Seeing that the playful man has had such a drastic change, Xiao Yunhua felt her heart throb with sympathy.

The system had ruined him.

She had ruined him.

Even Qiang Yue next to her was uncomfortable.

She could sense it.

Her fists were clenched so tightly that her nails dung into her palms. She tried to call for the little fairy to help again, but like before, there was no response.

Instead, she took a deep breath and looked at Kang Yiyi. "I'm sure he can recognize me without your announcement."

Kang Yiyi bit her bottom lip, her big eyes wide and confused. "I'm sorry, I was trying to be helpful."

She looked like Xiao Yunhua had genuinely bullied her, even though she hadn't said a single word that criticized her.

Zhou Elder looked at Xiao Yunhua with disgust.

The loathing that he felt for her spilled out when Kang Yiyi revealed her true identity.

He didn't both to hide it anymore and pretended that he pieced all the puzzles together.

He would come to regret the day when he finds out a very shocking fact: the woman that he was making assumptions about saved his life at the age of eight years old. The woman was the very adoptive granddaughter that he wanted to raise but she disappeared.

Not only him, but the eavesdropping guests heard the situation too.

They looked at the beautiful girl like she was an enchantress from the netherworld.

For her to behave so immorally, they all immediately assumed she was some type of a low class harlot.

Only a selective few knew that truth. But even if they spoke out, even if Xiao Yunhua herself spoke out, they would only believe what they wanted to believe: the situation unfolding in front of them.

"Qiang Yue, I want to go."

Qiang Yue remained quiet, as though he hadn't heard her.

Nobody, not even Elder Zhou who tried to stop her earlier, stopped her at this moment.

Everyone was busy with their own thoughts, not minding Xiao Yunhua. The only person that spoke out in dismay was Zhou Feng.

"Yunhua..."

Kang Yiyi watched his troubled expression with a scowl then blinked it away and replaced it with a worried expression as well.

Even though society knew her as the bratty girl, over the months, if not years, she had slowly learned to hide it and behave the way that people wanted her to behave: innocent and na?ve.

This also garnered her a good way to hide her true personality and true thoughts when she was outside.

Even Zhou Feng that despised her and thought she was annoying began to slowly not mind her presence. Kang Yiyi knew that he only thought of her as an acquaintance—not even a friend—but she didn't mind.

She knew that they were stuck to be married together, so their relationship would develop slowly yet properly.

But seeing Xiahu Yunhua, all her calmness would want to evaporate.

The way that Zhou Feng looked at her...

Kang Yiyi wanted to tear her to pieces. She had never hated a human being until she met the woman in front of her.

At that point, Kang Yiyi had failed to realize one thing: she didn't hate Xiahu Yunhua.

Hate was a strong word that was used to express the darkest of feelings and developed over a long period of time. Over a long period of memories. Kang Yiyi had neither memories nor spent much time with Xiahu Yunhua to hate her.

Much, much later on as she looked back on the infamous birthday banquet, she would realize that she had indeed never hated Xiahu Yunhua.

She hated Zhou Feng for not acknowledging her feelings after all these years.

She hated herself for being so cruel.

She envied Xiahu Yunhua for being too much, while she considered herself too little.

But alas, there was no medicine for regret. Be it at the present or in the future...