She was just about to check the box out at the cashier’s when a shrill voice came from behind her.
“Well, well, well. Now, who do we have here?”
Yao Tang turned to find Qin Man and Yao Ran heading straight toward her. Mother and daughter had their arms linked together, and they were both glaring at her with disdain.
Yao Tang couldn’t help raising an eyebrow.
Even so, she said nothing and was just as indifferent as ever.
The shop assistant recognized Qin Man as one of their shop’s valued customers, so she held back from interfering.
The pair stopped in front of Yao Tang.
Qin Man glanced at the box in her hands and sneered. ‘There’s no way she could afford that thing.’
Aloud, she said, “What’s this, then? Did you come to her to splurge the money you received from that disgusting sponsor of yours?”
Qin Man crossed her arms over her chest and shot Yao Tang a challenging look.
Yao Ran lowered her head and tried to hide her smirk.
But Yao Tang continued to ignore them.
An awkward silence followed.
“Well?” Qin Man demanded. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Sure enough, bumpkins would always be bumpkins.
They liked to cause a ruckus now and then, but they still submitted to a greater power in the end. Qin Man didn’t waste the opportunity and began to berate Yao Tang loudly.
“You dirtied this establishment the moment you set your filthy feet inside!
Have you no shame? How can you just walk around in public after peddling your body in exchange for money?
Our Yao family brought you back from the countryside out of goodwill, but what do you repay us with? You bully Ranran at school and ruined her reputation with your baseless accusations! You ungrateful wretch!
I’ve seen many others like you in my lifetime, but you are, by far, the worst of the lot!”
Qin Man stood there, clad in her high-class suit and flashy jewelry, smelling of expensive, branded perfume, shrieking like a shrew on the side of the street.
She looked and sounded feral, much worse than the things she just called Yao Tang.
The shop assistant could no longer stand it.
Even though Qin Man was their client, that didn’t give her the right to castigate the other customers that walked into their store.
The girl stepped forward and opened her mouth to try and defuse the situation.
Before she could say anything, however, Qin Man whirled and directed some of her ire at the poor shop assistant.
“I am a valued client of this store! If you don’t want to lose my patronage, then I suggest you stay out of this!”
As if on cue, the shop manager rushed over and pulled the assistant back, his eyes flashing sharply.
The assistant had no choice but to fall back and let the fiasco run its course.
Qin Man snorted derisively and turned back to Yao Tang, looking her up and down with contempt.
“I heard your latest sugar daddy bought you a watch at the Charity Gala. You must be so pleased with yourself!”
Yao Ran chose that moment to speak up. She tugged at her mother’s sleeve and said, “Mom, don’t talk about Sister like that. It’s not her fault she has to resort to such things. She has to make a living and support herself, after all. It must have been hard for her after she left home.”
True to her treacherous nature, Yao Ran’s gentle tone belied the vicious implication of her words.
Yao Tang was silent through it all.
She had shifted her attention to the rest of the box collection in the cabinet. There were several more of them that had caught her fancy.
In any case, she already knew what to give Qin Jing for the latter’s birthday. All she needed now was the most suitable packaging to go with it.