Following her previous memories, Qi returned to the entrance of the coffee shop, pushed the door open, and stepped inside.
“Ah! You’re that little kitten from before!”
The shop assistant exclaimed in pleasant surprise.
“?”
‘What little kitten?’ The black-haired girl was a bit dazed, feeling that she might have misheard.
“Miss, hello. Like before, is it all right if I sit in the shop for a while?”
“Of course! Please, make yourself at home!”
After receiving permission, Qi went to the same seat she had used last time; there happened to be a vacancy right when she entered.
Not long after she sat down, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
“Ta-da!”
An ice cream was held out in front of her eyes.
Qi turned her head and saw that it was the shop assistant.
“Eh? Is it for me?”
“Yes, take it quickly. If no one eats it, the ice cream will melt!”
As she spoke, the shop assistant reached out and rubbed the little girl’s head.
Since Qi wasn’t wearing her sun hat today, the ahoge on the top of her head wiggled along with the movement.
“Thank you, Miss…”
Taking the ice cream, Qi watched the shop assistant walk away with a satisfied expression.
‘My face really is good for getting perks, even though I barely know her.’
“My Qiqi really is popular.”
The black-haired girl turned at the sound of the voice and found the person claiming to be a God sitting across from her.
“Do you have to show up in such a sneaky way?” Qi asked, taking a lick of the ice cream.
It was delicious.
“Oh my, why are you accusing your mother the moment we meet?”
Luo Qing swirled the coffee in her cup, her tone sounding nonchalant.
“I really wish our mother-daughter relationship could be more harmonious — after all, you are my first daughter.”
“Forget it. I never acknowledged you as my mother,” Qi said, her attitude as cold as the ice cream in her hand.
“I’m curious. Did I come here because I wanted to see you, or did you make me come?”
She asked this because the thought of coming to the coffee shop to find Luo Qing had suddenly popped into her head this morning, even though she did have something to ask this God.
“Does that matter? All I know is that we both have things to say to each other.”
“I don’t care.”
The black-haired girl put on an indifferent front and took another lick of her ice cream.
Then, she reached out her left hand toward Luo Qing.
“Give me living expenses.”
This action was completely natural.
Qi did not hesitate in the slightest, as if this was how things were supposed to be.
Since the other party wanted to be her mother, she had to fulfill at least some of a mother’s responsibilities, right?
In this place where prices were ridiculously high, asking for living expenses was perfectly reasonable — especially since her 300,000 yuan had been taken away by the woman.
“No can do. Mother hopes you can use your own hands to earn every bit of your living expenses in a proper way.”
“Stingy.”
Qi calmly withdrew her hand.
It wasn’t surprising at all to be rejected.
“Then can you at least take this thing off my head?” She pointed to the ahoge on top of her head.
This thing had definitely been tampered with.
No matter what she did, she couldn’t flatten the stray strand of hair.
Even if she cut it off with scissors, new hair would grow to take its place.
Because of this ahoge, the number of times she got her head rubbed had increased significantly.
Qi actually hated having her head touched.
“Isn’t an ahoge one of those ‘moe points’ you humans talk about? I put a lot of effort into making a good-looking one. Isn’t it cute?”
“It’s stupid.”
“No, everyone thinks it’s cute.”
“Then I have nothing more to say.” Qi closed both eyes and continued eating her ice cream.
“You won’t give me living expenses and you won’t help me, so I will never acknowledge you as my mother.”
“Boohoo — that makes me so sad — ”
Even as she said this, Luo Qing maintained her smiling face.
“Since you’re done with your requests, it’s time to listen to your mother’s.”
The black-haired girl slightly opened one eye.
“Mother hopes you can pass every subject in the Monthly Exam next week.”
Hearing this request, a large question mark seemed to pop up over Qi’s head.
“What kind of request is that? Are you monitoring my studies? Are you actually trapped in this ‘Human Mother Role-playing Game’?”
“You are my only daughter, after all, a child modeled after my own blood. Of course, I have to raise you to be the most outstanding daughter in the world. Passing every subject is only the first step.”
“I refuse.”
Qi turned her head away.
“You didn’t agree to my requests, so why should I agree to yours?”
The main reason was that she couldn’t do it.
She knew exactly what her academic performance was like.
The difficulty of her passing every subject was no different from participating in a full marathon in a wheelchair.
It was impossible.
“I am not negotiating with you; I am simply informing you.”
Luo Qing’s tone brooked no refusal.
“Are you done? I’m leaving. I need to find a job this afternoon.”
“Be safe. I’ll come find you after the Monthly Exam,” the self-proclaimed God said with a light laugh as she waved goodbye.
After leaving the coffee shop, Luo Qing’s words kept echoing in Qi’s mind.
She didn’t actually plan to listen, but she still felt a sense of unease.
“Whatever. Things that can’t be done just can’t be done. I can barely afford to eat; where would I find the time to study?”
Waving her hand to push the matter to the back of her mind, Qi took a tissue from her pocket, wiped her mouth, and threw the empty ice cream wrapper into a trash can.
“Time to find a job.”
Qi had agonized over finding a job for a long time, mainly because she truly lacked experience in this area, making her feel inevitably anxious.
Furthermore, she didn’t know how to do anything.
The only thing she was good at was the business of “deceiving girls’ emotions” that the God had mentioned.
However, since she had turned into a girl herself, the risk of continuing in that line of work had skyrocketed.
This was the source of her hesitation.
After weighing the pros and cons, Qi finally decided to find a regular job.
At the very least, she needed to be able to afford food.
***
“We don’t hire child labor.”
Inside a high-end restaurant, the person at the front desk took one look at her and rejected her immediately.
“I’m not a child. I’m actually a sophomore in high school. This is my student ID.”
Qi still wanted to try.
The receptionist took it and looked, appearing somewhat surprised.
“You’re actually a student of Lizhou Academy? A Special Admissions Student?”
He glanced up and down at the black-haired girl’s cheap outfit.
“Yes.”
Qi nodded quickly.
The receptionist hesitated for a moment.
Their shop had strict requirements for the appearance of their servers.
Under normal circumstances, the girl in front of him would definitely be someone they would strive to hire, even if Lizhou Academy students could only work in the afternoons.
“It’s still a no,” the receptionist refused helplessly.
“We can’t explain it to every single customer. If we get reported too many times, it’s my salary that gets docked.”
“Okay. Thank you anyway. I’ll go look elsewhere.”
Restaurant job hunt: failure.
***
“I can hire you, but the working hours are from 1:00 PM to 1:00 AM every day. No being late, understand?”
Inside a barber shop, a slightly plump woman looked at Qi’s student ID and said with a smirk.
Working 12 hours every day with only one day off per month — that was what was written on the recruitment poster at the door.
For Qi, these working hours were a bit long, but she had no choice.
“The salary is 6,000 a month, right?”
“For you, it’s only 3,000.”
“Huh? Why?” The black-haired girl was confused.
“Well, you don’t know how to cut hair. Your job will just be running errands, cleaning, and washing hair for customers. It’s normal for the salary to be a bit lower.”
“But the poster says 6,000! Isn’t a barber’s salary 12,000?”
Hearing the little girl’s argument, the woman grew impatient.
“Me hiring a student like you is already an exception. Do you even have work experience? I’m taking the risk of you causing trouble for me by giving you a job, and I’m even allowing you to come in the afternoon. You’re only working half the day, and you’re still complaining about the pay?”
“Aren’t you Special Admissions Students supposed to be good at studying? Lizhou Academy’s monthly scholarship is 10,000 yuan. Why are you coming to us to find a job?”
Qi pursed her lips and remained silent.
‘What do you mean, half a day? The working hours on the poster were also 12 hours…’
She had never looked for a job before and didn’t know if 3,000 was a lot or a little.
She only knew that the customer who just left had spent more in the shop than her entire salary would be.
Furthermore, from the person in front of her, Qi felt a sense of malice directed specifically at her.
“Sorry, let me think about it some more.”
“Suit yourself. Think about it carefully. We aren’t exactly short-staffed; hiring you would just be an extra expense. You should understand that, right?”
The woman put on an indifferent expression.
Qi could hear a hint of an attempt to get her to stay in the woman’s words, but she ignored it and turned to leave the barber shop.
Afterward, she went to several different shops, but none were successful for various reasons.
“Finding a job is so hard…”
Coming out of a dessert shop, the black-haired girl sighed.
She was already exhausted.
Aside from the woman at the barber shop, everyone else’s attitude toward her had been quite good, and their reasons for rejecting her were perfectly valid.
In the end, only that barber shop had been willing to hire her…
After all, she really didn’t know how to do anything.
Most of the positions she could handle were already filled.
Now, her only advantage in the job hunt was likely just her face.
“Qiqi, wait!”
Hearing the shout, Qi turned around and saw the Shop Manager of the dessert shop running out.
“Is something wrong, Miss Manager?”
The black-haired girl asked with a tilt of her head.
She had a fairly good impression of this manager.
The woman had wanted to give Qi a job, but Qi could tell it was a struggle.
Later, Qi found out that the dessert shop had already hired enough people — even a bit over-staffed — and they just hadn’t had time to take down the recruitment poster yet.
Qi saw that she wasn’t good at rejecting people, so Qi had proactively turned down the job to save her the trouble.
“I really can’t hire you, but a friend of mine has a job that’s very suitable for you. If you’re interested, you can talk to her.”
Hearing that there was a job, Qi’s eyes brightened slightly.
“Really? What kind of job?”
“A clothing model.”