Chapter 154: The Desired Explanation

Chapter 154: Chapter 154: The Desired Explanation

"Zhang Yun!"

Ouyang Mingruo snapped back to reality and screamed, but she could no longer make out Zhang Yun’s figure. Ignoring the oncoming traffic, she hastily dashed across the street, only to find no trace of him. She stopped and looked around, realizing he must have walked even further away.

Stomping her feet in anxiety, Ouyang Mingruo hurried to pull out her phone. Assuming he wouldn’t pick up, she sent a voice message. "What is wrong with you! Running away to go home just like that? Could you be any more childish! At least explain yourself!"

After a moment’s thought, she added another message. "I’m waiting right where I am. I won’t leave until you come back. If I run into any danger, it’s all on you!"

After hitting send, she felt a bit uneasy. Would he think she was threatening him? Threatening him with her own safety didn’t make much sense, did it?

"Hurry up and come back. You can eat whatever you want—McDonald’s, KFC, anything is fine. Didn’t you say the suit was too formal? I’ll take you to buy casual clothes, or sportswear if you prefer. Didn’t I say you could get whatever Adidas or Nike you wanted before? Given the cotton controversy now, how about we go for Li-Ning or Anta instead?

"If you don’t come back, I’m going to keep sending you voice messages until you’re annoyed to death!

"Remember how I spammed you with red envelopes before? Do you want to experience voice message spam?"

Ouyang Mingruo couldn’t resist sending another message every ten seconds or so, standing alone on the street, murmuring into her phone. However, Zhang Yun didn’t reply to a single one. She had no idea if he even saw them.

Should she video call him? Ouyang Mingruo slapped her forehead. Did he even bring his phone with him? If he hadn’t, he would probably go back to get it. Was he already back at the apartment entrance? But... nowadays, people might forget their keys, but they would never forget their phones, right?

Ouyang Mingruo felt incredibly frustrated. Just then, she spotted those women coming out of the restaurant across the street.

Right! Why not ask her?

Mingruo immediately rushed across the road and chased after them. "Stop right there!"

The women had just finished their morning tea and were planning to go back and catch up on some sleep. Suddenly being stopped by Ouyang Mingruo, they were all taken aback.

"You’re that... woman from earlier?" The girl from Xiaobei Village recognized Ouyang Mingruo. She almost blurted out "sugar mama" but swallowed the words, changing it to "woman."

"I have a question. Why do you know Zhang Yun’s name? Do clients actually tell you their real names?" Mingruo had faintly caught onto a loophole.

The girl scoffed. "Does Zhang Yun know your name?"

Ouyang Mingruo lifted her chin. "Of course he does!"

"You tell him your real name, and he tells us his real name. Isn’t it the same thing?"

Ouyang Mingruo was momentarily stunned. "Wait a minute! What do you mean? My relationship with him is entirely different from yours!"

"Hahaha..." The women all burst into laughter.

"We’re the ones receiving the money, and you’re the one paying it. Of course it’s different," one said.

"Hey, gorgeous, looking at your clothes, you’re clearly rich. You’re just hiring a gigolo, are you really catching feelings? Are you actually jealous of Coco?"

"Let me put it this way: gigolos make good money but have zero dignity in front of you clients. So they turn around and come to us to buy their dignity back. They’re all trash!"

Ouyang Mingruo looked at one woman, then another, finally grasping the meaning behind their words. "I’m warning you, don’t talk nonsense! Zhang Yun isn’t a gigolo... He’s a good man!" After saying that, she remembered the incident from earlier and silently added in her head, "A good man with a few bad habits, maybe. At least he’s very good in certain aspects."

The women all sneered, as if they had just stumbled upon something incredibly amusing. Coco was likely the "stage name" of the girl from Xiaobei Village. Suppressing her laughter, she said, "I’m just going to ask you a few simple questions. All you have to do is nod or shake your head. Is that okay?"

Ouyang Mingruo furrowed her brows. She had come to ask questions; how had it turned into an interrogation? But in order to figure out what was going on with Zhang Yun, she swallowed her pride and gave a slight nod.

"Did he stay at your place last night?"

"Did you buy the clothes he’s wearing?"

"When you guys went for morning tea just now, did you foot the bill?"

"Were you planning to take him shopping later?"

To all four questions, Ouyang Mingruo nodded.

"Well, there you have it," Coco declared. "If you think calling him a gigolo is too blunt, how about a boy toy you’re keeping?

"Oh? You stormed off out of jealousy earlier, and your boy toy followed you out. So why are you alone?

"My, my! You must have chased your boy toy away with a scolding, and now you want to come yell at Coco too? Tsk, tsk, we are classy socialites. We won’t get into a catfight on the street with a shrew like you!"

Ouyang Mingruo was so angry she nearly threw up blood. In their eyes, that was the kind of relationship she and Zhang Yun had? She was a street shrew, and they were classy socialites?

"I’m not here to yell at anyone. I just want to understand what exactly your relationship is..." Ouyang Mingruo looked at Coco.

Coco frowned. "Do you really want to know?"

"Please. I can... treat you all..."

"Save it! No one cares for your treat."

"Tch! If we wanted someone to treat us, I could just crook my finger and a whole bunch of simps looking for a freebie would come running!"

They openly expressed their disdain.

Coco smiled with a hint of mockery. "The reason you got jealous earlier was because you heard Zhang Yun say I cost 1,200 a time and 2,000 a night, right? The only reason you want to ’understand our relationship’ is because you’re hoping I’ll give you a specific answer: that Zhang Yun never actually hired me!"

Ouyang Mingruo fell silent. She did indeed want to hear exactly that, but she still murmured softly, "He said I don’t understand him, so I just want to understand him better..."

The women instantly clicked their tongues, realizing that this young sugar mama had fallen hard for that handsome boy toy.

Coco laughed. "Of course he hired me. He was introduced by someone else and added me himself. Otherwise, how would I know his name is Zhang Yun?"

Although Ouyang Mingruo already knew this, she still felt a sting in her heart. Since he hired her, everything that was supposed to happen must have happened. Would anyone spend two thousand bucks just to get a good night’s sleep? And someone else had introduced them! That meant he had shady friends with the same terrible habits, and they even shared girls with each other!

"I won’t mess with you anymore," Coco said. "He and I are from the same place. People back home set us up on a blind date. When he added me, he said it was an introduction by an acquaintance. I assumed he was a client, so I just went straight to telling him my prices and whatnot. Later on, I deleted him..."

"You’re saying Zhang Yun was set up on a blind date with you by an acquaintance? He only knows your prices because you misunderstood and sent them to him?" Ouyang Mingruo’s eyes widened in sudden, pleasant surprise.

"Hmph! Don’t get happy too early. By the looks of it, you’re completely smitten by him. You think he truly loves you, and you’re enjoying this ’true love.’ But what a pity. Look at your respective statuses! Look at the huge gap between you! You’ll get tired of him after a while, and he’s only in it to drain your wallet!"

"Exactly! If he loved you, would he still be going on a blind date with Coco? It means he’s raked in enough money from you and wants to find a good girl and settle down! And Coco just happens to be looking for a nice, honest guy to take the bait, hahaha..."

"Oh, shut up! I might do what I do, but I’m a good girl too, okay?" Coco didn’t mind her colleagues’ teasing and said generously, "At first, I thought things wouldn’t work out since he knew about my profession. But now that I know he’s in the same line of work, it’s a different story. I’m going to add him back..."

Ouyang Mingruo couldn’t bear to listen anymore. She already knew the truth; she had gotten the explanation she wanted! "Zhang Yun would never fall for you! And I won’t let him get away either! I’m warning you, stay away from him!"

"Tch! You think having money makes you so great?"

"Do you know how to please a man like we do? Is your Kung Fu as good as ours?"

"You gigolo-buying green tea b*tch!"

Furious, Ouyang Mingruo turned around and walked away. She had no desire to get into a catfight with them on the street... She needed to go find Zhang Yun!