The vacation had just started, and Mu Yue decided to take it easy and have fun for a few days first.
On New Year's Eve, she drew a blind box and got an exclusive one-week VIP pass to a luxury hot spring resort. Its value was not that high, lower than the cruise ship ticket she had gotten before, and it was perfect to use right now.
"Oh right, I haven't done my daily check-in today," Mu Yue suddenly remembered. She quickly opened the new blind box, and a card popped out. This card was already familiar to Mu Yue — it was a fund doubling card. This one she drew today was a triple multiplier, with a maximum limit of 30 million.
Mu Yue already had over 40 million in her personal bank card, and a secondary card was given to Carter to cover daily expenses and employee salaries.
Since she couldn't triple the entire 40 million, only up to 30 million would be multiplied. Mu Yue didn't plan to hoard the card, she used it right away, watching the number in her account jump to a nine-digit sum the next second.
Her money had increased again, and just looking at the number was such a pleasant feeling.
Right then, Mu Yue received a call from her Third Aunt. There was nothing urgent, she just asked if Mu Yue would be going back to City H for the Lunar New Year. Mu Yue directly said no, and Third Aunt didn't press further.
The call didn't last long, and Mu Yue didn't think much of it. She didn't bother to guess if Jiang Yunfang had hidden other motives for calling, whether she was reaching out on her own or on behalf of the rest of the Mu family. No one had asked her for help openly, so she didn't feel like wasting her energy on it.
City H was the original host's home, not hers. If Jiang Yunfang really needed a hand, she would say so outright.
After this tiny interlude, Mu Yue asked Qianqian to contact that hot spring resort, planning to head there the next day. When booking the plane tickets, Qianqian asked Mu Yue how many tickets she should get.
Qianqian would never have asked that before, but now, ahem, the young miss obviously had someone by her side.
Mu Yue, who was picking out clothes in her oversized walk-in closet, paused for a moment. She thought for a second, then took out her phone and called Wen Yuanting, asking, "Wanna come to City Z with me? There's a hot spring resort I'm planning to stay at for a week, we're leaving tomorrow morning."
Wen Yuanting's face lit up the second he saw Mu Yue's name on the caller ID. He hurried to the balcony to pick up the call, and answered without the slightest hesitation, "Sure, I'll go pack my things right away."
"Alright, send me your ID number later," Mu Yue said briefly before hanging up. She vaguely heard some noise on his end, but didn't pay it any mind.
The next second, Wen Yuanting sent over his ID number and a photo of his ID card. Mu Yue passed the information to Qianqian, and after the tickets were booked, she gave Qianqian the rest of the time off.
Back in his living room, Wen Yuanting found that his house was full of visiting relatives. The moment he walked in, all eyes turned to him like spotlights. But unlike the awkwardness he would have felt before, he could now keep a straight face no matter what teasing remarks they made. Whenever anyone mentioned the words "your girlfriend", he would even feel a surge of pride.
In reality, he knew very clearly that he and Mu Yue were not boyfriend and girlfriend in the real sense, and sooner or later they would part ways. But before that day came, he would do his absolute best to repay her. Though, this repayment was nothing like what he had imagined, and he had even ended up getting way more than he ever expected.
The next day, Mu Yue and Wen Yuanting boarded the flight to City Z. The trip was short, only a little over two hours, and they passed the time playing a few rounds of two-player mobile games before landing.
This resort was massive, taking up an entire mountain. Besides its signature hot springs, there was a ski resort on the mountain, and a winter rafting spot at the foot of the mountain.
Mu Yue had zero interest in that winter rafting thing. It was cold and wet, you would be shivering so hard your teeth chattered while looking at the scenery, the whole ride was painfully slow, and the piercing cold wind would seep right through the gaps in your clothes. Who on earth came up with that bizarre torture device?
There were plenty of indoor entertainment facilities too, but they were more or less the same as what you would find in any other luxury hotel. The real highlight of the place was still the hot springs.
Mu Yue's villa was naturally the best one available, with both indoor and outdoor hot spring pools. She could choose to stay warm and cozy indoors, or experience the stark contrast of the warm spring against the cold air outside.
The place was called a "village" because every guest got their own standalone house, varying in size and decorated with different themes. Mu Yue's villa had a spacious inner courtyard that connected directly to the hot spring area.
Red plum blossoms were in full bloom in the yard, set against the snowy landscape. Viewing that scenery through the wispy steam rising from the hot springs was a kind of atmospheric beauty you could hardly find anywhere else.
Mu Yue spent a truly wonderful week there. She made sure to enjoy every single amenity the resort had to offer. It was even more relaxing than her cruise trip during the summer vacation — she didn't run into a single annoying idiot the whole time, and she had a companion who would pose for her exactly however she asked. Both her body and her mind were completely unwound.
She also learned how to ski, and even earned the corresponding learning achievement points. When she got back to City A all refreshed, she made an appointment to meet up with Shi Yu.
The Shi family's mansion was no smaller than Mu Yue's Yujiang Garden, with a very old-fashioned architectural style. The moment Mu Yue arrived, Shi Yu, her younger brother, and her grandmother all came out to greet her.
It was a very formal, clearly respectful welcome. That immediately made Mu Yue think of the plot where Wang Jian, that womanizing male lead, first visited the Shi family.
Unlike how she treated Mu Yue, Shi Yu had been very cold to the male lead back then, probing him at every turn and speaking to him in a suspicious, distrustful tone. For that, she had been lectured by her grandmother over and over again. The underlying message was that as an older sister, she was being unreasonably disrespectful to Shi Le's savior, and people would wonder what ulterior motives she had.
Tsk. Mu Yue looked at the Shi family grandmother's kind, smiling face, and suddenly it didn't look kind at all. She was a textbook example of a grandmother who valued boys over girls.
True to Mu Yue's unflattering first impression, the old lady didn't even chat for a few minutes before she started gushing about how wonderful her grandson was, and her words were already clearly hinting that Mu Yue and her grandson would make a good pair.
The Little Fatty, Shi Le, seemed to have gotten a big head from all the praise his grandmother was showering on him. A glint of romantic interest appeared on his chubby face, even though he had never thought of Mu Yue that way before.
Mu Yue held back the urge to roll her eyes. He really was the male lead's little sidekick, through and through. She retorted bluntly, "No thanks. I've got more than enough men around me, and I don't like men who can't even manage their own figure."
The smile on Grandma Shi's face froze at once. Her lips moved a little, but since Mu Yue had saved her precious grandson's life, she held her tongue and didn't say anything rude. She just added, "That makes sense. A beautiful young lady like Miss Mu must have no shortage of suitors."
Right after that, she immediately turned to comfort her precious grandchild, "My Lele, grandma doesn't ask you to be exceptionally successful. As long as you're healthy and happy, that's all that matters."
Shi Yu, whether she did it on purpose or she was just always like that, chimed in disapprovingly, "Grandma, little brother really needs to work out more. Being this fat isn't healthy at all. And if he doesn't have any ambition, is he just planning to laze around at home all day? He's not going to work at the family group company?"
Grandma Shi was already in a bad mood from Mu Yue's blunt rejection, and Shi Yu's direct comment made the smile vanish completely from her face. She glared at Shi Yu, and only because they had a guest over did she refrain from scolding her granddaughter out loud right then and there.
Shi Le, who was stuck in the middle, awkwardly scratched his head. He had just enough sense to coax the old lady a few words, which kept the scene from turning even more ugly.
When lunchtime rolled around, the unpleasantness from earlier in the morning had left the Shi family grandmother with no desire to keep chatting with Mu Yue. She handed Mu Yue the gift she had prepared long in advance, then left with Shi Le.
Mu Yue had never come to the Shi family for them in the first place, so it was even better that they were gone.
Shi Yu said to Mu Yue sheepishly, "I'm so sorry you had to see that. My grandma is just like that, you don't have to take her words to heart. And my little brother, honestly, let alone you, Miss Mu, even I would look down on him a hundred times over. That ridiculous confidence of his is entirely because everyone has spoiled him rotten."
Mu Yue raised an eyebrow. It seemed Shi Yu was not the kind of sister who would unconditionally prop up her younger brother at all costs. Then why did she end up that way in the original novel?
Was it really all because the male lead's halo was far too overpowering?
But what surprised Mu Yue even more came soon after. She heard Shi Yu bring up the womanizing male lead, and Shi Yu asked her in a confused tone, "Speaking of which, that man, the one you said found my little brother out in the wild the day you ran into Shi Le, is really strange."
"The very first time I saw his photo, I suddenly felt this inexplicable flutter in my heart. It's so absurd..."
Shi Yu had never told anyone about this before, but she could not hold back from talking about it to Mu Yue today. Probably she had no one else around that she could chat with so freely without holding anything back. She went on, "I know full well that it was way too suspicious for that man to show up in the wilderness at that exact time, just in time to "save" my little brother. The funniest part is, he was still an injured patient recovering himself. Doesn't that just scream that something's off?"
"I was supposed to teach him a little lesson, and I did just that. But the weird thing is, in the middle of the night I kept wondering if I might have misunderstood him, that maybe he really just happened to come across my little brother by pure coincidence."
Shi Yu snapped back to her senses after she finished talking, and apologized to Mu Yue, "I'm sorry, I rambled on way too much, and said a bunch of totally nonsensical things. Don't pay any attention to me, just treat it as me spouting nonsense."
Mu Yue smiled gently, "It's alright. When people are under a lot of pressure, it's normal to have little experiences that you can't even wrap your own head around. As for that man, there's no need to fixate on him. He doesn't matter at all."
