[Congratulations to the host for evading legal consequences for the first time!]
[Villain Value +50]
Mu Yue: "……"
First thing when she woke up in the morning, she saw the message the system sent last night, and her mood was a little complicated. There was really no need to spell out the achievement description so clearly, just telling her that Villain Value had been credited to her account would have been enough.
She glanced at it again, well, she had earned 50 more points, all the points she spent before were fully recovered, no loss at all.
As soon as she stepped into the classroom, the students in the class were already chatting about the upcoming holiday, and this time the topic was the May Day break. Mu Yue thought to herself, it's only Monday, guys, wake up a little!
But she totally understood them. Last Wednesday was the Qingming Festival holiday, and before that, the students had been complaining that they might only get one day off, but in the end, they didn't even get half a day — classes went on as usual, and there was no make-up leave later. May Day was the only long small holiday before the college entrance examination, it was the only thing these students had to look forward to, there was no way the school would be so unreasonable as to deny them even that break, right?
Lin Xiaoxiao also heard the discussion, and she zoned out for a moment. She remembered the last time she heard her classmates talk about the Qingming Festival holiday, her mind had been full of plans to prepare a gift for Leng Ming, and she was going to learn to cook from Mu Yue every weekend, racking her brains to please him. It hadn't even been that long, but it felt like a whole lifetime ago.
She shook her head, and went back to reciting English words.
Mu Yue observed Lin Xiaoxiao for a bit, and smiled in satisfaction. If the female lead could keep this state going, she still had a shot at getting into a second-tier university if she worked hard enough.
After morning exercises, the head teacher brought the class two pieces of news. First, the lecture the principal had mentioned last week would be held this Saturday afternoon. Second, senior three students would be allowed to participate in the spring sports meet and the cultural gala. The whole class burst into cheers when they heard the announcement. The lecture was boring, sure, but it meant no classes! The sports meet was even more self-explanatory, none of them had dared to hope for it at first, so this was a total pleasant surprise.
There was also a rumor going around that this was the school's way of making up for the Qingming Festival holiday they had been denied. Even though the senior three students only got the second half of the sports meet in the afternoon, and they still had to attend the first period of evening self-study before the gala, those were tiny flaws that no one cared about.
This affected Mu Yue even less. She didn't plan to attend the sports meet at all, since a new study task had just been issued for her.
[Task: Reach the passing grade in every subject]
[Achievement: Entry-level Academic Ace — If you can't even get a score that's 30 points below the full mark in each subject, how dare you call yourself an ace at studying?]
Completing the task would still reward her with 10 points, and the achievement would give 200 points. Failing the task would deduct 100 points as usual, while failing the achievement wouldn't lead to any point deduction.
But Mu Yue narrowed her eyes slightly, staring at that achievement description, emmm… She remembered that when she first bound to the Academic Ace System, it wasn't supposed to take a taunting route.
Right at that moment, the Chick was being poked all over its head by three other systems. It protected its head with its wings while panicking in regret: "Ahhhh! I forgot to change it! I didn't do it on purpose! That idiot predecessor said the host would respond to goading so I set it that way!" But that previous host never got motivated by the taunts at all, they just ranted at the system instead, and blamed it for being rude first.
"Go apologize to the host right now, you little kid!"
"Yeah exactly! Don't get us dragged into this and make the host hate us too!"
"Right, and you have to give her compensation!"
So the next time Mu Yue blinked, the achievement description had already changed to [Just get 70 points on the 100-point scale (120 points on the 150-point scale) for each subject, come on host, you can do it!]
And a new message popped up.
[After systematic observation, the host has been studying extremely diligently lately, hereby we present you a special reward!]
[Points +10]
Mu Yue couldn't help but chuckle. These systems really were… a bunch of little darlings, it would be even better if she could give them a little pat.
The three systems that were just calling the Academic Ace System stingy, and the Academic Ace System that was tearing up over how little points it had, all heard Mu Yue's thought out of the blue. The four of them froze at the same time, their little eyes lit up, and each of them started acting all coy and bashful. It had been so long since they last heard the host say she wanted to pet them!
But before they could stretch out their little feet to test the waters, Mu Yue had already dived back into her studies, so they could only watch her eagerly and decided not to disturb her.
This new study task and its matching achievement were essentially the same thing, one required her to pass every subject, the other was an upgraded version. Passing each subject looked easy, the sum of the passing scores for all subjects was even lower than the total score Mu Yue got in the monthly exam last week, but it didn't work that way.
In the last monthly exam, she had failed biology and chemistry, getting just over 50 points in both, and barely scraped a pass in physics. Her total score had been entirely carried by the other three major subjects.
What's more, there was a big problem. The last monthly exam only tested the content from the third volume of the senior three textbooks, but the upcoming mock exam would simulate the college entrance examination, testing all the knowledge and question types from all three years of high school. There was no room for slacking off at all.
The head teacher was still talking about the gala performances. Only five programs from the entire senior grade would be selected, and students could use their spare time to rehearse. If their program didn't get picked, they would just go back to classes as usual. This spot was basically taken by arts students who specialized in music and dance, most students had no intention of performing, but that didn't stop them from getting all excited about it.
Lin Xiaoxiao noticed that Mu Yue wasn't interested at all, and had even already started reading her textbook. She was a little shocked and asked: "Yueyue, aren't you looking forward to the sports meet and the gala?"
Mu Yue shook her head: "No time. The mock exam is next month, I can't score lower than 500 points."
Lin Xiaoxiao swallowed, forced a small awkward smile, and after a long internal struggle, she tearfully followed in her good friend's footsteps. She had gradually realized that if she didn't work hard now, Mu Yue would drift further and further away from her — not in social status, but in the confidence that came from being capable.
When the person you walk beside gets more and more outstanding, while you stay stuck in the same place, you don't need anyone to point it out for you. You will naturally feel inferior, and think you don't deserve to stand by their side anymore. Just like how she used to chase after Leng Ming, she could only trail far behind him, never able to walk side by side with him.
But comparing that to her current situation with Mu Yue wasn't really appropriate. After all, Yueyue treated her a hundred times better than Leng Ming ever did! And Leng Ming never even thought about keeping pace with her, he only offered to help her with her studies that one single time.
So when the class was discussing on Wednesday which programs had been selected, Lin Xiaoxiao and Mu Yue tuned everything out, not hearing a single word. And on Friday, the day of the sports meet, Mu Yue directly asked for leave from the head teacher, no excuses, just saying she wanted to catch up on her studies so she wouldn't attend the event. Lin Xiaoxiao did the exact same thing.
The head teacher would never say no to students who wanted to improve their grades, so the two of them left the school smoothly. They didn't know that some student had deliberately walked past Class 12, and loudly told the person next to them that Leng Ming from Class 1 and the class beauty were going to perform together that night, the handsome guy and the pretty girl were the perfect match.
The cultural gala that night was indeed very lively, and the most talked-about part of the whole event was none other than the piano and violin duet.
The two performers were dressed in gorgeous outfits, the combination of piano and violin was elegant and sophisticated, and their performance was genuinely excellent. It instantly made the whole gala feel like a much higher-class event. Even the teachers couldn't help whispering to each other that putting aside the fact that they were students, the two of them looked incredibly good standing together.
Striking the final note, Leng Ming stood up, took his companion's hand, and bowed gracefully to the audience. One after another, excited classmates came up to the stage to present flowers, but even when the host walked up to the stage, he still had not spotted the person he was waiting for.
Leng Ming's gaze swept across the audience, but the stage lights were so blinding that he could see nothing beyond the teachers and students in the very front row.
When he stepped off the stage, he pretended to casually walk past Class 12, and finally could not hold back to ask where Lin Xiaoxiao was.
"Her? She asked for leave this afternoon to go study with Mu Yue, right? She probably won't be back until the gala ends."
Holding the bouquet someone had given him, Leng Ming looked stunned, utterly disbelieving.
"Got it, got it!"
"Perfect! Change his nose to a red clown nose!"
"Wow, that fits so well, this is a great meme!"
"We'll send it to the host later, she's definitely going to love it." System 4 turned on its shielding function again, holding its electronic device and cackling as it watched the scene.
Hilarious, no one is paying attention to the male lead right now. He really looks just like a total clown.
This little episode did not catch Mu Yue's attention at all. She threw herself entirely into her studies, barely having a minute to spare for an entire month. It was not until the mock college entrance exam finished that she finally allowed herself a break, sleeping in as late as she could to catch up on rest.
When Mu Yue woke up, it was already past one in the afternoon. She did not rush to get out of bed, lying there scrolling through her phone. Today she decided she would not touch anything related to studying at all, and just let her mind go completely empty.
After playing some mindless games for a while, Mu Yue started tallying up her income and expenses for this month.
The first two weeks after moving into this apartment were the period when she spent the most money, as she bought a lot of large furniture and appliances, costing nearly seven million yuan in total. After that, her weekly expenses became pretty steady: groceries, nutritional supplements, seasonal clothes and shoes, maintenance for her car and luxury goods.
And of course, the salaries for the people working for her. She had already transferred that sum to Qianqian, asking her to distribute the pay on a regular schedule, and Qianqian was also in charge of attendance tracking for all the other staff.
Qianqian makes 50,000 yuan a month - that's lower than the short-term pay rate, but this salary is already at the level of a senior executive assistant, and she has a lot more responsibilities to handle. Right now there is only one car, so the driver makes 12,000 yuan a month. The aunt who cooks her meals and cleans the place makes 20,000 yuan a month. And her tutors combined make 120,000 yuan a month.
It's a good thing Mu Yue logs in every day to collect her rewards from the Tycoon System, otherwise she would not even be able to afford all these staff salaries.
Leaving aside the big-ticket items she bought at the beginning, her average weekly expenses add up to less than a million yuan - she's gotten so spoiled lately that she's even using the word "less than" in front of a million like it's no big deal.
Right now she still has over 6.5 million yuan left in her bank account. She almost forgot that 800,000 yuan of that is the insurance money the Mu family paid her back. She was so deep in her studies that she didn't even remember the exact day the Mu family gathered the money and gave it to her.
Then there are her points. Mu Yue checked the points breakdown directly. This month she earned a total of 173 points. She spent 100 of those points entirely on the health stat, which had gone up from 70 to 90, but health points would drop over time. Since she's been burning the candle at both ends studying like crazy lately, it's fallen back down to 86 points.
She used the remaining 73 points to buy two more sets of stickers, and now she only has 13 points left.
In addition, the Tycoon System needs 50 experience points to upgrade to level 2, which means she has to spend a total of 50 million yuan to reach the stage where she can get 1 million yuan a day from the daily check-in. Right now, she doesn't even have 10 experience points, and is still 1 point short.
"Ugh, looks like my main task today is to spend money," Mu Yue mumbled to herself as she started thinking. Should she buy another car? Or a set of fine jewelry? But she really doesn't feel like going out today.
Just as she was thinking this, someone knocked on her bedroom door.
"Little Yue? Little Yue, are you up yet? It's already past one in the afternoon. Do you want something to eat?" The voice outside the door was not Lin Xiaoxiao's, it sounded like Auntie Wang, the woman who was supposed to be in charge of her meals.
Little Yue?
Mu Yue's expression turned a little strange. She got up and opened the bedroom door. "Auntie Wang, I'm pretty sure I told Qianqian that on weekends when I don't make special requests, you get to rest. Didn't she pass that message on to you?"
"Oh, it's no trouble at all. I saw how hard you've been studying lately, and I was free anyway, so I just came over to check on you. Look, perfect timing, now you get to eat a hot meal as soon as you wake up!" Auntie Wang smiled, looking completely sincere and simple, acting extremely warm and enthusiastic.
Mu Yue suddenly smiled. She didn't say anything more, just grabbed a coat to put on and followed Auntie Wang out of the bedroom.
Seeing that, a look of satisfaction flashed across Auntie Wang's eyes, and she kept talking. "Little Yue, it's not that I'm lecturing you, but a young girl like you really shouldn't sleep this late in the day. If you sleep too much during the day, you won't be able to sleep at night, and that's terrible for your daily routine."
Mu Yue still didn't reply, just followed her towards the dining room. From a distance, she could see that there were quite a few dishes on the table, all still steaming hot.
Seeing that she didn't object, Auntie Wang got even more bold and kept going. "I saw all those pretty clothes Qianqian bought for you. You should dress up more too. No boy is going to like you if you just bury your nose in books all day. You're at that flowery age where you're supposed to be the most attractive."
Mu Yue sat down and asked, "Really? If I dress up all pretty, boys will like me?"
"Exactly, exactly!" Auntie Wang's eyes crinkled up with her smile. "I happen to know a great guy, he graduated from a top university, he's tall and handsome, and he's especially -"
Mu Yue raised a hand to cut her off, and dialed Qianqian's number. She twirled a dinner knife between her fingers, her tone turning icy in an instant. "Qianqian, come over here right now."
"Where did you find this Auntie Wang who broke the rules, showed up at my place uninvited, and even tried to set me up with a man? I want to fire her and file a formal complaint."
What on earth is this? She's only worked a full month and she's already forgotten her place? Or did she spend this whole month figuring out her schedule and picking the perfect time to make her move?
"System, get the loan points ready, I might need to buy protection items at any moment." She was not going to let her guard down until she figured out exactly what this woman's intentions were.
