Interlude

New Calendar 2019, December 24th, Friday, evening.

Heavy snow had fallen intermittently for over half a month. Although the temperature was cold enough, there were still plenty of pedestrians on the streets. This was because today was the so-called Christmas Eve. While people in Dragon Country didn't really care for Western holidays, they couldn't stop women from finding various excuses to make their boyfriends buy things. Thus, this Western festival wasn't spared by women and had become popular in Dragon Country in recent years.

The streets were filled with small vendors selling apples and couples.

Of course, same-sex couples were also not uncommon.

In Chu Yu's home, he, Su Ruo, and Zhao Qinyin sat around the heater, waiting for the results of the fifth chapter of Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal.

This had become their routine over the past few weeks.

With many of her manga artists leaving or dispersing, Su Ruo's workload had significantly decreased. Furthermore, her hometown wasn't here, and she was bored staying alone at night. Therefore, she liked to come over to Chu Yu's place four or five nights a week.

Of course, her excuse was to supervise Chu Yu and the others to ensure they completed their work with quality and quantity.

But in Chu Yu's opinion, she was really just coming over to freeload. Ever since she started coming, the amount of snacks, drinks, ingredients, and rice she bought had increased several times over, and she ate most of it.

A woman weighing less than fifty kilograms had a much larger appetite than Chu Yu, a 120-jin adult male. Even more outrageously, the fat she gained was all in the right places. She truly had no fat in the places a woman shouldn't have it.

Zhao Qinyin was quite envious of Su Ruo in this regard.

Of course, Chu Yu was wealthy now, a true big shot earning seventy to eighty thousand a month. He didn't care about the expenses.

In the past, he used to like buying things like Leibi, Kangshuaifu, Wangzi Milk, Aoliao, Six Walnuts, and Zhouzhu Brand laundry detergent from the website Bingxixi to keep at home.

After all, he had no source of income and was depleting the small inheritance left by his parents. Chu Yu felt a sense of urgency and saved wherever he could.

But things were different now. With money, he no longer looked down on Bingxixi and had moved on to Tianmao.

The down jacket he was wearing was also bought from Tianmao for several hundred Dragon Country currency.

"Sigh!" Su Ruo sighed while cracking melon seeds and looking at her phone.

"What's wrong, Sister Su... Are the results for this issue not ideal?"

"The newsletter for this issue hasn't been sent yet. What's the rush?"

"Then why are you sighing?" Zhao Qinyin asked, confused.

"I'm looking at all those people on my social media who like to show off during holidays. It's annoying to watch..."

"I didn't expect Sister Su to have such troubles?" Zhao Qinyin was a bit curious.

"I think, with your conditions, Sister Su, finding someone to be with and getting married next month shouldn't be difficult..."

"Next month... cough cough cough..." Su Ruo almost choked on her cola.

"Even my mom only urges me to bring someone home next year. Zhao Qinyin, you're saying next month..."

"It's not that I can't find a boyfriend, it's just that I haven't met the right person yet..." Su Ruo said.

"I can't understand." Zhao Qinyin looked at Su Ruo and shook her head.

If she didn't want to look, why would she envy others for being in pairs?

After all, for Zhao Qinyin, her world consisted only of studying and manga. Currently, she couldn't comprehend Su Ruo's feelings of yearning for her ideal love, being disappointed by reality, and being pressured to marry by her family during festivals.

"Cough, cough, cough..." Chu Yu coughed.

Why were three single people discussing these topics here?

And Su Ruo, she's already in her twenties, yet she's discussing these topics with a high school student. I really don't know what to say...

However, having said that.

Chu Yu still took out two bags he had prepared earlier from the cabinet beside him.

After all, the two of them had helped him complete the work Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal wholeheartedly. Although he wasn't interested in this foreign festival, giving them some gifts on this occasion was a way to express his gratitude.

"Here, Zhao Qinyin, this is for you..."

"Su Ruo, this is yours."

Zhao Qinyin and Su Ruo took the paper bags handed to them by Chu Yu and looked at each other.

What's going on?

"Um, you can open them and see! Isn't it that festival today? These are gifts for you!" Chu Yu said.

Gifts?

Both of them were a little confused, but in the next moment, they were delighted.

No matter what, receiving gifts from someone on a festival was like receiving red envelopes from elders during Chinese New Year. Although they hadn't expected Chu Yu to do this, they were still very happy to receive his gifts.

What could it be?

Su Ruo excitedly opened the package inside the paper bag...

This is?

The next moment, Su Ruo's eyes went blank.

"What... is this?" she turned her stiff head to Chu Yu.

After opening the package, it was a disc-shaped object.

"You can't even tell?" Chu Yu said.

"A scale!"

A scale?

Su Ruo's expression changed. What the heck?

"Think about it, even though you said before that you have a physique that doesn't gain weight no matter how much you eat, I always felt that was just talk..."

"I heard that Russian beauties' figures change drastically after thirty, turning into Russian Aunties."

"I was afraid you'd end up like that, so I bought this for you. Don't underestimate it just because it's small; it has all the functions. It measures weight accurately to the gram and can even measure body fat..."

As Chu Yu spoke, he felt the atmosphere completely change.

Let alone Su Ruo, even Zhao Qinyin was looking at him like he was an alien.

"Why aren't you talking?" Chu Yu blinked.

Zhao Qinyin looked at the package in front of her and hesitated before opening it.

Halfway through opening it, Zhao Qinyin breathed a sigh of relief. Judging by the shape, it shouldn't be a scale.

Finally, when the packaging was completely removed, what appeared before Zhao Qinyin was a complete set of manga drawing tools.

"Uh, I saw that your old set of tools was used for a long time! So I bought you a new set..."

Zhao Qinyin breathed a huge sigh of relief. Thankfully, it wasn't a scale.

The manga tools were exactly what she wanted; having an extra set would be useful.

"What, you don't like them? My gifts..." Chu Yu said with a dry laugh.

"I like it."

"I don't like it."

Zhao Qinyin and Su Ruo said almost in unison.

Who would give a girl a scale? You might as well not give anything at all.

Su Ruo was just about to criticize Chu Yu's actions.

Beep beep beep!

Just then, Su Ruo's phone on the table rang.

All three pairs of eyes were drawn to it.

Su Ruo picked up her phone, looked at the other two, and nodded.

In that moment, all three of them temporarily forgot about the gifts. After all, compared to those, the content of the message was undoubtedly more important.

This message would inform the three of them whether Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal could break into the top three in this week's voting rankings on Man Ying.