Chapter 676 — Off to a Bad Start

"Oh, so that's how it is. Then hurry over to your friend's place and see him -- I have work to do." Guan Xin clearly had no wish to say another word to Kang Zhaoming.

"Right, I'm off then. Oh -- here, take this bouquet; I can't go lugging it around." Kang Zhaoming held the flowers out in front of Guan Xin.

"You're visiting a patient, and you bought red roses?" Guan Xin was no fool; how could she swallow Kang Zhaoming's nonsense?

"Uh... ha, it's a female patient..." Kang Zhaoming froze, but quick on his feet, he hastily changed his story.

"Red roses for a female patient? She's your girlfriend, isn't she?" Guan Xin smiled.

"Huh?" Kang Zhaoming hadn't expected it: though Guan Xin looked so gentle and docile, she could always pick the holes in what he said -- just as she had at the bookstore, and just as she was doing now! It seemed this girl was not so easy to pick up; she might be a bit of a challenge.

"What girlfriend? She's my buddy's girl -- the flowers are really from him, delivered on his behalf!" Kang Zhaoming had a flash of inspiration. "Ha, it's like this: my buddy had a fight with his girlfriend and ended up driving her out of the house. She spent the night out in the cold, caught a cold, and wound up in the hospital. He wanted to come apologize but couldn't swallow his pride, so he asked me to say sorry in his place! But then, just now, I phoned and the two of them had already made up. I made this trip for nothing!"

Even as he finished, Kang Zhaoming thought the excuse he had spun was damn convincing -- he really was a genius!

"Oh, well, since you've no use for the flowers, I'll put them in the hospital's vase for you." Knowing that if she refused the bouquet Kang Zhaoming would never let it rest, Guan Xin did take the roses -- only to set them straight into the vase in the hospital corridor.

Seeing there was nothing to be done about it, Kang Zhaoming could only say sourly: "Ha, true enough -- they look lovely right here! Guan Xin, I'll be off then; do keep in touch!"

"Goodbye." Guan Xin nodded, turned, and went back into the office. She felt she really should not have stepped out for this trip to the restroom -- running into that nuisance Kang Zhaoming, who dragged everything out to absurd lengths.

Kang Zhaoming sighed; he felt he should change his strategy of pursuit. Guan Xin seemed nothing like those ordinary girls. By Kang Zhaoming's previous experience, girls who had never had a boyfriend were all quite naive and easy to take -- but here he had run into a wall.

Once Kang Zhaoming had gone, a nurse on very good terms with Guan Xin, Li Xiaomei, glanced at the roses in the corridor and could not help but curl her lip: "Must be loaded -- ninety-nine roses, at least three hundred yuan -- and just tossed aside like that!"

"It's his money either way; what's it to us?" Guan Xin smiled. "What, do you like them? Shall I introduce you?"

"Forget it. I may dream of latching onto a rich man, but he is clearly not my type -- one look tells you he's a playboy who'd probably dump a woman as soon as he was done with her. How could I give myself to him?" Li Xiaomei dismissed Kang Zhaoming with undisguised contempt.

Li Xiaomei had no illusions about herself. She was pretty enough in her way, but still a good deal short of Guan Xin; she knew a young master like him would never deign to look at her. Rather than being played for nothing, she would rather find a sugar daddy to cover her living expenses for the rest of her life.

As for Li Xiaomei's dream, Guan Xin neither approved nor disapproved of it -- everyone had their own life to live. Li Xiaomei's family was poor, so wanting to find someone to pay her way was perfectly ordinary. And wanting to find someone she truly loved was her own freedom.

"So, even you can see he's no good -- how could I possibly accept his flowers?" Guan Xin shook her head. "Come on, get back to work before the head nurse turns up and we both catch it!"

"You're a rich young lady -- who dares scold you? And do you even want to keep working here?" Li Xiaomei had been Guan Xin's classmate since their school days, so she knew something of her family background: Guan Xin's father was a major shareholder of the hospital, and her grandfather was the renowned Dr. Guan Xuemin, a famous figure in the medical world!

"Heh, nobody here knows who I am; and even if they did, it wouldn't be right to make a show of it." So saying, Guan Xin set to work. "If you don't want your bonus, keep spacing out."

"All right, all right -- I'm coming!" Li Xiaomei hurried to join her. "Until I land myself a sugar daddy, that bonus matters to me plenty!"

Kang Zhaoming walked out of the hospital in a foul mood and climbed into a Porsche Cayenne, where his two lackeys, Zhu Xiaozhang and Wang Shubin, were already waiting.

"Young Master Ming, how'd it go? Did the flowers get delivered?" Zhu Xiaozhang asked.

"Xiaozhang, do you really need to ask? Didn't you see Young Master Ming come back empty-handed? They must have been delivered, of course!" Wang Shubin said.

"Fuck, don't even mention it -- another damn setback from the word go!" Kang Zhaoming waved his hand in irritation and dropped into the passenger seat.

"What happened, Young Master Ming? The flowers..." At the sight of Kang Zhaoming cursing, Zhu Xiaozhang was taken aback.

"They got delivered, all right -- delivered to the hospital!" Kang Zhaoming said, thoroughly disgruntled. "This one's not easy to hook -- she's a regular little mind-reader, soft and gentle on the outside but sharp as a tack underneath! Damn it, she sent me packing; the flowers are sitting right there in the corridor vase!"

"What?" Zhu Xiaozhang and Wang Shubin exchanged stunned glances. They had assumed that with Kang Zhaoming making his move, the matter would be his for the taking -- who would have guessed he would strike out twice in a row!

"Next time, it looks like I'll have to find some other way to get close to her. These chance encounters are too crude; they won't fool her." He waved his hand. "Let's put our heads together and see what we can come up with -- pool our ideas, come up with a plan!"

"Well... haven't we always just thrown money at girls?" Zhu Xiaozhang racked his brains but could come up with no good strategy. He was usually cocky in how he carried himself and free with his spending, which was why plenty of gold-digging girls had gotten involved with him.

"Idiot -- Guan Xin is obviously no gold-digger. Her family has money; she doesn't need any. The old tricks won't work!" Kang Zhaoming shot Zhu Xiaozhang an irritated glare. "Can't you say something constructive?"

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