“The jade in this store is made of the best raw materials and carved by the most skilled craftsmen in the capital.” Although Xiao Anning was blind, his sense of hearing and touch were exceptional and far surpassed that of an average person. He led Tian Miao into the store, bringing up other items in the store as he walked. “I remember they have a white jade orchid hairpin. I’ll ask the shopkeeper to bring it out for you to take a look.”
The moment Xiao Anning walked into the store, someone immediately came up to greet him.
“Young Marquis!” The shopkeeper’s sharp eyes caught sight of the visitor, whom he recognized right away. In the past, the Young Marquis had accompanied his mother, Princess Yong An, to his store twice. But this time, he was actually accompanying another woman, and it wasn’t the Young Marquis’s fiancée, Ji Liruo.
So who was this woman who was so, so good-looking? For a brief moment, the shopkeeper simply couldn’t find any words to describe this woman’s beauty. At long last, he thought of the dullest, simplest way to describe her, and that was to say that she was good-looking.
“Bring us all your latest designs,” Xiao Anning ordered, and then said, “Also, I remember my mother once mentioned to me that there’s a white jade hairpin in the shape of an orchid flower in your store. Bring that over too.”
“Yes, yes. Please take a seat. Waiter, serve our guests some fine tea.” The shopkeeper hurriedly ordered someone to serve tea and fetch the latest designs.
“Miss Tian, you can take a look first. We will buy anything that you like. If you like them all, we will buy them all.” Hearing such words from Xiao Anning’s mouth, the head of guards could not help but find his words somewhat at odds with the Young Marquis he knew. Their Young Marquis always had a warm, gentle smile on his face. Although he was blind, he was never one to resent and bemoan his fate, and he was never prone to self-pity. Gentle and heartwarming like jade, people usually described him as having a heart full of sunshine. But for the Young Marquis to speak like… erm, speak like urbanized people in the city, he somehow found it hard to accept.
If Kong Hou was present and knew what the head of guards was thinking, she would laugh out loud. To say that the Young Marquis spoke like urbanized people in the city wasn’t at all an apt description. He clearly spoke like a domineering president.
“Then I have to thank you for it, Young Marquis.” A smile tugged at the corners of Tian Miao’s mouth. After the shopkeeper displayed tray after tray of exquisite jewelry before them, she picked the pieces up and started making her selections without standing on ceremony.
Tian Miao picked up a bracelet, and the shopkeeper hurriedly introduced it to her. “The lady here has a good eye. This bracelet is one of a kind,” he said eloquently, going on and on. “There’s only one like it in the world because the craftsman who made this is someone who never makes the same design twice. Do you want to take a look at the other jewelry he’s made? Every single piece is a fine, exquisite piece. You won’t be disappointed…”
Without waiting for Tian Miao to speak, Xiao Anning made the decision for her with one word. “Buy.”
The head of guards looked at how Tian Miao got the shopkeeper to wrap up the items that she selected, one after the other, a question forming in his mind. Did people of the clan of divine operators also fancy such mundane things? Were they not people of the noblest character, who led free and unrestrained lives, making light of materialistic things? Were they not people who saw earthly things like money as dirt?
The Duke had let the word out that Tian Miao was a member of the clan of divine operators. It was a reasonable way of providing Tian Miao an identity to go by so as not to give people the chance to speculate indiscriminately and make things ugly.
Finally, when settling the bill, the shop owner omitted a zero from the total amount, and this delighted the shopkeeper so greatly that he was grinning from ear to ear. Xiao Anning foot the bill without a change in expression, then had someone take their purchases back to the Duke’s residence first. Then, he brought Tian Miao to the next store, where they carried on shopping.
The head of guards looked at the receding figures of Xiao Anning and Tian Miao and smacked himself on the lips. Spending money like water was the most precise way to describe what their Young Marquis was doing. He would also be willing to do likewise, splurging so recklessly for such a beautiful woman, if he had the money.
But in his mind, there was something quite strange about her that he just couldn’t quite put his finger on. Miss Tian’s beauty was unquestionable. And at the same time, no one could ever find anything blasphemous about her at all. The only kind of feeling she could evoke in people was that of reverence, or even a sense of worship, as they looked at her from afar.