Xia Ai didn't wait for whatever reactions that would ensue in the next minutes.
She looked at the fine print of her hand marked across Xia Rui's cheek and smiled in satisfaction.
"This is just the start." She whispered such that only he heard.
Xia Rui in statement felt his cheek with his fingers like he couldn't for a moment believe what had just happened.
He was to shocked to even gather up any anger.
His gaze slowly lowered to look at Xia Ai just as she very confidently turned around and walked off like she had not just stunned every single person that had just witnessed the scene today.
His gaze swirled with a mixture of unfathomable emotions.
The room was pin drop silent. The first to seemingly regain her senses was Zhang Juna. She couldn't believe her eyes even if she saw it with her own eyes.
Someone had just slapped Xia Rui.
Even Zhang Juna wondered if Xia Ai had lost her mind. Had she gone insane.
However, Zhang Juna was now one hundred percent sure that Xia Ai was a dead person walking. No way in hell would Xia Rui take this while seated especially considering how much he hated her.
Zhang Juna saw this as an opportunity.
She run to Xia Rui's side in fake tears.
Her voice and gaze trembled as she held his arm. "Rui-are you fine. Did she hurt you? Rui-"
Xia Rui cast Zhang Juna a very distasteful look.
"Need I remind you the terms of our engagement. Don't touch me without my consent." Xia Rui's voice was somewhere below negative degrees but he kept his voice low.
Zhang Juna trembled as she hurriedly withdrew her hand from Xia Rui's arm. She had gotten too ahead of herself. Of course she had not forgotten the terms of their engagement. Anyone in the social circle knew that this marriage was more of convenience and dealings.
Beyond that, Xia Rui felt absolutely nothing sentimental about any woman. Zhang Juna was no exception to this rule.
Xia Rui lifted his gaze only to find that Xia Ai had already left.
He cast an indifferent glance at the guests. They all lowered their gazes out of instinct none daring to meet his eyes fearing he would release what ever well hidden anger was burning in him.
Little did they know that Xia Rui wasn't anywhere near angry, he was simply stunned beyond his imagination.
He cast a glance at his fuming father, his unconscious mother and the entire Xia family that still couldn't believe what they seen. In all their lives, they never thought they would see the day Xia Rui would get slapped, moreover by a woman.
Xia Rui very calmly stepped off the podium. All eyes turned to him.
Xia Rui's father and grandmother instantly panicked.
This boy! He couldn't possibly be thinking of leaving the wedding like this.
Jie Zichen, also known to most as Assistant Jie was Xia Rui's personal assistant and for today his groom's man. However, Jie Zichen held his chest like his heart would jump out of it soon. The instant Xia Ai's hand landed on Xia Rui's face, Jie Zichen had seen his own life flash right before his eyes.
If everyone else was shocked, then Jie Zichen was terrified beyond assistance.
He had witnessed first hand what Xia Rui could do. He had seen inhumane sides of the man even Jie Zichen had nightmares and yet someone had slapped this demon.
Jie Zichen felt light headed like he would faint any moment but his back straightened rigidly and his life returned to him when Xia Rui stepped off the podium and glanced at him with just one look.
Jie Zichen didn't need to be told what to do, he instantly stood up, composed himself and walked towards Xia Rui.
It was time to raise hell.
"Xia Rui." His father called out carefully. Clearly even he didn't want to touch the wrong button in this highly dangerous and sensitive moment.
However Xia Rui didn't stop at all.
He only spoke calmly.
"Send mother to the hospital. Make sure she's fine."
That's all he said.
"Xia Rui, it's your wedding day. I know you are angry and we'll deal with that wretch but if you leave the wedding, you will be falling right into her plans of disrupting the day. Stay and we'll handle everything else later." Madam Xia who was also Xia Rui's grandmother spoke calmly but her voice held authority.
Xia Rui paused. His father's shoulders relaxed slightly thinking Xia Rui had come back to his senses. He glanced back at his grandmother not at all bothered by the underlying threat nor his grandfather's presence.
"The wedding is postponed and I don't expect anyone to disturb me." Xia Rui dropped a bomb on the whole audience. There was an instant uproar.
Zhang Juna couldn't believe her ears.
She stared at Xia Rui's disappearing silhouette in a daze.
"Po-postponed!!! No! This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not here. Not after everything she had done to reach this point."
Zhang Juna hurried over to her mother and father's side in panic.
"Mother, father."
They also looked as panicked as her as they saw Xia Rui leaving. Zhang Juna's father walked off to the table having Xia Rui's parents.
The guests could only stare while stunned. This had truly exceeded their wildest imaginations for how this wedding would turn out.
An ex-wife or rather soon to be ex-wife appeared out of nowhere, there are children, there is a postponed wedding, a global business tycoon getting slapped. If this isn't drama, then nothing else was.
While the wedding hall and online viewers were thrown into a juicy upheaval, the culprit was calmly seated in her car already off to her next location.
Today was a comeback alright and she was anywhere from done with raising a ruckus.
"Where to next Mrs Jao?" The driver who had watched his boss lady's epic show of prowess online asked respectfully and with a tinge of awe. His boss lady was scary and cool.
Slapping a man like Xia Rui was something that took more than guts. You'd need an extra life in case he decided to unalive you right then and there.
Yet the person that had just caused a tsunami with her actions was seated very comfortably in the backseat and wait??? Was that a tub of ice cream? Mint chocolate chip ice cream to be exact.
Xia Ai scooped the ice cream and ate vividly. Her gaze was as cold as the dessert she was having. Clearly she was brimming with ice cold anger.
'I wish I could have just beaten him up right there and then. That would have been nicer for that scumbag.'
'Ahhhh-Is boss lady trying to cool off her anger with ice cream again.'
Sigh!!
'She must really be angry after meeting her ex-husband.'
Clearly the driver had become accustomed to this ice cream scene.
Xia Ai looked at the ice cream which her son had set in the cooling compartment of the luxury car for her. Remembering his cute and serious face made her anger instantly vanish.
"Mommy, you should carry some mint chocolate chip ice cream to enjoy after teaching that bad man a lesson and it will also keep you calm so that you don't kill that bad man on national television."
Xia Ai's jaw had twitched at his ridiculous words but truth to word, the sight of Xia Rui almost made her want to punch the man right there and then.
For now a slap would surface.
"To Rong manor." Xia Ai spoke calmly but her gaze flickered dangerously.
........
Rong Manor.
The residence of a minor upper class family. The Rongs were fairly well known in the country, owning a multi-million dollar company. Rong Luxury Hotels, one of the countries top ten luxury resorts.
Xia Ai was a member of the Rong family from her paternal side hence the reason why Zhang Juna had addressed her as Rong Ai.
Unfortunately, eight years ago, the Rong family did something that would have otherwise destroyed them had they not all used Xia Ai as a scapegoat. That action had led to the catastrophe of a marriage that Xia Rui had to put up with for three years.
However, being as ungrateful and unrepentant as they were, they didn't even feel an ounce of guilt and pity for Xia Ai after she went missing five years back hence they never bothered even looking for her.
Rather they were happy she was gone. The scapegoat was gone so their destructive secret would never meet the light. The Xia family would never come for them. They would target the scapegoat and them, well they would go on living their lives like they didn't know for a second what she went through in the Xia family because of their sins.
One woman bore the mistakes of an entire family and they left her to rot for dead.
However, on this beautiful sunny day just as Xia Ai had interrupted the wedding, almost the entire Rong family was gathered at Rong manor and the atmosphere had never been as sour, ominous and dreadful as this.
Everyone was gathered in the family main hall. Each Rong member was seeing another Rong member that they would otherwise have never even bothered knowing existed. Some of them were even rivals for the position of CEO in the company.
It was a rare occasion indeed but everyone seemed tense.
Elder Rong, the patriarch of the Rong family paced. Everyone found something to do to cope with their anxiety as they waited for her arrival.
Rong Ai.
The scapegoat was somehow still alive. They had been shocked to find out that Xia Ai was still alive. Unlike the rest of the world, they learnt that Xia Ai was alive the day before.
This was because from the least to the greatest of them, they all received some rather interesting personalized packages as a gift from her the previous night.
The packages contained all kinds of things.
Candid pictures. Gossip worthy videos and tapes. Front page cover making dealings and acts. To put it simply, it was the type of information that wouldn't just bankrupt the Rong family, it would utterly burn them to ash and cinders.
To everyone present, it was their destruction, a ticking time bomb but to her, it was an unshakeable leverage or as most called it, blackmail.
Everyone secretly cast a glance at their neighbor wearily, worried that someone present already knew their secret but judging from how no one had reacted towards the other, they concluded that everyone received a personal package that the other didn't know about.
However, clearly they were internally fuming within themselves.
How dare that worthless nobody threaten them? Who the hell did she think she was? She even commanded everyone who had received a black mail package to show up at the family manor-truly infuriating.
However, the fact remained that this evidence of them could never meet the light of day and it wouldn't.
If Xia Ai thought she was coming here and leaving here alive, then she was stupidly naive. Some of those present with the worst crimes felt-no they were sure Xia Ai had to die.
How dare she act so arrogantly!!!
She didn't die before, today she would surely die.
However, it was Xia Ai's parents that were most terrified.
While everyone was trembling, one of the family members that had been viewing the wedding ceremony of the Xia family online suddenly looked on in shock.
"Everyone immediately start watching the live broadcast of the Xia family wedding. That wretch Rong Ai is on."
All the Xia family members heads turned instantly to the person who had spoken but in the next moment everyone had their eyes glued to a screen.
They watched stunned as an almost unrecognizable Xia Ai crushed the wedding party of Xia Rui. Every second they watched, the more shocked they were.
They all had the same thought. "Xia Ai had lost it."
However, in the next moment, they witnessed something that shocked them beyond the blackmail they received, shocked them beyond Xia Ai's bold threat.
With their own two eyes, they witnessed as Xia Ai slapped Xia Rui.
The entire Rong family went quiet in shock and disbelief.
'This woman!!! This crazy Xia Ai was dead!!'
They all had the same exact thought. They were very stunned but then a family member suddenly laughed.
"She's dead. She's surely dead after this. Hahahahaha" Rong Luo as he was called laughed in joy and terrified relief.
Then it occurred to all the Rong family members what was surely going to happen to Xia Ai.
She stupidly slapped the devil and now she was going to die.
All the Rong family members found themselves laughing.
So even after all this, Xia Ai was still going to return to the grave from which she crawled out of.
And they had been scared of someone that just sealed her terrible fate so easily.
They could rest easy.
Xia Ai was doomed.