"Have a good rest. If there"s nothing else you need, I"ll take my leave."
When he heard that, his hands halted in mid-air and his forehead creased slightly. His gaze s.h.i.+fted to the woman.
The cold and distant look in her eyes was evident with just a glance.
He wanted to say something, but right at that moment, he felt an itch in his throat that resulted in him coughing away, instead. He ended up waving his hand with a frown to signal for her to leave.
The very next day, in the kitchen of her studio that was connected to the flower shop, she simmered several bowls" worth of ginger soup, packaged it in vacuum bags, and had them couriered out to the man.
On her way back from the courier office, she noticed a commotion at the entrance of her flower shop. A crowd was gathering there.
A woman of a tough and stocky build, together with a muscular man, was blocking her shop"s doorway.
It caught the attention of many onlookers.
Yan Nian walked over. At the sight of her, the two of them exchanged meaningful looks with each other before suddenly dumping a bouquet of red roses at her.
"What is this?! I bought these roses from your shop but the thorns weren"t removed properly! I ended up getting p.r.i.c.ked on my hand!"
"Yeah, that"s right!"
The man lifted the woman"s hand and waved it in front of her.
"Look what happened to my wife"s fair and jade-like hand! You have to compensate us ten, no, twenty thousand yuan for this!"
The price of a bouquet of roses was merely a couple of hundreds, but these people were demanding for compensation of a hundred times more than the original price.
She made no response and silently stared at the thorn in the woman"s palm.
It was only after half a minute that she finally opened her mouth as she stared unwaveringly at the woman. "Are you sure these flowers were bought from my shop?"
"Where else can it be, then? Are you trying to deny things?! Come, everyone, please be our fair judges! Look, my wife"s hand has turned out like this, but this shop owner is still trying to s.h.i.+rk responsibility. This store is going to shut down sooner or later if this is how she runs her business!"
The latter"s words sent a fervent wave of whispers and discussions among the onlookers.
She tugged the corners of her lips at that, her clear eyes turning a little cold.
"My apologies, but my memory is failing me. Can you remind me of when it was that you bought these flowers?"
"Yesterday afternoon!"
"Oh, I see~ So, you didn"t do anything about the thorn in your hand since then?"
She held up the woman"s hand to give it a close examination. It was unknown what was on her mind, but there was not a trace of panic in her eyes.
The woman snorted in reply. "I had to leave the proof for this matter, or else what am I going to do if you don"t admit to your fault?"
"Thank you for leaving this evidence behind, then."
A bright and stunning smile graced her face. She then turned to a man beside her.
"Excuse me, may I trouble you to bring me the bundle of roses on the coffee table in my shop?"
Despite feeling perplexed, the man acted in accordance with her request.
These roses had yet to be pruned and trimmed of their branches and thorns.
She picked out a stalk from the bundle and held it in front of the woman to make a comparison.
"The thorns of red roses are usually thick and coa.r.s.e. It won"t soften even if you didn"t do anything to the thorn in your hand for three days and three nights. The one on your hand, however…"
Her voice trailed off as she abruptly plucked out a thorn from the woman"s palm, her smile growing wider when she heard her blood-curdling screech.
"This isn"t from a red rose. This thorn is likely from a cactus."
"I…"
The woman evaded her gaze as she clenched her teeth tight.
"I made a mistake, OK? It"s not a red rose but a ball cactus that I bought from your shop!"
"Oh~"
Yan Nian smiled sweetly at the other woman.
"I"m sorry, miss, but I don"t sell any plants from the Cactaceae family. This is my first time encountering extortion, however."
At that, the surrounding onlookers could no longer stand just watching on.
"I frequently visit this shop to buy flowers, and the shop owner is quite a nice person. She always properly removes all the thorns from the roses. This scam of yours is too low in standard!"
"Exactly! You can"t even differentiate between the thorns of a ball cactus and a rose, yet you still make an embarra.s.sing scene here. Even if I"m not a customer of this flower shop, I can"t stand to watch on!"
"Tsk! Why are you all meddling in this?!"
Enraged, the woman glowered at the people around her before her gaze landed on Yan Nian again.
"Just wait and see, you d*mn b*tch!"
The latter already had her phone raised by then. "If you still don"t leave, the police will be waiting for you."