“Ring, ring, ring…”
He Mu rubbed her bleary eyes. Though her body no longer felt exhausted, she was still somewhat drowsy.
She had returned home yesterday afternoon. He Fendou and He Xiaosa hadn’t come back yet, and there was no sign of Chen Jing either. However, the security camera at the front door had moved several times—someone had adjusted it while checking the footage.
The three of them returned together in the evening, each as jumpy as a startled bird. He Fendou and Chen Jing even urged He Xiaosa to go touch Zhao Meimei.
She was breathing. She had a heartbeat. She had body warmth. And she also had Zhao Meimei’s feather duster.
After the initial shock, they accepted the fact that Zhao Meimei was still alive. Then, He Fendou and Chen Jing left overnight, refusing to stay a second longer.
He Xiaosa sat in the first-floor travel agency shop all night, smoking whenever he felt sleepy, stubbornly staying awake until dawn.
He Mu hadn’t fallen asleep until after 1 a.m. She had been a day student in high school and usually did the cleaning, but since Zhao Meimei fell ill, the house hadn’t been tidied up at all, accumulating a layer of dust. She cleaned the second floor and made a late-night snack for Zhao Meimei.
Zhao Meimei was hungry.
After entering old age, Zhao Meimei didn’t eat much and never had late-night snacks. But yesterday, for the first time ever, she went into the kitchen and said she was hungry.
Zhao Meimei was a wonderful grandmother, but her cooking skills were nothing short of a disaster.
Before He Mu turned six, He Xiaosa was in charge of the kitchen. When she was six, after He Xiaosa discovered she could cook instant noodles by herself, the kitchen was handed over to her.
He Xiaosa said that learning to cook wasn’t about making meals for anyone else—it was about not starving to death.
But after that, He Xiaosa acted like a lord. Whenever He Mu was home, he never stepped into the kitchen again. When she returned from elementary school, she still had to cook.
Zhao Meimei couldn’t stand He Xiaosa’s behavior and would cook meals herself to wait for He Mu’s return. But…
After several bouts of food poisoning, He Mu tearfully begged her grandmother to stop—she was afraid she wouldn’t live to grow up.
She had never let Zhao Meimei into the kitchen her entire life, let alone now when Zhao Meimei had just recovered from a serious illness. So, He Mu prepared foot-soaking water and a fruit platter for Zhao Meimei, letting her soak her feet in the living room while waiting, while He Mu made the late-night snack.
By the time Zhao Meimei ate her fill and went back to her room to sleep, and He Mu finished her own shower and got into bed, it was already past 1 a.m.
She slept straight through until Su Miaomiao called.
He Mu forced her eyelids open, but what greeted her was pitch darkness…
Hair—hair was covering her face…
Holy crap!
Hair?
She had short hair!
How could hair of that length possibly cover her…!
He Mu was jolted fully awake. She brushed aside the long hair in front of her face, only to discover her entire bed was covered in long hair!
She must still be asleep, still dreaming, right?
Her hair had grown like a waterfall overnight, cascading down and coiling several times across the bed. Only at the very ends could she see the wine-red dye she had applied.
It was so heavy. Her head felt so heavy.
“Ring, ring, ring…”
He Mu’s phone rang again—another call from Su Miaomiao.
Could it be that something strange had happened on Su Miaomiao’s end too?
He Mu answered immediately. Su Miaomiao’s voice on the other end sounded awkward as she said, “Um… Mu Mu, you probably didn’t hear what I said just now, right?”
Huh?
He Mu replied, “No.”
The person on the other end of the line immediately sighed in relief, her voice growing much softer. “See? I told you Mu Mu didn’t hear. You hung up too quickly.”
Then came Su Mu’s deliberately hushed, faint voice, “Alright, you talk to her, say we’ll visit later.”
Su Miaomiao’s voice returned to its normal volume, saying, “Mumu, when I woke up this morning, I noticed something strange—my hair grew explosively overnight, reaching all the way to my heels.”
He Mu looked at her own hair and said, “Same here. It’s probably because 1.7 million years ago, Spiritual Qi was abundant, and after absorbing it, our bodies underwent changes.”
Su Miaomiao marveled, “Spiritual Qi? Lu Shiyan was right after all. It seems this Time-Space Travel has benefited us all. Guess what my measurements are now?”
He Mu glanced down at herself, her lips twitching, “A devilish figure, golden proportions, right?”
Su Miaomiao could barely hold back her laughter, “Exactly, looks like I’ll need to buy new clothes… Hahaha… Who dares call me flat-chested now!”
Su Miaomiao couldn’t hold it in any longer, bursting into laughter.
A cough came from the other end of the phone.
Su Miaomiao restrained her laughter and said, “Mumu, my brother and I will come to your place later, is that okay?”
“Come to my place?”
The smile on He Mu’s lips faded. She hadn’t told Su Miaomiao she had returned home, and Su Mu’s voice was on this call.
It was Su Mu.
Su Mu knew she was home now, hence the suggestion to visit.
Su Miaomiao said, “Yeah, with such a big change, I really want to see you too. Besides, there’s no class today anyway.”
Su Miaomiao was also a day student, picked up and dropped off by a private car every day, which was why she was at home and with Su Mu at the moment.
He Mu agreed. Hiding it might not work anyway, so it was better to face it directly.
After hanging up, He Mu got up, grabbed the scissors from the desk, and with a “snip,” cut her hair at shoulder length, instantly feeling relieved.
But with so much hair, without a salon trim, it looked thick and a bit silly.
The cut hair was about three to four meters long, both lengthy and voluminous. He Mu found a large bag to pack it all in.
He Mu’s usual clothing style was loose, so the changes in her figure didn’t make her clothes too tight to wear, but…
Staring at her curvy, slender-waisted reflection in the mirror, He Mu couldn’t quite adjust.
“Is the system here?”
[Yes.]
He Mu asked, “Isn’t this change a bit too drastic?”
[The body’s changes are based on the absorption and transformation of Spiritual Qi. However, Spiritual Qi is not retained indefinitely after absorption. Without absorbing new Spiritual Qi, the existing Qi in the body will gradually dissipate, and the body will revert to its original state.]
“How long until it completely disappears?”
[Approximately ten years.]
“So, by the time I’m twenty-eight, I’ll revert to how I was at eighteen?”
[Yes.]
“If I occasionally replenish Spiritual Qi, wouldn’t that mean I could live forever?”
[In theory, yes. But the peak of Spiritual Qi was over a million years ago, after which it declined. Nowadays, Spiritual Qi is too sparse to absorb or transform.]
“Then where will we go for our next Time-Space Travel?”
[It is not yet time for the second trip. No comment.]
In other words, as long as it wasn’t a modern period like the late Qing Dynasty or the Republic of China era, He Mu had a chance to replenish Spiritual Qi and maintain its levels in her body.
“Ah!”
“Who are you?!”
Suddenly, He Xiaosa’s shout came from outside.