The act of shaking hands with someone, then taking out a handkerchief to wipe one's hand and discarding the handkerchief, what did it signify?
It signified profound contempt for that person!
It was a form of humiliation even more unbearable than a direct slap across the face.
Decades ago, a revered elder, respected for generations, had used this very method to rebuff an arrogant politician from the West, a tale widely recounted with admiration.
But Su Ziyu never expected—
That Lin Xiuyan, after shaking her hand, would also take out a handkerchief, wipe her hand, and then discard it.
Although this stunningly beautiful woman dared not, like that elder, pull out a handkerchief to wipe her hand and throw it away in front of companions after a handshake.
This was, nonetheless, an unadulterated humiliation for Su Ziyu!
Su Ziyu watched Lin Xiuyan, whose back was turned to everyone, her delicate brows furrowing, her usually affable gaze turning cold.
Cui Linzhi, who happened to turn around to reassure his son not to be nervous, also saw this scene that Su Ziyu had unintentionally witnessed.
However, besides these two, no one else present, not even Mo Hongti, noticed.
"How dare Xiuyan do such a thing?"
"Who gave her the guts and the backing to insult the young madam of Longxu like this?"
"Is she tired of living!?"
Cui Linzhi cried out in terror inwardly, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. He prayed fervently to God in secret, "Please, please, don't let Su Ziyu see this."
He quickly glanced at Su Ziyu.
Su Ziyu was smiling and greeting Cui Ying Shun, shaking hands with her.
"Thank God, Su Ziyu didn't see Xiuyan's damned humiliating act!"
Only then did Cui Linzhi breathe a sigh of relief inwardly. He quickly wiped his forehead with his hand and rapidly composed himself.
Of course, he wouldn't dare reprimand Lin Xiuyan for her foolishly suicidal behavior on the spot.
But afterward.
Cui Linzhi would definitely have a serious talk with Lin Xiuyan to prevent her from making similar fatal mistakes in the future.
Cui Linzhi's family consisted of six people.
He had a daughter and a son.
His daughter was already married, and her husband was present.
His son was not yet married but had brought his fiancée tonight.
Cui Linzhi's wife, Lin Xiuyan, was not his first wife.
Lin Xiuyan was a full thirty years younger than Cui Linzhi, currently only thirty-one years old.
Four years ago, Lin Xiuyan had married Cui Linzhi, whose wife had passed away several years prior.
At that time, Cui Linzhi had not yet seen a glimmer of hope of entering the Blue House.
However, his outstanding performance in all aspects had long been noticed by the chaebols who controlled the lifeblood of Seoul, and he had been cultivated as talent.
The largest shareholdings of all chaebols in Seoul were not actually in their hands but in the West (invested in and supported by the Moses family).
In other words, after Cui Linzhi was selected for the talent pool, he was nurtured as a key figure by the Moses family and, four years ago, orchestrated the marriage of Lin Xiuyan, the eldest princess of the Lin family, Seoul's largest conglomerate, to him.
Lin Xiuyan was only twenty-seven at the time.
From the time she started junior high school, she had attended aristocratic schools in the West. Coupled with her exquisite beauty, she naturally did not want to marry a man in his fifties.
But she had no choice!
If Lin Xiuyan refused to marry Cui Linzhi, the Moses family would be displeased, and the overall interests of the Lin family chaebol would suffer severe blows; they might even decline from then on, their status in the industry replaced by other chaebols.
Why keep a dog if it doesn't listen?
In any case, the West had trained many dogs in this land.
The Lin family dared not defy their master's wishes. They immediately worked on Lin Xiuyan, applying pressure with threats of "disobedience means deprivation of all resources and expulsion from the household," ultimately forcing her to marry Cui Linzhi.
Two years after marrying Lin Xiuyan, with the strong support of the Lin family and other chaebols, Cui Linzhi entered the Blue House.
Having become the First Lady of Seoul, Lin Xiuyan, who deeply understood the magic of power, realized how fortunate she was to have married Cui Linzhi.
Moreover, Cui Linzhi was also exceptionally doting on her, undoubtedly a good husband in the traditional sense.
In short.
The current First Lady of Seoul felt like she was living in a honey pot, with very high self-esteem and an elevated perspective.
This led her to have the strong delusion that she was the best protagonist in the entire universe!
But tonight—
With the arrival of the so-called young madam of Longxu, Lin Xiuyan personally witnessed her husband entertain Su Ziyu with an almost subservient attitude. Although she was well aware of Longxu's might and international standing, she still felt displeased.
In her subconscious, she looked down on Su Ziyu: "She's merely a nouveau riche who clawed her way out of a backward, impoverished mire. Relying on her equally nouveau riche father-in-law, she founded Longxu through brute force and crude methods, thus earning a status on par with the Moses family. Yet she puts on a queenly air in front of true aristocrats like me. Humph! A showy but inwardly impoverished Eastern nouveau riche!"
This mindset of Lin Xiuyan was, in fact, the mindset of many people in Seoul.
They would consider the East the greatest, and the only worthy adversary.
They would view Europe and America, the pioneers of industrial civilization, as beacons and heavens for humanity.
They would pity the war-torn, poverty-stricken African nations struggling to eat.
But they would always mock or even disdain the East, with its five-thousand-year history of civilization!
Whenever the East was mentioned, or when Lin Xiuyan herself thought of the East, she would associate it with words like "poverty, ignorance, barbarism."
She would feel that people from the East were always trying to surpass Seoul, wanting to seize their good things like the barbarian monarchs of history.
As for the words of many clear-headed scholars in Seoul who painstakingly warned the people of Seoul, "We always think the East wants to surpass us and treat them as bumpkins. In reality, they don't even look at Seoul and just want to catch up to America," Lin Xiuyan always scoffed at them.
Furthermore—
Like many people in Seoul, Lin Xiuyan felt an inexplicable sense of superiority when mentioning the East or in front of Easterners.
Tonight.
Even though, under the immense pressure of Longxu, Lin Xiuyan could not hide her subconscious superiority when she bowed to shake Su Ziyu's hand.
It was precisely this subconscious superiority that led Lin Xiuyan to quietly take out a handkerchief after shaking hands with Su Ziyu and wipe her right hand.
After discarding the handkerchief into the waste bin.
Lin Xiuyan felt much more relaxed, her heart much more at ease, and she felt she had vented some of her frustration.
The subsequent banquet proceeded in an elegant and cordial atmosphere.
Cui Linzhi was indeed a prominent figure in Seoul, his hospitality skills were exceptionally high, making Su Ziyu and the other guests feel truly "at home."
Towards the end of this small banquet, Su Ziyu finally explained to Cui Linzhi why she had come to Seoul.
She was looking for a woman.
That person was around sixty-five years old this year, a small, dark-skinned elderly woman.
This old woman was from the Miao region of the East, her original name was Lan Fenghuang.
However, Lan Fenghuang had left the Miao region several years ago. The people sent by Longxu had inquired extensively and only yesterday found a clue.
"Someone said that several years ago, Lan Fenghuang, who originally lived alone in the mountains, was taken to Seoul by a nephew who had settled there. The nephew's name is Lan Hai. It is said that Lan Hai's business in Seoul is related to electronics."
Apart from this information, Su Ziyu knew nothing else.
Even the people from Longxu, after investigating through various channels, could not find out which city in Seoul Lan Hai lived in.
After all, people born in the Miao region were accustomed to a warm climate. When they sought opportunities abroad, they would generally choose Southeast Asia.
It was rare for them to cross the entire East and go to the cold winter of Seoul for development.
It was normal for the people of Lan Hai's hometown not to know which city he lived in in Seoul.
Although Seoul was not large in area, it had a population of over fifty million.
Furthermore, after Lan Hai settled in Seoul, he might have changed his name to a Seoul name.
With only that sliver of a clue, if Su Ziyu wanted to find Lan Hai, it would be no different from finding a needle in a haystack.
But even with a one-in-ten-thousand chance—
After receiving the news, Su Ziyu immediately approached Empress Dowager Xiao and requested permission to come to Seoul personally to search for Lan Hai.
Yang Xiao was well aware of the urgency in her granddaughter-in-law's heart. After a moment's thought, she agreed.
However, Longxu did not deploy a large number of personnel to Seoul to find the person because of this matter.
Before Su Ziyu and her party even arrived in Seoul, Longxu had not notified the Seoul authorities.
This was to prevent the news from leaking and being known by certain individuals that Lan Fenghuang was the only hope to save Li Qianfan, and then making a big fuss about it!
According to the plan.
After Su Ziyu arrived in Seoul, Longxu would then notify Cui Linzhi through secure channels and ask him to cooperate with the young madam in searching for Lan Hai.
However.
Longxu did not expect that Seoul, in its eagerness to please the Americans, would implement a "Yellow Card Operation" at the airport, which infuriated Li Xiusi, the eunuch who personally escorted Su Ziyu. He took action on the spot, quickly alarming Cui Linzhi.
This led to tonight's banquet.
Regarding Su Ziyu's request for help, Cui Linzhi naturally agreed wholeheartedly.
It was just a matter of helping find someone!
This would not affect Cui Linzhi's and Seoul's interests, and it would be an opportunity to leave a good impression on Longxu. Why would Cui Linzhi refuse?
The banquet ended at nine o'clock in the evening.
After seeing Su Ziyu and her party off, Cui Linzhi and Lin Xiuyan returned to their bedroom.
As soon as the door was closed.
Cui Linzhi suddenly raised his hand and sharply slapped Lin Xiuyan across the face as she was raising her hands to stretch.