Once they got to the hotel room, Lin Xiaoxiao spun around the living room several times, looking up at the ornate chandelier and exclaiming, "I've never stayed anywhere this luxurious before!"
Mu Yue smiled and said, "Go pick whatever desserts, snacks, or drinks you'd like to have — anything freshly made is available. There are computers and game consoles in the esports room too. I have two classes to attend first, and once I'm done, we'll head out for dinner."
"Got it!" Lin Xiaoxiao immediately grabbed her favorite desserts and drinks, then wandered through every single room. The suite was far more than just a hall and a bedroom: it had multiple dedicated spaces, including a gym, a home theater, a chess and card room, a full kitchen, plus an outdoor garden and a swimming pool. At some point, a waiter appeared, who would give her a detailed introduction to the features and usage of every spot she showed even the slightest interest in.
Lin Xiaoxiao was in high spirits at first, with a long list of things she wanted to try, but when she wandered near the study and saw Mu Yue was actually in class, with a teacher talking so enthusiastically that spit was flying everywhere, her fun started to fade.
She played while growing increasingly antsy, and in a trance, she felt that exact suffocating feeling like when everyone agrees not to do their homework, only to show up at school on Monday and realize you're the only one who actually skipped it.
After struggling through more than an hour, she finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the teacher leave. Once Mu Yue had packed up her things, the two linked arms affectionately and headed to the restaurant.
There were so many types of food Lin Xiaoxiao wanted to eat that they eventually settled on a buffet. The buffet at Dianyun Hotel was very well-known in H City, with countless food bloggers posting reviews that all agreed on one thing: it was perfect, apart from the eye-watering price tag.
The price was 5888 yuan per person. Buffets at this tier were not included in the hotel stay package, and guests had to pay out of pocket — but since Mu Yue had booked a seven-night stay, the hotel had given them two free buffet vouchers.
The butler Lina led Mu Yue and Lin Xiaoxiao to the restaurant, showing them to a prime table by the window. When the server brought over the menu, Lin Xiaoxiao's eyes went wide the moment she saw the prices printed on it.
She hid behind the menu and whispered, "Yueyue, are you secretly the long-lost princess of a corporate conglomerate from a romance drama?"
During that torturous hour earlier, she had run through all sorts of theories. The stupid boys in their class had said things like Mu Yue was being kept as a sugar baby, but Lin Xiaoxiao didn't believe a single word of that. Winning the lottery was out of the question too, since minors couldn't claim the prize, and Mu Yue's family background made that impossible anyway, not to mention any illegal activities were completely off the table.
After racking her brain, this was the only theory that made sense, even if it sounded totally unrealistic.
Mu Yue was ticking the dishes she wanted on the menu, and she nodded at Lin Xiaoxiao's question. "Something like that."
She had already asked Little Custodian about this, and the money from the god-tier system was transferred to her in the form of an inheritance. Naturally, everything the system provided was completely untraceable, and she could shape the exact details of this persona however she wanted.
Lin Xiaoxiao covered her mouth with both hands, staring at Mu Yue in utter excitement. "Oh my gosh! Is that real? Ahhh! How are you staying so calm about this?"
Mu Yue smiled and added a quick cover story. "I was in total shock for three whole days, I couldn't believe it was real, so I didn't dare tell you before."
Lin Xiaoxiao was still riding that high, switching through a dozen different expressions in a single second, stamping her feet under the table over and over. She only took a deep breath to calm herself down when the server brought out their first dish, and the delicious food soon made her forget what she was going to say. She only started chatting with Mu Yue again after eating for a while.
They talked about their favorite novels, TV shows, and comics, but the topic they spent the most time on was Leng Ming, and soon they got onto the subject of the aloof heartthrob's birthday gift.
"He really seems to like sneakers from Brand X, do you think he'd be happy if I bought him a pair? Or a basketball from Brand X?"
Mu Yue silently pulled out her phone to look up the two brands Lin Xiaoxiao had mentioned. In this world, both were high-end designer brands, with their sneakers starting at 5000 yuan a pair, and their basketballs priced around 3000 yuan. That was a gift even most working adults wouldn't splurge on casually, let alone two high school students who weren't even dating.
Lin Xiaoxiao was still in school with no income, so that money would have to come from skipping classes to work odd jobs, asking her dad for it, or borrowing it from someone else. But none of those options were reasonable — there was no way she could earn that much in a month, and asking family or friends for that kind of money didn't make sense. A gift that cost you so much effort to get would just end up being a trivial, easily replaceable everyday item in the recipient's eyes.
Considering their age, Mu Yue phrased her words gently. "But Xiaoxiao, he probably already has those, right? His elders and relatives are probably going to get him gifts just like that. If you get him the same thing, it won't feel very special or surprising."
"Oh right!" Lin Xiaoxiao smacked her own forehead. "How did I not think of that? Then what kind of gift should I get him?"
Mu Yue put it simply. "Something that's meaningful, not expensive." Like a bowl of homemade congee, for example.
They both left the meal feeling perfectly full, and the online reviews really did live up to the hype — they could definitely come back again sometime. Back in the hotel room, Mu Yue rested for a bit before getting ready to work on the practice papers Lin Xiaoxiao had brought her, which included last semester's monthly exam questions. She wanted to take them first to see what score she could get.
As for Lin Xiaoxiao, she was still obsessing over the birthday gift idea. Seeing that she had nothing to do, Mu Yue arranged a spa appointment for her, and by the time the spa was over, it was getting late. Lin Xiaoxiao was already thinking about heading back so she could have that one-on-one tutoring session with the male lead, and it was obvious she wouldn't be spending the night.
Sure enough, Mu Yue had only finished one practice paper when Lin Xiaoxiao came over, phone in hand, to say she had to go home — Leng Ming wouldn't let her stay out overnight. Mu Yue didn't even have the energy to complain, so she told Qianqian to walk her home safely, then went right back to working on her papers.
When Qianqian came back, she told her gently that she had dropped Lin Xiaoxiao off completely safe, and that boy had been waiting at the door to pick her up — but his tone had been terrible the whole time, nagging her nonstop from the second he saw her until they walked through the front door. Lin Xiaoxiao didn't argue back once, and even acted like she was the one who was in the wrong.
Mu Yue could picture that scene perfectly. If the plot went exactly the way it did in the novel, that exact same dynamic would probably still be playing out decades later. To be honest, she wasn't the overly meddling, overly nice type. Normally, in a situation like that, she would just wish them well and cut contact for good. But the system requirement was clear: she had to stay best friends with the female lead.
Since she couldn't change her status as the female lead's best friend, and she didn't want to torture her own eyes and ears watching or hearing that nonsense over and over, she thought to herself —
"Little Custodian, can I change the male lead in this campus romance novel?"
The Custodian System replied: [Keyword "change male lead in campus romance". Message from the Villain System: This is a romance novel, of course whoever the female lead picks gets to be the male lead! Go wild, no restrictions!]
Mu Yue smiled in satisfaction. That made things so much better — even if she wasn't the one going through all that nonsense, just hearing about it was already a total headache.
When she woke up the next morning, Mu Yue checked her phone and saw a pile of unread messages. The people she had ignored for the past two days had gone from being angry to straight-up sending her abusive messages. Mu Yue didn't feel a single thing, and saved every single one of those chats. She had already gotten in touch with Qianqian, who was a licensed lawyer, and added her on social media to ask a few quick questions. All those chat records could be used as valid evidence.
Half of her other unread messages were Lin Xiaoxiao gushing about her first kiss, and the other half were from that idiot Deng's "family" members she had forgotten to block, sending her nonstop accusatory texts.
She immediately blocked that annoying noob, folks, and swiftly skipped over all of Lin Xiaoxiao's giddy, starry-eyed romantic daydreams. She only asked one question: [So have you two officially become a couple yet?]
The other party replied in a split second again: [Things between us... I think that counts as being an official couple, right?]
It was the weekend, the only day of the week when you could sleep in without a guilty conscience. The fact that Lin Xiaoxiao could reply so fast even this early in the morning only meant one thing — she hadn't slept a wink all night.
Mu Yue kept typing: [Really? That's such great news, Xiaoxiao. I have classes today so I can't hang out with you. Didn't you say Leng Ming goes to play ball with his friends every weekend? And he also studies at the library?]
Mu Yue egged her on: [If you're bored, you can tag along too! Since you two are already in this kind of relationship, it's only right that he introduces you to his friends.]
Lin Xiaoxiao was immediately swayed by the suggestion. Leng Ming was always super popular among girls; several girls in his own class had a crush on him, and some of them even seized every chance to run into him on weekends. She figured it was high time she made their relationship public, so those girls would consciously keep their distance from Leng Ming.
[You're so right, Yueyue!] Lin Xiaoxiao hopped right out of bed to get herself ready.
Mu Yue put her phone away, a mischievous, villainous smile tugging at her lips. Go on, go. Once you get there, you'll see just how much psychological damage a half-baked teenage romance can do.
The male lead had been surrounded by praise and admiration his whole life. In the social circle he moved in, he was the most outstanding person around. His personality could be described generously as aloof, but to put it plainly, he was unbelievably arrogant, full of a sense of superiority, and looked down on anyone who was less accomplished than him in any way.
In the original plot, he couldn't bring himself to believe he'd developed feelings for the female lead, who seemed utterly worthless in his eyes. The novel never came right out and said the male lead thought the female lead wasn't good enough for him, but every one of his inner thoughts and actions made that perfectly clear.
Refusing to admit his own feelings, he started giving the female lead the cold shoulder. He'd watch her embarrass herself, listen to his friends belittle and mock her, and wait for her to take the hint and back off — so she'd understand that one kiss they'd shared was nothing more than an accident. He had no interest in her, and could never like her.
None of this was supposed to happen today, not until the male and female leads had been dancing around their ambiguous feelings for a while longer. But Mu Yue had manually fast-forwarded the whole timeline, and since that kiss had only happened the night before, the male lead would be even more unyielding, cold-hearted, and desperate to clear his name and shake off any association with her.
A hopeless romantic obsessed with love like Lin Xiaoxiao wouldn't learn her lesson without a strong dose of harsh reality.
And if this first dose wasn't enough, Mu Yue could always whip up a second, or a third right after.
[Villain System points +100]
Huh? The Villain System, who was in the middle of a five-player ranked game playing jungle, froze: "Hold on a sec, guys, pause the game. I need to check the plot first."
"Wait a minute, dude..."
"Do you really have to do this now? The enemy is pushing down our base!"
"What's going on over there?"
The only real human player randomly matched to their five-person team sent: "??? Jungler what are you doing? Clear the lane! Hurry the hell up, you little —"
The Villain System couldn't even hear the teammate's insults anymore. It pulled up its backend system and sure enough, saw that its host's Villain System points had gone up, by a full 100 points at that. That wasn't the kind of points you got just by teasing the male and female leads a little or slapping someone across the face. You had to do something that would actually impact the rest of their lives to earn that much.
The Villain System couldn't wait to ask Little Custodian for the playback of what just happened, and after watching it, it was instantly blown away.
Holy crap, if it remembered correctly, the host had only transmigrated into this world three days ago! This new host had already become a secret hidden villain in this campus romance novel, and it looked like she was this close to successfully breaking the male and female leads up! It was originally assigned to manage that stallion novel, but this was a merged world — any mischief the host pulled off as a villain would unlock hidden bonus rewards for it.
Two seconds later, its team's crystal exploded. The Villain System burst into tears.
When it turned around, it saw two other aggrieved faces. White Bear excitedly grabbed Chick in a hug: "Waaaah you were so right, bro! This time we really hit the jackpot! She's unbelievably efficient!"
Finally meeting a system that got it, the furious Yellow Chick's ruffled feathers smoothed out in an instant. All its anger about getting backstabbed by its game teammates vanished, replaced by the thrill of finding a kindred spirit: "Right?! Right?!"
