A good night’s sleep.
Chu Wanchen woke up early as usual, “088, I want to sign in.”
“Sign-in successful. Reward: Two vials of Skin-Refining Essence.”
Without needing any further explanation from the system today, Chu Wanchen knew that 088 had gifted her yet another powerful tool for beauty.
The Skin-Refining Essence was a liquid just like yesterday’s Whitening Essence, except its color was yellow.
088 was also particularly thoughtful today, providing Chu Wanchen with an instruction manual for the Skin-Refining Essence.
The manual stated that the Skin-Refining Essence could help firm and refine the skin, repair scars, and eliminate pigmentation. Moreover, just like the Whitening Essence, it had absolutely no side effects, and its results were permanent.
Chu Wanchen’s skin condition wasn’t great; she used to get acne, and even though the pimples had cleared up by now, they had still left behind some hyperpigmentation. Perhaps due to genetics, Chu Wanchen’s skin took after Chu Jianping’s—she had large pores, and her body hair was much thicker than that of other girls. This had always made Chu Wanchen feel self-conscious, and she never dared to wear dresses when going out in the summer.
Now that she had the Skin-Refining Essence, all of these skin problems could be resolved, and she would be able to wear the clothes she liked in the future without any misgivings.
Chu Wanchen hurriedly drank the Skin-Refining Essence. Just like the Whitening Essence, it would take seven days to completely transform her skin quality.
When Chu Wanchen looked in the mirror today, she noticed that her skin was already a bit fairer than yesterday. She knew that the Whitening Essence was beginning to take effect.
Going downstairs, she gave the other vial of Skin-Refining Essence to Shao Wenxin. Shao Wenxin likewise drank it without hesitation.
Because guests were arriving to visit today, the two quickly finished their breakfast.
At exactly 10:00 AM, the designer from Chaumet arrived.
The designer’s name was Julian, a French gentleman in his forties, and he was accompanied by an interpreter from Chaumet.
Upon seeing the sheer luxury of the entire Tang Palace, Julian was secretly astonished. He had served many wealthy wives; after all, Chaumet’s jewelry was high-priced, and the family backgrounds of those who could afford custom jewelry were invariably rich or noble.
However, owning an estate with such a massive footprint in a place like Shanghai, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold—especially with the estate located right in the downtown area—was a level of financial power that ranked among the absolute best even among the clients he had served.
Julian hurriedly pulled together his utmost focus. This was a major client; if he could satisfy this madam, she would wear his custom-designed jewelry to attend events in the future. This was a golden opportunity that could make his reputation spread far and wide.
Shao Wenxin had looked at several custom jewelry pieces previously produced by Chaumet. These collections were all inspired by flora, combining the vitality of plants with the brilliance of gemstones, and the final designs suited her tastes perfectly.
For this jewelry piece, Shao Wenxin also wanted to combine the jewelry with her favorite flower, the tulip.
Hearing Shao Wenxin’s request, Julian very quickly presented several concepts. After a morning of discussion, the final design sketch was determined:
Vibrant colored lines sketched a budding tulip, drawing inspiration from archival drawings that added color to flowers. Several curling gold lines twisted and intertwined over one another, with one side closely pavé-set with diamonds and the other side closely pavé-set with rubies or mandarin garnets, dynamically portraying the lifelike posture of a tulip. At the center, a fiercely red pear-cut ruby radiated warmth, secured by a claw setting. This not only echoed the pear shape beloved by Chaumet’s muse, Empress Joséphine, but also simulated a dewdrop on a flower petal, vividly capturing the true spirit of the tulip.
The moment Shao Wenxin saw the design sketch, she fell deeply in love with this jewelry set.
Julian informed Shao Wenxin that because the cutting and setting of the gemstones took time, the finished product would not be delivered to her hands until three months later. Shao Wenxin expressed her understanding and paid the deposit on the spot.
With the concept confirmed, Julian politely declined the mother and daughter’s lunch invitation and left the estate directly with the interpreter. He still had to rush back to the French headquarters to select the gemstones. This jewelry set would require a large number of rubies; even their company’s reserves didn’t have many left. If the company didn’t have the rubies he needed, he would even have to go to other places to bid for them.
After seeing Julian off, the mother and daughter had lunch.
The planned itinerary for today had come to an end, so Shao Wenxin intended to go to the beauty salon in the afternoon for some skin maintenance.
Chu Wanchen, on the other hand, planned to rest well at home. She was inherently a homebody, and it was already very rare for her to summon the energy to accompany Shao Wenxin to so many places over the past few days.
Shao Wenxin knew her daughter’s personality well, so she didn’t force her. She merely nagged her not to coop herself up in her room all afternoon, suggesting she could stroll around the conservatory, play less on her phone, and that it would be even better if she could read a book.
Listening to Shao Wenxin’s nagging, Chu Wanchen felt entirely drained.
Having finally sent her mom off, Chu Wanchen went back to her room to take a nap first.
When she woke up, she saw a message sent by her mom on her phone, saying she would be back late and that Chu Wanchen didn’t need to wait up to eat dinner together.
Well, it looked like her mom had found another fun place to go. Chu Wanchen knew her own mother; she loved indulgence more than anything. Her maternal grandparents only had her mother as an only daughter, so they naturally pampered and spoiled her a bit more, which in turn cultivated Shao Wenxin’s delicate personality.
Chu Wanchen didn’t want to go out today, but if she let her mom know she hadn’t left her room all afternoon, a long bout of nagging would be unavoidable. For the sake of her own ears, Chu Wanchen decided to spend the afternoon in the conservatory behind the house.
Holding her phone, Chu Wanchen entered the conservatory.
The conservatory in the estate was very large, planted with roses, China roses, orchids, begonias… every kind of flower imaginable, whether she could name them or not. The conservatory was equipped with a climate-control system, allowing flowers from different seasons to bloom simultaneously. At the same time, it was staffed with dedicated caretakers, and the fresh flowers in the estate’s residence were supplied from here every day.
The conservatory had two floors, with a lounge set up on the second floor, where one could overlook the fresh flowers on the first floor.
Chu Wanchen lay on a lounge chair in the resting room, opening her phone to play games while eating the refreshments carefully prepared by the butler. It had to be said that the butler really understood the preferences of today’s youth, preparing milk tea and various desserts that young girls of this age liked for Chu Wanchen.
Chu Wanchen comfortably opened Honor of Kings, planning to take advantage of the summer vacation when there was no minor anti-addiction mechanism to rank up. She was currently at the Gold rank, just three stars away from Platinum. No matter what, she had to reach Platinum today.
As soon as she opened the game, a pile of friend requests lay in her list. These people had all come to add her after seeing her VIP10 nobility rank. At a glance, she was a young, wealthy girl; if they added her as a friend and she happened to be in a good mood, she might just gift them a skin. Even if she didn’t gift them a skin, a VIP10 could share skins anyway, and who wouldn’t want to wear a cool skin to dominate the battlefield in-game?
Chu Wanchen didn’t pay attention to any of these friend requests. After setting her account to block strangers from adding her as a friend, she started matchmaking for ranked.
The moment she clicked into ranked, the other players instantly picked four mages, and no one was willing to change their hero. Left with no choice, Chu Wanchen could only pick Arthur to jungle; at least he had some tankiness, making it less likely to get instantly killed in the late game.
The game started, and the four mages collectively rushed toward the middle lane, with no one yielding to anyone else.
Throughout the entire match, only Chu Wanchen was playing seriously, while her four teammates collectively stayed idle at the spawning pool, typing insults.
The result was predictable. Before six minutes had passed, the opposing team pushed directly to the high ground. After pushing to the high ground, the opponents weren’t in a hurry to finish either, and instead joined in on the flame war.
In the end, the four terrible teammates and the five opponents were all muted by the system, bringing this “long and drawn-out” flame war to a halt. As expected, Chu Wanchen lost this match.
It was unclear whether mercury was in retrograde today, but Chu Wanchen played five consecutive games, and every single time she ran into bizarre teammates. It was either a couple playing together who showed off their affection and collectively died in the bottom lane, or a Da Qiao who opened her ultimate right inside the enemy’s spawning pool, leading her teammates into a total party wipe.
All afternoon, Chu Wanchen lost repeatedly but kept fighting, fighting repeatedly but keeping losing. She could be described as having an immense spirit of resistance.
By the time the butler asked Chu Wanchen if she wanted to go down for dinner, she had already achieved the accomplishment of a twenty-three-game losing streak, smoothly ranking down in reverse from Gold to Silver.
Looking at Arthur’s avatar on her phone, Chu Wanchen felt deep malice radiating from Honor of Kings. Enraged on the spot, she uninstalled the game and swore that if she played Honor of Kings again during this vacation, she would be a dog.
Shao Wenxin didn’t return home until past 8:00 PM. After coming back, she drank a bowl of bird’s nest soup prepared by Auntie Chen.
She had met a few wealthy wives at the beauty salon today who were getting treatments together, and they had made plans to have dinner outside together.
After returning, Shao Wenxin first asked what Chu Wanchen had done at home in the afternoon. Hearing that her daughter hadn’t cooped herself up in her room the whole time, she stopped prying; a young girl of this age also needed to have a bit of privacy, and parents couldn’t interfere in everything.
Then she told Chu Wanchen, “Your dad managed to get time off tomorrow. I plan to go buy a house near his company for him tomorrow, and also buy him a car. We mother and daughter have been comfortable for so long; it’s time to let your dad enjoy himself too.”
Chu Wanchen naturally had no objection to this. The one hundred billion yuan rewarded by the system hadn’t actually been used much; the house they lived in and the cars were given separately as rewards by the system, and that one hundred billion had only had a bit spent during their shopping trips over the past few days.
“I naturally have no objection. But Mom, how are we going to explain to Dad that we suddenly have so much money?”
“It’s fine, I’ve already thought it through. Your dad is very easy to fool; as long as I make up a decent reason, he will believe it.”
Hearing her mother say this, Chu Wanchen also set her mind at ease.