Chapter 38

The next morning. Xiaoqi had just opened her eyes when the mechanical sound next to her ears rang.

"The host is willing to help others get through difficulties in life, gaining sincere thanks and bringing positive energy to society, unlocking the system level. The system is upgraded to a level 5 progressive system. The host earns 0.5 yuan for every step, capped at 30,000 steps per day."

Xiaoqi lay in bed, without needing to calculate, she knew it was 15,000 yuan per day.

Compared to the initial excitement and craze, she felt much calmer now, but still a bit annoying... 30,000 steps... to walk so many steps every day, would her legs become thinner or thicker? If the system kept improving like this, with more steps in the future, she wouldn't even be able to walk so many steps to earn all the money.

She now had WeChat. Looking at the WeChat sports on top, she was almost at the top of the leaderboard with 20,000 steps per day.

It was quite early to get up. After cooking yesterday, she felt pretty good at it. And ever since the smell enhancement, reaching the sense of smell of a Chinese rural dog (manually dog head), Xiaoqi felt that she could no longer smell the greasy odor outside.

Seeing it was just past 6, the sky barely bright, she might as well make breakfast herself.

She got up to wash the rice, and found Lin Min working in the yard.

"Morning."

"Morning." Lin Min saw her washing rice and felt a bit strange, but he did not say much.

Xiaoqi also found it odd. Usually it would be Lin Min's mom doing the chores. She did not expect to see only Lin Min himself this morning.

Looking at the stuff he was handling, very clean, flour and all, it was pretty good.

The green onions were also washed very clean. But the morning water was a bit cool. Seeing Lin Min's pair of slender hands, red from the cold.

After Xiaoqi finished rinsing the rice, she was also going to cook later. So she went upstairs to the patient's room to fetch hot water.

She carried two buckets in one go, gave one to Lin Min, then went back to her room. She was going to practice writing for a while, continuing to copy New Concept English Book 3. There was only a tenth left and she expected to finish it today.

Book 4, she flipped through, was more difficult. The articles in Book 3 were still interesting, narrative essays, but Book 4 articles were dry, like expository and argumentative essays, harder to memorize. It felt like there wouldn't be enough time ahead, but she would remember as much as she could. After tidying up the room once, there had been a strange smell from spoiled food before. She cleaned it up and now felt the room was much fresher. She planned to go out and buy some white wallpaper today to paste on the walls to brighten up the room.

Xiaoqi soon immersed herself in the English copywriting. The porridge in the pot cooked slowly. The rice grown in their own field, harvested, dried, and then blown clean with an electric fanner before dehusked by the rice machine. The rice grains were quite broken but very fragrant. In recent years Xiaoqi and her aunt ate rice carried back by her dad when visiting home for meals.

In the yard, Lin Min was energetically helping to knead the flour, adding a little hot water from time to time.

There were white flour bubbles on the tip of his nose.

In fact, seeing Su Xiaoxi so early in the morning had embarrassed him a little. He did not expect her to get up so early and happened to come over to rinse rice, catching him doing chores.

A grown man doing these chores made him feel ashamed.

He was good-looking, with high nose bridge inheriting from Dad and big eyes from Mom, he was also tall and quite handsome. At school, he heard female classmates calling him the "classroom grass", and some called him "classroom herb", but not the "school grass", which was Gao Chuyen, also a boy who looked like a girl, and was said to come from a very rich family. All the girls at their school especially admired that boy.

Lin Min felt that in terms of looks, that Gao Chuyan was just ordinary, delicate, not as good-looking as himself. But then he saw Gao Chuyan going to school in a luxury sedan, unlike himself, who still had to help his mother sell breakfast.

He was also a little relieved that his mother's breakfast stall was near No.1 Middle School, not No.2 Middle School.

Although he disdained being called "class grass" or "class herb" or something, deep down there was still a kind of vanity.

On the outside he always had a good temperament and character, with excellent grades, but on the inside he was extremely insecure, and even somewhat gloomy.

However, seeing that Su Xiaoxi did not look much and instead brought him a bucket of hot water, he felt better.

Usually when Mom was here, he would at most just help out. But last night, Dad went out drinking again, and when he came back the two quarreled behind closed doors. This morning when Lin Min saw Mom with a swollen face and an injured mark on her forehead.

When Lin Min was chopping just now, holding the knife, he even had the urge to just go into the room now and stab his drunken gambling dad to death.

He did not go to fetch hot water, his hands touching the icy cold water to sober himself up a bit.

Others all mocked Aunt Xiaoxi for divorcing and being single, but he actually quite envied her situation, no endless quarrels every day. Sometimes he wished his parents would just get a divorce.

After kneading the dough, he soaked his hands in the bucket.

The cold water stung his hands sourly and numbly.

Xiaoqi was copywriting earnestly when the mechanical sound next to her ears rang again suddenly.

"The host is willing to help, bringing a bucket of hot water for the moderately darkening teenager, slowing down the speed of his darkness, rewarding the host an adjustment and enhancement of body proportions once." Xiaoqi was a bit puzzled, messing up the line she was copying.

What happened?

Last time Lin Min brother was just a darkening teenager, now he was moderately darkened already? This was even after some alleviation, the speed was too fast!

And what were the manifestations of a darkening teenager anyway? Every time she saw Lin Min brother he had a gentle smile, and just now he was helping his mom with chores, looking like a filial son.

Body proportions?

She learned about the golden ratio and proportions and stuff in middle school maths. And dorm mates gossiped about celebrities, things like nine heads proportions etc. She had secretly measured her own proportions before, hmm, a very reasonable fifty-fifty split.

If waist-chopped, upper and lower body would be the same length.

Adjust and enhance proportions?

She couldn't make out anything standing in front of the mirror. Or it might look more pleasing?

It felt like because of herself wiping the mirror last night, and the room mirror was leaning, making herself look taller than actual.

Glancing at it, no special feeling.

The porridge was cooked.

She steamed the large buns her aunt bought yesterday, and cut a salted duck egg, also made by mom. Whenever she came here for meals, mom tried to prepare what she could make and let her bring over.

Cut open, the golden egg yolk flowed with oil.

There were also mom's homemade pickled bamboo shoots and crispy radish sticks.

Put a small plate of each.

The bamboo shoots were a little sour and sweet, the radish sticks very salty, salted egg, buns, porridge, just in time. Xiaoqi gave her aunt a call to come eat breakfast, better to eat early and not while working later.

Seeing the small plates and buns on the table, Su Simei was very happy.

In fact, she also didn't like buying breakfast outside in the morning, oily, but had too many things to do in the morning to make it herself.

Somehow she felt her niece had become more and more well behaved recently, and more attractive as well.

Seeing her, Su Simei thought of her own daughter, wondering how her daughter was doing.

After breakfast, Xiaoqi did not go straight to the library, because she had an appointment with the swimming coach yesterday to go for training at the pool this morning.