Chapter 18: Cunning Anna

"Swipe it."

Ryan nodded casually and smiled, "We’re very satisfied with your service today."

"Keep pretending!!!"

Tina looked at Manager Ginny with disdain and said, "Still acting at this point? Your performance is so poor. You’ve been talking forever but still won’t swipe."

"How about Kai and I leave first and save you some face, so it won’t be so ugly when you get hauled off in a police car."

Seeing her smug face, Manager Ginny snapped out of it. Afraid that Anna might change her mind, she quickly keyed in the amount and swiped the card.

"Beep... Diamond VIP payment successful."

"Amount received: 400,000 dollars. Finance department has recorded the transaction."

The voice wasn’t loud, barely audible, but in that instant, the air froze in dead silence.

"Ryan, let’s go!"

Anna interlaced her fingers with Ryan’s affectionately and walked away, deliberately bumping into the stunned Tina as they passed.

"How... how is that possible!!!"

Tina stood there like a zombie, muttering to herself.

Manager Ginny escorted them all the way to the elevator. Kai’s eyes turned red as he grabbed the server who’d processed the payment and said, "Call your boss right now, the machine must be broken."

"400,000 dollars! Four hundred thousand! How could they possibly have that much money?"

The server he grabbed happened to be the one who’d gotten the 2,000-dollar tip. She yanked her hand away, and meeting Tina’s dazed gaze, she didn’t hold back either.

"Sir, just because you can’t afford it doesn’t mean others can’t."

"This Ms. Anna is currently our hotel’s top spender. She topped up 1 million dollars in the lobby earlier."

"You can ask your father about it, the whole hotel knows. Our general manager has already told us to take good care of them."

With that, she walked off proudly. Tina murmured, "I never knew Anna was that rich???"

Kai gritted his teeth and said, "No, no, it must be money from some old man keeping her. That has to be it..."

"She’s doing this to make me jealous, letting Ryan be a kept man. Yes, that’s it!!!"

"A simp is still a simp. A worthless loser like that, a broke joke, there’s no way it was his money."

Whatever the truth, that was 400,000 dollars in real money. Tina had lost all interest in anything now. The humiliation had gone too far.

Looking at the other diners and the servers’ contemptuous stares, she wished she could crawl into a hole.

"Let’s... let’s go!!!"

Kai paid and they went downstairs together. He kept rambling about how he’d have his dad investigate the truth.

"Tina, let’s go to the mall next door!!"

Kai still wouldn’t give up.

Thinking about the iPhone 17 that was supposed to be hers, now in Anna’s hands, Tina felt a twinge of regret.

This birthday had been anything but happy. All she’d gotten was a lousy bouquet, which she couldn’t even be bothered to take. She’d have nothing to show for it tonight, how could she even sleep?

"Fine."

Tina replied stiffly, walking ahead alone. Kai followed and tried to hold her hand, but she subtly pulled away.

"Ryan, you look so handsome. But why don’t you like to dress up?"

At the expensive salon in the mall, a haircut and wash cost 300 dollars, a place Ryan would never have set foot in normally.

He only had 2,000 dollars left of his own money. His eyes darted as he thought about having her pay, to save some money himself.

According to the system rules, he couldn’t spend money on himself. If he swiped on her then got it back, he figured that kind of loophole probably wouldn’t work.

Ryan, who’d had a messy mop of hair, got a clean buzz cut. He looked fresh and neat.

Though he was always insecure, feeling like a nobody, now he seemed almost handsome, a bit rugged and good-looking. His whole demeanor suddenly carried a newfound confidence.

Anna quickly paid the bill. Ryan pretended not to see it, and after walking out of the styling store, he started getting restless.

There were plenty of luxury stores in this mall, and he could take the chance to spend more money on Anna while they shopped.

"Ding... Anna’s affection -20."

From the negative numbers at the beginning, now whenever she looked at Ryan, she couldn’t help but smile.

"Ding... Anna’s affection 90."

From the moment she found out he was her number one supporter on the livestream, and was shocked to confirm that fact, it had jumped to 50... shooting up 70 points from the negative.

From topping up her card, ordering food, ordering that bottle of Louis XIII, all the way until they left, her affection had soared all the way to 90.

You could only say that money is omnipotent. Throwing money around like this, even the campus beauty could be in his arms. Sure enough, the charm of a sugar daddy is limitless.

Anna’s eyes were full of little stars.

As soon as they walked out, she directly hugged Ryan’s arm, her full chest pressing tightly against him through their clothes, letting him enjoy that fullness and elasticity.

"Ryan, let’s go in and take a look!"

They arrived at a brand-name men’s sportswear store. Seeing the casual clothes on Ryan, Anna cleverly figured out his style.

The price tags on even a simple T-shirt and shorts started at a few hundred at minimum, which was a bit extravagant for Ryan.

"Let’s not, my clothes are still wearable."

Ryan was a bit guilty, because if he bought clothes for himself, he wouldn’t be able to pay. He only had that little bit of living expenses left.

Ryan quickly said, "Let’s go check out women’s clothes instead. I’ll buy you a few more bags."

Hearing that, Anna became even more certain of her intentions.

She had to win over this wealthy young man. From his history of being a simp and his reactions, he seemed like someone who had never been in a relationship before.

He usually kept such a low profile, it must be because of his family’s rules, to keep him from getting involved with random gold-digging women.

Normally, if she heard someone offer to buy her a few bags, Anna would be thrilled and would immediately assess how much money that person could spend on her.

But definitely not now. She couldn’t let Ryan think she was a greedy gold-digger. Once that impression was formed, it would ruin everything.

She had to give back too. She had to make him feel her tenderness and affection, so she could win him over step by step.

After all, he had simped over Tina for three years, with such deep feelings as a foundation. Anna was determined not to give Tina any chance for a "first love" comeback.

"No, you’re so good to me, I want to do something for you too. Let me buy you some clothes as a gift."

With this stunning beauty acting a little spoiled, Ryan’s bones went soft.

Hearing that he didn’t have to spend his pitiful living expenses, Ryan let her drag him limply into the store.

Coming from an art background, Anna was in her element as soon as she entered the clothing store. In no time, she had put together several outfits for Ryan.

His ten-dollar flip-flops were replaced with a trendy pair of six-hundred-dollar slippers. The total came to over ten thousand.

As they walked out of the store, Ryan said emotionally, "Thank you. This is the first time I’ve received such a precious gift."

A wealthy young man like him, who must have seen all kinds of fine things, was now so moved, it was almost unbelievable.

Anna felt sweet inside too. Over ten thousand was nothing, she thought it was cheap and regretted not going to a more expensive store.

She interpreted his words differently. These clothes were precious because they were from her, Anna, it was practically a heartfelt confession.

"Ryan, don’t say thank you between us, okay? It sounds so distant."

Anna said coquettishly, "If you dress sharper, I’ll have more face when we’re on our dates. Besides, compared to how good you are to me, this is nothing."

What do you call a narrow escape? It’s when they ran into Tina and her group again just a few steps later.

They had just walked out of the Apple store, holding the latest iPhone 17s, and the dejected looks on their faces had turned into smiles.