Heading to the banquet

Hearing Zhou Cheng's words, Zhou Wanyu's face lit up with joy.

She had originally thought about pleading with her eldest brother, Zhou Feiyu, to let her come along.

She hadn't expected that while her eldest brother disagreed, her second brother—who always seemed cold, ruthless, and domineering at home—would actually agree.

She had nothing to do since her vacation started after the College Entrance Examination.

She had initially planned to go traveling with her Best Friends, but since they were heading back to their hometown tomorrow to celebrate her grandfather's birthday, she had scrapped those travel plans.

She planned to return to her hometown first to celebrate the birthday and then plan her trip afterward.

At the same time, she hadn't originally known about the Liu Family's banquet invitation.

It was only while shopping with Qin Ming and the others today that she happened to hear from him that the Liu Family had invited the Eight Great Families to a banquet tonight.

Specifically, Qin Ming even mentioned that the Dragon King Emissary would appear at the banquet.

This peculiar name immediately piqued her curiosity, so she insisted on following Zhou Cheng and Zhou Feiyu to join in the fun.

A gathering of the Eight Great Families was rare enough, but now that a Dragon King Emissary was appearing, she absolutely had to join the excitement!

In Shanghai, the Eight Great Families competed in various business Domains, often in life-or-death struggles.

They each formed their own small cliques.

Outside of these cliques, they usually didn't have much contact.

Take the Zhou Family, for example; because they were the newest addition, they held little status among the Eight Great Families.

Among them, they only had the best relationship with the Qin Family.

This was the reason why the Zhou and Qin families had arranged a marriage alliance between Zhou Wanyu and Qin Ming.

“Xiao Cheng, isn't it a bit inappropriate for Wanyu to come along?” Zhou Feiyu's brow furrowed slightly. Not only would the Eight Great Families be there, but the Dragon King Emissary would be as well.

Even they were meeting the Dragon King Emissary for the first time. If Zhou Wanyu tagged along, what if the other families or the Dragon King Emissary thought the Zhou Family wasn't taking this banquet seriously?

“What's inappropriate about it? Isn't Qin Ming going too? I'll just stay by Qin Ming's side then; I definitely won't cause any trouble for you guys,” Zhou Wanyu said resentfully.

She brought up Qin Ming as an example again.

“How can you be the same as Qin Ming? He is the only son of the Qin Family and the future heir. You haven't even touched the Family business yet; what are you going for?” Zhou Feiyu said helplessly.

Qin Ming was the eldest grandson of the current Family head, the only male in the direct line, and the Qin Family head's most beloved grandson.

To use an analogy, if the Qin Family were a royal house and the Old Family Head was the Emperor, then Qin Ming was the Emperor's favored grandson.

He had received the top-tier cultivation of the Qin Family since childhood. When he met Zhou Wanyu and fell for her, the Qin Family's Old Family Head personally came to the Zhou Family to arrange the marriage for Qin Ming.

The families in Shanghai's top elite circles all knew that Qin Ming had a very high probability of bypassing his father and taking over the position of Qin Family Head directly from the current head.

Therefore, it was inevitable for Qin Ming to attend such a banquet; it would be strange if he didn't.

“It's fine. Anyway, neither of us knows what this banquet is about; we're just going to join the fun. If Wanyu wants to follow, let her,” Zhou Cheng said nonchalantly.

The highlight of this banquet was to see what that Dragon King Emissary actually wanted to do.

If anything went wrong, the higher-ranking families would be the ones to deal with it. The Zhou Family would just watch the drama unfold.

“Second Brother, you're the best! Unlike Eldest Brother, who's become even more cold and heartless since returning from abroad,” Zhou Wanyu laughed happily, not forgetting to complain about Zhou Feiyu.

This made Zhou Feiyu's face look slightly awkward, and then he smiled helplessly.

“Fine, fine, fine. You can come along, alright?”

The three of them headed out in a fleet of several luxury cars, with Zhou Cheng and the others sitting in the Rolls-Royce in the middle.

Their appearance was grand, displaying the status the Zhou Family should have... The Liu Family Manor was located in the northwest of Shanghai, nestled against mountains and water, and the manor was the height of luxury.

Tonight, the manor was brightly lit, and the number of luxury cars coming and going was countless.

In addition to the Eight Great Families, many other wealthy families had received invitations.

There were even some families who hadn't received an invitation but knew about the banquet; they were all inquiring with the Liu Family, and after begging for a ticket, they rushed over!

Because they all knew this was a rare moment for the Eight Great Families to gather. If they could build a connection with the Eight Great Families at such a banquet, their own companies would surely receive help from them in the future.

Even if they only got a few scraps, they could still make a huge profit.

“Brother, which Family are you from?”

“Me? From the Tang Family. Our master received an invitation, so we rushed over specially.”

“The Tang Family, huh? That's quite good. They're already very close to the Eight Great Families; no wonder they received an invitation from the Liu Family.”

“This banquet is truly high-end and luxurious. Almost every powerful Family and wealthy person in Shanghai has come, right?”

“Definitely. Even the Eight Great Families are here. Those with close enough strength received invitations, and those slightly weaker are looking for connections to get in. How could it not be top-tier?”

In the parking area, some drivers who had arrived early and had nothing to do gathered to chat.

“Say, with this gathering being so lively, what do you think is going on?”

“Who knows? We're just drivers. Although we usually hear the masters and young masters chatting in the car, we don't dare to talk nonsense.”

The two chatted for a few more moments.

They then concluded that they really couldn't guess the affairs of these wealthy families.

“The Zhou Family is here. Those must be Eldest Young Master Zhou and Second Young Master Zhou. As expected, Zhou Yuanbo didn't come; it's the two of them instead.”

“That's right, it's those two young masters of the Zhou Family. The Zhou Family has been so lively lately, especially with Second Young Master Zhou seizing power and the Eldest Young Master's divorce. We've certainly had our fill of drama.”

The drivers in the parking area watched the entrance of the Liu Family Manor from afar and commented as they saw the three from the Zhou Family get out of their car.

“True, but Second Young Master Zhou is still very capable. Even our master can't figure out his methods.”

“On one hand, he thinks his methods are sharp and can cut through knots quickly, but on the other hand, he's confused about why he'd ignore his status to be a lowly policeman!”

Whenever people from a Family arrived, these people would chat about that Family's trivia to pass the boring time.

And so, after the Zhou Family arrived, the drivers' topic shifted directly to them and didn't stop, because there were simply too many things to talk about regarding the Zhou Family.

“Welcome, Eldest Young Master Zhou, Second Young Master Zhou, and this Young Miss Zhou, for gracing the Liu Family with your presence.”

After Zhou Cheng and the others got out of the car, they were immediately greeted.

Zhou Cheng looked at him, searching his memory to see if he knew who he was.

Meanwhile, Zhou Feiyu at his side had already recognized him.

He was the Eldest Son of the Liu Family and the one among the Liu brothers with the most hope of inheriting the Family business.

He was older than Zhou Feiyu, but in elite families, that didn't mean much.

The Liu Family arranging for him to greet guests outside tonight was considered giving plenty of face.

“Since the Liu Family invited us, our Zhou Family naturally had to come. Besides, looking at the invitation, there's clearly something important, so we couldn't possibly be absent.”

As Zhou Feiyu spoke, he had the assistant who came along hand the prepared gift to the Liu Family's receptionist nearby.

For these two families, no one lacked for anything, so the gift was just a formality.

Neither side cared what gift the Zhou Family had brought.