Every year, at midnight on the first night of the coming-of-age ceremony, there was always a congratulatory speech for the heirs. In previous years, this task was always performed by an elder from one of the several families taking turns. This year, He Jinxing returned to the country, so the speaker was naturally the new head of the He family.

As midnight approached, the borrowing game finally drew to a close.

When Gou An hurriedly returned to the banquet hall, it had already been rearranged. The podium was placed at the very front, with dozens of chairs neatly arranged below it.

A number of people have already gathered in the open space behind the chairs.

Standing in the brightly lit banquet hall, Gou An was not surprised to find that many people had already returned after completing their assigned borrowing tasks—some had even touched up their makeup or changed into a new dress, looking radiant and ready to welcome the day that would announce their coming of age in social circles.

She wasn’t at the bottom, because Zhou Yutong, who had clearly returned empty-handed, was already standing in the banquet hall.

Zhou Yutong’s eyes were a little red, the hem of her white dress was a bit messy, and one of the decorations on her high heels was missing, but she didn’t seem to care about her disheveled appearance at all.

Raising her hand to scratch her head, the girl, who was just about to turn 18, still said with a grin, “He didn’t come with me and even scolded me… Ugh, I’m treating everyone tomorrow!”

Gou An stared at her for a long time but still couldn’t figure out who she had invited.

Two or three minutes later, He Ran walked slowly into the banquet hall with his hands in his pockets and an expressionless face. He glanced at Gou An from afar, then stood aside with a sullen face.

Zhou Yanji, carrying a red, high heel that he had borrowed from some older woman, grinned and draped himself onto his shoulder, “Where is she?”

He Ran, with a ‘too lazy to talk’ look on his face, slapped his hand away. “I’m treating tomorrow, so drink as much as you dare.”

He had a loud voice, and the people around him heard him say this. People laughed, saying, “Young Master He, what could you not bring? There’s actually something you couldn’t borrow? You’ve finally met your match!”

Few could discern the real bitterness in his words, as if they had been extracted from a pot of Chinese medicine. As one of the few who knew the truth, Zhou Yan glanced at Gou An from afar…

He was so happy he couldn’t stop smiling.

“Oh, I’m not gloating—but why are you being so honest? You could have just brought anyone back to fool us.”

He Ran, with a cold face, kicked him.

“You only realize loyalty when you’ve lost her,” Zhou Yanji said.

He Ran kicked him again; it was the most he could do.

While her brother was getting kicked for his foul mouth, Zhou Yutong overheard his conversation with Young Master He. She could guess with her toes what Young Master He had gotten, so she pursed her lips and turned her head away.

She looked at Gou An.

“Why are you looking at me?”

“He Ran’s shirt is missing its second button.” Zhou Yutong sighed, looking at Gou An with the same gaze one would give a cold-blooded female demon. “You took his button, and then refused to come back with him as someone he liked… Is everyone in the adult world this cruel?”

“I didn’t take it.”

“Ah?”

“I said, I didn’t take He Ran’s button.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Lu Wan came in. The beautiful young woman silently placed a button from a custom-made shirt with the Loyal Loron brand logo on the borrowing items table.

This century-old Spanish brand was a famous symbol of old money status. Its ready-to-wear clothing was expensive, and its custom-made pieces were highly sought after. Most people could simply buy a few pieces from the ready-to-wear collection…

Very few people would wear their custom-made clothes.

Zhou Yutong blinked blankly, opened her mouth in disbelief, and after a while, squinted slightly and leaned closer to the table to confirm—

She couldn’t be wrong; one of the classic features of a Loyal Loron’s custom shirt button was the brand’s patented three-hole button.

Looking back at Young Master He’s open collar, Zhou Yutong fell silent for a moment.

“Men are all dogs after all.”

She patted Gou An again, “Okay, it’s alright, we’ll treat everyone tomorrow!”

Gou An waved her hand. “Save those words for Young Master He.”

Zhou Yutong: “?”

Just as the girl was staring blankly at Gou An, wanting to ask her ‘What other tricks do you have besides He Ran?’, the banquet hall door was pushed open from the outside, and this time it was He Yuan who entered.

After a night of running around, the boy showed no signs of fatigue, still sporting his unchanging smile. He casually tossed a rose-shaped brooch (whether it was a real diamond or a cheap one was unknown) onto the designated borrowed items table, then turned and walked towards Gou An.

“Jiejie.”

When he called Gou An, his smile became even brighter. “When I was out looking for a brooch, I saw He Ran gege give his second button to a girl.”

The tone wasn’t so much like complaining but more like giving a notification.

After he finished speaking, he turned around and looked around. Finally his gaze fixed on Lu Wan. “That girl… she’s quite pretty.”

It was just a casual compliment, clearly just something said offhand. His gaze was indifferent, and his eyes didn’t linger on Lu Wan for even a second despite praising her…

Rather than saying he noticed the original female lead, it was more that he was puzzled as to why He Ran would give the button to this passerby instead of Gou An.

This showed that he completely disregarded the original female lead—

No wonder this little brother who suddenly appeared didn’t have any so-called favorability rating hanging above his head; to the female lead, he was probably just a useless passerby.

Gou An instantly felt a sense of kinship and closeness with him. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she saw He Yuan put his hand on his tie and tug at the knot.

Gou An blinked. “Huh?”

Seeing her blank expression, He Yuan smiled, revealing a white canine tooth. He said in a cheerful tone, “I didn’t bring it up right away because I was worried that you might have someone you wanted to ask the second button from, and that I would only interfere with your hunting—but since you don’t have one, I’ll give you my button.”

He spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world, immediately following Gou An’s original plan.

The only thing different was that she hadn’t even had a chance to conspire with him to insist that the shirt he had on was very expensive.

Seeing Gou An’s hesitant expression, the boy pointed to his shirt with one finger, bent down, and whispered in her ear, “It’s okay, my shirt is also very expensive.”

His tone was like that of a primary school student who bought a small cake with his hard-earned pocket money on his way home from school and wanted to share it with his older sister.

Gou An was amused by his tone.

She hasn’t even asked how much it was worth.

“—Why are you still standing here?”

A familiar voice rang out not far away, and at the same time, the surrounding sounds quieted down a bit.

Gou An saw He Yuan’s lighter-colored eyes flicker, and his smile tightened slightly.

She instinctively turned her head and saw that He Jinxing had entered through the main gate at some point and had come to their side—

He didn’t need to choose the right time or consider the atmosphere; he could easily interrupt other people’s conversation with a casual remark.

From the Day the Engagement was Broken translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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