Chapter 107: Chapter 7: Guessed 3 Correctly, How Can I Lose?

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Zhang Yan openly flaunted their affection to the entire room, sharing a single glass with the dazzling Xia Xiqing. Fortunately, he had already subjected everyone to plenty of public displays of affection earlier, so no one was surprised by his actions now.

Once the seal was broken, there was no turning back. For the next few rounds, Zhang Yan dropped all pretense. He simply took a single glass, actively poured the wine for Xia Xiqing, and offered it to her.

Although Xia Xiqing felt this was slightly inappropriate in such a public setting, she didn’t want to make her friend lose face. Besides, Zhang Yan was behaving with a sense of propriety; he wasn’t going entirely overboard. He was toeing her boundaries without crossing them, so she could only resign herself to the arrangement. Taking a small sip, she carefully tasted the wine before arriving at an answer and handing the glass back to him.

As he received the next glass of imported wine, Zhang Yan subtly rotated it, bringing the faint imprint of her lips closer to his own mouth. Xia Xiqing’s heart tightened, and she pursed her lips. However, Zhang Yan’s movements were completely natural, as if he simply hadn’t noticed. Since his lips never actually touched her lip print, she couldn’t exactly bring herself to complain.

For the third glass, Xia Xiqing deliberately adjusted the orientation of the glass before handing it back. Without realizing it, she seemed to have already accepted the fact that Zhang Yan was drinking the dregs of her wine. Seeing the lip print exactly where she had anticipated it would be this time, she thought, "I must have been overthinking things earlier. Zhang Yan simply isn’t as hyper-aware of this as I am. It’s all just a coincidence."

Yet, with the fourth glass, Zhang Yan casually rotated the cup once more, bringing the lip mark a few fractions closer to his own lips. Xia Xiqing’s newly settled nerves instantly tightened again.

The fifth glass moved further away, but the sixth glass inched closer again. Her emotions rose and fell like a tide with the rotation of that lip print. As her heart grew increasingly restless, her mindset subtly began to shift without her even noticing.

According to Zhang Yan’s "pattern," for the seventh glass, he should drink with the lip print facing away from him. But given the rule that he got slightly closer with every alternating turn, by the eighth glass, he would completely press his mouth against her lingering lip print. Xia Xiqing had already made up her mind: after she finished this next glass, she absolutely would not hand it back to him. She realized that if she let him have it, it would amount to an indirect kiss.

But on the seventh glass, Zhang Yan’s lips curled into a slight smirk as he cast a glance at Xia Xiqing. He gently rotated the glass in his hand, bringing the tempting, light pink lip mark right in front of him. Then, he pressed his own lips directly over it.

Caught entirely off guard, a thunderclap exploded in Xia Xiqing’s mind. She subconsciously raised her index finger to her own mouth, her lips feeling as if they had just experienced that kiss from across the space between them.

Zhang Yan savored it carefully. He thought, "It feels a bit like beeswax or lip balm? And there’s a faint floral fragrance." After admiring Xia Xiqing’s dazed expression for a moment, he poured the final glass of wine for her. "Senior Sister Xia, Senior Sister Xia? It’s time for the last glass."

Xia Xiqing snapped back to reality, looking at Zhang Yan with a complicated gaze. Contrary to her own expectations, she didn’t seem entirely angry—she just felt rather flustered. Drinking the final sip of wine, she thought, "It’s very similar to Chateau Lafite Rothschild, but it should be Legend of Lafite." Xia Xiqing confirmed that all of her previous judgments were correct.

Looking at the remaining wine in the glass and the now very faint lip print on the rim, she hesitated for a moment before handing the glass back to Zhang Yan. She reasoned that he might as well drink from it, since he had already done so anyway.

Seeing her expression, Zhang Yan immediately understood. However, for this final glass, he didn’t press his lips to the mark again. Xia Xiqing had braced herself, watching him with a mix of slight nervousness and anticipation. Yet, when she saw the result, she couldn’t help but feel a lingering sense of loss.

"Alright, all guests have completed their individual tastings. Now, please write down your designated numbers according to the names I call out.

"First is Opus One.

"Next is Chateau Lafite Rothschild.

"Then comes Penfolds Grange.

"And finally, Sassicaia."

After all, it was just a casual interactive parlor game, so the rules weren’t overly strict. Otherwise, Zhang Yan’s group—being the last to taste—would be at a significant disadvantage, having much less time to deliberate compared to the earlier groups. They had to rely almost entirely on their first impressions.

Everyone wrote down a string of numbers on the notepads provided by the waiters.

Zhang Yan felt Xia Xiqing’s hand—which was still looped through his arm—tap against him at a specific rhythm. She tapped with her ring finger and pinky, then her pinky and index finger, then her index finger alone, and finally her pinky finger.

He wrote down 7514.

The male guest in the first group guessed one correctly, the female guest in the second group got two right, but Chu Chengxi in the third group correctly identified three!

"You gave me a scare, Chengxi! You were one breath away from getting them all right! Looks like my private collection is safe for now," Zhong Zimo joked, clapping Chu Chengxi on the shoulder.

"What a shame. So the ’little surprise’ is actually Eldest Young Master Zhong’s private collection?"

Zhong Zimo exchanged a few more pleasantries and was just about to walk toward the final group when Chu Chengxi spoke up again.

"Eldest Young Master Zhong, you might not know this, but this final friend here is no simple character!

"Although he’s an unfamiliar face, we had a brief chat earlier. He claimed to be quite the wine connoisseur, supposedly far surpassing my own level!

"I’m confident he’ll give you a massive surprise, Eldest Young Master Zhong!"

Zhong Zimo raised an eyebrow, shooting Chu Chengxi a deeply meaningful look, though he didn’t expose his underlying intentions. "Now I’m truly looking forward to it. If this friend can guess every single one correctly, I’ll definitely have to make his acquaintance!"

Chu Chengxi’s fabrication was truly venomous. By preemptively hyping Zhang Yan up, he had backed him into a corner. If Zhang Yan denied the praise now, Chu Chengxi could steer the narrative to make him look cowardly. But if Zhang Yan stayed silent and ended up guessing the fewest correctly, he would be branded as a bragging blowhard who was all talk and no substance.

Regardless of the outcome, someone with Zhang Yan’s limited experience and background had no way to break out of this trap. Making a fool of himself and enduring the crowd’s mockery seemed to be his only inevitable fate. Furthermore, first impressions were notoriously difficult to change. Today was Zhang Yan’s debut in Meng City’s second-generation social circle. If this humiliating label was permanently pinned on him, it would take a hundred times the effort to overturn it in the future.

Chu Chengxi could no longer suppress the smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. He was already vividly imagining the scene of Zhang Yan turning in a blank sheet in front of this highly anticipated audience. He thought, "You must have felt pretty damn good showing off earlier, huh? Keep going! Let’s see how much of a badass you are now!"

Of course, Chu Chengxi kept these thoughts to himself. Outwardly, his face displayed nothing but sincere anticipation. Meanwhile, his female companion looked at Zhang Yan with renewed interest, eager to see exactly how he would handle this impending embarrassment.

As the only daughter of a wealthy middle-class family, she had been exposed to a high standard of living since childhood and naturally understood wine. Having tasted the selection right alongside them, she, more than anyone, knew just how difficult this little game actually was. She had only guessed two correctly, and one of those was a lucky blind guess. Because of this, she firmly believed there was no way Zhang Yan could beat Chu Chengxi.

Zhang Yan handed the notepad in his hand to Zhong Zimo. A flash of shock crossed Zhong Zimo’s face before he turned the notepad around to show the surrounding guests.

"Unbelievable. 7514. Every single one is correct!"

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