Chapter 31: I Don’t Dare Take It

“Du Xi is getting the same as you: a 30,000 salary and a 50,000 bonus.”

“Huh? I get the exact same compensation as Sister Du?”

“I… I don’t really dare take it…”

To be honest, Shen Manman really didn’t dare accept it.

Du Xi was the lead artist, and even though they had joined the studio at roughly the same time, Du Xi had contributed far more than she had.

When they worked a shift together yesterday, Shen Manman had seen the bloodshot veins in Du Xi’s eyes.

All from staying up late.

Even with tone-up cream^[1] on, the dark circles under her eyes were still unmistakable.

Su Cheng didn’t see it that way at all.

What was there to be afraid of taking?

Shen Manman really needed to learn from Du Xi!

Forget Li Lei, though; she definitely shouldn’t copy him.

Never mind a hundred and fifty thousand.

Even if Su Cheng gave Li Lei two hundred and fifty thousand, the guy would take it without hesitation.

He was worth that price.

“This… this is too much.”

“It’s not.”

“Just take it since I’m giving it to you, or else I won’t give you a single cent in the future!” Su Cheng’s tone carried a distinct hint of a threat.

“By the way.”

“I called you at noon to tell you to come eat Japanese food here, so why didn’t you show up? We still have a ton left over.”

Su Cheng pointed at the substantial amount of Japanese food remaining from lunch.

“Uh, if you guys aren’t going to eat it, I can take it home later to eat. That’ll save me having to get dinner.”

“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to answer. My phone is broken. Sometimes calls come through, and sometimes they don’t,” Shen Manman explained.

This had actually been happening since yesterday.

Su Cheng asked in confusion, “What, did you drop it?”

“No. Sister Du spat out a mouthful of red wine that day, and by sheer coincidence, it got into the screen and the charging port. It’s been acting up ever since.”

“Huh? Then why didn’t you tell Du Xi?” Su Cheng was even more bewildered.

“I… I felt too embarrassed. It wasn’t like she did it on purpose.”

“Just tell her and have her buy you a replacement, problem solved! She just got a huge bonus, after all!”

“Forget it, forget it.” Shen Manman couldn’t bring herself to ask.

Su Cheng didn’t push her.

Everyone had their own way of handling things.

Even if it were Su Cheng, he wouldn’t actually make Du Xi pay for a new phone; he would just tease her about it.

Girls were thin-skinned^[2], after all.

Understandable.

“Fine, if you won’t tell her, you won’t. Come on, I’ll take you to buy a new one.”

Su Cheng still had an active challenge mission, after all.

Spend 150,000 on himself, and spend 10,000 on someone else.

Buying Shen Manman a pricier phone would be a perfect fit, wouldn’t it?

“Huh? No, no, no, I can just buy one myself.”

“You just transferred so much money to me!” Shen Manman protested.

Su Cheng remained firm.

“Those are two completely different things.”

“What you buy with your money is your business, but this is me making it up to you on Du Xi’s behalf.”

Before Shen Manman could decline again, Su Cheng pulled her along to the mall.

Right after stepping inside, Su Cheng led her straight to the Apple store.

“Huh?”

“Getting one for two or three thousand is plenty. Apple is way too expensive.”

He didn’t even know what to say.

Why did Shen Manman suddenly feel like such a hidden gem?

Was there actually a girl out there who didn’t want an iPhone?

Su Cheng remembered that in his past life, more than a year after breaking up with his ex-girlfriend, she had added him back to say her phone was broken, asking if Su Cheng could buy her an iPhone X.

Su Cheng had replied with a single question mark on the spot.

It wasn’t that he was blindly hyping Apple, nor did he think Apple phones were all that incredible.

From what he’d seen, girls generally loved iPhones. Even if they used Android for now, they would switch to an iPhone sooner or later, and quite a few would snap a mirror selfie the second they switched to show off the latest camera setup.

Shen Manman did indeed like iPhones.

They took great photos.

But.

They were just too expensive.

Even the previous generation still cost six thousand Yuan right now.

That kind of money could buy three Xiaomi phones.

“Who the hell buys millet^[3]?!”

Pfft.

Shen Manman burst out laughing at Su Cheng.

Su Cheng wasn’t saying Xiaomi phones were bad.

It was an internet meme about an old man pedaling a tricycle down the street selling millet.

Yeah, the kind weighed and sold by the Jin.

The remark had the other customers and sales associates in the store chuckling too.

His comedic timing was off the charts.

If Shen Manman bought a Xiaomi phone, Su Cheng would have to buy four or five of them just to satisfy the challenge quest’s requirement.

How would he even explain that?

Spend 10,000 Yuan to buy five Xiaomi phones?

Spend 500,000 to buy two Magotan 380s^[4]?

There was one thing Apple stores deserved immense credit for.

Once inside, you could browse and test whatever you liked.

As long as you didn’t break anything, nobody bothered you.

Unless you called a sales associate over, no one would come up to ramble off a sales pitch.

Their whole philosophy was essentially: buy it or don’t.

Otherwise, Su Cheng might already be living out some cliché, melodramatic face-slapping scene with a snooty salesperson.

“Hello, could you please get me an iPhone 7 Plus, the 256GB version?”

“Certainly. What color would you like?”

Su Cheng glanced at Shen Manman.

Shen Manman looked back at Su Cheng.

From Su Cheng’s expression and demeanor, she could tell she had no choice but to accept the phone today.

“Then… silver, please…”

“All right. That will be 7,888 Yuan.”

7,888?

That was still over two thousand short.

Su Cheng’s eyes quickly landed on the newly released Apple Watch Series 2.

Over three thousand.

Just enough to hit the mark.

“Please get me a cellular version of the watch too, the one with the smallest case size,” Su Cheng said, then turned back to ask Shen Manman, “What color watch do you want?”

A watch?

She really didn’t need a watch…

Shen Manman had a Casio on her wrist that she had bought on Taobao for a little over a hundred Yuan.

In four years, she had only replaced the battery twice, and nothing else had ever gone wrong with it.

“That watch of yours does look nice, but this is a gift from me.”

“Think about it. You’re an artist, so getting into the Apple ecosystem will definitely be better for you later on. I’m doing this to boost your work efficiency.”

Shen Manman: “…”

After some gentle protests, Su Cheng pushed both the phone and the watch into Shen Manman’s hands.

Shen Manman felt touched.

Back at the KTV^[5], Su Cheng hadn’t just shielded her from drinking and stood up for her; he had also invited her to join the studio and handed out such a generous bonus.

And that wasn’t all.

When he gave a gift, he casually dropped over ten thousand Yuan on it.

Su Cheng wasn’t dwelling on any of that; his head was entirely filled with the system quest.

At times like this, his execution as an elite gamer really shone.

When hailing a taxi, he didn’t accept the quest.

When entering the mall, he still didn’t accept the quest.

Only when Shen Manman had both items firmly in hand would he accept the quest.

The moment Su Cheng tapped [Accept Quest] on the system panel, he immediately scanned the code to pay.

[Payment Successful]

In a mere four seconds, Su Cheng had fulfilled the second condition.

Challenge quests had to be speedrun too!

Of course, when it came to other areas, Su Cheng definitely wouldn’t speedrun things.

The longer it lasted, the greater his sense of accomplishment.

The clerk helped Shen Manman transfer her data.

During the wait, Su Cheng told her to put on the watch and try it out.

“Not bad at all. It really suits you.”

Shen Manman had fair, cool-toned skin, and she fastened the silver-gray watch to her wrist.

It elevated her presence by another notch.

Shen Manman was quite pleased with it herself.

Apple products were great in every aspect; it was just that the prices weren’t especially wallet-friendly.

“Do you exercise often? Wearing it can track your fitness data too. It’s super convenient.”

“Um… do you want to look around the mall later?”

“Walk around the mall? The two of us?”

“Yeah… I want to buy you an outfit.”

Shen Manman felt she had to reciprocate no matter what.

As for Su Cheng’s claims about compensating her for Du Xi or the Apple ecosystem…

They were all excuses.

She could easily see through that much.

“Shopping is fine, but we have to be quick.” Su Cheng was currently in the middle of the challenge quest, and there was a countdown timer ticking on his panel.

If time ran out, not only would he miss out on the system reward, but he would also be docked 50 honor points.

“Huh? Do you have other plans later?” Shen Manman asked.

Shen Manman already viewed today as her first date with Su Cheng.

“Yeah.” Su Cheng nodded.

There wasn’t really anything worth buying at the mall.

Clothes? Luxury goods?

Su Cheng had no interest in them.

Buying a huge pile of stuff he didn’t even like just to complete a system quest was truly unnecessary.

Su Cheng wanted to head straight to a dealership afterward to pick up a car.

Compared to walking out of a mall loaded down with bags, picking up a car was so much more straightforward.

“All right then… let’s hurry.”

Shen Manman picked out two casual outfits and one sportswear set for Su Cheng.

Altogether, it came to around four thousand Yuan.

Shen Manman had originally wanted to take Su Cheng into Arc’teryx to look around, but before they even reached the door, Su Cheng pulled her into a taxi.

“No more, no more. This is enough to last me a long time.”

“I’m not picky about clothes. As long as I have something to wear, I’m good.”

If Shen Manman kept browsing, she would burn through all the extra time Su Cheng had banked by exploiting the bug…