"Would you like to listen to a failed woman’s lant?"
The woman doesn’t drink often, but after a martini with a slightly high alcohol content, she’s already a bit tipsy.
Li Yang tily pushes the freshly poured martini in front of her:
"Tonight you can let loose."
The voice is warm and gentle, like an old friend you haven’t seen in years.
The woman lets out a bitter laugh and starts telling her story.
At sixteen, she followed a poor young man working on a construction site.
Her parents disapproved of the marriage, but the woman believed in her judgnt, enduring the bewildernt of her family and the mockery of her fair-weather friends, she braved the wind and rain with the poor young man for over twenty years.
During those twenty years, the young man labored on the construction site, while the woman cooked there.
The young man eventually started a business, taking on small renovation jobs.
The woman also helped, learning the trade of a mason.
Ti proved the woman’s judgnt was good, as the young man succeeded through effort and opportunity.
The woman beca the original wife of the general who had suffered for him as a soldier.
Li Yang smiled and said:
"It’s quite a perfect story, isn’t it?"
The woman took another sip, tears in her eyes:
"If all stories had no final ending, there would be no imperfect stories."
The woman continued to speak.
Over the years, the woman developed thrifty habits.
She’s already forty, and everything she wears and uses are cheap items from street stalls.
She deeply understands how precious every penny is.
Later, she noticed her man had changed; he gave her plenty of money, but he beca increasingly indifferent, impatient with her.
He began... to co ho less often.
A few days ago, the woman slled perfu on her husband and felt a sense of crisis.
Today, she secretly followed him and discovered he went to a disco, surrounded by many young and beautiful won.
The woman watched helplessly as her man squandered the money she was reluctant to spend, giving it away in handfuls to those beauties.
She watched for a long ti until she saw him embracing two different styled beauties into a private room.
When the woman reached this part of her story, she was already sobbing uncontrollably on the bar counter.
Li Yang handed her a tissue and comforted her:
"Compared to many people, you’re already quite fortunate, at least you aren’t lacking money to spend."
The woman, with reddened eyes, looked at Li Yang:
"Do I care about money?!
If I were a greedy woman, why would I have followed him!
Why didn’t I, when I was young and beautiful, find a man with a wealthy family?!"
As she spoke, she covered her eyes and cried:
"I looked in the mirror today, so ugly!
I truly can’t compare to those young girls!"
Years of toil had made the woman appear much older.
Moreover, she never bought any branded costics, nor had she gone to beauty salons for maintenance.
At forty she looked like soone in their fifties.
The woman, holding her wine glass, let her tears fall into the cup:
"Nowadays, every young girl is so radiant, how can I compete with them?
I was wrong; I shouldn’t have saved money by not spending.
I should have spent his money extravagantly.
The beauty salon, yoga studio, gym, I should have always maintained a beautiful appearance.
A woman should always ensure her weapon is sharp."
She looked up at Li Yang, bewildered, and said:
"Brother, do you think there’s a cure for regret in this world?"
She wasn’t looking for an answer, because she knew it.
Don’t tell soone unsure of the future about the future, because their uncertainty is precisely because they’ve seen it.
Li Yang turned to the bar.
Martini, dry vermouth, that’s the formula for a martini cocktail.
So might like to add a bit of mint.
However, Li Yang added so special ingredients to the mix.
A peach from the Tree of Human Essence, possessing a Transformation ability that could turn a crow into a human.
A little Transformation Fruit juice added to the cocktail, under Li Yang’s magic, could enhance the woman’s beauty.
Sufficient to restore her appearance to its youthful state.
Given the small amount, the Transformation Fruit couldn’t take effect imdiately, but gradually changed the woman’s appearance.
However, even a minor change is significant for the woman right now.
Li Yang placed the cocktail in front of the woman.
The woman reached out for it, but Li Yang held the glass down.
The woman looked at Li Yang puzzled.
Li Yang said:
"This glass of wine is different from the previous one."
The woman asked:
"How is it different?"
Li Yang said:
"This glass of wine beautifies and rejuvenates, perhaps it could solve your current troubles."
The woman raised her eyebrows:
"I heard red wine can beautify, can cocktails do that too?"
Li Yang smiled and said:
"That’s why this wine is expensive."
The woman wiped her tears, angrily took a wad of money from her purse, and slamd it on the bar in frustration:
"I give you so much money, yet you only give three drinks!
Take it, all of it, this money is a curse!"
The woman felt Li Yang was treating her as if she was easily fooled.
She almost considered this man a friend.
Li Yang ignored the scattered bills on the bar, his eyes deep like a bottomless abyss:
"The cost of this drink is—desire."
The woman’s gaze beca dreamy, murmuring the word:
"Desire?"
Li Yang took out a contract:
"I need you to sign a contract with .
One day in the future, I or soone representing will co to you.
On that day, you need to pay with your desire."
The woman stared at the words on the contract.
[Desire Transaction Contract]
[...]
[Upon signing, the contract cos into effect.]
The woman held the pen, her expression complex, and after a while she signed her na on the contract:
"I must be drunk, to believe in such absurdity.
Thank you for amusing , although your joke was quite cold and I didn’t catch your point."
Li Yang took the contract, gazing at the signature, his face revealing a satisfied smile.
[Lin Yingxin].
The woman took the cocktail and drank it in one gulp.
Following this little episode, she didn’t have the mood to vent anymore, and after surveying the bar’s decor she comnted:
"Your bar has quite a style, just too few custors."
Li Yang shook his head; his eyes filled with a playful smile:
"Today there are quite a few custors indeed."
...
A few days later, at South Sea Civil Aviation University.
In the girls’ dormitory, Wang Tingting got up early, unusually applying makeup.
Generally, the little girl hasn’t worn makeup; in the aviation service course, they only had a makeup class in their sophomore year.
She applied it slowly, putting on eyeliner then wiping it off, repeating until she was dissatisfied.
"Tingting, we’re back! We brought you a al."
By the ti her roommates ca back, she still hadn’t figured out her face.
Since the last incident, her roommates’ attitudes toward Wang Tingting did a 180-degree turn, being so affectionate that Wang Tingting couldn’t quite adapt.
"Oh my, darling, you’re still putting on makeup?!"
The blond girl exclaid exaggeratedly, sitting next to Wang Tingting and teasingly asked:
"Going to et soone? Want to look so pretty!"
Wang Tingting bashfully replied:
"Boyfriend."
The girls exchanged glances, and the blond girl cautiously asked:
"Is it... the man who accompanied you to the bar that night?"
"Who?"
Wang Tingting was montarily confused, then quickly shook her head:
"That’s really my brother."
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