The phone on the table buzzed, but no one picked it up.
Sounds came from the bathroom, where billowing steam curled around a man’s shoulders. His ink-black short hair dripped with water, droplets sliding down his sharp, clean jawline and soaking into his sleeveless black T-shirt.
Lu Yanshuo casually grabbed a towel with one hand and pressed it to his head, fingers raking through his hair and rubbing.
Fresh from the shower, the once-loose T-shirt clung tightly to his body, revealing the full lines of his broad, firm back—broad shoulders, narrow waist, evenly toned muscle that wasn’t overly severe, his waistline tapering crisply.
The steam made his skin look cool and pale. The faint contours of his chest rose and fell slightly with his breath, a few damp strands of hair hanging over his forehead, a light, clean scent of body wash drifting around him.
He dried his hair slowly and unhurriedly, his fingertips idly brushing the ends, while his other hand picked up the phone from the table. At the sight of a message on the screen, his hand froze mid-motion.
【One More Bite: Goodnight, kitten.jpg】
He and Shi Yin had added each other as friends long ago, but that was all it had ever been.
At the very least, the other party had never once messaged him first.
Lu Yanshuo thought for a moment, then typed two words: “Goodnight.”
When Shi Yin received Lu Yanshuo’s reply, she was at her desk organizing her diaries.
She had kept a diary as a child, but as she grew older, she’d stopped writing entirely.
As for why she’d started keeping a diary in the first place, it came down, in the end, to Lu Yanshuo.
To be precise, she’d begun writing one only after meeting him.
Most of the entries were about him.
Take this one, written when she was twelve:
“Today Xiao Shuo-ge gave me a plush teddy bear, I love it so much… His backpack is full of love letters, Xiao Shuo-ge is so popular…”
The handwriting was childish and messy—embarrassing enough that even Shi Yin now cringed reading it.
She should have thrown all this stuff out long ago, but as things turned out, with her needing to earn his Affection Points, she had kept it.
Seeing that he hadn’t replied, Shi Yin paid him no more mind. She took out a fresh notebook, mulled over her wording, and began writing a new diary entry.
Half an hour later, after finishing this record of “a young girl’s secret thoughts,” she placed the notebook back on the bookshelf.
All of this was preparation for the future.
Once she was done, Shi Yin lay back on her bed and put the day’s newly earned Love Coins into the Goddess System, having Xiao Hua do her Face Sculpting.
It was only the first day, and the day she had to “repay the loan” was still far off, so naturally Shi Yin prioritized improving herself.
Cool air drifted from the air conditioner. Shi Yin ran her hands over her smooth, supple skin and couldn’t help kneading it for a long while—she was utterly charmed by it.
She didn’t even hug her usually most-beloved rabbit plush; instead, she hugged herself and fell asleep.
She dreamed again—but not about the future plotline.
In the dream, by summer’s end she had fleeced Lu Yanshuo for all he was worth and successfully become a little beauty.
Just as she was about to approach the future male lead, someone suddenly clamped a hand over her mouth and pinned her down hard. All she could do was watch the male lead walk further and further away.
Then she turned and met a pair of familiar eyes, deep and dark as ink.
Shi Yin woke with a start.
She hadn’t drawn the curtains the night before, and sunlight was already spilling through the window onto her legs.
She didn’t dwell on the dream. Instead, she first went to the mirror to check on the improvements her Love Coins had brought yesterday.
“Xiao Hua, why do I feel like nothing’s changed?”
The girl in the mirror had fair skin, but her features were still plain.
[Yin Yin, facial transformation has to be gradual. You didn’t select any specific category of transformation yesterday, so the System defaulted to a subtle, gradual approach.]
Xiao Hua’s answer cleared up Shi Yin’s confusion.
Indeed, 50 coins was simply too little—nowhere near enough to upgrade her skin from warm-toned shade one to cool-toned shade two, nor enough to support optimizing any single feature on its own.
So Shi Yin had left everything to the System for overall optimization.
She looked at her panel again.
[Name]: Shi Yin
[Height]: 165 cm
[Weight]: 56 kg
[Looks]: 53/100 (45+8)
[Figure]: 30/100 (expandable)
[Talents]: 50/100 (expandable)
Her looks score had gone up by a point—at the very least, yesterday’s effort hadn’t been wasted.
With that thought, her mood improved considerably.
The moment she pushed open her door, she saw her mother walking in from outside, wearing an odd expression.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
Mother Shi had the day off, so it wasn’t strange for her to be home.
“I, I…” She hemmed and hawed for a long while before finally sighing. “I kept thinking that bag was just too expensive, so today I was going to return the money to your Auntie Lu, but no matter what I said, she wouldn’t take it.”
Mother Shi had tossed and turned all last night, unable to get past the hurdle in her heart.
Early this morning, she’d gone and knocked on the Lu family’s door.
The two of them had gone back and forth for ages, only for a junior like Lu Yanshuo to settle the matter—she felt a bit embarrassed about losing face.
Shi Yin knew her mom was just like this—too much of a pushover. She had no idea who she’d inherited that temperament from.
“Oh right, I just asked your Auntie Lu. It was Xiao Shuo who handled the driving school matter. You should have his contact info—have him take you over to have a look.”
Shi Yin gave a sound of acknowledgment and discovered Lu Yanshuo had already messaged her.
[Lu Yanshuo: I’ll come find you this afternoon.]
[Lu Yanshuo: Do you know how to ride a scooter?]
Sent half an hour ago.
It was already 10:30 now.
[One More Bite: I can, but the family scooter got sold.]
Shi Yin’s little e-bike had honorably retired after three years of trekking through high school—Mother Shi had sold it the very day after Shi Yin finished the college entrance exams.
After typing her reply, Shi Yin kept staring at the screen, watching the chat interface show “the other person is typing…”
But no matter how long she waited, nothing came through.
The instant she’d just set her phone down, a notification chimed.
[Lu Yanshuo: Okay, I’ll take you then.]
Shi Yin figured Lu Yanshuo’s expression right now must be a little strange.
At the police station.
Lu Yanshuo had just finished giving his statement.
The police worked fast. With so many surveillance cameras in the mall yesterday, that groper was never going to get away.
After checking, it turned out he was a repeat offender, so administrative detention was of course unavoidable.
After leaving the police station, Lu Yanshuo was about to ride home when he spotted a cake shop.
He remembered—Shi Yin had posted about that cake shop on her Moments feed at some point.
Shi Yin, of course, had no idea what Lu Yanshuo had been up to today.
She was scrolling through her phone, debating whether to raise her Talents stat on the panel.
The only reason her Talents were at 50 was that she’d learned dance for a while back in middle school.
Though she was rusty at it now, of course.
The Goddess System could be upgraded, but that didn’t mean she could neglect her own efforts.
Besides milking Lu Yanshuo for all he was worth, Shi Yin decided to sign up for a few small classes.
For instance, losing weight was something she could do on her own.
Right now she could only be described as not fat—being actually slim was a whole different story.