CHAPTER 291: CHAPTER 291: A MISUNDERSTANDING

"Now it’s been cleared up; these two ladies have nothing to do with the damage to this dress. So, could you explain, miss, why the dress was damaged after it passed through your hands?" The store clerk who checked the surveillance paused the video at the moment the young woman reached for the dress, her eyes sharp as she looked at the other party.

"This really has nothing to do with me. I just picked it up to have a look. I don’t know why it broke." The young woman didn’t want to apologize to Lin Mengyao and Bai Ru. She glanced at the two briefly before answering the clerk’s question, eager to prove her own innocence, hence her somewhat rushed tone.

"You have to believe me, really. If you don’t, you can keep reviewing the footage. I just picked it up for a moment, then put it back quickly." The young woman’s eyes were filled with urgency.

The clerk, observing the woman’s expression, hesitated for a moment.

"Look, I really mean it. Anyway, you’ve already pulled up the footage. Watching one person or two, what’s the difference?" The young woman pointed towards the surveillance screen eagerly, noticing the clerk’s hesitation.

As the young woman said, whether watching one person or two made no difference, since the footage had already been brought up. The two store clerks exchanged a glance and continued playing the surveillance.

In the footage, the young woman picked up the dress, looked at it briefly, then compared it against herself in the mirror, and put it down, moving to another section until two clerks stopped her at the doorway, and she hadn’t returned since.

The tear on the dress was located at the lower back, but neither party had touched that spot, causing the clerks to wear grim expressions.

The mysterious tear in the store’s dress meant they couldn’t find who damaged it, so according to store policy, the cost of the dress would be split among all clerks on duty that day, deducted from their wages.

Thinking of the price tag on the dress and her monthly salary, how could she keep a calm expression?

Neither the clerks nor Xu Ke, standing aside, expected the situation to develop this way. Everyone thought she damaged the dress to frame someone, but that wasn’t the case at all.

Lin Mengyao looked at the young woman, now visibly relieved, with confusion in her eyes. "If you didn’t damage the dress, why were you so tense? And why did you slander us?"

Lin Mengyao’s question reflected their collective doubts. If she hadn’t done it, why act furtively, misleading them from the start?

The young woman slightly lowered her head, facing the gaze of Lin Mengyao and others, and softly said, "It’s just a knee-jerk reaction."

Knowing the answer made Xu Ke and the others twitch the corners of their mouths, never expecting the root cause to be so trivial, leaving them speechless.

"Regardless of your reasons, it’s wrong to implicate others in something you don’t fully understand. Your actions caused us distress; you should apologize for what you did." Lin Mengyao said, looking at the woman’s lowered head, revealing her scalp.

Lin Mengyao could be very forgiving at times, but also very stubborn, like now.

They could have left once the truth was out, but because the young woman hadn’t apologized, Lin Mengyao held Xu Ke and Bai Ru back, waiting.

The young woman glanced at Xu Ke, her gaze lingering on his face momentarily, then looking down at Xu Ke’s outfit. She lightly bit her lower lip and said with an aggrieved tone, "This was my fault. I apologize to you all, but there’s no need to keep pursuing me over such a trivial matter, is there?"

Although the young woman verbally apologized, her attitude showed no remorse, only feigned grievance—a transparency clear to all.

"We’re pursuing you? You’re implying we’re bullying you?" Lin Mengyao couldn’t suppress a cold chuckle as she looked at the other woman’s aggrieved expression.

"Isn’t that the case? Earlier, I hadn’t figured things out, which caused some misunderstanding between us. But now, hasn’t the matter been resolved? You haven’t lost anything, so why corner me here?" The young woman lowered her eyes, offering Xu Ke a perfect side profile.

"You." Bai Ru, like Lin Mengyao, was stunned by the woman’s audacity, her voice inadvertently rising.

"What did I do wrong? Am I incorrect? Or do you intend to hit me?" The young woman feigned fear, inching toward Xu Ke and reaching out to tug his sleeve.

Nimbly dodging her reaching hand, Xu Ke’s eyes were filled with blatant disdain and annoyance, an emotion so unguarded that anyone who wasn’t blind could see it.

Looking at the young woman’s face, Xu Ke didn’t say a word, yet it was as if he had struck her countless times with the lash of his unspoken contempt. The young woman felt like she’d been stripped naked in public, her every little thought laid bare. At that moment, she wished for a hole to crawl into, to keep every scornful gaze away like an ostrich.

"I’m not fond of using harsh words against a young girl, but if she’s disrespectful, I won’t hesitate to say a few. My advice is to leave our sight while I still have patience, unless you’d rather be exposed in public by a man and have everyone see your disgraceful intentions, pointing fingers at you?" Xu Ke said without expression, but the young woman’s face had turned completely pale, her expression stiffening.

The young woman forced a weak smile at Xu Ke. "What intentions? I don’t understand what you’re saying."

"You know exactly what I’m talking about." Xu Ke maintained without backing down, observing the false smile on her face.

"I don’t understand." The young woman discreetly clenched her fists at her sides.

"Are you sure you want me to spell it out?" Xu Ke raised an eyebrow at the young woman’s last-ditch struggle, a mocking glint in his eyes.

By now, Xu Ke had wiped away any favorable image in the young woman’s mind. His once-heart-stirring eyes appeared completely different, making her only wish to escape.

"No one will believe your words." The young woman spoke with little confidence.