“Suits? Take a look at this one!” Seeing customers, the shopkeeper immediately took down the one hanging outside to attract business and began to boast. “This is handmade by an Italian master craftsman. Oh, the original price is tens of thousands! Today it’s on sale, only five thousand bucks!”
“Five thousand?” Cheng Buxi pouted suspiciously, thinking to herself, a few hundred yuan item and they dare to ask for five thousand. Without saying a word, she first turned the collar over, then felt the side stitching—it was rough. She knew the score. Frowning, she said, “How about a discount?”
The shopkeeper didn’t budge. “Minimum five thousand, not a cent less!”
Cheng Buxi couldn’t stand the shopkeeper’s false advertising. If this were really handmade by an Italian master, she would eat the shop sign on the spot. In her elder brother’s wardrobe, every piece was top luxury brands worth tens of thousands. She had seen plenty of fabrics and wools. She could tell a donkey from a horse at a glance.
She held the garment out to the shopkeeper. “The lapel buttonhole is obviously machine-stitched. How could it be hand-stitched? Real hand-stitching is clean and three-dimensional.” Then she felt the sleeve vent. “Oh, and this is fake too. Real buttonholes can be unbuttoned.”
As if just noticing the collar issue, she grew more dejected. Now it wasn’t even worth a few hundred. “The lapel is also fused, the facing is loose. It’s clearly fusible interfacing, not handmade but machine-made.”
The shopkeeper was stunned speechless. Ning Ci beside her was also quite surprised, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Finally, she set the price. “Flat rate, five hundred.” The shopkeeper got angry. “Five hundred? You might as well rob me!” He snatched the garment from her hands. “Not selling, not selling!”
Cheng Buxi pouted. “Who wants it anyway?” Turning back, she met Ning Ci’s meaningful gaze. Indeed, some fetishes were strange. At this moment, Cheng Buxi found the way he narrowed his eyes very sexy, like a feline preparing to hunt.
“...” She swallowed, a little dazed. She tried to get him to go to another store, but he seemed set on it. She could tell he really liked this one. “You... you really like this one?”
His gaze fell on her eyes and hair, deepening and lightening. After a moment, he said, “Mm, yeah, I just like this one. The others don’t catch my eye. What should I do?”
Cheng Buxi could understand. After all, the cut of this garment was indeed well-designed; at first glance under the lights, it looked decent. Otherwise, the shopkeeper wouldn’t have dared to ask such an exorbitant price. “...But, but this suit isn’t worth five thousand at all,” she murmured in protest.
Ning Ci let out a sigh, looking regretful, as if lamenting what to do. Seeing him downcast, a ridiculous thought popped into Cheng Buxi’s head—she actually felt like spending a fortune! She could understand King You of Zhou lighting beacon fires to amuse his concubine. It was just money, right? Huang Zitao said it’s not that it’s not worth it, but that you don’t love enough.
She gritted her teeth and shouted, “Buy it!” Ning Ci was quite shocked, his eyes wide in surprise. He hadn’t expected her to go this far for him. Then he burst into laughter and pulled her close to stand next to him. “Buy what? I was just messing with you. I wouldn’t even wear this suit if you gave it to me.”
Cheng Buxi: “...” She could feel his firm torso under the hoodie, solid muscles. A strange feeling spread in her heart.
“Really...?” “How could it be fake? Come on, let’s hit the food stalls. I’m starving.”
Cheng Buxi hesitated. “...Are you sure you don’t want it? Actually, actually I...” She wanted to say she had money. Ning Ci felt like knocking her on the head. “I’m poor, not stupid. A suit worth a few hundred, and they dare to ask five thousand? They think I’m a sucker.”
“Let’s go.” With that, he pulled her out of the store.
They walked around but didn’t buy anything, and by tacit agreement, they sat by the street to eat steaming hot oden.
“Can you stop calling me Miss Cheng?” Cheng Buxi suggested with a fish cake in her mouth.
“Then what should I call you?” “Call me Xiaoxi, or... Koukou.”
“Koukou?” “That’s my nickname. Mm... the ‘kou’ in ‘button’.”
“The ‘kou’ that means ‘to fasten’?” Ning Ci raised an eyebrow. Cheng Buxi’s expression darkened. “Mm, that one.”
“That’s not very nice. When’s your birthday?” He asked, arms crossed on the table.
“Mm... May 20th. My family said that year it was just Xiaoman (Grain Buds).”
Hearing this, Ning Ci’s heart stirred, and he smiled. “How about I call you Xiaoman?”
Cheng Buxi: “...Huh?” “You’re sharp-tongued and born on Xiaoman. ‘Man’ as in ‘Xiaoman sheng wanquan’—a small gain surpasses perfection.”
The day of Xiaoman is also called ‘Wanquan Festival’ (Festival of Complete Perfection).
Cheng Buxi was stunned for a moment, unable to speak for a long time. She had been separated from her parents since childhood and raised by Mrs. Lu. The Lu family was wealthy beyond measure; she had seen and heard everything. But hearing these words from Ning Ci’s mouth had a different flavor.
Her heart was restless at this moment. At least tonight, at this very moment. His appearance was like a towering wave, sweeping her into another colorful world.
“What, don’t you like it?” Cheng Buxi shook her head, mumbling, “It’s much better than Koukou.” “Alright, I’ll take that as agreement.” “...Okay.” Ning Ci smiled.
It was already 9:30, and the streets were still bustling with people. Accompanied by Ning Ci, Cheng Buxi ate stinky tofu that she had been craving for a long time at a street stall, and also tried roasted silkworm pupae, which she had never tasted before.
When she was little, a mischievous kid from a mean neighbor tricked her into going out and scared her with roasted centipedes. She couldn’t eat for three whole days afterward, and her elder brother had also scowled for three days.
Today she summoned the courage to try. Ning Ci asked her how it tasted. Her expression twisted, and finally she said, “I couldn’t taste it... I just swallowed it whole...” Ning Ci sighed.
In the end, she decided to completely give up on such foods, never to touch them again. Having been out for so long, she had unknowingly gotten carried away and forgotten her earlier promises from the daytime.
So much so that when her contact labeled [Brother] sent her several messages at nine o’clock, her phone was on silent. She was still playing bumper cars at the amusement park. Ning Ci’s skills were extraordinary; she sat beside him, bullying others using his power, and even made an arrogant kid cry. She ignored all the messages. When she finally noticed, the chat page only had two cold words: “Where are you?”