“Welcome to~ Prayer for Longevity~ Home~”
An enthusiastic shopping guide immediately stepped forward with a beaming smile. “Hello, I am Guide Jiu-Jiu No. 1. May I ask what style of clothing you two ladies are looking for?”
Cang Xuehe took a quick look around. The store was massive, with various styles of clothing categorized neatly. Her eyes immediately landed on a light-colored, lady-like dress.
Subconsciously, she imagined Xiao Youyi wearing it—she would definitely look like a celestial fairy. She took a couple of steps and turned to speak to Xiao Youyi.
However, the other woman had already walked straight toward the opposite section.
The clothes in that area leaned toward a more mature style—the kind Cang Xuehe felt she could never pull off herself—but Xiao Youyi was currently browsing through them very seriously.
Cang Xuehe scratched her head. Didn’t people say young girls like wearing pretty, pink, fluffy dresses? Why was she the exact opposite type?
“Miss, if you like it, feel free to try it on~”
Xiao Youyi picked up a long dress and turned to look at her.
Understanding the cue, Cang Xuehe said, “Try it if you want. I’ll wait here and look around in the meantime!”
While waiting, Cang Xuehe sat on a sofa. The enthusiastic guide immediately brought over a cup of floral tea and sat beside her, smiling as she struck up a conversation.
“Miss Cang, the store has many new seasonal arrivals. Would you like me to bring some over for you to see?”
Cang Xuehe was surprised. “You recognize me?”
She didn’t remember ever visiting this store, nor did it seem to be in the original owner’s memories.
“Of course,” the guide replied with a smile. “Our store is a subsidiary of the Cang Group. Miss Cang, if you have any needs, just let us know. We will do our utmost to serve you.”
“Oh.” Cang Xuehe nodded, then pointed toward the fitting room. “Is that dress she just took expensive?”
“The one that lady took is a new seasonal arrival, limited to ten pieces, and that was the last one. The price is…” The guide smilingly made a hand gesture.
Cang Xuehe almost fell off the sofa. The words “Why is it so expensive?” nearly escaped her lips.
Even though she was now financially independent, she was still shocked by the price of a gown. She couldn’t understand why a few pieces of fabric could be sold for so much.
Based on Xiao Youyi’s salary, after buying one dress, she wouldn’t be able to buy anything else.
But since she had already said the words about “advancing the salary,” and she really didn’t want to see a look of disappointment on Xiao Youyi’s face, Cang Xuehe pursed her lips and looked at the guide with a slow smile. “Today is the anniversary celebration, right? There should be a discount?”
“Uh?” The guide froze.
“Right?” Cang Xuehe asked again.
The guide bit the bullet and nodded with a smile. “Yes… there is.”
Swish—
The fitting room door was pulled open.
Almost by reflex, the guide quickly stood up and headed toward the fitting room, wanting to adjust the clothes for the customer to present the perfect look.
However, she stopped after a few steps.
“Oh my god! Miss, I have never seen anyone wear this dress with such elegance!”
Whether it was from the heart or just corporate culture, Jiu-Jiu No. 1 began showering her with “rainbow farts” (extravagant flattery).
Cang Xuehe secretly admired the guide’s salesmanship—truly, sales relied entirely on a silver tongue—but the moment she turned to see Xiao Youyi, she was also stunned.
To her, it had looked like a simple dress, but the feeling Xiao Youyi gave off after putting it on was entirely different. The V-neck design revealed her fair skin, leaving her exquisite collarbones fully visible, and the waist-cinching design highlighted her slender waist.
The black color added a hint of mystery and abstinence. Paired with her expressionless face, she looked cold, elegant, and transcendent, as if she had become a completely different person.
Xiao Youyi stood before the full-length mirror, casting only a simple glance at the result. She seemed largely indifferent to the guide’s flattery, as if she had heard it so many times she was numb to it.
“It seems average,” Cang Xuehe heard Xiao Youyi murmur softly.
“It looks great!” Cang Xuehe immediately stood up to defend the dress. After all, clothes make the man; seeing Xiao Youyi change her look, Cang Xuehe regretted not having her enter the entertainment industry. That aura definitely wouldn’t lose to any popular young starlet!
“Buy it, buy it! It looks so good!” Having a great beauty to look at every day—Cang Xuehe felt it was a feast for the eyes just thinking about it. She wished she could make her buy a few more sets to rotate.
Xiao Youyi gave in to the combined flattery of Cang Xuehe and the guide. “Then this one it is.”
“Alright, Miss, is there any other dress you’d like to try? I’ll bring it over for you.”
Xiao Youyi scanned the racks. “No need. I’ll buy two more professional suits.”
Cang Xuehe was baffled. “What are you buying those for?”
Xiao Youyi was even more confused than her. “Don’t I need to wear formal wear for work?”
The newly-appointed President Cang immediately waved her hand. “No need! As a company for young people, we don’t do those formal rules! You can wear pretty little dresses!”
Xiao Youyi: “…”
Under President Cang’s insistence, Xiao Youyi finally dropped the idea of buying professional suits and bought a few more dresses instead. Cang Xuehe also picked out several sets of pajamas and stuffed a few into Xiao Youyi’s hands.
She didn’t want to see Xiao Youyi wearing “Pinru’s clothes” (seductive/stolen style) again. As a “closeted” person, being flirted with by a straight woman was deadly.
After finishing their clothes shopping, Xiao Youyi seemed to have a new idea. She pointed toward a certain shop. “Can we go check out that store?”
“Sure.” Cang Xuehe agreed first, then followed her gaze to see a perfume studio.
Cang Xuehe didn’t know much about perfume. For her, the only distinctions were “fragrant,” “smelly,” and “pungent.”
Therefore, even though the original owner had many bottles of perfume after she transmigrated, she rarely used them. Now, entering a perfume studio, she felt a sense of novelty and curiosity.
“Hello, ladies. What kind of perfume are you looking for?”
Cang Xuehe glanced over the various perfume bottles on the counter; there weren’t many names she recognized.
Xiao Youyi’s next sentence, however, took her by surprise.
“Is private customization available?”
Good grief, Cang Xuehe thought, perfume can be privately customized too??
She then listened as Xiao Youyi communicated with the perfumer. Even though she understood the individual words, she couldn’t make sense of a single thing once they were combined.
Sometimes, she felt that Xiao Youyi—this high school dropout—was far more refined than she was. She didn’t seem like an ordinary person at all; in fact, she seemed more like a sophisticated young lady who had seen the world than Cang Xuehe did.
Since blending the perfume would take time, Cang Xuehe sat there feeling bored enough to doze off. Realizing she was taking up too much time, Xiao Youyi said, “This won’t be ready for a while. Shall we go browse other stores first?”
“Great!” Cang Xuehe had been eyeing the milk tea shop across the way for a long time.
Holding the menu, she asked Xiao Youyi, “What kind of milk tea do you want? My treat!”
“No, thank you,” Xiao Youyi shook her head in refusal. “I don’t drink milk tea.”
“…” Cang Xuehe looked Xiao Youyi up and down with a suspicious look. “Are you really a young person? How can you not drink milk tea?”
“…” Xiao Youyi fell silent. After a long moment, she said, “Then I’ll have a cup of pure tea.”
“Oh…”
The milk tea shop was doing a brisk business, with many people waiting for their numbers to be called. The two of them found a vacant pair of chairs and sat down.
Cang Xuehe scanned the surrounding shops and asked, “Do you need to buy anything else later?”
Xiao Youyi shook her head.
“Then let’s go eat afterwards!”
It was currently 7:00 PM, just about time for dinner. On their way in, Cang Xuehe had noticed a Western restaurant with a very nice interior and planned to give it a try.
They chatted idly for a while until the drinks were ready. Cang Xuehe stood up. “I’ll go get them, you stay seated.”
The counter was a bit crowded, and it just so happened that a delivery driver arrived to pick up orders at the same time. Cang Xuehe was delayed for a bit, and by the time she returned with the two drinks, two more people had appeared at the spot where they were sitting.
A woman was clinging to a man’s arm. The man wore a gold chain around his neck that screamed “big shot,” but the expression on his face was anything but pleasant.
“Xiao Youyi!” The man seemed furious, his eyebrows slanted sharply upward. While Xiao Youyi was still looking confused, he suddenly reached out and grabbed her by the hair.
He bellowed, “You bitch! I’ve been looking for you so damn hard!”