Although it was said to be a banquet between two families, due to the close relationship between the He family and the Gou family, tonight’s banquet was more like a family dinner, and the atmosphere was relatively relaxed.

It was relaxed so just relax. Gou An changed clothes and when she got to the He’s house, the elders had already gathered together happily. Old Mr. He sat on the main seat on the sofa. When he saw Gou An, he waved to her with a smile, called her to him and took her hand, talking for a while.

Who knew what kind of strange curse it was but most of the younger generation in the He family were boys, and what few girls there were were all distant relations. Compared to them, Gou An was more like the granddaughter who grew up under Old Mr. He’s knees. He treats her very well, and his affection for her was real.

At the moment, he didn’t know that his real grandson and Gou An were in the middle of a quarrel. He patted the back of the little girl’s hand and said cheerfully, “He Ran is upstairs talking to his Young Uncle in the study. You go up and find him. You grab him by the way so he doesn’t get lectured over trivial things again.”

Old Mr. He didn’t say a single word about Gou An’s impersonation as He Ran’s saviour.

Looking at the surrounding He family members—except for He Ran’s mother, whose expression was a little unnatural—the rest of the people there all had the same attitude as Old Mr. He. No one thought this matter was a big deal. After all, as Jiang Yuan said, even if she wasn’t He Ran’s ‘benefactor’, Gou An would still marry He Ran…

As for the young girl surnamed Lu, she would certainly not be short of compensation and gifts showing the He family’s very real gratitude.

It was just that beyond this, they didn’t have any thoughts at all¹.

Gou An’s mouth opened and closed like a goldfish. Finally, under Gou Yu’s frequent warning glances, she gave up on breaking the engagement in front of all the elders.

She turned around, hurriedly walked to the elevator, and took it to the study on the fourth floor. When the elevator doors opened, as soon as she took a step, Gou An found someone who was even more agitated than her.

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The door to the study room was slammed open hard, and He Ran rushed out like a reckless bull, still shouting at the person inside the study behind him, “Don’t forget that if it weren’t for Lu Wan, I would have died a long time ago. 

“You’re forcing me to forget favors and violate justice².

“I regard Gou An as my younger sister. When did I lose the right to choose my own marriage?”

… 

When Gou An heard the name ‘Lu Wan’, she immediately fell into silence.

Standing across the corridor, she was caught off guard and met He Ran’s eyes. He Ran was stunned and didn’t react for a while.

Until this ‘younger sister’ curled her lips and smiled at him.

“… Guo An?”

He Ran was originally immersed in the anger. He had confessed his guilt about Lu Wan to He Jinxing but was coldly reprimanded. However, at this time, he encountered another central figure in the whole incident—

And judging from her expression, she must have heard what he just said very clearly.

For a moment—He Ran didn’t know what was wrong with him—he suddenly felt a little nervous.

As if he had done something unseemly and was caught on the spot, his face gradually turned ashen.

… …

Gou An watched as the favorability level on He Ran’s head jumped from [35] back to [40]. She was a little surprised and raised her eyebrows, and then realized that He Ran was probably embarrassed.

“It seems I came at a wrong time,” she said in a calm voice.

He Ran moved his lips; originally, he could have told Gou An to get lost.

But he didn’t, he just stared at Gou An, “Why are you here?”

“Grandpa asked me to come up and rescue you from Mr. He,” Gou An said, “If he knew what you were saying to Mr. He just now, he would probably come up instead to personally hand him the cane.”

She had only seen He Jinxing a few times. But she was able to smoothly call him as ‘Mr. He’ in every breath.

He Ran muttered a few muddled words in his heart³. 

Looking as if he didn’t want to continue discussing the conversation between him and He Jinxing just now, he abruptly changed the topic, “It’s good that you are here, I’ve been meaning to ask you: what were you doing this morning? You left before the basketball game was over, where did you go?”

“Huh?”

Did he notice that she left the game early?

Ah, nope.

It was Lu Wan who told him about it.

“You left so early and didn’t even say a word.”

“…”

Dear God, he even complained.

At this point, Gou An really felt that her temper was actually quite good.

Because this idiot in front of her was still standing there and still hasn’t been justifiably kicked in the head by her after he complained about her early exit. Really, calling her a ‘vicious supporting character’ was simply unreasonable.

“Young Master He, are you okay?” Gou An crossed her arms. “In today’s situation, where else could I go if I didn’t leave? Do you think I look like a person who liked to entertain other people, I was already slapped in the face in public, how could I still stay? Just to show my pitiful self out there?”

He Ran pursed his lips, looking a little unnatural, “Who slapped you in the face?”

“…”

Although He Ran was indeed not enthusiastic about Gou An, in most cases in the past, when Gou An made their relationship clear to their peers in social situations, He Ran would not deny it.

But today he jumped out directly. In order to protect Lu Wan and prevent others from saying that Lu Wan was a meddler in other people’s relationships, he put the blame on Gou An—

Now everyone was saying that she, the eldest young lady of the Gou family, insisted on being the honorable daughter of a wealthy family and, relying on the support of the He family, was forcing He Ran to marry her.

And the culprit dared to ask her who slapped her in the face.

From The Day The Engagement Was Broken translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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Chapter 7.3 — Apologize to Her
Chapter 8.1 — Reluctant
Chapter 8.2 — Reluctant
Chapter 9.1 — The Hero and Heroine Meet
Chapter 9.2 — The Hero and Heroine Meet
Chapter 9.3 — The Hero and Heroine Meet
Chapter 9.4 — The Hero and Heroine Meet
Chapter 10.1 — Don’t Use Honorifics
Chapter 10.2 — Don’t Use Honorifics
Chapter 10.3 — Don’t Use Honorifics
Chapter 11.1 — Young Uncle
Chapter 11.2 — Young Uncle
Chapter 11.3 — Young Uncle
Chapter 12.1 — Conflict During the Welcome Speech
Chapter 12.2 — Conflict During the Welcome Speech

FOOTNOTE:

1. Meaning this ‘benefactor’ being rewarded with marriage into the family was not part of the consideration. ↩︎
2. It’s a phrase that means to be deeply ungrateful for favors received. ↩︎
3. The title Gou An uses for He Jinxing is 先生 or xiansheng. It means ‘teacher’ and are the same characters for the Japanese word ‘sensei’ . In contemporary Chinese, it’s used as a form of ‘Mr.’. But in certain contexts, it also means ‘husband’. It’s either He Ran is objecting to that or he’s objecting to Gou An mentioning his young uncle at all. ↩︎