After running and stopping for two kilometers, Qin Ze was exhausted. Though he normally disliked exercise, jogging two kilometers had never been difficult. It was easy to imagine just how thoroughly the system had drained his body during the day.
The park was utterly silent. Lush lawns, neatly trimmed shrubs, carefully cultivated flowers, and rows of silent trees lay beneath the orange halos cast by the streetlights.
Qin Ze sat on a park bench, gasping for breath as sweat trickled down his cheeks. His lungs wheezed like an old bellows. "Huff, huff, huff..."
After resting for several minutes, he got up and jogged through the park. Vehicles occasionally sped past on the road. Exercise had never been Qin Ze's strength. He had suffered from a weak stomach since childhood and would inevitably vomit after strenuous activity. So apart from PE class, he rarely exercised. Back in school, he had watched boys dominate the Basketball Court while girls outside cheered them on. He had actually been quite envious. But with his physique and skills, he had no business showing his face on the court. Even if he played, he could only serve as background decoration or an extra. So he could only sit far away on the grass, a blade of grass between his teeth, gazing up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle to show that he neither liked basketball nor cared for the girls' cheers.
He jogged for ten minutes, then walked for five, keeping it up for an hour. His windbreaker had been tossed onto the bench, and his T-shirt was soaked through with sweat.
"System, system... I think I need emergency treatment." Qin Ze collapsed onto the grass, dry-heaving nonstop.
"Sorry, Host. The system does not possess medical functions, but you may exchange points for Chinese or Western medical skills."
"I can even exchange them for medical skills?"
"Yes!"
"Forget it. Without a medical license, Police Uncle will arrest me."
"Host, you really are a blockhead. You've read so many novels, yet you haven't gained even a shred of insight?"
"You mean I should happen upon a grandpa having a sudden illness in the park, or run into a little girl who got hit by a car on the street, or... Come on, you know that only happens in novels. If you were the patient, would you let an amateur treat you? What if I treated you to death? It doesn't make any logical sense."
"According to the data, many experienced Chinese doctors and back-alley practitioners do not possess medical licenses. For matters like this, the Host must make an effort himself."
"Right now, I just want to save my points for your next task." Qin Ze traded barbs with the system while recuperating.
At five-thirty, the sky was a dark blue-gray. The night was fading, and dawn was about to break.
Qin Ze finally recovered. He stood still on the park lawn, drew in a breath, and assumed a stance. His hands formed an empty embrace around his Dantian. His left hand pressed downward while his right hand rose. Once the distance between them reached its limit, they slowly came together again. Then, with his Dantian as the center, his arms traced a great circle while his knees bent slightly.
His breathing alternated between fast and slow, matching the movements of his limbs as he exhaled the old and inhaled the new.
Qin Ze closed his eyes and emptied his mind, thinking of nothing as he repeatedly performed the Twelve-Section Brocade by instinct. After an unknown amount of time, a warm current rose within his Dantian and spread through his limbs and bones, leaving his whole body comfortable. He immersed himself in that state until impassioned music suddenly rang out, splitting into Qin Ze's mind like a divine axe cleaving chaos apart. He jolted awake from that wondrous state. Daylight had already fully broken, and there were more vehicles outside the park. On the small square nearby, a group of middle-aged women in exercise clothes stepped lightly left and right, left and right... The woman leading the dance even held a flamboyant fan.
The recorder beside them played the currently most popular upbeat folk song.
Qin Ze took out his phone and checked the time. It was already seven-thirty. Without realizing it, he had practiced for two hours.
He picked up the windbreaker from the grass, slung it over his shoulder, and jogged back toward the residential complex.
As he passed a breakfast stall, he casually bought two bowls of Soy Milk, two baskets of small steamed buns, and four fried dough sticks.
He unlocked the door with his key. Qin Baobao's bedroom door was open, and the bathroom was filled with the sound of rushing water. His sister was probably showering. Qin Ze laid out the breakfast on the table. His stomach growled with hunger. Fortunately, his toothbrush and towel were kept in his room. Otherwise, by the time Qin Baobao finished showering, he would have starved to death.
While eating breakfast, Qin Ze browsed the Points Shop. Its inventory was unimaginably vast, encompassing every profession and all kinds of skills. It was practically a treasure mountain. Qin Ze felt that he needed to familiarize himself with its contents as soon as possible so he would not be left floundering when a task came along.
Just then, Qin Baobao emerged from the bathroom after finishing her shower. She wore a bathrobe, with a hair curler patch stuck to her forehead, her fair cheeks flushed pink.
Qin Ze thought his sister would look even prettier with a bun hairstyle and her bangs exposed, but Qin Baobao's sense of beauty told her that blunt bangs made her look more radiant.
Qin Baobao pulled out a chair. Before sitting down, she reached out, grabbed a bun, and stuffed it into her mouth. With puffed cheeks, she said, "Where did you go this morning?"
"I went running and working out." Qin Ze calmly closed the system interface.
"You? Running?"
At that, Qin Baobao covered her mouth with one hand and made an exaggerated expression, voicing her disdain with a string of "Hehehehe."
"Don't laugh. In half a year at most, I'll be a miraculous man with eight-pack abs." Qin Ze snorted.
"Forget half a year. If you can keep it up for a week, I'll handle the cooking next month." Qin Baobao curled her lips.
"Then I surrender right now." Qin Ze immediately fired back.
Qin Baobao had lived for twenty-five years and still did not know whether oil or vegetables went into the pan first, or whether rice or water went into the cooker first.
Embarrassed into anger, his sister smacked Qin Ze.
After Qin Ze finished his breakfast, he suddenly remembered something. "Oh, right. Give me some more money."
Qin Baobao frowned, her phoenix eyes—enough to shame ninety percent of women—turning sharp. "Didn't I give you five hundred in living expenses last week? Did you really get yourself a girlfriend?"
"Don't look at me like that. I bought the cake for your birthday. Damn it, it cost me three hundred RMB. Your Besties were all wasteful women. They didn't take a single bite—they used it all to smear their faces."
Qin Baobao seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Wearing slippers, she scampered back to her room, then came out with her handbag and placed five hundred RMB on the table. "Spend carefully. I just quit my job, and my new job only pays three thousand in base salary. We'll have to tighten our belts from now on. We can't ask Old Dad and Old Mom for money, or the old man will nag us again."
"Didn't you sign up to become a star? Stars only make three thousand a month?" Qin Ze wore an expression that said, I may not know much, but don't try to fool me.
Qin Baobao rolled her eyes. "I haven't debuted yet. Entertainment Companies sign so many artists every year, but only a few ever make a name for themselves. Most are mediocre nobodies. Besides, stars don't care about base salaries. I still have a three-month training period before I can debut. During that time, I only have a tiny bit of meager income from my base salary."
Qin Ze immediately felt a pressing urge to make money as soon as possible.
His family might be locals with two apartments, but those were fixed assets. They did not actually have much savings. As Shanghai City locals put it: the rich ones aren't locals; the rich ones are all outsiders...
After Qin Ze moved in with his sister, his family had cut off his living expenses. All of his expenses were covered by Qin Baobao. Every season, she bought him three sets of clothes, as well as his phone and laptop.
He was thinking about making money, but he would never say it aloud. Qin Ze kicked Qin Baobao's calf. "Then why are you still sitting around like an idiot? Hurry up and train. Don't come back to see me unless you make something of yourself."
Qin Baobao flew into a rage and retaliated beneath the table, giving him a round of Foshan Shadowless Kicks.
At eight-thirty in the morning, Qin Baobao rushed off to work in a whirlwind.
Qin Ze went to the bathroom to shower. He swiftly took off his T-shirt and pants and was about to toss them into the bamboo laundry basket when he suddenly noticed a pile of clothes inside. On top was the black lace bra Qin Baobao had worn yesterday. Qin Ze's first thought was, I hear beautiful women sell worn underwear online. I wonder how much Qin Baobao's could fetch?
At 10:00 a.m., Qin Ze slung the Hermes bag his sister had bought him over his shoulder, left the residential complex, and took the subway to University Town.
This University Town was home to many prestigious institutions: Fudan University, Tongji, Polytechnic University, and so on. Finance University was slightly inferior to those famous schools, but honestly, it was still quite good. However, with his sister setting such a dazzling example, Qin Ze's bottom-of-the-barrel grades were truly nothing to show off.
Back then, Old Dad had wanted to raise his only son into an outstanding Fudan University student. Unfortunately, his sole heir had failed to live up to expectations, so he lowered his sights and hoped Qin Ze could at least get into somewhere like Tongji or Polytechnic University. But in the end, Qin Ze attended Finance University. Though Old Dad was disappointed, there was nothing he could say, because Qin Ze had indignantly declared, "Dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes, and rats beget children who dig holes."
Old Dad was a professor at Finance University!
Red walls, red rooftops, an imposing school gate—Qin Ze adjusted his shoulder bag and strode into the familiar campus with light steps.
A broad two-way road ran through the campus, shaded by leafy trees on both sides. Lightly dressed female students walked along the sidewalks with books in their arms, either in groups of two or three or alone. Vehicles occasionally entered the campus and moved slowly along.
Qin Ze wore a hooded sweatshirt today and carried a shoulder bag, making him look somewhat like a high school student. He actually disliked shoulder bags, but he had no choice but to carry one. He was not a resident student, and he had a pile of textbooks and course materials to bring around. Besides, Qin Baobao had bought this bag for him with her entire year-end bonus.
There was an Open Class related to international finance at noon today, followed by two major courses in the afternoon. He could have slept in at home, then come to school after lunch. But the professor in charge of this course was famously petty and gave surprise quizzes every now and then. The quiz results were directly tied to the final grade. Plenty of students had been badly burned by him, so few dared skip his class. The students all agreed on one assessment of this professor: mild on the outside, vicious underneath!
This professor's surname was Qin. That's right—he was Qin Ze's father.
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