After work, Lu Ze picked up Yao Jingjing to watch a movie.
Two films were showing: a romantic drama and “The Avengers.”
When buying tickets, Lu Ze asked Yao Jingjing which one she wanted to see. Without hesitation, she pointed at “The Avengers” and said, “The one with more men!”
Lu Ze paused briefly before telling the ticket seller, “Two VIP seats for The Avengers.”
After they sat down, Lu Ze said, “I thought you’d choose the other one.”
Yao Jingjing giggled, “The lead actors in the other movie are so ugly. How dare they call it a ‘beautiful’ romance? It doesn’t live up to its name, so we can’t watch it! It would make people lose faith in love! This movie is much better – full of superheroes with muscles. Just looking at them is exciting!”
Lu Ze glanced at her sideways and asked, “So, which excites you more: handsome men or money?”
Yao Jingjing turned to look at him, grinning, “Neither of those excites me as much as you do!”
Lu Ze raised his right eyebrow. “Oh?”
Yao Jingjing said earnestly, “Because you have money in your pocket! You’re the combination of wealth and good looks. You completely outshine either of those things alone!”
Lu Ze’s lips twitched slightly as he turned to face the screen.
During the movie, Lu Ze felt that Yao Jingjing’s earlier statement needed verification.
Watching her nearly lick the screen, he thought that even with a thick wad of cash in his pocket, he couldn’t compete with the middle-aged Iron Man in exciting her.
Frowning slightly, he decided that next time he should take this woman to see a “beautiful” romance starring ugly actors.
After the movie, Yao Jingjing looked thoroughly satisfied.
She said to Lu Ze, “You treated me to a movie, so let me treat you to dinner!” After a moment’s thought, she quickly added, “Don’t order anything too expensive, or I might have to go to the bathroom when it’s time to pay!”
Lu Ze’s expression remained neutral. “No problem, I’ll wait for you to come back.”
Yao Jingjing looked at him sincerely. “Don’t be like that. It might take quite a while. You can pay and leave first!”
Lu Ze raised an eyebrow. “Is this your idea of treating me to dinner?”
Yao Jingjing blushed, “Don’t say that. My sincerity is quite expensive! How about this: you choose the restaurant, okay?”
Lu Ze didn’t hesitate at all and took Yao Jingjing directly to a luxurious restaurant.
After sitting down and looking at the menu, Yao Jingjing smiled stiffly while mumbling, “Looking at these prices, I suddenly don’t feel hungry anymore!”
Lu Ze took the menu from her hands and said, “Then I’ll order. I’m hungry.”
Yao Jingjing asked for another menu from the waiter.
With each dish Lu Ze ordered, she mentally calculated the price. By the time he finished ordering, her liver was trembling.
Her entire month’s salary would be gone.
She thought dejectedly that she would never again carelessly offer to treat him to dinner.
After Lu Ze finished ordering, the waiter respectfully took the menu and asked Yao Jingjing, “Miss, have you decided what you’d like to order?”
Yao Jingjing looked up, her eyes sparkling as she asked, “Do you have egg-fried rice? If so, I’ll just have one serving of that!”
The waiter looked troubled and turned to Lu Ze, “We don’t have…”
Before he could finish, Lu Ze interrupted, “If you don’t have it, add it to the menu temporarily.” His voice carried the commanding tone of someone in charge. Yao Jingjing thought that if she heard such a tone, she would definitely be annoyed, but the waiter bowed repeatedly, saying “Certainly” with impeccable manners.
As she wondered if the restaurant staff had been trained to rival Haidilao’s service, she heard Lu Ze say, “Also, bring one serving of everything I just ordered for this lady.” After giving the instructions, he dismissed the waiter, giving Yao Jingjing no chance to say “no.”
Yao Jingjing’s heart bled. Her last month’s salary would also be saying goodbye to her bank account T_T
She looked at Lu Ze pitifully and said, “Why did you order for me? Don’t you know that by doing this, you’ve completely ruined the purpose of my egg-fried rice order? You’ve made my egg fried rice completely meaningless!”
Although she wailed miserably, when the feast was served, she ate more enthusiastically, energetically, and ravenously than any other customer in the restaurant. As she chewed the beef, her expression on the verge of tears, she mumbled, “How is this meat cooked? It’s just too delicious! I can’t stop eating!”
When the egg fried rice arrived, she tasted it and her expression became even more exaggerated: “Oh my god, is this chef a culinary god? If I can’t eat rice this delicious for every meal from now on, how will I survive?”
She ate as if she was about to cry, while quickly finishing everything.
The customers at the next table, seeing her eat with such joy, also asked for egg fried rice. The waiter went over and explained awkwardly, “I’m sorry, our restaurant doesn’t have egg fried rice…” As he spoke, he looked toward Lu Ze with a troubled expression.
Lu Ze, expressionless, said, “If the customer wants to eat it, you should satisfy them. Add this dish to the menu for today.”
The waiter scurried off to the kitchen.
Yao Jingjing licked her lips and looked at the expressionless rich man, clicking her tongue, “You are the epitome of arrogance, ordering people around wherever you go!”
Lu Ze ignored her comment and said something unrelated, “You look quite thin. I didn’t expect you to eat so much.”
Yao Jingjing had already finished the beef on her plate, but she felt far from satisfied. So, she discreetly reached out her arm, as if accidentally picking from the wrong plate, and naturally took a piece of beef from Lu Ze’s plate. As she ate, she said, “Hehe, can’t help it. Maybe I have some hyperthyroid genes! My best friend Qian Feifei and I are both like this. We can eat a lot but don’t gain weight!”
Lu Ze watched as she “accidentally” picked piece after piece of beef from his plate, imperceptibly curling the corner of his mouth.
Lu Ze finished eating before Yao Jingjing. He put down his chopsticks and watched her continue to clear her plates. Then, as if casually but quite abruptly, he asked, “You seem to really like muscular men.”
Yao Jingjing licked her chopsticks and looked up. “Not really. Whether they’re muscular or not is secondary. The face is the most important thing.” After saying this, she looked carefully at Lu Ze’s face, examining it from left to right, then clicked her tongue and said, “Wow, this is the first time I’ve taken a good look at your face. You’re quite handsome!”
She said this jokingly, then lowered her head to pick up more meat, completely missing the fact that the tips of the rich man’s ears across from her had turned red.
“So what were you looking at before when you looked at me?” he asked in a low, deep voice.
Yao Jingjing looked up, grinning, “I was too busy looking at your wallet!”
After eating two more bites and putting the last two pieces of meat in her mouth, Yao Jingjing finally put down her chopsticks.
She patted her belly and winked at Lu Ze, saying, “I’m so full! The food here is delicious. It’s worth spending two months’ salary on one meal for such good food!”
She called the waiter over, saying she wanted to pay the bill.
Lu Ze asked casually from across the table, “Don’t you need me to pay?”
Yao Jingjing took out her wallet to find her card, “No way! If I let you pay every time, it’ll be too obvious that I’m only so enthusiastic because of your money!”
She handed her card to the waiter, but he didn’t take it, only respectfully looking at Lu Ze.
Lu Ze raised his hand, “Give it to me, I’ll sign the bill.”
The waiter continued to be respectful, handing the receipt to Lu Ze, saying politely, “Here you are, boss.”
Yao Jingjing watched Lu Ze sign the bill with a flourish, her mouth hanging open in shock.
This rich guy was so shameless, he was just playing with her!!!
Yao Jingjing was furious.
She decided to play along with this rich guy. If he wanted to play, she’d let him play to his heart’s content and see who would be Game Over first!
Their second date, was an evening after Yao Jingjing had finished overtime work. Lu Ze suggested they have dinner together.
This time, Yao Jingjing chose the place. It was recommended by her supervisor, who said it was owned by a friend of his.
Yao Jingjing felt reassured, thinking there was no way this restaurant could also be owned by Lu Ze.
The restaurant was quite crowded. After getting their queue number, Yao Jingjing pulled Lu Ze to sit on the sofa by the entrance to wait.
Just as they sat down, a man in a suit walked over, looking at them with an expression of wanting to speak but hesitating.
Yao Jingjing was puzzled, not knowing what the suited man wanted to express. Lu Ze spoke up beside her: “Not necessary.”
The suited man quietly walked away.
Yao Jingjing asked curiously, “Was he trying to sell you something?”
Lu Ze looked at her, raising his right eyebrow, “Maybe.”
After waiting for a while, Lu Ze suddenly asked Yao Jingjing, “Have you been in a relationship before?”
Yao Jingjing, while drinking the free fruit tea, answered, “Of course I have! For someone as stunning as me, saying I’ve never been in a relationship would be insulting your intelligence!”
Lu Ze narrowed his eyes, “Can you tell me about it?”
Yao Jingjing mimicked him, narrowing her eyes at him, “Which one do you want to hear about?”
Lu Ze frowned slightly and said, “Well, tell me about all of them then.”
Yao Jingjing didn’t bargain. She cleared her throat and began.
“The first one started in kindergarten.”
As soon as she started, she heard Lu Ze’s couch beside her.
She turned to look at him, and he said with a composed face, “Just choked a bit, it’s nothing. Please continue.”
Yao Jingjing pouted, “Did my early first love scare you? Let me tell you, I’ve been navigating the field of love for many years. Don’t underestimate me!” She paused, then continued, “When I was in kindergarten, there was a little boy who always loved to be around me. He would run over every day to hold my hand. At first, I let him, but as time went on, I got tired of it.”
Lu Ze raised an eyebrow and asked, “Why did you get tired of it?”
Yao Jingjing said with a sorrowful expression, “Because I grew taller, but he stayed the same height! After about half a year, he was at least half a head shorter than me! We couldn’t even breathe at the same level anymore, and holding hands became such a hassle with the height difference. So we had to break up.”
Lu Ze coughed lightly again, then calmly asked, “What about the second one?”
Yao Jingjing said, “The second one was during elementary school. That boy was my deskmate. He liked me and said he would marry me after we graduated from elementary school. But one day, he was beaten up by another boy, so I went and beat up that boy for him. After that, he never dared to like me again and even asked the teacher to change seats. He said he had thought about it seriously and made the decision painfully, but he couldn’t marry me after elementary school because I looked too scary when I fought. He said he wanted to find a pure and weak little girl instead.”
Yao Jingjing paused, looking at Lu Ze seriously, and asked, “Don’t you think there’s something wrong with him? I went to get revenge for him, but he reacted like that. It’s ungrateful!”
Lu Ze suppressed another cough and asked, “What about the third one?”
Yao Jingjing said, “The third one was in middle school. You’ll never guess who he was!”
Just as she said this, the waiter called their number.
Yao Jingjing pulled Lu Ze inside. They got a good seat by the window. As soon as they sat down, Yao Jingjing was about to order, but Lu Ze waved the waiter away, saying, “We’ll order later.” Then he turned to Yao Jingjing and said, “Continue. Finish telling me about the third person first.”
Yao Jingjing was stunned for a moment, then smiled, “I didn’t expect you to be so interested in my love history. Alright, I’ll continue, but I’m telling you, this is a bit of a sad story!”
Yao Jingjing asked for a glass of lemon water, moistened her throat, and then her expression gradually became serene.
That serious look of being lost in memories began to appear on her face, and Lu Ze couldn’t help but furrow his brow as he watched her.
“The third person, I said you’d never guess who he was, because he was the boy I had beaten up in elementary school! One day he came to me and said he liked me. When I looked at him, I remembered my elementary school deskmate. I was so annoyed that I beat him up again. After beating him, I told him, ‘You can’t even beat me, and you want to be with me? That’s laughable! Come back and talk to me about this when you can beat me!’
“He took my words seriously and would come looking for a beating for no reason. Strangely enough, as I kept beating him, I stopped feeling annoyed when I saw him. Instead, I started to feel uneasy when I couldn’t see him.
“Later, we went to high school. I continued to beat him for two more years. In our senior year, he said to me, ‘Shouldn’t we make our relationship official?’ I asked if he could beat me; he said, ‘Did you think I couldn’t beat you? I’ve been letting you win all along, okay?’
“So we officially got together. We planned to go to the same university, studied together every day, and worked hard for several months. In the end, I got in.” At this point, she lowered her head to drink some water.
Lu Ze asked, “What about him? Didn’t he get in?”
Yao Jingjing looked up, smiling faintly, “Him? He never took the exam.” She paused, her lips quivering slightly. After a while, she continued with a smile, “Two days before the college entrance exam, he went with his mother to the supermarket. When they came out, they were hit by a drunk driver. At the critical moment, he only managed to push his mother away, but he was pinned against the wall. He was sent to the hospital, but despite emergency treatment, he passed away.”
Yao Jingjing turned to look out the window. “The family of the person responsible was very wealthy. They pulled strings, and in the end, the perpetrator got away scot-free. If his family had had some money at the time, if they could have afforded to fight a legal battle with that family, they could have gotten justice for him.” She was still smiling, but her smile was full of sarcasm. “Money, it’s such a damn bastard! Yet it’s something people can’t live without!”
Lu Ze looked at her profile, at her forced smile, at her quivering lips and eyelashes, and felt a subtle stirring in his heart.
She always talked about how much she loved money, but her actions were exactly the opposite. Now he understood where the contradiction between her words and actions came from.
She didn’t love money at all. She deeply despised it from the bottom of her heart. She also despised herself for hating it yet being unable to live without it. So she simply mocked herself, pretending to love it.
Suddenly, Lu Ze felt an odd sensation, much like the one he experienced when he saw a pitiful stray kitten on the side of the road meowing at him.
Yao Jingjing turned back, staring at Lu Ze in surprise. “What’s that expression on your face? Are you feeling sorry for me? Wait! You have expressions on your face!”
Lu Ze lowered his head to take a sip of water, and when he looked up again, his expression was back to his usual stoic mask.
“And then? Is there more?” he asked.
Yao Jingjing replied, “No, that’s all! I’ve said everything!”
Lu Ze looked at her and said, “If you’re done, let’s order.”
Yao Jingjing paused. “Wait a minute, something feels off! Shouldn’t it be your turn to speak now that I’m done?”
Lu Ze raised an eyebrow. “I never said I wanted to.”
Yao Jingjing was taken aback. “Come on, that’s a bit shameless, isn’t it? You’re trying to take advantage of me!”
Lu Ze glanced down at the menu. “I didn’t force you. Next time, you can choose not to say anything.” He signaled the waiter and asked Yao Jingjing, “What do you want to eat?”
Yao Jingjing was livid. She shot Lu Ze a glare, then turned to the waiter. “Bring me the most expensive dish on the menu!” Then she turned to Lu Ze and added, “You’re paying for this meal!”
Lu Ze shrugged. “Fine by me.”
A moment later, the young man in a suit whom they had encountered at the entrance, likely a salesman, hurried over. Bowing respectfully, he said, “Boss, today we’re out of lobster. Would you like to choose something else?”
Yao Jingjing, caught off guard while sipping her water, burst out laughing. “Boss?!” She stared at Lu Ze in disbelief. “You own this restaurant too?!”
Lu Ze calmly glanced at her. “Yeah, I co-own it with Tian Duan.”
Yao Jingjing was instantly frozen in shock…
So, the friend she had been supervising was Tian Duan…
That meant the suited young man was just trying to ask if he wanted to reserve a table in advance…
Looking at Lu Ze’s impassive face, she felt faint.
She could no longer trust this world, not ever again…