Chapter 29 Uneptable Embarrassmen
Horace wanted to take a taxi back to the hospital after he left the Lake Hotel. But when he passed by
the cake shop next to the hotel, a thought suddenly urred to him. ''I only bought a dish for my
mother. There''s no rice. She doesn''t like to eat greasy foods without starchy foods. Since there''s no
other dish, I should buy some dessert for her. I don''t think she has ever had one.''
This was a great idea, so Horace walked into the cake shop. He was greeted with the sight of a familiar
figure. He then called out, "La?"
The familiar figure was La, his one true friend. She turned around in confusion and looked at him. A
smile appeared on her beautiful face immediately. "Why are you here, Horace?" she asked in surprise.
"Well, I came to buy dessert for my mother. She has never eaten one before." Horace was very open
about his intentions. La was his good friend, so he had nothing to hide from her. Afterward, he asked,
"What about you? What are you doing here?"
''Phew! I thought he had changed. It seems he''s still a filial son!'' La thought to herself after hearing
his exnation.
Waving her thoughts aside, she replied, "Horace, my birthday is in a few days. I want to order a cake
from here!"
"Eh?" Horace was stunned by her response. There were different prices stuck on each cake section in
the disy counter. The cheapest cake he saw was five hundred and ny-nine dors. He knew that
La was from a poor family and she was very frugal with money. It was surprising that she wanted to
spend such an amount on a single cake. For a moment, he wondered, ''Is La a trust-fund baby? Has
she been pretending to be poor all this while?''
Noticing Horace''s confusion, La quickly exined, "Horace, it''s not what you think. My roommates
want to celebrate it with me. They told me that the cake here is their favorite, so I came to check if I can
afford one."
''Silly girl, why are you so innocent and cute? Can''t you see that your roommates are trying to take
advantage of you? They are just using your birthday as an excuse to eat something expensive.'' Horace
took a look at her and sighed inwardly. They were close friends from simr backgrounds, so he knew
her well. She was so naive. Thus, people found it easy to deceive her. Horace was not that naive. Even
though he didn''t know her roommates, he knew that they had just offered to celebrate her birthday with
her and directed her here because they wanted to satisfy their cravings at her expense. Like the naive
girl that La was, she really came here to check the cakes out.
"La, didn''t you lend me some money yesterday? Do you still have money to buy a cake?" Just like
La knew him well before he had a new identity, he also knew her well. He knew that she was
struggling to make ends meet.
A sad glint flickered in La''s eyes. She answered truthfully, "Horace, I don''t have much. Remember
that you returned the one hundred dors I donated. So, I came here to check if any of the cakes here
costs that amount."
There were no other customers in the cake shop at this time. They had been speaking in low voices,
but the silence made it possible for the shop attendants to hear their conversation clearly.
The moment La finished speaking, one of the shop attendants burst into a mockingughter. She
remarked, "Did you just say one hundred dors? You want to use that amount to buy a cake from the
Vloni Bakery? Are you kidding me? Ha-ha! This is the funniest joke I''ve heard this year. You should
consider a career inedy. Well, for your information, we don''t have any cake worth one hundred
dors. Please leave!"
"What?" The tall shop attendant''s harshness took La aback. As a calm person, she nodded and said,
"Okay, I''ll leave now."
Just as she was about to leave, Horace grabbed her hand and pulled her back. He then said to the
mean attendant disapprovingly, "Is this how you treat your customers here? Weren''t you trained before
you began to work here? What''s the point of ridiculing her? You could have made your point without
being so rude. Besides, who says she can''t afford it?"
Horace red at the rude attendant before turning to look at the other one, who looked lovely and
friendly. He ordered calmly, "Please, take out the most expensive cakes here. I want to choose one of
them."
"Horace, don''t waste your money like that. The cakes here are too expensive. I can just go to another
shop and pick one that fits my budget." La was moved by his kind gesture, but she didn''t want him to
waste his money. She tugged at his shirt with her free hand and tried to dissuade him softly.
"No, La. We are not going anywhere else. We will buy the cake from here. And I will celebrate your
birthday with you." La was dear to his heart, so he couldn''t watch her get humiliated and walk out of
here with no cake. He felt pity for her when he saw that she was timid and ashamed.
"Well... Ermm... Horace, please listen to me. I should be the one giving you more money. You need it
more than I do. In fact, I don''t need to celebrate my birthday. I will exin things to my roommates. I
believe they would see reasons with me." Somehow, his adamancy was making La so nervous that
she couldn''t speak fluently.
"Ha-ha!" The tall attendant was unrepentant. She suddenlyughed when she saw that La was trying
to dissuade Horace. She said condescendingly, "The two of you are poor! Even if you give me all the
money you have... You won''t be able to afford the cheapest cake in this shop. Our cakes are not for
church mice like you. You can''t afford it, so you are not our customers!"
"Did you just call us church mice? Humph! Even if we are poor, we are still human beings like you.
Simple courtesy demands that you treat anyone thates into your shop politely. Being poor is not a
good reason for you to be so rude and mean!" After saying that, Horace turned to look at the lovely
attendant and asked, "Hey, why aren''t you showing us the most expensive cakes in the shop? Do you
also think we are too poor to afford any of them?"
"Davina, don''t be afraid. They are just two poor losers. It''s so obvious that they can''t afford any cake
here!" the tall attendant said to her lovely colleague. She then continued, "Poor people always have
silly tricks up their sleeves. The two of them might be trying to pull a fast one on us. But their n will
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not work!"
After the lovely attendant, Davina Foster, heard her colleague''s words, she nodded in agreement and
didn''t attend to Horace and La.
"Are you really not going to attend to us?" Horace shook his head in disappointment as he took out a
bundle of dor bills from his bulgy pocket. He threw it on the counter of the cake shop, and said to the
tall attendant, "Here is ten thousand dors in cash. Now open your damn eyes wide and see if I can
afford the most expensive cake in your shop or not."
The Vloni Bakery was known for its good and expensive cakes, but it was not one of the elite cake
shops. The prices of cakes here were substantially lower than the big cake shops. The most expensive
cake here cost only eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight dors. Horace had dropped ten
thousand dors on the counter, so it was more than enough.
The tall attendant raised her eyebrows in shock when she saw the bundle of money. She stared at the
money and eximed, "How is this possible?"
''Howe an impoverished loser has ten thousand dors?'' In confusion, she looked at Horace''s
clothes.
Seeing that they didn''t move an inch, Horace took out another bundle of money from his pocket and
threw it on the counter. He said, "If the first bundle of money is not enough, here is another bundle!"
''What? Who is this guy? Why does he have so much money despite being so poorly dressed?'' The tall
attendant stared at the bundles of money on the counter inplete puzzlement.