After returning home, Su Yao couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.
She had originally thought she’d spend the whole day alone, but unexpectedly, so much happened just from going downstairs to throw out the trash—first Bai Jianlian suddenly appeared, and then Mu Nanqiu showed up.
Being caught in the middle between the two was uncomfortable.
During dinner, Su Yao had been very nervous, afraid of saying the wrong thing when answering Mu Nanqiu’s questions.
She wasn’t very eloquent, and perhaps a bit slow-witted too—especially when around others, her thoughts scattered, causing her to overlook details on seemingly simple matters.
Recalling what she said at the table, Su Yao carefully reviewed everything in her mind.
Finding no major issues, she finally felt at ease.
Following Mu Nanqiu, she had a meal at a fancy hotel—a whole table full of dishes.
Of course, although the table was full, the portions on each plate looked beautiful but were a little scant.
Fortunately, there were plenty of dishes overall, enough to fill Su Yao’s stomach.
The food tasted good, but the flavor was a bit mild, somewhat bland.
After eating her fill, Su Yao also had some light dessert and refreshing fruit juice.
Then Mu Nanqiu asked her to talk about her past.
Although Mu Nanqiu said it was to understand Su Yao better, what she really cared about was the role Bai Jianlian held in Su Yao’s heart and how important she was to her…
Su Yao sat on the sofa, rubbing her legs.
She had to admit, the tight clothes looked good—especially in black.
The matte fabric clung tightly to her skin, stretching to make her legs appear long and shapely.
Su Yao was a little fleshy; her legs weren’t the stick-thin type.
Her thighs were rounder and meatier, but the proportion with her calves was just right.
She pressed her hand against them—soft and supple.
Even her own legs earned her endless praise.
She smiled absently.
Women’s fat tends to accumulate under the skin first, then around the organs, making it easy to gain weight.
Su Yao’s physical exam showed she had a relatively low body fat percentage.
Based on her height, she should weigh about 50 kilograms, but now she was only 46 or 47.
If you subtract what she carried on her chest, it’d be a bit abnormal…
She used to eat very little, but recently her body seemed to be going through a second growth spurt.
One packet of instant noodles was no longer enough to satisfy her!
After pressing up and down, the soreness intensified.
Su Yao rubbed her temples, feeling a dull ache.
Unfortunately, she had become a complete exercise loser.
Sure enough, being a shut-in meant it was better not to exercise randomly outdoors.
She should just stay home quietly, be a proper shut-in.
Not to mention climbing mountains, even stepping outside and getting a bit of sun might cause her to melt on the spot.
She kicked off her slippers, crossed her legs, and massaged the sore arches of her feet.
Even the lightest touch made her tremble and gasp.
It hurt, but it felt so good.
Despite the strange sensation, Su Yao forced herself to keep massaging.
If she didn’t relax well now, tomorrow would be worse.
On a whim, she stretched her legs out straight, trying not to bend her knees, and reached her hand to touch her toes.
She actually touched them.
On the sofa, Su Yao folded herself like a duck sitting down again, her eyes wide with surprise.
“Wow, my flexibility is pretty good.”
She tried some other moves she never dared attempt before and was amazed at her body’s newfound abilities.
She realized many functions hadn’t been developed yet.
Since changing into this state, Su Yao could distinctly feel her senses had sharpened.
She bent her waist and failed the first time, but after a few tries, she barely succeeded.
After all that, Su Yao finally collapsed on the sofa, exhausted, and closed her eyes to rest.
But soon, the cold woke her up.
“Ugh… it’s a bit chilly.”
She curled up, leaning into the corner between the sofa backrest and armrest, shrinking into a ball.
Wearing a red knit sweater jacket and black thick tights—basically thermal pants—her hair was casually brushed back, slightly messy.
The young girl shivered, her roundish, delicate face frowning gently, biting her red lower lip softly as her body trembled slightly.
She’d been exercising or under air conditioning, and now that she stopped moving, her thin clothes couldn’t keep her warm.
Putting on her slippers, she hopped around a bit, then went to her bedroom.
First, she turned on the air conditioner, then walked to the window and drew back the curtains, brightening the once dim room.
She leaned by the window, looking outside.
The temperature hovered between zero and one degree.
She didn’t know if it would snow today.
The air conditioner would take some time to warm up the room.
Su Yao stared through the glass at the outside world—just as she had yesterday, the day before, and countless days before that.
On winter days, she always watched from this window, hoping to see snow.
Sometimes her wish came true, but more often, only snowflakes fell silently, scattering on the ground with a gentle rustle.
As memories washed over her, she seemed to return to the past.
Su Yao couldn’t recall the exact day, only that it was a light snowy day with a heavy, sudden downpour—the rain was hard and loud, drumming on the leaves of plants in the community garden.
She would take a book or notebook outside to watch the ice pellets bounce.
“Yao Yao, dinner’s ready.”
At the sound of a gentle call from outside the door, Su Yao snapped back to reality and turned her head toward the door.
After searching through her desk for a while, she finally found an old photo tucked away in an inconspicuous place.
It was a small sealed bag containing Student ID Photos from middle school, taken for her ID card.
On it was a delicate short-haired girl—very young, and with a psychological effect, the more Su Yao looked, the stranger it felt…
Although it was short hair, it was a bit long.
Boys her age usually had buzz cuts, crew cuts, or some kind of bowl cut.
Anyway, nothing like this Province of Sakura Style.
“Strange. One more look.”
Su Yao flipped through more photos, all giving a similar feeling.
Finally, she glanced at her high school graduation group photo and couldn’t hold it back anymore, muttering in astonishment,
“Did I really look like this?”
She went to the mirror and compared herself to the girl in the photos, realizing it seemed accurate.
If her old photos looked like this, then…
She recalled the family album she saw in her parents’ room and grew puzzled.
Was it the photos’ fault, or was it her?
If it was the photos, that was easy to explain, but if it was her, it meant more than just her body had changed!
She put everything back where it belonged and sat on her bed, deep in thought.
After a while, Su Yao seemed to make up her mind, standing up straight with a snap.
“I’m going back to my hometown!”
After her parents passed away, many things had been sent back to her hometown, except a few bulky items stored in the storage room.
Her grandfather had lived through hard times and cherished possessions dearly.
Unless something was beyond saving, it would be stored first, to see if it could be reused or replaced later.
Not looking like her mom or dad was a bit strange, wasn’t it?
So Su Yao felt uncertain about her memories of the past.
If she wanted to figure things out, going back home was a necessary trip.
But then she thought about preparing for the Academic Term Final Exam and focusing on passing her credits.
Her previous lazy attitude meant she hadn’t absorbed much, but now, making up for it, sixty points should be no problem.
Time was tight, so she decided to go home during Winter Break.
There were only a little over ten days before the holiday started.
If she wanted to go, she could book her ticket now.
Su Yao opened the ticket booking app and searched for a ticket from the Provincial Capital to her hometown’s small County Town.
There was only one, an early morning bus…
She stared blankly at the ticket price—over one hundred yuan.
Recently, she had been used to the Special Shuttle Service; she didn’t even have to ride a bike anymore.
She felt spoiled and reluctant to spend the money on this ticket, but she bit the bullet and booked the trip from the Provincial Capital to the County Town.
Travel was always crowded before and after the New Year holiday.
With a month-long break, Su Yao wasn’t in a hurry to come back, so she didn’t book a return ticket yet.
She believed in her luck—she’d definitely get one!
After entering the last digit of her Six-Digit Password, the Bank Card notification popped up, showing that one hundred yuan had been deducted.
Su Yao winced.
My goodness!
When she bought clothes, she had just earned six thousand yuan and spent most of it already.
She still hadn’t changed this old phone.
As the saying goes: when you have money, you’re careless; when you don’t, you cry and beg.
Of course, Su Yao wasn’t that extreme.
She nervously opened her messages and looked at her Balance Notification—over 43,000 yuan.
That was all the immediately accessible money she had.
Forty-three thousand—is it a lot?
In a way, yes.
Not everyone her age has millions in savings, let alone billions.
Most people around her age with that much savings either dropped out of high school to work, earned side incomes, or came from very wealthy families with nothing to spend money on.
But it was still very little.
With over ten thousand yuan in annual tuition plus monthly living expenses and utilities, how long would her money last?
Would she have to call out to Mu Nanqiu, “Baby, are you hungry?”
Actually… it wasn’t impossible…
Su Yao blushed.
Freeloading was tempting, but she was just pretentious and wanted to spend money she earned herself.
The economic crisis was real.
Su Yao took a deep breath and lay back on the bed.
Now that the problem was clear, it was time to think about how to fix it.
How to earn money?
Su Yao considered working part-time.
Even a small income each month would help.
She searched online and found some daily-paid jobs—easy work paying just over a hundred yuan, harder or more laborious ones paying two or three hundred.
But none seemed suitable for her.
There were jobs handing out flyers in mascot costumes, waitressing…
As she searched, Su Yao felt increasingly out of her depth.
A socially withdrawn shut-in like her—how could she do any of those?
Tutoring for middle and high school students paid well, but Su Yao’s grades were just average.
She couldn’t teach others, so no.
Cook’s helper, or housekeeping maid—high pay but no, she didn’t think she could.
Counter girl, taking orders from customers, preferred if looking good—slightly cheaper pay than the others, still no for her.
“Ahhhh! Is there no job that doesn’t require talking to people but pays well?”
She rolled around on her bed, but after a while, felt less depressed.
Sitting up, she smoothed her hair and turned on her computer.
She opened a new text document.
She was back on her old path but didn’t know what to write, so she stared blankly at the empty page.
Deep in thought, time ticked by.
After more than ten minutes, Su Yao finally placed her hands on the keyboard, typed a few words, then deleted them quickly.
She wrote and deleted repeatedly, torturing herself until she finally settled on a title.
“I Have a Secret With My Senior… Uh, so embarrassing!”
The title made Su Yao laugh at herself.
She thought, anyway, Mu Nanqiu didn’t know she was writing romance fiction, so as long as he didn’t find out, it didn’t matter, right?
With that thought, her mood brightened instantly.
Ideas flooded in, and she started typing.
But after finishing, she took one look and was horrified.
“Who wrote this filthy trashy fantasy novel? Damn!”
Looking at the awful mess she’d written, Su Yao blushed.
Just as she was about to delete it, she suddenly felt reluctant.
After pondering a moment, she threw the file into her Document Recycle Folder, where no one would ever see it!
“What now?”
Staring at the new document, Su Yao felt lost.
She thought she was a waste.
Life was already miserable, and she had no talent to change her fate.
Was she really only destined to be her senior’s Leg Pendant?
She even began to doubt whether someone as useless as her could truly be liked by outstanding Mu Nanqiu.
Was she just dreaming all along?
With that thought, she felt she didn’t deserve Mu Nanqiu at all.
She didn’t want to admit it, but it was true.
Because of this, she didn’t want to rely on Mu Nanqiu to live.
She wanted to change herself…
“Oyster Sauce is good at writing, right? Maybe I should just ask her to teach me!”
Mu Nanqiu’s attention was caught by a sudden message on his phone.
He picked it up, smiling as he read.
“My dear Yao Yao, you’re just giving me the perfect opening~”
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