"Thanks for chatting with me for so long today."
Bing Chan sent another message. "It's been a long time since I talked so much with someone. It felt pretty good."
Zhang Zhaomu replied, "I'm happy to chat with an author I like, too. If you ever want to talk again, you can message me anytime. If there's one thing I've got going for me, it's free time."
Bing Chan: "Okay! Same goes for you. Let's add each other as friends first."
A notification popped up at the same time.
"Bing Chan" has sent you a friend request.
Zhang Zhaomu accepted it, of course.
He also took a quick look at her QQ Space. Most of her posts were about web novels, like complaints that today's chapter had been flagged for review again, or that writing was no job for a human being.
She posted quite frequently, almost every day, sometimes several times a day. It was a stark contrast to her WeChat Moments.
Clearly, she felt much more like a living, breathing person on QQ.
Zhang Zhaomu yawned. He was so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open. Damn it, why was his body so weak now? He used to be able to stay up for three days and three nights straight!
Although he really wanted to roar, "It's just a little sleepiness! How could my indomitable will be crushed so easily?" after his phone smacked him in the face once, Zhang Zhaomu obediently sent Bing Chan a message:
"I'm going to sleep now. Good night, Great Author Bing Chan."
Bing Chan: "Just call me Bing Chan. No need to be so formal. Good night."
Zhang Zhaomu didn't see the message. He fell dead asleep almost the instant he closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, it was already daylight.
"Isn't sleeping just another kind of transmigration?"
Zhang Zhaomu had no intention of going back to sleep. He picked up the phone still lying by his bed and saw last night's message. He casually replied, "Okay, Big Brother Bing Chan. Good morning."
To his surprise, the other person replied instantly. "Good morning, Jasmine Meow."
Zhang Zhaomu: "?"
What kind of name was that?
Only then did he realize he'd forgotten to change his QQ nickname.
Never mind. It was only a name, after all.
He replied, "That was fast, Big Brother Bing Chan. You didn't stay up all night, did you?"
Bing Chan: "Not quite. I kept thinking about my daughter last night and had a little trouble sleeping. I didn't get to sleep until after four."
She must have been thinking about him, right? It seemed she really was giving the advice he'd offered last night some serious thought.
Zhang Zhaomu checked the time and mischievously asked a question he already knew the answer to. "Then didn't you sleep for less than two hours? Why don't you sleep a little longer?"
Bing Chan: "My body clock's used to getting up early. It's fine. When you get older, you need less sleep. I'll just catch up with a nap at noon."
"I'm going to wash up first. Talk to you later."
"Okay." Zhang Zhaomu put down his phone and went into the bathroom too.
Halfway through washing up, he heard a knock at the door.
"What's going on? Did Duan Chan'er act that fast?"
With his toothbrush still in his mouth, he went out and pulled the door open to find Chen Zhenzhen standing there.
"Whaddaya wan' so early?" Zhang Zhaomu asked indistinctly.
"Spit out the foam before you talk!" Chen Zhenzhen walked right in, casually tossed her backpack onto the little sofa, and plopped down.
Zhang Zhaomu rewarded her with an eye roll and went back to the bathroom to finish brushing his teeth. Only then did he come out and ask again, "What are you doing here so early?"
Chen Zhenzhen tilted her head slightly and pouted. "I just tried doing my hair the way you did it yesterday, but I couldn't get it right. Either one bun was bigger than the other, or they were way out of position."
Pfft-
Zhang Zhaomu couldn't hold back his laughter.
"What the hell are you laughing at?" Chen Zhenzhen snapped. "The haircut you gave me doesn't look good when I wear it down!"
"I never would've guessed that, as a girl, you wouldn't even know how to do something as simple as hair buns," Zhang Zhaomu said with a laugh.
"I've never done them before!" Chen Zhenzhen glared at him.
"All right, I'll teach you." Zhang Zhaomu walked over and picked up a lock of her hair. "By the way, where did you get that dress? It actually suits you. I thought you'd just throw on a T-shirt like before."
Today, Chen Zhenzhen was wearing a somewhat retro, cottage-style tea dress with a fitted waist. Although it bulged at the chest, the ties cinched it in at the waist, bringing out her proportions and keeping her from looking bulky.
"It's my older cousin's." Chen Zhenzhen sat obediently. "My mom picked it out for me. She said since I'd changed my hairstyle, I shouldn't dress like a boy all day anymore."
"Auntie must have been pretty happy to see you change, right?" Zhang Zhaomu said with a smile.
"Mhm~" Chen Zhenzhen lifted her chin slightly. "She was certainly generous. I said I wanted to buy clothes, and she transferred me two thousand yuan on the spot."
"The tomboy she raised for years finally turned back into her daughter. I can understand."
Zhang Zhaomu explained in detail how to put her hair in buns, then added, "Once your hair grows a bit longer, it won't look strange when you wear it down. If you find buns too much trouble by then, you can just put it in twin tails."
"Do you boys especially like girls with twin tails?" Chen Zhenzhen suddenly asked.
"It mostly depends on the face, and the situation matters too."
"I get what you mean about the face, but what do you mean by the situation?" Chen Zhenzhen asked, puzzled.
"Tsk." Zhang Zhaomu couldn't be bothered explaining it to this little brat.
He suddenly thought that if it were Duan Chan'er, she'd definitely get it right away.
No, he suddenly felt he couldn't face Duan Chan'er with the same attitude as before!
There was no going back! No going back again!
It had only been two short days since he'd acquired the [Refined] persona, and his impressions of two girls had already changed irreversibly!
As usual, he went to school and attended classes as scheduled (playing on his phone).
Most of the time, the passage of time in high school was uneventful: the constant ringing of bells to start and end classes, the occasional laughter and horseplay in the hallway, the deskmate who was always bent over a book, and the sunlight shifting from slanted to direct, then turning a dusky yellow that seemed almost solid before finally disappearing beyond the school walls.
In the gathering dusk, Zhang Zhaomu began skipping class for the first time in his second year of high school.
Although, as class monitor, he felt a little guilty about skipping class, it was only evening self-study. There were never many people from Class Nine there anyway, and Chen Yongchao might not even come to the classroom tonight.
Besides, how could evening self-study be more important than making money?
The clothes he'd picked out for the girls in his class had been arriving one after another, so it was naturally time to start the actual makeovers.
Of course, Zhang Zhaomu couldn't take the other girls home like he had with Chen Zhenzhen. Fortunately, finding a place wasn't difficult. Most of the class were students with special talents, and the place he'd arranged to meet Wang Lan and Song Xuanxuan today was the dance studio in the multipurpose building.
It had a whole wall of mirrors and a separate changing room. It couldn't have been more suitable.