Chapter 100: He Was Out of Her League!

Lin Fan was beginning to feel uneasy.

He had not expected the bride’s family to be even more formidable than the Zhangs.

Earlier, Zhang Yi had not explained things in detail; she had only said they were coming for a simple meal today.

Seeing this, Zhang Yi hastily defended herself. “The five hundred thousand is only a greeting gift! We’ve also prepared a generous present—some jewelry and gold and silver ornaments. They’re still on the way and will be here any moment!”

“If you can’t produce it, then just admit you can’t. There’s no need to force an explanation. We’re all family here; no one will laugh at you.”

The woman gave a cold, disdainful smile and, after delivering that veiled remark, turned and walked away.

“Humph!”

Zhang Yi snorted in anger, sat down sullenly in her chair, and looked thoroughly vexed.

“Why does that woman seem to have a grudge against you? She keeps targeting you,” Lin Fan asked, puzzled.

Zhang Yi looked ashamed and hesitated, as though she had something she wanted to say but could not. After half a minute, she finally spoke. “To be honest, my ex-boyfriend was introduced by her. But we didn’t date for long before we broke up. His family was in business too, but he was rather lazy and had no ambition.”

“After we split, she came looking for me to settle accounts, saying that his family was well-off and asking why I had refused him, as if I looked down on them. I said a few things to her in return, and that made her unhappy. Since then, at every family gathering, she’s had to make a few sarcastic remarks at my expense—calling me snobbish, money-obsessed, and so on. My father once scolded her and made her apologize, and after that she held a grudge against me. Sigh...”

Originally, they had merely come today to join in the festivities and show a little sincerity. They had never imagined that this woman would deliberately make trouble in front of everyone and humiliate her.

“Who exactly is this bride’s family? How can they be even more impressive than your Zhang family?” Lin Fan asked, glancing at the bride’s relatives. Each one carried themselves with great airs, completely overpowering the presence of the Zhang family.

After Zhang Yi explained everything, Lin Fan finally understood why that woman was so arrogant.

The bride’s family business was a well-known name in Sun City. They were in electrical machinery manufacturing, with a market value of nearly five billion.

Zhang Yi’s cousin was indeed marrying above his station, and the woman happened to know some of the bride’s younger relatives. Since she had always been looked down upon in the Zhang family, she had deliberately stirred up trouble at the engagement banquet this time, hoping to regain some dignity.

Today, Zhang Yi’s grandparents had also come, meeting with the bride’s elders upstairs.

Because Lin Fan was an outsider and Zhang Yi lacked any real presence, the two of them, after delivering their gifts, had sensibly come to sit outside the villa. They had never expected the woman to actually chase them from inside the house all the way out.

“Haven’t your Zhang family already given quite a lot? Altogether it must be well over ten million. Why is the bride’s side still dissatisfied?” Lin Fan had noticed that the Zhang family’s gifts were also richly prepared: cars, gold and silver jewelry, and even some antiques and fine collectibles, worth at least ten million. It was already a great show of sincerity.

“That’s just the hierarchy of contempt... The rich look down on the less rich; the powerful look down on the powerless. Even if my cousin is highly capable and of excellent character, in the bride’s eyes he’s still marrying up. Isn’t that how the circles of the wealthy work? Didn’t you say that yourself?” Zhang Yi smiled bitterly.

Lin Fan smacked his forehead. It had been his own oversight.

At first, he had not imagined the bride’s family to be so powerful. If anyone was to blame, it was Zhang Yi for not making things clear.

What she had told him earlier was that the bride’s family lived in the outskirts of Sun City, and when he checked the navigation, he had indeed seen that the destination was in a village.

But he had never expected the bride’s place to be a grand villa—the village was merely the name of the area, not an actual rural settlement.

His thinking and understanding were still confined to the bounds of ordinary people; he had not considered so much.

He had overlooked the fact that marriage in elite circles was all about matching families of equal standing.

“I’m going out to make a call...”

Lin Fan got up and left the villa. Outside, he immediately called Zou Xiaodong and asked him to find a few valuable gifts that would properly reflect status and have them delivered at once.

An hour later, evening had fallen.

As dinnertime approached, the bride’s family gathered everyone and prepared to head to a nearby hotel for the meal.

At that moment, He Yanxin appeared again.

“Well, well! Didn’t you say you had prepared generous gifts? Why haven’t they arrived yet? Could it be the delivery driver got lost? That’s possible—this place is huge and not easy to find!”

Hearing this, Zhang Yi’s face turned green with anger.

When she and Lin Fan had arrived, they too had failed to locate the exact place. Only after calling others did they finally find the villa.

Now she was clearly taking the opportunity to mock both her and Lin Fan.

“Xiao Yi’s aunt, isn’t this enough? We’re all family. Must you make things so unpleasant?” Zhang Qiufeng stepped forward once more to protect his daughter, openly accusing He Yanxin of bullying the younger generation in front of everyone.

But the moment the woman heard this, she instantly bristled.

“So if we’re family, does that mean you people weren’t always bad-mouthing me behind my back? I’m her elder—what’s wrong with saying a few things to her? If you haven’t got the ability, don’t brag, so you won’t embarrass Zhang Kai!”

Zhang Kai was Zhang Yi’s cousin.

But with the two sides clashing like this, the bride’s family began to whisper among themselves again.

“Are the Zhang family really all so deluded? They don’t amount to much, yet they still point fingers at others. Aren’t they too full of themselves?”

“We should keep our distance from the Zhang family. It’s obvious they’re snobs. If they ever try to borrow money from us or discuss business or anything else, don’t agree to a thing!”

“They only run a small business, a tiny company, and they still act so pompously. Calling them overambitious would already be flattering them. Their total assets together probably don’t even reach a hundred million.”

“And that Zhang Yi—wearing a dress worth a million, what a show-off! Probably rented it... And her boyfriend too, looking so ordinary, yet he’s trying to hand out a check like he’s someone important. You can tell the Zhangs all love putting on airs!”

When the Zhang family heard these disparaging remarks, their expressions turned ugly.

Although Zhang Kai really was marrying above his station, the Zhang family had not been stingy. In addition to ten million in gifts and presents, they had already bought a villa and a car for the couple, showing nothing but sincerity.

Just then, someone ran in from outside and shouted, “Miss, several cars have arrived outside. They say they’re here to deliver gifts.”

Only then did Lin Fan speak.

“I’ve prepared quite a few gifts for the couple. The check we gave earlier was only a greeting gift. Let them in!”

The man glanced at Lin Fan and then turned and hurried back outside.

Shortly after, Zou Xiaodong led more than ten staff members into the villa, each carrying all manner of gift boxes.

“President Lin, my apologies. I was delayed by traffic on the way.”

“This is a gilded bronze Crane Tower landscape piece, decorated with a few jade and emerald accents. It’s worth three million. It’s for the couple’s parents, a small token of our respect.”

As he finished speaking, two staff members carried in a glass cabinet.

The cabinet was more than half a meter wide, and inside stood a bronze Crane Tower, its surface covered in gold leaf.

Its base was carved from top-grade gray Hetian jade, and the entire display shimmered with gold and jade brilliance. Its dazzling appearance made it obvious at a glance that it was worth a fortune.

“This is a pair of golden boy and jade girl figurines. The boy weighs five thousand two hundred grams, and the girl one thousand three hundred and fourteen grams. Total value: four million eight hundred thousand. May the newlyweds enjoy a union lasting a hundred years, forever bound in harmony and devotion!”