Chapter 26: Is Yang Qingqing a Gold-Digger?

After finishing their meal, Yan Xuan prepared to return to the dormitory, but Yang Qingqing continued to pester him.

"Are you free tonight?"

"I am, why? Do you need something?"

"Come with me to the Nanjiang city center. I need to buy some things."

"Is it... appropriate for me to go with you?"

After all, Yang Qingqing was Fang Lian's best friend. If Fang Lian found out they had gone so far away together, just the two of them, Yan Xuan wouldn't know how to explain it.

"What wouldn't be appropriate about it!"

Yang Qingqing gave Yan Xuan a playful punch in the chest. "Do you have ideas about me? Or do you think I have ideas about you?"

Better safe than sorry. In Yang Qingqing's view, Fang Lian was currently embroiled in a passionate affair with an older man, and as her best friend, she felt obligated to keep an eye on Yan Xuan for her.

"Let's go then. The sooner we go, the sooner we'll be back."

Yan Xuan had no choice but to nod. To avoid any misunderstandings, he proactively sent a message to Fang Lian to let her know. However, Fang Lian was likely busy discussing her student union recruitment with Hu Xuemei and wouldn't be able to reply for a while.

They took a taxi to the city center. Yang Qingqing walked in front, while Yan Xuan followed about half a meter behind. By 7:00 PM, the pedestrian street in the city center was packed. After walking a lap, Yang Qingqing grew bored of the crowds and ducked into a shopping mall.

As her gaze swept over the luxury brand counters, her eyes filled with longing. Yan Xuan asked instinctively, "Want something?"

"No kidding!" Yang Qingqing looked back and teased. "What, are you going to buy it for me?"

Yan Xuan smiled without a word and continued to follow her. Before long, Yang Qingqing stopped in front of the Hermes counter. She stared at it for a long time before summoning the courage to walk inside.

"Miss, are you looking for a bag, or perhaps jewelry or scarves..."

Although the seasoned sales clerk could tell at a glance that Yang Qingqing couldn't afford their products, she still chose to approach and guide her enthusiastically. In their line of work, the greatest taboo was looking down on potential customers; if a wealthy client were to show up and throw money in their face, they would be the ones left embarrassed. Besides, Yang Qingqing was quite beautiful. As long as a pretty woman was willing to let someone else pay, she was a potential client.

Yan Xuan found a seat, sipped the tea the clerk had brought him, and watched Yang Qingqing with interest. Unlike Fang Lian, she didn't know how to put on airs. Under the clerk's questioning, her confidence vanished, and she shrank back slightly. "I... I'm just looking."

Yan Xuan deliberately pointed at something. "Qingqing, that bag is nice."

The clerk immediately launched into a pitch: "This model was released last winter. This is just a display piece; we don't have it in stock, but I can register your interest if you'd like. Are you interested in these scarves, globes, or the chess set here..."

Yang Qingqing had heard about the Hermes "allocation" rules from Fang Lian. She understood that without spending four or five hundred thousand, there was no chance of buying a bag.

Her head sank lower, and she even began to regret walking in. "Um... I'd like to go look elsewhere, sorry..."

"That's fine, Miss. Could we add each other on WeChat? You can contact me if you need anything."

Under the clerk's persistent request, Yang Qingqing pulled out her phone to add her, then fled in embarrassment. After she left, the clerk turned her gaze toward Yan Xuan. Perhaps due to a long-honed intuition, the clerk felt that this simply dressed young man might pull out a credit card, tell her to pack up everything Yang Qingqing had looked at, and solve her monthly sales quota in one go.

But nothing happened. Yan Xuan simply set down his tea, offered a polite thank you, and left.

Catching up to Yang Qingqing, Yan Xuan teased, "Weren't you here to buy things? Why didn't you?"

Yang Qingqing spread her hands and said bluntly, "No money."

"Then why did you go in?"

"I wanted to buy something."

"You have no money but you want to buy things—what are you planning to do?"

"I don't know..."

"Do you really not know?"

Yan Xuan could see that Yang Qingqing was already tempted. In the few minutes since they had left the counter, she had checked the clerk's social media feed four or five times, her eyes filled with growing desire. Perhaps she was already wondering if she should learn from Fang Lian.

They found a coffee shop to sit in. Yang Qingqing continued scrolling through the clerk's feed, occasionally saving a picture, now caught in a state of obsession. Unknowingly, the girl had reached the edge of a cliff of moral corruption.

Yan Xuan suddenly spoke up. "Yang Qingqing, your upbringing must be quite strict, right?"

"Ah!" Yang Qingqing put away her phone and looked at him, confused. "My family has practiced martial arts for generations, so the discipline is strict, but why are you asking me that?"

Yan Xuan smiled. "You came to rely on Fang Lian, but you refused to just eat and live for free; you insisted on finding a restaurant to work at. You seem like a girl with good values, independent and self-reliant."

"I..." Stunned by the sudden praise, Yang Qingqing felt a surge of shame. Only a minute ago, she had been contemplating how to find an "old man" to provide for her.

Yan Xuan continued, "You told me earlier while we were eating that you felt Fang Lian ruined you back in high school?"

Yang Qingqing waved her hands repeatedly. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know, it was just a joke. But if you tell a joke too often, who knows if it might become real?"

"What are you trying to say?"

"About high school—I apologize on Fang Lian's behalf. I hope you don't let her influence you too deeply. You have to realize that you are not like her."

Yan Xuan could tell that Yang Qingqing was fundamentally a different person from the old Fang Lian. For those three years of high school, Yang Qingqing had been deeply poisoned and brainwashed by her. The old Fang Lian bore some responsibility, perhaps even the primary responsibility, for Yang Qingqing's materialistic thoughts. To put it bluntly, the old Fang Lian had been nothing more than a bad influence, single-mindedly leading Yang Qingqing down a dark path that would eventually destroy her life.

"Yan Xuan, you... you're talking very strangely today."

"Is it strange?"

"The tone you're using is exactly like my dad's."

"Forget it, I don't just go around playing father to people."

"Hey, you're trying to take advantage of me!"

Yang Qingqing slowly shook off her obsessive state and returned to being the brash, carefree student athlete.

*Ding, ding, ding.* Yang Qingqing's phone rang. It was Fang Lian.

"Hello..."

"Hello what? Yang Qingqing, do you have nothing better to do? Why are you making my boyfriend take you shopping? Get back here right now!"

Fang Lian was screaming on the other end. Yang Qingqing looked aggrieved. "Fang Lian, why are you yelling? I'm helping you!"

"Helping me? You dragging my boyfriend out shopping behind my back is helping me? So I'm the one who doesn't appreciate a good deed?"

"Let's stick to the facts. Why are you bringing up Lu Dongbin? Who is that?"

"I... you... get back here!"

Fang Lian hung up the phone in a rage. Yang Qingqing angrily questioned Yan Xuan, "Hmph! Did you tip her off?"

Yan Xuan replied calmly, "It's normal to report to her when I go out with you."

"You henpecked, spineless coward!"

Yang Qingqing stood up indignantly and hailed a taxi. "Let's not take the same car, lest she see us and get angry again."

She got into the taxi, but before leaving, she rolled down the window and leaned out.

"Oh, and thanks!"

Yang Qingqing wasn't even sure why she was thanking Yan Xuan. She just had a vague feeling that today, Yan Xuan had pulled her back from the edge of the cliff.

As the car drove off, she opened her phone again to the Hermes clerk's WeChat profile, her expression hesitant.

"I won't look for a sugar daddy," she whispered to herself, and hit "delete."