Chapter 24: The Beating Egg

Lin Jiaxin was escorted to the bathroom by the three of them.

Like a young lady from an ancient noble family being attended to by her maids, they washed her face with a cold towel before she finally snapped out of it.

Looking at her three roommates’ dark circles and expressions on the verge of collapse, she had no choice but to compromise to avoid pushing them over the edge.

She decided to give up on the Morning Run Plan.

But giving up the Morning Run Plan seemed impossible.

After all, that was precious Manifestation True Qi!

Even if it was just a mosquito leg, it was still meat.

Even scraping together a little every morning was enough for daily use.

But her phone and regular alarm clock were out of the question.

So, to wake herself up in the morning without disturbing others,

Lin Jiaxin had to figure something out on her own.

She scoured the internet for a long time.

She even posted on forums asking for help.

Question: “Dear experts, my phone’s vibration function is too weak. Even when I keep it close to my body, I can’t feel it at all. But I’m in a school dormitory, so I can’t have any noise, or my roommates will hate me. What should I do?”

The post didn’t get much traction on the forums or tieba.

After patiently waiting half a day,

she finally got a reply from a kind-hearted netizen surnamed Zheng who wished to remain anonymous.

After briefly describing the function she needed,

Lin Jiaxin didn’t pay close attention to the private message content and was guided by this kind netizen.

Eventually, she added his personal contact info.

He claimed to be a DIY enthusiast who could customize a special wake-up device for her.

He asked many detailed questions: her schedule, sleep depth, vibration sensitivity—everything down to the smallest detail.

Lin Jiaxin answered them all.

Finally, he sent her a store link with a name like “Night House…”

The product title was also vague: “[Custom Wake-Up Aid Device · Private Order].”

There were no detail images, no text descriptions—only one sentence on the details page:

“Handmade custom, no returns or exchanges.”

Lin Jiaxin hesitated for a few seconds, but thinking about the Morning Run Plan, she gritted her teeth and paid nearly four digits.

Then she refreshed the logistics info on her phone every day.

“Why does it take three days to ship? That means I can’t wake up early for the next three days?”

She lay on the bed, staring intently at her phone screen.

She was so anxious she could barely wait, wishing she could get it right away!

The shipping route showed it departing from a coastal city.

After making a big detour, it finally headed her way.

When the package finally arrived, she tore open the layers of black tape and bubble wrap that distinguished it from regular deliveries.

Lin Jiaxin had an odd feeling like she was picking up some kind of contraband.

[Order Note: Private Shipping]

‘Tch, feels a bit weird…’

But Lin Jiaxin gave it a quick glance and lost interest. She wanted to see what the actual item looked like.

She used scissors to open the pure black packaging box.

Inside was a metal object she couldn’t recognize, along with an instruction manual.

It was a bit smaller than an egg,

but a bit larger than a quail egg.

Like the metal motor of a four-wheel-drive car.

The shell was cold silver metal, engraved with extremely fine patterns. It felt heavy in her hand, carrying an unsettling sense of technology.

Since it was a customized handmade model,

Lin Jiaxin, to save money, didn’t ask the maker for a custom appearance design.

What she got was purely an industrial-looking piece.

The function was simple—connect via Bluetooth to her phone, set the time using a dedicated app, and then keep it close to her body.

This was the “New Alarm Clock” that Lin Jiaxin had spent a fortune customizing,

exclusively for her.

Fortunately, she had enough savings; otherwise, she wouldn’t have splurged nearly four digits on a custom order.

But at first, Lin Jiaxin was still troubled.

Because the thing had to be kept close to the body to be effective.

If there was any fabric between, the effect was greatly reduced.

And Lin Jiaxin didn’t like wearing a bra to sleep, and her pajamas didn’t have a suitable pocket.

She tossed and turned for a long time before finally using a spare thin chain from a pendant she’d bought earlier to thread through it and hang it around her neck, where it clinked against her chin.

The moment the metal touched her skin, it was so cold it made her shiver.

She didn’t sleep well that night, feeling inexplicably agitated.

Until the next morning.

Lin Jiaxin’s chin was forcibly vibrated, like someone prone to motion sickness being forced to ride a bus through eighteen winding mountain roads.

Her head was dizzy from the shaking! A strong wave of nausea surged up, and she dry-heaved several times.

She sat up in bed and stared blankly for a long time before slowly coming to.

Subconsciously, she touched the metal pendant hanging from her chin, now warmed by her body heat.

Then she looked down.

The strange shape, the bizarre way of waking up, and the creepy setting…

A thought suddenly popped into her head.

‘Damn! This thing… is off!’

Lin Jiaxin’s face flushed bright red up to her ears.

In an instant, she connected the dots and quickly took the pendant off her neck.

Although she had never seen the real thing in her past life,

she had definitely seen it many times in certain videos!

Now, looking closely,

aside from lacking the flashy decorative exterior, the core structure was practically identical!

‘I… I must have been driven crazy by those three roommates… that’s why I bought something like this…’

‘That netizen named Zheng must be messing with me on purpose!’

Lin Jiaxin gritted her teeth, opened her phone, and pulled up the store.

Sure enough, the product was already taken down.

She immediately opened the customer service chat and typed furiously:

“Damn it! What a scam! I want a refund!”

The other party replied quickly: “Dear, customized products do not support returns unless there is a quality issue.”

“What do you mean ‘not a quality issue’? This isn’t an alarm clock! This is… this is that kind of thing!”

“Dear, the product description says ‘Custom Wake-up Aid Device.’ The function was customized based on your requirements. It wakes you up with timed vibrations, which fully matches the description.”

“Don’t play word games with me! You know exactly what this is! I’m a college student… what would I buy it for?!”

“Dear, college students make up a large customer base. We only customize products according to your needs; the specific use is up to you. And since it’s a custom mold, the cost is high, so we really can’t accept returns.”

Lin Jiaxin glared at the screen, getting even more heated. She almost threw her phone in anger.

The two went back and forth for a while, but the other party kept repeating the same lines: custom item, no quality issue, no returns or exchanges.

She stared at the nearly four-digit payment record, her heart aching from the pain.

If she could return it, she wouldn’t hesitate to shove this piece of junk back into the box and mail it.

But now…

Lin Jiaxin looked at the metal object in her hand, then at the customer service’s message on the screen: “Dear, think positive. You can still use it as a regular alarm clock.” She wished she could crawl through the internet line and strangle them.

But in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to throw it away outright.

Nearly four digits!

How long had she saved to afford that?

She hesitated for an entire morning, long enough for all her roommates to wake up.

Finally, Lin Jiaxin gritted her teeth and made a decision.

She wrapped the pendant in a thin, gauze-like scarf three layers thick.

That way, it could stay close to her body to wake her up without directly touching her skin, sparing her from getting angrier every time she saw it.

As for the refund… she planned to slowly wear down that shady merchant.

“…”

“Good morning, Lin Jiaxin.”

Roommate Sister C walked past Lin Jiaxin’s bed with a mouthwash cup, casually greeting her.

Actually, she usually went to bed early and rarely stayed up late.

So Lin Jiaxin’s previous alarm clock wasn’t really loud to her.

In fact, it could even wake her up to catch up on her dramas.

This way, she could stay under the radar without having to set her own alarm and offend anyone.

Therefore, she was the only one of the three who still had some goodwill toward Lin Jiaxin.

And the only one willing to talk to her voluntarily.

“Ah…”

Lin Jiaxin was currently preoccupied with fiddling with her pendant, making sure every corner of the scarf was wrapped tightly. She responded without looking up.

“Morning.”

Roommate Sister C saw Lin Jiaxin sitting cross-legged on the bed, fiddling with something.

Curious, she leaned in to take a closer look: “What are you doing?”

“I’m super—”

Lin Jiaxin’s heart jumped in surprise at the sudden face looming over her.

She almost dropped the thing in her hands.

She wanted to get angry and tell her to respect personal space, but she was too afraid of being caught with something suspicious.

If the shape of this thing was seen, she would never be able to clear her name.

Lin Jiaxin’s brain raced, searching for an excuse.

“Nothing… it’s nothing, just a little thing… See, here.”

Saying this, she gritted her teeth and handed over the silk-wrapped pendant.

Her palms were sweating profusely, her heart pounding with tension.

‘Don’t take it… Don’t take… Don’t take!!!’

Maybe sensing Lin Jiaxin’s tension,

or maybe just asking casually without really caring about her personal affairs,

“I won’t look. I still haven’t finished organizing the stuff I bought yesterday.”

Roommate Sister C shook her head and turned to go organize her things.

Lin Jiaxin let out a long sigh of relief.

She clenched the pendant in her hand, feeling the hard outline of the thing through the silk, her fingertips trembling slightly.

“Hmm…”

After Roommate Sister C finished organizing, she passed by Lin Jiaxin’s bed again.

But this time, she stopped and looked her up and down.

“Hey? Why is your face so pale today? Your lips have no color. Are you sick?”

“No… not really, right?”

Lin Jiaxin couldn’t meet her eyes. She gave a dry laugh and yanked the blanket up to cover her chest, burying the pendant underneath. Her voice was noticeably off-key.

“Mm… I just… the AC is set too low, so I’m a bit cold…”

“Then don’t you know how to turn the AC up?”

“Uh, well, it’s not just my dorm… I didn’t dare to change it casually…”

“…? Get yourself ready soon. There’s military training later.”

Roommate Sister C raised an eyebrow, as if remembering the morning a few days ago when she and the others had ganged up on Lin Jiaxin over the alarm clock.

She didn’t press further and turned to leave with a word of advice.

“Mm.”

Lin Jiaxin collapsed onto the bed, responding weakly.

Staring at the ceiling, she let out a long breath.

She got up and shoved the wrapped pendant deep under her pillow.

The thing wrapped in three layers of silk lay there quietly, like a sealed metal heart.

Lin Jiaxin stared at the pillow for a long time, then looked at the merchant still stonewalling her.

She gritted her teeth and turned off the screen.

If she couldn’t return it…

‘I can’t… sell it second-hand, can I?’

‘Forget it…’

‘At least until I return it… I absolutely… absolutely cannot let anyone touch this pendant!’