady suddenly walked away in anger.
Shen Jun Shan did not say anything, so Qiao An didn't ask. They were eating in silence as Qiao An could feel that Shen Jun Shan was not in a good mood.
In the middle of eating, Qiao An told Shen Jun Shan that she would be going to the washroom. Shen Jun Shan nodded his head absentmindedly. It was after 10 minutes that Shen Jun Shan registered the fact that Qiao An told him that she was in pain or something.
Guilt filled his heart. His partner was in pain because of something, and Shen Jun Shan was too immersed in his past to care about his partner of the night. Shen Jun Shan went to the toilet to check on Qiao An.
In front of the toilet, Shen Jun Shan was contemplating whether he should call Qiao An's name or not. After a few minutes of thinking, Shen Jun Shan decided to call Qiao An's name. But before he could call her, he heard voices from near the entrance of the toilet.
"Chloe, have you seen Jun Shan? He was here as well. He came with this girl. She seems familiar, but I can't remember where I saw her. You see, I can't really remember a commoner's face" Voice 1 let out a sarcastic laugh.
"I haven't seen him since our breakup. I understand why he didn't want to see me. After all, our breakup was unpleasant" There's no emotion in Voice 2.
"The girl with him. I ask my boyfriend about her. She was a common face in this charity dinner organised by the Tang Properties. She's a teacher. I guess she comes from a normal background. I can't believe the famous Shen Jun Shan reduced himself to be with a girl like that. I pity him. I always thought that the one who would be dating him came from a good family, full of talents – like you" Voice 1 talked like she knew everything.
Voice 2 let out a hearty laugh. "Maybe he's not over me. Maybe he is still thinking about me. But I got curious about the girl with him. Are you sure she's the new girlfriend? Maybe I should stand beside her to show the difference between heaven and earth."
Voice 1 laughed in support for voice 2 "But aren't you busy greeting people tonight? After all, you are about to enter the showbiz. When you become a young madam, you won't forget about me right, Chloe?"
"Didn't I tell you? My stage name is Cleopatra. You should call me Cleo. And of course, I will never forget you" Voice 2 was pleased,
Then Shen Jun Shan heard a loud bang of the toilet's door. There was a silence for a moment before Voice 1 started speaking.
"Ah, it's you. Shen Jun Shan's girlfriend. Have you been here for a long time" Voice 1 spoke in a fake innocent manner.
"Yes, and I heard everything. I am a teacher, that's true. And I don't have the kind of beauty that can cause the downfall of a country. But I am quite alright. I think I am quite pretty myself. And I make my own money. I don't have to rely on a man to feed me. And I know how Jun Shan is not the kind of man who will judge someone based on how they look like. Jun Shan doesn't need your sympathy. He's doing very well."
Nobody spoke, and it was quiet. Shen Jun Shan's heart filled with warmth when he heard that Qiao An stood up for him. He inched closer to the entrance of the female washroom. If people caught Shen Jun Shan in the situation, he might be labelled as a pervert.
"I have to applaud for your boldness. Not everyone has blind confidence to think that the world revolves around them. I guess nothing good ever comes from someone whose stage name is the same as the evilest and most hated queen of Egypt and her entourage".
Shen Jun Shan heard footsteps coming out from the washroom, so he stepped backwards quickly and pretended as if he just arrived at the scene.
"I realised that you've gone for too long, so I come here to check on you" Shen Jun Shan looked at Qiao An who was in a bad mood. "Are you okay?"
A voice came from behind them. "An An? I've sent you tons of messages, but you did not reply to me. Can you at least text me back since you won't answer my call? Why are you here?"
Jin was looking for Qiao An. He had been sending messages to Qiao An to ask her whereabouts, but Qiao An did not reply to his texts. Jin wanted to check on his girlfriend since she was taking a long time in the washroom but turned out he saw Qiao An with the guy from the apartment last time.
"Your taste in woman sucks!" Qiao An snorted and walked away from that scene.
Both Shen Jun Shan and Jin were confused by the statement. Which one of them has lousy taste in a woman?
Seeing his partner walked away Shen Jun Shan nodded in greeting to Jin and went after Qiao An.
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