Chapter 38: Man, Isn’t He Handsome

Their Love Stories

After some deliberation, Mo Suqing walked into the shop and started to browse the various kinds of men’s clothing hung on the walls.

She pointed at a black overcoat on a mannequin next to a mirror and inquired, “Do you have a slender version of this coat?”

A saleswoman approached her with a warm smile. “Miss, you have a very good taste indeed! This overcoat sells very quickly – there are only two left, a normal version and a slender version. The normal version is the one you are looking at, while the slender version is in our storage place. I can go fetch it for you if you would like to take a look.”

Mo Suqing smiled. “Good! Fetch it for me then, please.”

She got closer to the mannequin and checked the tag on it.

Her heart jumped a little. The figure was huge enough to make her dizzy. Although she herself had grown up in a rich family, she had never worn anything that costed more than a few thousand. She suddenly felt reluctant to pay something priced at more than ten thousand dollars.

In fact, after she graduated, she had never asked her father for money. She was used to spending money she earned on necessary items only.

However, when she looked at the overcoat, she could feel her heart flutter. Ye Zhongjue would definitely look great in it.

After all, the overcoat was made for a handsome and elegant man just like him. She knew it would be very becoming on him more than it would on anyone else.

She made up her mind. She would buy it for him. He had always paid for their dinner, yet she had not once spent a cent on him.

When Mo Suqing walked out of the shop after paying the overcoat with her card, the pain came to her, belatedly. Gone were ten thousand dollars!

God knows for how long she had saved it!

Noticing her thunderstruck expression, Leng Xiyao could not help but tease her, “Why didn’t you use his card instead?”

Mo Suqing gave her a puzzled sidelong glance. “Why would I do that?”

“Stupid girl!” Leng Xiyao succumbed to her outspoken self and continued, “Of course you can’t spend his money on the gift you are going to give him, but for your own stuff, you have every right to use his card! Have the wires come loose in your head or something? Silly Suqing, you are a married couple now; it’s his responsibility to provide for you!”

She hooked her arm through Mo Suqing’s and said, “Come, let’s do some real shopping!”

They looked into every shop in the shopping center. After a second thought, Mo Suqing found that Leng Xiyao was probably right. When two people were married, they were united as one. If they kept thinking themselves as individuals and divided everything so thoroughly, they might as well make things easier and live apart.

With her thoughts straightened out, Mo Suqing no longer sweated over the small stuff and used Ye Zhongjue’s card to buy several items for herself.

Ye Zhongjue was working when a series of notifications came in on his phone. Thinking they were messages from Mo Suqing, he woke his phone and found that they were actually spending alerts from his card.

Ye Zhongjue smiled. Looks like she is finally accepting her new role as his wife! That’s wonderful!

He picked up his jacket on the couch and dialed Mo Suqing’s number.

“Where are you? I’m coming to pick you up.”

When she saw who it was that had called, Mo Suqing felt a little confused. After hearing what he had to say, she quickly replied, “No, that’s quite alright! You must have gone home already. I’ll just hail a taxi.”

“I’ve been waiting for you in my office. I’m just about to leave now.” Ye Zhongjue sounded totally unfazed; his voice was so calm it was hard to guess what he was thinking.

Mo Suqing was utterly speechless. For a long while, she did not say anything at all.

Has he been waiting for the shopping spree to end to pick me up?

All sorts of feelings welled up in her heart as if a spice box was overturned there.

“Where are you?”

Mo Suqing instinctively answered and gave him her current location. Instantly, she knew she had made a mistake. She had practically given him the green light to come and pick her up!

She wanted to tell him not to, but he had already hung up.

Leng Xiyao called out to her when she found Mo Suqing had not kept up, “Suqing, why are you standing there? I don’t have a spare hand to guide you now!”

She showed her all the shopping bags that she was holding, beaming.

Mo Suqing looked at her own bags, feeling hopeless. She did not want Ye Zhongjue to see her like this, as if she had not gone shopping for a million years.

“The thing is…” She hesitated, not knowing how to say it.

“What’s the matter?” Leng Xiyao blinked at her. “What’s with the sputtering? Are you struck by lightning again?”

Mo Suqing narrowed her eyes at her. The girl just couldn’t talk decently!

“Ye Zhongjue is coming to pick me up!”

Leng Xiyao replied without thinking, “He’s the one who just called?”

“Yeah,” Mo Suqing nodded.

Leng Xiyao’s mouth spread into a creepy smile.

“Perfect! I was just thinking about what to do with my dinner! Now I have the answer.”

Mo Suqing stared at her blankly. Is she capable of thinking about anything other than food?

“Let’s go wait for him outside the mall!”

Leng Xiyao sounded as if it was she who was going to introduce her boyfriend to Mo Suqing.

Mo Suqing was speechless again. Wow, how can you act like everything is about you?

But Leng Xiyao didn’t heed her friend’s muteness. She went toward the exit with the many bags in her hands, followed by an amazed Mo Suqing, who could never reject the girl.

The two of them did not wait for long when a white Volkswagen approached them.

Ye Zhongjue had seen Mo Suqing from a distance. He parked the car in a temporary parking space, got off, and walked toward the two women.

Leng Xiyao was looking in all directions for anyone who might be Mo Suqing’s husband when she noticed a graceful and handsome guy getting closer.

She elbowed Mo Suqing lightly and put on her evil smile, saying, “Suqing, look! A cute guy is coming at us! I bet he’s coming to talk to me! Ah, how furiously my heart is beating!”

Mo Suqing gave her a disgusted look. The girl was acting like a high school girl again.

“He is coming for us.” She said emphatically, a little embarrassed.

“What…” Leng Xiyao did not know what she meant at first. After about three seconds, she shouted, “He is your so-called ‘average-looking’ husband?”

Mo Suqing felt even more embarrassed. Ye Zhongjue arched his eyebrows. Obviously, he had heard everything. Average-looking? So this is how she introduced him to her best friend.

Leng Xiyao’s mouth was trembling with suppressed laughter. If this man is average-looking, all the other men in the world would want to commit suicide!     

Presently, Ye Zhongjue was standing in front of them. He took the shopping bags from Mo Suqing’s hands and addressed Leng Xiyao politely – albeit expressionlessly. “Hi, my name is Ye Zhongjue, Suqing’s husband.”

Leng Xiyao looked at her own bags and laughed an awkward laugh. “Nice to meet you. I’m Leng Xiyao, Suqing’s good friend.”

“Right,” Ye Zhongjue said lightly. “Suqing mentioned you before.”

Man, isn’t he handsome! thought Leng Xiyao. It’s definitely an understatement to call him average-looking!

Listening to their conversation, Mo Suqing was pulled in all directions by conflicting feelings. Ye Zhongjue had never called or mentioned her with only her given name before; it was a weird sensation hearing him call her like that.

Meanwhile, Leng Xiyao had added a footnote to this encounter: From afar, Ye Zhongjue was heart-stealing hot; at a closer distance, he was heart-stopping handsome!

But, where on earth did Suqing get the good luck to bump into such a cute guy?

In the end, Leng Xiyao chuckled, “We are besties; it makes sense she mentioned me before.”

Ye Zhongjue nodded. “Okay then. Both of you, wait here for me to put everything in the trunk before taking you to dinner.”

Leng Xiyao clapped her hands happily before bending over to pick up her bags. “It’s alright. I’ll bring my own stuff to the car.”

After the three of them put the shopping bags in the trunk, Ye Zhongjue drove them to dinner.

Mo Suqing was sitting on the backseat with Leng Xiyao.

Leng Xiyao pinched Mo Suqing hard and whispered in her ear, “This is your definition of an ‘average-looking’ man? Damn you, Suqing, can your words be any more understated? You have made me think of your man with a common or even ugly face!”

Thus charged with lying, Mo Suqing felt utterly wronged. She had just not wanted to draw any attention to herself!

Besides, she had never said Ye Zhongjue had a common or even ugly face. She was sure this was not what she had told Leng Xiyao.

She turned toward Leng Xiyao and said in a low voice, “So I’m going to take you to dinner as an apology, am I not?”

“Humph!” Leng Xiyao whispered. “It was he who suggested it, okay? He stole my bestie from me, it is only right of him to treat me to dinner! As for you…”

Leng Xiyao paused and looked at her maliciously. “Wait and see how I am going to punish you, you little liar!”

Mo Suqing moaned inwardly, not knowing what the shrewd lass would come up with as a way to apologize to her.

Finally, the car stopped in front of the famous Tianyu Hotel.

Leng Xiyao’s expression became amused as she observed the change in Mo Suqing’s face.

Apparently, Ye Zhongjue knew nothing about what had happened to Mo Suqing here. She would probably never set foot in Tianyu Hotel for the rest of her life if she could help it.

Leng Xiyao’s expression became more and more twisted due to suppressed laughter. Good job, Ye Zhongjue, for choosing this location to have dinner!

Suqing was undoubtedly thinking about that heartbroken night. Leng Xiyao looked at the two of them and suggested tentatively, “Well, how about we go to another place?”

In fact, Ye Zhongjue had noticed something was wrong the moment he stopped the car: Mo Suqing became quite stiff.

As smart as he was, he immediately guessed what had happened here. Although he couldn’t know exactly what it was, he was certain something really bad – which Leng Xiyao knew and he didn’t – had happened to her in this place.

He learned all of this based on the subtle change in the two women’s expression. But he feigned ignorance when he said, “Sure! Let’s go to another place.”

His voice was calm yet authoritative, as if daring anyone to disagree.

However, Mo Suqing disagreed, which was something she never did. She looked at Ye Zhongjue and said firmly, “No, we are going to eat here!”

Leng Xiyao’s expression was plainly amused now. She almost reached over and touched Mo Suqing’s forehead to see if she had a fever or something. It was so unlike her. She had thought the woman would never set foot here for the rest of her life.

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