That hand led her out of the dark corridor and into the lounge arranged in advance by the banquet organizers.
All the way, Yuan Meng wasn't without struggling, but the person was so strong that she couldn't break free. Moreover, not wanting the people in the room to notice her, she didn't dare to shout out loudly.
There wasn't much lighting along the way, and since the person was always with their back to her, she couldn't see who it was.
After they reached the lounge, the bright lights in the room exposed the person's face to her.
"Mr. Ling? Why is it you? You brought me here without saying a word. What do you mean?" She shook her released hand. She had used too much strength while struggling, and now her wrist was hurting.
Ling Qianchen had a strange expression on his face. Looking at Yuan Meng shaking her hand, he wordlessly raised his other hand, holding a goblet with red wine in it.
What did this mean?
Suddenly, she remembered what had happened just now.
Ling Qianchen had made an excuse to talk about cooperation with her. But after they got to a less crowded place, what he said had nothing to do with cooperation. She felt bored and made an excuse to go to the restroom.
Then she went to a less crowded corner. Soon, a waiter came up to her and asked if she wanted to drink.
Without much thought, she casually picked up a glass of red wine. After the waiter left, she took a sip and immediately felt that the taste was off.
Anyway, she owned a bar. She was very familiar with what different red wines should taste like. She glanced at the waiter's back, which clearly showed a sense of guilt, and he would occasionally look back.
She immediately understood that there might be something wrong with the wine.
The waiter didn't dare to look back because of her gaze. Taking advantage of this time, she casually waved over another waiter, placed the glass of red wine on the waiter's tray, and waved her hand, indicating that the wine should be thrown away.
When the original waiter looked back, he saw an empty glass in front of Yuan Meng and naturally thought that she had drunk the wine.
Looking at the remaining two glasses on the waiter's tray, Yuan Meng got up and seemed to wander around aimlessly. By accident, she bumped into the waiter, and in an instant, the two glasses of wine were switched without anyone noticing.
"Sorry."
The waiter was a bit guilty and kept his head down. "It's okay. As long as you're fine. It's my fault."
Sure enough, not long after, she saw the waiter go to Ji Bai.
Now looking at the glass of red wine in Ling Qianchen's hand, Yuan Meng seemed to understand. It should be that when she signaled the waiter to throw the wine away, the waiter misunderstood and thought she meant Ling Qianchen, so he gave the wine to him.
It was all a misunderstanding.
"This was a mistake made by the waiter. I told him to throw it away. I didn't expect it to end up in your hand." Since it originated from her, Yuan Meng naturally admitted it and quickly explained.
Ling Qianchen wasn't actually misunderstanding. He liked Ai Yue, and Ai Yue knew it well. If he really wanted to have something to do with her, he didn't need to use such a despicable method. He would just need to crook his finger, and Ling Qianchen would take the initiative.
However, since he finally had such an opportunity, he naturally wanted to tease her. With a serious face, he said, "You mean this is just a misunderstanding? Right? Then why did this glass of wine end up in my hand instead of someone else's? I think you should give me a reasonable explanation."
It would have been okay if he hadn't said so much. As soon as he did, Yuan Meng sensed something was wrong. Looking at the seemingly serious face of the man in front of her, but there was a hint of teasing in his eyes.
Well, so he was deliberately teasing her! Her face also immediately became a bit serious. "Mr. Ling, this isn't very nice of you, is it? I didn't put the drug in the wine, and I didn't give it to you. Even if I'm at fault, it doesn't warrant you acting like this, does it? If you can't calm down, then I'll have to take action to force you to calm down."
Alright, it seemed he had overdone the teasing. Ling Qianchen stopped in time and immediately shut up. There was a hint of a smile on his originally serious face.
Just then, they faintly heard a commotion in the corridor.
Opening the door of the lounge, Yuan Meng could be sure that the sound was coming from the room that Qian Xu had entered just now.
It seemed that the "good show" had begun.
At first, there were just panicked voices in the room asking, "Who are you? Why are you here?"
But gradually, no one knew what had happened. The questioning voices disappeared, and instead, there were sounds of punches and kicks.
Listen, listen. Every punch landed on the flesh. You could hear it even outside the room, which was enough to prove how angry the people in the room were.
The sound was quite loud. At this time, there were already quite a few people taking a short rest in the prepared lounges, and naturally, they were affected by these commotions.
A man raised his eyebrows at the person beside him and signaled with his eyes. That person immediately went towards the banquet hall with another person. They loudly asked what was going on here at the entrance of the banquet hall.
This immediately attracted a lot of people's attention. Seeing that people were curious, the two of them started talking as they rushed over here.
"Oh, should we go and stop them? Ji Bai has heart disease. What if he has a heart - attack from being beaten and can't catch his breath?" a man with a few red highlights in his hair said, pretending to be worried but showing no real concern.
Another person said, "Stop them? If he dares to do such a thing, he should be taught a lesson. It'll help him learn!"
The people around immediately echoed, "Yeah, yeah. Don't look at that kid as young, but he has a lot of bad ideas. If he doesn't learn his lesson, who knows how many detours he'll take in the future."
"You don't need to worry about whether I'll take detours or not. Instead of worrying about me, you'd better worry about yourselves. You're young, but not only are your eyesight bad, but your hearing is also not very good." Ji Bai's voice suddenly came from behind these people.
The people turned around and looked at Ji Bai with a bad complexion in disbelief. What was going on? Shouldn't Ji Bai be getting beaten up in the room at this time?
Yuan Meng's lips curled up slightly. Those people were in cahoots with Qian Xu. Their actions just now were probably what Qian Xu had instructed them to do long ago.
"Who's really in the room? Don't you really want to go and take a look? I can hear that the beating in there is really harsh! If you go too late, don't let them beat someone to death!" Yuan Meng, standing in the crowd, reminded with a seemingly worried tone.
Ji Bai directly pushed open the door and saw Qian Xu being held down and beaten by a man and a woman.