Lin Jianqing could only force himself to say, “It looks good.”
Shen Huaixue raised an eyebrow.
“What looks good about it?”
Lin Jianqing was silent for a moment.
“The color suits you.”
“And?”
“The cut should be… decent?”
“Should be?”
Lin Jianqing sighed and finally couldn’t help saying, “Shen Huaixue, I really don’t understand these things. If you ask me to evaluate women’s clothing, the most I can do is judge by the price.”
“You know better than I do whether something looks good or not. And your taste in picking clothes has always been good, so anything I say is just redundant.”
When Shen Huaixue heard the end, her expression paused slightly, then she smiled.
“Were you just praising my taste?”
Lin Jianqing immediately became wary.
“I was stating a fact.”
“Stating a fact can also be a compliment. It seems you should also like the clothes I picked for you.”
“If you insist on interpreting it that way, then I can’t help it.”
“Then I’ll interpret it that way.”
Shen Huaixue was clearly in a good mood. She didn’t pick clothes quickly, occasionally holding one up in front of the mirror and then turning to ask Lin Jianqing’s opinion.
At first, Lin Jianqing tried to look carefully, but later he found that the only evaluations he could come up with were “not bad,” “okay,” “nice color,” “feels like it suits you,” and he gradually started to zone out.
Of course, Shen Huaixue noticed.
She held a light-colored coat and walked over to him, a hint of laughter in her voice.
“Lin Jianqing, the expression on your face right now really looks like a boyfriend forced to accompany his girlfriend shopping.”
Lin Jianqing almost choked on that sentence.
“Who’s the boyfriend?”
“Oh.”
Shen Huaixue slowly glanced at the clothes he was wearing.
“Then the girlfriend?”
“Take it however you want, pervert.”
“Don’t make it sound so harsh.”
Shen Huaixue handed the coat to the clerk, her tone light.
“I just wanted you to accompany me shopping and also see how you’re dressed today.”
After hearing that, Lin Jianqing felt that every word in the sentence was normal, but together they exuded a kind of Shen Huaixue-style abnormality.
The two of them visited several stores in a row.
This time, Shen Huaixue was indeed buying clothes for herself. She picked seriously and tried on a few outfits. She was tall and had a cold temperament, so many clothes on her exuded an air of unapproachable nobility.
Lin Jianqing sat on the sofa outside the fitting room, holding the water the clerk had given him, and when he saw her come out in a dark long skirt, he actually took a rare, serious look.
Shen Huaixue saw his reaction in the mirror.
“This one?”
Lin Jianqing nodded.
“It looks good.”
Shen Huaixue turned around and looked at him with a half-smile.
“Not being perfunctory this time?”
“No.”
“What looks good about it?”
Lin Jianqing thought for a moment, then finally said, “It suits you. More precisely, it matches your temperament.”
The smile in Shen Huaixue’s eyes deepened.
“How does it match me?”
Lin Jianqing looked at her and answered very seriously, “It looks expensive and not to be messed with.”
The clerk nearby couldn’t help but laugh, and Shen Huaixue also laughed.
“Is that a compliment?”
“Fine, at least it doesn’t sound like an insult.”
“Then I’ll buy it.”
Lin Jianqing lowered his head to drink water, feeling that he had already exceeded the emotional value he was supposed to provide to Shen Huaixue today.
After Shen Huaixue paid, when the two of them came out of the store, there were noticeably more eyes on them.
At first, Lin Jianqing didn’t notice, until two passing girls lowered their voices and said, “So pretty,” “Are they a couple?” Only then did he belatedly realize that they had been getting stared at the whole way.
Because the male-to-female ratio was already severely imbalanced, there were many lesbians in the entire Federation, and it was no longer surprising.
However, a pair like Lin Jianqing and Shen Huaixue was rare.
Both were very attractive. Shen Huaixue was already eye-catching, and Lin Jianqing, with a little grooming and wearing women’s clothing, was also the type that would make hearts skip a beat at first glance.
The two standing together, one cold and beautiful, the other pretty, indeed didn’t look like ordinary passersby.
Lin Jianqing’s body stiffened slightly, and he instinctively wanted to move a little to the side, but then Shen Huaixue suddenly reached out and directly linked her arm through his.
The movement was as natural as if it had always been that way.
Lin Jianqing froze completely.
“What are you doing?”
Shen Huaixue moved a little closer, lowering her voice with obvious amusement.
“They’re all looking at you. I’m helping you block it.”
Lin Jianqing looked down at her arm linked with his.
“You call this blocking?”
“Otherwise?”
Shen Huaixue tilted her head to look at him.
“The more you shy away now, the more obvious it is. You might as well act natural. They’ve probably already assumed we’re a lesbian couple out shopping.”
Lin Jianqing’s ears felt hot.
“Who’s a couple with you?”
“A lesbian couple.”
He knew this woman would deliberately repeat that.
Lin Jianqing lowered his voice.
“Can you stop saying such weird things? And just because I’m wearing women’s clothing doesn’t mean I can accept being walked around like this with you holding my arm.”
Shen Huaixue watched the tips of his ears slowly turn red, and her mood clearly improved.
“Then do you want to shake me off now? Everyone around is watching. As long as you make a big move, everyone will realize that our ‘lesbian couple’ seems to have some relationship instability. You don’t want people gossiping, and you should be listening to me anyway.”
Lin Jianqing was silent. Shen Huaixue seemed to have grasped a weapon that, to Lin Jianqing, was called “principle.” Sometimes it pissed him off, but Lin Jianqing couldn’t do anything about it.
Shen Huaixue didn’t let go and continued walking forward with him on her arm. At first, Lin Jianqing was still stiff, but after walking a bit and realizing that although people looked, no one actually came up to ask, he reluctantly relaxed a little.
Shen Huaixue was too close. The faint scent on her kept lingering, arm against arm, fabric occasionally brushing, and he couldn’t ignore it even if he tried.
“Are you shy?” Shen Huaixue suddenly asked.
Lin Jianqing immediately denied it. “No.”
“Then why aren’t you looking at me?”
“I’m looking at the road.”
“What’s so interesting about the road?”
“I’m afraid of falling.”
“What are you afraid of when I’m holding you? I think you’re just shy. Your face is so red.”
Lin Jianqing didn’t want to talk to her.
But Shen Huaixue seemed to have found a new source of amusement today. She didn’t let go of his arm, and even deliberately got closer when they passed a dessert shop.
Someone nearby whispered again, “They look so good together.”
Lin Jianqing heard it, and of course, Shen Huaixue did too.
She tilted her head slightly, her voice so soft that only the two of them could hear.
“Did you hear that?”
“No.”
“They said we’re a great match.”
“You misheard.”
“I have great hearing. Don’t forget, I’m a supernatural being.”
“Then I suggest you get selective hearing.”
Shen Huaixue’s shoulders shook with laughter, and Lin Jianqing’s face grew even hotter.
He kept his head down, telling himself not to care.
The passersby didn’t know who he was, and they didn’t know he was a man… ‘I myself, right, I’m just playing the role of a girl. Right, a girl.’
But Shen Huaixue held his arm, walking so naturally, as if they really were just a couple out shopping.
Lin Jianqing suddenly felt his heartbeat get a little chaotic.
But the one whose heart was pounding frantically wasn’t just Lin Jianqing.