If An Wuyang had been a scumbag, with Xia Yuqing's favorable impression of him rated as high as 90 points, he would have had ten thousand ways to make Xia Yuqing offer herself to him.
But An Wuyang wasn't a scumbag!
The education An Wuyang had received since childhood, his outlook on life and values, and the pride ingrained in his bones all told him not to obtain this pure white gardenia through deception.
Perhaps some people would think such an idea was hypocritical, but so what?
Everyone had their own principles and bottom line.
Some people's bottom lines were low. Did that mean An Wuyang had to learn from them?
Some people even committed crimes!
An Wuyang honestly stated that the rumor Sun Zhiming had spread was merely a rumor. Their family hadn't gone bankrupt, and the company's situation was fine as well. That was, in fact, a sincere gesture.
"Qingqing!" a woman's voice called out.
Xia Yuqing looked toward the voice and couldn't help frowning slightly.
An Wuyang looked over as well. The person calling Xia Yuqing was a heavily made-up young woman who looked around 1.6 meters tall with an ordinary figure. An Wuyang guessed blindly that she probably weighed around 50 kilograms.
Beside the woman was a middle-aged man who had lost his youthful air. He looked to be around thirty, and his clothes were mature as well. He wore a Crocodile Polo Shirt paired with some unknown knee-length shorts, along with a pair of Doudou Shoes.
This was the kind of outfit An Wuyang hated most, especially Doudou Shoes!
The heavily made-up woman walked over with the man in Doudou Shoes, repeatedly sizing up An Wuyang as she approached. The man in Doudou Shoes was sizing him up as well.
"Qingqing, you came here to shop too?" the heavily made-up woman asked deliberately, her tone carrying an unpleasant edge.
What did she mean by "you came here to shop too"?
Wasn't the implication that she was mocking Xia Yuqing for being unable to afford the things here?
In fact, Starlight Plaza didn't only have luxury-brand specialty stores. There were also plenty of affordable luxury brands, beauty brands, and mass-market brands.
If she couldn't afford clothes and bags from luxury brands costing tens of thousands, could she not afford lipstick costing two or three hundred?
Not to mention the mass-market brands.
So this heavily made-up woman was deliberately trying to disgust her!
Xia Yuqing frowned slightly and replied honestly, "Cousin, I came with a classmate to buy clothes."
After answering, Xia Yuqing introduced An Wuyang. "This is my cousin, Xu Zixuan."
"This is my classmate, An Wuyang," Xia Yuqing added as she introduced him to Xu Zixuan.
Xu Zixuan looked at An Wuyang and thought he was rather handsome, especially his youthful air—something her boyfriend could never possess. If her boyfriend hadn't been standing beside her, she might even have wanted to add An Wuyang on WeChat.
Xu Zixuan took the initiative to speak. "Hello, An. I'm Qingqing's cousin. This is my boyfriend, Niu Fenjin."
"Liu/Niu" Fenjin?
What a name!
Although "Fenjin" was a good word, it didn't seem to go well with the surname "Liu/Niu," did it?
An Wuyang didn't know whether the man's name was actually Niu Fenjin or Liu Fenjin. That was because Shengqing's common dialect didn't distinguish between the L and N sounds. Even a tongue twister about "Granny Liu" was enough to drive Shengqing people crazy.
People from Shengqing also didn't distinguish between the S and Sh sounds. When they needed to express "four" and "ten," they could even be forced to wave their hands around and gesture wildly.
After Xu Zixuan introduced him, Niu Fenjin immediately took the initiative to speak. "Hello, An. I'm Niu Fenjin—the Niu from 'soaring with bull spirit.'"
While introducing himself, the man also watched Xia Yuqing from the corner of his eye.
He had followed Xu Zixuan back to her hometown during the previous New Year and had been stunned by Xia Yuqing's beauty at first sight. Unfortunately, he was Xu Zixuan's boyfriend. Although he had secretly wanted to get close to Xia Yuqing, she had never given him any response.
Now that he had seen Xia Yuqing again—and at Starlight Plaza, no less—he felt that she must be a vain girl.
As long as she was vain, things would be simple!
After all, as long as she was vain, the problem could be solved with money.
Any problem that could be solved with money was a minor problem. It was merely a matter of how much money had to be spent.
The truly difficult problems were those that money couldn't solve!
For example, immortality.
How much money would it take to live forever?
Although some people had already invested in life-extension technology in the field of life sciences, the results hadn't been very good.
At present, humanity hadn't even truly figured out what mechanism caused human aging.
Even the famous Hayflick Limit Theory was merely an analysis of one aging mechanism. It hadn't been confirmed with absolute certainty that it was the cause of human aging.
Faced with Niu Fenjin emphasizing his surname during his introduction, An Wuyang smiled and replied, "What a name!"
Although it sounded like praise, Xia Yuqing immediately burst out laughing beside him.
That was because the two of them had had a similar exchange in the car earlier. An Wuyang had expressed praise then as well, but Xia Yuqing knew he had been speaking sarcastically.
When Niu Fenjin heard Xia Yuqing's laughter, he still hadn't realized anything was wrong. Instead, he thought her laugh sounded beautiful, and he even suddenly thought of the idiom "pearls falling onto a jade plate."
Xu Zixuan looked at An Wuyang and took the initiative to ask, "An, what kind of clothes do you want to buy?"
Before An Wuyang could answer, Xu Zixuan continued, "I'm very familiar with Starlight Plaza. Tell me what you need, and I can recommend something."
Xia Yuqing looked at her cousin and frowned slightly. She felt that her cousin was being a little too enthusiastic!
Based on what Xia Yuqing knew about Xu Zixuan, her cousin was the sort of person who never did anything without a benefit. Since Xu Zixuan was being so enthusiastic toward An Wuyang, she must be after something, right?
So before An Wuyang could answer, Xia Yuqing asked in return, "Cousin, what are you two doing here as well?"
Faced with Xia Yuqing's question, Niu Fenjin answered first. "Your cousin said she wanted to buy a lipstick. I'm off work today, so we came to take a look at Chanel's new products."
Niu Fenjin deliberately emphasized the word "Chanel." He was wondering whether he should buy Xia Yuqing a Chanel lipstick as well.
If he used Xu Zixuan as an excuse and said he was buying a lipstick for Xu Zixuan's younger cousin, would that be enough?
An Wuyang had already noticed that something was off about Niu Fenjin. After all, a man's peacock-like display was extremely obvious to other men. At the very least, An Wuyang had realized that Niu Fenjin was trying to attract Xia Yuqing's attention.
Xu Zixuan hadn't noticed anything unusual about Niu Fenjin. She even thought he was trying to make her look good!
So she chimed in, "I did want to buy a lipstick. I could've just bought some random lipstick costing a few dozen yuan—lipsticks are all pretty much the same anyway—but he insisted on bringing me here to buy Chanel's. He even said that lipsticks from big brands were healthier."
Hearing Xu Zixuan's low-level bragging, An Wuyang nearly burst out laughing!
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