Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I fought the urge to roll my eyes and asked if either of them needed anything else, but this so-called socialite ignored me completely. Resting her chin in one hand, she tilted her head and looked at Ruan Pingshan.

“You still haven’t answered me. Are you single?”

Ruan Pingshan slowly stirred the foam on his coffee with a spoon. After a long moment, he said, “Are you interested in me?”

The woman was obviously stunned by how direct he was. She gave an awkward laugh and immediately denied it. “Of course not!”

Ruan Pingshan nodded. Then, unhurriedly, he said, “Then yes, I’m single.”

She had clearly come out worse in that exchange and was already holding back her anger. Hearing that, she pressed, “By single, do you mean you don’t have a girlfriend, or do you mean you don’t have women?”

Ruan Pingshan let out a soft sigh. “Miss Fang, either way, you don’t have a chance.”

Miss Fang was so furious her face was practically twisting out of shape.

“If I’d known you were this rude, I wouldn’t have come today.”

Ruan Pingshan ignored her this time. Instead, he turned to look at me and said softly, “The check, please.”

His mental fortitude really was impressive – so impressive that I started wondering why I had been angry in the first place.

The woman refused to let it go. She blocked him and demanded in a low voice, “Ruan Pingshan, what do you mean by this? Then why did you even come today?”

“An elder introduced us. It wouldn’t have been appropriate to refuse and embarrass them.” After saying that, he added, “I heard you’re against marriage, so that works out nicely. Saves both of us a lot of trouble.”

“I only said that because I’ve never met a truly high-quality man,” she said.

“If someone in your social class still can’t meet a high-quality man, then I suggest you reflect on yourself.” Then, not forgetting to throw her own words back at her, he added, “Besides, women should rely on themselves, don’t you think?”

I almost laughed out loud.

Without another woman there for comparison, I never would have realized how tolerant Ruan Pingshan had been with me.

Her face flushed red. Barely managing to compose herself, she forced a stiff smile at him and tried to recover some dignity. “Actually, I do admire your business sense, and I’m really looking forward to working with you.”

Ruan Pingshan nodded and took out a business card from his pocket as well. “If you have a suitable project, feel free to contact me.”

With that one sentence, he shut her up completely. Silence fell over the table. Even I felt awkward.

“So… are we settling the bill, or…?” I asked cautiously.

The woman leaned back in her chair and let out a cold laugh. Then she picked up her bag and left. She didn’t even need him to walk her out, and Ruan Pingshan didn’t go after her. He stayed seated exactly where he was and said steadily, “Yerao, this is the job you found?”

I cleared my throat. “Sir, your total comes to 668 yuan. How would you like to pay?”

He laughed, lifting one brow as he looked at me. “Pretending you don’t know me?”

How did he even have the nerve to say that?

When I didn’t answer, he nodded. “Membership card.”

“Certainly, sir. Please tell me the phone number linked to the account.”

He leaned back against the chair and narrowed his eyes at me. His tongue pressed against the inside of his cheek, making a small bulge there. From what I knew of him, that was a sign he was in a bad mood.

He stood up, grabbed my wrist, and dragged me into a private room.

Thankfully, there weren’t any other customers around at the moment, and the other server had happened to go to the bathroom. Otherwise, I really wouldn’t have known how to explain it if someone had seen.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you afraid someone will see!” I struggled in a low voice, but it was useless. In the end, he let go of me himself.

I glared at him. “Are you crazy?”

His hand pressed against my thin silk blouse, sliding down from the side of my chest, rubbing close along my waist before slipping into my pocket. Inside it, his fingers lightly pinched at the curve where my waist met my hip.

My heart was pounding like a drum. Blushing, I pushed him away. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

The bracelet dangled from his hand, the clear diamond hanging in front of me. “Put it on.”

We stayed locked in a standoff for a while. Then I snatched the bracelet from him and fumbled with it one-handed for ages. In the end, he was still the one who fastened the clasp for me.

I curled my hand into a loose fist and thumped his chest in complaint. “What right do you have to be angry?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he asked me, “What about you? Back then, if you’d found a woman by my side, you probably would’ve trashed this whole store, right?”

“Then wouldn’t that mean I found this job for nothing? Besides, what right do I have to throw a tantrum? You’re single, and I’m not your girlfriend. What standing do I have to get mad at you?”

“Yerao.” He cut me off. His face wasn’t cold, but he didn’t look particularly pleased either. “Don’t answer my question with another question.”

The bitterness, conflict, pressure, and even the constant fear of gain and loss he brought me made me feel like I was walking on thin ice every moment. But the fatal thing was that I realized I loved this side of him. I enjoyed dancing on the knife’s edge with him, was addicted to the way he took command of me.

I gave in, let out a deep breath, and answered him properly.

“I’m learning how to leave you.” I lifted my eyes to look at him. “Ruan Pingshan, I’m trying not to get jealous over you anymore, not to get angry because of you anymore. I’m learning not to fantasize about you marrying me. I’m trying to leave you.”

“You’re afraid I’ll have other women?” he asked.

“It has nothing to do with that.” I pointed at my head. “I’m stupid. If you dug out my brain, it’d probably only be about as big as a chicken’s. After getting together with you, I’ve become even duller, because I don’t have to think anymore. Every day, my life is just about what clothes look good when I’m wearing them, what clothes look good when I’m taking them off, whether you’ll come today, what time you’ll come, and after you come, whether you’ll stay the night-and if not, what time you’ll leave.”

I said a whole lot in one breath, and in the end, I told him, “I don’t think I can keep going like this. Otherwise, I’ll turn into a complete idiot who can do nothing except please men.”

That line made him put some distance between us. He looked at me quietly for a while, then suddenly laughed. “Yerao, I don’t want to discourage you, but if all you’re doing is working here, you’ll never be able to leave me in this lifetime.”

I let out a self-mocking laugh. “Do you have to look down on me that much?”

“That bag I bought you last month cost more than this store manager’s annual salary. Do you know that?”

I stared at him with my mouth open for a moment, then snapped back in exasperation, “I can live without those things!”

He pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed. I could see his temple twitching. “I’d still rather call you naive, but you really are stupid enough.”

I wilted and muttered softly, “What does that mean?”

“If you’re leaving me to get a better, freer life, then I’ll applaud you. That would make you truly smart.” After a pause, he reached out and held the side of my neck. “But if you’re going to pinch pennies, make yourself shabby and miserable, all just to force yourself to leave me, then there’s seriously something wrong with you.”

I felt like he was saying that from a position of comfort, like it cost him nothing. “But how am I supposed to still buy things like this after I leave you?”

He lowered his head and stared straight into my eyes. “Exactly. That’s the question you should be thinking about.”

There weren’t many customers in the store all day. I slacked off absentmindedly through the entire afternoon, my head full of that one sentence from Ruan Pingshan: “That’s the question you should be thinking about.”