The next morning, Mu Yue came across the news that Wen Xue had been hospitalized while scrolling through her phone. The headline used the words “poisoning,” which had sparked quite a bit of discussion.
Wen Xue had not yet reached A-list status, but she certainly had a great deal of traffic. However, since she had a reputation for attracting controversy, quite a few people were claiming that this incident was just a publicity stunt.
The company Wen Xue worked for belonged to the male lead’s childhood friend. At least the company had not chosen to remain silent. It quickly issued a statement confirming that there had indeed been an incident involving poisoning, and that the matter had been handed over to the police. The suspect had also been arrested.
Exactly. No matter what kind of drug had been used, poisoning was still poisoning. Why not just call the police? Mu Yue really could not understand the logic of those male and female leads in novels who realized something was wrong with their bodies but did not immediately call the police or seek medical attention. Instead, they went to all the trouble of taking revenge indirectly afterward.
Those drugs were all unlicensed, poorly made products. Was venting their anger really enough? What if they had dangerous side effects?
Mu Yue followed the timeline and looked over the corresponding plot. Naturally, the original story had not developed this way. The male and female leads had simply slept together for an entire night, and that was the end of it. When the female lead was taken away at the time, she had been photographed by paparazzi. Those photos later became one of the most important pieces of evidence used to drag her through the mud online.
Oh, right. Mu Yue suddenly remembered what she had thought of the night before. Afraid she would forget later, she hurriedly told the four systems, “Babies, over the next two days, record all similar drug purchases and transactions across the entire internet. Then organize and compile everything. We’ll report them all at once later.”
The four systems all assured her that she could leave it to them and that they would definitely complete the task.
The Comeback system added, “Host, don’t forget to check yesterday’s earnings!”
Ah, that was right. She had almost forgotten. As the cannon-fodder Comeback system’s host, Mu Yue had met both the male and female leads in person the day before, along with one supporting character and several other minor cannon-fodder characters.
In the original story, Mu Yue had been at the very bottom, whether in terms of status, influence, or looks.
If she had only been doing missions in The White Moonlight, climbing up from the lowest level would actually have been quite difficult. But with the four systems bound together, Mu Yue only needed to earn points from the other three systems. As a result, the Comeback mission had become the easiest one of all.
Perhaps because of that, the Comeback system did not have any phased missions. Instead, it had one overall target: her total Comeback Value had to exceed ten thousand points.
Because of this requirement, previous hosts had simply given up the moment they saw it. A single system did not require ten thousand points, but even eight thousand was already a high threshold. To reach ten thousand, supporting characters were nowhere near enough. The host’s overall influence had to reach the same level as that of the male and female leads.
But now, Mu Yue had earned a total of 880 Comeback points the previous day. Three hundred came from Wen Linlin. Those three hundred points represented the reward for completely overwhelming her, and Mu Yue would not receive any additional points from Wen Linlin the next time they met.
Another 450 points came from the several minor cannon-fodder characters. They were all daughters of third-rate wealthy families or actresses who had barely made it past the eighteenth tier.
The female lead had contributed only 130 points.
Eighty of those points came from education. Although Mu Yue had only just been admitted to A University, the female lead had not even gone to college. She had entered the entertainment industry immediately after taking the college entrance examination, and attending university had always been one of her regrets.
The remaining fifty points came from wealth and the identity of a wealthy heiress. As for looks, Wen Xue was genuinely no less attractive than Mu Yue. She did have the delicate, innocent appearance of a little white flower, but that image had been deliberately cultivated. Her true beauty was far from plain or forgettable.
On top of that, Wen Xue had an exceptionally curvaceous figure. She usually dressed in an understated, elegant style because she had to play the role of the white moonlight. If her attributes were converted into the system’s numerical values, Wen Xue’s appearance would probably score somewhere between ninety-five and ninety-eight—enough to leave a lasting impression on anyone who saw her.
The original novel had even mentioned that this stand-in was actually much prettier than the white moonlight herself.
Mu Yue reasonably suspected that the male lead had simply been attracted to Wen Xue’s looks, then did not want to take responsibility, so he had casually used the white moonlight as an excuse.
The main characters and supporting characters were different, however. Points could be harvested from them many times.
According to the system’s calculations, Wen Xue’s current total assets had already reached two hundred million yuan, not much less than Mu Yue’s.
As for the male lead—well, he was a domineering CEO. His net worth started at a minimum of ten billion yuan. He owned some conglomerate involved in multiple industries, was a genius businessman, a commercial tycoon, and so on. The story simply kept piling titles onto him.
Sure enough, the male leads in romance stories were always more powerful than the female leads. If she wanted to earn big, she still had to focus on the male lead.
The female lead was the type who grew gradually, earning points bit by bit. By the time she had fully matured, it would probably take several more years. The process was too slow compared with the male lead.
Mu Yue was still some distance away from the domineering CEO, but unlike the Top Student system’s mission, the Comeback system did not impose a specific time limit. At her current rate of earning points, she was confident it would not take too long.
Besides, the CEO’s wealth value referred to the total value of his assets, not one hundred billion in liquid cash. Wealth value was fixed, but identity could be set however she liked.
[Comeback Value (Total)/]
The exchange rate between Comeback points and system points remained one-to-one. Mu Yue now had 5,000 points in hand. After browsing the shop for a while, she bought Beginner Hidden Weapons and ten points of Accuracy, spending 500 points.
Like swordsmanship, the basic level of hidden weapons was cheap, while Accuracy was more expensive. However, Accuracy was a universal attribute. Anything that required aiming would receive a boost from it, whether it was tossing rings at a carnival or shooting a gun.
After closing the shop interface, Mu Yue received a message from Wen Xue.
Wen Xue was already fine. She had woken up in the middle of the night, but since it had been so late, she had been worried about disturbing Mu Yue’s sleep. Naturally, she was now thanking Mu Yue and wanted to arrange a time to have a meal together. She was still waiting for Mu Yue to punish her, after all.
Unfortunately, Mu Yue would not get to have that meal over the next month, because university had officially begun.
University was more flexible than high school, but anyone who thought it was truly easier than high school was being far too optimistic.
University emphasized independent study. Professors taught quickly, covered a great deal of material, and made the content three times as difficult as high school. But because no teacher was constantly supervising whether students studied, many freshmen either struggled to adjust or assumed that university would be easy.
Learning everything well and thoroughly was difficult; coasting through was easy. But once students muddled their way through university, those from well-off families had nothing to worry about. Those without such support, however, would probably lie awake every night regretting why they had wasted their time.
Mu Yue had chosen finance as her major. There was no particular reason for it—she had simply studied it before, and repeating it would definitely be easier than starting an unfamiliar major from scratch. She no longer needed to worry about her future career, so naturally she chose whatever was most comfortable.
Of course, she still paid attention in class. The Top Student system’s mission was officially issued when classes began.
It was indeed much easier than high school. The main mission only required her not to fail any courses each semester. Passing the Mandarin proficiency test, the computer proficiency test, and the College English Test Band 4 and Band 6, as well as participating in competitions and earning certificates, would all grant her system points if she placed or obtained the relevant qualifications. All of these counted as challenge missions.
It was worth mentioning that Mu Yue had already reported the transactions involving those unlicensed drugs that the systems had collected. To her delight, she received 1,000 points on the very day she filed the report.
Mu Yue: 6!
It's obvious that the drugging plot point is incredibly important across these novels. After being investigated by the police and becoming unavailable for purchase, she still ended up earning a huge sum of money directly.
After that little incident, Mu Yue's college life went back to normal.
She joined two clubs, one is the Youth Volunteer Association, also known as the Qing Xie for short, and the other is the badminton club, to spice up her daily life.
Right now, Mu Yue is busy preparing for the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival garden party.
There are separate zones for the National Day theme and the Mid-Autumn Festival theme, both packed with all kinds of small activities and booths.
Over at the National Day zone, there are the classic "Take a Photo with the National Flag" photo spot with a message board, the "Great Nation's Journey" trivia quiz game, and the magnificent mountains and rivers jigsaw puzzle game.
The Mid-Autumn Festival side is far more poetic, featuring riddle-guessing, handmade mooncake making, arrow tossing, ring toss, and more.
Last but not least is the volunteer service zone for the secondhand item charity donation.
All these preparations have to be wrapped up before the holiday arrives, so Mu Yue is pretty swamped. She had taken part in all these little games before, but back then she was just a visiting student, and being on the organizing side feels completely different.
The clubs are pretty generous too. Visitors who collect all the stamps across the garden party can enter a raffle, with prizes ranging from smartphones, tablets, headphones, sports watches, and the most coveted one of all — a plane ticket home.
The temptation of going home was so strong that the garden party was packed with people on the day of the event. Mu Yue's three roommates even came along. After wandering around for a while, each of them walked away with a rabbit lantern or a round silk fan, and the entire venue was filled with the bright, lively laughter of young people.
Youth really is wonderful, Mu Yue thought to herself as they were packing up. She casually slipped every single ring in her hand onto the row of rabbit plushies that were standing in different poses.
"Holy cow!" Zhao Yang gaped, then thumped Wen Yuanting's arm hard, "Tingzi, did you see that?"
"I saw it, I saw it!" Wen Yuanting was thoroughly annoyed by him, "Stop using every excuse to punch me, would you?"
A round of laughter broke out around them. Chu Xiaoshi wrapped an arm around Mu Yue, "Of course, my little junior can do so much more than that!"
"Tch, like she's your little junior alone! Junior Mu belongs to all of us!"
"La la la, I can't hear you!" Chu Xiaoshi covered her ears and shook her head so hard it looked like a rattle top, making everyone burst into laughter again.
Almost everyone left at this point was from the Youth Volunteer Association. After the playful banter died down, they all pitched in to help tidy up, but even as they talked, many people were still marveling at the trick Mu Yue had just pulled — landing all ten rings perfectly on target.
Wen Yuanting was also clearing up the booth, and his eyes drifted over to that figure. Mu Yue, someone who had never showed up before, was so bright and striking that it was almost impossible to ignore her whenever she was around.
But several times, Wen Yuanting had clearly sensed that her presence faded — in everyone else's eyes. She was standing right there in plain sight, but it was as if everyone around her had suddenly developed severe myopia, and no one noticed her until they walked right up to her.
That's so weird. Could she be the breakthrough point?
He had no idea. Wen Yuanting looked away, hesitating over whether he should reach out to talk to her. But he really didn't want to end up as a vegetable for four months all over again.
Mu Yue turned around and saw the top of Wen Yuanting's head. He was bending down to lift a heavy box, and the muscles on his arms tensed visibly as he straightened up.
This guy was definitely staring at her just now, she was sure of it.
"All wrapped up!" a senior student cheered, "Anyone up for a barbecue feast together?"
"Sounds great, count me in!"
"Junior Mu, are you coming with us?"
Mu Yue checked the time and politely declined, "Sorry, I'm heading home now."
"Huh? Are you a local from City A?" Zhao Yang asked in all earnestness.
Wen Yuanting didn't even bother to comment on how dumb that question was. Everyone else gave him a look that spoke volumes without a single word — how did someone with that low of an intelligence even get admitted to this university?
The answer was obvious. She wasn't originally from City A, but she owned a house here.
Mu Yue said goodbye to everyone. It was already nighttime, and even though they were on campus, the parking lot was still a fair distance away. Chu Xiaoshi was just about to offer to walk her over when someone beat her to it.
"Junior Mu, let me give you a ride." Wen Yuanting had somehow showed up with a bicycle.
Zhao Yang stared at his best friend in utter shock, craning his neck to look back as if wondering when the guy had vanished from the group. The rest of them exchanged a knowing look, then watched as the two of them rode off together.
It was just an ordinary bicycle. Mu Yue hadn't ridden on the back of one for years, and she agreed to take the ride mostly because she was curious what this senior was up to. She was fully certain that the look in his eyes when he looked at her was nothing like a schoolboy crush.
She had noticed him for quite a while, not just once or twice. The first time they met, she thought his good looks made him look like a character straight out of some novel, and every subsequent encounter happened at the Youth Volunteer Association.
Wen Yuanting kept glancing at her every now and then, with a strange gaze that was nothing like what other students gave her. It was hard to put into words, but what stuck with her most was one time a rich second-generation heir had come to pursue her in a super ostentatious way. She was so annoyed that she activated her low-presence aura, which made everyone else completely overlook her. But Wen Yuanting still saw her.
The system said the aura hadn't failed, that some people were just unusually perceptive.
They reached the parking lot soon, without a single word exchanged the whole ride. This area was pretty dim, the nearest streetlight was broken, and there were plenty of bushes and trees around. Walking alone here at night would easily make anyone's mind wander to those urban campus murder horror stories.
Mu Yue got off the back of the bicycle, thanked him briefly, and pulled out her car key to unlock her car. Just as she was about to get in, Wen Yuanting finally spoke up, "Wait."
Mu Yue smiled a little, "I thought you could hold it in even longer. Go on, what is it that you want to talk about?"
Wen Yuanting fell silent again.
Mu Yue tapped her wrist watch three times. Just as she was starting to lose her patience, Wen Yuanting said, "You might think this is absurd, or that I just made up a weird excuse to hit on you, but I've already lived through this ten times before."
"This is the eleventh time. I never saw you once at University A in any of my previous ten loops."
Mu Yue's fingers were still resting on her watch, but her heart skipped a beat. She looked up and studied him carefully, "What do you mean?"
Wen Yuanting spoke in a low voice, "For this whole year, I've repeated the same stretch of time ten times. Every single loop, I get hit by a car on New Year's Day, end up in a coma as a vegetable, and wake up four months later right back on the first day of this year."
"AAAAAAH!!!" The systems were screaming at the top of their lungs.
"Damn it! A fusion bug just popped up!"
"Shit! I knew it was too good to be true, there was no way we got that lucky!"
[Urgent task: Repair the loophole! You will earn points as a task completion reward!]
