Since it was a workday, the mall wasn’t very crowded.
Sun Xinyi, who knew the place like the back of her hand, led Yang Hao to the light food restaurant on the fourth floor.
She ordered a poached beef salad set meal for Yang Hao and a mixed grain roll with baked chicken breast for herself.
People on a fat-reduction phase are not supposed to refrain from eating meat entirely; they need to be selective. High-protein meats with low fat content, like chicken, beef, and shrimp, are all perfectly fine to consume.
However, beef and shrimp are relatively expensive, so chicken breast, which offers the best value for money, is preferred, even if it doesn’t taste as good.
These days people pay more and more attention to body management, which is why many light food restaurants do well. Their clientele mostly comprises young women and white-collar workers who are willing to spend money, and their average customer spend is much higher than that of ordinary fast-food restaurants.
Take the two set meals that Sun Xinyi ordered as an example. Yang Hao’s beef salad set cost 42 yuan, while her mixed grain chicken set was 28 yuan. They also ordered two cups of corn juice at 8 yuan each, totaling 86 yuan for an ordinary light meal for two.
Since Sun Xinyi had insisted on treating him, Yang didn’t fight her for the bill. Mainly, he had a task to complete later, and it was the perfect excuse to reciprocate with a gift after Sun Xinyi’s lunch treat, without it seeming too abrupt.
The lunch went very pleasantly. Both had cheerful personalities, and Yang, with over a decade of culinary experience, was expert at socializing.
During their conversation, he was in fact leading most of the time, talking within his comfort zone, which made him appear knowledgeable and well-informed.
“If you’re not in a hurry to get back, why don’t you join me for a bit? I’d like to buy a couple of outfits for working out,” Yang spoke up as they walked out of the light food restaurant.
“Sure, I’m not in any rush,” Sun Xinyi replied with a smile, nodding her head. After this lunch, she felt she understood the man who had bought a hundred sessions of personal training from her much better. He seemed composed, yet he was also humorous, knowledgeable, and carried the charm of a mature man.
Sun Xinyi felt quite relaxed in his company and didn’t mind the idea of shopping together; in fact, she was somewhat looking forward to it.
The two of them wandered down from the fourth floor back to the first. Starlight City was a mid-to-high-end mall with some luxury brands, which were all located in the best spots on the first floor.
Such as the well-known LV, Prada, Cartier…
While strolling through the mall, Yang was silently noting where Sun Xinyi’s gaze lingered. The task given by the system was to give her a gift that would please her; it couldn’t be just anything—it had to be something she liked.
Sun Xinyi was much like most girls; she spent a little more time looking at women’s clothing and handbags. Yet, nothing seemed to hold her gaze for more than five seconds as they walked.
This meant that she was only somewhat interested in those items, without a particular fondness for any.
It was only when they passed Prada that Yang noticed Sun Xinyi’s attention stayed on a specific shoulder bag in the display window for a long time, even giving it a sidelong glance after they had walked past.
It was a Prada patent leather handbag, likely a new release not long on the market, otherwise it wouldn’t have been positioned in the most prominent display window.
“My sister has a birthday next month, and she’s about your age. Would you help me choose a gift?” Yang stopped in his tracks, turned around, and walked back to the Prada store they had just passed. His excuse wasn’t fabricated—Li Manni’s birthday really was on March 11th, just 12 days away.
Sun Xinyi hesitated for a moment before hurrying after him.
“Miss, what do you need? Let me introduce you to some items,” the female sales associate offered helpfully. Although Sun Xinyi entered the store after Yang, the saleswoman clearly understood who had the purchasing power. She knew the tall, attractive woman was the key decision-maker for this shopping venture, while the man walking ahead would only be paying the bill.
There was no helping it; saleswomen like her saw these kinds of pairs all too often. The man, clearly in his thirties, was tall but slightly portly, and couldn’t exactly be described as handsome.
Whereas Sun Xinyi, only in her twenties, had both the looks and the figure. If the two were shopping together, it surely boiled down to financial calculations!
Of course, the female sales associate did not completely neglect Yang Hao; she had greeted him, after all. He was here to spend, even though his wallet didn’t seem very bulging. He was dressed too ordinarily, with nothing on his wrist.
The ability of the luxury store clerks to “judge a book by its cover” was very strong, but here the term wasn’t meant as a derogatory one, but rather as a skill.
The kind of scene from internet novels where a nerd in cheap streetwear is looked down upon in a luxury store, then turns around and buys a ton to prove a point, almost never happens in reality.
The consumer group for luxury goods, even if they dress down, still has a distinctive aura, which the experienced clerks can easily discern.
Moreover, luxury store clerks undergo rigorous training. Even if you are dressed shabbily, they would not mock and scoff as described in the novels.
“Yang, what do you want to get for your sister?”
Sun Xinyi asked Yang Hao.
“Maybe a bag. She’s doing an internship at the TV station, and it could come in handy,” Yang Hao replied casually.
The sales associate, hearing their conversation, quickly grasped the situation. It seemed that the beautiful woman was accompanying the man to buy a gift for his sister. However, based on her experience, the man was most likely just using an excuse, and the gift would probably end up with the beautiful woman.
“Miss, take a look over here, these are all new models,” the sales associate said with a smile, pointing in the direction of the display window.
“Yang, how old is your sister?” Sun Xinyi asked again.
“About your age,” Yang Hao replied.
Upon hearing this, the sales associate was even more convinced of her judgement. Old men like to play these little games, buying something and then gifting it to the beauty to win her favor.
“Actually, these new bags are all quite suitable for a young lady of your age…”
The sales associate first gave Yang Hao a look as if to say “I’ve seen through your act,” then proceeded to introduce Sun Xinyi to several bags in the display window.
Yang Hao stood by silently, quickly checking the price tags on those bags. The cheaper ones were over sixteen thousand, and the expensive ones over forty thousand, but the handbag that Sun Xinyi liked was priced at twenty-six thousand, all within his budget, considering he still had two hundred and ten thousand from the cashback in his bank account.
Outside the store.
Li Manshu and Shen Mingshan had just finished eating on the fourth floor. The employees of Bright Advertising, where they both worked, were located near Starlight City in the Starshine Building, so many white-collar workers who worked in the Starshine Building would come to Starlight City for lunch.
Moments later, as the two walked past the prada specialty store, Li Manshu glanced inside out of habit. She had had her eye on a particular bag for a while but hadn’t had the nerve to ask Shen Mingshan for it, waiting for the right moment—after all, it was priced at over thirty thousand.
Currently, she was still in her pretense stage, managing a persona of a gambling addict husband who abused her, and herself as a victim of marriage, not wanting to give the impression that she cared too much about money.
Yet the moment she looked inside the store, she froze because she saw her recently ex-husband, Yang Hao, with a tall, young, beautiful girl by his side.
This…
What was going on???
Li Manshu’s brain crashed instantly. Her down-and-out ex-husband appeared in the prada store, accompanied by a young, attractive woman!
She must have eaten too much and was having hallucinations!
Li Manshu closed her eyes tightly and then opened them again. But the two people were still there…