Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Arya cried for a long time.

After she was done crying, she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

After taking out some paper towels to wipe her nose and face, she felt a little embarrassed.

Jack did not speak, did not ridicule, did not console nor did he ask any questions.

She thought it was very nice of him  But what did he mean by looking down at his own clothes?

Arya secretly stole a glance at him and wondered what he wanted to do.

Suddenly Jack stood up, pulled her up as well and walked towards the department store.

Arya did not dare to ask and quietly followed.

It appeared as if Jack was very familiar with this shopping mall.

He did not wander around but instead took the escalator to the upper floor and made his way directly to a men's clothing store selling a good brand.

The salesgirl greeted them with a smiling face.

Jack waved his hand, went to the shirt section, turned over a few shirts and looked at a few designs.

He picked out one and told the salesgirl a particular size number and then said. "I'll take one."

The salesgirl quickly found the size he wanted and Jack took out his credit card to pay.

The whole process from the time of entering the store to paying for the shirt only took a minute to complete.

Arya looked on foolishly at Jack's agile shopping skills which were similar to his ability to speak. Fast!!

But why did he suddenly buy a shirt?

Jack went to the changing room to put on his newly bought shirt, then dropped the shirt he wore just now into the shopping bag given by the salesgirl.

He carried the bag and pulled Arya away.

She foolishly followed and she could not help but ask.  "Why did you suddenly buy a shirt?"

"It's dirty.  I've to change."

Dirty?  She thought for a moment and then responded.

What?  She did not stain his shirt with muddy water!  "Isn't that an exaggeration?"

Jack looked back at her and handed the shopping bag containing his shirt to her.  "Take a look for yourself."

"I'll take a look."  She was a bit unconvinced.

She took out his shirt and flipped it over left and right.  "This shirt is still clean.  It is not necessary to change this."

"Here.  Look, there are stains here."

"This is definitely not done by me.  I'm sure you don’t even know where you have gotten this stain."

"You're really too much.  I didn’t even ask you to pay for the shirt, why are you arguing about it?"

"I.."  This was about saving her face and she was also subconsciously saving her image.

She was about to say something when suddenly she heard a woman's voice beside her.  "Miss, is your boyfriend here?  Why don’t you let him try the face cream that you were looking at just now?"

She raised her head.

This is terrible!

Isn't this the skincare product counter that she had visited just now?

The counter salesgirl was even able to recognize her!

Obviously, the counter salesgirl had made a mistake and assumed she and Jack were a couple who is on a shopping trip.

Arya smiled at the salesgirl and waved her hand.  She pulled Jack away but the counter salesgirl quickly came over.

"Mister, come and take a look.  Just now your girlfriend came specially to choose our skincare products for you.  Our brand of skincare is really good.  I will let you try some of our products."

Seeing that the lady did not show any interest, the salesgirl tried her best to retain the man.  In short, she really must make a sale to this man.

Arya's face darkened and watched in embarrassment as Jack was pulled along by the counter salesgirl.

Usually, he would have acted rudely but why did he not protest at all this time?

Arya sighed in her heart.  She braced herself and tried to pull Jack away but the salesgirl had already smeared a blob of cream on Jack's hand for him to try.

He really rubbed the cream over his hand and said he did not like the smell.

Then he turned his head around and asked Arya.  "What was the product you were looking at just now?"

Arya's face nearly turned green.

Why is he catching on so fast in his acting?  Does he have to be so natural?  Does he think we are really a couple on a shopping trip?

The counter salesgirl quickly continued to give him an answer.  "Ah, just now Miss was looking at this brand of hand cream.  Does Mister usually use hand creams?  Come Mister, you must try this. This hand cream has a natural scent, it moisturizes and absorbs easily into the skin.  This cream is specially designed for men's skin."

"Oh, is it?"  Jack looked at Arya. The expressions in his eyes really made Arya want to dig a hole and bury herself.

She is innocent!  She has no intentions towards him!

Arya quickly pulled Jack's hand and said to the salesgirl.  "I'm sorry.  We are in a rush.  We'll come and take a look next time."

She pulled Jack away with force.

Her actions made Jack laughed and he said.  "Next time?"

"This is the customer's way of talking.  Do you understand?"  Arya gritted her teeth.

"Why did you look at men's hand cream?"

"While waiting for you, I have nothing to do so I looked around."

"Why didn’t you look at the ladies' hand cream?"

"How did you know I did not?  I had looked at every counter." She blushed again.

"Is it?"  His eyes were smiling and obviously, he did not believe her.

Arya was forced to a corner and she blurted out.  "Soph said she wanted to give you a hand cream as a gift and I just looked at it in passing.  I didn't even think about it."

"She's going to give me a hand cream?"  Jack stopped walking.  "She's really amazing.  Normally, people will not think of this as a gift."

She felt regretful that she had leaked out information to him and she quickly tried to remedy.  "Dr. Jack, please pretend you don’t know about this.  Don’t tell her and don’t tell your nurses.  Soph is very serious and had taken a lot of trouble to think about this.  Don’t be rude to her."

Jack nodded his head.  "Okay, I will pretend I don’t know anything about this."

She was a bit surprised that he agreed so easily.

This was definitely not his style.

She was about to reconfirm with him but was pulled back by Jack.  "Let's go back and buy the hand cream as a gift from you."

What?

She was so scared that her feet were rooted to the spot and she refused to move.  "Why should I give you a gift?"

"This is because when Soph give me a hand cream as a gift, I can show her your gift to me and tell her that Arya had already given me a hand cream, therefore I cannot accept hers.  Look, in this way, I can show her I did not know in advance what she is going to give me and that is also a very good reason to refuse her.  So you should be satisfied."

Satisfied?

Arya shook her head in desperation.

This is clearly framing the innocent and breaking up a friendship!

"Or to avoid this from happening, you don’t have to wait for Miss Sophia to buy a hand cream as a gift for me.  You can now think of ways to stop her and also advise her to stop annoying me."  Jack grinned showing his white teeth and it made her so mad, she really wanted to give him a punch in his face.

Why is this man so sinister?

"I will talk to Soph and tell her not to buy you a hand cream.  I promise I will try hard to persuade her."

In view of their friendship, she must speak clearly to Soph and tell her about the true facts of this poisonous man.  This man is really too scary.

"Well then, thank you.  You must make sure you do a good job this time."

"Okay, okay, I will."

"Then, let's go and buy that hand cream."

What?  Still want to buy?

"I really need to buy a hand cream.  My current one is running out."

In real or fake?  Arya was a bit blank.

Jack looked at her and laughed again.  "Just now, you had taken advantage of me.  Treat this hand cream as compensation to me."

Taken advantage of him?  Compensation to him?

Isn't this compensation a bit too expensive?

Arya shook her head again.  "I don’t have money."

"I have.  I will pay for it first."  Jack expressed his generosity.

"That brand is not good.  Didn’t you say that cream stinks just now?  We should change to another brand.  Now it's late and I'm hungry.  I will treat you to dinner.  Later I will buy you one and sent it to you."  She wanted to buy him one that costs only a few cents.

"The smell of that skincare is not good but the hand cream is good.  I have always been using this brand."

With just a few words, Arya was pulled back towards the counter.

This is reckless spending!  Does he really need to use such expensive hand creams?

Although she protested, it was useless and eventually, she was pulled back to the counter by Jack.

The hand cream was bought.

Arya's face was expressionless throughout the time and anyway, she did not pay for it.

She was also determined not to admit she owes Jack this money.  Jack also did not look at her, only smiled and led her back to the car.

"Well, next we will go for dinner. Where is that garden restaurant you were talking about?"  He started the car and was ready to leave.

Arya looked at him and he directly looked back at her.

"Dr. Jack, I owe you one dinner, right?"  She raised her index finger to emphasize the number.

He nodded his head in agreement.

"You just want to eat the sweet dinner in that garden restaurant that I had reserved the last time, right?"

Again he nodded his head.

"Good."  Arya nodded her head.  "Let's go."

She brought Jack to a bakery near the hospital, bought two donuts and two sandwiches.

Then she went to the store at the side and bought two bottles of mineral water.

Jack followed her around and was eventually led to a bench in the hospital's Garden.

They sat down on the bench and a donut with sandwich was stuffed into his hand.

Finally, the expression on his face changed.

"Is this the birds chirping with the fragrance of blooming flowers' lovely garden restaurant?"

"Correct."

He looked at the donut in his hands.  "Sweet dinner?"

"Correct."  She handed over a bottle of mineral water to him.  "This drink is also very healthy."

Jack stared at her, then took the bottle of mineral water from her.  "Why is it sandwich? Not burger?"

"The sandwich is 1 dollars and burger was 2 dollars."  As she spoke, she started to eat her sandwich.

Jack burst out laughing laughed.  "Arya, I really have to praise you."

"You're welcome.  Don’t be courteous."

Jack grinned and showed his white teeth.  "You're really cute when you're petty.  What should I do?"

Do what?  Does he not have other poisonous words to throw at her again?

With a piece of bread dangling from her lips, Arya glared at him.

Jack was still laughing as he unwrapped the sandwich and ate it.

He did not speak again.

Arya was on alert and she secretly stole a few glances at him.

Damn! he is actually thoroughly enjoying his meal.  Didn't he say he does not like sweet things?