Chapter 147
Xiao Qi finished reading through the magazine at the library. It was all about introducing various celebrities. The current trend among celebrities was very young male stars. The female stars also had very fresh faces. Xiao Qi could barely recognize even a handful of them. She could just barely count a palm's worth because there were some old celebrity faces, although very few. But at least she knew who they were.
One had to become famous young. Xiao Qi originally thought that at 17 years old, she was not considered old and could still work hard to make it in time. But seeing those young faces on the magazine posters, some as young as 14, she strangely felt that she was already a bit old.
The whole magazine was about celebrities - their clothing, accessories, handbags.
There was also a water bottle one celebrity had on her back. It was just a regular water bottle, non-insulated, but it cost over 40,000 yuan.
Probably because of this price, and the fact that a female celebrity was wearing it, Xiao Qi actually thought the bottle looked very beautiful and wished she had one. But seeing that price, even with the system giving her money every day, the amount was not enough to buy a water bottle.
Xiao Qi regained some clarity.
But taking another look, she still felt the bottle looked so nice...
Damn.
The 17 year old Xiao Qi felt a kind of desire arise within her, somewhat inexplicably.
It wasn't a branded bag or watch, but a branded water bottle instead.
She usually carried a water bottle when going out, finding it very practical.
At this moment, she felt her mind was a bit muddled. She got up to return the magazine, deciding to head back to the dorm since she rarely went out alone for this long. It would not be good to return too late.
However, as Xiao Qi stood in front of the magazine shelves, looking at rows and rows of beautiful covers with young male celebrities, whose delicate features she thought herself inferior to, she suddenly became very curious. If she used a learning card right here on the magazine she just looked through, what would she learn?
Xiao Qi was a slightly impatient person who acted on her thoughts without hesitation or much deliberation. She said to the system, "Use learning card."
There was an unused learning card on the interface that flashed briefly before disappearing.
"Host has successfully selected the top traffic Card Card's makeup skills. Would you like to learn?" Xiao Qi: ...???
Top traffic Card Card?
Which one was that?
She turned back and flipped through the magazine again.
She realized the cover model was a very beautiful, almost white gold blonde little boy with delicate features - clear eyes, sweet smile, looking both pure and charming, but still a boy.
There were four pages introducing Card Card, while other celebrities only got one page.
There were photos of him standing, lying down, sitting, and languidly leaning. Each picture was very good looking.
Refined and perfect.
This little boy's makeup skills??
"Learn."
Xiao Qi, who had barely ever been tricked by the system, still chose to trust it. After all, she didn't know how to apply makeup, so it couldn't be worse than her.
Then Xiao Qi saw a new makeup skill appear in her interface labeled as Expert Level!!
Makeup skills went all the way to Expert Level, and it was from a little boy.
Boys today really went down the girl's path, leaving no path for girls to take...
After leaving the library, Xiao Qi saw the lake surface glittering gold, stained red by the sunset. It was beautiful. She walked along the lakeside, blowing in the breeze, her mind clearing up a bit.
Back at the dorm, no one wanted to go out for dinner and they decided to order takeout instead. After only a week, they had gotten used to the school routine. Although the school cafeteria was elegant and refined, the students still preferred the food from the student street. It seemed more affordable, they could order delivery without having to go pick it up themselves, and there were promotional deals for takeout orders too.
Seeing Xiao Qi return, they asked her to order with them.
Xiao Qi didn't really like takeout food since it was greasy and heavy in seasoning. But eating at the cafeteria alone also felt weird. After only a week, she had gotten used to going out and coming back with her roommates, as if they had become a little group. Doing things alone now felt uncomfortable.
It would be great if she could cook in the dorm.
Xiao Qi missed her own cooking a little.
She felt that she cooked pretty deliciously.
Moreover, it seemed the market near school had a lot of seafood. She had seen peddlers carrying poles with live eels in the student street, their poles topped with half an eel cut open - very big ones that could make a whole dish from just a small section. Below were the live eels, wriggling like giant snakes.
It looked very fresh, the skin very oily, the meat tender. Bringing back a section to the dorm, adding some oil, cooking wine, soy sauce, and scallions, then steaming it, would definitely make it mouthwateringly delicious. While waiting for the delivery, Xiao Qi practiced her calligraphy again.
After eating, she tidied up a bit and organized her bedding. She also reviewed the Japanese vocabulary she had been memorizing recently, which was very effective. Little by little, she had filled up quite a lot of her notebook already.
Then she went downstairs to go jogging.
Her deskmate Chen Mier was clamoring about wanting to lose weight, so she came along too. It was unknown whether it was the school food that suited her, but after one week of military training, she had actually gained two pounds.
She was very persuasive and managed to drag Gu Yunshu and Wei Cheng to come along as well.
Xiao Qi was quite happy to have people to jog with.
But Chen Mier only made it one lap before she couldn't go on, lying down on the grass and refusing to get up.
Gu Yunshu jogged about halfway before stopping to rest. Wei Cheng jogged two and a half laps with Xiao Qi before also taking a break. Xiao Qi could only continue on her own.
She had signed up for a full marathon and her training volume could not slip. She had to complete her daily minimum of 30,000 steps.
Reciting and listening to music while jogging were both very effective. By the time Xiao Qi finished her run, her roommates had all gone back.
Xiao Qi returned to the dorm at just the right time to shower.
Now each of their beds in the dorm were enclosed by curtains, creating a private space when drawn. However, their dorm was quite harmonious and instead of each using their own color, they had chosen bed curtains in the same pale blue color scheme. Walking into the dorm filled with the fragrant curtains in one color and none in disarray, except Chen Mier's desk which had some books strewn about, while Gu Yunshu's desk was tidy without a thing out of place, even her toothbrush lined up neatly in one direction.
As for Gu Yunshu's very petite bourgeois style, her desk was neat, and she even had fresh flowers on it.
She changed the flowers every three to four days, ordered online. Flowers were delivered to her twice a week.
At first, Xiao Qi was a bit shocked. Some of the flowers could last one to two weeks, while others had short blooming periods and looked unsightly after three to four days. But they all cost money, bought just to look at briefly before being thrown away. What a waste.
Previously at her aunt's ward, she also often changed the fresh flowers since there were so many flowers at the hospital that her aunt had collected without paying money.
Gu Yunshu was used to it. At home it was the maid who arranged the flowers, so now she took pride in trimming the stems herself, feeling that she had improved a lot.
It also left a faint floral scent in the dorm, making it especially cozy.
Xiao Qi's desk could be said to contain the most stuff because of her many books and calligraphy practice. She tidied up every day though, so it was not messy.
Her new laptop sat on the desk. For now Xiao Qi used it for learning - watching English and Japanese instructional videos, and also downloading some shows to watch. This way she could continue watching after lights out.
When lights out time approached in the evening, everyone prepared as if going to battle.
After Xiao Qi finished tidying up and got into bed, her phone suddenly lit up with a WeChat message from Brother Lin Min.