Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“What is it this time? Didn’t manage to snag some limited-edition bag again?” he asked.

In the past, I would’ve blown up on the spot. But this time, I wanted to seem a little more mature, so I calmly told him, “You’ve got it wrong. What I mean is, I’m leaving you. I want to realize my own worth. I want to find a job. I don’t want to be your canary anymore.”

He spread his hands and smiled as he shot back, “Yerao, did I ever say you weren’t allowed to get a job?”

I was actually stopped cold by that one sentence.

It was true. He had never said that.

Seeing the stunned look on my face, he laughed and went on, “You were the one who said you’re socially anxious and just wanted to lie flat. I’m not that old yet, so I don’t think I misunderstood your internet slang, right? That’s why I went along with it and told you that you could choose not to work, not to do housework, not to do anything at all.”

That left me even more speechless.

“But Yerao, you know this in your heart. The reason you can live like this, shutting out the world and never lifting a finger, is because you’re with me, right?” He paused, then gestured with his eyes toward the suitcase by my feet. “Those limited-edition bags in your suitcase, the designer clothes, those outrageously expensive chemical concoctions stuffed into bottles and jars-why is it that you can bring them home without a second thought?”

I lowered my head in defeat. “Right. It’s because you’re keeping me.”

“Wrong. It’s because I like you very much,” he said instead. “Yerao, you need to understand this: everything you’ve gotten from me is neither your salary nor some kind of ‘payment for services.’ There isn’t a single employee in this world who treats their boss the way you treat me.”

And for that matter, there probably wasn’t a single boss in the world who could be as tolerant of an employee as he was.

When I stayed silent, Ruan Pingshan continued, “If you just don’t want to idle your days away anymore, Yerao, then I support you getting a job. I can even help you find one. But if, like you said, what you want is to break up with me, then I still say the same thing: the door’s right there.”

He wasn’t angry at all, as though the occasional rebellion and tantrum of a canary couldn’t possibly affect his mood-his cage was too beautiful, and a vain canary would never bear to fly away.

Vain, lazy, stupid-it seemed like every unlovable trait had found its way into me.

I’m the sort of person who’s especially good at ruining her own life. I can always spill soup all over glossy, beautiful clothes, or lift the hem of a gorgeous skirt only to find my legs splattered with muddy water. To put it bluntly, I always manage to turn a rich and respectable life into something bitter and miserable.

To balance out that bitterness, I decided to find a job.

I thought that with a bachelor’s degree in hand, it wouldn’t be too hard to find an office job. With my looks, being a receptionist shouldn’t have been difficult either. But an ordinary university, an unimpressive resume, a major and grades with zero competitiveness, plus that unspeakable ten-month gap, left me-a beautiful but foolish woman who hadn’t entered the workforce until almost a year after graduation-completely at a loss.

In the end, I found a very easy job-working at an upscale cafe.

The cafe was membership-only and expensive, so there weren’t many customers. I could be an utterly unremarkable server there. The manager told me quite frankly that they had originally required CET-6 English, but considering my appearance, they hoped I could bring customers a pleasant mood.

Whether the customers felt pleasant or not, I didn’t know. I certainly didn’t-because the very first table I had to serve was Ruan Pingshan.

And some strange woman with him.

The moment Ruan Pingshan walked in, he saw me. His gaze stayed on me for a moment, and he even curled his lips at me in a smile that was hard to read.

The woman behind him was wearing at least several hundred thousand yuan’s worth of designer clothes and accessories. Just the pair of high heels on her feet-the kind that looked like they’d snap if you put even a little pressure on them-cost more than sixty thousand.

She looked me over too.

We were like two precision scanners, sizing up our own kind from head to toe, fast and thorough. In the end, she and Ruan Pingshan sat down at a small table by the window, and she lifted a hand to beckon me over.

To be honest, I had no intention of being nice to her. But considering it was my first day officially on the job, I still put on a smile and walked over.

“Hello. What would you two like to drink?”

Ruan Pingshan looked perfectly composed. He made a courteous gesture of “after you,” leaving the choice to the woman across from him.

After I wrote down their order, I reached out to take back the menu. Then this elegantly dressed beauty suddenly said, “Your bracelet is beautiful.”

Ruan Pingshan had given it to me. It wasn’t outrageously expensive by luxury-brand standards, but it was a limited edition-there were only three in the whole country-so I’d never been willing to take it off.

I tugged at my uniform sleeve to cover the bracelet and smiled at her. “Thank you.”

The moment I turned away, I heard the woman ask him, “So you’re single now?”

I really wanted to stay right there and listen to the rest of their conversation, but unfortunately, as a server, I couldn’t just stop working.

By the time I came back with their drinks, the woman was already laughing so hard she was swaying. I told them to enjoy, and as I turned to leave, I shot Ruan Pingshan a look sharp enough to kill. He must have noticed, because there was laughter tucked into the corners of his eyes.

The hell are you laughing at?

“Wait, pretty girl.” The woman stopped me. Pinching her straw between two fingers, she looked at me lazily. “Are you signed with an agency?”

I froze. “What?”

She pulled a business card out of a compartment in her handbag. “Here’s the thing-I’m in the entertainment business, and I think you have the right look for performing.”

Instinctively, I glanced at Ruan Pingshan, but he acted like he hadn’t heard a thing and showed no reaction at all.

So all I could do was reply apologetically, “Thank you for thinking so highly of me, but I don’t have any plans to go in that direction.”

Then, catching sight of Ruan Pingshan’s smile from the corner of my eye, I added, “My boyfriend says I’m not cut out for the entertainment industry.”

That made the woman laugh, but there was undisguised contempt in her smile. “So your bracelet was from your boyfriend too?”

I couldn’t understand why a society lady would want to dig into a server’s personal gossip. It felt a little offensive, and besides, I was already hostile toward her.

I unclasped the bracelet and set it in front of her. “It’s a high-end fake I bought from a WeChat seller. If you like it, you can have it.”

Ruan Pingshan couldn’t even hold it back. He let out a soft laugh.

The woman’s expression turned utterly speechless. She used one finger to push the bracelet back toward me, the diamonds scraping across the fine cotton tablecloth with a soft rustling sound.

Resting her chin on one hand, lips slightly pursed, she looked at me with an irritating expression and said, “The authentic version of this bracelet costs over forty thousand, and there are only three in the whole country. Did you know that?”

If she’d seen my walk-in closet, would she have died on the spot from sheer outrage?

I took the bracelet back and slipped it into my pocket. “Thanks for the reminder. I don’t know anything about this stuff. I almost made a fool of myself.”

Only then did a trace of satisfaction finally appear on her face. Right in front of me, she said to Ruan Pingshan, “See? A woman still has to rely on herself.”

What the hell is wrong with her?