Wang Yanqiu was about to speak when she heard Yang Yanzhou say, "It's nothing. My girlfriend and I had a little quarrel. She wanted to buy clothes and I didn't, so she got angry."

"Huh?" Wang Yanqiu's eyes went wide, and she fixed Yang Ce with a murderous glare. The shameless bastard! Who was his girlfriend? And what was that supposed to mean, that she wanted to buy clothes and got angry when he wouldn't pay? Was she that kind of person? As if she were some unreasonable woman.

"Oh." The security guard nodded with a look of understanding, then turned and walked off, leaving Wang Yanqiu furious.

Yang Ce had grown thoroughly practiced at playing Wang Yanqiu's fake boyfriend back in Macau, so now he said all that without a moment's hesitation, smooth as could be.

Wang Yanqiu's lungs were about to burst with rage, but recalling that they were in a public place, she forced herself to hold it in, thinking that she would give Yang Ce a proper dressing-down soon enough.

The man was utterly outrageous, Wang Yanqiu thought. If she didn't put the fear of God into Yang Ce this time, she'd be in for no end of trouble later.

Yang Jiyan paid it no mind at all. He casually took a pink down jacket from the rack—it looked like it should fit Zhou Yanning—then glanced at the clothes Wang Yanqiu had picked out and said with a smile, "Let's go, time to pay."

Wang Yanqiu looked at the down jacket in Yang Ce's hands and said, displeased, "What kind of clothes is that? I don't want it."

No wonder Wang Yanqiu thought so. Yang Ce had come to the mall alone, with no other woman beside him, so when the grown man picked up a piece of women's clothing, Wang Yanqiu instinctively assumed Yang Ce meant it for her.

"Who said it's for you?" Yang Puqi was taken aback, then laughed. "I'm buying this for someone else."

"Ah!" Wang Yanqiu's face instantly flushed bright red, and inwardly she cursed Yang Ce up one side and down the other. Just you wait, she thought. You're good. You're really good. Just you wait.

Women are strange creatures sometimes—buy them something and it's wrong, don't buy them something and it's wrong too. Looking at Wang Yanqiu fuming, smoke all but pouring from her seven orifices, Yang Ce said with some helplessness, "How about I buy you one just like it?"

"Buy you a big head!" Wang Yanqiu spat viciously.

Yang Ce shook his head. Sorry, my head's not for sale—truly, it isn't. He set the down jacket he'd chosen on the counter, then pointed at the clothes Wang Yanqiu had picked out and asked the cashier, "How much altogether?"

To be continued.

943. Dare You Take Me On?

"Who asked you to pay?" Wang Yanqiu snorted coldly, plainly not about to accept the favor.

But the cashier assumed the young couple was simply having a lovers' tiff and paid it no mind. She briskly rang everything up and said, "Sir, that comes to three thousand six hundred and forty-eight yuan in total."

"Card, please." Yang Ce handed over the bank card he had ready, and the cashier snatched it up in a flash, infuriating Wang Yanqiu, who had been about to pull out her own money.

Besides, even if she had paid, Wang Yanqiu wouldn't have known how much she owed—one of Yang Juehuan's garments was mixed in there too.

The cashier swiped the card quickly, handed Yang Ce the receipt to sign, then passed them a few paper bags to put the clothes in.

"Let's go." Yang Ce gave the larger paper bag to Wang Yanqiu and kept a small one for himself, tucking the down jacket he'd bought for Zhou Yanning inside.

Wang Yanqiu said nothing, taking the bag in a huff and stuffing her clothes into it. Ordinarily she wouldn't have wanted the clothes anymore, but she had chosen all of them herself, and one was the very last of its kind in the store—her favorite style, no less. If she didn't take it today, someone else would surely buy it tomorrow.

So despite her anger, Wang Yanqiu had no choice but to swallow it, resolving to give Yang Yanzhou a piece of her mind once they were outside. Emerging from the specialty store, she snapped at Yang Ce in a cold voice, "Hold on."

"What is it?" Yang Puqi stopped and turned around.

"Yang Ce, let's have a proper talk in a bit, all right?" Wang Yanqiu glared at Yang Puqi and said.

"A talk? Sure." Yang Ce had been wanting to talk to Wang Yanqiu himself but had been at a loss for an opening, so he nodded readily.

The two left Xinheng Department Store and made their way to the parking lot. Yang Yanzhou said, "Let's talk in my car. It's cold out."

Wang Yanqiu hesitated. "All right. You lead the way." She didn't want to go, but she reasoned that Yang Shuoxuan couldn't very well do anything to her. If he dared try anything improper, Wang Yanqiu resolved to simply finish Yang Ce off or teach him a lesson he'd never forget—she had great confidence in her own fighting skills.

Yang Yuting nodded, unlocked the BMW with the remote, and pulled open the passenger door for Wang Yanqiu to get in first.

After Wang Yanqiu got in, Yang Ce closed the door, then took the driver's seat.

"What did you want to talk about?" Yang Hengye asked as he turned on the car's heater.

"Yang Ce, what exactly are you playing at?" Wang Yanqiu said coldly. "Don't you think you're a bit too shameless?"

"Shameless? How am I shameless?" Yang Ce couldn't see what he had to do with shamelessness. He'd disturbed her rest during the renovations, sure—but he'd already apologized, so what more did she want? How could this girl be so petty?

"You—" Hearing Yang Yongjin admit it, Wang Yanqiu grew indignant. "You know what you did."

"I'm telling you, it was just a little disturbance from the renovations. Is that really worth all this?" Yang Shuoxuan was getting annoyed. You can't just grab hold of one little fault and never let go.

Hearing Yang Ce drag the renovation business up again, Wang Yanqiu grew even angrier. If he had just honestly admitted his mistake, she would have let it go. But now Wang Yanqiu was about to explode, and she couldn't be bothered holding back. Fuming, she said, "Fine then. Yang Ce, don't you want to have me? Then I'll give you a proper chance."

"Have you?" Yang Ce was dumbfounded.

But Wang Yanqiu took Yang Ce's stunned expression as that of a lecher whose mind had run off with his lust, which only made her more disgusted. "Let's have a contest. If you can beat me, then I, Wang Yanqiu, will agree to be your girlfriend—or even your mistress, if that's what you want."

"Huh?" Yang Ce stared blankly at Wang Yanqiu, with no idea what she was talking about.

"Hmph. Don't get smug just yet. If you can't beat me, then you'd better watch out." Seeing Yang Ce's dazed look, Wang Yanqiu assumed he was struck dumb with delight, and she said coldly, "If you lose, you move out of the place next to mine and never show your face in front of me again."

Smug? Was I smug? Yang Jincong smiled and rubbed his chin. What was all this? You want to be my girlfriend—well, I don't even want that. Sure, you seem hot-tempered and you've got a nice figure, but I already have plenty of wives. One more or one less makes no difference.

But what Yang Ce wanted right now was to establish a friendship with Wang Yanqiu as quickly as possible—whether using that illusory face or his current one. Only by employing two different identities could he keep Wang Yanqiu off her guard; talking to her separately in each guise, he might just get her to reveal a crack in her story.

"And if I don't take the contest?" Yang Yanchuan asked.

"I'm not competing. Even if I lose, you still have to move out." Wang Yanqiu shot Yang Puqi a look of contempt. "You're a grown man—how can your nerve be this small?"

My nerve is small? Yang Ce was caught between laughter and tears. When you were about to be wiped out in Macau, who saved you? And now you're acting all high and mighty. Easy to talk when you're not the one aching.