Although Hartwell deeply appreciated Wesley's abilities, which he had witnessed in the military, he disliked Blair getting too close to him. He had sternly warned the girl to stay away from Wesley once. That was particularly why Blair didn't want Joslyn to tell Hartwell anything. If he found out about the two of them, there was going to be too much fuss for her to deal with.
Joslyn wrote back, "Alright, got it. Just use the money. It's from your cousin, so you don't owe me anything. If I am short of anything, he'll give me more. You worry about yourself."
Blair sent a thumbs-up emoji and replied, "Wow! You lucky girl! I envy you so much. Don't show off to me so early in the early, huh?"
"Who are you texting?" A man's voice suddenly cut in her ears and it was so loud that she almost jumped. Startled, her hand shook violently for a moment and the phone slipped off, dropping right into the half-finished bowl of soybean milk.
Wesley hadn't expected this to happen. He quickly shot to his feet and rushed towards the bowl, snatching her phone out of the bowl with one hand, and pulling a tissue with his other hand. He began to wipe her phone, whose screen was still functional.
Accidentally, his eyes fell on the transfer record on the chat log. Joslyn had just transferred fifty thousand dollars to Blair.
He knew it was wrong to peek at other people's chat logs. But it was Blair's phone and he felt overwhelmed by the urge to know more about her. Besides, who wasn't going to be curious after seeing a transfer log of fifty grand?
He stole a glance at Blair. She was pulling some more tissues. Silently and quickly, pretending to wipe the phone, he scrolled up and down the chat log, fast reading her messages with Joslyn. Before she could shift her eyes back to her phone, Wesley already had a general idea of what was going on.
Cecelia was talking with Baldwin over the phone at that moment. When she saw that Blair's phone was completely soaked in the soybean milk, she comforted the girl, "Don't be upset, Blair. Your phone is old. I'll buy you a new one soon." She had already noticed the previous night that Blair's phone was an old model worth only about a hundred dollars.
Blair shook her head. "Aunt, don't bother. It's still functional. I am not that interested in phones and I'll buy a new one when it really stopped working."
Her words caught Wesley's attention. He had just witnessed another side of Blair. According to what he could read from the chat log, she was going to buy Cecelia a gift using the money Joslyn had transferred. Fifty thousand dollars was a large amount for Blair. However, she wasn't even going to buy a new phone for herself. Even if she were to spend a thousand dollars on Cecelia, she could easily have afforded to buy a good phone for her own self. But she didn't want to!
'She's so generous to my mom but mean to herself. What a strange girl, ' Wesley thought to himself.
"Why not buy a new one today? Do you like this phone very much? How long have you used it?" Wesley asked casually while still holding her phone in his hand.
Blair thought for a little while and then explained, "My previous phone was broken when I was in South Mountain. After I was rescued, Miller bought me this one. That was only a few months ago. It's not so old."
The next second, before she knew what had happened, her phone was in the bowl of soybean milk once again. 'What the hell?' she thought.
Wesley apologized in a nonchalant voice, "Oh, I am sorry. It slipped off my hand."
Blair sighed, feeling unlucky. Just as she was about to pick up her phone, Wesley reacted faster than a bullet and picked it up for her. However, as if he didn't hold it well, the phone slipped off his hand once again and dropped onto the floor this time. Now, it was really broken. The screen was cracked.
Blair and Cecelia didn't know what to say now. Just what the hell was going on?
Wesley didn't even apologize this time. Instead, he promised her, "Oops. It is broken. Don't worry. I'll buy you a new one."
The two women were lost for words.
Cecelia had a feeling that her son had dropped the phone on purpose, but she wasn't sure of it. She also didn't want to make the situation any weirder, so she stayed silent.
After the breakfast, Blair cleaned the table and tidied her room. By the time she was done, it was a quarter past ten o'clock.
The three of them left the apartment. Wesley was going to drive them to the shopping mall. Blair wanted to sit in the back seat with Cecelia, but Wesley suddenly stopped her. "Don't you want a new phone? Sit up front. And keep your eyes peeled for a phone store."
"Okay." It sounded reasonably fair, so Blair didn't think much about it and hopped into the passenger seat.
However, instead of following her instructions, Wesley ignored all phone stores that came their way and drove straight towards Shining International Plaza.
Blair was worried. Without a phone, she couldn't use the money that Joslyn had wired her via WeChat Pay. She wanted to find a cell phone store and buy a new phone first before going shopping. She had a very small amount of cash on her.
She tried to tell Wesley in a low voice that she wanted to buy a new phone first. But the man interrupted her, "Go on and do the shopping first. You've asked for a leave from work right? There won't be anything urgent."
"But..." Blair lowered her voice even further. "I don't have much cash with me. I need to use WeChat Pay. Just let me buy a new phone first. Don't worry. I'm not going to let you pay for it."
Wesley cast her a sidelong glance, a bit unhappy with her words. 'Worry? Why would I worry about buying her a new phone? Am I such a mean guy in her eyes?'
Blair didn't understand what the look in his eyes meant. But seeing that he was unrelenting, she had no choice but to shut up for the time being.
Cecelia had been sitting in the back seat, voice-messaging Niles and her friends. She wasn't paying the slightest attention to the two in the front seats. After a few moments, Wesley broke the silence and told her, "Just buy whatever you want and I'll pay for it now. After you've bought a phone, you can return the money to me."
Hearing his advice, Blair finally heaved a sigh of relief and nodded, "Alright. Sounds good." She had to follow his idea now.
The three of them arrived at Shining International Plaza pretty soon. It was only then that Blair finally realized Cecelia had come to buy things for her, not for her two sons.
The excited mother led her to every single ladies' fashion stores, taking care that their collection was suitable for girls like Blair.
In one of the stores, Cecelia asked a saleslady to get her a few dresses that fit Blair's figure. Then, she stuffed the dresses in Blair's arms and asked her to try them on. "Go on then, dear."
Looking at the clothes in her arms, Blair was confused and stammered, "Aunt, you mean...I have to try them on?"
"Yes, be quick, now. How else would we know which size to buy? We'll wait for you over there." Cecelia pointed to the resting area a short distance away.
Blair had no choice but to follow the saleslady to the fitting room, the clothes piled on her hands like a mountain.
She picked a green shirt and a white skirt, and put them on.
'Meh, ' she thought as she stood in front of a full-length mirror to see if they looked good on her. She wasn't satisfied.
Just as she was about to enter the fitting room to change into another set, Cecelia called out, "Blair, come here. Let me have a look."
Blair then meekly walked to the resting area.
Wesley was browsing his phone. Hearing her footsteps, he raised his head to catch a glance. He did not comment though, and moved his eyes back to his phone after a few seconds.
Blair was nervous. She wondered if the clothes didn't look good enough on her. Otherwise, why had Wesley turned his eyes away so quickly?
Cecelia smiled. "You look good in this color. It's fresh and energetic. Wesley, what do you think?"
Called out specifically, Wesley raised his head to look at Blair again. "Good," he nodded. Then his attention was on his phone again.
'That's so perfunctory, ' Blair thought unhappily.
She changed into the second dress. It was a long, black dress with a knot on the shoulder that looked like a cute bow. She thought that it was quite fashionable but Wesley had the same, tacit response.
Cecelia asked her son again, "Wesley, what do you think?"
He again gave Blair a quick glance and repeated, "It's nice."
Then Blair tried on three more sets. Each time Cecelia asked Wesley's opinion and the man gave the same answer—"good."
Finally, when it came to the sixth dress, Cecelia couldn't help but get irritated. She complained in a slightly angry tone, "Hey, what the hell are you doing? Is your phone that attractive to you? Pay attention and give an honest response, will you?"
Wesley put down his phone and stared at Blair, with an innocent look in his eyes. He didn't mean to make a casual comment. He did think that Blair looked good in each of these dresses. The only problem was that Blair was too thin. She would look so much prettier if she could put on just a little weight.
At that moment, Blair was wearing a short, pink-colored jacket and with a matching skirt. She looked sweet in this outfit.
Suddenly, Wesley remembered the night when they were out of electricity in Hillside Apartments. Blair was changing her clothes in her bedroom. She had gotten scared by the shadow that the light show outside her balcony was casting. The shadow was quite similar to a human and she had thought that it was really an intruder outside her window. Hearing her shriek, Wesley had broken into her bedroom at once and accidentally saw a little of her body.
As the memory of that night flooded his mind, the look in his eyes began to change. Blair noticed his eyes again and felt embarrassed by the way he was looking at her. "Do I look that bad?" she asked uneasily.
He said nothing.