Wen Xue’s cheeks were still flushed, and Mu Yue was genuinely curious how she managed it—she could get drunk on cue. Still groggy, Wen Xue had already been roused by Wei Xuan and was now trying to explain things to Mu Yue.
Mu Yue questioned her in great detail, as if worried she was still being coerced. The arrogant CEO clique could no longer even maintain the bare minimum of decorum.
“Miss Mu, what exactly did you come here for?”
“I already told you. She’s someone Mr. Wei brought along. Who coerced her? She clearly came of her own free will, all right?”
“You’ve maliciously slandered us. Don’t you think you owe us an explanation?”
“Exactly! You don’t even know what happened, yet you shoot your mouth off. If word gets out, it’ll have a huge impact on us. Don’t you have anything to say?”
“Oh, then I’m really sorry,” Mu Yue said expressionlessly. “I’ve seen people get themselves into trouble by playing around like that before. Seeing a scene like this is just…”
“As long as you haven’t done anything illegal.”
The group was speechless once again. You could say Mu Yue was being sarcastic, but the second half of what she said sounded sincere. Yet if you said she truly felt sorry, the look on her face made it clear how perfunctory her apology was.
“Heh. Miss Mu certainly has quite the attitude. I already mentioned it—you kept covering your nose the moment you saw us. Was that really necessary?” The arrogant CEO clique considered themselves important figures in A City. After being provoked repeatedly that night, they were finally losing their tempers.
“Can’t you tell?” Mu Yue asked, genuinely puzzled. “I think you stink. You reek of cigarettes and alcohol, and I hate those smells. What? Am I not allowed to dislike them?”
“You!” They had practically never heard anyone speak so bluntly to them. No—that wasn’t quite true. They had heard such words before, but they had always been the ones saying them to other people. This was the first time they had been on the receiving end.
“Do you even know what you’re saying?” The men were so furious they laughed. Was Mu Yue truly this reckless, or did she really have the confidence to offend all of them in one go?
They assumed it was the former. She was merely someone who had just arrived in A City and dared to act arrogantly without understanding the situation. Sooner or later, she would suffer for it.
Mu Yue rolled her eyes. Too lazy to bother with this group of idiots wearing expressions that seemed to say, “Woman, you’ve really crossed me this time,” she spat out two words:
“Obviously.”
Then she turned her attention back to Wei Xuan. “Does what you said about not needing to pay for the clothes still count? Don’t turn around and demand that she reimburse you at full price later. Give me a definite answer.”
“I said she doesn’t have to pay! If there’s nothing else, please leave. Can’t you tell that you’re not welcome here?” Wei Xuan was furious as well. However, until he found out what family Mu Yue came from, he was still able to retain a sliver of reason and keep himself from saying anything too offensive or doing anything too extreme.
But once he investigated her background, he would definitely make Mu Yue pay for this!
“Tch, as if I’m eager to see any of you.” Mu Yue beckoned to Xiao Mei. As the steady chimes of points being credited rang in her mind, she soon disappeared from the group’s view.
She had successfully established the identity she wanted. This time, she had harvested points from everyone present. Even the male lead, who had contributed not a single point the last time they met, had given her more than a hundred tonight. Her total gains for the evening came to just over a thousand points. The characters who had appeared only in a single chapter of the original novel were worth very little; the main contributors were still the male lead’s clique of friends.
The reason these people had refrained from openly clashing with Mu Yue or laying hands on her was because they were wary of her identity. If she had not put on such an impressive display, something would have happened long ago. She had said it before: at heart, this group was no different from that douchebag. They bullied the weak and feared the strong.
“Miss Mu, I really don’t have to pay for it?” Xiao Mei still found it hard to believe. An hour ago, she had thought her world had collapsed. She had imagined countless ways to raise the money, but no matter how she calculated it, there was no way she could come up with 120,000 yuan. And every method that could raise that much money in such a short time was a bottomless pit—once she fell in, she would never be able to climb out.
She had been consumed by despair. Yet she had never imagined that such a reversal could occur: with a casual wave of her hand, someone had restored her entire world without a scratch.
Tears shimmered in Xiao Mei’s eyes as she looked at Mu Yue. Mu Yue handed her a tissue and nodded firmly. “It’s true. Quit your job and find a workplace with simpler relationships. If you run into something like this again, remember to question it first. Or, if you don’t know what to do, look it up online and see how other people handled similar situations. Don’t just accept whatever someone tells you.”
Xiao Mei’s tears burst forth. Choking up, she apologized to Mu Yue, but Mu Yue waved it off. She returned to the teahouse and sat for a while longer. Only after she saw through the system’s surveillance feed that the unfortunate server had successfully left did she finally depart as well.
As for Wen Xue, after Mu Yue had come over and stirred things up, the group lost all interest and left even earlier than Mu Yue. Naturally, they discussed Mu Yue along the way. There was no question that the men said plenty of nasty things—men were like that—but most of their conversation centered on Mu Yue’s identity.
It was only by listening to them that Wen Xue learned how extraordinary Mu Yue’s background really was. She had known that Mu Yue was a rich heiress, but she had not realized she was that rich. My goodness, what kind of car cost seventy million yuan? Was it plated in gold?
Even so, Wen Xue’s impression of Mu Yue did not change. After spending time with her, it was clear that Mu Yue was different from those celestial dragons in Wei Xuan’s circle. She was not overbearing, looking at everyone as if they were trash, and she did not act superior—
Wait, that wasn’t quite right. She had acted exactly like that toward Wei Xuan and the others just now. But she didn’t treat us that way.
The thought made Wen Xue laugh. It was rare to see Wei Xuan at such a loss. Usually, he acted as if he controlled the entire world. He was really getting too full of himself.
She also had Mu Yue to thank for coming tonight. Thanks to her, Wen Xue had managed to escape that situation so quickly. She could have guessed with her toes what those men would start spewing if they stayed any longer and drank more of that horse piss. She could already imagine what kind of bullshit Wei Xuan would come out with. Being able to imagine it without having to hear or smell it was fortunate enough for her!
After completing another task, Mu Yue went home, took a shower, and lay in bed early, relaxing with her phone.
What was interesting was that even while she sat at home, her reversal points continued to rise. Sometimes they came in ones, sometimes tens, sometimes dozens at a time. Mu Yue guessed they were coming from the people at the male lead’s gathering. After leaving, they had probably mentioned her on their social media feeds. Perhaps they had embellished the story, or perhaps they had distorted her image, but the fact remained that she had dared to confront the entire group head-on.
It was not a major incident, but Wei Xuan’s male-lead persona made him seem almost like an emperor. The supporting characters and cannon fodder had all reached the same conclusion: anyone who dared to offend Wei Xuan openly must have an impressive background too. Out of curiosity, these people would investigate Mu Yue, and in doing so, learn even more about her.
That was where those scattered reversal points were coming from.
According to the little fox, she could still gain another nice boost of points if she talked to them in person. None of these points added up to much on their own, but every little bit counts, and sooner or later she would hit the 10,000 point mark to clear the counter for the reverse quest.
At noon on Saturday, Mu Yue sent Wen Yuanting a message, asking what his mother's restaurant was called and where it was located.
Wen Yuanting grew nervous the second he saw the message. He immediately sent Mu Yue the location pin and the restaurant name, then asked if she was planning to come eat there. He was already lost in thought, wondering if Mu Yue would even like their family's small diner, and if he should ask his mom to buy better ingredients to prepare a good spread for her, when he saw that Mu Yue had already sent a reply.
"Oh no, I just happened to pass by and thought I heard someone mention it, I wasn't sure so I just asked you," Mu Yue typed back to him from her home.
"Ah, I see," Wen Yuanting replied, clearly dejected. It was obvious she had only asked the question casually.
Mu Yue put her phone away, purchased the two dream props from the system mall, and after finishing lunch, had her driver take her to both Wen Yuanting's family martial arts studio and their restaurant. She did not get out of the car. Both of their storefronts had parking lots right outside, within a 100-meter radius. After she set the props to target the specified people, she quietly left the area.
Once the dreams kicked in that night, Wen Yuanting's whole family would surely start taking insurance matters seriously, along with their children's relationship prospects.
Things unfolded exactly as Mu Yue had expected. The couple both woke up screaming from nightmares, their faces streaked with tears when they wiped their cheeks. At breakfast the next morning, they looked at their son, who was clearly distracted and still had not successfully won over the girl he liked, and their daughter, who was being completely oblivious and even picked up a piece of napkin and dropped it into her brother's bowl, telling him to hurry up and "eat his greens", and the two of them felt equal parts amused and exasperated.
Wen Yuanting's mom casually brought up the weird nightmare she'd had at the breakfast table. She'd barely gotten the first few words out when her husband and son both fixed their eyes on her intently. By the time she was halfway through recounting the dream, the father and son were taking turns peppering her with questions. By the end of the meal, the three of them had effectively held a secret little meeting.
Wen Yuanting's heart was pounding wildly as he listened to his parents describe their dreams.
This time, could he really be about to turn things around? Nothing like this had ever happened before. Wen Yuanting couldn't help but think of Mu Yue. Could this have something to do with her? It had to!
There was no way this was just a coincidence—all three of them had the exact same dream!
How on earth had she pulled this off? Wen Yuanting picked up his phone, ready to call Mu Yue, but the second he unlocked the screen he put it down again. She had already done so much to help him. He had no need, and no right, to dig into other people's secrets.
Life went on as usual. Every day when she woke up, Mu Yue would either do the daily sign-in or draw a blind box. She usually claimed the sign-in cash rewards on weekdays, and only drew blind boxes at home on weekends—her past experiences had made her extra cautious, and she would never draw a blind box unless she was in a completely safe environment.
Then, on one weekend in early December, Mu Yue finally pulled the grand prize again: [Luxury Manor] (worth 100 million RMB).
It's here! Her huge dream house had finally arrived!
Mu Yue claimed the reward, which was a gilded card, exactly like the hotel card she had gotten before. All she had to do was input a name to activate it.
Within the city of A, any manor priced under 100 million RMB was eligible to be selected as her target, as long as the owner was planning to sell it, or the property was vacant and unowned. Manors whose owners had no intention of selling at all were not available to choose from.
The system was extremely smart in that regard. Mu Yue had already tried to input the address of the richest man in A City's manor before, and the option had turned gray and unselectable.
So now, it was time to pick out her new home properly. She would go check out the different manors in person first to see which one was the best fit.
