This time, both Xiao Li and Sister Wang panicked.
The suitcase was in excellent condition and was a liquid asset. After a quick refurbishment, they could easily resell it for seven or eight thousand yuan, making a considerable profit.
Their earlier tactics were purely meant to bully Su Wan in her current destitute state and squeeze out a bit more profit.
They hadn't expected her to refuse to play along and simply walk out!
“Wait! Miss Su! Don’t be in such a hurry!” Sister Wang quickly rounded the counter, a smile plastered on her face.
“The price is negotiable! Xiao Li just started recently and doesn’t know the market well. Don’t take it personally!”
Xiao Li also quickly adopted an apologetic expression. “Yes, yes, Miss Su, I was mistaken. The lighting was poor just now... why don’t you let me take a closer look?”
Su Wan didn’t stop; she was already nearly at the door.
“Three thousand! Miss Su, how about three thousand?” Sister Wang raised her voice.
Su Wan pulled the door open, half her body already outside.
“Three thousand five hundred! That’s the highest, Miss Su! This really is the absolute maximum we can offer! Even if you go elsewhere, they might not give you this much, and it’ll only waste your time, won’t it?”
Sister Wang was desperate and finally offered her bottom price.
Su Wan paused at the door, seemingly weighing her options.
Xiao Li also hurried over, forcing a smile. “Miss Su, three thousand five hundred is really fair! We’ll give you the cash immediately!”
Only then did Su Wan slowly turn around. Seeing the unconcealed urgency on their faces, she understood the situation.
She knew this was likely the limit. If she pushed further, she might actually have to go to another shop, which would be a waste of time.
“Cash. Right now,” she said concisely.
“Of course, of course! I’ll get it for you right away!” Sister Wang breathed a sigh of relief and hurried behind the counter to retrieve the money.
A few minutes later, Su Wan walked out of Luxury Exchange with three thousand five hundred yuan in cash.
Behind the glass doors, she could vaguely hear Xiao Li’s unwilling grumbling and Sister Wang’s low-voiced complaints.
Su Wan carefully tucked the money away. Combined with the proceeds from the gold, she now had thirteen thousand five hundred yuan on hand.
To the old Su Wan, this amount might have been just the cost of a single meal or pocket change for a handbag.
But for the current her, it was the first lever to shift her fate—the startup capital to procure survival supplies and manage her cross-plane shelter!
The sunlight outside was a bit piercing, and she subconsciously squinted.
Then, she saw them.
A man and a woman stood leisurely under a roadside tree a few steps from the shop entrance. Their gazes pierced through the slightly restless afternoon air and landed precisely on her.
It was Gu Huaiyu and Bai Ruochu.
Gu Huaiyu wore a well-tailored, handmade suit. His posture was upright, and his face bore its usual refined elegance, with a hint of a smile that suggested he saw through everything yet cared for nothing.
Those deep eyes that Su Wan had once drowned in now held nothing but cold scrutiny and a trace of imperceptible mockery.
Bai Ruochu leaned against his side, her champagne-colored dress accentuating her snow-white skin and flawless makeup.
The way she looked at Su Wan no longer held any of the intimacy they once shared as best friends. Instead, it was replaced by a haughty disdain, mixed with unabashed delight and contempt.
She gently took Gu Huaiyu’s arm, her posture intimate and natural, as if silently asserting her ownership.
“Oh, isn’t this our eldest Miss Su?” Bai Ruochu spoke first. Her voice was soft and melodious, but every word was laced with thorns.
“What, selling off your belongings again? What was it this time? It couldn’t be that dress you’re wearing... the one you haven't changed out of for three days, could it?”
She looked Su Wan up and down, her gaze lingering on Su Wan’s slightly haggled face and somewhat shabby clothing. The delight in her eyes was nearly overflowing.
Gu Huaiyu said nothing. He simply kept his calm gaze on Su Wan’s face, as if admiring a dull, uninteresting painting.
His silence was more hurtful than Bai Ruochu’s ridicule.
Su Wan watched these two nauseating figures quietly. Her fingers curled unconsciously, her nails nearly digging into her palms, bringing a faint but real sense of pain.
This pain was not even a ten-thousandth of the agony from the scarred, mangled wound in her heart.
On the eve of the Su family’s bankruptcy, when everyone was avoiding her like the plague, she had turned to Bai Ruochu for help in her desperation.
Because she was her best friend.
At that time, Bai Ruochu had already torn off all her disguises.
The words she spoke were like poisoned blades, carrying hysterical hatred and the thrill of revenge.
“Su Wan, you still have the nerve to come to me?!” In the cafe, Bai Ruochu’s face, once full of gentle smiles, was twisted with jealousy and rage.
“I’ve loved Huaiyu for ten years! Ten whole years! From the first time I saw him at the Gu residence, I knew he was the only man I wanted in this life!”
“But what about you? You shameless bitch! Just because your last name is Su, just because your family has some filthy money, you shamelessly followed him around for thirteen years! Like a shadow you can’t shake!” Bai Ruochu’s voice was sharp and piercing.
“What makes you think you're worthy? Your self-righteous devotion?”
“Your parents were shrewd their whole lives, but in the end, they were dragged down by a fool like you! If it weren’t for you, how could your parents have been played like fools by Huaiyu’s disguise, handing over their daughter and the family business to him on a silver platter?!”
Su Wan had felt as if she’d been struck by lightning, her entire body turning cold.
She couldn’t argue about the part where she followed him.
Yes, she had chased Gu Huaiyu for thirteen years. Those thirteen years had exhausted almost all the dignity and pride she possessed as a girl.
She was like a devout believer, looking up at and chasing after the light that was Gu Huaiyu, thinking that her persistence and sincerity had finally earned a response...
But Bai Ruochu’s next words completely crushed her last bit of self-deceiving illusion.
“You thought Huaiyu agreed to marry you because he was moved? Hahaha...” Bai Ruochu laughed until tears came to her eyes, her voice full of mockery.
“Su Wan, you are laughably naive!”
“Huaiyu only agreed to you because you were stupid and easy to control! Because your parents saw you as the apple of their eye. Only through you could he gain your parents' trust most quickly and securely to reach the core of the Su Corporation!”
“From beginning to end, his goal was to bring down the Su family and annex everything you owned!”
“You were nothing more than the most useful pawn in his plan, a stepping stone!”
“Now that the Su family has fallen and your parents are dead, you’re a useless pawn. Of course he’s going to kick you aside!”
“You still expect him to answer your calls? To see you? To help you? Stop dreaming!”
“Don’t you know? Huaiyu finds you disgusting and an eyesore!”
Bai Ruochu stood up, looking down at the pale Su Wan with the cruel smile of a victor.
“Didn’t expect this, did you? You’ve sent out so many resumes, yet you can’t even get a single interview...”
“That’s because I’ve personally spoken to every company you could possibly think of...”
“I’m going to make it impossible for you to move an inch in Jiangcheng! I want you to taste what it feels like to be desperate and have nowhere to turn!”
“This is what you owe me! This is the price you pay for stealing Huaiyu from me!”
Rate on N.U.
