Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

Li Yang hung her head, speaking softly.

"No, I'm waiting for someone."

"Waiting for who?" The store owner was taken aback, raised his voice, and glared with his bulging eyes, "Did you fucking call the cops?"

"Don't you know any better, you student?" he threatened. "Believe it or not, if the police come, you'll have to compensate me. If it weren't for you being a girl, I wouldn't even bother arguing with you."

"Don't fucking make trouble for yourself!"

"I didn't call the police, I... I'm just waiting for my brother," Li Yang gasped for a moment, breathless.

"Go wait over there, don't block my business!" The owner glanced at her, noticeably impatient with her attire, which he deemed worth no more than a hundred yuan in total.

So, she had found some country bumpkin to stand up for her? She didn't look bad, though. Coming alone to do a part-time job, leaving after two days and still wanting to get paid?

"I sent my brother the location; he won't be able to find me if I leave," she said after a moment of thought.

The potbellied store owner looked at her as if she were a fool, "You students just know how to bury yourselves in books, your brains don't work at all, huh."

"Really don't know what's the use of all that reading you students do, you're reading yourselves stupid. Scram, scram, scram! I don't care about your damn location, go wait over there!"

After shooing Li Yang away, the owner shook his head and returned to the store.

Xu Qingyan didn't take long to arrive, pressing the accelerator and taking a five- or six-minute drive around to find the old fruit shop located under the residential buildings near the university.

The streets weren't very busy, so he drove straight up to the front of the fruit shop.

With a stomp on the brake, he startled the store owner who had just sat down. Uneasily getting up from his chair, the owner stepped to the entrance to take a look.

An Audi rolled up, its model unclear, but it looked expensive.

This whole street was half-filled with stores selling knick-knacks, snacks, and fruits, but the fruit shop's sign was the biggest and brightest. This was a point of pride for the owner, who made more money than others.

"Handsome, what fruit would you like to buy?"

"Fresh and cheap!"

Xu Qingyan got out of the car, ignoring the fruit shop owner's calls, and turned to see Li Yang under the streetlamp at the entrance. As he looked over, she happened to lift her head.

Blue cheap clothes, black ponytail, her delicate and pretty little face. From a distance, one could sense that her eyes seemed out of focus.

Looking around without knowing where to focus, her face was a bit cold, coming off as wooden.

"Li Yang?" he called out.

Finally, her eyes found focus, thread by thread, converging on him. Then her eyes seemed to sparkle through the veil of light as she responded.

"Brother Xu."

The yellow streetlight cast a huge halo of light, and she stood right in its brightest center. From the tips of her toes, the light dimmed inch by inch outward.

The darkness between them felt like deep chasms, with the streetlamp resembling an isolated island, until Xu Qingyan squinted his eyes and leaned to turn on the car's xenon headlights.

Two beams instantly lit up half the street, and he waved at Li Yang. It had been many years since he'd seen her, and she no longer matched the little face he remembered.

Perhaps because their families had old ties, his attitude was much more casual.

"Come over!"

The end of summer had passed, and though it was mid-September, the temperature was still high, the night air dry and stifling.

The store owner's mind was already in a whirl when he heard Li Yang call out 'brother.' Seeing the Audi A8 parked at the entrance, his heart turned upside down.

So poor, yet where had this rich relative come from?

Earning from the fruit shop for a year and still not knowing if he could make.... He promptly shrank back, opting not to watch the commotion anymore. With so much money, he wouldn't care about that little over a hundred yuan.

Outside the store.

Li Yang, upon hearing Xu Qingyan telling her to come over, obediently walked towards him. She couldn't see clearly from afar due to the blinding lights but as she drew closer, she realized he was very tall.

Pure black hair, neither long nor short, and a very handsome face. He was more attractive than any boy she had ever seen, his gaze relaxed, his face still wearing a polite smile.

Leaning against the car door in the night breeze, perhaps because Li Yang was more sensitive than most people, she felt that Xu Qingyan gave off a vibe that he was not to be trifled with, as if a villain had sheathed his dagger.

The street was busy with people looking curiously in their direction. Not wanting to cause trouble for Xu Qingyan, Li Yang went from walking briskly to running until she was beside him in the nick of time.

As soon as she got there, she heard him ask, pointing to the nearby fruit store.

"This is where you work part-time?"

"Yeah." She nodded, not bringing up the fact that she hadn't received any money.

Unexpectedly, Xu Qingyan said, "Then I'll buy some fruit, wait here for me."

"No! No..... no need!" Li Yang looked up sharply, meeting a pair of quizzical eyes, and immediately began to stutter, "The fruit here is more expensive."

"Doesn't matter, I can't be bothered to go anywhere else." Xu Qingyan had already started walking, "The boss still lets you work part-time, he's a good guy, let's support his business."

Thump, Li Yang felt suddenly embarrassed, watching his retreating figure with a heart full of sour and prickly regret. Her face gradually heated up, thinking about how she had lied the first time they met.

Cowardly, scared of trouble, no ambition, and a liar.

She could almost imagine the first impression she must have made on Xu Qingyan, feeling even worse than she did about not getting the part-time money, starting to regret why she had lied.

Watching Brother Xu enter the brightly lit fruit store, her heart was suspended in mid-air. With determination, she followed him inside, but before she could enter, she heard the boss say.

"No money for you, you've caused a loss to my store, and still want to be paid?"

"Just leaving like that, how do I account for the labor losses? If I can't hire someone else and I'm too busy to manage, what if the fruit goes bad?"

"You paying for it?"

The barrage of questions confused Xu Qingyan, who was there to buy fruit.

He was slow to catch on, looking back to see that Li Yang had followed. The girl stood at the entrance, looking lost and pale as paper.

Xu Qingyan put away his phone and turned his attention to the boss.

"You didn't pay my sister her wages?"

"What wages!" The boss's brows arched, his neck stiffening, "Didn't I say that? Her leaving is a loss for my store, at least two or three thousand!"

Hearing about two thousand, Li Yang standing at the doorway felt her heart clench, knowing she couldn't afford to pay that much. She was dazed for a few seconds, feeling cold in her hands and feet.

The boss sat in his chair, unfazed, reasoning that he was in the right anyway, and it didn't matter who came.

The thing is, those Douyin videos all say, nowadays, being a boss isn't easy either. Labor laws say you have to give a three-day notice before quitting, you think you can just leave whenever?

If an employee leaves without notice, the boss can demand compensation!

Xu Qingyan looked around and suddenly smiled at the boss, his expression warm.

"Fuck your mother."

The boss stared blankly for a moment, not yet comprehending.

"What did you say?"

Li Yang standing at the door was also stunned. She lifted her head to see Xu Qingyan standing in the middle of the store, her whole body quivering.

"I said, fuck your mother." Xu Qingyan stopped smiling and casually picked up an apple, hurling it against the wall. There was a loud bang as the white flesh burst apart, scattering all over.

"You motherfucker!!" The boss shot up to stand, but his bulky body was a beat too slow.

Another bunch of grapes smashed onto the table, bursting and spreading purple juice over the tiled wooden table, grapes bouncing everywhere.

The boss stood up, large and round, eyes bulging.

"Money!" Xu Qingyan didn't react, just stared straight into his eyes, "How much do you earn in a day, and you're losing two thousand?"

"I'll keep throwing now, if you dare, lay a hand on me, and see if I won't just stand here and let you hit me."

As he spoke, Xu Qingyan nonchalantly burst a peach, banging it on the boss's table as he took steps forward, his eyes fierce.

"Can't make a living, motherfucker? Even withholding a little girl's wages, you got the nerve to bully me!"