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It started at 6pm.
Guests began arriving at the An family villa one after another.
The villa's magnificent bright lights illuminated the luxurious building in the middle of the grass lawn, making it look even more dazzling.
The grand hall was also decorated magnificently, with luxury seen everywhere.
As time went by, more and more people came and went in the banquet hall.
Dressed in a black suit and black bow tie, An Yanyuan looked dignified and elegant.
He moved through the crowd at the banquet, greeting the guests coming and going.
Yet the star of today's banquet, Li YaJu, had not appeared at the scene.
Her absence did not attract anyone's attention.
Li YaJu had never been a noticeable person, and it was the same tonight.
Moreover, the dignitaries who came to the banquet had assumed by default that this birthday dinner was just an excuse for the An family to treat everyone, and didn't really take Li YaJu's birthday seriously. So naturally no one had asked about her.
At this moment, the Gu family had also arrived at the An family's grand hall in full costume.
Ni Lan was even dressed too extravagantly, in a long bright red evening gown that immediately attracted everyone's attention as soon as she entered the hall, extremely ostentatious.
She wore a haughty smile, hiding her smugness.
An Yanyuan hurried forward to greet them, "Old Gu, you're here."
"There was some traffic jam on the way, got here a little late."
"No no, you arrived just in time."
After some pleasantries, Ni Lan enthusiastically asked, "Where's YaJu?"
"She's still getting ready, will be down soon."
"I've prepared a birthday present for her." Ni Lan knew how to behave in public.
In this regard, Gu Yan Sheng had taught her well.
"That's very thoughtful of you." An Yanyuan hurried to thank her.
More and more people came and went.
An Yanyuan kept greeting them.
"Old Ye, we're honored to have you here. It's been so many years since you appeared at public events, truly an honor."
The speaker was Ye Lu Ping.
Father of Ye Jinghuai, head of the four major families in Qing City.
Accompanying Ye Lu Ping were his wife Yun Yu Qing, eldest son Ye Jing Chen, second son Ye Jing Xuan, and youngest son Ye Jinghuai.
The three were very polite in greeting An Yanyuan.
An Yanyuan was very amiable, and said particularly to Ye Jinghuai, "I saw your speech yesterday, you really amazed me, uncle."
"You flatter me, I was just lucky." Ye Jinghuai said modestly.
"It wasn't just luck." An Yanyuan affirmed, "Truly promising."
"Don't praise him anymore, or his tail will stick up." Ye Lu Ping joked, "He's still far from your future son-in-law."
"Being so modest now is also a sign of arrogance." An Yanyuan joked.
He also didn't want to talk too much about Gu Yan Sheng.
Luckily at this moment, Xia Zheng Hai also brought his family to the hall.
"Old Xia is here." An Yanyuan said.
Xia Zheng Hai came with his wife Xiao Qiang, daughter Xia Qiqi, son Nie Ziming, and nephew Xiao Nanchen.
"Old Ye is here too." Xia Zheng Hai saw Ye Lu Ping and hurried to greet him.
It was rare to see Ye Lu Ping personally since the Ye family was now run by the eldest son. He was surprised to see him come to a birthday banquet like this.
"If you're here, how could I not come?!" Ye Lu Ping joked.
At this moment, Gu Wenquan also came over to socialize.
The four most prominent families of North Wen Country were now all gathered.
Including the Ye, An, Xia and Gu families, ranked by wealth, all concentrated in the most prosperous Qing City of North Wen Country.
Apart from these prominent families, North Wen Country also had two famous aristocratic families.
They were the Jun family and Di family, located in the most powerful Capital City of North Wen Country.
The prominent families and aristocratic families had little interaction in name, after all they were separated by a city and different spheres.
But in reality, the prominent families needed the aristocratic families' protection, the aristocratic families needed the prominent families' wealth, the prominent families wanted to become aristocratic, the aristocratic families wanted to monopolize the prominent families...
No one could really say whether the prominent families and aristocratic families had...any connections.
Unless the prominent families and aristocratic families merge into one.
And Gu Yan Sheng of the previous life, wanted to become the most prominent person in North Wen Country.
Standing at the top of the stairs on the second floor, An Wen saw everyone in the banquet hall below.
Seeing Gu Yan Sheng's brilliance fade into insignificance among so many dignitaries, she didn't know why back then, she had desperately helped him, helped him reach a height that he could never have reached by himself.
Her eyes flickered.
Anyway, in this life, Gu Yan Sheng couldn't even touch the door of the aristocratic families.
She controlled her emotions, arm in arm with her mother.
Suddenly, the lights in the hall dimmed.
A bright spotlight instantly shone on the mother and daughter on the 2nd floor.
Everyone's attention, of course, instantly looked towards them.
One was dressed in dazzling black, the other in pure white.
The two were like angels, as if in a dream in that moment. Otherwise how could there be such a beautiful mother and daughter in this world, dazzling everyone.
Accompanied by melodious music.
An Wen, arm in arm with her mother, walked down the red carpet step by step from the 2nd floor.
The spotlight on them made Li YaJu somewhat nervous.
She still couldn't believe everything she saw.
Didn't they say it was just a dinner to celebrate with An Yanyuan?
What was with this grand birthday banquet?
She was nervous, carefully following her daughter's footsteps.
The bright light followed their every step.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs.
An Yanyuan appeared there.
Dressed in a suit, tall and straight, no middle-aged spread, still a gentleman and elegant even in his fifties.
He bowed, and held out his hand.
With the highest etiquette, welcoming his most important woman.
Li YaJu looked at An Yanyuan in a daze, not expecting such a big surprise, and was stunned for a while.
An Wen put her mother's hand into An Yanyuan's palm.
At the same time.
The orchestra in the hall played beautiful dance music.
An Yanyuan led Li YaJu into the center of the dance floor, and danced the first dance of the night before all the guests, stunning everyone.
The gorgeous, romantic couple's dance.
Everyone watched the scene before them in surprise.
From being speechless to buzzing discussions.
"My god, is that Li YaJu? She's like a different person, if An Yanyuan wasn't holding her, I wouldn't believe it's her!"
"The crown on her head is so beautiful. Is that blue sapphire the 30 million gemstone from the charity gala? Too extravagant."
"Is that figure hers? Such beautiful dancing, it's Li YaJu dancing?"
"The birthday banquet An Yanyuan prepared for Li YaJu really amazed me..."
In the hall.
It made some people green with envy!
