Chapter 117: Irony

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When Song Wanning met Jian An'an’s pleading eyes, she merely shrugged with an air of indifference. “I don’t have one either.”

She was not embarrassed at all. In such matters, every first-time customer is bound to be confused, so it should have been the attendant who explained it to them. They were a business that opened its doors to everyone; they could not truly keep customers outside.

As expected, the next second the attendant said, “You must be a first-time visitor, right? Here, a single purchase of one million yuan qualifies you for membership. Next time, just give your membership status and you can enjoy a 30% discount and our attentive service.”

“What if you don’t?” Jian An'an asked. She rarely came to the capital and had never been to Central Flower City before.

What a strange thing—for shopping, it was like this many requirements, as if service were only for those with identity cards and membership cards. Too greedy, too focused on status.

She could not imagine that this offhand complaint was exactly the reason this brand existed in Central Flower City. The brand’s aim was simple: to provide the best service to customers with identity cards and membership cards. Whether it was profitable or not did not matter; the goal was the customer’s comfort.

But if ordinary passersby came in to browse or buy, attendants would not block them. The brand would not be so arrogant as to act so dismissively.

Still, Jian An'an felt a little uneasy. As a celebrity, she cared even more about her face than most people.
Now, seeing people taking out phones and filming them, and whispering to each other, she felt they were watching her and laughing behind her back.

But in truth—
most people on the street were filming Song Wanning and Wen Jingxing.

“Ah! Isn’t that Song Wanning!”
“I’ve only seen her on TV. In person she’s a thousand times more beautiful!”
“I thought she was heavily edited on TV, and in real life she looks even more ethereal!”
“That one behind, young Master Wen, he really suits Song Wanning so well! Ahhh, I need to take a photo and show my friends!”
“And Nan Yan and Yun Ze—how do they look more and more like a couple every day?”

The attendant smiled. “That’s fine. You may come in and look around as you wish.”

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“Hmm…” Hearing that, Jian An'an finally exhaled in relief and found herself walking inside.

Song Wanning said once more, “Jian An'an, you did promise to buy me a dress I like, right?” She went in too.

A cluster of people followed behind them. The attendant saw the crowd and, after hearing what Song had said, quickly sent several assistants to attend to them.
If she made the introductions and sold something, she’d get a commission.

Yun Ze was unfamiliar with the place, but he did not care how much he would spend on Nan Yan, so he took her aside and said to an attendant, “Help me choose something suitable for…”
He paused, then changed tone. “Bring me the most expensive dress in the store.”

The attendant’s eyes lit up. “Certainly, miss and sir. This way, please follow me to the third-floor clothing section.”

At once Nan Yan turned to Song Wanning, expecting her to go along. Song saw Yun Ze was also looking at her and understood at once what he meant. This time she finally didn’t stand around like a useless lamp-post. “You still haven’t picked out your clothes yet. Go ahead and do that first. I’m going to look at some jewelry, and I’ll find you on the third floor later.”

“All right.” Nan Yan’s smile sagged at once. Behind them, worried the sale might fall through, the attendant rushed up and said, “Excuse me, miss, the gentleman behind you is your boyfriend, isn’t he? You can tell, he’s so keen he chose the priciest dress immediately.”

Nan Yan flushed red. “He’s not my boyfriend!”

“Ah?” The attendant was taken aback, as if she had buttered up the wrong person.

Yun Ze suddenly spoke from behind. “My fiancé.” Then he strode forward.

That made Nan Yan’s face even redder. The attendant relaxed and chirped, “Oh! You are so lucky. When are you getting married? Come here then and pick out your wedding dress, too!”

She carried on with small talk, while Nan Yan kept lowering her head.

On the other side, Song Wanning was truly looking at jewelry. She had changed into a more practical outfit for shopping, so Jian An'an didn’t realize Song had already prepared her clothes for the tea party.

Looking at the jewelry table, even the smallest ring cost hundreds of thousands. Her eyelids began to flutter.

Soon she found something even more startling: there wasn’t a price tag below one hundred thousand here at all.

Jian An'an forced herself to rationalize. Of course, these were made of gold, silver, and diamonds, so how could they be cheap? A garment’s price could not have been that high.

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Song Wanning didn’t need a necklace anymore—the one Wen Jingxing had given her in the morning she liked very much and planned to wear later. But she wanted to buy a pair of earrings.

After circling the prices, she ended up choosing none.

The dress was borrowed; as long as she didn’t dirty it, she could return it to Wen Jingxing. But if he ended up paying the bill later, what was she supposed to say?

After looking around once more, Song Wanning decided to go find Nan Yan.

Across from her, Jin Jinyi said to Jian An'an when he saw a pair of gold earrings, “An'an, these earrings suit you very well and match the dress you bought.”

“Really? But I already have earrings, so I won’t buy these.”

An'an did like them, but she could not afford them.

“Don’t worry,” Jin Jinyi said. “I’ll buy them for you.” Then he actually told the saleswoman to pack them.

“Isn’t this a little… odd?” Jian An'an asked.

Outwardly she refused, but inside she was elated. She had been short on money lately, and now that Jin had bought the earrings for her, she could later find an excuse to return them.

Then she’d have money to spend.
If Jin asked, she’d act sad and say she had accidentally lost them. Jin would surely never suspect a thing.

How clever she was, she thought.

Jin Jinyi added, “It’s fine. Even though I don’t have a formal job yet, this is all allowance from home that I’ve saved. If it’s for you, the price doesn’t matter.”

Jian An'an’s expression changed at once. What she had taken for a clever way to get by turned out, in his eyes, to be mere pocket money.
She truly felt his words were somehow mocking.

Seeing her silent, Jin asked gently, “What’s wrong?”

(End of chapter)