A week later, Ning Ran appeared at the Flower City International Airport. She was there to pick Cheng Xiangyun up. As she had gotten there 40 minutes before her arrival time, she stayed in her car while browsing through her phone.
The crew was already in their final stages of filming. The plan for today was to shoot the scenes which were unfinished due to Zheng Lunlun’s prior absence. As such, Ning Ran got to enjoy a day off.
Cheng Xiangyun had requested for Ning Ran to pick her up. She carried a few pieces of luggage with her, which made it inconvenient for her to take a cab. Since Ning Ran was free today, she gladly agreed.
The woman had specially set off an hour earlier as she was not confident in her driving skills. She was also worried that there might be a traffic jam.
To her surprise, the road conditions were pleasant. That was why she had reached way before time.
Ning Ran started to feel drowsy after browsing her phone for a while and decided to get some shut-eye.
However, as she was feeling tired lately, she ended up falling into a deep slumber.
After a while, Ning Ran was awoken by the ringing of her phone. It was Cheng Xiangyun calling.
“Cheng, have you landed?”
“Ran, hurry over! I’m caught in a situation,” Cheng Xiangyun sounded like she was in distress.
Ning Ran panicked and she asked, “Where are you? I’ll go there immediately.”
“I’m at the international arrivals gate.”
“Why are you there? Aren’t you supposed to be at the gate for domestic flights?”
“Just come here first! I’ll explain to you later!”
“OK, I’ll be there right away!” Ning Ran hung up and got out of her car.
She spotted Cheng Xiangyun at a distance. However, the woman wasn’t alone. Instead, she was surrounded by a few others.
Ning Ran rushed towards her aunt and saw two men and one woman closing in on her.
The men were younger, whereas the woman was middle-aged and seemed quite well-off. She was a rather attractive lady.
Although she was already past her prime, she had definitely retained her charm.
It wasn’t hard to imagine how beautiful the woman must have been when she was younger. Even the most popular actresses these days might not have her allure.
“Aunt, what’s going on?” Ning Ran asked.
“Who are you calling ‘aunt’,” the middle-aged lady had assumed Ning Ran was addressing her and wasn’t pleased.
“I’m calling her, not you,” Ning Ran clarified.
The middle-aged lady was not convinced, as Cheng Xiangyun looked too young to be an ‘aunt’.
This woman must be hinting that I’m old and mocking me! That’s outrageous!
“Ma’am, she is really referring to me. This is how we usually call each other and it has got nothing to do with age,” Cheng Xiangyun tried to explain.
“Well, she’s your ally. Did you get her to come here so that both of you can team up to ridicule me?” The middle-aged lady started to raise her voice.
“This is not the case at all. I’m sorry if we have offended you, but you’re really overthinking,” Cheng Xiangyun said.
“What on Earth is going on?” Ning Ran asked Cheng Xiangyun again. She made sure not to call the woman ‘aunt’ this time, as she did not want to risk infuriating the middle-aged lady again.
“I was careless and had accidentally bumped into this lady while I was walking. I was holding a cup of coffee which spilt on her dress… “
“Is there really a need for you to drink coffee right after you touch down? If you have a cup of coffee in your hands, shouldn’t you be more alert while you’re walking?” Ning Ran felt a flash of irritation when she heard Cheng Xiangyun’s account of the events.
“I was really thirsty. As you know, I am not a fan of airline meals, so the first thing I did when I got off the plane was to get a cup of coffee, I didn’t think I would… “
“So this a-a… lady wants you to compensate her for the dress? Just pay her then,” Ning Ran said.
“But she’s insisting that her dress is priceless. She said it was custom-made and that she had had it for a long time. She is asserting that it’s not something money can solve,” Cheng Xiangyun explained.
Ning Ran sensed they had a knotty situation at hand.
The middle-aged lady’s dress had indeed been splashed with coffee, and the stains were rather obvious.
“What do you propose then? What should we do for us to be able to come to an amicable conclusion?” Ning Ran asked the middle-aged lady.
“How would I know? She was the one who caused the trouble. Why are you asking me what to do?” The middle-aged lady shouted.
After yelling at Ning Ran, she turned to one of the men beside her and asked, “Is there anyone else coming?”
“We were the only ones sent to pick Madam up. This way please, Madam,” the man answered respectfully.
“I’m sure there’re other people who were supposed to pick me up. Why did they send you two small potatoes here?! This is too much!”
It was obvious the woman wasn’t in the best of moods.
And most likely, the reason for her foul temper was not because of her stained dress, but rather, something else instead.
That was also why she refused to let Cheng Xiangyun off.
“Can I make a suggestion? Since we don’t have a better solution right now, we can exchange contact numbers first, while you take your time to think about how we can compensate you for my friend’s carelessness. You can let us know your decision again. I understand that your dress is custom-made, in that case, we could also custom-make another one for you. If you prefer that we compensate you in monetary terms, we could do that as well,” Ning Ran shared her opinion.
“Does that mean you want to slip off? Thinking of running away before solving the issue?” The middle-aged lady raised her voice even more.
“We’re not running away. In fact, we’ve been standing right here all the while, but you’re unable to tell us what exactly you want from us. We can’t just stay here forever right?” Ning Ran extended her arms in exasperation.
“She was the one who started this, so shouldn’t she be the one to tell me what she should be doing to salvage the situation instead? I’m the victim, do you expect me to know what to do?” The middle-aged lady shouted again.
The woman was starting to get on Ning Ran’s nerves.
It was indeed Cheng Xiangyun’s fault to have dirtied the woman’s dress and it’s only right that she took responsibility for it.
However, the woman refused to accept compensation, nor was she able to come up with a better solution. She merely continued to make things difficult for Ning Ran and Cheng Xiangyun and was just being plainly unreasonable.
“If you don’t have anything in mind, the best we can do is to pay you for your damage. Alternatively, we can take your dress to a professional launderer and get them to clean it. With today’s technology, getting rid of these stains shouldn’t be an issue,” Ning Ran said.
“Pay me? I have enough money, I don’t need that!” The middle-aged lady said.
“Then let us take your dress. We will make sure to recover it back to its original condition.”
“The dress doesn’t seem recoverable to me in its current condition. Are you trying to fool me?”
“I’m not trying to fool you. It’s really possible for it to look as good as new,” Ning Ran replied while trying to stifle her rising anger.
“No way, that’s impossible.” The middle-aged lady was just not willing to give in.
“Then, perhaps you could pass us the contact number of the tailor? Let us speak to him and get him to make a new dress for you. We’ll make sure it looks exactly the same as this one and we’ll pay for it. Would that work for you?” Cheng Xiangyun was at her wits’ end.
“Nope, it has to be this exact same dress that I’m wearing right now. Even if you make a new one, it still wouldn’t be this one.”
“It sounds like you’re just intentionally making things difficult for us. Since it seems like we won’t be able to reach a conclusion, why don’t we go to the police and let them handle it instead?” Ning Ran was getting restless.
“You want to call the police? You want to pit yourself against me in Flower City? Try it then!” The middle-aged lady was furious over Ning Ran’s latest proposition.
Cheng Xiangyun fixed an intense gaze on Ning Ran, urging her to not behave rashly.
“If not, what do you want us to do? We can’t keep wasting time here right?” Ning Ran asked.
“You shouldn’t ask me what I want you to do, you should be telling me what you plan to do instead. You need to give me a solution that I’ll be happy with!” The middle-aged lady was still very insistent.
Ning Ran felt as if the woman was only interested in kicking up a scene.
Just then, the middle-aged lady looked at her watch, and then her phone. It seemed like she was expecting a call.
“Madam, please let us lead the way, there won’t be anyone else coming,” one of the men, who was wearing a suit, tried to persuade the woman.
“Scram!” The middle-aged lady screamed at him.
Although it was obvious from the man’s look that he was not delighted to be hurled at, he did not dare to retort and merely stayed still.
Ning Ran was getting curious about the woman’s background, as she could not comprehend her strange behavior.
