Song Yuzhang: Chapter 45 - At the Banquet 03
Chapter 45: At the Banquet 03
“Downstairs is so lively, why don’t you go have some fun too? There’s no need to waste time here with me,” Meng Sushan said gently.
Meng Tingjing held his usual cold expression. “Elder Sister, you know I don’t like crowds.”
Meng Sushan sighed softly. “…You.”
Wan Lan knocked and came in to refresh the tea for the siblings. Meng Sushan looked at her hopefully, but Wan Lan subtly shook her head. Meng Sushan’s face darkened at once.
As the door closed, Meng Tingjing set down his teacup. “Since you find me a bother, I’ll go back.”
Meng Sushan quickly said, “What are you saying? I didn’t mean that at all. I’m more than happy to have you keep me company.”
After a brief pause, Meng Tingjing said, “The weather’s turning colder. You’re weak, so stop taking those tonics. Be careful not to overdo it—it could do more harm than good. If you really need to nourish your body, do it through food. A shipment of tonic ingredients just arrived at the docks. I’ve already had someone pick out the best, and it’ll be delivered tomorrow.”
Meng Sushan smiled. “I used to be the one fussing over your food and daily life. Now it’s all reversed.”
Meng Tingjing replied coolly, "That just means you’ve gotten old."
Meng Sushan laughed, saying as she did, "That mouth of yours. Don’t tell me you speak this way even when you're doing business?"
Meng Tingjing lifted his eyelids. "Are you just 'someone else'?"
Meng Sushan’s smile was soft. “I’m your elder sister, of course I’m not just 'someone else'.” She hesitated for a moment, then couldn’t help but say, “But others don’t understand what’s in your heart.”
Meng Tingjing’s face darkened slightly, his gaze sweeping toward Meng Sushan. “You and Wan Lan were just exchanging looks. I didn’t say anything, but Elder Sister, don’t try to smooth things over. There’s nothing left to say between me and Song Yuzhang.”
Since he had made things clear, Meng Sushan furrowed her brows and asked, "Why not?"
Meng Tingjing said, “You’ve had Wan Lan run back and forth several times now. Has he agreed to see me? If he doesn’t want to, he doesn’t want to. I’m not desperate to see him. If you hadn’t said you weren’t feeling well today, I wouldn’t even have come!”
He said it all in one breath and grabbed his tea. The newly poured tea was still scalding, but he drank it all in one go, the heat burning from mouth to throat. He forced himself not to show any pain.
Meng Sushan paused for a moment. “Tingjing, are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” he replied stiffly.
Meng Sushan sighed again, clutching her handkerchief.
Though she had watched this younger brother grow up, she had never truly been able to handle him.
Meng Tingjing had been precocious from a young age. Given the family’s situation, even she struggled to survive, and her care for him had its limits. By the time she realized this clever and sensible younger brother had grown into someone sullen, withdrawn, and deeply calculating, it was already too late to change anything.
It had been rare to see him act somewhat young and impulsive when he was around Song Yuzhang, but things between them had somehow fallen apart. She had tried multiple times to reconcile them, all to no avail.
Since there was no use in pursuing that topic, Meng Sushan changed the subject. “A while ago, when I was making qipao with Second Madam Qian, she mentioned her niece studying in England—”
“I’m leaving.”
Meng Tingjing abruptly stood up. Meng Sushan had to let the subject drop again.
“…Then let me walk you out.”
“No need. You rest.”
Meng Tingjing pushed the door open and stepped out. The lively sounds downstairs became sharper. He frowned and walked quickly, not wanting to look, wanting to leave immediately. Yet his eyes didn’t listen—they began scanning the crowd involuntarily.
That person always stood out, no matter where he was. Easy to find.
The Song family’s banquet hall was massive, stretching beyond the eye’s reach. His gaze slowly swept across it, until he saw two brothers with their arms slung around each other walking out of a side hall.
The fire of anger from the past had long since burned out. Now, Meng Tingjing merely thought with cold detachment: So he’s gotten close to Song Qiyuan now.
He had never felt that he was in the wrong.
He had let Song Yuzhang go—it was Song Yuzhang who came back on his own.
He admitted he’d hurt him at first, but afterward, Song Yuzhang had clearly enjoyed it, and had even slapped him—twice.
No one had ever slapped him before.
Wasn’t that enough to settle the score?
Why did Song Yuzhang still treat him so carelessly, so arrogantly?
And that had been his first time sleeping with someone!
It had been easier when they weren’t face-to-face. But now that he had seen him again, Meng Tingjing felt the anger well up once more. Fine—if he refused to come to him, then he would go to him instead and speak clearly, once and for all!
Changing his mind about leaving, Meng Tingjing pushed through the crowd and walked straight toward Song Yuzhang.
Song Yuzhang had just shrugged off Song Qiyuan’s arm and was watching him leave when he felt another weight on his shoulder. Turning, he saw a face he hadn’t laid eyes on in a long while. His brows lifted slightly. “Brother Meng.”
Meng Tingjing couldn’t be bothered with pleasantries. “Let’s talk. Outside.”
The two of them went to the lawn by the lake behind the banquet hall.
Once they stopped, Song Yuzhang looked at the dim lake and chuckled softly.
“What are you laughing at?” Meng Tingjing caught the smile and immediately demanded.
Song Yuzhang was amused by how hectic his night had been—being a young master wasn’t easy—but he didn’t feel like explaining that to Meng Tingjing, so he simply said, “Nothing.”
The moment he said that, Meng Tingjing let out a cold laugh. “Go on, laugh.”
Song Yuzhang sensed something wrong in his tone and turned to look at him, his expression calm. Is he really about to start again?
But hadn’t they already had their falling-out? Could they fall out twice?
Meng Tingjing was stung by that calm gaze, and at this point, didn’t care about pride or appearances anymore. They’d already slept together—what was there to hide?
“You’re laughing at me for losing my composure, for accepting the invitation and still coming, for waiting upstairs for three hours, for not being able to help myself from coming down to talk to you. Song Yuzhang, go ahead and laugh. I know you’re feeling pleased and smug right now. Laugh as loud as you want—laugh right in my face!”
The corner of Song Yuzhang’s mouth twitched. For once, he truly didn’t know whether to laugh or not.
In terms of feelings, he really did feel like laughing—but if he did, seeing Meng Tingjing like this, it was very possible the man might fly into a rage and drag him down with him.
They weren’t far from the lake. It wasn’t exactly a safe place.
Song Yuzhang forced down the urge to laugh and replied calmly, “You misunderstood.”
“I misunderstood?”
Meng Tingjing almost exploded on the spot. “Yes, it’s all my misunderstanding. On the ship, I misunderstood you, at the docks, at the opera house, the theater… all of it, I misunderstood. You, Song Yuzhang, are perfectly clean, perfectly innocent, never did a thing. Then let me ask you—who came to my house that day? I didn’t drag you there, I didn’t force you into bed. Wasn’t everything something you agreed to?!”
Song Yuzhang listened quietly, his expression gradually turning serious. He glanced once at the glimmering surface of the lake, then looked back at Meng Tingjing.
Even furious, Meng Tingjing still looked like a strikingly handsome young man. Who would’ve thought this person was such a deceptive and dangerous presence?
Song Yuzhang decided to give him one last dose of reason.
“Tingjing.”
He called his name gently, and Meng Tingjing’s expression softened a bit.
“Let’s go over everything from the beginning, shall we?”
Meng Tingjing said, “Go ahead. Let’s get everything out in the open today.”
“You’re not wrong. Before… yes, I was the one who initiated things. You didn’t misunderstand. Tingjing, I liked you.”
Meng Tingjing was completely stunned, as if he’d been struck by a sweet but heavy blow.
In fact, thinking back, during their short time together—even though they’d been close, kissed, held each other—Song Yuzhang had never actually said he liked him.
He felt dizzy, on the verge of smiling, but his face was still frozen in anger. That expression—half fury, half dazed joy—made him look a bit ridiculous.
“But that night at the hotel outside the airport, we had already broken up.”
Song Yuzhang continued calmly.
Meng Tingjing quickly said, “But afterward, you came to find me again.”
Song Yuzhang smiled gently. “Don’t rush. Let me finish, alright?”
Since they were trying to clear things up today, Meng Tingjing forced himself to stay quiet and listen.
“The next time we met—wasn’t it at the International Hotel?”
“That’s right.”
“I was with Chen Hanmin.”
“…Right.”
“You asked me if I had slept with Xiao Yuxian.”
Meng Tingjing’s face darkened again. “Also right.”
“I remember you were very angry, because Boss Shen made a few jokes about me…”
Meng Tingjing almost argued that those weren’t jokes but insults, but when he saw Song Yuzhang’s look, he held back.
“You slapped Boss Shen across the face. I imagine it wasn’t just to vent your anger—you wanted to make an example of him, didn’t you?”
Meng Tingjing immediately denied it. “That wasn’t my intention. He was out of line, I was just teaching him a lesson.”
Song Yuzhang said, “Then tell me—if that day, I had actually gone upstairs with Chen Hanmin, or admitted I’d slept with Xiao Yuxian… what would you have done to them? Don’t rush to answer,” he added gently. “We agreed to speak honestly today, didn’t we?”
Whatever defense Meng Tingjing had was cut short.
It was a hypothetical question—and Meng Tingjing hated hypotheticals. But since Song Yuzhang asked, he thought about it. And after a moment’s silence, he had to admit to himself: if what Song Yuzhang described had happened, he probably wouldn’t have let them off easily.
He lifted his eyes and looked at Song Yuzhang with a complex expression. Clever as he was, he hadn’t wanted to think too deeply before—but now that it had been laid out plainly, he understood immediately.
“...So, that day you came to me—not because you cared how I saw you—but because you were afraid…” He paused, his tone growing colder, but continued, “Afraid I’d do something to them.”
Song Yuzhang nodded. “Yes.”
Meng Tingjing said nothing.
“If I had a choice, I wouldn’t have come to you,” Song Yuzhang said gently, concluding. “Tingjing, that day—I was forced.”
Meng Tingjing had been hailed as a genius since childhood—smart, noble, and the pride of the Meng family. From looks to intellect to background, he was flawless. Wherever he went, people looked up to him, admired him.
In all of his twenty-four years, never had he imagined someone would look him in the eye and say:
“If I had a choice, I wouldn’t have come to you.”
He stared blankly at the man in front of him. For the first time, Meng Tingjing understood what it meant to bring humiliation upon oneself.
He had insisted on getting to the bottom of things. Well, now he had.
There was nothing left to say.
Truly nothing.
Meng Tingjing said slowly, “Song Yuzhang, you’re very good.”
Song Yuzhang gave a faint smile. “Tingjing, are you planning to take revenge now?”
He said it lightly, without a hint of fear. Because he knew that for all his pride, Meng Tingjing wasn’t the type to stoop to petty acts of vengeance.
From start to finish, in every moment between them, Song Yuzhang had always held the upper hand—fearless and composed.
Meng Tingjing had tried so hard not to become the worst kind of man his family could produce. And yet, in the end, he had taken the worst traits from both sides and was now nearly unrecognizable.
His eyes burned, but his face stayed composed. He forced a smile and said softly: “Don’t worry. You’re not even worth it.”
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