Ran Xueyi entered one of the cubicles and decided to wait until the ladies finally left the room to take out her phone and speed dial Carilion.
As soon as the call was connected, Ran Xueyi said, "Where are you?"
Carsilion unhurriedly answered, "I'm in the monitoring room."
Ran Xueyi didn't react strongly when she heard he had breached the monitoring room quickly. She already knew that Carsilion was skillful to do this without breaking a sweat.
There was a muffled sound of groans and she could already imagine that the people stationed in the monitoring room were either tied up with their mouths covered or completely knocked out by him.
"Can you locate every member of the Cao family?" Ran Xueyi paused before adding, "Include the members of the Song family."
Carislion hummed a reply before saying, "Most of the Cao family are standing near the stage. Two are entertaining the guests in the front of the hall. Cao Yujin and Cao Huiling are not in the hall."
"Where are they?" Ran Xueyi asked.
"They're in the corridor, probably heading towards the room where the Old Patriarch Cao is staying." Carsilion looked around the several TV monitors on the wall and added, "As for the Song family… I can only see the Old Patriarch Song and his son. I can't see any other members of their family or they haven't arrived yet."
That means Song Yu Han hasn't arrived yet. But didn't he leave in advance? Where could he be then? Ran Xueyi silently asked.
If Song Yichen, the old patriarch of the Song family, and his son Song Ruan had already arrived… Why didn't he come join them?
Ran Xueyi tried to call Song Yu Han, but the call was not received.
Strange. No matter how busy or how far Song Yu Han was from his phone, he would definitely answer her calls. Yet, he didn't answer her for the first time. What could have happened to him?
Ran Xueyi then asked Carislion: "Can you tell me where Song Yichen is?"
Carsilion didn't take much time to find him and said, "In Old Patriarch Cao's room."
Sighing, Ran Xueyi hung up and finally understood something. If she's not wrong, this time, the Cao family will try to persuade Song Yichen to agree to Song Yu Han marrying Cao Yujin. There's no other reason why they met privately instead of being at the party.
That also explains why Cao Yujin and Cao Huiling were together and heading in their direction.
And if her guess was right, Song Yichen will refuse. It's not because he was not tempted by combining forces with the Cao family. But because he already knew that Song Yu Han was married to Ran Xueyi.
The only thing that she couldn't get was that Song Yu Han was not around.
He clearly told her he would attend to look after her as a backup. But ever since she stepped into the party, she never saw a glimpse of him.
Ran Xueyi sighed. She didn't know what he had in mind. However, she couldn't stay in the restroom. Song Yongrui probably noticed she's missing.
Honestly, Ran Xueyi didn't want to come out and pretend to go along with his scumbag act. However, he was the only person she could use to get inside information about the Cao family.
The sound of the door opening and voices from women came pouring inside the closed room. Ran Xueyi quickly fixed her appearance before stepping out of the restroom.
The restroom was located inside a long corridor behind the left side of the stage. If you want to get to the restroom or return to the party, you need to walk for a bit before reaching your destination. And on the other end of the corridor was a smoking area.
Looking from where she was standing right in front of the restroom, she could see smoke rising in the air. However, she couldn't quite see clearly who was smoking there. Only a red dot of light from the cigarette could be seen.
Ran Xueyi didn't like the smell of smoke. But it wasn't like she couldn't stand smelling it to the point she would be repulsed by it. Just as she was about to turn around and head back to the party, a flash of light illuminated a small part of the smoking area.
It was so faint that it couldn't even brighten the entire small space, but it was enough to cast light upon the person blending in the darkness.
It was a tall man with a stunning appearance, striking blue eyes, and glowing blonde hair.
He looked otherworldly beautiful as he raised his hand holding the cigar, put it in between his lips, and sucked in slowly without breaking eye contact with her.
Soon, he puffed out the smoke inside his mouth to the air and smirked.
Ran Xueyi blinked her eyes, but once she did this, the faint light coming from the phone the man was holding dimmed, letting the darkness swallow up the man's countenance.
Had he not met her eyes and wickedly smiled, Ran Xueyi would have thought she saw a ghost.
But that man.. He was different from a ghost.
He felt human and overly familiar. Ran Xueyi wondered why she felt like this. But she didn't have the time to muse about the man as she turned around and threw the image of the man's smirking at her to the back of her head.
When she returned to the party, Song Yongrui had his head turning left to right. His eyes zoned in on her as soon as she stepped closer.
A beam of smile was on his lips as he grabbed her arm and said, "Here she is! Brother Cao Qing, she's my partner."
He suddenly shoves her to the front of a man named Cao Qing. Ran Xueyi had an urge to curse at Song Yongrui, but refrained from doing it in reality.
When she raised her head, she instantly recognized who Cao Qing was. It was the cousin that came with Cao Yujin at her professor's retirement party.
Cao Qing had a strange look on his face as he glanced at her and then at Song Yongrui.
'What the heck…Why is Yu Han-ge's wife Song Yongrui's partner?' Cao Qing screamed inside his mind while remaining a straight face.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om