Su Tang stepped forward on her own, and the moment she raised her head, she met the smiling eyes of Sun Wenyu.
She was intimately holding onto Lu Huai’s arm, with most of her body leaning against his shoulder.
Standing beside her, Lu Huai’s gaze instinctively fell on Su Tang.
He waited for her to light up as she had always done, rushed over with a sweet smile, and called him Brother Ah Huai.
But Su Tang’s gaze merely swept lightly over him without lingering for even a moment.
She looked at Sun Wenyu and said calmly, “I came to choose an evening gown for the banquet. Are you two here for the same reason?”
Sun Wenyu pretended to be shy, casting a smug glance at Lu Huai from the corner of her eye. “Yes! Ah Huai specially had an evening gown made for me a few days ago, but after seeing the design, I didn’t really like it, so I came here to choose another one.”
The words were an obvious display of affection, but Su Tang felt absolutely nothing.
She only wanted to end the conversation as quickly as possible.
“I see. Then take your time choosing a few more. I haven’t finished choosing yet, so I’ll go look somewhere else first.”
With that, she turned around decisively and walked straight toward another section of the evening gown boutique.
From beginning to end, she did not spare Lu Huai another glance.
Lu Huai stood frozen in place, inexplicably feeling empty inside and uncomfortable all over.
In the past, no matter where they were, as soon as he appeared, Su Tang would always be the first person to notice him.
She would eagerly run over to his side, cling to him sweetly, and call him Brother Ah Huai over and over, with nothing but him in her eyes and heart.
But today, it was as if he did not exist in her eyes at all. She was distant and indifferent, turning around and walking away without another word.
He could not explain the dull discomfort in his heart as his gaze followed her slender back.
After Su Tang had walked some distance away, Sun Wenyu turned her head toward him and asked in feigned confusion, “Strange, why didn’t Su Tang even greet you today?”
Lu Huai slowly withdrew his gaze from Su Tang and forced a faint smile.
“She lives with Big Brother now. I suppose she doesn’t need me anymore.”
Su Tang did not hear their conversation. At that moment, she was walking among rows of dazzling evening gowns.
After a while, one long gown finally caught her attention.
The base of the dress was made from soft, milky-apricot mist tulle, and the entire gown was hand-stitched with natural freshwater pearls, paired with delicate platinum foil flecks that layered together to outline blooming, intertwined tuberose patterns.
The delicate double-layered spaghetti straps revealed just the right amount of her slender, beautiful shoulders and neck, while the high-waisted design accentuated her waist, making it look as though it could be held in one hand.
The skirt flowed into a three-meter-long train with an exquisite drape.
Under the lights, the pearls and platinum foil shimmered with an air of luxury without appearing gaudy or overly ostentatious.
A shop assistant quietly introduced the gown, explaining that it was priced at exactly one million yuan, with both the fabric and craftsmanship being of the highest quality.
Su Tang’s eyes lit up.
This one!
She took out the card Lu Zheng had given her earlier and paid without hesitation.
Afterward, she stood to the side and waited for the shop assistant to pack it.
Just as she was silently calculating how much the dress might sell for secondhand, an exquisite, gold-embossed gown box was suddenly held out directly in front of her.
Su Tang froze and slowly raised her eyes.
Lu Huai stood before her.
Su Tang glanced behind him and saw no one.
She had no idea where Sun Wenyu had gone.
The man wore a gentle smile, as though his earlier distant attitude had never existed.
Looking at her, he spoke naturally. “Tangtang, I just heard from the shop assistant that you really like this gown. I’ll give it to you.”
The moment Su Tang saw the box, her first reaction was resistance.
This was the gown he had given to Sun Wenyu. She did not like it, so he had turned around and brought it to her instead?
Put simply, it was something another person had picked over and rejected. The pride buried deep in Su Tang’s nature would not allow her to accept it.
She instinctively wanted to refuse.
But the moment that thought surfaced, her mind immediately began calculating furiously.
A one-of-a-kind, million-yuan couture piece that existed nowhere else in the world!
Even if someone else had picked it over and rejected it, the quality of the fabric, the craftsmanship, and its rarity were all still there. It would not simply lose its value.
As long as she accepted it and sold it through a reliable channel, she would have another seven-figure sum in her account.
That would bring her one huge step closer to the thirty million yuan she dreamed of saving as her escape fund!
How much could pride really be worth? Pride could not be eaten or spent!
Hadn’t she endured and carefully navigated all these relationships precisely so she could save enough money to leave and completely escape the cage of this novel’s plot?
For the sake of some meaningless pride, throwing away more than a million yuan would be far too foolish.
She could temporarily set aside her dignity, but she absolutely could not let a huge sum of money slip away.
In the span of a single second, Su Tang quickly weighed her options and abandoned the thought of refusing.
She reached out, accepted the box, and curved her lips politely.
Her tone was courteous yet distant. “Thank you.”
Lu Huai’s hand, which had been holding out the gown box, remained suspended in midair.
Looking at her calm profile, an inexplicable sense of emptiness suddenly welled up inside him.
He wanted to say something else to ease the atmosphere, but a deep, cold, and inherently commanding male voice came from the entrance of the showroom.
“Have you finished choosing?”
The two of them turned toward the source of the voice at the same time.
Lu Zheng was dressed in a well-tailored gray handmade suit. Tall and upright, he walked toward them slowly against the light.
Lu Huai took the initiative to greet him. “Big Brother, you’re here.”
Lu Zheng gave a faint nod in response.
But his gaze went directly to Su Tang.
Su Tang turned around and handed the gown box to the assistant following behind her before speaking obediently.
“I’ve finished choosing. By the way, Brother Huai just gave me another evening gown.”
Lu Zheng’s deep black eyes swept lightly over the two gown boxes in the assistant’s arms, and an imperceptible darkness flickered across his eyes.
Without asking anything further, he casually took her wrist.
“If you’re done choosing, let’s go. You still need to get your styling done.”
Su Tang obediently let him lead her outside.
Every so often, she looked back at the two million-yuan evening gowns in the assistant’s hands, her mind occupied entirely with calculating how much the two dresses could be converted into cash.
She had absolutely no attention left to spare for Lu Huai’s complicated expression behind them.
Lu Huai stood frozen in place by himself, his palm suddenly empty.
He stared blankly at the backs of the two people walking away side by side.
The little girl who had once revolved around him would no longer take the initiative to cling to him or act spoiled with him. She would not even spare him a single unnecessary glance.
He was completely free now.
Sun Wenyu, who had just finished choosing her evening gown, saw him standing there like this and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Lu Huai came back to himself and shook his head. “Nothing. We’re done choosing, so let’s go get something to eat.”
A strange glimmer flashed through Sun Wenyu’s eyes as she slipped her arm through his.
“Okay.”
…
The Maybach moved smoothly along the road.
Lu Zheng leaned against the back seat, handling work on his tablet.
From the corner of her eye, Su Tang saw his fingers constantly scrolling through documents, his brows slightly furrowed as he remained busy without pause.
Curious, she glanced at the screen. It was filled with complicated professional terminology, and she could only understand bits and pieces.
Unable to hold back, she asked softly, “Brother Lu Zheng, are you really that busy?”
Lu Zheng did not even raise his head. “It’s fine. I’m just replying to a few emails.”
She spoke softly and sweetly. “Reply to them later. The car is shaking, and staring at the screen for too long is bad for your eyes. You should take care of yourself.”
Since she had already decided to coax him, naturally she had to make a convincing show of caring about him.
Lu Zheng’s hand paused.
He then flipped the tablet face down.
“All right. I’ll reply to them later.”
Su Tang’s eyes widened.
She had merely used caring about Lu Zheng as an excuse to test the waters, and he had actually listened to her?
In the past, when he worked overtime in the car, she would never have dared tell him to stop working.
In the front, Special Assistant Sun was equally shocked.
There had originally been a pile of online approvals that afternoon waiting for the boss to personally make the final decisions.
After Assistant Liu reported Su Tang’s situation just now, the boss had immediately ordered a car to be prepared and had come directly over, handling his work inside the car.
In all these years, this was the first time he had seen his boss put everything aside and make a special trip like this.
After working at the Lu Group for so long, he had seen Miss Su a few times before. But on those occasions, she had always followed behind the second young master.
No matter what the boss said, she had always obediently responded that she understood.
Back then, he had even sighed inwardly. It seemed that it was not only employees like them who felt intimidated in front of President Lu. Even the people around President Lu were the same.
However, things seem to have become strange now.