Volume One, Chapter 107 She lifted her face and pressed her lips to his.

When Liang Jinmo led Xu Zhi up onto the stage, even the emcee broke into a sweat.

He heard the murmurs rising from the guests below. They had tried to keep their voices low, but the shock was still plainly audible.

A few minutes earlier, Xu Zhi had told him that the ceremony could go ahead, but the segment with the slideshow chronicling their romance had to be cut.

How could it not be? Every image in that slideshow was of Xu Zhi and Liang Muzhi in the past, along with a few staged photos taken just days ago. If the giant screen showed Liang Muzhi’s face while another man stood on the stage, the spectacle would be far too delicious.

As for the way of addressing him, that was left unchanged: “Young Master Liang.”

On one side of the banquet hall, several people who had just come out of the dressing room stood frozen in place.

Xu Heping almost thought he had seen wrong, but when he looked again, the man onstage was still Liang Jinmo.

That illegitimate son.

Zhao Nianqiao was completely stunned as well, but she quickly understood why Xu Zhi had done this.

A last-minute substitution would certainly cause a huge uproar, but at least Xu Zhi would not remain trapped in the role of the woman who had been cast aside. From this point on, no one would say she was the pitiful girl abandoned by Liang Muzhi; perhaps they would say she was a woman caught between the two Liang brothers.

Fu Wanwen felt as if she might faint. She was deeply relieved that she had just had Old Master Liang taken upstairs to the lounge. If the old man saw this scene, he would probably go mad.

Liang Zhengguo’s brows were tightly knit as he stared at the two people onstage without saying a word.

“What are we supposed to do now...” Fu Wanwen’s mind had gone blank. She was about to rush forward and stop them, but Liang Zhengguo held her back.

“What would you do if you went up there now? Drag them down?” he said. “There are so many guests here. If you did that, we’d truly become a joke for everyone to watch.”

“But how can we just swap people at a time like this?!” Fu Wanwen was on the verge of collapse. “The invitations we sent out were crystal clear: Muzhi and Gardenia. Gardenia is Muzhi’s fiancee, and now she’s getting engaged to that illegit... to Liang Jinmo. People will laugh at us!”

Liang Zhengguo knew very well that today’s engagement ceremony was, in any case, already a laughingstock, but...

“If we stop the ceremony now, we’ll only lose even more face,” he said. “Have you thought about what you’re going to say if you go up there?”

Fu Wanwen looked lost, staggered back a step, and Zhao Nianqiao hurriedly steadied her.

Xu Heping clenched his fists. “I’ll go up there and speak. We can’t let them make a mockery of this!”

Liang Zhengguo’s expression darkened. “Old Xu, there’s media here today. If you go up there, it’ll be photographed.”

For a moment Xu Heping also hesitated. After a long pause, he asked, “Then what are we supposed to do?”

No one could answer that question.

The emcee’s voice, carried clearly by the speakers, reached everyone’s ears. He was simply following the original program. Fu Wanwen had been involved with the planning from beginning to end, and she knew the schedule best of all. Her legs were going weak; she did not know how things had come to this.

For the Liang family, this would inevitably become a scandal.

After watching for a while, Liang Zhengguo finally spoke again. “There are degrees to disgrace. Since they’re already onstage, we can’t stop them now. If we do, today will become an utter farce.”

Fu Wanwen could not help saying, “Then what about Muzhi? The whole city will think Liang Jinmo stole his fiancee!”

Liang Zhengguo glanced at her. “When he left, he never considered the Liang family’s dignity. If he’s embarrassed, it’s his own fault. Right now I’m still trying to figure out how to answer to my father. Do you know how much trouble he’s caused me?”

His tone was heavy. Fu Wanwen fell silent at once. In all their years of marriage, she had rarely seen Liang Zhengguo this angry. His upbringing kept him from showing it, but she could tell he was forcing his rage down.

“This time he has disappointed me beyond measure,” Liang Zhengguo said. “I know he was spoiled, but I never imagined he could be this selfish. If the Liang family’s reputation means nothing to him, then I see no need for him to come back to this house.”

Fu Wanwen’s heart sank. “Zhengguo... what do you mean by that?”

Liang Zhengguo did not answer. He turned and walked away.

This farcical engagement ceremony was nowhere near over.

Following the script, the emcee asked Xu Zhi and Liang Jinmo a few questions onstage, such as their first impressions of each other and what they had thought at the time.

Holding the microphone, Liang Jinmo looked at Xu Zhi for several seconds before giving his answer. “Naughty.”

He did not even remember their very first meeting. The first time she had truly left an impression on him was when she tore up his exam paper.

What Xu Zhi thought of was the same moment. Tightening her grip on the microphone, she said softly, “I thought I owed him an apology.”

This was naturally nothing like the prepared answers from before. Between Xu Zhi and Liang Muzhi, how could there ever have been anything so dramatic?

The emcee had seen every kind of storm before and replied with effortless smoothness, “So this is what they mean when they say love often feels like owing someone something?”

Laughter broke out below the stage. The initial shock and murmuring had already passed, and there was no malice in the sound now.

Xu Zhi’s face grew warm. She could not help stealing a glance at Liang Jinmo.

He did not show any special expression, but the air around him was calm and steady. Although he had been dragged in at the last minute as her fiance, he seemed reasonably cooperative. He was not keeping a cold face and leaving her stranded.

Zhao Nianqiao watched Xu Zhi. As a mother, she knew her daughter rather well. That look in Xu Zhi’s eyes meant she had feelings for Liang Jinmo. Perhaps she had never truly cut off those thoughts in the first place.

She had been angry too, but all at once, her anger faded.

Xu Zhi could not possibly have failed to understand what choosing Liang Jinmo in place of Liang Muzhi would mean. Since she had made that choice, it meant that in order to be with Liang Jinmo, she was willing to bear the consequences. What kind of feeling could make such a timid, fearful girl take such a risk without hesitation?

Xu Heping was grinding his teeth so hard they nearly broke. He wanted nothing more than to storm the stage and drag Xu Zhi down at once, but even Liang Zhengguo had spoken. He could not openly oppose him now, and he did still have to consider his own old face.

This engagement ceremony had been something he had longed for with all his heart. Now it had all been ruined. He did not know what would happen next. Xu Zhi was engaged to an illegitimate son, which meant she and Liang Muzhi would absolutely never have another chance. The Liang family would never allow her to be entangled with Liang Muzhi again.

All his plans had come to nothing. He had no idea what to do next.

By now the ceremony onstage had moved into its latter half, since the slideshow segment had been skipped. The emcee invited the two of them to exchange rings.

The ring bearer brought the rings over. Xu Zhi was so embarrassed she wanted the ground to swallow her up. She had suggested cutting this part as well, but no one had listened. Fu Wanwen had deliberately made the ceremony resemble a wedding, hoping to provoke Chen Jing, but now that only left Xu Zhi at a loss. She had been afraid Liang Jinmo would refuse to cooperate, after all the men’s ring in the pair had been custom-made for Liang Muzhi.

But he did not refuse. Thank goodness he did not.

The two of them exchanged rings smoothly. Xu Zhi’s heart hammered like a drum; it really did feel like a wedding.

For an instant, even the thought crossed her mind: if this were truly a wedding, that would be wonderful.

The emcee was fully in work mode by now and smiled with practiced ease. “And our almost-newlyweds have exchanged rings. Next comes my favorite part—give us a kiss! A kiss!”

Xu Zhi froze instantly. She had been so panicked that she had completely forgotten about this.

Below the stage, the crowd had split into two groups. Some were still muttering among themselves, unable to make sense of how the Liang and Xu families had brought things to this point today. It was truly embarrassing. How had the Xu family’s daughter ended up involved with an illegitimate son...

The other group looked at the handsome man and beautiful woman onstage and felt that this new couple was not entirely unacceptable. By then someone in the crowd had already started chanting along with the emcee. “A kiss! A kiss!”

The atmosphere quickly caught fire, and most of the crowd joined in.

Yang Xue was the loudest of them all. Beside her, Cheng Yu wanted to cover his ears. It was too noisy.

Zhou He looked utterly baffled. He asked Yang Xue, “Wait, what are you getting into? How did the two of them end up engaged?”

Yang Xue said, “I don’t know either, but isn’t this a good thing? Just go along and shout.”

A good thing? Zhou He did not think so. In his eyes, Xu Zhi was nothing but a heartless woman who had deceived Liang Jinmo’s feelings.

He looked toward the stage. The crowd around them was uproarious, but Liang Jinmo was standing there without moving.

In situations like this, everyone knew the man had to make the first move.

But Liang Jinmo did not seem inclined to do so.

Now that was awkward...

Xu Zhi sensed it too. The chorus of “Kiss!” around them was beginning to soften. She had not expected Liang Jinmo to make things difficult for her at this moment. She lifted her eyes to him, and he was already looking down at her slightly, his pupils dark and unfathomable.

It was as if he had not heard the teasing crowd at all. His calm was almost unnerving.

She gritted her teeth. Fine. She would do it.

Rising onto her toes, she reached up to catch hold of the man’s lapel, tipped her face back, and kissed him on the lips.