“Where are you going?” Gu Zhou buckled his seatbelt and asked casually.
“The Blue Coffeehouse. Thank you.”
Qiao Nian’s phone buzzed again. Seeing that it was a text from Qiao Xin, she quietly turned it off.
Gu Zhou didn’t say anything. He began to drive.
Along the way, the two of them didn’t interact much. When they arrived, Gu Zhou stopped the car and turned to say to Qiao Nian, “If you need anything, look for me!”
His voice was clear yet mellow, just like a fine wine.
“Thank you.” Qiao Nian smiled.
When she stepped into the coffee shop, Qiao Nian could see Qiao Xin sitting by the window from afar.
Qiao Xin was wearing a white dress today. If Qiao Nian recalled correctly, this dress was a limited edition LV product.
When Qiao Xin saw Qiao Nian, she immediately stood up, looking at her worriedly. “Sister, I heard last night that you had fainted. Are you alright?”
Qiao Nian looked at the false smile on Qiao Xin’s face. Sneering, she rebuked, “I thought you yearned for me to die sooner!”
“Sister!” Qiao Xin put on a shocked facade, then shook her head hard and said, “Have you been possessed by a demon? How can you say such nonsense?”
At that moment, Qiao Xin seemed to remember something. She took out a branded handbag with an LV tag from a shopping bag. “I bought this specially for you a few days ago.”
One who is unaccountably solicitous is usually hiding evil intentions.
What disgusted Qiao Nian the most was that Qiao Xin had given her a fake handbag.
“No, thank you.” Qiao Nian looked at Qiao Xin expressionlessly and continued, “I don’t like carrying fake handbags.”
A wave of awkwardness surged in the air between them. Qiao Xin looked at the handbag on the table. She didn’t know whether to take it back or not.
“How… how is this possible?” Qiao Xin stammered. She immediately took the handbag off the table and put it back into the shopping bag. “I’ll turn back and demand an explanation from the store later!”
If Qiao Xin hadn’t tried to defend herself, Qiao Nian might think that Qiao Xin had really bought the wrong handbag without meaning to, but seeing Qiao Xin’s reaction, she knew with certainty that Qiao Xin had intentionally bought a fake handbag.
“Sister, the graduation banquet for the university is taking place today. Would you like to join us? If Sister didn’t drop out of school back then, I think you probably would have graduated this year.” As Qiao Xin spoke, she began to regain confidence in herself.
She recalled how, during the previous banquet for medical students, Qiao Nian had bribed Teacher Liu and forced him to say that she was a PhD student, just so she could save face.
Recalling this now, it was all Qiao Xin could do to not burst out in laughter.
She had initially wanted Qiao Nian to appear at the graduation banquet with a fake handbag. When that happened, Qiao Nian would once again become a laughing stock.
What a pity that Qiao Nian had immediately identified it as a fake handbag.
Qiao Nian sat there and looked at Qiao Xin, her expression blank. If she wasn’t wrong, Qiao Xin had brought this handbag here today so that Qiao Nian, a student who had dropped out of school before completing her degree, would carry a fake handbag to the school’s graduation banquet. She clearly wanted Qiao Nian to be humiliated.
Qiao Nian’s eyes flashed with disdain. Without hesitation, she refused Qiao Xin’s invitation. “I won’t go!”
“Sister, Brother Su Yan will be speaking at the banquet today as well. Don’t you want to see him?” Qiao Xin tilted her head and looked at Qiao Nian innocently.
Back then, when reading through Qiao Nian’s diary, Qiao Xin had realized that Qiao Nian had a crush on Su Yan.
“I heard that the two of you are already a couple. Are you trying to act as a pimp for your boyfriend?” Qiao Nian raised her eyebrow and asked with a smile.
Qiao Xin’s expression suddenly changed, but she calmed down just as quickly.
Qiao Nian was indeed from a poor family in the mountains. Her words were so crass.
“Sister, what are you saying?” Qiao Nian smiled lightly and continued, “If other people hear you, they might think that you’re unrefined. It’ll affect your image.”
“Since you’re already willing to act as a pimp, why can’t others say so?” Smiling, Qiao Nian retorted..
