Chapter 3, Perfume_1

Meng Xiao was lucky, she caught the last bus, returning to the dorm just after ten o'clock at night.

She accepted the perfume from him, but didn't want to get entangled with Yang Yi anymore. She insisted on returning to the campus and had no plans to stay overnight.

Yang Yi wanted to give her a ride, but she used his busy business trip as an excuse and allowed him to rest, reminding him he still had work tomorrow.

Her dorm housed four people. At this time, her dorm mates were still awake, applying face masks at the central table.

Seeing Meng Xiao come back, Li Ran purposely smirked and said: "Why did you come back? I thought you wouldn't return tonight."

"There's a curfew at eleven. Where else could I have stayed if I didn't come back? Ye Siyu, this is your bracelet. Just check if there's any problem." Meng Xiao handed the bag she was holding to Ye Siyu who opened it, glanced, then threw it on her own desk.

"This isn't right. It's your birthday today and your boyfriend has returned from his business trip. It's the perfect romantic moment. Why did you come back?" Li Ran and Zhou Yao exchanged glances, wearing mischievous smiles, muttering something about 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'.

Girls in the dorm teasing each other, it wasn't unusual to Meng Xiao.

Ye Siyu snorted, she didn't want to join the topic.

"Speaking of which, Meng Xiao, what wonderful thing did your boyfriend bring back from France? Don't keep it to yourself, show it to us too."

Zhou Yao was also curious. Of the four of them in the dorm, Ye Siyu had the best financial status. Although she was from out of town, her family was respectable, even in their city.

Next in line was Zhou Yao. Her parents were retired from a state-owned enterprise, so they barely had decent financial conditions. Li Ran was a local, from an average salaried family. Meng Xiao was an orphan and the poorest among them.

No, Meng Xiao should be the poorest in the whole university, relying fully on scholarships for her tuition and her own part-time job as the source of her living expenses.

No one at home, everything depended on herself.

However, Meng Xiao was the only one with a boyfriend in their dorm, and he was a top student from Business University.

According to Meng Xiao, he was local, but from an average household, so he never invited the dorm mates for a meal and at other times, they had never met him.

Weren't there rumors of the boyfriend getting promoted?

Ye Siyu had once heard that any mid-level manager in the Yiyang Company would earn at least one million per year, so he should have brought back decent gifts from France for Meng Xiao.

In the past, Meng Xiao followed him, working part-time jobs to pay off debts and even had to support him. It was time for him to show his gratitude. No, it was time for Meng Xiao to reap the sweetness after the hardship.

Moreover, it was Meng Xiao's birthday today, and they didn't even go out for a romantic date.

"Yes, I have this."

Meng Xiao placed a small, colored box on the table and turned to the balcony to pick up her dried clothes.

Li Ran was the most impatient. She opened the box and discovered a beautiful glass bottle with a subtle fragrance.

"Perfume? He brought you perfume? I thought you don't use perfume?" Zhou Yao was puzzled. He went to the fashion capital and only brought back a bottle of perfume?

"Um, he said it is from France."

Zhou Yao and Ye Siyu exchanged glances, Ye Siyu, still having her face mask on, couldn't show clear expressions. She picked up the perfume, opened the package, and sprayed it in the air.

The fragrance was not strong, and it was definitely not something Meng Xiao would use, Ye Siyu casually put the perfume back.

Picking up the packaging box and flipping it over, there was a slight residue of glue at the bottom of the box, a trace of a label being torn off.

Ye Siyu frowned, threw the box back on the table, irritably tore off her face mask, spit out: "With your humble lifestyle, you can't afford good things. You better keep it for yourself. Don't spray it around to be ridiculed for being a working-class girl spraying perfume."

Li Ran couldn't stand her words and retorted: "Why are you talking like this? It's a gift from her boyfriend, is there anything wrong with using it?"

Zhou Yao also nodded in agreement, feeling that Ye Siyu went too far.

"I'm speaking the truth. If you can't match good things, don't stubbornly cling to them. It just ends up making you look desperate." Ye Siyu looked scornful and snorted coldly.

Li Ran wanted to retort, but Zhou Yao held her back.

Ye Siyu was wealthy and forthright, showing no mercy in confrontation. The others didn't measure up to her; if they fought back, they'd end up utterly scoffed at by Ye Siyu.

Meng Xiao was indifferent to her sarcasm. She packed up her clothes, joined the girls, and neatly arranged her perfume bottle. She reattached the tape on the top just as it was before and said, "You're right. My cotton T-shirt that costs just over a dozen yuan isn't fit for such a fine perfume."

She didn't like using perfumes- to be precise, she didn't like using anything with a scent.

Li Ran and Zhou Yao wanted to stick up for her, but Meng Xiao shook her head. This wasn't the first time Ye Siyu had told her she wasn't worthy, but today, she felt Ye Siyu was right.

Zhou Yao quickly took out a new face mask, "We snagged this from a website. Meng Xiao, do you want to try it? There's plenty, we can't finish them all."

"Sure, thank you." Meng Xiao nodded in gratitude.

The face mask was confortable as it slightly cool on her cheeks.

Earlier today, at the market, the sun had slightly aggravated her forehead. It was a bearable sting.

On the way home, Meng Xiao looked up the necklace from Yang Yi's box online. It was a classic design from a certain brand, with the pendant being the cheapest part.

So, the necklace was not expensive, but it also wasn't meant for her. Most likely, it was bought for that girl, who forgot to take it along.

Meng Xiao lay back down on her bed, placing the perfume by her pillow. The sandpaper box with elegant patterns was small but reeked of finesse.

Ye Siyu was right, she wasn't worthy.

Yang Yi could wear all branded suits and go shopping with girls, nonchalantly dropping hundreds of thousands on the bill without a frown.

But when he came home to her, he'd switched to his basic work clothes worth only a few hundreds, revealing his struggle every step of the way.

She deserved only to see him in his work clothes, to experience the hustle and bustle of the markets, to haggle over two yuan. She wasn't worthy of a necklace costing less than a thousand yuan.

So, how much was this perfume worth?

Meng Xiao didn't know, her mind was unable to shake off the scenes from the afternoon.

They turned the lights off in the dorm, everyone headed to their own bunks. The other three started their usual nocturnal gossip session about pop culture news, the new waves of celebrity power couples, and failed relationships.

Li Ran excitedly said, "A huge scandal exploded in the entertainment industry today. Some young star was financially supported by his wife before he became popular. Now that he is successful, he has abandoned his old flame and refuses to pay back the money."

"How disgusting?! And I used to think he was my first love." Zhou Yao sounded disappointed. "Having an affair is already terrible enough, but he made it seem like he had no other choice. Truly repulsive."

"Totally, when he was happily enjoying her hospitality, he had no issue with her being dominant!" Li Ran added.

"Absolutely, Phoenix Men are the worst!"

"Right, cut your losses in time, get the money back! Let such men go!"

The Chen Shimei's of the world always resonated with women, resulting in a string of curses in the dorm.

Meng Xiao listened quietly, her eyes fixated on her phone, no new messages on WeChat, Yang Yi didn't even ask her if she had returned safely.

The gossip around her merged into her own thoughts, was Yang Yi like them? Would she also be deserted like an old flame? Should she cut her losses?

Should she ask for clarity or just break up outright? Or should she wait for him to break up?

As the clock struck midnight and reset, her birthday also came to an end.

Perhaps, her relationship with Yang Yi was also coming to an end.