Jiang Chen's car stopped in front of the LV flags.h.i.+p store, I jumped in shock, basically I only ever saw this brand in a certain famous author's books, in real life, I was still more familiar with AV* instead. (T/N: referring to p*rn videos)

The central control of the car doors unlocked with a knocking sound. Jiang Chen said, "You get down and wait for me, I'll go and park the car."

I got off the car and loitered at the same place waiting for him to return, sneaking wily peeks at the LV store through the gla.s.s windows from time to time. Perhaps it was a figment of my imagination, but I just felt that the orange coloured lights appeared to be especially opulent and luxurious.

"Let's go." Jiang Chen was standing behind me since who-knows-when.

I jumped in shock and stammered, "It's better we don't, it's really expensive, plus it seems like all they sell inside are bags, I didn't see any formal clothes at all."

He followed my line of sight and took a look, "Did you think I was going to bring you to enter LV?"

"Were you not?"

He looked at me like how he would a lunatic. "You're not my wife, why would I buy LV for you!"

He led me to make a detour around LV. We entered an alley and came to the entrance of a clothing store. I raised my head and looked; this store's name was too honest - "Can't afford to buy LV".

I pointed at the signboard and told Jiang Chen, "Look, it's mocking you."

He lifted his head to take a glance, "It's mocking you."

I curled my lip, "Wait till I become wealthy, I will go to each and every famous brands' stores, and just tell the shop a.s.sistant, 'I don't want this item, I don't want this item, wrap everything else up.'"

He shook his head and said, "You might as well say, 'Wrap this item and this item up, wrap everything else up and mail them to the Red Cross Society.'"

His skills* were more profound than mine…… (T/N: referring to skills/abilities that are built up through religious practice - a Buddhist concept)

The shop owner was a young lad, his looks were not bad. Looking at him, I kept on thinking that he looked familiar, most likely in my subconscious, I wanted to get familiar with all handsome men.

The young lad came forward to welcome us. "Doctor Jiang, bringing your girlfriend to buy clothes?"

Jiang Chen pushed me forward and said, "Help her coordinate a set of clothes that she can attend a banquet in."

The young lad's eyes swept over me from head to toe, he said, "Will do, the beautiful lady's aura is especially matching of my shop's clothes, I will immediately coordinate several sets for you to choose."

Indeed, my aura is an aura of not being able to afford to buy LV……

While the shop owner was picking out clothes, I asked Jiang Chen, "You know him?"

Jiang Chen nodded. "He is Doctor Su's younger brother."

Younger Brother Su's ears were working especially well, and he joined in our conversation. "I am called Su Rui, my sister might come over in a while."

I lowered my head to look at him. He was squatting on the floor choosing shoes, and his b.u.t.t was sticking high up in the air. His low-waisted jeans caused a large part of his waist to be exposed, it was quite slim.

"Chen Xiaoxi." Jiang Chen suddenly called me.

"Ah?" I took back my gaze that was fixated on that slim waist, and turned my head back to look at him.

He pointed at my foot. Lowering my head, I saw some green creature that was similar to a lizard stopping beside my foot, its long tail swaying slightly. On reflex, I used the tips of my toes to kick it away at lightning speed, then hid behind Jiang Chen's back while shrieking at a high frequency.

The green creature rolled once on the floor, flipping over to reveal a belly that was somewhat light-coloured, it's four legs treading disorderly in mid-air.

Su Rui straightened his body and walked over, beamingly picking up the green organism. Placing and displaying it on his arm, he told me, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, this is the lizard that I am rearing."

I stuck my head out from behind Jiang Chen's back. "Is it poisonous or not, will it bite humans?"

"It won't, it won't, it is very obedient." Su Rui extended his arm out, and invited me with great enthusiasm, "Touch it and see."

I had difficulty rejecting such great hospitality, and stretched out my trembling hand. Just as my hand reached in front of the lizard, it suddenly stuck out a fleshy forked tongue with a hiss. I was so scared that I rapidly pulled back my hand, and went back to hide behind Jiang Chen once again.

Su Rui laughed heartily. "Xiaoxi, do not scare jiejie*, she didn't kick you on purpose just now." (T/N: jiejie: means older sister, can be used to refer to women older than you.)

"Xiaoxi?" Jiang Chen repeated it once, and began laughing too. (T/N: Xiao 小 - means small. Our main character's name is 小希, where the 'xi' means hope - i.e. her name means Little Hope. Su Rui's lizard is called 小蜥, where the 'xi' means lizard - i.e. its name means Little Lizard.)

I impetuously replied him before I realised, and was considerably indignant. "It's also called Xiaoxi?"

"Also?" Su Rui was very excited. "Who else is called Xiaoxi? This really is a good name."

I, who had a good name, raised my hand up slowly. "Me, Chen Xiaoxi……"

"Too fated!" Su Rui moved around till he was behind Jiang Chen and stopped in front of me.

Stroking the lizard's head, he said, "Su Xiaoxi, this jiejie has the same name as you, you two are too fated, greet jiejie, come and give jiejie a kiss."

With a forced laugh, I moved ’round till I was in front of Jiang Chen, stuck out my head and waved my hand. "h.e.l.lo, h.e.l.lo, there should be no direct contact between men and women, there's no need to kiss, no need to kiss." (T/N: there is some wordplay here, the idiom makes use of the word 親, which in the context of the idiom means "personal" - i.e. no personal contact between men and women (this is a Confucianism concept). But 親 also means kiss, so Xiaoxi is playing on the double meaning here.)

Su Rui gave an appearance of being insulted. "Xiaoxi is a girl."

Jiang Chen pulled me away from hiding in front of his chest. "Go and change your clothes."

Only then did Su Rui put Su Xiaoxi down and took several pieces of clothing from the clothes rack to pa.s.s to me. "Try them first, what shoe size do you wear?"

Basically, my feet were abnormally small, being asked my shoe size was humiliating for me……

Hence, I said, "35."

Jiang Chen slanted his head and looked at me, saying, "Size 33 and a half, 34 with a semi-insole is also okay."

……

Su Rui scratched his head and told me, "I need to search and see if there are shoes that are size 34, you can go in and change your clothes first."

I clasped the clothes and went in to change, but met with trouble when changing into the first set. The zipper at the back was entangled with my hair, and it got stuck halfway, I couldn't pull it up nor could I pull it down. Helpless, I could only give a cry for help towards the outside, "Su Rui, the zipper is stuck, it doesn't move when I pull it."

The curtains were lifted open, but instead it was Jiang Chen who came in. I stared at him blankly. He didn't say anything, and directly moved round to behind my back. He drew up my hair and lifted it high up with one hand, while using the other hand to pull up the zipper in one swift motion. After he pulled the zipper up, he walked away abruptly. I was in deep admiration of his craftsmans.h.i.+p.

I changed into quite a few sets of clothes, and finally Su Rui helped me choose a light green muslin evening gown. It was light as a feather when I wore it on myself, causing me to have a sense of panic that I wasn't wearing any clothes.

Su Rui with great difficult managed to search and produce a pair of light yellow high heels that were size 34, after adding a semi-insole, I could, just barely, wear them and maintain my stability.

Su Rui praised my new manner of dressing till I was an extraordinary beauty of the celestial and mortal worlds. Even though I couldn't find a slightest sliver of the stunning/breathtaking appearance that he was talking about when I looked into the mirror, but I felt that what he said was indeed too true, I sincerely wanted to befriend him.

Su Xiaoxi tried to approach me a few times, but was always scared off by me giving her a look that said, "If you dare come over I will use my high heels to grind and kill you."

Jiang Chen sat on the sofa inside the shop, lazily sizing me up with a few glances from time to time. Of course, I didn't dare hope that he would be like what normally appeared in television shows or novels, where he would hold his breath and be blown away by my beauty, but at the very least, he shouldn't appear like he was watching the news broadcast.

"Are you done?" He stood up from the sofa.

"I'm done, you can pay the cash." I lowered my head and studied the collar of my gown, the edge of the V-necked collar was folded into very pretty looking little pleats, like green waves of wheat*. (T/N: referring to the waves of wheat in the field that appear when the wind blows and causes the wheat to move up and down)

Su Rui announced noisily. "Forget it, forget it, they have too much fate, just regard it as a gift from Xiaoxi to Xiaoxi on their first meeting. 800 in total, the gown is 500, the shoes are 300."

I glared at him, this was a ripoff, similar clothes could be obtained on Taobao* with 80RMB, s.h.i.+pping included. (T/N: online shopping website)

Su Rui smiled at me. "Don't give me a look as if you regard me as an evil unscrupulous businessman. These clothes of mine are not the kind that can be found all over the street, they are all personally designed and made by me, there's only one piece of each."

Jiang Chen, contrariwise, didn't say anything, after paying the money, he said "Thank you" and pulled me to leave.

I put on my makeup in the moving car with great difficulty. Fortunately the road conditions were not bad, on the whole, after finis.h.i.+ng putting on makeup, my facial features were still normal.

While waiting for the red light, Jiang Chen suddenly started laughing, his eyes filled with mischief, and said, "Your makeup skills have improved considerably."

I gave him a disdainful look, I knew what he was laughing about.

At that point in time, it was Senior Year 3. We were battling the national college entrance examinations day and night. In faraway places, there were a few fellow people similarly battling the national college entrance examinations who couldn't withstand the pressure and ended their own lives. This news was pa.s.sed around the various major departments, and after being pa.s.sed around for a long time, only then did it trickle down to this school of ours in a faraway small town. The school princ.i.p.al urgently called for a meeting, and after that, one month before the entrance examinations, the teachers decided to organise an evening party for us children deep in the abyss of suffering. The evening party's name was "Heading towards tomorrow". I personally felt this name was very meaningless, unless you died, everyone had to head towards tomorrow. The programme items were prepared by the Senior Year 1 and 2 students, recitals, chorus singing and so on, in short, programme items that would cause people to not want to live till tomorrow at all when they watched it.

Before the evening party took place, the teachers were stumped by a matter. The students were to go on stage, and had to put on makeup. There were only a few teachers in the school who knew how to apply makeup. Just applying makeup for one choral group, it would be daylight by the time they were done. Hence the school at the last minute decided to let the students in the arts cla.s.s share part of the large responsibility of applying makeup. As the leading student in the arts cla.s.s, I thought to myself that everything was within my control, but I didn't antic.i.p.ate that it would turn out that a human face was quite different from a canvas. Every girl that had me apply makeup for them cried after looking at themselves in the mirror, and further expressed that if they had to go on stage looking like this, they would choose to bid farewell to tomorrow. And at that point in time, Jiang Chen just so happened to walk past that cla.s.sroom. I was surrounded by a group of crying junior girls, at a loss of what to do, while he stood outside the cla.s.sroom laughing till his hands were dancing and his feet were stamping*. The junior girls, on account of being jeered at by an influential figure, cried themselves hoa.r.s.e even more distraughtly. (T/N: meaning to be really animated (dancing, gesticulating, etc) with joy)

Even though it had been many years since then, but the moment I recalled this incident, my temples still pulsated and throbbed, and it was like the undulating cadence of weeping sounds were still lingering on by my ears again.

"Reached," Jiang Chen said, and the car slowly came to a halt as he pulled over.

I rubbed my temples, gave a sigh and grumbled, "Next time, don't make me recall these sorts of incidents that I can't bear to recollect."

The car had stopped for quite a while at the same place, yet he did not open the car doors at all. I turned to look at him, puzzled. His eyebrows were creased tightly, his eyes gazing out into a distance, his jaw was braced tautly, and his two hands clenched the steering wheel, with his knuckles turning white.

I knew he was being angry, but I was a little unable to make sense of his sudden onset of anger.

I asked him in a low voice, "What's the matter?"

He seemed to take a deep breath, and he slowly let go of the steering wheel, turning his head around to smile at me. Perhaps I shouldn't call it a smile, he was only pursing his lips together into a line, squeezing out a deep dimple on his left cheek. He said, "It's nothing, my stomach hurts."

"Ah? That what should we do?" Once I become nervous, I become a little incoherent and confused. "Why would your stomach hurt? Did you not eat anything? Do you have medicine or not? Let's go to the hospital…"

"I'm alright," he said.

"How could you be alright? Do you know that if your stomach hurts, it could be a hemorrhage of your stomach, or a stomach ulcer, or a stomach perforation, or stomach cancer……"

He looked at me, smiling. "What else?"

I said uncertainly. "Your stomach tearing apart?"

I said with emphasis, "No matter what, let's go to the hospital quickly, you could possibly die in the next second!"

He suddenly stretched out his hand and pushed my forehead, smilingly saying, "Are you the doctor or am I the doctor?"

I was puzzled and perplexed by his sudden good spirits, only repeatedly verifying with him that his stomach would not tear apart. He also repeatedly guaranteed me that he was already alright, and finally, with great helplessness expressed that if any unforeseen misfortune were to happen to his stomach, I would be the one operating the surgical knife during the surgery.

Hearing that he was willing to die in my hands, I then set my mind at rest.