Soft-Eating Hard-Rice
"Little fellow, you really don't have to be so polite with me."
Su Jiuyue pulled her lips away from her coffee cup, the tip of her tongue lightly licking away the milky-white froth clinging to the corner of her mouth, and looked with a trace of displeasure at Gu Qiu beside her, who was holding a glass of lemonade.
"Actually, I just don't like coffee. Lemonade is pretty good."
Gu Qiu glanced back at the Starbucks behind them, then looked down at the forty-five-yuan caramel macchiato in her hand, couldn't help but sigh inwardly:
So extravagant.
Normally, he would at most drink milk tea or something similar. Spending over forty yuan just for a cup of coffee, treating Starbucks like drinking mineral water—for an ordinary student like him, that was truly extravagant.
Besides, they had only known each other for a short while, and she was treating him; he didn't have the thick skin to act like an old friend and order whatever he wanted.
If it were the three guys in his dorm treating him, Gu Qiu wouldn't hesitate to ask for the most expensive coffee on the menu.
But since an alluring, mature beauty was treating, he felt too embarrassed to order anything expensive.
Beside him, Su Jiuyue pursed her lips thoughtfully.
So he didn't like coffee...
Silently filing away this little tip, she beamed at Gu Qiu:
"Then let's go buy you some clothes~ You aren't thinking about saving me money this time, right?"
Buying clothes... they shouldn't be that expensive, right?
After all, current clothes were mostly spring styles, relatively light and thin.
Gu Qiu raised an eyebrow, looking at the genuinely warm smile on her face as he asked:
"We've only known each other for a short while, why... why are you treating me so well?"
"Needless to ask~"
Tossing her finished coffee into a nearby trash can, Su Jiuyue smiled and strolled over to Gu Qiu's side, naturally taking his hand.
Even though her hand had been held two or three times already, this single action by Su Jiuyue still made Gu Qiu's entire body stiffen involuntarily.
"That's because I've taken a fancy to you~ Isn't it the same when guys chase girls? Buying small gifts to win each other's affection and all that~"
"Is that even the same... Taken a fancy to me, of all people... I'm just a college student about to face the 996 grind, how could I ever be worthy?"
Gu Qiu forced himself to maintain his inner calm, making a helpless retort.
"Look, the men's clothing store is right up ahead. Want to go in and take a look?"
Deliberately dodging the topic of his complaint, Su Jiuyue pointed to a clothing store ahead.
"Can I choose to refuse?"
"No way~ Big Sister here is wearing high heels and doesn't want to walk to any more stores~"
With that, she pulled the reluctant-looking Gu Qiu into the shop.
"Wait, hold on? None of the clothes in a place like this suit me, right?!"
The moment he stepped through the front door, Gu Qiu felt that something was wrong.
The floor space of this shop was definitely not small for this mall, and the interior decoration was classical and elegant. Clothes were neatly ironed and hung in the display windows, while the price tags hidden between the collars gave his soul a profound shock.
He thought buying clothes meant going to places like Uniqlo or some 50%-off clearance sale. Why on earth did this mature beauty lead him into a place like this?
Glancing at a base layer shirt nearby, Gu Qiu couldn't help swallowing hard.
Just a plain, utterly basic pure white undershirt actually cost 500 yuan?!
You could buy two of them on Pinduoduo for ten yuan!
Is money really this easy to make?!
He quickly lowered his voice and said to Su Jiuyue:
"How about... we try another shop? I don't think the clothes here really suit me..."
"Really? I actually think they suit you quite well."
Su Jiuyue tilted her head in confusion, those charismatic, smiling fox-eyes leaving Gu Qiu momentarily dazed.
By the time he came to his senses, he saw that Su Jiuyue was already greeting a store clerk who had just approached them.
"Find him a matching outfit."
"Certainly, please wait a moment."
The clerk professionally looked Gu Qiu up and down for a moment, took out a tape measure to carefully measure his figure, and then retrieved a set of trendy new-Chinese-style attire from a nearby display window.
"Sir, the fitting room is that way."
Listening to the clerk's words, Gu Qiu looked down at the clothes he had instinctively accepted, suddenly feeling like he was riding a tiger and hard to get off.
Whatever! Trying them on doesn't cost anything! At worst, I can say they look bad and then pressure Su Jiuyue into switching to a cheaper clothing store!
He gritted his teeth and obediently walked into the fitting room.
When Gu Qiu came out dressed, Su Jiuyue merely glanced briefly at him as he straightened his hem, and her eyes instantly lit up, a trace of nostalgic emotion welling up in the depths of her gaze.
They really look alike.
You have to admit that things like aura involve a bit of metaphysics.
Even though Gu Qiu usually neglected his appearance and looked like a thoroughly ordinary college student—the kind who would blend right into a crowd—once he put on clothes with these traditional Chinese elements, a faint aura of detachment from worldly mortal affairs inexplicably emerged around him.
He looked just like an ancient person who had time-traveled into the modern era.
"This feels so strange..."
Even with Gu Qiu's dense, straight-guy sensibilities, he could tell this outfit looked exceptionally good on him. But having seen the price tag in the fitting room and being thoroughly terrified by it, he hastily brought out his pre-prepared excuse, eager to make a swift escape.
"Strange?"
Su Jiuyue walked a circle around him, then suddenly pulled out a small pair of scissors from somewhere, quickly snipping off the tags on his clothes and pants with a few sharp snips.
"There you go, we're buying this set."
With that, she handed the tags and scissors to the nearby clerk.
Perhaps never having seen a customer check out quite like this, the clerk who took the tags looked stunned for a moment before snapping back to reality, hurriedly acknowledging the sale and running toward the cash register.
???
A stunned Gu Qiu finally registered what had just happened.
Just like that... she bought the clothes?
These clothes weren't cheap, were they?
He and Su Jiuyue had only known each other for a single day! Why was she buying him something so expensive just like that?
And why did she keep clinging to him?
Could it really be, as she claimed, that she had taken a fancy to an ordinary college student like him?
Gu Qiu would rather believe that his side-hustle web novel writing could skyrocket him to financial freedom overnight.
*Beep*—
After the sound of the QR code scanning, Su Jiuyue tucked the receipt into her shoulder bag while tilting her head to stare at the dazed Gu Qiu.
"Little fellow, let's go."
She reached out and poked Gu Qiu's cheek.
"Huh? Oh!"
Coming back to his senses, he followed Su Jiuyue out of the clothing store.
"As the saying goes, clothes make the man. Doesn't he look much more handsome dressed up like this?"
Su Jiuyue was extremely satisfied with Gu Qiu's newly changed "skin," her captivating eyes constantly scanning up and down his body.
Gu Qiu remained silent for a moment, hesitating for a long time before finally speaking up:
"These clothes aren't cheap... I feel unworthy of this kindness. I'll pay you back next month when my royalty payment comes in."
Even though eating soft rice provided by an alluring mature beauty felt delicious, this particular portion of soft rice was a bit too soft, and his stomach wasn't quite used to it.
After all, he was a man.
"Alrighty, the base layer is 850, the outer jacket is 1,700, and the pants are 1,500, totaling 4,050 yuan, dear~"
Unexpectedly, Su Jiuyue didn't reject Gu Qiu's offer; instead, she reeled off a string of numbers that made his heart bleed continuously.
How could he have forgotten how ridiculously expensive these clothes were? Well, now his entire month's worth of typing words had gone down the drain.
Gu Qiu looked as devastated as a mourner at a funeral.