“Ah!”
Just as Lu Jinchao was about to get up and leave, the ugly woman sitting across from him suddenly cried out in surprise. For some inexplicable reason, he actually thought her voice sounded rather pleasant.
“Cousin, I got coffee on my skirt. You two go ahead with the blind date. I’m going to the restroom to clean off the stain. Don’t worry about me—I’ll make my own way home later.”
Jiang Wan’ning had no interest in listening to these two people with serious issues go through their blind date. She just wanted to slip away and restore her appearance as soon as possible.
“All right.”
Lin Meijia’s tone was impatient, showing none of the patience one would expect from an older cousin toward her younger relative.
She had already figured out Lu Jinchao’s attitude. Even after she had deliberately dressed Jiang Wan’ning up to look hideous, he still hadn’t shown the slightest interest in the face she herself had carefully made up.
Remembering his coldness from her previous life, she could no longer hold herself together.
Fine. If that was how things were, she would take another path.
She would steal Jiang Wan’ning’s future as the wife of the richest man!
Whether there was love or not didn’t matter. As long as she had money, that was enough. Money was a woman’s best tonic—the ultimate nourishment!
After getting her cousin’s response, Jiang Wan’ning hurriedly left.
She ignored the probing gaze following her from behind.
She touched the money in her pocket and couldn’t help letting out a mocking smile.
To get her to wear this ridiculous outfit, her cousin had given her twenty yuan as compensation.
At the time, a worker’s monthly wage was only around thirty yuan.
It was obvious just how afraid her cousin was that Jiang Wan’ning’s face would steal the blind date’s attention!
Perfect. She could use this money to go to the women’s clothing shop on the second floor, buy herself a decent outfit, and prepare for her upcoming first encounter…
Jiang Wan’ning’s figure soon disappeared into the crowd.
Lin Meijia gripped her cup tightly and took a small sip of coffee.
So bitter.
She didn’t actually like coffee. It was only after she got married and accompanied her parents to visit her cousin at the Liu family’s home—the family that had by then become the richest in the country—that she had seen Jiang Wan’ning sitting elegantly in the garden room of their Western-style mansion, drinking coffee.
She had been more graceful than a movie star, beautiful beyond belief…
From that moment on, Lin Meijia began imitating her.
She copied her clothes.
She copied the way she dressed.
She even copied her taste for coffee.
“Miss Lin, who was that just now? She’s so ugly. How does she even have the nerve to go out in public?”
Lu Jinchao toyed with the lighter in his hand, a cigarette dangling from his lips. His carefree, roguish manner and devilishly handsome air made him strangely captivating.
There were other couples on blind dates in the café as well.
But whether in terms of appearance or temperament, Lu Jinchao was undoubtedly the most outstanding man there.
“That was my cousin. She’s always been rather clumsy. I’m sorry you had to see that.”
Lin Meijia’s expression stiffened for a moment.
She couldn’t understand it.
Was there something wrong with Lu Jinchao’s eyes?
He had rejected her, yet now he was asking about the Jiang Wan’ning she had deliberately dressed up to look vulgar and ugly?
“Anyway, when you get home, you can just say I was too frivolous and that you weren’t satisfied with me. Just reject the match.”
Lu Jinchao didn’t know what was wrong with him either. Why was he paying attention to an ugly woman?
He cleared his throat and took all the blame for the failed blind date upon himself.
It was, in a way, the last bit of gentlemanly courtesy he could offer.
He was a man who loved freedom and lived as he pleased. Unless he met a girl he genuinely liked—someone who made his heart race at first sight—he would never agree to marriage.
Lin Meijia’s heart sank.
Fine. Very well.
In this life, she wouldn’t marry him!
She had given him a chance, and he had failed to appreciate it!
There was no time to waste. She would go home now and have her mother find a way to arrange a match between her and the Liu family!
Being the future wife of the richest man was far better than becoming the neglected granddaughter-in-law of the Lu family, married to a spoiled heir whom no one took seriously!
Lu Jinchao shrugged.
He had driven away yet another blind date this month.
Which one was it again?
He couldn’t remember.
Besides, his grandfather doted on him. He refused to believe his mother would actually skin him alive!
“Rumble—”
Suddenly, a fierce wind whipped up outside the glass windows, followed by a violent rainstorm that came without warning.
Well, it looked like he wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.
He might as well sit in the café for a while and wait for the rain to stop…
Second Floor —
Women’s Clothing Store
Jiang Wan’ning took only one glance before choosing a short-sleeved, modified qipao with an open front and standing collar.
The price was neither high nor low.
Twenty yuan exactly.
She paid without hesitation, then left the shop under the staff member’s indescribably complicated gaze and headed to the second-floor restroom to wash away all the makeup.
Looking at the young, radiant, breathtakingly beautiful face in the mirror, Jiang Wan’ning smiled from the bottom of her heart.
This was her.
The best years of her life.
Good women gain a reputation. Bad women gain everything.
In her previous life, she had never fought or competed with anyone. Yet she had ended up being forced by her aunt to marry a man suffering from tuberculosis as a sacrificial bride.
At the Liu family’s home, she had endured every kind of torment, and in the end, she had been stabbed to death by her own cousin!
In this life, she would no longer foolishly sit around and wait for death!
If beauty was a sin, then perhaps she might as well seduce her way to the top and use her beauty to obtain everything she wanted!
Outside the window, raindrops the size of beans pelted against the glass, blurring the world beyond.
A modified jeep sped down the road, racing after a motorcycle traveling at full throttle.
The fully armed man in the passenger seat picked up the radio and communicated with the local police, coordinating roadblocks and the sealing off of escape routes.
In the spacious back seat sat only one man.
Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, he calmly wiped down a firearm, his movements so gentle that they seemed almost incongruous.
The gentler his eyes appeared behind those lenses, the more an invisible, oppressive aura seemed to spread through the air.
“Click.”
After attaching the suppressor, the man revealed a cold smile.
The driver caught that smile in the rearview mirror. His back instantly went cold, and he shuddered involuntarily.
“B-Boss, the robbers are heading toward Friendship Hotel.”
“Hmm. Keep chasing.”
The man’s eyes darkened.
His handsome face was utterly indifferent and detached, his refined, noble bearing completely out of place amid the tense pursuit.
The man in the passenger seat was momentarily distracted.
Then a dangerous gaze locked onto him.
He immediately straightened up, summoned every ounce of concentration he had, gripped the radio, and continued coordinating the operation…
In the curtain of rain, every human sensation seemed magnified infinitely.
Tension.
Excitement.
Fear.
Panic.
Perhaps they were all there.
There were two robbers.
Both had burlap sacks over their heads, with only four holes cut out for their eyes and mouths. They looked both pitiful and ridiculous.
“What do we do, Big Brother? That black jeep has been chasing us this whole time. It’s like a cat playing with a mouse!”
“What else can we do? If we get caught, we’re dead. We have to take a gamble. Up ahead is the Friendship Hotel commercial district.
“When we get there, I’ll draw their attention. You take the gold bars and the safe and hide somewhere in the chaos. If you can escape, escape. Don’t get into a fight. Don’t look back!”
“Big Brother, we’re leaving together!”
“You idiot. Don’t argue with me. As long as one of us survives, then this risk we took won’t have been for nothing.”
The two brothers dodged one roadblock after another.
Braving the torrential rain, they finally broke through the police cordon, smashed through the glass doors, and charged straight into the café!
“Ahhh—!”
Screams and cries erupted throughout the café.
Taking advantage of the chaos, the two robbers disappeared into the crowd and followed the fleeing customers toward the second floor…