The bait had been set, and Liu Chen no longer lingered in the living room. Since she and Ren Yu were only 'pretending' to be a couple, staying together too long might raise Liu Fang's suspicions.
Moreover, while the mastermind behind the scenes needed to be guarded against, dreams also had to be realized step by step, grounded in reality.
Yes, to fulfill a secret ambition as soon as possible—to break free from the system-rewarded recipes and truly create her own products—Liu Chen still had to bury her head in her studies for now.
Liu Chen sat at her desk, facing the window. The blinds were lowered, their angle adjusted so she could see outside from indoors. C City's winters always lacked sunshine, and once the blinds were down, the room immediately became dim.
Liu Chen settled into the leather executive chair and turned on the desk lamp in the upper left corner. A warm, yellow light instantly cascaded out, illuminating the desktop brighter than a summer's day.
She opened the professional textbooks she had brought back, holding the sign pen drawn by the system in her right hand. Liu Chen studied until dinnertime.
"Knock, knock."
A knock at the door pulled Liu Chen out of her study trance. She glanced at her phone; it was already seven in the evening.
Getting up, she peeked through the gap in the blinds. The sky outside was dark, but the courtyard was brightly lit. A bonfire blazed, with an iron rack set over it. On the rack sat a whole roasted lamb, coated in seasonings.
Turning back, she saw her shadow stretching long under the desk lamp, as if it yearned to reach the bedroom door.
"Click."
Liu Chen walked to the door and switched on the overhead light in the room. The sudden brightness banished all darkness.
She opened the door to find Ren Yu standing there.
Hearing the door open, Ren Yu looked at Liu Chen, who stood in the doorway with a calm expression, radiating an aura of solitude. A flicker of fear arose in Ren Yu's heart, a fear that Liu Chen would remain alone in the dim room, lost in her solitude.
With that thought, Ren Yu reached out and gently pinched Liu Chen's cheeks, saying,
"My girlfriend, you've been alone in your room all afternoon. Did you miss me at all?"
Feeling the warm touch of his fingers on her face and hearing his words, Liu Chen couldn't help but roll her eyes and walk out, closing the door behind her. "No, and we're fake lovers. Why would I miss you?"
Seeing the expression on Liu Chen's face, Ren Yu's heart settled. He lowered his head slightly, smiling as he watched Liu Chen with her messy, frizzy hair sweep past him.
He then followed her, walking and saying,
"Because you're my significant other, I missed you this afternoon."
Liu Chen, walking ahead, heard him and couldn't help but chuckle silently, then pouted playfully, "Maybe I missed you a little too, I don't really remember."
-
Liu Chen had expected to eat roasted lamb for dinner. However, when she went downstairs, she found everyone in the dining room, and the table was laden with dishes.
Old Master Chen, wearing an apron, emerged from the kitchen. Seeing Liu Chen approaching, he called out, "Come over and try. This is a soup stewed with your Meimei sausage and freshly killed free-range chicken. It smells wonderful! I couldn't resist lifting the lid to taste it several times this afternoon!"
After dinner, Liu Chen learned that the roasted lamb outside was actually for a late-night snack. In Old Master Chen's words:
"After playing mahjong all night, my stomach will be famished. Eating some lamb at this hour will warm me up and help me sleep soundly. This sets a good tone, so the whole new year will be smooth sailing."
Liu Chen remained non-committal to Old Master Chen's words. After dinner, seeing her mother enthusiastically taking her seat at the mahjong table, she turned and headed upstairs. Time was tight, and the task was pressing. Liu Chen wanted to get through all her first-year required textbooks as quickly as possible.
Because Liu Chen harbored a thought, a thought she had never spoken aloud.
She wanted to skip grades in university and also wanted to pursue postgraduate and doctoral studies sooner.
It might sound audacious, especially considering this was Tsinghua University, where almost all students were prodigies.
But...
Liu Chen sat in her leather chair at the desk, looking at the lottery prize wheel before her. Her lips silently mouthed,
"Memory, memory, please, let me draw memory!"
After saying this, Liu Chen glanced at the remaining number of lottery tickets: 4020.
A considerable amount had accumulated. Based on the usual minimum probability of the lottery tickets, besides the money deposited into the offshore bank account, she could at least draw 402 prizes.
Of course, the prizes were bizarre and varied; she was used to it by now. But this time, please!
"Start the draw!"
As Liu Chen silently uttered these four words, the wheel suspended in mid-air began to spin rapidly.
'Received RMB 2,000 (transferred to Swiss bank account)'
'Received Resume (incomplete version). Filling in the names of your employees on the resume will grant you incomplete employee information (can only be bound once; if an employee resigns, the resume becomes void).'
'Received Temporary Memory Boost +1, duration thirty days. Current Memory: 77 (65+12).'
Seeing these lines, Liu Chen's eyes finally lit up. The corners of her mouth turned up uncontrollably, and she couldn't help but say to the rapidly spinning wheel in mid-air,
"System, well done! You really are the best system in the world!"
Whether it was Liu Chen's encouragement or something else, after that remark, the following kept coming:
'Received Temporary Memory Boost +1, duration thirty days. Current Memory: 78 (65+13).'
'Received Temporary Memory Boost +1, duration thirty days. Current Memory: 79 (65+14).'
'...'
'Received Temporary Memory Boost +1, duration thirty days. Current Memory: 87 (65+22).'
At this moment, Liu Chen looked at the lines in mid-air, but her mind felt incredibly clear, like waking up after a full 24-hour sleep after a tiring day.
Refreshed! Her mental gears felt as if they had just been oiled, running so smoothly, without any resistance!
Even with a slight thought, the materials and books she had read that afternoon appeared in her mind as if retrieved by a computer search.
While Liu Chen was still carefully experiencing the terrifying power of her temporary memory boost, the lottery wheel suddenly emitted a purple glow.
This was followed by a notification larger than the previous text.
"Received VIP One-on-One Tutoring Package. You can choose any seven teachers you know. Each private session lasts two hours, during which the host must be in a deep sleep state."
Liu Chen's mouth gaped open as she looked at the product details. After a long pause, she managed to close her jaw.
"Amazing..."