Chapter Ten First Date

  Fang Wenke followed me and took bus No. 13, arriving at the underground civil defense mall on Chongqing Road after a bumpy ride.

  On the bus, I could see his various discomforts with the seat and the twists of his limbs. At a glance, he was that kind of noble young master who had been fed with golden spoon since childhood and had been driven to and from school in an Audi.

  When we arrived at the civil defense mall, we had to walk through an underground passageway.

  I shifted my gaze to Fang Wenke's face with five officials, looking at his puzzled expression, and asked instead: "What? Haven't been to such a place before? For us who are approaching petty bourgeoisie, this kind of place is our paradise."

  "Ah, first time here, it's quite lively!" Fang Wenke's expression was complicated, a mix of disdain and forced delight for my sake.

  I didn't expose him, nor did I advise him to back down at the last minute. Perhaps for these "rich second-generation" people who have always enjoyed the "previous generations planting trees and later generations enjoying the shade", leaving the kind of "parent-serviced" shopping mall like Zhuo's might be a new attempt.

  I took him to a place that specializes in selling phone cases, and with a mouthful of honey, I said to the sales auntie in front of me: "Sister, do you have any Samsung I9082 phone cases?"

  "We have silicone, plastic, and our best is the one with a textured leather surface. Which one do you want?" The auntie said while handing me samples, her tone was extremely enthusiastic, I reckon I'm her first customer today.

  "How much is this? The alligator skin looks pretty good."

  "All specialty stores sell it for 120, I'll sell it to you for 65, what a bargain!"

  "It's so expensive! Sister! I'm buying with a sincere heart, but it seems like you're not selling with a sincere heart either!"

  "Hey, I see you're a student, I didn't even ask for it from you, so I'll just throw one in for free, here's 50!"

  "Sister, I can only give you 20 yuan, if you don't sell it then forget it!" After that, I pulled Fang Wenke's hand and walked to the next mobile phone case store.

  "Alright! Alright! Alright! Come back here, you little rascal! Take it! Your sharp tongue is really something!"

  "Where is it?" I laughed and handed over the money to the vendor.

  Throughout the entire transaction process, Fang Wenke's expression could be summed up in four words: eyes wide with astonishment.

  After buying the phone case, Fang Wenke and I immediately walked out of the civil defense mall. If we didn't come out, I'm afraid both of us would have suffocated to death inside. The entire underground civil defense mall was hot like a giant pot of steaming hot braised pork belly.

  "Li Weiming, you're not simple! I've seen that phone case in a specialty store, it's really 120 yuan!"

  "Well, that's because your money is easy to cheat!"

  "You just quoted a price that blew my mind!"

  At this moment, Fang Wenke was like a child who had never seen the hardships of the world. Perhaps for people like them who treated money as just numbers, the process of swiping a card was as simple and straightforward as scratching off dandruff from their scalp.

  "I'm hungry." I rubbed my growling stomach and turned to look at him with a pitiful expression, he who was twenty centimeters taller than me.

  "Go! I'll take you to eat Italian...", before Fang Wenke finished speaking, I interrupted him, "Have you ever had stir-fried noodles? I'll take you to have stir-fried noodles instead!"

  I had long expected what Fang Wenke would say, within his scope of experience, it was nothing but the rhetoric of luxury brands like Tiffany and Hermès, but I just wanted him to feel that in terms of money, there is a priceless attitude towards life called contentment.

  You can imagine a comfortable girl and a low-key branded fresh boy, squatting on the ruined roadside to eat fried noodles with their heads down, looking very harmonious although it seems very funny.

  "Hey, wasn't that guy who passed the ball to you on the basketball court just now named Zhu Yang?" I said calmly while eating my fried noodles with a "slurp slurp" sound.

  "Yeah, Zhu Yang and I are in the same class, he's a good buddy of mine! Do you guys know each other?"

  "Yes, he's my ex-boyfriend."

  Fang Wenke suddenly flipped the plastic bowl in his hand to the ground, his eyes shining brightly as he stared at my profile, his expression was as if he could see the tens of thousands of pores on my face, shocked.

  I continued eating my fried noodles with my head down, without even looking up.