"Wow, Xin Xin, you look amazing! You're like a doll," exclaimed Liu Shishi, gasping as Zhuang Jiaxin emerged from the fitting room in the pink lace dress chosen for her by Liu Shishi.
Zhuang Jiaxin was naturally quite pretty, but she had always worn dirty, tattered clothes and suffered from a lack of self-confidence. Now, in the exquisite lace dress, she looked like a completely different person.
"Is this, is this really me?" Zhuang Jiaxin gazed at her reflection in disbelief. She touched herself all over, unable to imagine that she would ever wear such beautiful clothes. After scrutinizing herself in the mirror for a long time, Zhuang Jiaxin turned to Yu Suqin beside her. "Mom, do you think this dress looks good on me?"
"It looks good! It looks great!" Yu Suqin's heart was filled with mixed emotions as she looked at her daughter's smiling face.
Next, Zhuang Jiaxin tried on other clothes. However, in the end, she only chose the first dress she had tried on.
"Xin Xin, those dresses were all beautiful, and you seemed to like them. Why didn't you let me buy them all?" Liu Shishi asked Zhuang Jiaxin, puzzled, as they left the clothing store.
Zhuang Jiaxin carefully held the bag containing the dress. "Sister Shishi, my mom taught me not to be too greedy. Meeting you and Brother Du Fei is already the greatest fortune. One shouldn't be ungrateful. I'm already very happy with this dress."
Liu Shishi could only pat her head helplessly after hearing this. Although Zhuang Jiaxin had faced hardships, these trials had made her more sensible and well-behaved than children her age. While being sensible and well-behaved was good, such growth came at a significant cost.
After buying the dress, Liu Shishi said she wanted to buy Zhuang Jiaxin a pair of shoes and other items, and the three continued to stroll through the mall. As they passed by the entrance of a women's clothing store, a woman talking on the phone happened to walk out.
"Oh!"
*Clatter!*
Zhuang Jiaxin, who had turned to speak to the person beside her, was knocked to the ground by the woman who had suddenly walked out. The woman's phone also slipped from her grasp and fell to the ground.
"Xin Xin!"
"Xin Xin!"
"Xin Xin, are you alright?"
Seeing Zhuang Jiaxin fall, Liu Shishi and Yu Suqin rushed forward to help her up. After helping Zhuang Jiaxin to her feet, Liu Shishi noticed that her arm was scraped and she had a large bump on her head.
"Are you blind! Can't you watch where you're going?"
At that moment, a sharp voice came from the side. Liu Shishi looked up and saw a young woman with a voluptuous figure and bold attire glaring at them angrily. The woman was momentarily stunned by Liu Shishi's exquisite beauty as she looked up. However, she quickly raised her phone, its screen cracked, and shouted, "What are you looking at? You knocked over my phone! It cost over ten thousand yuan. Pay up now!"
"What, over ten thousand yuan?"
"Hiss, sister, I didn't mean to. I'm sorry."
Upon hearing this, Zhuang Jiaxin, forgetting her injuries, quickly apologized. Over ten thousand yuan was an astronomical sum for her. Although her life had improved, the young girl couldn't immediately adjust her perspective.
"Xin Xin, you don't need to apologize." Seeing Zhuang Jiaxin injured and apologizing, Liu Shishi immediately stopped her. Then, she turned to the woman and said, "You were walking while talking on the phone, didn't watch where you were going, knocked someone down, and injured them. You don't even apologize, but you demand compensation for your phone? This is outrageous!" She then pointed to Zhuang Jiaxin's injuries, urging the woman to look closely.
To her surprise, the woman didn't even look, adopting a shrewish demeanor. "Oh, so you're trying to scam me, are you? Well, I'm not someone to be trifled with. I'll say this one last time: if you don't pay, you'll regret it!" The woman's unreasonable behavior was truly unsightly.
Yu Suqin and her daughter, noticing the woman's expensive clothing, realized she was wealthy and became somewhat intimidated. The fear of trouble often associated with the poor was vividly displayed by the mother and daughter.
"You made a mistake, yet you're so arrogant and domineering. Paying you is impossible. You'd better apologize to Xin Xin!" Liu Shishi was not afraid of this arrogant woman at all. One needed to stand on principle. If everything was decided by who shouted the loudest or who was richer, wouldn't society descend into chaos?
"Fine! You won't pay, will you? Just you wait!" The woman turned and went back into the clothing store she had just exited. She picked up the desk phone and started making a call, glancing at Liu Shishi and the other two outside the door as she spoke.
"Shishi, let's just forget it. I'll take Xin Xin and apologize. It's better to avoid trouble."
"Mom, she wants us to pay ten thousand yuan. I couldn't earn that much even if I sold for months."
Yu Suqin became flustered when she saw the woman making a phone call, but Xin Xin remembered the woman demanding compensation.
Liu Shishi comforted them, "Sister Qin, Xin Xin, please don't worry. No matter who she calls, there are laws and reason in this world. We did nothing wrong, so why should we be afraid of her?" Liu Shishi then asked Yu Suqin to take Zhuang Jiaxin to the mall's customer service desk downstairs to disinfect her wounds and apply a band-aid. Although Yu Suqin was still worried, seeing Liu Shishi's confident demeanor, she nodded and took Zhuang Jiaxin to get her wounds bandaged.
A while later, the woman finished her call and came out. When she found that Yu Suqin and Zhuang Jiaxin were gone, she immediately became agitated.
"You nosy old hag! Where did you hide them? Hah, you're so sly, running away while I was on the phone!" Unable to find Yu Suqin and her daughter, the woman directed all her anger at Liu Shishi.
Liu Shishi suppressed her rising anger and said calmly, "Let's talk properly. Don't curse so easily. The child is injured and is currently getting bandaged. We won't leave until she receives your apology, you can be completely assured."
About ten minutes later, a middle-aged man with his arm in a cast and his head wrapped in bandages, accompanied by several subordinates, rushed over.
"Brother! How did you end up like this? Who beat you up? Tell me, and I'll have Young Master Xie kill them!"
Upon seeing the middle-aged man, the woman immediately exclaimed in surprise. The middle-aged man's expression was grim, and he forced a smile that was more like a grimace. "Sister, my situation isn't urgent. We can talk about it later. You said someone was trying to extort you? These guys are truly audacious!"
The woman then pointed at Liu Shishi and recounted the incident, embellishing the story. However, as the middle-aged man's eyes fell on Liu Shishi's stunning beauty, they lit up, and his pupils darted around, as if he were plotting something.