After spending the whole afternoon picking up and test - driving the car, Zhu Ning saw a high - end Western restaurant called Core on her way home.
The exterior decoration was magnificent and imposing, and the overall atmosphere was high - end and luxurious.
She took a look from the outside and decided to have dinner there before completing her daily consumption task.
In the past, when she had no money, she didn't even dare to stand at the door of a restaurant with such decoration. It seemed that the spotless glass inside would expose her poverty and embarrassment.
Actually, being poor is not that scary.
What's truly terrifying is the kind of hardship and inferiority that penetrates the skin and goes deep into the bone marrow brought by poverty. It will follow you everywhere. When you try on new clothes, when you enjoy a nice meal, or when you're on the move, the first thing that comes to mind is always the price, rather than whether you'll be happy or not.
The black Bugatti pulled up at the door, and the restaurant supervisor came over upon hearing the news.
At first glance, he recognized the car logo, Bugatti, a super - luxury car. At the second glance, he noticed the license plate.
Hai A • 00001.
An alarm bell rang in his mind. He respectfully invited the guest in and, without Zhu Ning saying a word, voluntarily led her to the best window seat on the upper floor.
Since she came by car, the supervisor didn't present the wine list. Zhu Ning looked at these high - end dishes with a unit price of a thousand yuan, which she had never even dared to think about before. Without even batting an eyelid, she asked the staff to recommend the special dishes of the day. After a simple calculation, including the service charge, this meal would cost about 4,000 yuan.
4,000 yuan for a single meal. In the past, she couldn't even dream of it.
Now, she spent the money so casually.
The dishes were quickly served. Zhu Ning savored each delicious dish carefully. Although the food tasted good, it didn't whet her appetite as much as the dishes cooked by the chef in the villa.
Suddenly, she understood that the chef in the villa cooked the dishes according to her taste.
During the meal, the group chat messages on her phone kept flashing.
The university classmates' group was hotly discussing the class reunion in a month. There were several messages @ her, but she just read them without replying.
She didn't have any special memories of her university days. In the past, she was a timid person who didn't like to cause trouble or show off. She was like a transparent person in the class, and few people paid attention to her.
The group had been chatting non - stop since yesterday. Before finishing her meal, Zhu Ning was idly browsing the group messages when a new message popped up.
Liu Su: @Qian Lili, Lili, is the Bugatti in your WeChat Moments yours?
Chen Kang: Bugatti? Holy cow! It's a Bugatti Divo!
Chen Kang: Old classmate, you're really something! Have you quietly married into a wealthy family?
Ma Wen: Oh my god! The Bugatti Divo is limited to only 40 units globally. Do you actually own one of them, Lili?
The familiar keywords caught Zhu Ning's attention. She clicked into Qian Lili's WeChat Moments.
As soon as she entered, the top - pinned post was a photo of a woman showing off her charm while lying on the front hood of the car with her waist swaying.
The caption read: New car. I really love it.
Zhu Ning felt that the car looked very familiar. Then she zoomed in on the license plate number on the front of the car: Hai A • 00001.
She scrolled down and, as expected, saw two familiar faces, a man and a woman, taking pictures beside her car.
The man was Wang De, her former boss, and the woman was Qian Lili, who had an affair with the boss and instigated Wang De to fire her.
One of them posed while the other took pictures. They were lying on the hood and grabbing the car door. If the car door hadn't been locked, they would have even gotten inside the car to take pictures.
They acted as if the car was their own.
In the group, Qian Lili responded to everyone's doubts.
Qian Lili: Haha, this is my newly - bought car. Keep a low profile, everyone.
As soon as she said this, the classmates in the university group immediately got excited.
Liu Su: You're really something, Lili! Have you really married into a wealthy family?
Ma Wen: Lili is the class beauty. It's normal for a beautiful girl like her to marry into a wealthy family. Lili, now that you've made it big, don't forget to give us old classmates a hand.
Chen Kang: Goddess Lili, do you need a mistress? Look at me. I'm available!
Qian Lili: Pfft, it's not as exaggerated as you all said.
Qian Lili: It's just a Bugatti. I believe that as long as everyone works hard, you'll be able to own one sooner or later.
Although she didn't directly admit that the car was hers, it was obvious what she meant.
There was another round of flattery below.
Everyone shouted that Qian Lili had really become a high - society person.
They even wanted to hand over the right to choose the venue for this class reunion to her.
Zhu Ning finished reading the group messages and then looked at the two people downstairs.
Had she become the stepping stone for others' pretentiousness?
She turned off her phone, gave a playful smile, finished her meal, and went downstairs to pay the bill.
When she was about to leave, the receptionist at the front desk asked her softly with a smile if she wanted to apply for a membership.
"Now there's a discount for recharge. If you recharge 10,000 yuan for the first time, you'll get a 10% discount. If you recharge 20,000 yuan, you'll get a 20% discount, and so on. The maximum discount is 100%."
Hearing this, Zhu Ning had an idea. Although the dishes in this restaurant were not as good as those cooked by the chef in the villa, they were still quite good.
Moreover, she still had her daily consumption task to complete. So she took out her card. "Then recharge 100,000 yuan."
A 100,000 - yuan recharge would be a huge sum in other restaurants, but it wasn't strange in Core.
However, the front - desk staff was still surprised for a moment by Zhu Ning's decisiveness. After reacting, her smile became even brighter.
She took the card Zhu Ning handed over with both hands.
"Okay, I'll recharge it for you right away." She lowered her head to operate the system, asked for some of Zhu Ning's information, and then raised her smiling face. "I've successfully recharged 100,000 yuan for you. Also, congratulations! You've got a 100% discount today. Your balance is exactly 100,000 yuan."
The staff presented the membership card with both hands. Zhu Ning took it and wondered if the system would count the recharge of the membership card as a successful consumption.
And the next second.
[Ding! Congratulations, host! You've successfully consumed 100,000 yuan. The remaining consumption task is 900,000 yuan. Please keep up the good work.]
Recharging the membership card was counted as a successful consumption!
Zhu Ning couldn't help but praise the system for its user - friendliness!
On a whim, she asked in her mind, "What about the money I spent on buying the car today..."
As if anticipating what she was thinking, the system simply refused.
[Reward items are not included in the consumption task. Please work hard on your own.]
Zhu Ning was just asking out of curiosity. She didn't feel regretful that the system didn't count it.
Anyway, there were plenty of ways for her to spend money now. 900,000 yuan was nothing. She could easily consume it.
After a brief thought, she decided to spend this money on herself, but she hadn't figured out exactly how yet.
Since the task had no time limit, she wasn't in a hurry.
She left the restaurant and walked towards her car.
In front of the car, Qian Lili was holding Wang De's arm and filming a video of her Bugatti.
Suddenly looking up, she saw Zhu Ning and immediately nudged Wang De beside her maliciously.
Wang De followed Qian Lili's gaze and saw Zhu Ning. He immediately sneered.
"Yo, isn't this Zhu Ning, who was fired by me for being dishonest? What a coincidence. Are you here too?" He glanced at the Western restaurant behind Zhu Ning and mocked, "What, are you off work after being a waitress in Core?"
Qian Lili crossed her arms and chimed in, "A person like her can get into Core? Didn't the restaurant supervisor do a background check before hiring? Manager Wang, you should go in later and remind them to be more discerning. Don't let such a person ruin the company's atmosphere."
"You're right. I should go in and remind them later."
As Wang De said this, he sized Zhu Ning up and down and mocked, "Speaking of which, some people are really thick - skinned and forgetful. After being treated so badly before, they still dare to go out and work."
"What, do you need another lesson?"