Chapter 1423 Being Taught a Lesson
Xiao Peng turned around and saw a woman standing behind him. She looked to be in her early thirties. Her black suit and skirt suit seemed out of place compared to the other girls at the party. But a closer look revealed that the lining of her suit jacket was completely empty! Her straight, light brown hair and light grey eyes gave her a sci-fi vibe.
But to be honest, although her way of wearing a suit without any underwear is a bit avant-garde, Xiao Peng feels that she has an indescribable "classical beauty".
Well, she's a woman of taste.
"Of course!" Xiao Peng took out a lighter from his pocket and handed it to the woman.
The woman was stunned. "Shouldn't you light it for me now? Not gentlemanly at all!"
He took the lighter from Xiao Peng and said with a smile, "This lighter is quite exquisite... Hmm? How do I use this lighter?"
This really wasn't her intention to cause trouble. Xiao Peng's lighter was a round bamboo tube with several copper buckles on the edge.
Xiao Peng opened the top of the bamboo tube, revealing a lighter outlet. Then Xiao Peng turned the copper buckle next to it, and a small flame came out from the top of the lighter.
The woman lit a cigarette and took the lighter from Xiao Peng, examining it for a long time. "I've never seen a lighter like this before. This lighter looks old. Is it expensive?"
Xiao Peng explained, "This is a Dunhill lighter produced in 1930. It's not expensive, though. I bought it for twelve yuan at a flea market in The Hague, Netherlands."
"Twelve dollars? So cheap?" The woman was stunned.
Xiao Peng spread out his hands. "The stall owner asked me for fifty yuan, but I finally bargained it down to twelve. I often go to flea markets, so I'm quite familiar with the rules there. If I didn't bargain, I'd be a fool. But there's a reason this lighter is so cheap. First of all, it's incomplete. It should be a walking stick, one of those 'civilized sticks' that you unscrew to make the lighter. But as you can see, the bottom of the 'civilized stick' is gone. Also, it was broken when I bought it. I've been busy for several days trying to fix it."
The woman smiled and handed the lighter back to Xiao Peng, saying, "Your hard work is worth it. This is a very beautiful lighter."
When returning the lighter, Xiao Peng touched the woman's fingers. What surprised Xiao Peng was that the woman's fingers were quite hard, which was different from her weak image.
Both of them were smoking there and not talking.
Suddenly the woman said, "It's boring, isn't it?"
Xiao Peng was stunned after hearing this, then he came to his senses and pointed inside and said, "You mean inside? Well, I think it's really boring."
The woman sighed, "How many people have raced to get into places like this, only to find they can't fit in. People's eyes are always looking upwards, and they can't see those who are shorter than themselves."
Xiao Peng nodded after hearing this. It seemed that this woman had spent a lot of money to get in here, but in the end, he seemed to have suffered a loss.
He was about to say a few words to comfort the woman when she suddenly asked Xiao Peng, "How much did you spend to come here?"
"Ah?" Xiao Peng was stunned after hearing this: "Me?"
The woman nodded and said, "Yes, although your suit is very exquisite, your watch doesn't match your clothes. You can tell at a glance that you are not someone who dresses like this often and you are not very particular about your outfit. And you just said that you often go to flea markets. Do rich people go to flea markets for no reason?"
Xiao Peng laughed after hearing this: "Well, I really can't refute what you said. You are a very observant person."
The woman smiled and said, "Women are always more attentive. I understand you, actually. Many people want to be part of the upper-class world with the rich, but when they're actually around them, they find it difficult to fit in. Even in such situations, they naturally become marginalized, just like you running off to the side to smoke."
Xiao Peng asked back, "What about you? You came here to smoke too. Are you also a marginalized person?"
The woman smiled and shook her head after hearing this. "Me? Of course not. I just don't like this environment. I'm an invited guest performer here."
"Guest performer?" Xiao Peng was stunned.
The woman proudly extended her hand to Xiao Peng, making a handshake gesture, and said, "Let me formally introduce myself. I'm Camille Thomas."
Xiao Peng shook hands with her and said, "Oh, hello, Miss Thomas."
"You don't know me?" Camille Thomas was stunned.
Xiao Peng spoke frankly, "I really haven't heard of it. I'm really sorry. It's just that I'm ignorant."
Camille Thomas wasn't terribly angry. "No, no, no, you don't have to apologize. This just proves what I was saying. Why is it so difficult for ordinary people to fit in in such situations? The most crucial gap is in perspective and knowledge."
Xiao Peng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He had just used these words to educate Ilka, Jelena and others, but he didn't expect that someone would educate him in the same way now.
"Well, Miss Thomas, you are right. Thank you for your advice. I think it will be very helpful to my life." Xiao Peng said.
Camille Thomas waved his hand and said, "You're welcome. Everyone needs to experience more to make progress. I hope these words of mine will be helpful to you."
"Of course I will." Xiao Peng smiled and nodded: "Then can you tell me what you are performing here?"
Camille Thomas couldn't hide her pride and said, "I'm a cellist. Well, I know the title of 'performer' doesn't seem very humble, but I have indeed won the Antonio Janigro Prize, the European String Competition, the Edmund Becker Competition in Brussels, the Leopold Bellan Competition, and the Berthier Prize. That's why others call me by this title, and I was invited here to perform a music show with a piano artist. Since you haven't heard of me, I guess you don't know him either. Well, although classical music is not a popular genre nowadays, you have to know about it in high society."
Xiao Peng smiled and said, "One word from you is worth ten years of reading. Thank you for your advice. I will learn more from now on. Thank you again."
Camille Thomas waved her hand and said, "No, no, no. You can see that everyone here is either rich or pretty. I don't have anything in common with them. The only people I do have a common language with haven't arrived yet, so I'm pretty bored right now. I want to thank you for spending this boring time with me. Oh, and thank you for the lighter."
At this moment, someone else came in. A middle-aged woman came in and whispered something in Camille Thomas's ear. Camille Thomas quickly smiled happily after hearing it: "Okay, I got it!"
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