A Vengeful Ex-Wife
Chapter 197 Run Into Judy

"Alright. Bye, James." Ethan knew what kind of man James was like, so he hung up the phone without waiting for a response. Then, he obediently drove to the hotel to pick up Maria, and together they went to the rice noodles restaurant she talked about.

The restaurant was quite small, but business was booming. When the two arrived, the restaurant was teeming with students from the nearby middle school, elbowing each other in the queue. Ethan asked Maria to save them two seats while he went and lined up to order. After a couple of minutes, he came over with two bowls of steaming rice noodles, some snacks, and ice cold drinks. Starving, the two dug into their bowls hungrily. Maria, who was used to takeout food, was unbothered by such a simple lunch.

Ethan often went out for dinner with his classmates to small, hole-in-the-wall restaurants such as this one, so he was also very at home here.

The two slurped their bowls in satisfied silence.

However, a couple of minutes into their meal, Maria set her chopsticks down abruptly and took out a napkin to dab at her lips expressionlessly.

Eyeing her bowl of rice noodles, Ethan felt puzzled. "Why did you stop eating? There's still a lot left."

Maria shook her head calmly. "No reason, just keep eating your food. Don't mind me." 'Okay then." Concluding this woman had the appetite of a mouse, Ethan shrugged it off and continued slurping up his noodles.

When he was full, he let out a satisfied burp and was about to gather his things to leave. Just then, Maria's arm shot out and she yanked his arm, urging him to look at her bowl.

Picking up her chopsticks, she poked a stray noodle out of the way and a small, black thing floated to the surface of her soup. Ethan's eyes nearly popped out of his head and his stomach churned violently. The small, black thing turned out to be a disgustingly huge cockroach. The rice noodles they had were from the same pot.

He was torn between retching on the spot and fainting. Fortunately, he did neither. Instead, he managed to run outside to the nearest trashcan as fast as he could and unleashed his lunch there.

Maria had followed after him concernedly, but just as she got close, Ethan said through gritted teeth, "That's it. It's over. We need to break up!" Why hadn't she told him earlier? Instead, she let him finish his entire bowl of noodles before she said anything.

Maria was also disgusted, albeit reacting less dramatically. She decided she would never return to this restaurant, but she was in no mood to call out the owner over this mishap.

So instead, she helplessly threw her hands up in the air. "I didn't want you to lose your appetite, you looked like you were enjoying the food."

Ethan wanted to strangle her.

In a fit of rage, he began to stomp back towards the restaurant. "I'm going to ask the owner to compensate us threefold!"

"Forget it, it's just a little money." It wasn't that big a restaurant. A bowl of noodles cost only a little over ten dollars. Combined with the snacks and drinks, it only amounted to a little less than fifty dollars. Fifty times three only meant a hundred and fifty dollars.

"No, I can't accept this. Plus, the trauma they've caused me should amount to at least a hundred thousand dollars."

Maria grabbed his arm. "Please, don't waste your time. Let's go. We'll never come here again!"

Ethan snorted and mentally shook his fist at the restaurant. "You should take a photo and post it on the Internet," he said, reluctantly acquiescing.

The business must've been too busy that they decided to pursue quantity over quality.

"Okay, go back and have another bowl. I'll take a picture." Maria rolled her eyes.

"Eww! Even if you offered me ten million dollars, there's no way I'd go back there ever again!" Ethan scoffed.

Maria nodded in agreement. Neither would she.

The two of them had relatively free schedules that afternoon, so they decided to wander around for a bit before buying the blind boxes. They didn't want to go shopping with the blind boxes in tow, so they decided to buy them right before leaving instead.

When they passed by a high-end electric appliance store, Ethan mentioned that the vacuum cleaner in his apartment was broken, so he insisted on taking Maria in to have a look. Maria meekly followed him into the shop and waited idly as he browsed among the vacuum cleaners.

The saleswoman saw that she seemed aimless, so she quickly approached her. "Excuse me, miss. You should check out our new fruit dehydrator. Your fruit leftovers can be dried and then stored for a longer time."

A fruit dehydrator? Maria entertained the idea. Yes, it was true, she did oftentimes buy fruit and failed to finish it all, leaving a lot of fruit waste. Maybe this appliance would be useful to her after all. Just then, Ethan popped up beside her. "What are you looking at?"

"Sir, I'm showing this fruit dehydrator to your friend. It has just been imported from the United States. Please have a look!"

Ethan nodded and studied the shiny appliance. "It looks futuristic and stylish. Just buy it!"

Maria glanced at the price tag and nearly fainted. Fiftyeight thousand dollars!

Just to dehydrate fruits, was it really worth that much money?

Maria tore her gaze away from the shiny appliance. "Ethan, didn't you say you were looking for a vacuum cleaner?"

"I was, but they don't have the style I like."

"All right then, let's go!"

"Just wait a minute, I want to see this fruit dehydrator..."

Maria interrupted him. "I can eat all the fruit. All of it."

She had her answer. Sixty grand was not worth it.

With that, she dragged a confused Ethan to the exit. Each time he tried to protest, Maria would shoot him a murderous glare, shutting him up.

When they finally made it out of the appliance store, Maria finally explained, "That thing costs sixty thousand dollars. I might as well buy a bottle of high-end skin care essence instead."

Ethan was speechless. So, skincare products were worth that much money? He shook his head. He gave up trying to understand women.

Just then, two people were walking over in their direction.

When he saw who was approaching, Ethan muttered, "What a small world!"

Maria also saw them, but she made no move to greet them first. Hence, with a heavy sigh, Ethan stepped forward to make the first move. "Hi, Aunt Judy, Ms. Tang."

"Hi, Mr. Nan, what a coincidence!" Judy greeted them amicably, albeit secretly wondering why the two were together.

It was not the first time that she sighed that Maria had changed a lot. Maria seemingly had changed to a totally different person.

She was sporting a burgundy silk shirt, the hemline of which was tucked neatly into a pair of high-waist black jeans, accentuating her slender waist. Her long curly hair hung on her shoulders, and her delicate lips were covered with raspberry-colored lipstick.

The other woman, Alina, just smiled and nodded in greeting.

Seeing Judy's visible confusion, Ethan decided to explain. "Well, I'm buying some stuff with Maria, under James' orders." With a bright smile plastered on his face, he seemed not to know who he was talking to Judy's and Alina's expressions changed slightly, but since they were in public, Alina didn't want to openly offend Ethan.

Glancing at Maria who ignored them, Judy smiled sarcastically. "Did James ask you to take her out?" "Yes, he had a meeting this afternoon, so he wasn't available to accompany her himself. But Maria was so insistent on shopping today. You know how it is, Aunt Judy, I'm the idlest one after all."

Judy feigned a smile and nodded. 'What did he mean by that?' She knew nothing.

She barely knew Ethan, they were practically strangers. "Well, go ahead and do your shopping. I'm taking Alina to the wedding company. After all, her wedding with James can't be postponed any longer. Mr. Nan, when their wedding date is set, I'll ask James to inform you."

Ethan's heart skipped a beat. He looked at Maria from the corner of his eye.

When Maria saw his concerned look, she put on a sad expression. "Didn't James mention that he was forced into this engagement? He said he was going to call off the wedding. Ethan, was he lying to me?" Ethan, immediately seeing through her farce, almost burst into laughter. He couldn't help but secretly praise Maria's acting skills.

He decided to play along. "I don't think so. How about we finish shopping quickly and go back? Then you can ask him face-to-face." "Yes, that sounds like a good idea."