Chapter 135: Double Standards

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Hearing Jiang Hao say this, the saleswoman was even more astonished.

In a tone of genuine surprise, she said, “So you two have been married for several years already? I really couldn’t tell just now.”

“Do we not look like husband and wife?” Jiang Hao asked as he helped Su Qingli put on her shoes.

The saleswoman immediately shook her head and explained, “Sir, that’s not what I meant… I mean, you two look like a couple deeply in love. If anything, you don’t look like a married couple.”

After a pause, she continued, speaking more to herself than to them, “You know, the time when a man and woman’s feelings are usually at their strongest is when they’re passionately in love. Once they get married, their relationship often becomes less affectionate. Some couples who have fallen out of harmony won’t even hold hands, much less help each other get dressed or put on their shoes. I see that sort of thing all the time, after all—I deal with countless customers every day.”

Hearing this, Jiang Hao smiled faintly and nodded.

What she said did make sense.

There was a saying that marriage was the grave of love.

It carried a profound meaning. The period when a man and woman were most deeply in love, most inseparably devoted to each other, was the time when they were about to step into marriage. But after they truly married, living together and becoming thoroughly familiar with one another, they often lost the freshness—and with it, the feeling of being passionately in love.

If they had been married for several years, they might even lose interest in their partner. Naturally, they would no longer want to cling to each other all the time.

This was the very process by which love transformed into familial affection.

That was why people said marriage was the grave of love. It was also why the longer a man and woman knew one another, the less likely they were to become a romantic couple.

Most importantly, the saleswoman was absolutely right.

Although Jiang Hao and Su Qingli were husband and wife, they had never consummated their marriage. At present, they were essentially in a state of having just reunited, starting over and beginning anew. Perhaps they were, at this very moment, experiencing the fervor of being newly in love.

“All right, stop talking. I’ll buy these shoes, all right?” Su Qingli was so embarrassed that she could barely lift her head. She hurriedly spoke to the saleswoman.

The saleswoman’s face immediately blossomed into a radiant smile. “Of course. I’ll pack them up for you shortly.”

After three hours of shopping, Su Qingli had bought a great many things. Jiang Hao carried bag after bag in his hands, looking as though he were hauling two small mountains.

Still, although there were many items and they were indeed quite heavy, they amounted to nothing in Jiang Hao’s eyes.

They were merely clothes, shoes, and the like. Even if he had been carrying two fifty-kilogram dumbbells, Jiang Hao could have strolled around the mall with them effortlessly.

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“There’s quite a lot of stuff. Why don’t we go back to the shop first, put everything down, and then continue having fun?” Su Qingli asked with a smile.

Jiang Hao naturally had no objection. After all, Su Qingli’s health-food therapy shop was not far from there.

“All right. Let’s go back first,” Jiang Hao agreed.

They returned to the health-food shop, put down everything they had bought, and then went back out.

This time, they did not return to the mall. Instead, they went to a Western restaurant.

Young people always enjoyed pursuing romance, especially couples in the throes of passion. Compared with Chinese restaurants, Western restaurants were undoubtedly much more romantic.

As soon as Jiang Hao and Su Qingli entered the restaurant, a smiling waitress came over to greet them.

One look was enough to tell that the waitress was Chinese, yet she rattled off a string of words in distinctly awkward English.

Jiang Hao could not understand her.

He had passed the College English Test Band Four in university and had even come close to passing Band Six. But several years had passed since graduation, and he had long since returned everything he had learned to his professors.

Su Qingli understood her, but instead of replying in English, she smiled and said, “Do we really look that much like foreigners? You can just speak Mandarin to us.”

The waitress hesitated for a moment before switching to Mandarin. “Please follow me.”

Jiang Hao and Su Qingli followed her to a table near the corner of the restaurant and sat down.

“What would you like to order? Here is our menu.”

The waitress placed an exquisite menu in front of them.

Jiang Hao frowned slightly after only one glance. Every dish on the menu was labeled in English, without a single explanation in Chinese.

What blatant hostility.

At that moment, Jiang Hao even regretted coming to this Western restaurant.

Although Su Qingli could understand the menu, she was displeased as well.

The restaurant was clearly located in China, yet it refused to use the language of the country. What were they trying to prove?

Were they deliberately making things difficult for their customers, or what?

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Su Qingli was somewhat annoyed. She pushed the menu aside and said, “I don’t believe your restaurant doesn’t have menus with Chinese descriptions. Go and bring me one.”

The waitress’s expression stiffened, and the look she gave Jiang Hao and Su Qingli became faintly contemptuous.

Even so, she turned and left. When she returned, she was carrying a Chinese menu.

Only then did Su Qingli begin ordering, placing an order for Jiang Hao as well.

After the waitress left, Su Qingli said unhappily, “This Western restaurant is far too pretentious. No wonder business is so poor.”

Business really was sluggish. It was evening, the usual dinner hour, yet only about a third of the tables were occupied—nowhere near as busy as Su Qingli’s health-food shop.

Even outside mealtimes, roughly two-thirds of the tables at Su Qingli’s shop would normally be occupied.

During mealtimes, the place would be packed, and customers sometimes even had to wait a while for a table.

Jiang Hao glanced around and noticed that most of the customers in the restaurant were Chinese, with only a handful of foreigners among them.

“This Western restaurant has failed to understand its own position. Its owner doesn’t even understand the wisdom behind ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ No wonder they act like Western barbarians,” Jiang Hao remarked.

Hearing him call them Western barbarians, Su Qingli burst out laughing.

Jiang Hao, meanwhile, took out a cigarette and prepared to smoke.

There was no sign in the restaurant prohibiting smoking. Moreover, one of the foreign customers was sitting there smoking a cigar, so the establishment should have allowed it.

But just as Jiang Hao placed the cigarette between his lips and was about to light it, the waitress hurried over.

The moment she arrived, she said with open disdain, “Sir, smoking is prohibited in our restaurant!”

Jiang Hao frowned and pointed toward the foreign customer in the distance. “Isn’t he smoking too?”

The waitress replied bluntly, “Sir, he isn’t smoking a cigarette. He’s smoking a cigar.”

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