Chapter 396: Is This What Rich People’s Everyday Life Is Like?

Chapter 396: Is This What Rich People’s Everyday Life Is Like?

A four-hundred-thousand-yuan bag?!

Four hundred thousand in itself wasn’t shocking. It wasn’t outrageous. Wu Jiao’s family was worth a few million too. They owned a storefront in the county and an apartment in the city…

What was outrageous was four hundred thousand for a single bag.

How rich did you have to be to spend that on a bag? A rich kid? A super-rich kid? Her family had to be worth hundreds of millions at least, didn’t it?!

“Xiaoxue, are you sure you didn’t get it wrong? How could a bag possibly… cost that much…”

“Look for yourself, if you don’t believe me. Look, I found it… That’s the price on the official website.”

The two girls huddled together, whispering. Chen Xue showed Wu Jiao her phone, almost furtively, afraid Li Ruobing would catch sight of the screen.

Wu Jiao shielded it with one hand, looked, and swiped.

Price: RMB 408,600.

She stole a careful glance at Li Ruobing, then at the handbag Li Ruobing had casually set down between them. She looked back and forth twice.

It really was the exact same model.

Four hundred thousand!

You could buy an apartment in a little county town with that!

Carrying “an apartment” around on your arm. That was terrifying.

She was way, way, way too rich!

Her brother hadn’t just found a girlfriend. He’d found a super-super-super-rich girlfriend? The odds of that had to be lower than hitting the lottery jackpot.

It wasn’t that Wu Jiao looked down on her brother. She just knew him too well. She knew everything about him.

So how was this possible?

“What are you two talking about?” Li Ruobing’s voice came suddenly.

The girls turned their heads in unison, then shook them in unison.

“N-nothing.”

Li Ruobing frowned slightly, then smiled, and let it go. She doubted she’d understand what teenage girls talked about anyway. Best friends could talk about anything at all, and she knew there was a generation gap between her and them.

Even setting status and background aside, there were ten years between them.

“Sis, your bag’s really pretty,” Wu Jiao offered.

“Is it?” Li Ruobing picked it up and looked at it, then smiled at her. “I’ve had it a while. The style’s… all right, I suppose.”

“It’s Hermès, right?” Wu Jiao asked.

“Yes.” Li Ruobing nodded.

“So it must have been really expensive, right?” Wu Jiao asked.

She had brought up the bag on purpose, to steer the conversation toward the price. It made the question easier to ask.

“It wasn’t cheap,” Li Ruobing said with a smile.

“So… how much was it, exactly?” Wu Jiao pressed.

Li Ruobing frowned slightly. Something felt strange. Why did Wu Jiao keep asking about the bag? Was she hinting she wanted one bought for her? But Wu Jiao didn’t strike her as the kind of girl who asked people for things the first time she met them.

She seemed quite innocent.

And judging by her clothes, she wasn’t vain, either. Her outfit and her bag were perfectly ordinary, with no sign of expensive tastes.

So why ask about the bag?

Li Ruobing couldn’t work it out. Perhaps she was overthinking it. Wu Jiao was only seventeen. Maybe she simply thought the bag was pretty.

She looked at the bag again, thought for a moment, and turned. “I don’t remember. I think I bought it last year. I just grabbed it on my way out…”

“Ah…” Wu Jiao had no idea what to say to that.

Just grabbed it?!

Couldn’t even remember the price of a bag that expensive?!

Could it get any more ridiculous?!

In fact, Li Ruobing wasn’t lying.

Not only was she telling the truth, she had changed bags before coming out precisely to keep a low profile.

All because Wu Chen had told her to keep it low-key and not scare anyone. She hadn’t just switched cars and cut down her entourage. She had taken off every piece of jewelry and changed her clothes and her bag… The bag she’d been carrying most lately was set with diamonds and sparkled like mad.

That was why she had switched to this “very plain-looking” one.

The lounge attached to her CEO’s office held a great many of her clothes, shoes, bags, cosmetics, and pieces of jewelry. Some of their prices she remembered. Others she genuinely didn’t.

All of them were very expensive. That much was certain.

So “checking the price” was pointless. Grabbing something at random, she could only go by how it looked and pick something “plain.”

She was hardly going to run out and buy something cheap just to pretend to be low-key. There wasn’t even time for that.

A few minutes later.

Qinghe Second Street, Central District. Nanzhou Restaurant.

The Audi A8 pulled up at the curb outside.

By Donghai standards, Nanzhou Restaurant wasn’t one of the very best, but it was still an upscale place. The very best were too grand and too expensive, not low-key enough. Li Ruobing considered Nanzhou understated enough. Not everyone who ate there was rich. Moderately well-off middle-class types came now and then to “treat themselves to a feast.”

She didn’t take the girls anywhere “more low-key” because she didn’t know anywhere.

In four years in Donghai, she had never eaten anywhere a rung below Nanzhou. Nor did she have the patience to hunt through group-buying sites for some budget place. There was no need. After all… if you were treating someone, you ought to give them something good.

“Miss Li, welcome. This way, please…”

She had barely stepped through the door with the girls when a middle-aged man in a suit, wearing a badge that read “Lobby Manager,” hurried over to greet her. Wu Jiao and Chen Xue could both tell she was a regular. The staff knew her.

The manager, all warmth, led them straight to a table by the window.

It was noon, business was brisk, and the restaurant was nearly full.

Yet that prime window table sat empty.

Because it was hers. She was a diamond member, and the restaurant held that table for her year-round, no call ahead required.

The three of them sat down, Wu Jiao and Chen Xue side by side across from Li Ruobing.

“You’ve had Western food before, right?” Li Ruobing asked with a smile.

Both girls nodded. They had. Young people like them always tried it sooner or later these days. But what they’d had were ordinary Western set meals that cost a few dozen yuan, maybe a hundred a head.

“Let’s order first. We can talk after,” Li Ruobing said.

A server had already come over as she spoke. There had been two menus on the table, so for three diners, the server set down a third.

Li Ruobing opened hers, leafed through it, and turned to the server. “Sirloin with red-wine sauce, Caesar salad, tomato bisque, tiramisu… And bring the wine I have stored here. The sparkling one. Steak medium.”

The server nodded along.

Wu Jiao and Chen Xue had opened their menus too, stood them upright, and pressed them together to hide their faces.

Then they huddled and started whispering again.

“Whoa, one steak’s a thousand yuan.”

“These two scallops… almost two hundred.”

“Look, look at the back. This bottle of wine is thirty thousand.”

“Everything here looks so expensive. Xiaoxue, has your dad ever taken you anywhere like this?”

“No. A meal here costs thousands.”

“Thousands per person, probably.”

They kept their voices low and kept looking around. They had been taking the place in since they walked in, and they were still at it. It had to be said, a Western restaurant at this level did an exceptional job of creating an air of refinement and luxury.

“Since it’s your first time here, you should try their signatures. The black-truffle lamb confit, the bouillabaisse…” Li Ruobing’s voice came across the table.

The girls lowered their menus just enough to glance at her, then ducked straight back down and started flipping.

Black-truffle lamb. There. Two hundred and something a serving, and a tiny serving at that. In the picture it was one little piece. Two bites, maybe?

The bouillabaisse turned up quickly too. The picture showed a generous portion, not a small one, but… it cost more than the steak! Over two thousand yuan a serving!

Li Ruobing had ordered in half a minute.

Wu Jiao and Chen Xue took five, and only managed it with her suggestions.

Everything was so expensive they felt embarrassed ordering.

Still, they understood. If Li Ruobing could carry a four-hundred-thousand-yuan bag, then taking them somewhere like this was probably perfectly normal for her.

Was this what rich people’s everyday life was like?!

They ordered, and waited.

“Sis, what company do you work for? What do you do?” Wu Jiao started in again.

“A cosmetics company.” Li Ruobing looked at her, and her smile turned briefly subtle. “Your brother and I are coworkers now.”

“Really… So, Sis, you’re an executive, right?” Wu Jiao thought about it. “You must make a lot?”

“An executive? I suppose you could say that.” Li Ruobing smiled and nodded. “And yes, I make a lot.”

They chatted a few lines more. Wu Jiao kept asking about everything, and she still had a whole stomach full of questions.

Suddenly.

“Boss Li? Oh! It really is you, Boss Li…” a middle-aged man’s voice called from nearby.