Page 23 of He Is My Bride
Wu Yiyi and Wang Xinyu both accompanied Li Ying as Yiyi drove him back to Hanjun’s place. Li Ying thought he should start getting ready for the evening, since Anne had made it clear that dinner functions required an outfit change.
“I’ll pick you up whenever you want, just call me,” Yiyi said while stopping the car in front of the main entrance.
“Thank you, A-Yi.” Li Ying dug into his purse to find his wallet. Li Ying had thought of inviting the interns in, but decided against it: he didn’t need the boys getting nosy at the wrong moment while he was changing.
“You boys go get yourselves something to eat now.” Li Ying handed them some cash.
“Ah, there’s no need, Miss Li…” Yiyi tried refusing, but Li Ying insisted:
“Hey, it’s past office hours, yet here you are, driving me around, and as interns, you don’t even get paid, right? I’m offering this in place of Wu Hanjun as your employee benefits.”
“If it’s really okay?” Yiyi finally accepted, but Xinyu yet hesitated .
“I’m not really even supposed to be here,” he said, “I just tagged along with Yiyi because if I’m at the office, I’m just made to file papers. I’m not really given any meaningful things to do.”
“I’m Hanjun’s girlfriend, remember, and you are Hanjun’s family too, A-Yu, so I can offer to buy you a meal.” Li Ying’s tone made it clear this was not a question.
Xinyu still seemed unsure if it was okay, but accepted the cash from Li Ying with both hands.
“Thank you, Miss Li.”
“I’ll call you when I’m ready?”
“We will pick you up then,” Yiyi said. “Thank you so much, Miss Li!”
Over at Hanjun’s, Li Ying had a video call with Anne to consult her on evening wear.
She told him to add lipstick for a more evening look and go with a safe choice, a little black dress: backless with a halterneck, and an amply plunging V-neck, the one Anne had sewn for Li Ying herself.
Li Ying changed bras accordingly and made sure to touch up his chest contour.
But there was something Li Ying wouldn’t agree to.
“Anne, my feet are done! I have been up on heels all day, and I’m not wearing them if we’re still supposed to go shopping and everything! Hell, I’m not wearing heels even if you personally carried me around. Why did you pack me sneakers if I couldn’t use them?”
“In case you want to go exercise! Play tennis, or something. Li Ying, you are not wearing sneakers with that dress!”
“And what will you do to stop me?” Li Ying put on the fresh black Nikes with white soles and showed off to Anne, taunting her, “A-ha! What now?”
“…It doesn’t look that bad. It’s not what I would do, but I’ve seen this combo in some catalogs.”
“Did I just out- fashion you?”
“Tch, no. It kind of works, but don’t think this would fly where you would normally be required to wear dress shoes! I did ask Hanjun which restaurant he’d reserved, and it’s a nice place but not formal, so at least you won’t be turned at the door because of those.”
Once the shoe debacle was over, Li Ying agreed to meet Anne at the mall. She’d been there for a while already and said she’d found new clothes for Li Ying to try. Li Ying called up Yiyi, and the boys drove over.
Xinyu got up to open the door for Li Ying.
They seemed to enjoy playing his personal driver and butler, since they so readily bustled about him.
Li Ying thought back to their encounter with Wang Guosheng and figured he would not be pleased to see his grandson toting over him like this, but for Li Ying, pissing off someone like Wang Guosheng would be a pleasure.
Li Ying hadn’t liked the bearing of that man, not one bit, nor the strange way he’d looked at him.
Li Ying rubbed his knuckles against the car seat as if to wipe dirt off them.
They arrived at the mall along Western Nanjing Road and began looking for a place to leave the car. There was a huge illuminated tree in front of the mall, and Li Ying was reminded that it was indeed Christmas Eve.
They were trying to find a place to park the car, but the parking garage was full.
“Thanks, boys, you have been a great help today, but I think I have to let you go home now. Just drop me off here,” Li Ying said.
Not only were the poor interns having a completely ordinary Monday at work even though it was Christmas Eve, but they were even doing overtime because of him.
The interns looked at each other.
“Are you sure, Miss Li?” Yiyi looked back at Li Ying. “We could come with you to the shops, help you carry your bags.”
Xinyu nodded in agreement .
Li Ying quirked his brow. “Do you guys want to come shopping with me?”
“Yes!” the boys responded at once, and Li Ying laughed.
“Really? Shopping is actually pretty boring. I guess neither of you has had a girlfriend who’s forced you to go to a mall with her, since you know no better.”
The boys looked confused, but Yiyi hurried to assure:
“We won’t get bored with cool Big Sister Li!”
Li Ying laughed. “Fine! But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Hey, there’s a spot freeing up.” Li Ying pointed at a car that was backing out.
Yiyi waited until the other car had left and began carefully wiggling the car between the other two.
“Xinyu, can you check I’m not hitting the car on that side?” Yiyi said. When he thought he was about to hit the other car, he abruptly hit the brakes. “Sorry! Ugh, I hate parking…”
“Pull out and turn around,” Li Ying said, unfazed. “You’ll want to park backing up. It’ll also be easier to leave.”
“Uh, okay…” Yiyi pulled away, turned around, and started backing up again, hectically looking left and right. There was now another car waiting to get past them, honking.
“Sorry!” Yiyi was sweating.
“You can do it,” Xinyu encouraged.
Li Ying unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned between the seats to grab the wheel. “I’ll show you. Drive a little forward and let’s start over.”
The other car honked again.
“Oh fuck you!” Li Ying huffed.
The interns were impressed. Li Ying kept guiding Yiyi, and together they finally parked successfully.
“Good job, A-Yi!”
Yiyi was pleased with himself. Looking over his shoulder to properly thank Li Ying, Yiyi came face to face with a petite cleavage that hovered just about level with his face. Blushing furiously, Yiyi snapped his face back forward.
“Okay, boys, let’s go.”
They met up with Anne inside the mall. While Li Ying had toured the Wu Pharma facilities, she’d been busy at work, shopping for her most important client and networking.
“Hanjun sent me a message,” Li Ying told her, “he’s on his way, but let’s go ahead, yeah?”
Li Ying let Anne lead them through the five floors of brand stores. There were seasonal decorations, a group of Santas with skimpily clad female helpers, and many people whose idea of Christmas seemed to be unapologetic retail therapy.
Anne had visited select stores beforehand and had pieces put aside for fitting, and now that Li Ying had started developing his own sense of style, he could get more excited about the whole process and even made some finds of his own:
“Anne!” Li Ying gasped in delight and pointed at a pair of black leather Alexander McQueen heels with a metal toe-cap and a belted ankle-strap.
“These are so metal! Look, the tip is actually made of metal! I could kick a bitch dead with these!” Li Ying enthused while cradling the weaponized heel in his hands.
He was imagining Wang Guosheng’s face in particular.
Li Ying would sink this bad girl into his crotch if he touched his hand like that again.
Anne couldn’t see the humor in Li Ying’s antics and was painfully aware of the sales representative hovering close by and hearing everything.
The interns were standing by and thought Miss Li was cooler by the moment.
They both stared as Li Ying kicked off his sneakers and sat down to try the killer heels on for size.
The interns didn’t need to look at each other; the silence shared between them was one of understanding when they watched Li Ying’s perfectly manicured toes, visible through his sheer nude stockings, slip into the McQueens: this was a defining moment.
“Yiyi, Xinyu.” Wu Hanjun. Right behind them .
The interns startled and flared a deep shade of red, swinging around to face their manager and older cousin. Hanjun quirked a brow at them, his eyes all too knowing.
“Hanjun! Look at these!” Li Ying swung up his leg to show off the heels, flashing his black panties in the process and making Wu Hanjun turn red, too. The interns almost bled from their noses. “Buy them for me?”
Anne grabbed Li Ying’s leg and pushed it down, looking as if she would gladly murder him on the spot.
Li Ying deemed the size good and hung from Hanjun’s arm, nudging him incessantly as the man took him and his credit card to the cashier.
“Miss.” The sales rep approached Anne. “About the sizes you were asking for earlier, it’s possible to get them from our sister location with a couple of days’ delay.”
“Oh, wonderful.” So, now you’re ready to put in the effort for me when you saw who my client is.
“If you would leave us with your contact information, we could get back to you when we have stock?” the representative said, most politely.
“Of course.” Anne handed her her card. “Here.”
“Anne, let’s go.” Li Ying called to her, new shoes in a bag flung over his shoulder and his arm around Hanjun’s.
The five of them visited more stores over the next couple of hours. Anne felt undeniable satisfaction when some of the haughtier brand representatives showed a change of attitude when she turned up with Wu Hanjun and his ‘mystery woman’ as her client.
The interns soon understood the situation they had gotten themselves into, as they had to wait while the girls shopped and it just went on. They sat around, bored, looking after Li Ying’s growing number of bags, checking their phones. Hanjun sat with them, waiting patiently .