It was the fourteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, and the Spring Festival was drawing near.
During the Spring Festival travel rush, crowds swarmed everywhere, and the bus terminal was filled with drivers hollering at the top of their lungs.
"Anyone still not on board for Modu to Yun City? We're departing now!"
Bai Li hauled his suitcase onto the bus bound for Yun City.
Seats were already scarce, so Bai Li had no choice but to take the only open stretch of connected seats at the very back.
After hoisting his luggage onto the overhead rack, Bai Li thought about the twenty-plus hours of road ahead and felt like his backside was already splitting in two.
"Damn it. If that idiot boss hadn't insisted on calling an emergency meeting, I never would've missed my flight and ended up suffering like this."
Bai Li had gone to university in Modu and, after graduating, simply stayed on as a Shanghai drifter.
In Modu, over the course of three years, Bai Li had clawed his way up from the bottom of the corporate ladder at a private company to become a manager.
His monthly salary was nearly thirty thousand yuan, and he had three hundred thousand in savings — not a bad track record by Modu's standards.
But only he knew the truth: no apartment, no car, no girlfriend. He was still a rootless drifter, floating without an anchor.
"No point overthinking it. I'll sleep for a bit — I still have to face the endless interrogation from relatives when I get back."
But the moment he closed his eyes, a loud, boisterous commotion erupted from the bus entrance.
"Sister Tingting, hurry up, hurry up — this is the one!"
"What's the rush? You in a hurry to be reincarnated?"
"This bus is so packed!"
Three girls dressed in wildly extravagant outfits squeezed their way on board.
The one leading the group was a red-haired girl with large, colorful tattoo sleeves covering her arms and a tongue piercing glinting in her mouth.
The other two — one with yellow hair, one with purple — were both wearing crop tops and shorts that were entirely out of season, showing off their youthful, vibrant figures.
Wild girls.
Bai Li recognized the type at a glance, and his brow furrowed involuntarily.
He shifted toward the window, with only one thought in his mind: Please, don't sit next to me.
But things rarely go as one hopes.
The three girls made a quick sweep of the bus and immediately spotted the connected row at the back.
"Sister Tingting, Jiaxin, come on! There are three seats together right at the back!" the yellow-haired girl called out, then walked straight toward him.
She plopped herself down in the empty seat right next to Bai Li, and the back row was instantly crammed full.
The bus slowly pulled away.
"Damn that place — it's no place for a human being. I'm never going back!" the red-haired ringleader, Chen Tingting, cursed with a scowl.
"Earned a pittance and blew it all on tattoos. Now my pockets are cleaner than my face — can't even scrape together two yuan."
"Exactly. When I get back, I'm deleting that fat creep of a supervisor on WeChat. Thought he could take advantage of me — dream on!" the purple-haired girl, Li Jiaxin, chimed in.
"Sister Tingting, Sister Jiaxin, what are we going to do when we get home?"
The yellow-haired girl, Lin Xiaoshuang, asked timidly, her voice soft and a little sticky-sweet.
"What are we doing? First, we hit the billiard hall and go all night! Then…"
They chatted without a care in the world, their voices booming, drawing irritated glances from passengers all around.
Bai Li found it especially grating.
If he hadn't missed his flight, creatures like these — from the very bottom rungs of society — would never have crossed paths with him under any normal circumstances.
Because of how cramped the seats were, the yellow-haired girl called Lin Xiaoshuang had her thigh pressed almost flush against his dress trousers.
Bai Li could feel the warmth that radiated from her young body, but it only made him uncomfortable. He shifted again, pressing himself closer to the window.
All he wanted was to get through these twenty-odd hours in peace.
The bus sped along the highway, its body swaying and jolting.
After a while, Lin Xiaoshuang's face began to pale. She covered her mouth, looking genuinely miserable.
"Sister Tingting, I… I'm getting carsick."
"Carsick? Just tough it out — we don't have money for water," Chen Tingting said, helpless herself.
Lin Xiaoshuang endured for a bit longer, but it seemed she truly couldn't take it anymore. She turned and tapped Bai Li on the arm.
"M-mister, could I have some water?"
The word "mister" made the corner of Bai Li's mouth twitch.
He was only twenty-six. The face in the mirror — bedroom eyes paired with a sharp, high-bridged nose — was considered handsome wherever he went. How had he become a "mister"?
He glanced at the bottle of mineral water beside him, barely touched, and hesitated.
"I've already drunk from it," he replied coolly — meaning: go find someone else.
He had a mild aversion to sharing things, and the last thing he wanted was to share a bottle with a wild girl like her.
But Lin Xiaoshuang's eyes lit up, as though she hadn't caught his refusal at all — as though she'd spotted a lifeline instead.
"So what if you have? It's fine, mister!"
Without waiting for Bai Li's consent, she reached over and grabbed the bottle from beside his leg, completely natural about it.
Glug, glug, glug —
Lin Xiaoshuang twisted off the cap and drank several large gulps straight from the bottle, her throat bobbing up and down with each swallow.
When she finished, she let out a breath, a faint flush rising in her cheeks — she seemed to feel considerably better.
She looked at the small amount of water left in the bottle and held it back out to Bai Li.
Bai Li eyed the faint lip print around the bottle's mouth and waved it away with distaste.
"Keep it. I don't want it."
The girl froze mid-reach, her arm suspended in the air for a moment.
She probably hadn't expected him to just give away a bottle of water without a second thought.
She lowered her head and murmured softly:
"…Thank you."
Bai Li paid her no further attention. He put his earphones back in and closed his eyes.
To him, it was nothing more than discarding a bottle of water he no longer wanted. Not worth a second thought.
Yet, the moment Lin Xiaoshuang pulled the bottle back and clutched it tightly in her hands —
A cold, mechanical voice rang out without warning inside Bai Li's mind.
[Host detected performing an investment action for the first time. Target emotional response: Gratitude.]
[Assessing investment value…]
[Goddess Investment System binding… 10%… 50%… 100%!]
[Binding successful!]
Bai Li's body jolted. He snapped his eyes open.
A semi-transparent blue panel, like a special effect straight out of a sci-fi film, hovered silently before his eyes.
On the panel, several lines of clean, minimalist text were clearly visible.
[Host: Bai Li]
[System: Goddess Investment System]
[Functions: Goddess Radar, Investment Returns]
What… was going on?