"Praise the sugar mommy!"
Following his daily prayer, Bailiang got up, full of energy. After washing up, he headed out for his morning jog.
Returning covered in sweat, he showered and set about making breakfast.
50 grams of oats, 200 milliliters of milk, a handful of blueberries, and a scattering of nuts.
He boiled the oats and milk, stirring constantly until thick, then added the blueberries and nuts.
A nutritious breakfast rich in fiber, protein, and healthy fats was ready.
After eating, he picked up a book and headed out to the balcony.
A comfortable lazy boy armchair was already set up there.
The morning sunshine was just right, casting a warm glow over him. Bailiang adjusted his posture into the most comfortable position possible and dived into focused reading mode.
For someone who had been reborn, Bailiang certainly seemed far too leisurely.
It was hard to imagine that at this moment he only had a little over three thousand yuan in his pocket, yet he felt zero urgency about the rent being due next week.
Instead, he exuded an effortless, relaxed vibe from the inside out.
There was no helping it; having lived a life virtually untouched by hardship, Bailiang found it impossible to feel that kind of frantic pressure.
"When you reach the bridge, you'll find a way across" was just an old saying to others, but to Bailiang, it felt almost like an immutable law of nature.
In fact, he didn't even understand why he had been granted the chance at rebirth.
Before his rebirth, though he couldn't claim any massive achievements, every single one of his girlfriends had been a wealthy, beautiful woman.
Later on, he even married a super-rich beauty, instantly securing a lifetime of ease in one fell swoop.
At the same time, he never encountered any of those so-called live-in son-in-law tropes or humiliation plots—his days had been nothing short of bliss.
With a life like a cheat code running on max settings, what was the point of being reborn?
He had no regrets whatsoever; wasn't this just a waste of a slot?
Still, one of Bailiang's personal mottos was... since I'm already here~
With practically zero hesitation, he accepted the fact of his rebirth, and then... well, naturally, he just focused on living a good life.
Even with not much money right now, Bailiang wasn't particularly worried.
Based on his experience, money was the kind of thing that would soon find its way to him by all sorts of means.
In fact, if he hadn't wanted to avoid repeating the trajectory of his past life, he wouldn't have rejected the aggressive advances of the wealthy local Shanghai beauty who had fallen for him at first sight just a few days ago.
As for the standard rebirth-novel tropes of seizing future information to build a business empire, Bailiang had zero interest in any of that.
However, his roommate clearly didn't see it that way.
"Damn you, Bailiang! Did you drink my protein powder again yesterday?!"
Hearing this "roar," Bailiang, who had been engrossed in his book, snapped back to reality and poked his head out.
A sharp, three-dimensional face with distinct, chiseled features came into view.
Suddenly, the guy flashed a smile, revealing a prominent canine tooth that instantly added a touch of rustic, goofy charm...
That smile looked honest enough, but in reality, the owner of that smile was itching to slap a set of Brazilian jiu-jitsu holds on Bailiang!
At that very moment, he was trying to figure out which limb of Bailiang's to wrench first.
This guy was Bailiang's co-tenant and roommate, Huang Jingyu.
His profession was also that of a print model. With rent being so astronomically high in a place like Shanghai, young people like them who were still hustling naturally chose to share an apartment.
Choosing to share an apartment meant that none of them were exactly rolling in cash.
The apartment Bailiang and Huang Jingyu rented was a three-bedroom, one-living-room place of over eighty square meters. Aside from the two of them, another male model lived there as well.
This apartment had been rented out to people in the modeling industry for several years, with an extraordinarily high turnover rate.
Mostly, once someone made it and started doing well, they moved out, and the others would find a new roommate, who basically belonged to the same industry.
Those who never quite made it would also move out after a while to seek other paths.
Currently, the longest-resident tenant in their apartment was Huang Jingyu. This guy had already been a stubborn "nail house" resident for over a year, while Bailiang had moved in less than two months ago.
Compared to Huang Jingyu, who frequently ran into canceled bookings, delayed payments, and pay cuts in the modeling world, Bailiang had it much better and almost never lacked for gigs.
However, the gears of fate had already started turning for Huang Jingyu; he was about to go enter the entertainment industry and become a celebrity!
At least, that was how Bailiang remembered it. It should be this year, right?
Huang Jingyu would enter the entertainment industry and become a star, while Bailiang would find a wealthy beauty to marry and set himself up for life in one step. As for the other roommate... it seemed he went into the escort business, and apparently was doing exceptionally well for himself.
A bright future awaited everyone!
"That wild protein powder was yours?" Bailiang asked, looking somewhat surprised.
Wild protein powder?
Huang Jingyu felt a tic mark pop up on his forehead. "Since when does your protein powder grow on trees?!"
"My bad, I happened to place an order for two tubs, I'll just pay you back~"
Bailiang genuinely felt a bit apologetic, mostly because he was too used to picking up lost items and finding money on the street.
Sometimes, if he went out and didn't pick up something, it felt as though he had lost something instead.
He just hadn't expected his "foraging" to target his own roommate this time.
Huang Jingyu waved a hand dismissively. In truth, he didn't really care about a little protein powder; he was far more worried about Bailiang's mental state.
"You haven't gone out to work for over a week!"
Bailiang covered half his face with his book and thought about it. "Are you worried I'm going to borrow money from you?"
"Ahem... Of course not!" Huang Jingyu clearly did have some concerns along those lines. Otherwise, since they weren't related and merely got along decently, he wouldn't have bothered poking his nose into other people's business.
It was just that Bailiang's spending had clearly increased lately, yet he wasn't going out to work.
If Bailiang really ended up asking to borrow money later, as an easygoing northerner, Huang Jingyu would genuinely find it rather awkward to refuse.
"As our resident part-time prince, I've got a couple of decent gigs lined up. Want to come along?"
"Sure."
"Uh... then get ready. We need to head out for the first gig soon. It's a part-time job, one hundred and fifty yuan for two hours."
Seemingly caught off guard by Bailiang's immediate agreement, Huang Jingyu—who had prepared a whole speech to persuade him—realized his carefully rehearsed lines had nowhere to go.
They were both in the print modeling business, but as a senior, Huang Jingyu clearly had broader connections.
Or rather, his methods were a bit more unconventional.
Out of the two gigs he had landed, one was in the evening and required male print models—right up their alley professionally.
The other one they were about to rush off to was rather more miraculous: playing fake fans to pick someone up at the airport.
Bailiang didn't put up much resistance. After changing his clothes and coming out, he saw Huang Jingyu admiring himself and fussing over his hair in front of the mirror, and couldn't help offering a reminder:
"You can't wear that outfit! Change into a hoodie..."
Pretending to be fans picking someone up at the airport wasn't the same as modeling for photos; there was no need to dress overly handsome.
Just like how an extra in Hengdian who was too handsome might get rejected for fear of stealing the lead actor's thunder.
No matter what you do, you have to find your proper positioning~
Bailiang, who had frequently lived off women in his past life, had plenty of insights on this—it all fell under the heading of worldly sophistication.
"Makes sense!"
Surprised, Huang Jingyu nevertheless felt that Bailiang seemed somewhat different from before.
Still, with his carefree personality, he didn't dwell on it too much; if it made sense, listening was the end of it.