Early spring, and night still falls early.
The dark blue sky draped over the dormitory rooftop, the evening breeze whipping up a series of wails.
These were not metaphorical wails; they were genuine.
"Waaaaah... What kind of life is this? These eyebrows, what the hell... These eyes, what the hell... This mouth, what the hell... This face, this body... Oh, for crying out loud!"
Sitting on the rooftop parapet, Li Youzhi wept in despair.
Time and again, he raised his phone, looked at the image on the screen, and then squeezed his eyes shut, pulling the phone away with a face full of disgust and repulsion.
Clear tears streaked down his round face, washing away the despair in his heart.
This face was not Li Youzhi’s.
Li Youzhi had been handsome from the moment he was born.
According to his grandmother, the moment he arrived, the midwife was stunned—in her decades of practice, she had never seen a newborn emerge from the placenta looking so clean!
Throughout his life, Li Youzhi grew up bathed in admiration.
In kindergarten, teachers fought over who got to hug and kiss him. In elementary school, the girls in his class fought tooth and nail over who got to sit next to him. In middle school, his young, beautiful English teacher resigned and moved abroad because she feared she couldn't maintain her professional boundaries. By high school, his choice of school became a primary factor for local girls when deciding where to enroll.
Such a history made Li Youzhi feel immense repulsion toward anything unappealing.
It was also only natural that such a background led him into the entertainment industry.
Yet, half an hour ago, all of that came to an abrupt end.
As an S-tier idol trainee for Huaxing Entertainment, Li Youzhi—blessed with stunning looks, acting chops, and innate talent in singing and dancing, dubbed by fans as the "Next Generation Visual King of the Chinese Entertainment Industry"—had been in a car accident on his way to a variety show.
After the shrill screech of brakes and a violent collision, Li Youzhi lost consciousness in a wave of intense pain.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself sitting on the rooftop of this dormitory at Rongcheng Agricultural University, trapped in a body that did not match his soul in the slightest.
The original owner of this body was also named Li Youzhi.
The reason he had been sitting on the rooftop in the dead of night was heartbreak.
At least, that’s what the original owner thought. After merging with the owner's memories, Li Youzhi realized it wasn't heartbreak—it was, to put it accurately, the behavior of a "simp" who had picked the wrong target.
It went like this: a month ago, the original owner met a junior in the school cafeteria who had forgotten her phone.
Captivated by her figure and looks, the owner kindly paid for her meal and mustered the courage to ask for her WeChat. She claimed she didn't have her phone on her, so she took his WeChat ID and promised to add him later.
That night, she added him.
They chatted about life and ideals through text, and played matches together in the game arena. During this time, the girl would often message him saying she was hungry or thirsty, prompting the owner to order her takeout and bubble tea.
Over the past month, he had spent over a thousand yuan just on takeout for her.
He tried to ask her out several times, but she always brushed him off with various excuses—until this afternoon.
A production crew was scouting for extras, so the school organized students for internships.
At the registration desk, the original owner bumped into the girl he could never seem to pin down.
However, when he greeted her with enthusiasm, she asked him blankly who he was.
It was only when the owner took out his phone and showed her their month’s worth of chat logs that she finally realized. She then awkwardly revealed a truth that shattered the owner’s worldview:
After getting his WeChat, she had immediately listed it on a secondhand marketplace. She sold it to another guy at school for fifty yuan, describing him as "a fool with money who can be used as a long-term meal ticket."
Judging by the transaction record, the buyer was even a man...
In other words, he had been used as a simp and sold off by the girl.
The original owner broke down.
Facing his loud questions and accusations, the girl turned hostile and snapped, "What makes you think you're in a position to pursue me?"
It was those words that drove him to the rooftop. With a bottle of antibiotics and a bottle of liquor, he created the situation Li Youzhi now found himself in.
Li Youzhi felt nothing but despair.
By searching the original owner’s memories, he had already gained a preliminary understanding of this world. Compared to his Earth, this world wasn't fundamentally different, aside from the fact that its artistic works were vastly unlike his own.
It was still a world that judged by appearance!
If he hadn't just experienced death and known how agonizing it felt, Li Youzhi would have jumped right then and there.
In all honesty, this body wasn't hideously ugly.
It was just bizarrely ordinary and completely indistinguishable!
How could one describe this appearance?
It was like a workbook in a classroom at the end of the semester, a test tube in a chemistry lab, a cotton swab in a makeup bag...
It was just so randomly mediocre, damn it!
It had zero distinct features. Even after staring at the original owner’s selfies for half an hour, besides feeling disgusted, Li Youzhi couldn't even fully remember what he looked like.
These looks made Li Youzhi, who had never been ugly a day in his life, feel utterly lost.
With a face like this, forget debuting as a star; he’d lost even the most basic right to choose a partner!
What was he supposed to do with a face like this?
Wiping the tears from his face, Li Youzhi took a selfie with the owner's phone, opened the Dou-Shou short video app, and edited a post to send out.
"Asking online: With my current condition, is there any chance I can find a girlfriend or become a big star in this life?"
The original owner had no followers on Dou-Shou, so after sending this first—and only—post, there were no replies.
Looking at the long-blank comment section, Li Youzhi burst into tears.
It was too cruel.
This world was simply too cruel to those with low attractiveness!
...
At the same time, in the girls' dormitory building.
"Big gossip! Big gossip! Look, look, the guy who was publicly humiliated by a woman at the internship desk this afternoon posted on Dou-Shou!"
"Is that the fat nerd who got rejected by Zhou Jingyao from the Foreign Languages department?"
"That's him! I found it while searching for nearby posts! It’s definitely the real deal!"
"Holy crap, explosive!"
Hearing the commotion outside her dorm room, a petite girl in a "Sad Frog" pajama set, residing in room 413 of the Performance department, rubbed her stomach.
"What’s all that noise outside?"
"Word is, a girl chewed out a guy from the Foreign Languages department at the internship desk this afternoon. Wait... that's not right..."
Hearing her question, her roommate on the upper bunk leaned down. Looking at Tu Susu’s small, resentful face, the roommate asked in surprise, "Since when did our Susu start caring about school gossip?"
"Hu-ungry... so hu-ungry... so an-gry... so ti-ired!"
Facing her roommate's inquiry, Tu Susu wrinkled her nose, every syllable laced with bitterness.
"That’s even stranger then. Didn't you find a gaming partner recently who orders takeout for you on time every day?"
"First of all! He is not a 'gaming partner'."
Tu Susu lifted her chin and extended a slender, pale index finger. "He’s been feeding me for a month while I've been cut off by my family—he is my provider! Second... I don't know what happened, but this sugar daddy has blocked me on both WeChat and the game."
Saying this, she sighed wistfully.
If only gossip could actually fill one's stomach.
"Why did that girl spray the guy?"
"Rumor has it he asked for her WeChat, she thought he was ugly, so she sold his contact on a secondhand site. And the guy was so gullible, he acted as her simp for an entire month... buying her takeout and milk tea. They say the one who bought the contact was another guy from our school. Isn't that hilarious? ...Hey, Susu, why aren't you saying anything?"
After prattling on, the upper-bunk roommate, hearing no response from Tu Susu, leaned down again to check.
Below, a "Sad Frog" was curled up on the bed, her pale, slender feet crossed and fidgeting...
Her eyes were vacant, and she was muttering to herself:
"I’m doomed, I’m doomed, I’m doomed, I’m doomed..."
How bizarre...
"Girls, look, look! The main character of today’s drama, Zhou Jingyao, just led a crowd to swarm that guy's Dou-Shou page!"
Hearing another scream from the hallway, the roommate with the upper bunk lay back down with her phone, ready to continue feasting on the day's drama.
...
On the rooftop.
Li Youzhi stared at the constant stream of Dou-Shou notifications popping up on his phone, his mouth agape.
He wasn't shocked by the comments; rather, along with the notifications, a strange voice appeared in his mind.
【"Listen to Advice" system initializing... 100%】
【New advice received, please view and execute.】
【By completing advice from others, the user will earn Awe Points.】
【Awe Points can be used for lucky draws or to comprehensively improve user attributes, including but not limited to: appearance, temperament, wealth, skills...】
This... this didn't feel like a hallucination.
Because along with the voice came a powerful visual manifestation!
Following the sound in his head, a virtual panel appeared before him.
【User: Li Youzhi】
【Appearance: 31】
【Temperament: 28】
【Wealth: 515 (WeChat Wallet) - 306 (Huabei Debt)】
【Skills: High-Level Execution, Mid-Level Learning Ability】
【Awe Points: 0】
【Summary: A kind, hardworking, insignificant twenty-three-year-old male human whom only his mother truly likes.】
【Advice: Complete as many suggestions from others as possible to collect Awe Points and improve user attributes.】
So, if I complete other people's suggestions, I can become stronger?!
There’s still hope for this face?
Li Youzhi wiped away his tears and silently opened the Dou-Shou app, intending to see what suggestions the netizens had offered.
However, once he clicked on the comment section, one glance was enough to plunge him into despair.
"I suggest this guy just go die and reincarnate!"
What the hell?