Chapter Sixty-Four: Merely an Imitation

Shen Lu gripped her hand tightly, and Su Beiru, who already had a fiery temper, was absolutely furious.

"Lulu, what are you doing! It's just a worthless watch, isn't it? You don't care about a little money, so why not just give him that stupid thing?"

Su Beiru couldn't understand why the usually gentle and reserved Shen Lu would make such a fuss over a mere watch.

She had only met Shen Lu recently and didn’t truly know what kind of person she was. Her impression was simply that Shen Lu was warm, approachable, rather pretty, and most importantly, not short of money.

Every time they went out together, it was always Shen Lu who paid, appearing generous and unrestrained. So why was she suddenly so begrudging over a trivial watch?

Shen Lu, under Su Beiru's gaze, nearly ground her teeth to bits, the urge to strangle Su Beiru almost overwhelming.

This fool! If not for the need to keep up her image as a well-behaved woman, to avoid quarreling or resorting to violence, she would never associate with such a brainless person!

Did she really think all the money she spent treating others to meals came out of thin air?

If she didn’t sell this watch, after getting used to splurging these past weeks, how was she supposed to keep up her lifestyle?

Recalling the times when she was looked down upon for having no money, Shen Lu clenched her jaw and tightened her grip on the watch.

She could not let history repeat itself!

Watching these two supposed best friends nearly come to blows over a watch, Chao Xu, who had been a bystander until now, gave a lazy, amused smile.

With a languid arch of her eyebrow, she looked at Su Beiru—whose face was flushed from struggling with Shen Lu—and mocked, “A worthless watch? Are you serious? Why don’t you look up the price of that watch yourself?”

After Chao Xu spoke, Su Beiru forcefully pulled herself away from Shen Lu and retorted, “Fine, I will! It’s just a watch, there must be a ton of fakes online!”

Su Beiru’s family was comfortably middle-class; they never worried about food or clothing, but she knew little of true luxury goods. She immediately took out her phone to snap a photo of the watch on Shen Lu’s wrist.

Shen Lu’s face turned pale as she tried to stop Su Beiru, but the photo had already been taken.

The watch Chao Xu wore was indeed a luxury item. Although its price made it less widely known or seen, information on it was available online in this digital age.

No sooner had Su Beiru searched the image than she saw the estimated price pop up. With a dismissive glance, she froze as she registered the string of zeros, her eyes wide in shock.

But she quickly regained her composure, sneering, “There are so many counterfeits these days—who knows if this one’s even real?”

Some truths are simply impossible to explain to the willfully ignorant, so Chao Xu generally didn’t bother.

She shrugged, her tone light, “If you say it’s a fake, then it’s a fake. Just give it back to me.”

In any case, Shen Lu would be the one to suffer for this in the end. She was more than happy to see these two fair-weather friends get what they deserved.

Perhaps stung by Chao Xu’s contemptuous tone, Su Beiru snorted and reached for the watch in Shen Lu’s hand.

“It’s just a fake, Lulu, why are you making such a fuss?”

Su Beiru’s voice was especially loud, and as she shouted, Shen Lu’s face grew even paler.

Just a watch? Did they have any idea?

This was something she had stolen from Chao Si!

She’d claimed so confidently earlier that it was hers—if Chao Si got her hands on it and saw her own name engraved there…

Shen Lu trembled, the future suddenly looking bleak and hopeless.