Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

And Yang Juehuan had indeed been thinking the same. Certain cancers inside the company had to be cut out. Jing Yu had gotten half of it right—but the other half was what Yang Ce had seen before entering the room earlier: the look on Qu Cai's face.

If Yang Ce wanted to figure out exactly what Qu Cai was scheming, he could not strike too early. Yet had he not seen it with his own eyes, Yang Ce reckoned he would never have thought of it himself. So for Jing Yu to have gotten this far was already quite remarkable.

"How did you know?" Yang Ce looked at Jing Yu, this time admiring her from the bottom of his heart.

"How about that? I'm not bad, am I? Not as utterly useless as you imagined, eh?" Jing Yu said smugly. "Want me to advise you? I'll have you know, I'm a fully qualified strategist."

"You." Yang Jincong laughed. "I thought you only advised on matters of the heart."

"Those are nothing," Jing Yu said with a shake of her head. "Actually, what I'm best at is reading people's minds. Back when I was conning money out of marks, I was constantly sizing up their psychology, getting them to hand over their cash willingly."

"Well, well—so you took me for a mark," Yang Xutang said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"Heh heh, from certain angles, you really were," Jing Yu said with a perfectly straight face, nodding. "I analyzed your love life for you, and you spent money buying me clothes and treating me to meals—isn't that being a big spender too?"

Yang Xu shook his head helplessly. "I surrender. That works too? By your logic, I can't be this sucker anymore from now on."

"Just joking," Jing Yu said. "Why so stingy? Hey, I'm talking to you."

"Heh, talking about what? Weren't you going to keep shopping?" Yang Hengye said. "This sucker will just keep letting you fleece him."

"Yang Ce, don't you think I'm pretty good?" Jing Yu pressed her advantage. "Take me in. From now on I'll advise you on everything big and small, devise strategies, lend you a hand—what do you say?"

"You." Yang Ce sighed. "I never would have guessed you were this clever. But you'd better put that cleverness to more use at work. Stop always thinking about being someone's mistress. What's so great about being a mistress? Would that make you happy?"

"It would," Jing Yu said with a firm nod. "I'd definitely be very happy."

"Forget it, I'm not arguing this with you. There's no getting through." Yang Mo was somewhat helpless. Yang Ce, once famed for running his mouth off, arguing three points out of thin air, and spouting legends with every breath, now had no comeback at all against Jing Yu.

"Sooner or later I'll get through," Jing Yu said, raising an eyebrow. "When you feel you can't do without me, you won't talk like that anymore."

Jing Yu had not expected Yang Ce to be so open-minded. At first, she had not dared let herself seem too clever, afraid Yang Ce would be put off—because the books said men all hated women smarter than themselves. But seeing how Yang Ce seemed to have everything under control, Jing Yu gradually relaxed, occasionally showing a flash of her small cleverness in front of him. And wouldn't you know it—Yang Ce really did start to see her in a new light.

Jing Yu felt as if she had stumbled onto another small path to success. Among the women around Yang Ce, few seemed able to help him; she reckoned she must be the one who had come into contact with more of his core secrets. That way, if Yang Ce came to depend on her—just thinking about it made Jing Yu happy, and the confidence in her heart grew all the stronger.

Yang Xutang merely smiled at Jing Yu's words and said nothing more. Talking more with Jing Yu was plainly a waste of effort.

The car drove toward the commercial street and once again parked in the lot there. "What else do you need to buy this afternoon?"

"I don't know yet. I'll have to look before I know." Jing Yu stretched and got out of the car.

Yang Shuoxuan got out too. He had only asked casually—he did not really want to know what Jing Yu meant to buy, because Yang Shuoxuan knew that when women shopped, they basically had nothing specific in mind. They went wherever their feet took them, and purchases happened at random, not according to any fixed plan.

"Yang Ce, this morning I saw a few nice outfits. At the time I thought they were too expensive, but now I want to buy them after all. Is that all right?" Jing Yu took a couple of steps, then suddenly turned back and asked.

Yang Ce's forehead broke out in sweat, black lines sprouting everywhere. He thought, what were you doing this morning? Too expensive? It's not even your money—what are you calling expensive for? He was furious, but too lazy to get into it with Jing Yu again, so he said mildly, "Whatever."

"Ha! Yang Ce, you're so good to me!" Jing Yu cried excitedly, throwing her arms around Yang Ce and planting a kiss on Yang Juehuan's cheek.

To be continued

995. You're Yang Ce?

Yang Ce rubbed the cheek Jing Yu had kissed, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. If you said she did it on purpose, it didn't seem so; if you said she didn't, it rather seemed premeditated. Ah, this Jing Yu—with her, anything was possible. "Sorry about that." Seeing Yang Ce's stunned look, Jing Yu giggled. "That's just to say thank you—nothing else meant by it. Don't get the wrong idea."

"It's fine. I didn't get the wrong idea." Yang Ce waved a hand and said helplessly, "I know—it's a Western custom."

"Good that you know." Jing Yu chuckled, her face neither red nor her heart racing. "I was just afraid you'd think I had ulterior motives. I really don't, so don't overthink it."

"I'm not overthinking. Let's go—hurry up and buy whatever you need to buy." Yang Ce wiped the sweat from his brow and thought, clearly you're the one taking advantage of me—why does it feel like I'm the one taking advantage of you?

It was the same shops as that morning. Jing Yu made another round of each one, and Yang Ce truly had no way to deal with it. Women's shopping ways really were utterly distinctive: even something they had clearly set their hearts on had to be compared and tried on over and over, looked at many more times, before they finally decided to buy.

Yang Ce's analysis was that they probably did not enjoy the thrill of buying things, but rather the feeling of shopping itself.

This time Yang Ce was no fool. Whatever Jing Yu set her eyes on, he immediately pulled out his money and paid, saving her from having to make another round later. Seeing how tense Yang Ce looked, Jing Yu could not help but smile—yet at the same time she felt a little forlorn. When would she ever again get to go shopping like this with Yan?

Most of what they bought now were things she had tried on that morning, so it went quickly. The styles and cuts had already been chosen; all she had to do was try them on to see if they fit.

Jing Yu was carrying an armful of clothes and settling the bill with Yan at the register when a man and a woman came storming toward them, murder in their eyes. The man was clutching a P4 and cursing as he walked: "Where's your manager? Get the hell out here right now, or I'll smash up this whole damn shop, you motherfuckers!"

A sales clerk hurried over and asked cautiously, "Sir, ma'am, is there some kind of problem?"

"Problem? You're goddamn right there's a problem—a huge fucking problem!" The man shoved the clerk aside and kept marching toward the register, still shouting: "Where's your boss? Get him out here, or I'll call some people in and tear this place apart!"

"Sir, why don't you tell us what happened first, so I can get the boss for you," the clerk said, catching up with the man and pressing him.

"Hah! My girlfriend bought clothes here, and the video of her changing in your fitting room is all over the internet! If I hadn't gone online, I'd never have known—and what a shock it gave me. This is a black-market shop, a filthy den of thieves!" the man ranted.