“Xiaoyuan, what a coincidence! You’re here for breakfast too!”
Pan Jiaxing smiled as he sat down across from her.
“Yeah. What a coincidence.”
Shen Xiaoyuan kept eating without even looking up.
Seeing her indifferent expression, Pan Jiaxing’s heart skipped a beat.
She’s still angry about the switched engagement.
“Xiaoyuan, you look different today. That outfit suits you perfectly. You look beautiful.”
Although Shen Xiaoyuan had always been pretty, she had never paid much attention to dressing herself up.
Today’s look was genuinely eye-catching.
She didn’t respond.
She simply continued eating her meat bun.
“Xiaoyuan, I’ve thought things through.
Tiantian and I aren’t suitable for each other.
What she did—stealing—really disappointed me.
Now I’ve realized that you and I share the same values.
We’re the ones who truly belong together.”
He spoke with complete sincerity.
Just as he expected Shen Xiaoyuan to burst into tears of joy…
…he realized she hadn’t even spared him a glance.
“I have two movie tickets.
It’s my day off today.
Let’s go see a movie together.”
He decided to take the initiative.
After all, he admitted that he’d gone too far by joining forces with Shen Tiantian to pressure her into giving up the engagement.
As long as he took the first step…
Shen Xiaoyuan would surely walk the remaining ninety-nine.
After finishing her last meat bun, Shen Xiaoyuan elegantly wiped her mouth with a napkin before finally raising her eyes to look at him.
Her phoenix-shaped eyes narrowed slightly as she sized him up.
There was an unmistakable aura of authority about her—one that made her seem untouchable.
Pan Jiaxing suddenly felt an overwhelming pressure.
Her gaze made him feel strangely uncomfortable.
Objectively speaking, the scumbag was handsome enough.
He had thick eyebrows, large eyes, a high nose bridge, fair skin, and a tall build.
No wonder he was so popular with the girls at the steel factory.
Unfortunately…
He didn’t seem very bright.
“What brand of trash bag are you?”
Shen Xiaoyuan asked coldly.
“How are you able to hold so much garbage?”
“W-What did you just say?”
Pan Jiaxing wondered if he’d misheard.
“I said you’re garbage.”
She deliberately raised her voice.
“If you still didn’t hear me, I’ll say it again.
You’re garbage.
Did you hear me this time?”
People nearby immediately turned to look.
Another spectacle was unfolding.
Pan Jiaxing’s face instantly burned with embarrassment.
Lowering his voice, he said,
“You actually dare insult me in front of so many people?”
“Oh, insulting you to your face is nothing.”
She smiled sweetly.
“If you still can’t hear me, I can always have it engraved on your tombstone.”
“Shen Xiaoyuan!”
Pan Jiaxing snapped.
“That’s enough!
Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness!”
In his eyes, taking the initiative to reconcile with her was already doing her a favor.
Countless women dreamed of going to the movies with him.
How dare she act so full of herself?
“Oh?”
Shen Xiaoyuan covered her mouth and giggled.
“So if you invite me to a movie…
Should I light three incense sticks and worship you too?”
As she smiled, every movement of her eyes carried a captivating charm.
For a moment, Pan Jiaxing couldn’t look away.
He hated her…
Yet found himself increasingly attracted to her.
Damn it.
How did I never realize she was this attractive?
It wasn’t entirely surprising that Pan Jiaxing acted so self-important.
The original Shen Xiaoyuan had been hopelessly devoted to him.
Whenever she got anything nice, she thought of him first.
If her grandfather gave her anything, she would immediately pass it on to Pan Jiaxing.
If she remembered correctly…
The Dacron shirt he was wearing right now had been a gift from her.
Even the Shanghai-brand wristwatch on his wrist had been bought with money she’d painstakingly saved over six months.
The breakfast shop owner carried a steaming bowl of soy milk to the next table and laughed.
“Young man, if you’re inviting such a pretty girl to the movies, your attitude needs some work.
Otherwise, you’ll never find yourself a wife.”
The entire shop burst into laughter.
Pan Jiaxing’s face alternated between red and pale.
In a low voice, he said,
“Xiaoyuan, let’s talk somewhere else.”
He then turned toward the other customers with forced composure.
“Everyone, don’t misunderstand.
We’re just having a lovers’ quarrel.
My girlfriend is still angry with me.”
Bang!
Shen Xiaoyuan slammed both hands onto the table and stood up.
“Who the hell is your girlfriend?
Wasn’t it just two days ago that you joined forces with the Shen family to force me to give up my engagement?
Didn’t you swear you’d love Shen Tiantian for the rest of your life?
So why are you shamelessly crawling back to me now?”
“Your skin is so thick.
The country should use it to develop bulletproof vests!”
The breakfast shop instantly fell silent.
Even several factory workers stopped eating and turned toward them.
A bearded middle-aged man spoke loudly.
“Young man, you’re in the wrong.
We workers hate people who play both sides.
Men like you deserve to be paraded through the streets and publicly criticized.”
Feeling utterly humiliated before the crowd, Pan Jiaxing decided to turn things around.
“Heh.
You probably don’t know this, but she’s the daughter of Shen Hanning, the former owner of the textile factory.
She’s a capitalist’s daughter who’s about to be sent down to the countryside.
I only felt sorry for her, so I wanted to help.
I’m a permanent worker at the steel factory.
If she marries me, she’d be getting the better end of the deal.”
“A capitalist’s daughter? That’s a bad class background.”
“What a pity she’s so pretty.”
“No wonder she can eat so much by herself.
That’s capitalist extravagance.”
“Wasting food is shameful, young lady.
People can be sent to labor camps for that.”
The crowd immediately began whispering among themselves.
Seeing public opinion shift in his favor, Pan Jiaxing looked at Shen Xiaoyuan smugly.
His expression clearly said:
Mess with me, and you’ll regret it.
Shen Xiaoyuan stood up.
She walked over to the neighboring table, grabbed a bowl of soy milk…
…and splashed it all over Pan Jiaxing.
The bad news:
The soy milk was scalding hot.
The good news:
It didn’t hit his face.
The bad news:
It landed on a very sensitive area.
“AAAHHH!”
His scream cracked into a shrill falsetto.
Pan Jiaxing shot to his feet, clutching his crotch, his face twisted in agony.
Turning toward the crowd, Shen Xiaoyuan raised both hands.
“Everyone.
Although I’m a member of the Shen family…
The calluses on my hands are no fewer than yours.”
She held out her palms.
They were covered in thick layers of calluses, old and new piled atop one another.
The marks of years of hard labor.
Meeting the puzzled gazes around her, she continued,
“I was abandoned by the Shen family and raised in the countryside for twenty years.
I grew up in a rural household that favored sons over daughters.
You can probably imagine how difficult my life was.”
“Ever since I was old enough to remember, I worked in the fields for my foster parents.
I was still wetting the bed myself…
Yet I already had to change my younger brother’s diapers.”
“And this scar…”
She rolled up her sleeve and revealed a scar the size of a knuckle on her pale wrist.
“When I was little, I was cutting pig fodder until after dark.
It became so dark I couldn’t see clearly.
I accidentally sliced into my wrist.
I lost so much blood…”
“And there’s more…
Forget it.
I don’t want to talk about it anymore…”
She lowered her head and began sobbing softly.
Shen Xiaoyuan thought: The previous owner of this body suffered the hardships… and now I’m the one cashing in on the sympathy.
The crowd began murmuring again.
Many looked at her with genuine pity.
Most members of the working class had experienced hardship in one way or another.
But they had grown up in the city.
Compared to rural life, their living conditions were still much better.
Wiping away her tears, Shen Xiaoyuan continued,
“It wasn’t until the end of last year that I was finally brought back to the Shen family.
But everyone knows that the Shen family was investigated at the beginning of this year.”
“So tell me…
Can someone like me—who has worked hard all her life, never enjoyed luxury, and never exploited anyone—really be called a capitalist?”
“And besides…
I’m being sent down to the countryside in just a few days.
Is it really too much to ask to enjoy one decent breakfast before I leave?”
Several people nodded sympathetically.
Others, however, still had questions.
“But after you returned to the Shen family, you must have enjoyed some good days before they were investigated, right?”
Shen Xiaoyuan lowered her head.
Two streams of tears rolled down her cheeks.
“You’re right.
After I returned to the Shen family, my grandfather treated me very well.
He even gave me some money.
But I spent every single cent on my former fiancé.”
“The shirt he’s wearing today…
And the watch on his wrist…
I bought both with money I saved by denying myself even the smallest comforts.”
“But the moment the Shen family was investigated and decided to send only me to the countryside…
This man immediately got together with my younger sister, Shen Tiantian.”
“As for why he’s suddenly crawling back to me…”
She deliberately paused before turning to look at the disheveled Pan Jiaxing.
“Yeah! Why did he come back to you after only two days?”
Someone in the crowd impatiently asked.
Shen Xiaoyuan raised her voice dramatically.
“Because my younger sister was sent to a labor camp yesterday.”
The moment those words left her mouth…
Another wave of commotion swept through the breakfast shop.