“How… how am I supposed to write this?”
The next morning, time had unknowingly slipped to the tail end of the week—the weekend.
Most people in the world would be incredibly joyful about the weekend, a time intended for relaxation and rest.
No matter how black-hearted the job or how grueling the studies, the weekend usually offered at least one day of reprieve.
In the past, Su Qi had been just like everyone else, loving this special time.
After all, the weekend meant he could play or go out to sell Shuxi Bento to earn a decent amount of pocket money.
But today, Su Qi’s delicate brows were slightly furrowed.
The little figure sat there, resting her chin on her hand with a helpless expression.
There were two main reasons for this.
On Friday, near the end of school, Teacher Yu Qi had assigned an extra task.
Before school started on Monday, everyone in the bottom-tier Class Eighteen had to submit a 6,000-word self-reflection essay regarding their hidden Abilities and their future plans.
A self-reflection essay was a very specific kind of writing. As a well-behaved child since youth, Su Qi had never had to write one.
To make matters worse, her Ability was different from others; it involved turning from a boy into a girl.
If she wrote about it normally, the difficulty would be more than doubled.
Therefore, even though she had woken up at 8:00 AM and written until nearly noon, Su Qi was still agonizing over the wording.
She had only managed to squeeze out a measly 3,000 words.
Aside from that, what made Su Qi’s head hurt even more was that ever since an online influencer hyped up her bentos as being worth 10,000 yuan each, Shuxi Bento had entered the public eye in a very novel way.
Throughout the week, as many customers who had eaten Shuxi Bento interacted online, the Suyao Bento brand had unknowingly become a viral sensation.
Even though it was only noon, Su Qi opened her phone to browse short videos and found that people were already lining up at the Night Market.
She looked at the constant stream of comments on the screen.
“I’m so looking forward to Shuxi Bento.”
“A bento worth 10,000 yuan? I’m going to line up to try it too. I want to see if I can taste the flavor of happiness.”
“I’m waiting for my wife.”
“My wife is showing off her skills.”
She watched as one strange comment after another flashed through the livestream. Both the viewership and the number of people in line were constantly rising.
Being introverted by nature, Su Qi felt a wave of immense pressure just thinking about having to go out and run her stall that evening.
Sensing Su Qi’s stress while looking at the phone, An Xiaoling, who was sitting beside her, chose that moment to affectionately hug Su Qi’s arm.
She leaned in to offer comfort.
“Sister Su Su, you don’t need to worry. I’ll go with you to the stall tonight. With me protecting you, no bad guys will dare to lay a finger on you!”
Hearing An Xiaoling’s adorable loli voice and her plan to accompany her, Su Qi couldn’t help but relax a little.
Although An Xiaoling usually wasn’t very reliable and was full of mischief beneath her innocent exterior, Su Qi knew that she had been a huge help the last time they went out.
Of course, it would have been perfect if the incident where they bathed together hadn’t happened.
After An Xiaoling stated her stance, Lin Xue, who had been hanging her head in guilt all morning because of the “bad thing” she did last night, quickly added in a small voice, “Junior Schoolmate Su Qi, I don’t have anything to do tonight either. I’ll go with you too.”
Su Xixi was currently being held in Lin Xue’s arms.
Although the little guy had also been involved in the “bad thing” last night, it was just a little guy who didn’t understand the ways of the world.
After a full night’s sleep, it didn’t even know it had done anything wrong.
Hearing Lin Xue and An Xiaoling speak up, it raised its little white paws in agreement, even if it didn’t truly understand.
“Xixi!”
Seeing An Xiaoling, Lin Xue, and the clueless Su Xixi all preparing to join her bento-selling team, Su Qi felt her anxiety lessen.
At the same time, she found the situation somewhat magical.
Initially, she had sold bentos just to make a living and earn money for her sister’s hospital bills.
Back then, she was constantly busy and frantic every time she went out.
Not only did she have to carry all the lunch boxes by herself, but she also had to worry about things like people trying to hit on her.
Lately, however, the number of people helping her was steadily increasing.
Last time she had An Xiaoling, and this time she had both An Xiaoling and Senior Lin Xue.
Would Elder Sister Wen Yin, Mo Yu, and Sister Fu Ying eventually help her too?
At that thought, an image flashed through Su Qi’s mind. In the vision, she and five girls were busy together at the Night Market.
Everyone was laughing and talking, and the atmosphere among the beautiful girls was incredibly harmonious and wonderful.
A small smile spread across the corners of Su Qi’s lips at the sight of this harmonious scene.
However, the smile quickly froze. In her vision, after the five girls finished selling the bentos, they all leaned toward her at the same time.
That scene clearly looked like they were turning *her* into the bento!
‘Wait, why would there be five girls?’
Realizing something was wrong, Su Qi hurriedly shook her small head. ‘What on earth am I thinking?’
While Su Qi was clearing the “corrupted data” from her mind, An Xiaoling looked at the unfinished self-reflection essay and let her eyes twinkle. She spoke with a giggle. “Sister Su Su, you still haven’t finished your essay? Do you want me to help? I finished mine ages ago.”
Seeing An Xiaoling’s proud expression, a flash of envy crossed Su Qi’s face, but she quickly shook her head with a smile.
In truth, she had already looked at An Xiaoling’s essay.
Whether it was because of her talent for writing novels or the nature of her Elf Ability, An Xiaoling was incredibly fast.
They had started at 8:00 AM together, and An Xiaoling was finished by 9:00 AM!
However, after reading the content, Su Qi’s feelings were… complicated.
Perhaps it was the strange shift in values brought about by the Elf Ability.
For example, regarding why she hid her Ability, An Xiaoling had described it like this:
Hiding her Ability made her schoolwork easier and allowed her to slack off.
The exam questions were simpler, and since she didn’t need to work after graduation anyway—since writing novels could earn her money—it was the logical choice.
An Xiaoling had even proudly included the titles of the novels she wrote.
It was written with such self-righteous honesty and rational analysis that Su Qi felt it read less like a self-reflection and more like an acceptance speech—specifically, a bratty girl’s acceptance speech.
Su Qi felt that if she used An Xiaoling’s essay as a reference, she would likely be discovered by the bald Teacher Yu Qi and knocked out with a single punch!
“Xiaoling, I think I’ll figure it out myself. My situation is a bit special.”
After eight hours of agonizing thought, it was nearly 4:00 PM when Su Qi finally managed to reach the word count and complete the essay.
Since the Cangyou Wildcat Team only consisted of Lin Xue and An Xiaoling for now, and considering the Little Guy hadn’t been out in several days, Su Qi decided to bring Su Xixi along to the stall.
Because many people were waiting for bentos today and Su Qi was quite poor lately after buying things for Su Xixi, she prepared a total of 200 portions of Shuxi Bento.
Su Qi originally thought it would take a long time to sell them all.
But when they reached the Night Market, even with a purchase limit in place, the bentos were snatched up almost instantly.
It was worth mentioning that Su Qi had been worried that Su Xixi, being a Companion Beast, might scare the customers.
To her surprise, the Little Guy was unexpectedly popular.
In fact, even Su Ran felt that the number of people staring at her today had decreased significantly.
With the essay finished, the help of An Xiaoling and Lin Xue, and the bentos selling like wildfire, Su Qi was in a great mood.
As she packed up the stall and felt her bulging purse, she even began to hum a song happily.
But in the midst of her joy…
*Ding-dong!*
A sudden notification sounded from Su Qi’s phone. When she looked at the message, her smile froze on her face.
Ye Yingfu: “Xiao Qi, please come to Saint Freya Cathedral to help out again after school tomorrow afternoon. Also, bring that Little Devil Outfit you wore last time.”
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Su Qi looked at the photo sent by Ye Fufu, which showed her sister, Su Lulu, lying in a hospital bed looking quite healthy.
Then she looked back at the message.
Su Qi’s emotions were incredibly complicated.
No matter how she looked at it, this was a threat.
And… bringing the Little Devil Outfit to a church? She felt like this time was going to be much more “stimulating” than the last!
But could Su Qi refuse? The answer, naturally, was no.
‘Ugh… Sister, I’ve sacrificed too much for you!’