Chapter 01. Do XX women have better luck?
If the time is too long, it will seem that you have no market; if it is too short, men will think you are heartless; if it is too precise, it will seem that you are still obsessed with your last relationship. She confidently believes that this is the perfect answer.
Ruan Tang hadn't expected Jia Yingjun to actually ask her out, especially late at night, in the rooftop lounge of a five-star hotel. She couldn't tell if the wine was good or not, she just thought the view was lovely. Standing on tiptoe at the edge of the rooftop, she felt like she could peer through Beijing to her hometown.
Before coming, Ruan Tang received the location sent by Jia Yingjun. After hesitating for a moment, she changed into a set of secret underwear, but chose a conservative long skirt as her outer garment.
When the waiter placed the cocktail in front of Ruan Tang, he also attached a card with the words "Life is good" written on it. She suddenly felt that the scene was a little unreal. When she picked up her mobile phone to take a picture, Jia Yingjun even kindly asked if she wanted help with fill-in lighting.
After taking the photos, Jia Yingjun handed her the blanket he had just asked the waiter for, and asked her if she wanted to go to Tadao Ando's exhibition in a few days.
Seeing that Ruan Tang seemed not to have heard of it, he continued to explain that it was a Japanese architectural master with a unique style that was worth seeing.
"I didn't expect you're interested in architecture. I'll have to do some research before going to the exhibition." Ruan Tang smiled frankly. For her, when a man's topic touched upon her blind spots, it was all right to praise him.
In fact, Ruan Tang had anticipated that Jia Yingjun would be a tough nut to crack long before she came. He was a Beijing native, a rising entrepreneur, and his business was in the skin care and beauty industry, which was closely related to women. He had good taste and was not short of money.
It is the ideal choice for almost 80% of women of marriageable age.
The process of Ruan Tang and Jia Yingjun's acquaintance is also extremely dramatic. Simply put, Ruan Tang accidentally met Feng Xue, a good brother who was disguised as Jia Yingjun and arranged blind dates for him. After a brief mental evaluation, he immediately launched an offensive against the fake Jia Yingjun and even went to his company, which resulted in a misunderstanding.
Not to mention, the man in front of her is the mortal enemy of her best friend Xu Wei.
Ruan Tang guessed that he probably saw her as a money-worshipping lowlife. No, maybe even worse. Jia Yingjun took a sip of his wine and asked, "When was the last time you were in love?"
Ruan Tang calmly gave a perfect answer: "About six months ago." Too long would make you seem unreliable, too short would make men think you're heartless, and too precise would make it seem like you're still obsessed with your last relationship. She confidently believed this was the perfect answer.
Jia Yingjun picked up the wine glass, shook it, handed it to Ruan Tang, and said that the wine was good.
Ruan Tang chuckled and raised her glass to clink glasses with him.
Logically, with the ambiguity at its peak, Ruan Tang should have taken the wine glass and taken a sip from the spot where he had drunk previously. However, based on their few previous interactions, Ruan Tang suspected that he was a bit of a germaphobe.
Her action seemed to win some favor from Jia Yingjun, who said that he liked racing, traveling, and playing ball in his spare time, and asked Ruan Tang what she liked to do.
Ruan Tang was surprised: "I also like traveling and sports!"
"Oh? What sports do you like?"
"Something like aerial yoga. I've been doing it with Pamela lately!"
Jia Yingjun didn't seem surprised by the answer. He laughed and glanced at her arms, which were so thin that they seemed to be easily broken. He casually agreed that Pamela did have a good figure.
While Jia Yingjun stood up to pay the bill, Ruan Tang quickly put on some lipstick on her phone, and then took out the refillable perfume and sprayed it on the blanket provided by the bar.
When Jia Yingjun came back, Ruan Tang handed the blanket to him and said with an apologetic smile, "I need to go to the bathroom. Can you please return it?"
While in the bathroom, Ruan Tang received her thirteenth video call from her mother. Seeing her heavily made-up and in an unfamiliar environment, her mother's concern immediately filled the screen: "It's so late, why haven't you come home yet?"
"I'm having dinner with friends outside." Ruan Tang used powder to suppress the oiliness on the wings of her nose and answered in a low voice.
"What friend? A male friend?" the mother kept asking, her tone full of vigilance.
Ruan Tang frowned: "What's wrong with being a man? I'm 26, not 16!"
Her indifference only increased her mother's worries. Her voice was almost pleading: "Girls should respect themselves. Don't stay out so late with others casually. It will make men look down on you. You have to consider your reputation and future..."
"Okay, okay, I'll go home right away, okay?" Ruan Tang hung up the video impatiently.
As soon as she walked out of the bathroom, she saw Jia Yingjun standing not far away waiting for her. When he saw her come out, he asked, "Where are you going?"
Ruan Tang smiled: "It's time to go home."
At this moment, Jia Yingjun had a few drinks and put away his usual nonchalant attitude. He nodded, took out his cell phone and was about to call a taxi for her.
Ruan Tang quickly reached out to hold his hand and said no need.
"I'm sorry." She clearly felt his body stiffen, as if he was particularly averse to such physical contact, so she quickly withdrew her hand.
Ruan Tang gritted her teeth and called a private car. On the way back, she received several WeChat links from her mother: "Love yourself, be calm, then love others," "Women who love themselves have a better life," and "The 4 most promising types of women, are you one of them?"
Ruan Tang felt a tightness in her chest, unable to swallow or exhale, and felt suffocated. Her mother's expression and voice were like a tight spell.
My mother has had self-respect, self-confidence and self-love all her life, but in the end her husband cheated on her and all her money was taken away. Now he is trying to put this shackle on her.
Just as Ruan Tang closed the dialog box with her mother, she received another message from Xu Wei. In a way, she was like another mother to her.
Xu Wei is probably the kind of independent, self-reliant and self-loving girl her mother expected. She graduated with a master's degree from a prestigious university, has a thriving career, and is also a well-known emotional blogger. She is financially independent and emotionally independent. I'm afraid even her doctoral boyfriend, who just announced their breakup, has been financially dependent on her over the years.
One of Ruan Tang's biggest wishes since childhood was to stay away from her mother when she grew up, and then make a lot of money for her, because seeing how hard she was trying to hold on, it was too hard.
But when it comes to making friends, Ruan Tang accidentally falls into her mother's shadow again.
While working as an assistant at a medical beauty clinic, she met Xu Wei, an attending physician. She was independent, strong-willed, and possessive, yet she offered her a familiar sense of security.
Ruan Tang once heard Xu Wei say during a live broadcast answering emotional questions that conflicts and frustrations encountered in one's original family sometimes appear in intimate relationships. People will repeatedly and actively fall into intimate relationships that are difficult, painful, and incapable of escape. This situation is called compulsive repetition in psychology.
Freud said that compulsive repetition is a neural defense mechanism that attempts to rewrite history so that the traumatic history of the past can have a perfect ending.
She didn't take it seriously at the time, but now it seems that she was just projecting this mentality onto friendship.
Of course, even strong women have to take off their armor sometimes.
Ruan Tang changed her destination and arrived at Xu Wei's house late at night. She took out the spare key and opened the door. As she entered, she was almost tripped by a huge box.
There was only one candle lit in the living room. Xu Wei sat in front of the coffee table, holding a wine glass in one hand and a wine bottle in the other, staring at the dancing flame intently, as if she was performing a mysterious ritual.
A few days ago, Xu Wei received a cake printed with a close-up photo of her boyfriend of many years and another woman at her offline book signing event. Less than half a month later, she openly announced their breakup.
The Queen of Emotions' own relationship broke down, and Xu Wei can be said to have caught up with the trend and her image collapsed.
Ruan Tang sat down next to Xu Wei, took the wine glass from her hand, and teased in a lighthearted manner, "The decadent image of getting drunk late at night is not your style."
Xu Wei smiled calmly: "To say goodbye to the past, you always have to open a bottle of wine. The proper sense of ceremony should still be there."
Ruan Tang asked her ex-boyfriend when he would come to pick up his things. Xu Wei shook her head and said, "I donated them. I bought most of them anyway."
Ruan Tang moved closer to her and patted her chest: "If you're really sad, just cry. I'll let you lean on my chest muscles."
"You?" Xu Wei glanced at her sideways and said indifferently, "I'm afraid you'll be deformed."
Ruan Tang felt a little relieved because he would also make sarcastic remarks. She looked down and saw a message from Jia Yingjun: Feng Xue's tavern will open tomorrow, come too.
"Come! I'll accompany you. Drink it and you'll sleep well." Ruan Tang poured the deep red liquid into her throat, a smile hidden on the edge of the crystal clear red wine glass.
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Ever since she learned that Feng Xue had been imprisoned for an economic case and had started running errands and delivering goods after he was released, Ruan Tang couldn't help rolling her eyes when she heard the name.
But he is Jia Yingjun's good friend. If it weren't for him, she wouldn't be able to get to know such a good "resource". Thinking of this, Ruan Tang still endured the heartache and ordered a large flower basket, and arrived at the place early on time.
To her surprise, Xu Wei was also there.
In addition to her, there is also another good brother of Jia Yingjun, Wu Jiahao, who has known her for a long time.
Previously, the two had a grudge because Jia Yingjun indirectly ruined Xu Wei's autograph session. Later, it was heard that Xu Wei slapped Jia Yingjun again at the wedding of Jia Yingjun's ex-girlfriend. The two had already had a deep grudge, but fate played tricks on them. Jia Yingjun was not only the client in Xu Wei's work, but also her small landlord in her life.
In any sense, the encounter and acquaintance between the two is very similar to the beginning of an idol drama where they are incompatible with each other.
Just like at this dinner table right now, although things appear peaceful on the surface, sparks are flying and undercurrents are surging.
Ruan Tang raised his glass: "Brother Feng and I are acquainted with each other. Let's clink our glasses and wish him a prosperous business."
Although Feng Xue was tall and strong, he had exuded the friendliness of an Alaskan dog since they met. He seemed oblivious to the tense atmosphere and raised his glass to chime in, "Actually, I've had the idea of opening a pub a long time ago... a long time ago. The opening of a pub today marks a new beginning in my life. Thank you all. Everyone here today is a good friend, or I hope everyone will become a good friend in the future."
Ruan Tang nudged Jia Yingjun beside her with her elbow, but saw him calmly retract his arm. He raised his glass and turned his gaze to Xu Wei.
Jia Yingjun drank the wine in the glass in one gulp. He never looked at Ruan Tang beside him, so he naturally couldn't notice the displeasure that flashed across her face.
"I run the bar and recently bought a bottle of 1998 Mouton-Rothschild. I remember you particularly like this one." When he said this, he glanced at Ruan Tang intentionally or unintentionally.
She instantly recalled that she had mistaken Feng Xue for Jia Yingjun, and when the other party offered to treat her to a meal to make amends, she opened a bottle of Mouton Rothschild worth several thousand yuan.
Ruan Tang pretended to be calm and said in surprise, "Wow! One from 1986, that must be much more mature than one from 2006, right? President Jia really has good taste."
Jia Yingjun, uncharacteristically enthusiastic, replied, "Of course, fine wine should be paired with a beauty like Miss Ruan, right? Take the bag Miss Ruan is carrying today. I heard it's a limited edition, with only a dozen or so arriving in China. I also heard the brand provides exclusive custom embroidery for each customer. I wonder if it could be an eye-opener for us."
In fact, the bag was a gift from one of Ruan Tang's previous boyfriends. However, she later found out that this boyfriend was also a gigolo, and that the gifts he gave her were actually secretly taken from a rich girlfriend.
Ruan Tang didn't expect that there was exclusive embroidery in the bag. If it was someone else's name, wouldn't she be socially frustrated?
Xu Wei sneered and said teasingly, "Boss Jia is truly a friend of women. He can develop so many topics just by looking at a bag. I admire him."
Seeing Xu Wei speak, Jia Yingjun's eyes lit up as if he had ignited a fighting spirit. "That's not as good as Teacher Xu. I was thinking before that if Jiahao could introduce us earlier, maybe Teacher Xu could have led our company to be listed on NASDAQ."
"Mr. Jia, you're too kind. I'm short-sighted. I've never seen anyone with such extraordinary verbal skills before you. How could he be worthy of such an important task?"
Wu Jiahao coughed lightly a few times and asked, "Ahem, Feng Xue, didn't you say you also made old duck soup?"
Feng Xue felt like the two were about to fight, so he quickly stood up to interrupt the electric current that flashed between their eyes and said, "Oh, yes! You must try my old duck soup. I added several Chinese medicinal herbs. It's the most nourishing drink during the dog days of summer."
The next day after that meal, Jia Yingjun invited Ruan Tang to dinner again. She thought she was in luck, but she heard from Jia Yingjun that he was going to pursue Xu Wei.
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