A Confession

The cicadas' cries of midsummer swept against the glass window with a wave of heat. Chen Ze folded his résumé again and again until the edges grew frayed and creased.

Words Among Flowers, a café on the commercial street, was the city's premier chain brand.

Clutching his résumé, Chen Ze paced back and forth in front of the glass door for seven minutes before finally mustering the courage to push it open by its brass handle.

The interviewer, dressed in a silver-gray business suit, looked through his résumé with a cold expression. The words from her red lips pierced him like icicles.

"Chen Ze, eighteen years old, a senior high school student in Hangcheng?"

"Yes!" Chen Ze replied, a little nervously.

Then he caught sight of her finger, its nail painted a muted rose shade, tapping twice on the "male" field.

"The work here is very hard. Are you sure a boy like you can handle it?"

The air conditioning in the interview room was bone-chillingly cold, and cold sweat seeped down Chen Ze's back.

He didn't dare look the interviewer, whose surname was Chu, in the eye. He could only stare at the rhinestones shimmering on the toes of her black high heels.

In a female-dominated society, it was hard for male college students to find part-time work. At an elegant café like this one, they preferred to hire female staff.

"Can you make coffee?"

Manager Chu suddenly pushed a coffee cup in front of Chen Ze. A lipstick mark still lingered on its rim. "Make me a latte now. The milk foam must be no more than 0.5 centimeters thick."

Chen Ze's fingers trembled slightly. This demand was clearly beyond the scope of a normal interview, but for fifty yuan an hour, he had to land this job!

When the dense, snow-white milk foam formed a perfect diamond on the surface of the coffee, Manager Chu's eyebrow finally twitched.

"Why would a boy like you choose to look for a part-time job?"

Manager Chu turned in her chair, her velvet skirt brushing the marble tabletop. "With how scarce boys are, all you have to do is crook a finger and women will be falling over themselves to give you money to spend! Especially with your pretty looks, you shouldn't be suffering here!"

"I want to earn my living expenses through my own efforts." Chen Ze paused, then continued, "Besides, I think men can live just as well without depending on women!"

Those words made Manager Chu's pupils contract sharply. "Boys these days are too delicate; they can't bear the slightest hardship. Although the job advertisement said applicants of either sex were welcome, that was only to comply with the gender equality advocated by the state. Therefore, when she heard Chen Ze's words, she was deeply shocked!

"Then come in for a trial shift tonight!"

Manager Chu tossed the résumé into a drawer, and the metal drawer lock clicked shut. "But let me make this clear first: this isn't a shelter. If you can't adapt, leave at once!"

"All right, thank you so much for giving me this job opportunity, Manager Chu. I'll work hard!" Chen Ze said gratefully.

After leaving the café, Chen Ze still had some time before class, so he made his way leisurely to school.

"Ding~ Congratulations, host, on completing the task. Reward: attribute points +5, empathy points +5,000. The rewards have been issued to the system inventory.

"System, put all the attribute points into charm." Chen Ze was already well practiced at this.

"Ding~ Adding points for the host now. Estimated completion within one day!"

He opened the attribute panel, which had now been updated.

Name: Chen Ze

Gender: male

Age: 18

Height: 173

Constitution: 40

Figure: 50

Bearing: 60

Charm: 80 (outstanding)

Skill: View the Other Person's Information Lv1

"System, can you issue more tasks?" Looking at his attributes, Chen Ze felt a little anxious. At this rate, he didn't know how long it would take to max them out.

"Ding~ No, host! The system can only issue relevant tasks based on the situations the host experiences!"

Chen Ze rubbed his chin. "So I have to trigger keywords?"

"Ding~ Yes, host. The host can actively seek out new things to receive tasks from the system!"

"New things?" Chen Ze looked at the 25,000 empathy points lying quietly in his system inventory.

"I have to put them to good use!"

He opened the system shop and looked at the dazzling array of goods.

"Should I buy a song? No, no! I can't sing!"

"Ding~ The host can purchase a singing skill."

"Purchase a singing skill?" Chen Ze carefully browsed the shop page. Beginner singing cost 100,000 empathy points, advanced singing cost 1,000,000, and max-level singing cost 10,000,000.

Chen Ze's face darkened. He couldn't even afford the cheapest one! Still unwilling to give up, he searched for the cheapest option.

"Huh! This works!" The shop displayed all kinds of classic novels from his previous life, and even the most expensive cost only 10,000 empathy points. After picking and choosing, he finally selected Battle Through the Heavens, a huge hit in his previous life, and clicked purchase!

In an instant, every chapter of Battle Through the Heavens appeared in his mind.

"Ding~ The system has issued the host a new task. Please publish a novel within three days. Task rewards: attribute points +5, empathy points +10,000. Does the host accept?"

"Accept!"

"That's more like it!" Chen Ze felt delighted.

In the classroom, the class monitor pushed up her black-framed glasses, staring worriedly at a problem in her math textbook.

At the neighboring desk, Zheng Qiang was touching up her makeup with a small mirror. His deskmate, the giant loli, was holding a book and reading with a serious expression, but her face was red to the tips of her ears, a sign that she was anything but calm inside.

"Chen, can we talk after school?"

Chen Ze had just returned to his seat when a long-legged mature beauty spoke to him shyly.

She was the class's physical education representative. Chen Ze remembered her; her name seemed to be Li Yuanyuan.

She had short silver hair and wore a white jersey and denim shorts that showed off her long, fair legs. With a pair of sneakers from a well-known brand on her feet, she looked bright and cheerful.

"Is something the matter, Li?" Chen Ze asked, looking at her in confusion.

"It's nothing, just... I wanted to talk to you!" Li Yuanyuan clutched the hem of her shirt with her left hand and pressed her right hand against the desk. Her gaze wandered, and she seemed a little nervous.

"All right! I'll wait for you at the basketball court after school." Chen Ze thought it over and decided that, since he had just come to this school, he should get along with his classmates, so he agreed.

"Okay, see you at the court after school!" Li Yuanyuan left with an excited look on her face.

The giant loli beside him gave him a somewhat downcast glance, then lowered her head again.

"What's wrong, Classmate Zheng?" Chen Ze noticed her expression and asked in confusion.

"Nothing. I just think you're rather popular, Chen!" the giant loli said, sounding a little jealous.

"Popular? Why do you say that, Classmate Zheng?"

"Don't you understand yet, Chen? Li Yuanyuan asked to meet you just now. I think she wants to confess to you!"

"Are you jealous, Classmate Zheng?" Seeing the giant loli's aggrieved expression, Chen Ze couldn't help teasing her.

"N-no, I'm not! Don't talk nonsense!" The giant loli began stammering again and hurriedly denied it.

"Then would you like me, Classmate Zheng?" Chen Ze asked with a mischievous grin.

"I think... I would!" The giant loli's already crimson face grew even redder.

"..." This time, it was Chen Ze's turn to be lost for words.

After school, Chen Ze went to the basketball court as promised. Li Yuanyuan was already waiting there.

Under the basketball hoop, Li Yuanyuan wore a jersey, exposing her long, fair, soft-looking legs. Her oval face was free of makeup, and her impressive breasts strained against her jersey.

System, view Li Yuanyuan's information! Chen Ze said silently. A moment later, an attribute panel appeared in his mind.

Name: Li Yuanyuan

Gender: female

Height: 186 cm

Figure: 82

Constitution: 85

Bearing: 60

Charm: 90 (naturally beautiful)

"There really are a lot of beautiful women in this female-dominated world!" Chen Ze couldn't help exclaiming.

"Li Yuanyuan, what did you want to see me about?" Chen Ze asked.

Li Yuanyuan's face was slightly flushed, and she looked a little nervous.

"Little Ze, I like you. Will you be my partner? I don't care how many partners you have. I only hope you'll give me a chance." Li Yuanyuan summoned her courage and spoke shyly but firmly.

Is this a perk of the female-dominated world? A beautiful woman is confessing to me, and she doesn't even mind how many partners I have. I wouldn't have dared imagine anything like this in my previous life!

"I'm sorry, Yuanyuan. I'm not planning to find a partner at the moment. We should be focusing on our studies now, not putting our energy into romance." Chen Ze rejected her outright, saying that his studies came first.

The two had no emotional foundation whatsoever, so Chen Ze rejected her outright. Unlike certain people who gave the other person hope only to keep them dangling, Chen Chen didn't want a backup, nor did he want to be anyone's backup!

"Oh, I was too forward. I'm sorry, Chen, and sorry for bothering you!" Having never expected her first confession to be rejected, Li Yuanyuan spoke with disappointment written all over her face.

"Please don't be discouraged, Li. I'm sure someone with your qualities will meet someone better." Chen Ze didn't know how to comfort her, so he resorted to the same approach women used in his previous life.

"Will I really meet someone better?" Li Yuanyuan shook her head with a bitter smile. In this world with more women than men, how difficult it was to find someone better than Chen Ze.