Nobody had expected anything like this.

The hall, noisy and cheerful a moment before, went instantly quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

Everyone had frozen.

Bear in mind that the longevity peach on top of the cake was the thing Zhao Wenhua had specifically asked for. Now that peach — the one signifying health and long life — had gone over onto the floor along with the topmost tier, and the person most upset, most furious, most humiliated, and least able to accept it was, of course, Zhao Wenhua.

As for the girl who had turned her ankle, she was frightened out of her wits by this point, her soul gone clean out of her.

And just as nobody knew what on earth to do —

Xu Ye quickly cleared his throat, picked up a glass of wine from the table, and stepped forward with a smile. "The cake turns over today, and this year the figures turn over double! Sweetness on the floor, money at the door! Cake down to the ground — and us up to the high ground! Uncle Zhao, from one of the younger generation: good health, and everything as you wish it." [TL: the toast runs on two homophones. 翻一翻 ("turn over") and 翻一番 ("double") are pronounced identically, as are 糕 ("cake") and 高 ("high") — so the cake falling to the ground and the company taking the high ground are the same syllable.]

In a room that quiet, Xu Ye's voice might have had some kind of magical boost on it. Every word of it went straight to the heart of everyone there.

The awkwardness broke open in an instant.

The crowd of financial elites around him were each higher in emotional intelligence than the last. Xu Ye had made a start, and they took it up one after another.

Zhao Wenhua had come very close to losing his temper a moment before. After Xu Ye's little speech his mood improved considerably at once — and losing his temper in a setting like this would certainly have become a talking point in financial…