Jiangcheng, in the heart of the city’s most expensive real estate, stood the Tianqiong International Shopping Center.
This was a gathering place for top-tier luxury goods, a silent showcase of wealth and status.
Surrounded by several impeccably made-up, fashionably dressed best friends, Jiang Muyun stepped gracefully into one of the flagship stores renowned for haute couture evening gowns.
Under the dazzling crystal chandeliers, the sales staff had already lined up at the entrance to greet her, professional smiles fixed on their faces.
“Muyun, did Su Qinghan really say you can swipe whatever you want today and she’ll foot the bill?”
A friend with curly chestnut hair linked arms with Jiang Muyun, her tone dripping with undisguised envy.
Jiang Muyun’s lips curled into a faint smile as she gave a slight nod.
“Mm, Qinghan said the birthday banquet is important and told me to pick out something I like. No need to consider the price.”
This casually spoken sentence laid bare the depth of Su Qinghan’s indulgence and her own special status.
“Oh my god, she’s really doting on you!”
Another girl wearing a Chanel suit covered her mouth with a gasp.
Next to them, a slightly chubby girl who looked more straightforward couldn’t help but interject bluntly, “She treats you so well—money on demand, glamour on demand. Muyun, just give in to her already! Miss Su—how many people beg for that kind of treatment!”
Hearing this, Jiang Muyun’s finely sculpted brows furrowed slightly before relaxing.
A mysterious smile crept onto her face.
She lowered her voice and said:
“Ah, you wouldn’t understand, would you? With love—especially with someone like Qinghan—it’s all about ‘novelty’ and ‘what you can’t have.’
“She’s completely into me right now. If I let her have her way too fast, someone as cold and picky as she is might get bored and lose interest.
“You have to dangle it—keep her longing, keep her working for me, worrying about me. That way, she’ll just care more and more, until she can’t do without me.”
The chubby girl’s face lit up with understanding.
She clapped her hands.
“Good point! You’re so clever, Muyun! Someone like Miss Su, who can get anything without effort—you really can’t let her be satisfied too soon!”
“Exactly, exactly!”
“Muyun really is a top student—even her love life has a strategy!”
The friends chimed in with a chorus of flattery.
Jiang Muyun basked in the feeling of being the center of attention, her pride nearly overflowing.
Under the almost fawning service of the sales staff, she began selecting evening gowns.
She passed a row of gorgeous racks with a casual air, her fingertips brushing over soft, expensive fabrics.
“Miss Jiang, how about this one? It’s our spring new arrival, hand-sewn by a master from our Paris atelier. The embroidery uses real gold thread… ”
A senior sales assistant carefully presented a champagne-colored floor-length gown.
Jiang Muyun took it, draped it over herself casually, and compared it in the mirror.
The gown was indeed magnificent—exquisite tailoring, luxurious details.
“Very pretty!” the curly-haired friend immediately praised.
Jiang Muyun wore a satisfied expression.
She casually asked, “How much is it?”
“This piece is currently priced at 8,000 yuan, Miss Jiang,” the assistant replied respectfully.
But upon hearing that number, Jiang Muyun’s just-risen smile instantly froze.
Her brows furrowed in displeasure.
With a hint of disdain, she tossed the gown back into the assistant’s arms.
Her voice turned cold.
“Less than 10,000? If I wore something of this grade, wouldn’t it embarrass Qinghan?”
As she spoke, she cast a dissatisfied glance at the curly-haired friend who had said “pretty,” as if to say, “Is this your taste?”
The curly-haired friend paled and shut her mouth, not daring to speak.
The chubby girl next to her was a bit confused and muttered under her breath, “But… I thought that dress was already beautiful and expensive enough… It wouldn’t embarrass anyone to wear it out.”
Jiang Muyun turned her head, replacing her expression with that gentle yet slightly helpless smile.
“You don’t understand. To Qinghan, money is just a number. What I want is something worthy of her feelings and worthy of the status of both the Su and Jiang families.
“Too cheap, and it would seem like I don’t value her kindness, and also disrespect myself.”
She paused, her fingertips brushing the hem of a nearby gown encrusted with sparkling diamonds.
The diamonds refracted a cold, blinding light under the chandelier.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, a mocking smile tugged at her lips.
“Oh, by the way, do you still remember… that Yan Yu?”
“Yan Yu?”
The chubby girl blinked, then quickly caught on, a look of contempt spreading across her face.
“Of course I remember! That poor, lame girl who used to copy your clothes every day, trying to be Miss Su’s substitute! Hah! She can’t even walk properly—where did she get the nerve?”
“That’s her,” Jiang Muyun sneered, her tone laced with undisguised disgust. “A while ago, she was pretty arrogant in front of me, acting like she was something.
“A substitute that Qinghan used and discarded—I don’t know where she got the confidence.”
She reached out and gently stroked a gown made of silk and feathers, its price tag bearing an astonishingly long number.
Her eyes were haughty.
“This time, for the birthday banquet, I specifically booked the top floor of Cloud Top Garden.
“When we arrive, the guests will all be wealthy and noble, dressed to the nines.
“Guess what Yan Yu will show up wearing?”
She imagined the scene and couldn’t help but let out a light laugh, her eyes full of malicious anticipation.
“I bet she’ll show up in some cheap knockoff that copies my style, probably from a secondhand market—pitiful and shabby!”
“Those fake goods are obvious at a glance. I can’t believe she has the nerve to wear them in public!”
“Yeah!”
The curly-haired friend chimed in eagerly.
“Then Muyun, you can kindly ask her:
‘Yan Yu, don’t you have money to buy clothes? No problem—coincidentally, my dog went to the grooming salon this month, so I saved enough dog food money to buy you something decent. Think of it as… a gift from me?’”
“Pfft—!”
The girls burst into laughter, as if they could already see Yan Yu humiliated beyond repair.
Jiang Muyun laughed until her whole body shook.
Ever since returning home and obtaining Su Qinghan’s unreserved favor and indulgence, she had become more and more convinced that the world should revolve around her.
Whatever she wanted, she got; whatever she hated, should be trampled into the mud, never to rise again.
Yan Yu? A stain of the past.
A joke that didn’t know its place.
Perfect timing.
With this birthday banquet, she would drain the last bit of value from that joke in front of everyone—especially in front of Su Qinghan—and then crush her last shred of pitiful self-esteem like trash.