Chapter Twenty-Eight Boyfriend

"Jiaojiao, are you feeling better?" Xu Qing walked into Sheng Jiaoyang's room.

Sheng Jiaoyang nodded, her eyes still glued to her phone.

"What are you looking at?" Xu Qing leaned closer.

"Meiniu's new product launch," Sheng Jiaoyang replied without looking up.

"Meiniu? Who's Meiniu?"

Sheng Jiaoyang paused, then said, "She's a celebrity."

A celebrity named Meiniu? Xu Qing patted Sheng Jiaoyang's head and urged, "Go eat first, you haven't had breakfast."

Sheng Jiaoyang responded, picked up her phone, and followed Xu Qing out of the bedroom.

The meat, vegetable, and soup dishes on the table still looked unappetizing.

Xu Qing saw the food she had prepared and remembered the delicious meal she had yesterday at noon, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed.

"Jiaojiao, Mom's cooking isn't very good, just make do for now, don't go hungry. If there's anything you want to eat, Mom will go out and buy it for you later."

"It's okay, let's eat something first, then we'll go out for a walk this afternoon." Sheng Jiaoyang smiled at Xu Qing and started eating.

The two women were quite similar in their cooking skills. Oh, no, speaking of which, Xu's mother's cooking skills were actually better than hers; even she was afraid of herself when she cooked.

"Jiaojiao, you've suffered so much with me all these years. I'm so useless; I can't even cook properly," Xu Qing said self-reproachfully.

Why was she being so sentimental again?

Sheng Jiaoyang raised an eyebrow and put a piece of food into Xu Qing's bowl. "Eat up, finish quickly so we can go out and play. We haven't gone shopping together since we came back from the hospital."

"Is your stomach still hurting?"

"Much better, don't worry, I know my own body best. Eat up!"

Xu Qing looked at the food her daughter had put in her bowl, and a happy smile involuntarily appeared on her face.

Sheng Jiaoyang looked at the easily satisfied woman across from him, and a smile also appeared in his eyes.

After lunch, the two left the neighborhood hand in hand.

"Jiaojiao, where should we go shopping?"

"It's so hot today, let's go to the mall." Sheng Jiaoyang led Xu Qing into the nearest subway station and took the subway to Anyuan Plaza.

Entering the large shopping mall, Xu Qing felt a little uneasy, but then she thought that she was just there to browse and wouldn't buy anything, so she relaxed. She especially cherished this rare opportunity to stroll hand-in-hand with her daughter.

But Sheng Jiaoyang wasn't just there to shop. After moving, she had originally planned to take Xu Qing shopping, but after receiving a call from the production team, she was preoccupied with preparing her own supplies for the competition. Seeing Xu Qing wearing only a few outfits made her feel uneasy. So even though she was still feeling a bit unwell today, she still brought Xu Qing shopping.

******

"This outfit looks good, try it on!"

"This dress looks good on you too, try it on and let me see."

"Great! Come on, change your shoes too."

"Hmm, we're missing a bag, here, take this."

"Perfect, wear it like this. Checkout!"

"Wait." Xu Qing, who had thought they were just shopping, quickly grabbed Sheng Jiaoyang.

“Jiaojiao, these are all so expensive. Let’s forget it, if we want to buy them, we’ll go to the old town…”

“No!” Sheng Jiaoyang grabbed Xu Qing’s shoulder and coaxed, “Sweetie! Isn’t money meant to be spent? Now that I have the means to let you wear the best clothes, why buy ordinary ones? Okay, from now on, you don’t have to worry about anything. I’ll be responsible for earning money to support the family. You just need to be beautiful.”

Xu Qing was amused by Sheng Jiaoyang’s words, but her eyes were still filled with worry.

As bags of clothes were swiped around, Xu Qing’s worry turned into helplessness, and finally into numbness.

She stopped thinking about those things and stopped trying to persuade her daughter not to buy any more. She was busy trying on clothes the whole time.

After leaving the addresses and having the shops deliver the clothes to their door, Sheng Jiaoyang took Xu Qing to a beauty salon empty-handed.

After handing Xu Qing over to the beautician, Sheng Jiaoyang sat on the sofa with her legs crossed and started flipping through a magazine.

Suddenly, her phone rang.

Sheng Jiaoyang pulled out her phone and glanced at it; it was an unknown number.

"Hello?"

"Xu Jiaojiao, you actually blocked my number?" A male voice came from the phone.

"Who are you?" Sheng Jiaoyang tilted her head.

"Your boyfriend!"

"..."

Sheng Jiaoyang hung up and blocked the number again.

Less than two minutes later, another unknown number called.

"What's wrong with you? It's just a stupid competition, and you're already turning your back on me? You weren't like this when you accepted the things I gave you!" As soon as she answered, a barrage of words came through.

"How much?" Sheng Jiaoyang asked impatiently.

"What?"

"How much did you buy me? I'll pay you back!"

There was a pause on the other end of the line, then the boy's tone softened: "I'm not here to ask you to pay me back. That little bit of money is nothing to me. Where are you now? I'll come pick you up."

"Didn't we break up?" Sheng Jiaoyang asked tentatively.

Since he'd blocked her number, this boyfriend was probably gone.

She suddenly remembered that day when Xu Jiaojiao rushed in front of her car; she thought she'd seen Xu Jiaojiao crying then. Could it be that Xu Jiaojiao was devastated by her breakup that day and had run into the driveway in a daze?

"We haven't said we're breaking up..."

"Then let's break up!" Sheng Jiaoyang hung up again.

Then her phone rang again.

Sheng Jiaoyang looked at the caller ID with interest; it was the same number as before. Should she seek justice for Xu Jiaojiao?

When the phone stopped ringing and rang again, she answered.

"Jiaojiao, let me finish. What you heard that day was only part of it. Yes, I admitted I started pursuing you because of a bet with my buddies, but can you honestly say I wasn't sincere? Didn't you agree to be my girlfriend because you felt my genuine feelings? Stop messing around, okay? Let's meet."

It's all a routine! Sheng Jiaoyang curled her lip.

She knew all too well the behavior of those spoiled brats; they were all idle bastards who always got together and did all sorts of nonsense. Xu Jiaojiao was really unlucky; she was doing well in her studies and then this mess happened.

Perhaps because there was no response from this side, the boy on the other end spoke even more politely.

"It's understandable that you're angry with me, but please don't refuse to see me, okay? Tell me where you are, I'll come pick you up."

"Where are you?" Sheng Jiaoyang asked instead of answering.

There was a pause on the other end, "I'm at Anyuan Arcade."

Oh, what a coincidence.

"Then come to the fountain in Anyuan Square." She wanted to see what kind of scumbag this guy who had tricked Xu Jiaojiao looked like.

"You're also at Anyuan Square?"

Sheng Jiaoyang was too lazy to waste words with him and hung up the phone directly.

She went inside, greeted Xu Qing, and said she was going to meet a friend, asking Xu Qing to call her when she was done.

Sheng Jiaoyang walked out of the beauty salon, and when she reached the corner, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck and fainted.

Meanwhile, in the arcade, a boy said to the people around him, "Dude, I'm going to pick someone up."

"Go ahead, go ahead, I can't wait to see the transformed ugly duckling."

The boy smiled, took his buddy's phone, walked out of the arcade, went to the fountain in the square, waited and waited, and made many calls, but there was no answer.

A full half hour later, he realized he had been stood up.

Damn it! Xu Jiaojiao, you're something else!!