護花近衛 - 第3227章 校花唐芷 - 翰墨軒

"Xiaoke, from now on you ought to pay a little attention to your appearance. Nothing extravagant, of course—ordinary casual clothes will do." Wei Zhao did not press her again on what she had just said; he simply went on talking as though nothing had happened.

"Oh..." Yu Xiaoke truly lacked the courage to repeat what she had said. She stamped her foot in frustration. Fine, then—if you didn't hear it, that's not my fault. I'll just go on liking Male Thief instead. If you're willing to be played for a fool, that's your business! Hmph!

At last Yu Xiaoke found a reason to keep being bad: whose fault was it that Wei Zhao hadn't heard her?

Wei Zhao led Yu Xiaoke all the way to the commercial street. He avoided the expensive department stores and headed instead for the night market there. The clothes on offer were stylish enough, and the prices were not high.

Bringing Yu Xiaoke to a stall, Wei Zhao prepared to pick out some clothes for her—but the stall owner glanced at him and said, "Brother, you're back again?"

Wei Zhao was briefly taken aback. Was this some sales trick common to clothes stalls? He paid it no mind. Plenty of hotels did the same: you walk in for the first time and the waiter says "welcome back"—just a marketing gimmick.

"Hey, brother, you've forgotten me?" Seeing no reaction from Wei Zhao, the stall owner pressed on relentlessly. "Don't you remember? Last year you bought a dress from my stall?"

"Me?" Wei Zhao pointed at himself in astonishment. "Bought a dress from you?"

"That's right! Don't you remember? You even said the year before that the two of us went to pick up stock together, over at Old Zhang's! You told me you used to run a stall at the night market south of the bridge!" The stall owner nodded with perfect certainty. "You also told me your wife was about to give birth!"

"Boss... have you mistaken me for someone else?" Wei Zhao genuinely could not recall ever having dealings with a stall owner on this night market street. And when had he ever run a stall south of the bridge?

"How could I?" The stall owner, bored stiff from keeping his stall alone day after day, had finally run into an acquaintance and wanted to chat a while to pass the time, so he kept at it. "Don't you remember? There was a very pretty girl in a school uniform standing nearby—said she ran a stall in the snack street over there?"

"A stall in the snack street?" Wei Zhao was all the more baffled.

"That's right, a really pretty girl. Later I even asked around specially—Tang Zhi, she was called, the school beauty of No. 1 High... oh, no use telling you, you wouldn't know her. What I mean is, you still haven't remembered?" The stall owner chattered on without end.

Tang Zhi? The moment Wei Zhao heard that name, his heart gave an inexplicable lurch, and somewhere in his memory something seemed to be stung, throwing up a few scattered, broken fragments of images!

It seemed... he really had crouched before this very stall, haggling with this very stall owner, and at his side there really had stood a young girl... but the impression was blurred. He could not remember her face—could not even be sure whether he had truly been haggling at all!

It was only a broken fragment of memory, yet it set Wei Zhao's breathing quickening.

Had he... really been here? Really said those things to this stall owner? Then why could he not remember any of it? And Tang Zhi was the school beauty of No. 1 High? He himself had gone to No. 1 High—so how was it he had no memory of anyone named Tang Zhi?

Had part of his memory vanished, or had the stall owner truly mistaken him for someone else? In that moment Wei Zhao himself grew uncertain!

After all, a single shattered fragment flashing past proved nothing. According to one survey, many people in a strange place they have never visited will suddenly have the notion flash through their minds that they have been there before—as though they had seen it in a dream.