Chapter 106 — Who Said I Was Giving It to You? Please Vote and Add to Collection

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That sudden stunt Wei Zhao had just pulled left Tang Yun completely bewildered. Wei Zhao, selling at a street stall? When she had seen him earlier, hadn't he shown up in a sports car? How could he possibly have been running a street stall?

And what was more, he was obviously the same as her—a high school student, still studying at school. How could he be married? And his wife was pregnant at that? Tang Yun rubbed her eyes. Had she simply been too worn out these past couple of days, and was Wei Zhao just too infuriating, so that she had started having hallucinations? Otherwise, how could she possibly have run into a person like Wei Zhao in a place like this?

But no matter what, whether that person had really been Wei Zhao or not, Tang Yun could not help feeling that he was somewhat detestable. She had laid eyes on that dress first, and before she even had a chance to settle on a price, he had snatched it up right from under her nose. Absolutely infuriating.

Fuming inwardly, Tang Yun hung her head and headed toward the food street. She had finally worked up the courage to come buy herself a couple of new outfits, and yet...

"Ah—" She had barely taken two steps when she nearly bumped into the person in front of her. Startled, she instinctively jumped back, and when she looked up, there was Wei Zhao standing right in front of her, beaming. "What... what are you doing standing there? You scared me half to death!"

"Here's the dress," Wei Zhao said, holding it out in front of Tang Yun.

"Didn't you buy that for your wife?" Tang Yun knitted her brows, not quite understanding what Wei Zhao meant.

"Heh, that was just a bargaining trick. I don't have a wife at all—I was simply trying to get his wholesale price out of him." Wei Zhao shrugged. "Wasn't it because you can't haggle, and I was afraid you'd get fleeced, that I stepped in?"

"Oh..." Tang Yun finally understood why Wei Zhao had said all that earlier. So it had just been a way to drive down the price. Which meant the dress he had bought was meant to be given to her? The very thought made her even more disgusted. She certainly was not going to accept a dress from Wei Zhao. If she wanted something like that, all she had to do was say the word at school, and plenty of boys would be scrambling to be the first to offer it to her. But she did not like things like that.

"Here, take it." Wei Zhao pressed the dress into Tang Yun's hands.

"I don't want anything of yours. Go return it." Tang Yun sidestepped out of reach and said coldly.

"Who said I was giving it to you? Give me the money." Wei Zhao, torn between laughter and tears, said, "It was forty-five, you know."

"Huh?" Tang Yun blinked, caught off guard. She had not expected Wei Zhao to suddenly demand money from her. Hadn't he bought the dress to curry favor with her, to give it to her as a gift? Why was he turning around and asking her to pay?

Could it be that he was simply toying with her? At the thought, Tang Yun's heart ached. She wanted to turn around and walk off, ignoring Wei Zhao entirely, but she hesitated. This dress was one she genuinely loved. Earlier, when that seller would not come down from two hundred yuan, not even a single yuan off, Tang Yun had still felt a powerful urge to buy it...

But then she reminded herself: even if Wei Zhao was the one who had brought the dress to her, once she paid for it with her own money, it would have nothing to do with him. That was right—if she bought it herself, what did it have to do with him?

With that, Tang Yun took her wallet out of her pocket. The money inside did not add up to more than a little over two hundred yuan—her entire living allowance for the month. She pulled out a fifty-yuan note and handed it to Wei Zhao. "Here."

Without a word, Wei Zhao took the money, fumbled in his pocket for quite a while, then produced four one-yuan coins. "I don't have any change. Can I owe you a yuan?"

"Hmph!" Tang Yun snatched the coins from Wei Zhao's hand, grabbed the dress in a huff, turned, and hurried away without sparing him so much as a glance.

"Who did I offend? I meant well, and look where it got me?" Wei Zhao flicked the fifty-yuan note in his hand, shoved it into his pocket, and headed off toward the food street as well.

After a few steps, Tang Yun's head cooled. Thinking back over how Wei Zhao had always treated her—he did not cling and pester the way other rich young masters did, but seemed to take a different approach, acting lukewarm toward her and occasionally stepping up to help her, the better to show off his gentlemanly manner... Hmph, it was exactly as she suspected. Remembering Wei Zhao's little act today, Tang Yun stamped her foot. She had fallen for his trick again. Him asking her for money had to be deliberate, so that she would let down her guard and he could achieve his goal.

Tang Yun wanted to throw the dress on the ground and stomp on it a couple of times, but she could not bring herself to do it. With a sigh, she marched back to her family's barbecue stall, cheeks puffed in anger.

"Yun'er, you bought the dress?" Tang Yun's mother looked at the dress in her daughter's hand and asked with a smile. Tang Yun had had her eye on this dress for a long time—she had seen it before, thought it too expensive, and passed it up. Today, her mother had given her a bit of encouragement and told her to go buy it, and only then had Tang Yun finally made up her mind.

"Mm..." Tang Yun stuffed the dress into her schoolbag and answered absent-mindedly.

"How much did you spend? Did you talk them down?" Busy with the barbecue stall, her mother naturally did not notice her daughter's expression.

"Forty-five," Tang Yun said flatly.

"Forty-five? Really? That shopkeeper was asking two hundred, wasn't he? How did you manage to get it that cheap?" Her mother was rather surprised.

"Some annoying person helped me talk the price down." The memory was enough to make Tang Yun angry all over again. "Anyway, Mom, enough about that. Let me help you."

Tang Yun's mother shook her head in bewilderment. She could not think of who this "annoying person" might be. If someone had helped her bargain, she ought to be thanking them—so why would she find them annoying?

Wei Zhao turned a corner and came back to where Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had been eating fried mushrooms. The two of them had just finished and were getting up to pay. Gu Mengyao looked up, saw Wei Zhao walking over carrying a pair of big shorts, and let out an "Eh?"

Hearing the doubt in Gu Mengyao's voice, Shen Yushu looked up too and caught sight of Wei Zhao.

"Jianpai Ge, where did you get those big shorts from?" Shen Yushu asked, staring curiously at the pair of shorts in Wei Zhao's hand.

"Bought them over there. How do they look?" Wei Zhao held the shorts up against himself and gestured a couple of times.

"..." Gu Mengyao curled her lip. "Anyone wearing those would look like a shady character."

"I remember a lesson from primary school with a line about a rascally old Frenchman," Shen Yushu said, nodding and chiming in.

Wei Zhao was speechless. "I'm done talking to you two. You have no taste at all. I paid a whole fifteen yuan for these."

"Huh?" This time it was Gu Mengyao who was left speechless. And he actually had the nerve to show off something that cost fifteen yuan?

Shen Yushu covered her mouth and giggled—only Wei Zhao would do something like that. "Alright, let's go home. Jianpai Ge, if you really like those big shorts, put them on when we get back and give us a look. It's not like you can change right here in the street, right?"

"Xiao Shu, what's so great about seeing him in a pair of shorts? Are you getting all hot and bothered?" Gu Mengyao pinched Shen Yushu.

"I thought you were the one who wanted to see him in them." Shen Yushu blinked, looking at Gu Mengyao with an innocent expression. "You were so surprised about it just now..."