Mu Yue nibbled on some snacks in the car to line her stomach, idly gazing out the window at the scenery. The weather had turned warm now, and the late cherry blossoms in the green belt were in full, lush bloom.
A soft breeze drifted by, carrying stray petals to land on the shoulders of passersby, painting a scene that felt gentle and utterly dreamy.
It was rare for Mu Yue to have such free time, where she had nothing to do and nothing to worry about, just sitting back to admire the beauty of those flowers. But soon, she noticed something out of the ordinary compared to her usual outings.
— There was a ridiculously flashy red sports car right next to them.
Ever since Mu Yue's car first hit the road, no other vehicles had ever pulled up too close to it from any direction, and even when they did, they kept a normal, respectful distance. But this sports car was different.
It was blatantly, almost comically showy — not because of the car itself, but the person behind the wheel. The vehicle was clearly "chasing" Mu Yue's car on purpose. It would deliberately lag a short distance behind, then roar noisily to catch up, pull up so close it nearly brushed Mu Yue's car, then veer away again.
Even though it was just a car, Mu Yue felt a disgusting sense of being harassed.
This wasn't her imagination. When they reached a red light up ahead, drivers and passengers in all the surrounding cars wordlessly did the same thing: they pulled out their phones.
The red sports car's window rolled down first. The driver, wearing sunglasses, struck a self-consciously cool pose as he looked toward the backseat of the Maybach beside him, then honked his horn.
The people around immediately caught wind of a potential gossip moment, and began sneakily watching the black luxury car to see what would happen. To their disappointment, neither the front nor back windows of that car rolled down even once.
"Crazy," Mu Yue muttered, bewildered. Why was she running into all kinds of weirdos today?
To the general public, her car was seen as the standard ride for a male CEO. In real life, young, handsome, rich CEOs were few and far between, and most of them were already married. Even if someone wanted to flirt, they wouldn't pick such a loud, obvious way to do it.
But this sports-car guy was doing exactly that, and it was clear he was straight, with a very specific target in mind. Mu Yue hadn't rolled down her window once since getting in the car, and the windows were privacy-proof. How had he even known there was a woman sitting in the backseat?
That question made the whole situation feel oddly suspicious. There was a high chance this guy lived in her residential compound, had dug up basic information about her, and decided to set his sights on her as a target.
A young, well-off woman living alone. Some creepy, rotten creeps could sniff out that profile like hounds on a scent.
Mu Yue sneered. Fine, fine, fine. Everyone thought she was such an easy target, huh?
"Qianqian, get in touch with our lawyer," Mu Yue said. "I suspect that auntie I fired earlier today maliciously retaliated by leaking my private information. If we confirm that's the case, sue her for ten times the compensation stated in her contract. If she can't pay up, she can do time for it."
Qianqian quietly responded with a respectful "Yes", silently kicking herself for not being careful enough. The driver, meanwhile, gripped the steering wheel nervously. For the first time, he thought his wife calling him a slow, quiet stick-in-the-mud was a compliment. Being the strong, silent type was way better than being a blabbermouth.
As for the sports-car guy, Mu Yue had no intention of letting him off the hook either. He was so eager to push his luck with her, wasn't he?
She opened the in-app mall, and sure enough, her ever-reliable little helpers had already pushed the exact item she wanted to the top of the page.
Mu Yue's eyes landed right on one particular prop: [Malice-to-Impotence Conversion Syndrome], priced at 10 points.
Item description: Converts all malice the target holds toward the host into temporary impotence. The duration of the effect varies based on how much malice the target holds, with a minimum of three hours and a maximum of three years. (Note: This effect cannot be cured while it is active.)
Buy it! Use it immediately!
The second Mu Yue clicked to use the prop, a see-through screen only she could see popped up. It displayed every person within a hundred meters, each marked with a tiny mini avatar above their head, making selection totally effortless.
Mu Yue easily selected the man sitting in the driver's seat of the red sports car, and the prop kicked into effect.
There were only five seconds left on the red light. Seeing that the Maybach's windows still hadn't rolled down, Qian Lei was starting to get impatient. What a stuck-up snob, refusing to open the window this whole time?
All of a sudden, he felt a strange cold draft down his pants, like a gust of cold wind had blown right up against his skin, making him shiver. That was weird. It wasn't cold at all today, and his car wasn't a convertible. Where did that wind come from? Before he could figure it out, the car next to him started moving, so he quickly put the thought out of his mind and stepped on the gas to follow.
"Miss, I'll shake him off at the next intersection!" the driver offered. He had no idea if the sports-car guy knew Mu Yue, but he wasn't stupid. If his boss found this guy annoying, it was his job as a driver to show off a little skill to get rid of him.
"Don't," Mu Yue said, her mood lifting considerably. "Let him follow."
The tiny bit of malice he had right now wasn't nearly enough. She wanted to ramp it up. Crank it all the way to a full three years!
[Congratulations to the host for completing the "secretly strike back under the table" achievement for the first time!]
[Villain value +50]
Mu Yue: "..." You really don't have to spell out what the achievement is called, you know. She didn't exactly need to hear the details.
Inside the system space, White Bear had one hand behind its back and was waving the other enthusiastically. "This is just basic villain behavior, no need to cheer, no need to cheer!"
Mu Yue completely ignored the sports-car guy's ridiculous antics the whole way, and soon arrived at the restaurant she planned to eat at. It was already past two in the afternoon, a time when most restaurants were closed after the lunch rush, so reservations were notoriously hard to get.
But money talked, and Mu Yue had paid way over the standard price.
The moment she stepped through the door, a staff member came up to greet her and led her to a window-side table. She was having Cantonese dim sum that day, and she had paid three times the usual price, plus extra overtime pay for every staff member who stayed behind to serve her.
After sitting down, Mu Yue started ticking the dishes she wanted off the menu. She could faintly hear someone at the entrance saying, "I'm sorry, sir, our restaurant isn't open for service right now. We reopen at five p.m. ..." The man argued for a minute or two, but eventually left without being let in.
Mu Yue almost laughed out loud. That guy's pickup trick was so corny. And he was so cheap on top of it.
Turns out her guess was totally right. At first, Qian Lei had planned to cause a tiny little fender bender on the road, like "accidentally" scraping the side of Mu Yue's Maybach. Then he could play the gracious, rich gentleman who offered to pay for the damages, smoothly ask for her contact information, and invite her to dinner to apologize. But the second he saw what kind of car Mu Yue was driving, he immediately dropped that idea.
He switched gears and tried to get her attention instead, thinking even if they got into a small fight, it would still leave an opening for him to keep talking to her. But Mu Yue hadn't even acknowledged his existence. Now he was ready to move to his second plan: follow her into the restaurant, offer to pay her bill, and frame it as an apology for his earlier rude behavior.
But the restaurant staff told him all the chefs had clocked out for the day, and the only reason Mu Yue was allowed in was because of a special reservation. So he was stuck waiting for another chance.
Truth be told, there was a way to get inside even when the restaurant was closed. He could have just spent the money to book the entire place for a private meal — there's no way the staff would turn down that kind of money. But obviously, the sports-car bro wasn't willing to shell out that much cash. He was probably making up excuses for himself in his head, telling himself he wasn't being cheap, he just thought Mu Yue wouldn't like such a tacky, flashy display of wealth, so there was no need to waste the money.
With no one to bother her, Mu Yue got to enjoy her meal in peace, exactly as she wanted.
After leaving the restaurant, she headed straight for the nearby shopping mall. It was the same kind of high-end luxury mall she had visited once with Leng Ming and the others, full of mid-range and luxury brands where you could easily blow through several million yuan without even trying.
Mu Yue didn't plan to wander around floor by floor. She headed straight for the jewelry section, where a shopping guide greeted her warmly and asked what kind of pieces she was looking for.
Mu Yue loved efficiency, so she sat down and got straight to the point: "I have a six million budget. What do you recommend?"
At the mention of that figure, the salesgirls' grins grew far more genuine. The shop happened to have no other customers at the moment, and several sales associates came over to Mu Yue with trays of recommended products.
The assistant manager chatted with Mu Yue with a bright smile, asking if she had any particular preferred materials or styles. Mu Yue had not had any preferences at first, but as the assistant manager introduced the pieces, she found herself growing interested in all those glittering items. After seeing the actual products, she soon developed clear favorites.
Before long, quite a few pieces were laid out in front of Mu Yue. She liked every single one of them. She asked Little Custodian to calculate the total price, and found that she could take all of them home for 6.5 million. She was just about to speak when Qian Lei finally showed up.
"Hey there, miss, which pieces have you taken a fancy to? I'll pay for them."
He took off his sunglasses with a smug smile, expecting to see envious or delighted looks from the sales staff. All he got, however, were polite smiles, and no one responded to his offer. The scene turned awkward for a split second, before the assistant manager stepped forward to greet him—after all, a customer is a customer, no one could let the atmosphere turn cold. Though it was obvious that the lady had no intention of even acknowledging this man.
Qian Lei was irked that his grand entrance did not get the reaction he expected, but he quickly walked into the shop and came to Mu Yue's side, talking as if they were old acquaintances: "Miss, I'm so sorry about earlier on the road. I just got this new car, and I'm still not very used to driving it. Would I have the honor to treat you to dinner to make up for that?"
The salesgirls lowered their voices, and pairs of eyes lit up with obvious gossip.
Mu Yue asked the sales staff to wrap up all the glittering pieces she had picked out, then glanced sideways at Qian Lei and said in feigned surprise: "So that thing you were driving was a car? I would have thought you were riding a pig. The road was wide enough for everyone else to drive properly, but you just kept waddling and swerving all over the place next to me, what a total turn-off."
"Pfft!" One salesgirl could not hold back her laugh, then immediately covered her mouth and whispered, "Sorry, I just choked on my water."
"You!" The gentlemanly facade Qian Lei had been putting on crumbled by half. He tried his best to calm himself down and forced a smile: "Right, my driving skills do need more work. That's why I'm here to apologize to you, isn't it?"
"Is that so?" Mu Yue raised an eyebrow. "How much are all these things?"
While the sales staff were all eating up the drama, their hands never stopped moving. In the time it took for that exchange, all the jewelry on the counter had already been packed, leaving only a women's watch sitting out. The assistant manager smiled and said: "That comes to a total of 6.377 million. Thank you for your patronage!"
"What?!" Qian Lei's voice went shrill, the remaining half of his pretended poise vanished completely. He stared at Mu Yue in disbelief: "We just met for the first time, and you expect me to spend over six million on you? Are you out of your mind?"
He yelled so loudly that he drew the attention of many passersby.
A jewelry store, a young woman, a huge purchase, a man offering to pay on a first meeting—all the most gossip-worthy elements were there. People immediately pulled out their phones to record the scene. The store manager and sales associates noticed the situation going south and tried to stop the onlookers, but with little success.
At that moment, Leng Ming, who was out shopping with his mother, aunt, and cousin, happened to be nearby. His cousin dragged him over to join the crowd, and then he spotted a girl sitting on the sofa. Dozens of beautifully packaged jewelry bags were stacked on the coffee table in front of her, and she was leaning back with her legs crossed, looking at the man yelling beside her with complete amusement.
Even in such a messy scene, she still said in a completely unapologetic, matter-of-fact tone: "What? Can't pay for it? If you can't afford it, why did you act like such a big shot?"
The crowd was whispering amongst themselves, all shocked that they had stumbled on a gold-digger right there in public.
The people in front shifted a little to make space, and Leng Ming finally got a clear look at the girl sitting on the sofa. He blurted out: "Mu Yue?"
"Huh? Cousin, you know her?" His cousin tugged at his arm, looking utterly thrilled.
Leng Ming nodded: "We go to the same school."
His cousin gaped dramatically, then looked at Mu Yue with a judgmental, disdainful expression. She suddenly pulled Leng Ming out of the crowd a little, her eyes rolling with scheming: "How could she do that? She's such a disgrace to all of us high school girls! Let's go talk some sense into her, make her apologize to that man right away."
But then, the next move Mu Yue made instantly silenced everyone.
She pulled out her bank card and handed it to the assistant manager: "Ring me up, please."
Then she gave Qian Lei a merciless, mocking glance: "Idiot."
All the nasty murmurs that were about to spread about Mu Yue died out the second she made that move, leaving only Leng Ming and his cousin standing not far off looking stunned, and Qian Lei whose face had turned a whole rainbow of ugly colors.
