Coming of Age Ceremony

"Little Z, penny for your thoughts??" Old Leopard asked when he saw Qu Ling'er lost in thought.

Qu Ling'er snapped back from her thoughts. She looked at Old Leopard and shook her head. "Nothing. Thank you."

Old Leopard's face was full of disdain. "I'm not used to you being so polite to me. In the game, you're my senior. In reality, I'll protect you!"

Qu Ling'er smiled.

"By the way, I invited a few friends to celebrate your birthday with us. They will be here soon." Old Leopard asked Qu Ling'er to wait in the head seat. "Your birthday has never been so lively before, right? It's going to be a sick party today!"

"Why did you invite your friends over? It's already so late." Qu Ling'er felt bad to inconvenience people.

However, Old Leopard did not think much of it. "Is it late? It's not even 11 p.m. yet. The night is still young! They're all night owls—more than happy to party!"

As the two of them spoke—one after another—more than ten people entered the private room. Before long, the huge private room was filled with people.

Qu Ling'er—who was seated in the middle of it—suddenly felt like an exhibit on display in a zoo, thronged by visitors.

"Old Leopard's wife is very beautiful!" One of the girls exclaimed after sizing up Qu Ling'er.

Old Leopard spat out a mouthful of beer. "What nonsense are you spouting? She's my senior. Don't be ridiculous! That's blasphemy to my goddess!"

Everyone laughed. There was some more banter, but nothing outrageous. The atmosphere was great.

Although Qu Ling'er did not like such crowded occasions, it was her coming of age ceremony—18 years old after all. She felt it should be ceremonial, so she did not refuse.

Everyone sang a birthday song for Qu Ling'er. She blew out the candles and handed out the cake.

A girl took a photo of Qu Ling'er cutting the cake and sent it to Qu Xinru. "She's your sister, right? She's on very familiar terms with Bao Qi. He even celebrated her birthday with her!"

Qu Xinru replied very quickly: "Send me the address."

Twenty minutes later, Qu Ling'er received a message from Qu Xinru: "Qu Ling'er, come out. I'm at the door with Dad."

After eating the cake, everyone started singing. Qu Ling'er sat silently in the audience and played with her cell phone from time to time.

Old Leopard took many photographs and sent them to her. Looking at the lively scene in the photographs, she realized that she was really an adult now.

When she saw Qu Xinru's message, she was astounded for a moment. Qu Xinru soon sent her a second message.

"I know which room you're in. Come down quickly, or Dad and I will go up. You'll be the one embarrassed!"

Qu Ling'er gave a cold-eyed stare. Everyone was singing loudly. She typed a message for Old Leopard.

"I'm leaving."

Old Leopard was astonished. He hurriedly paused the song he was playing and asked, "You're leaving after barely arriving?"

"I have some things to deal with." Qu Ling'er did not want to go into details.

A male voice said, "Babe, you're the birthday girl. What do we do if you leave?"

Qu Ling'er looked at the beer on the table and picked up a glass. She stood up and said, "I'd like to make a toast to everyone. Thank you for coming to celebrate my birthday. Thank you." With that, she chugged down the beer.

Old Leopard did not even have time to stop her. What a show-off for someone who had never drunk alcohol!

Putting down the beer glass, Qu Ling'er smiled and said to Old Leopard, "Continue playing the song. You guys continue singing. Have fun. I'll make a move first."

Old Leopard said, "I'll walk you out."

Old Leopard followed Qu Ling'er out of the private room and into the elevator. Qu Ling'er pushed him out. "Go back. My chauffeur is already downstairs."

"Alright, let me know when you get home," Old Leopard said.

Qu Ling'er said, "Okay."

Exiting the clubhouse, Qu Ling'er saw Qu Xinru and Qu Zhisheng.

Qu Zhisheng looked dreadfully furious in the dim lighting of the streetlights—he knew about Luo Xiao's hospitalization by Qu Ling'er.

At the sight of Qu Ling'er, Qu Zhisheng strode forward and raised his hand to slap her.

Qu Ling'er turned sideways. Qu Zhisheng missed—lost his balance—staggered and almost fell to the ground.

"Dad!" Qu Xinru was startled and quickly ran over to help her father. "Qu Ling'er, what are you doing? You almost caused Dad to fall!"

Qu Ling'er watched the father-daughter show of filial piety unfold in front of her and found it extremely hilarious. But she did not have the patience to watch the show—what happened tonight had exhausted all her affection for the Qu family.

"There are some things that I don't need to say out loud. It's not good for everyone if I say it too clearly," Qu Ling'er said coldly. "We'll contact less in future. Let's go our separate ways."