Chapter 15: Enjoy the process

The car drove out of the campus and merged into the evening traffic of Linzhou City. The neon lights on both sides of the road gradually lit up, and shop signs flashed past the window one after another.

Lin Jianqing leaned back in the passenger seat, trying to look calm.

“Where are we going?”

“Shopping.”

Lin Jianqing turned his head.

“Shopping?”

“Eating, buying things.” Shen Huaixue said it very naturally. “The few sets you have from yesterday aren’t enough.”

For a moment, Lin Jianqing felt like he had misheard.

“This isn’t enough?”

“Not enough.”

“Shen Huaixue, I’m not a dress-up doll.”

“I know.”

Shen Huaixue nodded lightly, as if it were nothing.

“Dress-up dolls don’t talk back as much as you do. We’re just buying a few clothes.”

Lin Jianqing nearly choked. He realized that Shen Huaixue could really get under his skin sometimes.

“I don’t need that many clothes.”

“I know you don’t need them. But I do.”

Lin Jianqing looked out the window and decided to unilaterally end the conversation.

If he kept talking, he was afraid his blood pressure would spike. Twenty minutes later, the car stopped in the underground parking lot of a large shopping mall in downtown Linzhou.

After getting out of the car, Lin Jianqing instinctively wanted to put some distance between himself and Shen Huaixue. But the moment he moved half a step to the side, Shen Huaixue stopped walking and looked at him with a half-smile.

“What are you dodging?”

“I’m not dodging.”

“Then come closer.”

Lin Jianqing stood still. Shen Huaixue wasn’t in a hurry either; she just leisurely added:

“Right now, dressed like that, walking alone in the mall should attract more attention than walking with me. Aren’t you afraid someone will hit on you? I remember there are quite a few homosexuals in Linzhou City.”

That sentence hit the nail on the head. Lin Jianqing was silent for two seconds, then finally walked over to her with a blank expression.

The smile in Shen Huaixue’s eyes grew more obvious.

“Good.”

“Don’t use that word.”

Lin Jianqing said it almost immediately. Shen Huaixue glanced at him.

“Then how about another one? What form of address do you like?”

“I don’t like any.”

“Obedient?”

“Not that either.”

“Shen Huaixue.”

Lin Jianqing interrupted her, his tone carrying a hint of exasperation.

“If you keep talking, I’m going back to school right now.”

Shen Huaixue looked at him, flustered yet struggling to stay calm, and finally let out a light laugh.

“Fine, I’ll stop teasing you. Don’t be so hot-tempered.”

She said that, but her expression clearly meant otherwise.

Lin Jianqing had already given up believing her. The mall was crowded.

Bright light poured down from above, and the polished marble floor reflected blurry figures. The air was mixed with the scents of perfume, coffee, and desserts, completely different from the cold smell of disinfectant in the hospital.

Lin Jianqing originally thought that when Shen Huaixue said “buying things,” she meant casually picking out a few clothes.

But when he was led into a store with a decoration that looked very expensive, he suddenly realized he had been too naive. The shop assistant rushed over almost the moment she saw Shen Huaixue.

“Good evening, Miss Shen.”

Obviously, they knew Shen Huaixue. This probably wasn’t her first time here.

Lin Jianqing stood behind her, trying his best to be invisible. Unfortunately, it failed. The shop assistant’s gaze quickly fell on him, a trace of admiration flashing in her eyes.

“And this is…”

“A friend.”

Shen Huaixue answered quickly. Lin Jianqing felt a little relieved when he heard that word.

At least she didn’t use some strange title. But the next second, Shen Huaixue added:

“Help her pick out a few suitable outfits.”

Lin Jianqing: “…”

He looked up at Shen Huaixue, who looked back at him with an innocent expression, as if nothing had just happened.

The shop assistant was clearly professional. She didn’t show any unnecessary reaction to Lin Jianqing’s gender, only asking with a gentle smile:

“What style do you prefer?”

Lin Jianqing was about to say he didn’t like any, but Shen Huaixue answered for him.

“Something light, nothing too flashy. She’s thin-skinned.”

Lin Jianqing suppressed the urge to correct her. Forget it.

Correcting her here would be even more awkward. The shop assistant nodded and quickly brought over a few sets of clothes.

Lin Jianqing looked at the clothes and felt darkness before his eyes.

Shen Huaixue sat on the sofa nearby, legs crossed, her posture as leisurely as if she were enjoying some rare show.

“Go try them on.”

Lin Jianqing held the clothes but didn’t move. Shen Huaixue raised her eyes to look at him.

“Do you need my help?”

“I’ll do it myself.”

Lin Jianqing almost immediately turned and went into the fitting room. The moment the door closed, he let out a long breath.

He looked down at the clothes in his hands. To Lin Jianqing, the complexity of these clothes was like some kind of high-difficulty math puzzle.

From outside came Shen Huaixue’s lazy voice.

“If you can’t put them on, call me.”

Lin Jianqing gritted his teeth.

“Not necessary.”

“Don’t be stubborn.”

“I really don’t need it.”

“Then you remember yesterday pretty clearly. Didn’t you secretly put it back on after returning to the dorm?”

“Shen Huaixue!”

There was a moment of silence outside.

Then came her low laugh. Lin Jianqing closed his eyes, feeling that she would definitely anger him into internal injury today.

Also… he felt that after getting more familiar with Shen Huaixue, this person was becoming more and more… annoying?

A few minutes later, he changed and walked out of the fitting room.

Shen Huaixue was originally looking down at her phone. She looked up when she heard the sound.

Then her gaze stopped.

Lin Jianqing didn’t like that look in her eyes.

He stood in front of the mirror and looked away.

“What’s wrong? Looks weird, right?”

“Not weird.”

Shen Huaixue slowly put down her phone.

“It suits you very well.”

She said it very softly, without the usual joking tone.

Lin Jianqing was stunned for a moment, then frowned.

“It doesn’t matter if it suits me. I don’t like it.”

Shen Huaixue seemed to finally come back to her senses, and that familiar playful smile reappeared on her face.

“It’s okay. I like it.”

Lin Jianqing didn’t want to talk anymore. The next half hour was almost a mental endurance battle for him.

Shen Huaixue picked.

The shop assistant brought.

He tried them on.

Shen Huaixue commented.

Amid the comments, she added some of her own insights, eventually making Lin Jianqing’s old face blush.

Sometimes Shen Huaixue deliberately picked some revealing and sexy clothes, watched his expression darken, and then slowly switched to slightly more normal styles.

She seemed to enjoy the process, especially Lin Jianqing’s expression when he wanted to refuse but had to hold back because of the contract and reality.

Lin Jianqing resisted at first. By the end, he was numb. He still reflexively handled the clothes with extra care when he saw the price tags.

Shen Huaixue noticed. She sat on the sofa, watching him neatly organize the clothes he had tried on, and suddenly asked:

“Are you afraid of damaging them?”

Lin Jianqing’s hand paused.

“No shit.”

“If they’re damaged, I’ll buy new ones.”

“You buying is your business. Damaging them is mine.”

That overly clear sense of boundaries displeased Shen Huaixue, and it made her want to break it even more.

“Lin Jianqing.”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t be so careful.”

Lin Jianqing looked up at her. Shen Huaixue rested her chin on her hand, smiling nonchalantly.

Lin Jianqing was silent for a moment.

“When it comes out of your mouth, it feels more like a threat.”

Shen Huaixue laughed.

“You can think of it as… um… doting?”

Lin Jianqing’s face was expressionless.

“Tch, so gross.”