Chapter 93: Grandpa Meng?

Yuehua Hotel was so famous in Spring City that nearly everyone knew its name.

Not because it was especially luxurious, nor because it was particularly high-end. Quite the opposite: though it was called a hotel, in truth it was little more than a fairly large restaurant.

Yuehua Hotel occupied a vast area and had three floors in all.

The first floor was a grand hall, with no fewer than several dozen dining tables arranged inside. In the very center stood a heart-shaped stage, decorated in a wonderfully festive manner.

As for the second and third floors, they consisted of private rooms, each separate from the next, from which one could clearly see everything taking place in the hall below.

That was right. Yuehua Hotel mainly made its living by hosting all kinds of banquets. Weddings, graduation celebrations, birthday feasts, almost all of them were held here.

Because Yuehua Hotel was so large and could accommodate so many people, and because every dish served at its banquets was not only delicious but generous in portion, it attracted plenty of customers for that reason alone.

A taxi pulled up in front of Yuehua Hotel. As Lin Chuan got out, he saw a number of private cars parked nearby. More than half of them were Land Rovers and Hummers, with a few BMWs and Mercedes among them.

At the entrance stood a rainbow arch, with two names written across it.

Clearly, someone was holding a wedding here, and it had not yet ended. A few well-dressed people were coming and going from the hotel entrance, either making phone calls or seeing off guests who were about to leave.

Lin Chuan was annoyed. Why had Zhao Xinyi asked him and Yuan Ye to come here? Were they supposed to attend a wedding? But from the looks of it, the ceremony was clearly about to end.

"Xiao Chuan, why didn’t you call when you got here?" At that moment, Yuan Ye ran out from inside and said with a smile.

"Yuan Ye, what’s going on here?" Lin Chuan asked, frowning deeply.

"How should I know? I only just got here myself. Come on, my cousin is waiting for us on the third floor." Yuan Ye shrugged helplessly, looking entirely clueless.

Seeing that, Lin Chuan could only nod and walk into the hotel with him.

On the way upstairs, both of them moved very slowly. In fact, with every step they took, there was even a strangely heavy feeling, as if each stair weighed a thousand pounds.

"Xiao Chuan, for some reason I feel very uneasy. Zhao Xinyi calling us here like this... it can’t be anything good, can it?" Yuan Ye said grimly.

"I don’t know either. But I feel the same way. Your cousin suddenly asked us to come see her—did she not say why?" Lin Chuan nodded heavily.

"No. She only said for us to hurry to Yuehua Hotel and nothing else." Yuan Ye said.

"Let’s go. Since we’re already here, we may as well stay calm. Are two grown men really going to be scared by a woman? This isn’t like when we were kids. Your cousin’s matured a lot now." Lin Chuan said soothingly.

Yuan Ye smiled, nodded, and said nothing.

After dragging their feet for what felt like forever, Lin Chuan and Yuan Ye finally reached the third floor and stopped in front of a private-room door. They looked at each other and took a deep breath at the same time.

Knock, knock, knock!

A knock sounded, and then a soft voice from inside said, "Come in."

Gathering his courage, Yuan Ye pushed the door open. Inside, he saw a beautiful woman sitting at a dining table, smiling at him with gentle amusement.

"C-cousin..." Yuan Ye forced out a stiff smile.

"Come in. What are you standing at the door for?" Zhao Xinyi said with a faint smile.

So Lin Chuan and Yuan Ye entered carefully and closed the door behind them.

After they sat down, Zhao Xinyi glanced across their faces and said with a smile, "Why did you take so long? I’ve been waiting for ages."

"Ah, well, there was a bit of a traffic jam on the way," Yuan Ye said.

"Heh, I heard your station is preparing a matchmaking program? Something like... If You Are the One?" Zhao Xinyi thought for a moment before recalling the title.

"Yes. Xiao Chuan came up with it. It’s a large-scale dating and matchmaking show," Yuan Ye said with a nod.

"Sounds interesting. If I signed up too, would I be able to bring you back a brother-in-law?" Zhao Xinyi chuckled softly.

The words were harmless enough, but Lin Chuan and Yuan Ye’s expressions changed at once. They looked at each other, and Yuan Ye blurted out, "Cousin, y-you want to sign up for If You Are the One?"

"Why, can’t I?" Zhao Xinyi frowned slightly, sounding doubtful.

"No, no, I’m not saying you can’t. It’s just that, with your looks and your position as CEO of the Kadi Company, you don’t need to go on a dating show at all. There must be a long line of men waiting for you already, right?" Yuan Ye hurried to explain.

What a joke. Let her go on the show? That would be like digging her own grave.

Back when they were children, in that tiny neighborhood around home, who had not heard of Zhao Xinyi’s name?

She was undeniably pretty, but carved deep into her bones were the words cruel and sly. Scheming against people was her specialty, and even the adults had been wary of her.

Though they were all grown now, and their cousin had spent many years studying abroad, surely becoming far more mature, Lin Chuan and Yuan Ye still could not help being affected by the memories.

In the short term, it was impossible for them to completely erase that image of a devious female demon from their minds.

Zhao Xinyi seemed to know what they were thinking. She smiled faintly and did not say much more about it. Instead, she turned her gaze toward the hall below.

At the center of the hall stood a man in his thirties, holding a microphone. He looked like the host for this wedding.

He made no exaggerated gestures and used no messy, overblown lines. He stood there with remarkable composure. And yet, whenever he finished speaking a few sentences, the entire room erupted in laughter and enthusiastic cheers.

He controlled the atmosphere very well, and from time to time he would interact briefly with the guests attending the wedding.

"I heard you’re looking for a host. Have you found one yet?" Zhao Xinyi turned back and asked with a smile.

"No. You know the situation at our station fairly well. We can’t hire a big-name host, and even if we could, he still wouldn’t meet my requirements." This time it was Lin Chuan speaking. On the matter of finding a host, he was the one with the right to speak.

"Then what do you think of the host downstairs?" Zhao Xinyi did not seem surprised at all, as if she had already known all along what Lin Chuan would say.

"Cousin, if you have something to say, just say it directly. I remember you being pretty straightforward. How did you become so roundabout after a few years abroad?" Yuan Ye said.

At that, Zhao Xinyi raised her eyebrows and cast him a sidelong glance.

Instantly, Yuan Ye could not help but shiver.

That feeling was right, exactly right. In the past, whenever his cousin was about to set him up, she would give him just such a glance. Too familiar. Far too familiar.

For a moment, Yuan Ye could not stop cursing himself in his head for talking too quickly.

Yet to Lin Chuan and Yuan Ye’s surprise, Zhao Xinyi did not respond with her old tricks. Instead, she smiled lightly and said, "His name is Han Bin. He’s a host for a wedding company. In fact, he has a bit of a reputation in Spring City. You haven’t heard of him?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Yuan Ye slapped the table dramatically, startling both Zhao Xinyi and Lin Chuan.

Ignoring that, Yuan Ye hurried on, "So he’s Han Bin. Right, he’s very well known in Spring City. I heard he graduated from some media university and studied hosting, didn’t he?"

Zhao Xinyi nodded. "Yes. After graduation, Han Bin went to a few television stations, but none of them made proper use of him. Later, he ran off to a wedding company and became a wedding host. He’s quite famous in Spring City. Some people even say that every wedding Han Bin has hosted has led to a very harmonious marriage, and that not a single couple has divorced afterward. I don’t know whether that’s true or not."

"It’s true, I’ve heard that too... But cousin, do you know him?" Yuan Ye asked, his brows slightly furrowed.

Listening to the sibling-like duo trade lines about this Han Bin, Lin Chuan was completely bewildered. He did not know the man at all, had never even heard of him.

Perhaps it was because he had been living in Beining all these years. But now that he heard them talk about him, he found Han Bin rather interesting.

A wedding host whose couples had never broken up afterward? Intriguing.

"Cousin, you didn’t call us here today just to tell us about Han Bin, did you?" Lin Chuan asked with a light laugh, going straight to the point.

Zhao Xinyi nodded and said, "That’s right. Han Bin and I used to be classmates. I heard you were looking for a host, so I mentioned it to him... I didn’t expect he’d be very interested in your matchmaking program and even thought it had great prospects for future development. So I had no choice but to play the middleman and introduce you to each other."

"Thanks for your trouble, cousin." Lin Chuan smiled.

"Xiao Chuan, you’ve become polite, huh? But I haven’t had a chance to ask you yet—what’s with that little kid? And where’s your wife? When are you going to introduce her to me?"

There it was again. She was his cousin, all right. She had just seemed so mature a moment ago, and in the blink of an eye, her true nature had shown itself.

Xiao Chuan? What an all-too-familiar way of addressing him.

He still remembered that back in middle school, his cousin used to shout every day, "Xiao Chuan, carry me out of the palace on your back."

But ever since she went abroad, no one had mentioned that name again.

Lin Chuan gave an embarrassed smile, not knowing how to answer, when the private-room door sounded again.

Then a man in his thirties pushed the door open and walked in.

He looked ordinary, nothing especially striking. He was around five feet nine to five feet ten, somewhat lean, with very short hair. The moment Lin Chuan saw him, his eyes lit up.

This man actually bore a certain resemblance to Meng Fei in his previous life. Especially when he smiled—he was practically Meng Fei’s long-lost brother.

"Sorry, Xinyi, I’m late. This must be Mr. Lin Chuan, right? I watched your competition on TV. It was excellent!" Han Bin said with a smile as he walked up in a few quick steps.

Lin Chuan froze for a moment, then sprang to his feet and blurted out with obvious excitement, "Grandpa Meng, I’ve admired you for a very long time. To finally meet you is truly wonderful. When did you grow hair again?"

What? Grandpa Meng?

Everyone present, including Han Bin, who had just walked in, was completely stunned.

What on earth was he trying to pull?