“Um… uh, I accidentally broke my phone, can I repair it here?”
The girl asked apprehensively. Her voice was soft and mellow like a refreshing spring breeze. Hearing the voice, all the customers in the store turned their heads and stared at the source of the voice, even Fang Ran’s ears perked up.
‘What the f*ck, her voice is so pleasant.’
As someone who had chosen a major where girls were basically extinct, and was usually in a sausage-fest, Fang Ran suddenly felt that his life so far was truly frail and bleak.
“Ah, of course, you can repair it here. May I know what the brand of your phone is?”
Another saleslady immediately came up to the girl and asked with a smile after snapping out of her daze from being stunned by the girl’s figure and clothing.
“Ah, the brand…” As if she had suddenly been asked a question that she did not know the answer to, the girl quickly fumbled for the phone in her pocket and handed it to the saleslady with both hands and said, “It seems to be an Apple…”
The saleslady took it from her and was a little surprised, ‘The latest iPhone X?’
Cautiously, the saleslady took it from her hand. This mobile phone was equivalent to two months of her salary!
“Tsk! Look at her mobile phone, and then look at yours. It is so different that even the salesperson’s attitude is different,”
Ling mocked Fang Ran in his mind. Fang Ran just rolled his eyes, not wanting to respond to this seemingly wealthy little princess who did not understand the suffering of the poor.
‘Then again, are Night Battle participants all very rich?’
‘If they are very rich, then there must be a way to make money, right?’
‘If that is the case, then why am I still so poor?’
Fang Ran could not help but be deep in thought.
“Hmm, it seems like the motherboard is fried. You will need to change the motherboard if you want to use it again. The cost will be around two thousand yuan.” The experienced saleslady immediately offered after deducing the problem.
“Listen to that, the money she spends repairing a mobile phone is enough for you to buy three…”
Ling continued mocking him in his mind. Although Ling did not care for that half a million dollars of illicit money, if he had that sum of money now, she could at least get a set of cyber-equipment, so that she could collect more information and whatnot.
Although she could still connect to the internet even without that, Ling, who naturally craved for speed, found it somewhat intolerable.
“No, it’s specifically two and a half…”
Fang Ran stubbornly retorted. At that moment, when the seemingly rich girl heard the saleslady’s quotation, she froze for a split second. Then, she seemed to suddenly remember something.
Immediately after, her movements became slightly unnatural. She appeared to be embarrassed, and while biting her lips under her mask, she mumbled,
“Um, I don’t have money on me…”
‘Hey, the outfit you’re wearing is probably enough to repair five mobile phones. Also, it’s not that you didn’t bring enough money, but you didn’t bring money, right? Are you a rich lady from some affluent family?’
Fang Ran grumbled in his heart. His thoughts were similar to those of the saleslady. The saleslady looked at the genuine brand-name clothes that the girl was decked out in and smiled bitterly in her heart.
‘She didn’t even bring money?’
“That’s okay. After your phone has been repaired, you can use online payment.”
“I didn’t bind any debit card or credit card…”
The girl’s voice grew smaller and slower as she lowered her head, the embarrassment from the current situation was causing her face to flush red.
‘Hey, are you here to mess around with the saleslady (me)?’
Fang Ran and the saleslady grumbled in their hearts.
“You don’t intend to help her?”
“What are you talking about?”
Ling asked Fang Ran all of a sudden, and Fang Ran responded in astonishment.
“Heh~ In such a situation, according to your so-called novel logic, shouldn’t the protagonist, who has just obtained superpowers, rescue the damsel in distress and help her resolve her problems? He will then leave a deep impression on her, and this will eventually develop into a love relationship?”
Ling said in a calm and composed manner.
Fang Ran was speechless. ‘What the f*ck, why the heck do you know so much about the plots of novels in metropolitan settings?’
“Before you add a subtext ridiculing me saying that I’m not like the protagonist in novels who gains powers and becomes awesome, I just want to say that you don’t even have any medical skills of an elderly master which results in me being unable to treat the bigshot who just so happens to suddenly contract an incurable disease, and thus leading to me be unable to earn fame and connections, so how can you expect me to be a hero and save the damsel in distress like a protagonist.”
“I’m sooo sorry that I’m not the Medicine Elder, nor do I know how to heal people. Also, it seems that you always react very quickly when I’m taking jabs at you in my subtexts,”
Ling sneered coldly in Fang Ran’s mind. Fang Ran rolled his dead eyes and retorted,
“You flatter me.”
“Sir, here’s your phone.”
Just then, the saleslady, who had gone to retrieve Fang Ran’s ‘elderly phone’, returned.
Getting up from the seats in the resting area by the side, Fang Ran walked over to the counter and grabbed the box containing the mobile phone. At that moment, the girl with the fedora, huge glasses and mask covering her face also subconsciously glanced over at Fang Ran.
Then, she froze.
“Oh, okay, thank you.”
After checking the phone, Fang Ran planned to turn around and leave.
“Ah, that!”
Just then, Fang Ran felt someone grabbing onto the hem of his clothes.
He turned around in shock and looked at the girl who had suddenly yelled out.
“That… that…”
Not only Fang Ran, but the other shop assistants were also curiously watching to see why she had suddenly grabbed him.
Immediately at once, the girl was at a loss. Right now, her heart was filled with all kinds of emotions.
‘Ah! I really found him!’
‘Ah~ What am I doing! Why did I grab onto him!’
‘What should I do? What should I do?’
‘What should I say in this kind of situation?’
‘What should I say?’
‘No, don’t panic. I can do it!’
‘You only managed to find this place because you specially pleaded with your grandmother!’
“Ah, that… that…”
The girl raised her head and stared at Fang Ran. Only when Fang Ran took a look at her up close, did he realise that this girl also had a large pair of gorgeous-looking eyes.
‘But what is she trying to do by grabbing me?’ Fang Ran wondered in astonishment.
‘It doesn’t make sense. I can’t be so handsome that a girl of this grade would hit on me.’
Both of them came face to face with each other with mixed emotions.
However, at that moment, Ling turned her head away and let out a ‘tsk’. Unlike that idiot, she had long since recognized the disguised young girl in front of her.
Only when the salesladies let out a teasing laughter, did the girl snap out of it with an ‘oh oh’ as she realized what she was doing at the moment. Then, she felt her face burning up rapidly. Panic-stricken and no longer thinking before she spoke, she grabbed Fang Ran’s clothes and looked at him with her large eyes as she hollered,
“Um… Can I invite you to have lunch with me!”
Some bizarre words popped out of the girl’s mouth. Fang Ran was taken aback, but the girl heaved a sigh of relief.
‘Fantastic, I said it!’
‘I did it!’
‘The first step!’
‘The next step is to get his contact details…’
The girl opened her beautiful big eyes, and her pupils twinkled with a lustre that made every onlookers’ hearts skip a beat.
Yet, Fang Ran’s heart was unresponsive at this moment, because he was completely stunned.
‘Dang! What’s this situation?!’
‘A gorgeous, soft and cute girl, who is beautifully dressed in a black silk mini skirt complemented with light and fluttering clothes paired with a pair of small leather boots, is inviting me to have lunch with her?’
‘Furthermore, it’s under that kind of situation where we’re meeting for the first time by chance?!’
‘Wait a minute.’
‘Am I dreaming right now?’
As a result, his brain stopped functioning.
Unconsciously, in accordance with his grumbling instinct, Fang Ran could not stop his stupid mouth from saying something that not only Ling, but the shop assistants as well, all secretly thought ‘this guy’s destined to be forever alone’ when they heard it.
“Uh, um, you don’t have any money on you, right…”