Chapter 247 - 195: Man for the Outside, Woman for the Inside

Zheng Lei was rebuffed and left speechless. He then turned to Xiaoli. "His girlfriend works at your store?"

Xiaoli’s head was spinning; she couldn’t make sense of the situation. ’This man knows Yang Hui and came looking for Lingyu, but he doesn’t know Yang Hui is Lingyu’s boyfriend? What the hell is going on?’

Just then, Xiaoli’s phone buzzed with a message. She opened it and saw it was from Huang Lingyu. Apparently, she had already seen Zheng Lei and Yang Hui at the entrance. To avoid being pestered by Zheng Lei, she wanted Xiaoli to take Yang Hui to the lounge. She would go find him in a bit. She also told Xiaoli to find a way to make Zheng Lei leave quickly.

’So, she really does know this man.’ But that only made their relationship more confusing. Afraid of saying the wrong thing, she could only follow Huang Lingyu’s instructions and say to Yang Hui, "President Yang, let me take you to the lounge to wait. She’ll be over to find you in a moment."

Yang Hui guessed that Huang Lingyu was probably trying to avoid Zheng Lei. He grunted in assent, not wanting to interfere with how she handled her business with Zheng Lei. He wasn’t sure what her plan was and was afraid of throwing her off her rhythm.

When Xiaoli came out again, she said to Zheng Lei, "Sir, Lingyu has already gotten off work and left."

"Oh." Zheng Lei was a little disappointed. "Then I’ll come back tomorrow."

Xiaoli pressed a hand to her forehead. ’Ugh, this guy is relentless.’ Just as Zheng Lei was about to walk out the door, he suddenly turned and asked, "That girlfriend of Yang Hui’s, the one who also works at your store... is she as pretty as Lingyu?"

"Uhh..." Xiaoli’s face flushed red. After a long moment, she managed to reply, "They’re identical."

Zheng Lei shook his head. ’Damn, he’s got all the luck. Back in high school, I was taking Lin Yu into the woods every day, and now he finds a girlfriend who looks just like Huang Lingyu. Aren’t looks supposed to be worthless once you’re out in the real world? Isn’t money supposed to be a man’s true capital? Could his capital be greater than mine?’ He suddenly recalled the Mercedes E-Class from the other day—a car that only his own father could afford.

Yang Hui had only been sitting for a moment when Huang Lingyu arrived. Since there were other people in the lounge, Yang Hui stood up and said, "I was getting my car serviced next door and thought you might be at this store, so I came by to take a look. What a coincidence."

Huang Lingyu thought he was referring to Zheng Lei when he said "what a coincidence." Her expression faltered slightly as she carefully explained, "I’ll cut ties with his family completely, as soon as possible."

Yang Hui knew she had misunderstood him, but he didn’t explain. She did, in fact, need to cut ties with the Zheng Family soon, otherwise having Zheng Lei pester her every day would be a real nuisance. What he didn’t realize was that when Huang Lingyu said she would "cut ties as soon as possible," she meant paying back the Zheng Family’s money as quickly as she could, which would relieve her of a heavy psychological burden.

Zheng Lei would leave her messages threatening to slit his wrists or drink poison at the slightest provocation, and it scared her badly. The Zheng Family only had one son; if something happened to him over this, she would feel guilty for the rest of her life. This whole affair had put her in a terrible mood recently. In fact, the only time she could seem to manage a smile was when she saw Yang Hui.

BZZZ~

A message came through on his phone. Judging by the time, it was probably Serene arriving. He opened the message, and sure enough, it was.

He stood up. "Lingyu, something’s come up, so I have to go. I won’t be able to take you out today."

Huang Lingyu agreed softly, though she felt a pang of disappointment. ’She’d been mentally prepared for Yang Hui to ask her out for the past few days. She’d just thought he came looking for her specifically to take her out, but it turned out he was just passing by.’ But then, her spirits lifted again. ’He was just passing by but still thought to stop in and see her. It looks like I still have a place in his heart.’

The moment Yang Hui slid into the passenger seat of Serene’s Range Rover, he knew it was her car. It carried her unique scent—a mixture of her natural fragrance and high-end perfume.

"Serene, why do you have a Qingzhou license plate?" he couldn’t help but ask.

"I’m from Qingzhou, so of course I’d use a Qingzhou plate."

"Ah, you’re from Qingzhou?" Yang Hui had always assumed she was Shanghainese. "That’s great!"

"What’s so great?" His cryptic comment left Serene a little confused.

"About us getting together, like we talked about last time. I was worried that, living in Shanghai, you wouldn’t be willing to come to a small place like Qingzhou. But you’re from Qingzhou! Isn’t this a match made in heaven?"

As Serene drove, she glanced at him from the corner of her eye. ’Why does this man use words so carelessly? First "getting together," and now "a match made in heaven." Is this even the right context for that?’

But she wasn’t displeased. After that scene on the overpass this afternoon, it felt as if she and Yang Hui had grown spiritually closer in an instant.

"Let’s go to [Yinlu · Xiang]. We can eat and talk; the atmosphere there is nice."

Yang Hui suggested it because the food there was excellent, and since she’d been there before, it was familiar to them both.

Serene expertly flicked the steering wheel to the right, changing into the turn lane and speeding off in the direction of [Yinlu · Xiang].

"I went to check on the store today. The usual customer traffic is still pretty good. When I left, sales had already passed 20,000. It looks like today’s performance won’t be any worse than yesterday’s."

Yang Hui simply let out an "oh," showing no sign of surprise. It was only to be expected. His sales staff were like a fleet of fully-fueled race cars, each one fighting desperately to take first place. On top of that, Xinyue Square had the best customer traffic in all of Qingzhou; it would be strange if business *wasn’t* good.

Currently, all the sales staff were at the P1 level. To get promoted, their sales performance had to exceed the store’s average for two consecutive months. In an environment like Yanghe Commerce, who wouldn’t want to move up? Just look at their own store manager—her income this month could potentially break 30,000.

In other retail companies, by contrast, the pay gap between a store manager and a salesclerk wasn’t very big. Many clerks lacked ambition, feeling that becoming a manager meant more work and greater responsibility without much of a pay raise. There was simply no incentive to get promoted.