Brain Metabolism

Dragging his exhausted body, Chen Jue got into Jiang Zhe's sketchy ride.

Chen Jue clutched the two Jingtanghui cash vouchers tightly in one hand.

They were bearer vouchers worth a thousand each—anyone holding them could spend them.

As for Jingtanghui, it was a fairly famous bathhouse in Hang City.

The decor was excellent, the service was great, and the privacy was first-rate. It even had a buffet restaurant inside, so you could enjoy a big meal after a massage to replenish your energy.

Other than being expensive, there was really nothing bad to say about a place like this.

"Holy shit!"

"Two thousand in vouchers?"

"Jiang the Second, did you strike it rich lately? Stashing away secret cash now?" Chen Jue had visited Jingtanghui a few times and knew its prices were outrageously high.

At an ordinary roadside place, a foot massage or full-body massage would only cost around a hundred or so.

Jingtanghui charged 688 for an hour, and even group-buying discounts only took off ten percent. The key was that it was still a legitimate bathhouse.

Anyone who could regularly spend money here had to be loaded.

Chen Jue more or less knew Jiang Zhe's financial situation. The guy had studied interior design. There had been six people in their dorm, and Chen Jue had been the only one to switch majors after the first semester and study finance instead.

After graduation, the two had come to Hang City together. After working for two years, Jiang Zhe had opened a small renovation company of his own.

Business had been pretty good at first, and he had made quite a name for himself around Century City in Hang City.

Back then, they had just arrived in Hang City, and construction was booming everywhere. New developments were springing up all over the place.

With so many people buying homes, the renovation business naturally flourished.

Using the money he earned from the business, Jiang Zhe first bought a house and a car, then married a local Hang City woman. He could be considered half a winner in life.

Unfortunately, the pandemic came along later, and his little company suffered a crushing blow before going under completely.

Now, the guy was an independent designer working at a large design firm. He had gone from being the boss to being an employee. His luck had truly taken a turn for the worse.

Worst of all, Jiang Zhe was henpecked.

Ever since his company went under, he had basically handed all his salary over to his wife.

Whenever he came out for meals or gaming sessions, he was usually stingy as hell.

After all, he had a mortgage to pay, two kids to raise, and two cars to maintain. The pressure was genuinely enormous.

How could he possibly be this generous today, casually handing out two thousand yuan in Jingtanghui cash vouchers?

"What secret cash? These were gifts from a client!"

"I'm telling you, our company landed an order from some rich big shot this time. It really opened my fucking eyes."

"That guy actually bought over two hundred mu of land out in Lin'an, fenced it all off just to raise horses, and said he wanted to build a huge equestrian club. The contract had barely been signed when he gave everyone in our company two of these as thank-you gifts." Jiang Zhe described it animatedly as he drove.

"Fuck!"

"Everyone got them?"

"Wouldn't that be over two hundred grand handed out? What kind of rich bastard is this?" Chen Jue was also shocked by such extravagance.

He knew the design company where Jiang Zhe worked. It ranked among the top three in Hang City and had more than a hundred employees.

Spreading the wealth around like that was no joke!

After all, Chen Jue only had a little over 230,000 yuan in savings on his own card. He had saved that over more than three years by working hard and living frugally.

To the truly wealthy people of Hang City, Chen Jue's savings were nothing at all.

If they were in a good mood, even the loose change they casually gave away would exceed that amount.

Having witnessed how lavish the rich could be, then thinking about how he was about to lose his job and eat dirt, Chen Jue suddenly felt that the two vouchers in his hand were no longer so appealing.

Luckily, he had a like-minded buddy with him. They smoked and chatted along the way, and the car soon arrived at Jingtanghui.

Inside was an elegant, antique-style Chinese interior.

Both the attendants and the young women at the front desk were exceptionally attractive.

The two booked a private room, changed into comfortable bathhouse clothes, and sank into their chairs.

Then they took an iPad and browsed through the profiles of available massage therapists, like ancient emperors flipping through plaques to choose their consorts.

For a twenty-nine-year-old single dog like Chen Jue, this was honestly the absolute best!

Of course, it was a legitimate establishment. There was nothing shady going on.

Chen Jue and Jiang Zhe, two horny bastards, commented on the profiles as they chose their therapists. Once they had made their selections, they lay back and closed their eyes to rest.

After waiting for several minutes, a massage therapist dressed in a classical Tang-style gown pushed open the door and entered.

"Hello, sir! I'm therapist number eighteen, Nana."

"It's my pleasure to serve you!"

The girl had a sweet voice and was very pretty.

A thin veil covered the area below her nose, giving her an air of hazy allure.

Chen Jue did not speak. After his first workout that morning, he was so exhausted that he did not even feel like talking.

Following her instructions, he lay flat and let her arrange him however she pleased.

Seeing all the pain-relief patches on Chen Jue's body, Nana gently and considerately peeled them off one by one.

Then, as she massaged him, she asked whether it hurt.

Judging by her technique and service alone, Chen Jue felt that 688 an hour was well worth it!

The full-body massage and relaxation session took nearly an hour, and Chen Jue felt as though he were floating.

Other than his left hand, pretty much everywhere hurt whenever it was pressed.

Fortunately, Nana's service was excellent. Her soft hands applied just the right amount of pressure, and after working over his whole body, Chen Jue felt some of the post-workout soreness and swelling fade away.

What surprised Chen Jue most was that, after listening to the soothing ancient-style music in the private room and breathing in the calming aromatherapy for a while, another notification suddenly appeared on the Attribute Panel in his vision.

[ Ding~ ]

[ Completed a qualifying brain metabolism activity ]

[ Spirit attribute +0.01 ]

Chen Jue had been a little drowsy, but the instant he saw the notification, he perked up.

"Why did relaxing with a massage increase my Spirit attribute?"

"Wouldn't it make more sense for it to increase Constitution?" Chen Jue muttered to himself.

Thinking back carefully over the day's experiences, Chen Jue roughly guessed the pattern behind the growth of his Spirit attribute.

First, when he had worked out at the gym and thrown Darts that morning, his mental state had seemed to remain tense the entire time.

On top of that, he was facing unemployment, and deep down, he felt somewhat unwilling and depressed.

After coming to Jingtanghui for a massage, however, he had relaxed, as if he had let down every guard around him.

After that cycle of tension and relaxation, both his body and mind had been greatly satisfied and released, which had triggered the growth of his Spirit attribute.

"I never expected a massage to bring such an unexpected gain!"

"It's just a little too expensive here. Otherwise, I'd come every day."

Once he understood the reason behind it, Chen Jue immediately felt at ease.

After the massage in the private room, therapist Nana quietly departed.

Chen Jue and Jiang Zhe then went to the hot pool for a hydrotherapy session. They said Chinese medicine had been added to the water, and soaking in it could promote blood circulation, remove stasis, relieve fatigue, and improve one's constitution.

After getting out of the pool, the two went into the sauna for a steam.

By the time he had finished the full treatment, Chen Jue truly felt much lighter all over. Even the soreness and swelling in his muscles had eased by more than half.

However, the Constitution attribute increase he had been hoping for never appeared, leaving Chen Jue slightly disappointed.

"Looks like I was overthinking it."

"If hydrotherapy could improve Constitution, wouldn't rich people drink up all the medicinal water in the pools?"

It was already four in the afternoon when they finished the hydrotherapy, and Jingtanghui's buffet had not opened yet.

So Chen Jue and Jiang Zhe went to look around the entertainment room.

There were cards, mahjong, billiards, retro arcade machines, and even a private movie screening room.

There was plenty to do, and most of the people playing were adults and children who had just finished hydrotherapy.

Chen Jue had originally wanted to play arcade games with Jiang Zhe for a while to kill time, but when he spotted a row of Darts boards hanging in the corner, he lost all interest in video games.

He had played video games from childhood to adulthood and had long grown tired of them.

How could they compare to playing Darts and grinding proficiency?

So he took a box of steel-tip darts from the rack, stood behind the line, and began throwing with his left hand.

His strength had recovered somewhat after the massage, and his left hand was no longer as sore. As he threw the steel-tip darts again, Chen Jue even felt surprisingly at ease.

It was probably the effect of Lv1 [Darts].

But after only two throws, a middle-aged man throwing darts nearby came over. "Little brother, you're throwing them wrong! You need to use your wrist to generate force."

"I can see that you're just swinging and tossing with your arm. That makes it easy to throw crooked, and if it bounces back, someone could get hurt!"

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