My Ares Son-in-Law

Li Xiao originally wanted to mock Xiao Chen, but unexpectedly, Xiao Chen retorted, which made her even angrier, but she didn't know how to refute him.

He gritted his teeth, suppressing his anger, and said sarcastically, "Xiao Chen, you're really quite comfortable living off a woman, aren't you? Don't you feel ashamed?"

"Otherwise what?" Xiao Chen looked at him innocently, her tone self-righteous. "I don't steal or rob. I live off my wife with my own abilities. What's there to be uneasy about? It's not shameful."

The students around were all dumbfounded, looking at each other in disbelief... They had seen shameless people before, but never anyone this shameless!
But then again, everyone felt a little envious: Zhou Keying is so beautiful, gentle and elegant. Being able to live off such a goddess is something that many men dream of!
Serving such a beautiful woman, even if it means being a kept man, so what? This is clearly the life of a winner!

Li Xiao was speechless, her face turning pale and then red, embarrassed and angry. She could only stare at Xiao Chen, but there was nothing she could do.

Just as tensions were rising, Zhang Ziren's fiancée, Jiang Lanting, suddenly walked onto the small stage at the front of the hall.

A fake smile plastered on her face, a gift list in her hand, she cleared her throat and addressed the crowd below:
"Thank you to all my old classmates and friends for gracing us with your presence today at the opening ceremony of Renhetang, which is a very touching occasion for Zhang Ziren and me."

To express our gratitude, we would like to read out the gift list here, and thank you all again for your kind gesture!

Reading out the gift list at the opening ceremony is a routine part of the event, serving two purposes: to express gratitude and to satisfy everyone's competitive spirit.

Zhang Ziren didn't want to do this, thinking it was too vulgar, but he had no say at home and could only let Jiang Lanting do whatever she wanted. He felt helpless but had no power to refute her.

However, many classmates in the audience were not surprised... People have a competitive spirit. Reading who gave what and how much it was worth is a good way to see how well old classmates have done over the years, and it's also a chance to show off.

Jiang Lanting cleared her throat and began calling out names from the gift list, her smugness barely concealed: "Thank you, Li Yang, for the 800 yuan red envelope!"

"Thank you Wang Feifei for the gold necklace!"

"Thank you Zhao Lei for the two bottles of liquor!"

The gifts mentioned earlier were mostly worth between a few hundred and a thousand yuan, not considered expensive, and the audience just listened casually without much reaction.

But when Jiang Lanting read out the next name, she emphasized it: "Thank you, Li Xiao, for the 10,000 yuan red envelope!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire room fell silent, followed by a gasp of astonishment... It's just an opening ceremony, and he's giving a gift of 10,000 yuan? That's incredibly generous!

Everyone turned to look at Li Xiao, their eyes filled with amazement, envy, and flattery. They started talking all at once, praising Li Xiao to the skies.

Li Xiao sat in his seat, chest puffed out, face full of smugness, lips almost curling up to the sky, feeling smug inside...

It seems I'm firmly in the top position today, and everyone has to admire me. Xiao Chen, that gigolo, isn't even worthy of carrying his shoes!
Just as Li Xiao was getting carried away with his smugness, Jiang Lanting read aloud again, his tone filled with undisguised sarcasm, deliberately drawing out the words: "Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Xiao Chen and Zhou Keying, for the... broken pen holder!"

She spoke the words "broken pen holder" very loudly, and as soon as she finished speaking, the whole room burst into laughter, the laughter rising and falling, particularly jarring.

"A broken pen holder? Is it worth a hundred yuan?" "My God, these two are so stingy! Zhang Ziren hosted so many banquets, the average cost per person must be several hundred yuan, and these two came to eat and drink for free, and all they give is a broken pen holder? Aren't they ashamed?"

"Exactly! Even if you don't have money, you could at least give something worth a few hundred yuan. Giving a broken pen holder is just deliberately humiliating!"

Li Xiao immediately seized the opportunity, stood up abruptly, looked at Xiao Chen with a cold smile, and said in a sarcastic tone:
"Xiao Chen, you're really something! You can afford a domestic luxury car worth over 500,000 yuan, and even have money to secretly modify it, but when your old classmate opens his business, you give him this piece of junk? Are you deliberately trying to embarrass Zhang Ziren and all of us?"

Xiao Chen smiled faintly, his tone calm, with a hint of barely perceptible amusement in his eyes: "You don't even recognize this pen holder, so why do you call it junk?"

Li Xiao scoffed, his tone full of disdain and mockery:

"Stop pretending! You just want to buy a shabby fake antique to fool people, right? You deliberately made it look dusty and old so that no one can tell how much it's worth, so you can get away with it, isn't that right?"

As he spoke, he took a step forward and pressed him aggressively, "Tell me honestly, how much did you buy that broken pen holder for? A hundred yuan? Or fifty yuan? I don't think it's even worth fifty yuan!"

Looking at his arrogant appearance, Xiao Chen's smile deepened, and he said calmly, "That pen holder is worth more than all the gifts given by everyone here today."

"Hahahaha!" Li Xiao burst into laughter first, laughing so hard he almost cried.

"Xiao Chen, you're bragging without even thinking! I gave a gift of 10,000 yuan, and there were more than 20 other people here. The total amount of gifts from everyone is at least 20,000 yuan. Are you saying your broken pen holder is worth more than 30,000 yuan? Who are you trying to fool!"

Xiao Chen shook his head and said with a smile, "You underestimated it."

"Hahaha!" This time, everyone in the room burst into laughter, laughing even harder than before, and they all looked at Xiao Chen as if he were crazy.

"My God, Xiao Chen is such a show-off! He gave away a cheap pen holder and dares to brag that it's worth more than all the other gifts combined?"

"Yeah, a pen holder worth tens of thousands of yuan? Is he crazy? Who does he think he's fooling? Does he really think we're all idiots?"

"I think he was pushed to the limit by Li Xiao and started talking nonsense. It's so embarrassing!"

Jiang Lanting on the stage, her face also full of disdain and mockery, deliberately picked up the blue-and-white porcelain brush holder, held it up in her hand, and asked the crowd below:
"Xiao Chen, since you say this pen holder is so valuable, I wonder what era it's from? Could it be worth tens of thousands, even more than all the other gifts combined?"

Sitting in the audience, Zhang Ziren watched this scene with a sense of helplessness. He could only speak up and smooth things over for Xiao Chen:

"It's probably from the late Ming or early Qing dynasty. It's just a folk kiln blue and white porcelain piece, nothing particularly famous. Don't take it too seriously."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Lanting laughed even more smugly, his tone becoming even more sarcastic:
"Oh my, what a coincidence! My dad and Li Xiao both enjoy studying antique appraisal. My dad, Jiang Youwei, is quite famous in the antique appraisal circle in our province. Students who like collecting and understand antiques should all have heard of him, right?" (End of this chapter)