Whether men or women, everyone liked being told they looked young.
Luo Sanye burst into laughter. “Guess how old I am.”
“I don’t know. You look both old and young. Your face looks thirty, but your hair looks eighty.”
“Hey, you little brat!” Luo Sanye puffed up like an angry cartoon cat. “Old is old, young is young. What do you mean both old and young? Who’s eighty? I’m only seventy by traditional reckoning!”
Li Yingtang muttered innocently, “Why are you getting so fierce? So petty.”
Luo Sanye: “…”
“Are you here to buy treasures or not? If not, get lost!”
“I’m buying, I’m buying.”
She squatted down and started browsing.
She picked up one item after another, shining her flashlight over everything.
“Have you picked yet?” Luo Sanye urged impatiently.
She had already made her choice.
One was a vivid green jade landscape plaque with an exceptionally fine texture. Under the flashlight, the jade appeared uniformly pale and was clearly a rare treasure.
The other was a green jade thumb ring. It looked ordinary on the surface, but inside were carved the two characters: Hudun.
Engraved characters on jade weren’t unusual.
But those particular characters were.
She remembered that in history there had been an obscure emperor of the Jin Dynasty named Hudun. He had ascended the throne for only three days before dying on the battlefield, so few people remembered him.
“How much for these two?”
The old man glanced over them.
“Fifty.”
“Can it be a little cheaper?”
“If you don’t want them, forget it.”
“Don’t be angry. Anger gives you wrinkles. Then you’ll really look old.”
She continued stalling instead of paying, casually shining her flashlight over other items.
Watching her drag things out, Luo Sanye cursed, “Blockhead! Are you buying or not?”
“A little cheaper?”
“Fifty. Not one cent less.”
Li Yingtang bit her lip and reluctantly counted out the money.
Luo Sanye snatched it away.
“Look at you, acting all pitiful.”
Taking her purchases, Li Yingtang hurried away.
Only after reaching what she considered a safe spot did she carefully inspect them again under her flashlight.
The longer she looked, the faster her heart beat.
This time, she was definitely going to make money.
Without delay, she headed for the antique shop hidden in the alley.
“Boss, I’m back. Please appraise these two pieces for me.”
The owner’s surname was Gu.
He offered three hundred yuan for the jade plaque and thirty yuan for the thumb ring.
“I’ll accept the price for the plaque, but please take another careful look at the ring.”
“No matter how carefully I look, it’s still thirty. The jade is genuine, and to be honest, this ring originally came from my own shop. At most it could sell for sixty or seventy. I’d still be taking a risk.”
Li Yingtang picked up the ring.
“If you can’t recognize its value, then I won’t sell it to you.”
Boss Gu immediately protested.
“How can you say I don’t recognize quality? If you can explain what’s special about it, you name the price!”
“A promise is a promise.”
She pointed to the characters carved inside the ring and explained the historical background she knew.
Boss Gu’s expression immediately became serious.
He searched through reference materials and history books one after another.
Li Yingtang waited patiently.
“I found it!”
His eyes lit up as he held an internal reference book, pointing excitedly at one page.
“This is it! It’s genuine!”
“How much do you want?”
Li Yingtang had already decided on her price.
“Three thousand. Something that belonged to an emperor is extremely rare.”
“Make it a little less.”
“Not a chance.”
She tucked the ring away and turned to leave.
Boss Gu hurriedly stopped her.
“Fine, fine! Three thousand it is. Consider it a favor.”
“You’ve got that backward.”
She smiled.
“I’m selling to you. How does that become me owing you a favor?”
Boss Gu sighed.
“You’re right. Everything you say is right.”
Only then did her expression soften.
“Cash for goods.”
“I don’t have three thousand on hand.”
“I don’t care.”
She folded her arms.
“I only recognize cash. I’m not waiting for you to gather the money. I want it now.”
The longer things dragged on, the more variables there would be.
She wasn’t about to gamble on his honesty.
Grinding his teeth, Boss Gu finally agreed.
…
After making a fortune, Li Yingtang stuffed the money into her bag and headed straight to the department store to give herself a complete makeover.
She bought a long coffee-colored cashmere coat.
Underneath, she wore a black pure wool dress that reached below her knees, paired with knee-high insulated leather boots.
Looking at herself in the mirror, her mood instantly improved.
Now this looked right.
After buying women’s clothing, she moved on to men’s clothing.
A long overcoat.
Matching black trousers.
A cashmere sweater.
Cotton thermal underwear.
She bought an entire set.
Even the close-fitting garments needed replacing.
After an enthusiastic shopping spree, she left the mall carrying large and small bags and went directly to Qin Xian’s workplace.
Dressed in fashionable winter clothes, wearing a beret, with softly curled hair flowing behind her and a white scarf loosely draped around her neck…
She looked elegant and expensive.
Xi Yue stared with his eyes practically popping out.
Last night she had looked like a country bumpkin.
Today she looked like a fashionable city lady.
Was she Sun Wukong?
Could she transform at will?
Several female coworkers quickly surrounded her.
They excitedly asked where she’d bought her clothes and how much they cost.
“I don’t know. My mother bought them,” Li Yingtang replied vaguely.
She had seen Qin Xian’s savings book.
He deposited forty yuan every month.
Living expenses in the countryside were low.
His salary was probably fifty or sixty yuan.
City salaries might be a little higher, but probably not by much.
Her outfit alone had cost nearly four hundred yuan.
If she told the truth, it would sound like showing off.
That wouldn’t leave a good impression.
“Where’s A’Xian?”
“In the autopsy room,” Xi Yue answered. “Wait here a bit.”
“I still have something to do, so I won’t wait.”
She pointed at the shopping bags by her feet.
“Please give these to him and ask him to change into them. Then meet me at Spring Restaurant. I want to take him on a date.”
Xi Yue was speechless.
Qin Xian had always been quiet while studying.
Who would’ve guessed he had this kind of romantic luck?
“Why change clothes just to eat?”
“He has to.”
Li Yingtang snorted.
“The sales clerks were so arrogant. When I walked in wearing my padded cotton clothes, both the men and women rolled their eyes at me. If I urged them to serve the dishes, they slammed bowls and plates around like they were mentally ill. I don’t know who spoiled them. Doesn’t anyone manage them?”
Xi Yue laughed.
“People like you spoil them. Who else? If everyone stopped eating there for a month, do you think they’d still dare act like that?”
Li Yingtang paused.
“Fine… after this meal, I’m never going there again.”
…
At Spring Restaurant.
Li Yingtang waited in a private room for about an hour before Qin Xian finally arrived.
He was wearing everything she had bought for him.
The outfit made him appear even calmer and more refined.
She couldn’t stop looking at him.
“A’Xian, you’re here! Do you like the clothes?”
Qin Xian lowered his gaze slightly and nodded.
“They’re very warm. Xi Yue said your mother bought them. Is she still around?”
“Didn’t I tell you before? She went out of town.”
She smiled.
“I bought these myself. I only lied because I didn’t want people to think I was showing off.”
Qin Xian chuckled softly.
As if she wasn’t already showing off enough.
“You still have money left?”
He handed her a passbook.
“This is my savings. There are seven hundred yuan in it. Keep it.”
Li Yingtang accepted it without hesitation.
Her mother had once said that the first step for a man to truly give his heart was handing over his money.
A capable woman might choose not to spend it…
But she should still accept it.
Just then, the waiter entered with the menu.
Li Yingtang pushed it toward Qin Xian.
“What would you like?”
He looked through it.
“Roast duck.”
When he was younger, he had always wanted to eat it, but no one had ever taken him.
After he started earning money himself, food had gradually lost its appeal.
For some reason, today his appetite had returned.
“You order the rest.”
Li Yingtang took the menu.
“One stir-fried shrimp—the kind with the shells split open. One roasted rack of lamb. Oh, they have sweet rice wine glutinous rice balls. We’ll have one of those too. Two vegetable dishes: stir-fried greens and shredded wood ear mushrooms. And one winter melon pork rib soup.”
“That’ll do for now.”
Qin Xian couldn’t help asking,
“Isn’t that too much?”
“Not at all.”
After the waiter left, Li Yingtang lifted the bag beside her feet.
“I bought takeaway containers. If we can’t finish everything, we’ll pack it up and bring it back to the village. In this weather, it won’t spoil.”
Qin Xian silently wondered…
How could she be both so thrifty…
and so extravagant at the same time?