As She Wished - Chapter 12

Fu Jing was completely stunned.

“What did you say just now?” Gu Qingci lowered her eyes and slowly buttoned her cuffs, her tone deliberately puzzled. “It seemed like you said that for the next month, I could order you around however I wanted, that you’d listen to everything I said, and that if I told you to walk east, you definitely wouldn’t look west. Is that right?”

Fu Jing: “…”

She remembered it that clearly and still had to ask back.

“Mm.” Fu Jing swallowed and nodded. “You… you can say whatever you want.”

Gu Qingci rested her elbow on the marble countertop and leaned forward slightly. The curve of her lips was full of interest. “I might make many demands that will put you in a difficult position.”

Fu Jing pressed her lips together.

“Regretting it?” Gu Qingci judged her expression, and that desire to tease her rose again. The smile on her lips deepened. “Then do you want to try acting spoiled?”

Fu Jing’s mind was full of the dimple that appeared on Gu Qingci’s cheek from time to time. She nodded, but then hesitated. “How do I act spoiled?”

Gu Qingci tilted her head and glanced amusedly at Tao Xian, who was trying hard to pretend she was air while watching the show.

Tao Xian pretended not to understand that Gu Qingci wanted her to leave, and even took the initiative to teach Fu Jing. “It’s simple. The secret to acting spoiled is using repeated baby words. For example: Sister, I really want you to accompany me to eaty-eaty and sleepy-sleepy~”

Gu Qingci: “…”

Fu Jing’s eyes were confused. After pondering for a few seconds, she suddenly clenched her fist and struck her palm. “I understand!”

She turned to look at Gu Qingci.

Blinking, she said with extreme sincerity and enthusiasm, “Sister, I really want to buy you a baggy-bag~”

Tao Xian had just elegantly raised her glass and taken a sip of wine. Hearing this attempt at acting spoiled, she could not hold it in and sprayed the wine back into the goblet. “…”

Gu Qingci: “…”

Fu Jing: “…”

She clearly used repeated words. Why did they have that kind of reaction???

Fu Jing was so innocent, and at the same time, her self-esteem felt a little wounded.

After a pause, she could not help reaching out and lightly pinching the hem of Gu Qingci’s suit. She said softly, “Sister, I don’t know how to act spoiled… You should make some other demand instead.”

Her voice carried a slightly aggrieved, nasal little hum, soft and delicate.

Her fair, clean face was flushed red.

Even Tao Xian, who was listening while watching the show, felt her whole body soften. She could not help clicking her tongue inwardly. A shy young girl’s pure, unaware act of cuteness—its killing power was no joke.

She stole a glance at the expression of the banished immortal beside her.

The banished immortal still did not reveal a thing.

Fu Jing quietly added, “As long as you don’t forbid me from getting close to you, anything else is fine.”

“…”

Gu Qingci was silent for a few seconds. Suddenly, she slightly turned her gaze away, stood up, and said coldly, “Tao Xian, come be a designated driver.”

After saying that, she walked straight toward the door.

Tao Xian hurriedly followed. After thinking for a moment, she turned back and hastily said to Fu Jing, “I heard that before an iceberg melts, the temperature around it drops a lot. As expected!”

Fu Jing: “…”

She completely did not understand what that meant.

—

Fu Jing felt that Gu Qingci had suddenly become especially cold toward her.

With great difficulty, she got Gu Qingci’s WeChat through Tao Xian, then anxiously waited for most of the day before finally seeing her accept the friend request.

But the messages she sent received absolutely no response.

Gu Qingci’s profile picture was a plain white image. Her status was empty, and her Moments were even emptier. It was as if Fu Jing had added a zombie account that should have been canceled long ago.

Fu Jing lowered her head in dejection.

After she sighed for the third time, Qin Zijin finally turned off her phone with great reluctance. “All right. There’s always a way!”

Qin Zijin thought for a moment. “How about this? Describe exactly what kind of person she is to me, and I’ll analyze it carefully for you.”

“Oh.” Fu Jing thought for a while, then said very seriously, “Her eyes are big, her skin is fair, and she’s super beautiful…”

Before she even finished speaking, she met Qin Zijin’s gaze, which was full of disdain and disgust.

Fu Jing hesitated and changed her wording, trying to sound literary. “It’s just, how does that saying go… skin like congealed fat, so delicate it could be broken by a breath?”

Qin Zijin quickly waved her hand. “All right, all right. I know.”

Then she suddenly thought of something. “When I washed duck blood the day before yesterday, I felt exactly what you described. Smooth but not greasy, so delicate it could be broken by a breath. Wow, I almost couldn’t bear to slice it and put it in the pot.”

Fu Jing: “…………”

Fu Jing said, “You may insult literature as much as you want, but you may not insult the person I like!”

“Anyway, you just think she’s especially beautiful, gentle, and considerate.” Qin Zijin helplessly spread her hands. “There’s no useful reference information at all. From what you’ve told me, I can only feel that she’s an especially aloof beauty.”

“She is aloof,” Fu Jing nodded. “But I think she treats me very well.”

“…”

In an instant, countless things Qin Zijin wanted to roast surged to her lips. There were so many that she choked on them, and for a long while, she could not say a word. She raised her hands in surrender. “Fine, then.”

Fu Jing thought of an idea. “The people at the bar told me that a common method for pursuing beautiful women is giving gifts. But yesterday, when I said I’d give her a bag, her expression didn’t look very good… She definitely doesn’t like bags! Come with me to the mall and help me pick something else.”

“Giving gifts. The old tycoon move.” Qin Zijin rarely expressed approval. “It has been passed down through the ages, which shows it’s a good method. It’s especially effective for nightclub people.”

The two of them searched the map and took the bus to the most high-end department store nearby.

It was filled with all kinds of familiar luxury brand counters.

Fu Jing had rarely gone shopping in malls. She pulled Qin Zijin along excitedly into a luxury store that everyone had heard of and first wandered around the ready-to-wear section.

She saw a piece of clothing that looked like a cape and also like a rain poncho. Its appearance was novel.

Curious, Fu Jing asked about the price.

The sales associate wore a professional fake smile and answered clearly, “Fifty-eight thousand yuan.”

Fu Jing: “…………”

She revealed an astonished expression as if she had seen a ghost in broad daylight. Her hand shrank back, and she said softly to the rain poncho, “I have been disrespectful.”

Seeing her thoroughly country-bumpkin appearance, Qin Zijin found it especially amusing. After walking a few steps, she asked quietly, “You still think fifty-eight thousand yuan is expensive?”

“Relative to my financial ability, it isn’t expensive.” Fu Jing took a deep breath to adjust her emotions, then furrowed her brows and said in a tone of deep grief and indignation, “But as someone who studies materials, I really can’t go against my conscience and spend more than twenty yuan on this kind of polyester fiber that’s just casually stitched together.”

The sales associate standing not far away heard her words, which were both pretentious and stingy, and her expression became very disdainful.

Qin Zijin caught sight of it and immediately said with schadenfreude, “See? Even the sales associate is rolling her eyes at you.”

Her words were neither too loud nor too quiet, just loud enough for others to hear.

When she lifted her eyes, there was a faint sharpness that made her seem difficult to provoke.

The sales associate’s gaze met hers, and by reflex, she restrained the contempt in her expression and piled on a smile. “Even if you don’t buy, you can still take a look.”

“Only take a look? Are we not allowed to try it on?” Qin Zijin immediately followed up.

Fu Jing hurriedly tugged at her sleeve and lowered her voice. “Why are you being fierce to her? If we’re not buying, let’s just hurry and leave.”

Qin Zijin nodded, looking very indifferent.

The two of them left the store.

Qin Zijin muttered, “How was I fierce to her? Also, aren’t you studying physics?”

Fu Jing said with conviction, “Physics means you have to study everything.”

She turned back to glance at the store behind them again and hesitantly asked, “Can I just go to the bank and buy her gold bars? They can be placed there for viewing, and they can also be sold for food.”

Qin Zijin pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed. “For your first gift, can’t you just buy her a luxury lipstick? Do you really have to throw money around? Are you that rich?”

Fu Jing thought for a moment, then first answered the simplest final question. “I really am very rich.”

“…”

There were many things in the world that were difficult to predict. Fu Jing had worked hard to save money for so many years. With great difficulty, she had finally found a place where she wanted to spend money, only for all the money she had spent over half a month to be refunded to her.

Moreover, Tao Xian had even given her a very decent part-time wage.

Substitute-teaching for Jiang Jianhua also came with teaching fees.

Going to school in the morning to teach was earning money. Going to the bar at night for entertainment was still earning money…

Fu Jing usually immersed herself in her studies. Her parents took care of food, clothing, housing, and transportation, and her hobby was financial management.

She truly had no opportunity to spend money at all.

Now, this little dragon had fallen in love with a beautiful princess, so she especially wanted to offer the gold, silver, and jewels she had collected and piled up in her cave over the years. She wanted to exchange them for fine clothes and delicacies, fragrant cars and precious horses, all to win the beauty’s favor.

In the end, Qin Zijin reminded her, “If you spend money casually like this, will your family get angry if they find out?”

Fu Jing froze. “I think they probably won’t.”

—

Before leaving the mall, Fu Jing obediently bought a luxury lipstick and a luxury plush charm that cost several thousand yuan. Qin Zijin told her to give these two things first, and then decide the next step based on Gu Qingci’s expression and reaction after receiving them.

After returning home, Fu Jing called her mother.

The call was quickly answered.

“Hello.” The woman’s voice was blurred by strong wind. “What’s wrong, Nannan?”

“Mom, are you busy?”

“…Not busy. Go ahead.”

There were the sounds of many vehicles passing by.

Fu Jing took off her shoes, went into the study, took out her computer, and checked her emails. In a casual chatting tone, she said, “Mom, if I became someone who spent money lavishly, would you be angry?”

“Did you buy something? Do you still have enough money to spend?”

One question followed another.

But without waiting for Fu Jing’s answer, the woman on the other end said, “Your dad promised before that on the day you graduated from university, he’d buy you a sports car. You were the one who didn’t want it. Go ask him for that three to five million first and spend it.”

Fu Jing sat down and heard the whistling wind on the other end grow louder along with the noise near a train station.

She smiled faintly, clicked open the email, and said while reading, “Mom, I have more than enough money on me. I just wanted to ask…”

“Go ask your dad for the money, okay? Be good. Let’s stop here for now.” Someone beside her was calling her. “Mom has to get busy. I’m hanging up.”

“Oh.” Fu Jing hurriedly answered, “Okay…”

Before she could finish saying “Bye, Mom,” she had already heard the beep, beep, beep of the call being disconnected.

Fu Jing froze for a moment, then, as if used to it, put her phone aside. She opened her paper and began revising it.

Her expression was serious and focused.

She had already grown up. She no longer had the leisure to feel casually disappointed the way she had when she was little. There were still far too many things in this world that could trouble her. For example, the paper she had painstakingly prepared had been rejected, and the revision comments practically required her to overturn everything and rewrite it.