Chapter 9 - Scoring A Meal (1)
Sheng Jiaoyang took the exemption, and as she left the room, the staff member guarding the outside of the door stared at her in shock.
"Wow...she got an exemption pa.s.s!" A girl standing near the door exclaimed.
An uproar broke amongst the contestants, as one after another they all craned their necks to see what kind of contestant was able to get an exemption pa.s.s.
The people standing at the back of the line were unable to see anything, so they started shouting, "Who is it? Who is it?!"
"Quiet!" The staff member guarding the door put on a stern expression as he shouted.
"Hey, how did you get an exemption pa.s.s? Teach me your secret!" The girl leaning beside the door curiously asked as she suddenly reached out her hand and tugged at Sheng Jiaoyang.
Sheng Jiaoyang glanced at the girl, and then gently pried the girl"s hand loose. Next, without saying a word, she turned around and walked towards the exit.
"If you don"t want to say anything, then don"t! Why do you have to look down on people, humph!" The girl called after Sheng Jiaoyang; her voice filled with contempt.
In regards to such an opinion, Sheng Jiaoyang wasn"t rea.s.sured at all. She was entirely unsure of how she"d managed to get an exemption pa.s.s in the first place, so she had no obligations to tell anyone else what to do.
Moreover, she was currently starving!
She hadn"t had a chance to eat breakfast before she left the house in the morning, and now it was already past ten a.m.
Sheng Jiaoyang walked past multiple street vendors; she really couldn"t bring herself to eat at one.
Entering the subway, she then subconsciously chose a train heading towards An Yuan Plaza. This was a place that she would frequently visit after she"d returned from abroad.
Once she"d left the subway and saw An Yuan Plaza"s iconic fountain pond, she finally realised something dire.
Her purse was empty of any money!
Located in a recently developed area that was lined with shrubbery, An Yuan Plaza was a newly built multi-store plaza that included a shopping mall, a leisureplex, office buildings, a high-end residential block, and an international hotel. Many international first and second rate luxury brands were available, as well as many local high-end brands. Security was also continually monitoring the area.
The food here wasn"t cheap either. Just a little snack would be priced quite high in the double digits.
Sheng Jiaoyang stopped walking, and lifting her head up to a 45-degree angle; she glared at the sky in distress.
A man without money is really no man at all!
Although there was enough money in her purse to temporarily fill her stomach, she was well aware that what she had on her was all that had remained in Xu Qing"s purse. She couldn"t afford to be so heartless and spend all the money in one go.
Her stomach had now been grumbling for a while, but after thinking it over, she finally decided to go home. She was so poor that she had no other choice but to boil a bowl of instant noodles to eat.
"Xu Jiaojiao?" The moment she turned around to go back to the subway station, she heard a bewildered yell coming from about a metre to her right.
At first, Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t respond as she"d forgotten that was now her name and had just instinctively cast a glance towards the person who"d yelled. Yet when she saw the young person that had just called out her name staring fixedly at her, she finally reacted.
The person who"d called out to her was a young man dressed like a dog, cough, an educated youth. Standing next to him was a girl with long, straight black hair. The expression on the young man"s face was complicated, while the girl was showing a guarded expression.
Oh no, don"t tell her that she"d encountered Xu Jiaojiao"s ex and the ex"s current girlfriend?
Seeing this spectacle, the first thing that came to Sheng Jiaoyang"s mind was that she"d run into the person that Xu Jiaojiao had had romantic feelings for.
"It is you! You"ve changed so much that I almost didn"t recognise you," The young man said as he approached her with the girl in tow.
"Isn"t it normal that a girl"s appearance would change between childhood and womanhood?" Sheng Jiaoyang calmly said. She was used to dealing with people who"d liked to approach her to further their notoriety by reminiscing about old memories that she didn"t remember. So when it involved such an unexpected situation like now, she wouldn"t make any rash moves.
"Xu Qi, won"t you introduce her to me?" The girl beside the young man hugged his arm close as she interrupted them.
"Right, I forgot to tell you; she"s the cousin that I"ve previously mentioned to you. You saw her picture on my phone."
"Oh!" The girl looked at Sheng Jiaoyang and covered her mouth with a hand in surprise. In regards to her boyfriend"s family, she had a firm impression of this cousin of his as she"d scrolled through the photo alb.u.m on Xu Qi"s phone and saw an old family picture. In the picture, Xu Qi had been standing beside a rustic-looking girl that was somewhat taller than he was. At that time, she"d curiously asked Xu Qi who the girl was. After finding out that it was his cousin, she was stunned to learn that someone as handsome as Xu Qi would actually have such a plain-looking cousin!
So it was her cousin… Sheng Jiaoyang"s eyes narrowed as an idea appeared in her mind.