Sang Yu perused the menu, and she could not help but gasp. A plate of tofu was priced at 68, although she was sure the only thing special about that dish was its name—White Jade with Special Royal Signature Sauce. But to Sang Yu, it was just a common tofu dish.
To her, everything on the menu was unreasonably priced. The only thing posh about the dishes were their names.
They named a normal cabbage soup French Chou Sweet Chowder and priced it at 108.
A roast duck was 266 just because they named it French Charcoal Roasted Stuffed Duck.
They even had the audacity to price a sugar roasted pork tenderloin at 88 because they named it Soft Pork Tenderloin with Honey and White Vinegar.
Everything was so overpriced that Sang Yu could not bring herself to continue browsing through the menu.
She closed the menu and gave it back to the waiter, saying, “We’re not ordering. Sorry for the trouble.”
A slight frown settled on Shen Peichuan’s brows as he looked at her, confused. “You don’t like the dishes?”
“I’d prefer something else,” Sang Yu said as she stood up to leave.
Shen Peichuan followed suit and stood up. “Alright then. You can choose any restaurant you like.”
Stuck in between the two of them, the waiter took the menu from Sang Yu and stole a look at them rigidly. Judging from the age gap between the two, it was totally expected for Shen Peichuan to spoil Sang Yu, which the waiter thought was unacceptable. However, the waiter dared not say anything because he knew Shen Peichuan was a police officer from the uniform he was wearing.
The two made their way out and Sang Yu finally told him the truth. “Everything is so expensive! There’s no way a plate of tofu costs 68! That’s absurd!”
“I can’t believe you just gave a pass on ripping me off. You won’t come across such a chance like this anymore,” Shen Peichuan joked. To be honest, he was surprised that that was the reason why she wanted to eat elsewhere.
“True that. Should I just make full use of this opportunity?” Sang Yu considered the idea carefully.
“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Shen Peichuan reminded her.
He meant it when he said he wanted to treat her to something nice.
“I think I know a better place,” Sang Yu said as she wrapped her hands around his arms and pulled him towards the car.
Beside her, Shen Peichuan’s gaze landed on her hands – they were coarse. It must be because she has been doing a lot of chores.
It must not be easy for a freshman student to earn a living.
“Let me know if you need any help in the future. I promised your mother I would be there for you,” he said.
But he realized his blunder the moment he saw the smile on her face faded away and quickly apologized.
“It’s okay,” Sang Yu replied softly. She knew Shen Peichuan did not mean it. But still, her mind could not help but wander back to those horrible days.
“There’s nothing we can do about it anyway. I wanted to get her out of that house once I was able to fend for myself. But she was sentenced to imprisonment for murder before I can do anything,” she said with a resigned sigh.
Shen Peichuan walked beside her without saying a word. He knew she needed someone to listen to her stories.
“My dad was a gambler. He always hung out with his bunch of toxic friends. He would extort money from my mom every time he lost a game, and that usually ended brutally. My mom was not an educated woman, to begin with, so she could only sell lilies from our garden and do some odd jobs to put food on the table. She was the one making money, and my dad was the one who spent it all. The fact that he would come home in a foul mood and beat my mom up if he lost his money made things worse, and I had to grow up watching all of it without being able to do anything. The only hope I held onto to help me go through those dark days was the hope that I would graduate from a good university and get her out of her misery when I could afford to do so. But of course, such a time never came,” Sang Yu recalled.
Although her dad was gone and those days had finally ended, thinking about it still made her shudder. One of the many confrontations that left a scarring impression was when her dad had struck her mom with a long wooden bench. After the atrocious attack, she saw her mom lying motionless on the floor. Even after her mom regained her strength, her whole back was covered with bruises for months.
There was another time when her dad pushed her mom and locked her against the floor between his legs. He had grabbed her hair with one hand and slapped her incessantly with his other hand until blood came spilling out of her mouth. Sang Yu went up to her dad and tried pulling him away, wailing and begging him to have mercy, but her dad had simply booted her and sent her flying against the wall.
“My dad was worse than an animal. I felt no pity for him for his death. To be honest, his death was an easy way out. Sometimes I really do resent the law. I don’t see justice in what happened to my family. My dad had only gotten what he deserved, but my mom was punished for serving him justice.”
