Pruning the bougainvillea wasn’t urgent.
Chen Jingle felt he had already mastered the superb techniques of pruning bougainvillea. He could entirely wait until his break to find time to do it.
He had thought he would need to clean up first before studying like yesterday, but the system arranged another task instead.
[It’s image management time. Excellent babies carefully manage their outward appearances to avoid leaving a bad impression on other children, teachers, and elders. Because little Chen Jingle’s image is too casual, you need to properly manage your appearance again. This includes combing your hair, washing your face, trimming your eyebrows, shaving, and brushing your teeth. You can definitely do it, baby!]
"My image... is fine, isn’t it?" Chen Jingle looked down at his T-shirt, shorts, and slippers, then checked the mirror. At most, his hair and stubble were a bit messy. Plus, because he had eaten a couple of extra cookies yesterday, he hadn’t fully cleaned the sleep crust from the corners of his eyes this morning. Was that really so unpresentable?
[Establishing a correct concept of image management is also very important during a genius baby’s growth process.]
Chen Jingle rubbed his stubble. "...I just think you’re exaggerating a bit. With such a big fuss, are you expecting me to go out on a blind date?"
[No, it’s just pure, daily image management.]
"Alright, alright, you’re the boss. You call the shots!" Chen Jingle raised his hands in surrender.
The only thing to be glad about was that he didn’t need to put on makeup. Shaving was actually fine, but trimming eyebrows... He inhaled sharply, having forgotten when he last trimmed his eyebrows. He rummaged through a box in the corner and fished out the eyebrow razor he had bought during his hormone-fueled university days. It was a miracle he hadn’t thrown it away. He brought over a mirror, pulled up a chair, and got to work!
Chen Jingle’s eyebrows were thick, blade-like brows. Compared to heroic sword-shaped eyebrows, his arches were more prominent and looked more masculine. Fortunately, they weren’t hard to groom. He only needed to shave off some of the messy stray hairs to make his brows look more pleasing to the eye and make his eyes appear more vibrant.
He might not be a pro, but it wasn’t rocket science. As long as he was careful enough and made slow adjustments, he could naturally shape a good-looking and suitable brow without needing to go to a professional salon. He just had to avoid being reckless. After all, these were his eyebrows. Messing them up into a disaster was one thing, but he was more afraid of injuring his eyes.
Trimming his eyebrows took Chen Jingle almost fifteen minutes. Facts proved that there was some truth to the saying that slow work yields fine results.
The ensuing shave was simple, except the razor blade was a bit dull. It tugged at his stubble, making him grimace in pain.
"I’m replacing this! I have to replace it! Damn it, this is just pure torture!"
There was absolutely no need to save this tiny bit of money. Next came the full package of showering, washing his hair, and brushing his teeth.
When Chen Jingle came out of the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror, he was instantly stunned.
"Uh, is this me?!"
Damn, what a huge difference! He finally understood why Liang City had found it strange. Who was this handsome bastard? If the old Chen Jingle, who stayed up late every day and didn’t care about his appearance, was a five-out-of-ten average joe, then now he was at least a seven-out-of-ten hottie. And this was a seven without makeup—many popular idols didn’t even reach this level. If he had a top-tier stylist cut a flattering hairstyle as the icing on the cake, pushing for an eight wasn’t impossible. For a man, a hairstyle was sometimes even more important than his face.
"Man, it turns out I’m actually this handsome!" Chen Jingle stroked his chin, unable to help feeling a little smug for a moment. He had finally broken out of the goblin category.
In truth, his fundamental facial features hadn’t changed much, but after the system’s transformation, his skin was much better. If he were to slowly nourish it himself, it would take a lot of time and money. However, if one was willing and ready to spend money on themselves, they could achieve this level too. It just required a certain amount of time.
As for the other minor changes, he could do them himself. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how; he was just lazy! Think about it: if someone spent most of their time at home and only went out occasionally to buy groceries or pick up packages, wearing a helmet and mask with barely any social interaction, would they really spend time and effort fussing over their image? Who would care about a stranger’s getup anyway?
He wasn’t sure about other provinces, but in the Guangdong and Guangxi Regions, people really dressed casually when going out. Unless they had an appointment or were visiting someone’s home, they just wore whatever was comfortable. People wearing slippers could be seen everywhere on the streets. If you dressed too formally for no reason, others would think you had some important meeting to attend.
Chen Jingle was quite satisfied with his new image. He spent the remaining time doing a quick fix on his hair, simply blow-drying it until it was fluffy. Looking in the mirror again, if he didn’t tell the truth, who would be able to tell this was a thirty-year-old man? He looked just like a freshly graduated university student. Compared to last year, the change was truly massive. Back then, he reeked of the corporate grind and looked completely lifeless. But after resting for so long, he had long since recovered.
"This should be good enough, right?" Chen Jingle asked.
[Setting aside your outfit, you generally pass.]
"What’s wrong with my outfit? Watch out, or I’ll sue you for discriminating against the slipper gang!"
Chen Jingle selectively ignored this minor issue. At home, one naturally wore whatever was most comfortable.
[Great job, baby! You have successfully completed the image management task. Reward: Elimination of one acne scar on your face.]
Right on time, hearing the familiar system prompt, Chen Jingle instantly smiled in gratification. It wasn’t that the reward was all that generous; he just purely enjoyed the feeling of getting feedback for his actions. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
After a simple ten-minute break, today’s lessons officially began. First up was the theoretical knowledge study. Chen Jingle chose to continue studying calligraphy today.
"I practiced regular script yesterday, so I’ll try running script and running-regular script today."
Thank the system! With the system’s powerful support, his handwriting was already looking quite decent. While it couldn’t compare to a great calligrapher’s, it was more than enough to fool the average person. Of course, if he wanted to improve further, he would have to practice diligently. The system could only help speed up the process. The final results still depended on the individual.
Chen Jingle felt that calligraphy was still worth practicing. Putting aside the various messy social circles surrounding calligraphy, it was a form of artistic expression of text. He might not feel much about it normally, but at crucial moments, having beautiful handwriting could have a staggering effect. He had never been to a high-end calligraphy exhibition, but with the internet so developed these days, a quick search was all it took to see what the world’s best regular script and running script looked like. Those were artistic treasures of humanity!
Chen Jingle didn’t dare expect to reach that level. But he should at least master the basics; otherwise, wouldn’t he be wasting such a good opportunity?
He just observed, learned, and wrote simultaneously. He was using an ordinary gel pen, but the characters he wrote were so elegant and stylish! Did people really think bad handwriting was the pen’s fault? Chen Jingle had seen people use bald brushes, cotton swabs, stones, beauty blenders, and even corn on the cob, yet their writing still turned out gorgeous.
Therefore... it definitely had to be the paper’s fault! It couldn’t possibly be the person’s fault, right?
"Later on, I could set up a stall at a school gate to custom-write all sorts of blessings, couplets, and even ghostwrite love letters and stuff.
"Oh, I could also sell calligraphy during the day and sell fried noodles at night."
The more Chen Jingle thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. Ah, it felt like his entire life was sorted out!
For the practical class that followed, Chen Jingle once again chose cooking. However, he didn’t continue making meals today. Instead, he chose to try making steamed buns. Sauce-braised meat buns!
Strangely enough, neither Chen Jingle’s mother nor his aunt knew how to make wheat-based foods. Whenever they made steamed buns or dumplings, the dough would always come out dead and flat! Even if they used the exact same ingredients and followed a video step-by-step, the result was always the same. They simply couldn’t learn it. This was no longer just an issue of talent.
"I refuse to believe making steamed buns is really that hard!" Chen Jingle swore that he would absolutely learn how to make the most delicious steamed buns!