Chapter 6: The Ugly Duckling
On Friday, around ten o'clock, the driver arrived. Xia Cheng went downstairs and was taken to the city police station by the driver.
Xun Youdong had made arrangements, so Xia Cheng only needed to sign and got the certificate in a short while.
She asked the driver to take her to the city center. Chen Kelin's birthday was coming, and she wanted to choose a birthday present for Chen Kelin.
"Uncle Zhang, please go first."
After Xia Cheng got off the car, the driver nodded and left. It was difficult to park in this area.
Considering that both she and Kelin are students and Kelin's family is a dual-income family, Xia Cheng estimated the budget and didn't want to give her something that would burden her.
She picked and chose, and finally set her eyes on a humidifier. She also planned to buy a bracelet for her best friend, which would be considered a token of her appreciation.
Xia Cheng ignored gold and silver, things whose prices could be determined at a glance. She chose a purple-red gemstone in the flagship store of Jinfei Shopping Mall. It was cut into a teardrop shape, surrounded by twisted and wrapped metal, and the metal was embedded with tiny sparkling diamonds. It was exquisite and low-key.
"This is it!" She paid for two pairs and put on her own pair first. When the clerk was packing Chen Kelin's, Xia Cheng was sitting in the lounge and heard a familiar voice.
"Xiao Lin, my birthday just passed and you're giving me another gift. You won't ask me to return it in the future, will you?"
Xia Cheng looked over and met the visitor's gaze. Both of them were stunned, obviously not expecting to meet each other here.
Xun Mo was wearing a purple skirt today, which made her waistline look thin and straight. She was the first to react, waving her arms exaggeratedly and shouting:
"elder sister!"
Xia Cheng stood up slowly, and when someone approached, he replied indifferently:
"I didn't expect to see you here."
Xun Mo noticed the chain on Xia Cheng's hand at a glance. She exclaimed and lifted Xia Cheng's arm:
"Sister, did you buy a new ruby? But yours is not bright or evenly colored, and the design is from a few years ago. It's outdated."
Here it comes again... Xia Cheng felt a little choked up, she pulled back her arm and hid it behind her:
"Of course my taste isn't as good as yours, but if you have such good taste, why did you end up in the same store as me?"
"Someone brought me here, and boys don't understand these things."
Xia Cheng then noticed the man standing not far from Xun Mo and narrowed her eyes slightly:
"Really? Then you should tell him that the food here is not good and he should leave quickly."
"There's no need to be so rude."
Lin Minghe took a few steps forward and stood between the two women. He was tall and had long legs. When he spoke to Xia Cheng, he neither lowered his head nor bent his waist. He just lowered his eyes, and had a condescending attitude.
"Xun Mo was just reminding you that your purchase was not good, why did you chase her away?"
Xia Cheng was speechless and looked at this nosy man:
"Who are you?"
Lin Minghe didn't expect that someone wouldn't recognize him. As a swimmer who had just won the world championship, he was at the peak of his career and had received many endorsements. The big screens on the street corners were all filled with the advertisements he had shot a few days ago.
So he reached out, supported his chin, and looked at the woman in front of him who was disconnected from the outside world.
She had a beautiful oval face, a thin and small nose, rosy and plump lips, and slightly drooping eyes. Although her eyes were clearly wet, she looked at him coldly with some contempt.
She wore a light yellow dress that accentuated her fair skin, and her hair was smooth and lush, cascading down her chest.
Such a delicate face made Lin Minghe forget to answer for a moment.
"You...you are Xun Mo's sister?"
"Um."
"The one from the country?"
"Um."
"How is that possible!"
After hearing that the daughter of the Xun family was found, Lin Minghe automatically classified Xia Cheng as someone who had escaped from a remote mountainous area, had her legs broken and her tongue pulled out, and was skinny and small due to hunger.
He really didn't expect that the glamorous woman in front of him would be Xun Mo's sister.
"Lin Minghe! How dare you talk to my sister like that!" Xun Mo pulled Lin Minghe aside and said sternly:
"My sister just came back. She's not very experienced, so what's the problem with her bad temper? Why are you so fierce?"
"Am I... fierce?" Lin Minghe pointed at himself in disbelief.
When Xia Cheng heard the man's name, she suddenly realized that he was Lin Minghe, Xun Mo's lackey!
When she passed by Xun Mo's room, she often heard them talking on the phone. It seemed that Lin Minghe had liked Xun Mo for a long time.
She began to look at Lin Minghe straight in the eye. He was dressed casually in a beige linen suit with his sleeves rolled up. The exposed part of his forearm had distinct muscles and veins, and he looked strong and sturdy.
He wore sunglasses and had his collar pulled down, revealing a bulging chest that looked impressive from exercise. His face, however, didn't match his muscular build. It was a clean, fair complexion with round, drooping eyes, thick eyebrows, and a high nose bridge. He looked handsome in a childish way. When he spoke, the first thing that caught your attention was his perfectly white teeth.
Xia Cheng lowered her eyes, and seeing that Lin Minghe was still looking at her, she slowly lowered her head and used her ultimate move:
"I'm sorry... I'm a person of limited experience and I don't know how to speak properly. If my tone just now made you uncomfortable, I apologize. I just came from the countryside and I don't know anything. I don't know how to choose gemstones. This is also my first time in a luxury store. I won't come here again."
"I...I didn't mean that!" Lin Minghe was dumbfounded. He just said a few words to defend Xun Mo, but why did it make people feel so guilty?
Is it true that people from small places are more fragile and simple?
He was still thinking about how to apologize, but Xia Cheng was already sobbing with her head down.
She grabbed her thigh hard, forcing out two tears, which wet her eyelashes and trembled in clusters.
The person who was not wearing any makeup now looked even more fragile, as haggard as a flower hit by frost.
When the two men saw her crying, they were both puzzled.
Xun Mo turned her head and saw that Lin Minghe's eyes were always focused on Xia Cheng. Feeling ignored, she stamped her feet, spoiled and impatient:
"No, why are you crying? I didn't scold you, and Lin Minghe didn't scold you either!"
Xia Cheng continued with what Xun Mo had just said to accuse Lin Minghe:
"I'm sorry... I just felt that Mr. Lin was a bit fierce, and I was so scared..."
Without waiting for Lin Minghe to explain, Xia Cheng seized the opportunity, took the jewelry packed by the teller and rushed out.
The teller didn't react for a moment.
Lin Minghe turned on the camera on his phone with some suspicion, looked at it for a moment, made a few fierce expressions, and asked Xun Mo:
"Am I fierce? Do I have a temperament that makes me intimidating even without getting angry?"
"What's there to be entangled about?" Xun Mo pushed Lin Minghe away and turned to look in the direction of Xia Cheng.
"Why are you crying?" She pursed her lips and muttered to herself.
In her opinion, tears only come from not getting what one wants, and those tears are a mixture of anger, unwillingness and helplessness.
Xia Cheng's tears made her feel uneasy. She had completely forgotten that she had shed such tears more than once and embarrassed Xia Cheng. Now she just tasted a little bit of it. Seeing that Lin Minghe's attention was diverted, she became annoyed.
She hated the feeling she had now. Ever since Xia Cheng came back, everyone was paying attention to her. She had to use all her energy to get back what had belonged to her before. How much she wanted to exclude Xia Cheng.
But it was impossible. Bloodline was too important. She knew her place. Everything she had depended on whose daughter she was. That was why, when facing Xia Cheng, she couldn't help but speak her mind. Perhaps she could hold it back, but she didn't want to. So what if she was sarcastic? Only when she saw Xia Cheng's face full of embarrassment and awkwardness did she feel relieved.
After a year of teasing, she could feel that Xia Cheng had changed. That painful expression rarely appeared. This was not the change Xun Mo wanted to see. The ugly duckling should always be ugly.
Lin Minghe didn't care that Xun Mo ignored him. Xun Mo had been pestering him for souvenirs since she saw him coming back from abroad, but he had completely forgotten about them after the competition, so he had to take her to buy a new one.
He put on sunglasses, bared his teeth and asked the teller: "Am I fierce?"
"It's okay, it's okay." The teller was so amused by his expression that he covered his mouth and dared not laugh out loud.
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