It was Thursday, and Lin Xiaoxiao had asked for leave. Mu Yue knew she was moving, so she texted to ask if she needed any help.
Lin Xiaoxiao quickly replied no, telling her to focus on her studies and blow everyone away in the monthly exam, and not to worry about her.
At noon, Leng Ming got home and saw big and small bags piled up in the living room. He frowned at Lin Xiaoxiao standing next to the luggage, about to say something, but caught a glimpse of his parents chatting with Lin Xiaoxiao's father out of the corner of his eye. He swallowed the words back, gave her a complicated glance, and went over to greet the adults first.
Lin's father responded with a wide grin that crinkled the corners of his eyes. Standing next to the polished, well-dressed Leng family, he looked a whole shade darker, with far more lines on his face. Lin Xiaoxiao watched from a distance, her eyes stinging and her throat tight. She could not even remember the last time she had taken a good, close look at her dad.
The day before, her dad had taken her to the new rented apartment, and the first thing he said was, "I'm sorry, my girl, I'm putting you through this."
A well-paying, easy job is harder to find than a good partner. Plenty of people far more qualified and capable than he was were out there, and it had taken Lin's father, now in his forties, a whole lot of effort to land this stable position. He now earned 12,000 yuan a month, working his way up from four or five thousand. It was enough to get by, but to buy a house in H City, even with the government housing subsidy, he would still have to work his fingers to the bone for many years.
As he talked about all this, Lin's father never once mentioned relying on Lin Xiaoxiao, only saying he would push himself harder to get them a proper new house as soon as possible. This time, Lin Xiaoxiao was far more perceptive than before. Her dad was only talking about his own hard work, not asking her to carry any of the burden. Just like her name suggested, all her parents had ever wanted for her was to live a happy, carefree life.
He never expected her to have to sacrifice anything for the family, and truth be told, she had never contributed a single thing. She had not even done the one thing a student was supposed to do properly—she had slacked off in class and fooled around after school.
Lin Xiaoxiao felt too ashamed to say she was the one being wronged. She bit her lip, half wanting to slap herself. She asked herself again, what had she even done this whole time in high school? Was there a single useful thing she had accomplished?
As for Leng Ming, for the first time ever, Lin Xiaoxiao completely ignored his presence and the look he was giving her.
That indifference lasted all through the meal. Lin Xiaoxiao kept her head down, shoveling rice into her mouth, and only looked up blankly when someone called her name, seeming even more spacey than usual. Leng Ming felt both annoyed and faintly amused by her, but the amusement died the second he heard that Lin Xiaoxiao was moving out that very same day with her dad.
He slammed his bowl down hard on the table, stood up and said, "I'm full. I'm heading back to school first."
"Alright," Mrs. Leng said, then gave Leng Ming, who was still hovering by the table, a confused look. "Aren't you leaving already? Did you forget something?"
Leng Ming said nothing, his face cold as ice, and stared at the completely distracted Lin Xiaoxiao for several long seconds before he stormed off, grabbing his phone on the way out.
"This kid..." Leng's father gave an awkward smile. "Pay him no mind. Come on, Old Lin, let's keep chatting."
Leng Ming waited outside the front gate for a while, his expression turning even grumpier. He kept glancing back to see if anyone would come running after him, but not a single person showed up. He muttered to himself about how annoying this all was as he climbed into the car, and even as the vehicle pulled away from the house, there was still no sign of anyone in the rearview mirror.
Leng Ming was seething. Hmph, did she really think he was going to apologize? What was there for him to say sorry for? He had only told the truth. Everyone else had said the same thing too. She was the one who had insisted on tagging along in the first place, and now she was upset and running off, not even bothering to say goodbye to him. Now she was pretending she could not even see him.
Fine, move out then. He did not want to see her anyway. It was better if they never crossed paths again.
[Villain Value +200]
"Wahahaha!" The Villain System cackled so hard it toppled over, swatting a little chick flying with one paw. "This is great! This is amazing! Host just pulled off a tiny little trick, and the main couple's fate string, snap—just broke! Hahaha!"
The flying Top Student went "???", but decided not to argue with the idiot. It was feeling so good it could fly too. This host did not need it nagging her all the time at all. It never had to play the part of a fussy old mother hen anymore, and it would not let anyone mess up this perfect, self-motivated student of its.
Those two systems were having the time of their lives, but the Tycoon and Comeback systems had not made much progress lately, so they just sat back munching on digital sunflower seeds, enjoying the show of the male lead completely losing his cool.
The Comeback system was still explaining to the Tycoon why they had earned double the points this time: "Look at this guy, he's way too proud. He's never going to apologize to the female lead. The female lead's heart has already been pulled back to her family by the host, and since the male lead won't make the first move, she's never going to chase after him again. It might not look like they had a huge, dramatic fight this time, but the rift between them is way worse than the one after the basketball court incident."
The Tycoon nodded along, full of awe. "Host is so incredible! She barely even said anything, and it all worked out."
Then it perked up excitedly. "And now we've got enough points to redeem stuff! Host can buy so many new things!" Right, that was something AI Little Tuo needed to remind the host about. The butler character card was only going to last for one hour and forty more minutes, so if the host wanted to keep using it, she had to renew it. 200 points could get her a ton of items. Even if she did not renew the character card, she could still have a great shopping spree.
By the end of the day, Mu Yue saw the system notification about the Villain Value that had been credited to her account. The timestamp said it came in at noon, and even though she was not there in person, she could easily guess what had gone down.
"Perfect, just keep it like that. Don't send me any updates unless I'm free, and don't use that annoying voice broadcast function. You keep making a racket out of nowhere and it breaks my focus," Mu Yue said to her system. The only response she got was a "Understood" from AI Little Tuo, but she had actually meant that message for all four of the systems.
The 200 points had been fully redeemed. Last time she had spent 100 points on the character card, 10 points on the double experience card, leaving her with only 1 point, and after a few small purchases later, she had 3 points left. That was right, she was still a few thousand yuan short of spending all her 400,000 yuan, and she had barely touched any of the money she had earned these past few days.
With her current points, she could buy all sorts of weird, rare items—things like different auras and buffs, though they were all relatively mild in effect. You got what you paid for, after all. There were also consumable items, like the Clear Mind Sticker, Calm Mind Sticker, Focus Sticker, Heart-Stopping Moment, Center of Attention, and more.
The Clear Mind, Calm Mind, and Focus stickers were the ones Top Student had placed at the top of the shop list. A clear head and full concentration made study twice as effective with half the effort. Those stickers were not just for studying, they worked great for work or other tasks too. But they were not cheap—each one cost 10 points, and lasted for two hours. The matching auras that gave the same effects cost 200 points each, permanent, but their effects were halved and each aura only did one single thing.
200 points could only buy one of those auras, which was a terrible deal. The shop had tons of auras that gave multiple different effects, so it was way better to save up more points to buy those. Right now, buying the stickers was far more practical. Two full hours of high-efficiency study every day was more than enough. She spent 90 points total, buying three of each of the three stickers. The remaining 113 points, Mu Yue spent all of them on health points.
After she finished allocating the points, the system pulled up her current four-dimensional stats page.
[Host: Mu Yue]
Health: 48/100 → 70/100
Strength: 26/100
Agility: 13/100
Appearance: 55/100 → 59/100
Mu Yue looked at the last stat. She hadn't spent points to boost her looks, after all, each point in Appearance cost 10 whole system points. But the data made total sense anyway—physical health directly affects how a person looks. When your body is in better shape, you naturally appear more vibrant and energetic. Those 4 extra points she got for free felt like a total steal, and she was pretty pleased with that.
Mu Yue closed her eyes contentedly. Tomorrow was Friday, and she planned to get plenty of rest to gear up for the upcoming battle.
The monthly exam would kick off at 9 a.m., and the time before that was all self-study. Plenty of students in class were cramming at the last minute, and Lin Xiaoxiao, who had come to school today, was one of them. She used to be the type to cram half the time and slack off the other half, but this time she had zero mood to mess around—all she felt was anxious urgency.
Last night, she'd had a long, serious talk with her dad. She'd learned that Lin's father's dream was never just to own a house. He wanted to buy back the small villa their family had sold years ago. That place had been their real home, full of precious shared memories, and getting it back someday would mean the world to him. Of course, that goal was still more of a fantasy than a concrete plan. The Lin family's old villa wasn't huge, and it wasn't located in the most premium neighborhood, but its market value was still over 20 million yuan.
Back then, they'd sold the villa to cover their company's financial hole, and used the remaining money to buy a 200-square-meter apartment for 7.5 million yuan. They'd looked at other, cheaper properties at the time, but in the end they'd picked the most expensive one, the one Lin Xiaoxiao loved most. After buying that apartment, they only had 300,000 yuan left in savings. That sum would have been more than enough to live on for three to five years, if things hadn't taken a terrible turn later.
Now, let alone being able to buy back the old villa, even affording a place comparable to that apartment felt like a distant, impossible goal.
Lin Xiaoxiao ran all the numbers in her head, and knew full well just how difficult it would be to make that dream come true. For most of her high school years, she hadn't been a model student or a thoughtful daughter, but this time, she was determined to help her dad make that wish a reality.
Mu Yue noticed how focused and determined Lin Xiaoxiao had become, and held out her own set of notes to her. "Use these," she said. "They're full of classic, frequently tested question types, so there's a good chance they'll cover a lot of what's on the exam."
Perfect, the second dose of her plan was working like a charm. After handing over the notes, Mu Yue flashed a mischievous, villainous grin. She figured that for a long while now, her eyes and ears wouldn't have to be bothered by any cringey, low-quality teen romance nonsense anymore.
