When Second Uncle Mu and his son arrived, the hotel security guards formed a human wall in front of Mu Yue to keep the two men away.
The moment they arrived at the hotel, they had started asking about Mu Yue. Although the hotel hadn’t disclosed any information about her, the two men had refused to leave, so the staff had long since taken precautions in case they were here to cause trouble.
Second Uncle Mu wanted to lose his temper, but seeing the intimidating lineup, he could only force a sheepish smile. “Yueyue, what’s the meaning of this? No matter what, I’m still your second uncle!”
Mu Yue gave a cold laugh, showing him not the slightest courtesy. “If you’re not here to pay back the money, then get lost. Aren’t you afraid that seeing your old face too many times will remind me of even more unpleasant things?”
Being humiliated by a junior made Second Uncle Mu’s expression turn extremely ugly. Fortunately, Mu Jun’s mind worked a little faster. He immediately put on a fawning smile. “Sis, Sis, don’t be angry. Didn’t you block all of us? How are we supposed to contact you in the future?”
He took out his phone, implying that Mu Yue had blocked them all. Even if they managed to gather enough money, they still had no way to contact her.
Mu Yue glanced at Qianqian. Understanding at once, Qianqian stepped forward to speak with Second Uncle Mu and his son. Mu Yue didn’t linger and entered the VIP elevator with Lin Xiaoxiao under the escort of the hotel security guards.
Second Uncle Mu and his son watched from a distance and curled their lips. What was so impressive about her? Hadn’t she once depended on them to make a living?
They forcibly suppressed the thought of what might have happened if they had treated Mu Yue well in the past, refusing to let themselves dwell on it even for a moment. Otherwise, they were afraid they would never be able to sleep at night again.
That evening, Mu Yue lay on her bed and opened the upgrade package she had received during the day. She tapped to open it. After a cute sound effect of a cat tearing open wrapping paper, a black card and a miniature prize wheel appeared in her hands.
The card was a black-and-gold charge card. Its main color was black, with a portrait in the center and three silver decorative borders. It was the king of all cards, the classic must-have of every Tycoon—the Centurion Black Card. This one was the international version, made of titanium alloy.
The other item was a single spin on a lucky prize wheel. According to the description, she would get one spin every time she leveled up.
Mu Yue sat up and used the prize wheel. The miniature wheel instantly expanded. It contained twenty-one possible prizes, including cash, points, houses, cars, yachts, champion racehorses, antiques, and a set of emerald jewelry. The least valuable prize was one hundred thousand yuan, while the most valuable was a manor worth 1.7 billion yuan.
“Wow!” Mu Yue’s eyes lit up. Of course, anyone’s eyes would shine at the sight of something like this.
“As expected of my favorite baby, Tycoon!” After praising it, Mu Yue began tapping the wheel. The draw started.
“Eek! She called me her baby!” And her favorite, too!
The cat curled itself into a ball and hugged its face with both paws, so happy it nearly fainted. Once it had finished rejoicing, it raised its tail again. Since its host liked it so much, it couldn’t let her down. Luck value: UP, UP!
The other three systems grew sour with jealousy. “…What a childish and cheesy way to address someone. I don’t want it!”
Meanwhile, the pointer slowly came to a stop. It landed on a black car—a Maybach Pullman, an extravagant mobile palace priced at approximately twelve million yuan.
The Tycoon watched the host nervously, afraid she would show any sign of disappointment. There was nothing he could do—the wheel was random, and even adding Luck only made the outcome randomly better.
Mu Yue was not disappointed in the slightest. Although she hadn’t landed on the most expensive prize, a car was something she genuinely needed. Given her current persona, how could she go out without a nice car? Besides, this wasn’t just any ordinary vehicle. It was one of those luxury cars that appeared constantly in wealthy-family novels. Talk about prestige! And she hadn’t spent a single cent on it—it was completely free. Where else could she find a deal like that?
Mu Yue went to bed perfectly content. When she woke up the next morning, she asked Qianqian to hire another driver. The car would arrive that very day, and since she wasn’t yet eighteen and didn’t have a license, there was no way she could drive it herself. Well, she already had her first plan for the summer vacation: get her driver’s license.
On Monday, the school held its flag-raising ceremony before classes began. The public notice of criticism promised by the school was issued as well. When the students gathered on the sports field heard about it, they let out a series of astonished murmurs.
The principal announced that the school would arrange a lecture later, so that the students preparing for the college entrance examination could understand why they were studying and what they were studying for.
The lecture sounded incredibly dull, filled with the same old platitudes. The students’ real focus remained on the gossip—such as Mu Yue’s life, which seemed straight out of a TV drama: a Young Miss who had grown up away from home before finally being found by a wealthy family.
But once the monthly exam results were released, the seniors no longer had the energy to gossip. The countdown posted on the wall had lost another few days, and the pressure of time left them no room for distraction.
Mu Yue received her results as well. She ranked 484th in the school, placing her somewhere in the middle of the pack. Previously, she had ranked below 800.
This time, it was the Top Student who spun around the system space in excitement.
Amazing, amazing! Moving up a hundred places—she had exceeded the target! It only wished the system’s rewards could be multiplied; then it could give the host an even bigger UPUP boost! And with the efficiency and speed of the host’s study device, the first mock exam would definitely be no problem either!
Mu Yue, however, did not let her guard down. A considerable portion of the monthly exam had consisted of questions she had specifically prepared for. In reality, she was still far from having thoroughly reviewed everything. The mock exams were made up of questions that had already appeared before, but there was no telling whether the college entrance exam would include new ones.
Mu Yue’s improvement made her the class’s new role model. Going from just over 300 points to more than 500 was something she could not have achieved without putting in tremendous effort. Of course, there were also people who voiced their doubts, but there were not many of them. After all, everyone in the same examination room had been scoring in the 300s. Even if she had wanted to cheat, there was no way she could have copied her way to over 500 points.
The stacks of exam papers grew higher, while the laughter and joking in class grew less frequent. The atmosphere of study gradually became more serious. Lin Xiaoxiao, who sat beside Mu Yue, was influenced as well. On top of that, she had already resolved to study hard. After a week passed, she did not mention Leng Ming to Mu Yue even once.
Every day, the moment she opened her eyes, she studied; even with her eyes closed, she was still studying. Some students were even listening to English vocabulary while they ate. H City No. 7 High School was truly terrifying.
“It’s really too terrifying!” Lin Xiaoxiao said dazedly after school on Saturday afternoon.
Mu Yue had switched to commuting from home, but starting that week, Lin Xiaoxiao began living at school instead. Her father went to work every day and had no time to come home at noon, while he often worked overtime in the evenings. If she went home, she would have to take care of lunch and dinner herself, which was less convenient than staying at school. It was only after living on campus that Lin Xiaoxiao realized just how insanely hard her classmates were willing to work.
She had to get up at six every morning and go running. After exercising, she would rush to the cafeteria, wolf down breakfast in ten minutes, then hurry back to the classroom for morning self-study. At noon, as soon as class ended, she would rush to the cafeteria again, finish eating in another ten minutes, and return to the dormitory.
There was supposed to be an hour for lunch break, but none of the girls in the dormitory took one. Not a single one!
They had all moved little desks onto their beds and were doing homework. For Lin Xiaoxiao, who had long been accustomed to taking things easy, this left her practically no time to breathe. Heaven knew how she felt whenever she took off her coat and prepared to sleep, only to receive looks from her roommates that seemed to ask, You’re going to sleep already? Aren’t you going to do your homework?
At first, Lin Xiaoxiao was utterly crushed. But people are like that—they adapt quickly. After following this routine for several days, Lin Xiaoxiao had become one of them too.
“Yueyue, did you know? The dorm leader and the others hide under their blankets with their phone flashlights on while they do problems!” One night, Lin Xiaoxiao got up to use the bathroom and saw light shining from beneath the dorm leader’s blanket and two of her roommates’. Thinking they were secretly reading novels, she crept over and lifted a corner of the dorm leader’s blanket, wearing an expression that said, Got you!
Then her face froze.
Worksheets. Worksheets—and more damn worksheets!
It really brought home the saying: the sound of your roommate’s gaming keyboard helps you sleep, while the sound of your roommate flipping through books and doing practice problems keeps you awake.
Mu Yue sighed. “Xiaoxiao, this is what senior year of high school is really like. You’re so busy you don’t even have time to think about anything else.”
Lin Xiaoxiao looked miserable, but the confusion in her eyes was gone. “It’s too hard!”
“Oh, right! Here!” Lin Xiaoxiao pulled out a wrapped present. “Yueyue, happy birthday!”
“Thank you.” Mu Yue accepted the gift.
At that moment, some of their classmates noticed and came over to join in.
“Whoa! It’s your birthday, Mu Yue? Are you having a birthday party or something? How about inviting us classmates?”
“Yeah, yeah!”
“A party thrown by the Young Miss must be incredibly lavish, right?”
Several of them had already begun imagining the possibilities.
“Um… You guys aren’t even close to Mu Yue, are you?” Some classmates began to feel embarrassed on behalf of the shameless group. How did they even have the nerve? They hadn’t brought so much as a token gift.
“Oh, come on. How could the Young Miss possibly be bothered by something like that—” the girls said with a giggle, completely unconcerned.
Mu Yue said, “I’ll have to pass. I have tutoring in the evening, so I don’t have time to throw a party.”
The air went still.
The students in the classroom were so awkward they wanted the floor to swallow them up. Mu Yue simply took Lin Xiaoxiao by the arm and led her out of the classroom. Only then did she say, “We’ll celebrate tonight, just the two of us.”
“Hehe!” Lin Xiaoxiao poked Mu Yue. “You’re so mean!”
Mu Yue shook her head. “That’s called knowing how to say no. You need to learn this skill too. When someone asks you to do something you clearly don’t want to do just because they think you’re a nice person who won’t refuse, you need to say no. Don’t doubt yourself—they’re taking advantage of you because they know you’re kind and too embarrassed to push back.”
Lin Xiaoxiao nodded, only half understanding.
As for being mean? Mu Yue hadn’t even shown her what mean really was yet.
Fortunately, someone got to experience it that Sunday.
The original owner’s birthday fell on a Saturday, while her cousin Mu Yao’s was the following Monday. The two sisters’ birthdays were only a few days apart. Yet every year, Mu Yao insisted on holding her celebration later and inviting the whole family out to eat. Right in front of the original owner, she would accept piles of gifts, while Mu Yue had almost nothing in her hands aside from whatever her third aunt gave her.
Naturally, it wasn’t because that was the only day everyone was available. Mu Yao did it deliberately. Her mother was kind toward the original owner, but Mu Yao didn’t want her mother treating Mu Yue well. She was her mother’s daughter, and even pity was unacceptable.
Before heading to the gathering, Mu Yue had prepared an extravagant gift—not “extravagant” in the sarcastic sense, but genuinely lavish. There was a complete set of high-end skincare products, a beauty device, a massager, a handbag, and a VIP card from a certain brand loaded with one hundred thousand yuan.
The entire gift set had cost Mu Yue over three hundred thousand yuan. She received five hundred thousand yuan every day simply by claiming her sign-in reward, so spending a little over three hundred thousand was effortless.
The meal was being held at a restaurant where the average cost per person started at three hundred yuan. The décor and service were impressive, though the food itself was rather mediocre.
Mu Yue was the last to arrive. The moment she got out of the car, she noticed that everyone from the Mu family was standing outside the restaurant, staring at her vehicle.
With a smile on her face, Mu Yue had the driver take everything out of the trunk. All eyes immediately shifted to the assortment of large and small bags.
The first to hurry over enthusiastically was her cousin, Mu Yao. She took Mu Yue’s hand affectionately and exclaimed, “Oh my gosh, Yueyue! Are all these gifts for me? You’re too sweet!”
Mu Yue pulled her hand away and, without making any attempt to hide it, wiped it with a wet tissue.
“Weren’t the gifts I gave you in previous years all cut to shreds by you, only for you to wrap them up and give them back to me as presents? Don’t tell me—don’t tell me there really are people shameless enough to think that just because they’re close to me, I’ll repay their cruelty with kindness and give them lavish gifts?”
