Mu Xiaoxiao had just returned from abroad and originally intended to bring a gift out for Ruan Shiyu. Ever since she heard about Ruan Shiyu and Zhan An breaking up, her anger had not subsided. Hearing this made her feel even more that Ruan Shiyu deserved so much better. "Why on earth did he break up with you? How come I even heard that he went to the movies with Chu Li yesterday?"
Remembering the scene of the breakup that day, Ruan Shiyu looked downcast and muttered quietly to Mu Xiaoxiao, "Zhan An... he said I was too much of a shut-in."
Hearing this, Mu Xiaoxiao widened her eyes. "What do you mean by you're too much of a shut-in?"
Ruan Shiyu slumped over the table, looking somewhat defeated. "It means I don't go out for long stretches, I only stare at the computer all day, my social circle isn't very wide, and I'm never willing to tag along whenever he has events."
"Just for that?!" Mu Xiaoxiao found it hard to believe. "You two have been together for all these years, and he dumped you just for that?"
Mu Xiaoxiao inadvertently raised her voice, causing people nearby to frown and look over.
Ruan Shiyu hurriedly waved her hands at her, looking nervous. "I dumped him, okay! What do you mean he dumped me... How could I possibly get dumped..."
Mu Xiaoxiao brushed it off casually and continued asking, "Then what's going on with him and Chu Li? Does he not know that you and Chu Li are mortal enemies?"
Hearing this, Ruan Shiyu felt even more deflated. "How would I know what's going on with him?" She rubbed her hair, feeling somewhat embarrassed and annoyed. "Once I dumped him, I considered him dead. Can a living person like me go worrying about the affairs of a dead man?"
Hearing Ruan Shiyu lay out the whole story clearly, Mu Xiaoxiao fell silent as well.
After a long pause, she spoke up rather cautiously, "Ayuan, but come to think of it, you really are a bit of a shut-in..."
Ruan Shiyu abruptly raised her head and shot her a glare. "Are you even my friend?" Although it sounded angry, it was pure bluster.
Having known her for so many years, Mu Xiaoxiao knew what she was like. Hearing this, instead of stopping, she seemed to make up her mind and took this opportunity to blurt out everything she had previously been afraid to say. "Don't you think your whole self has gotten a bit weird lately?"
Ruan Shiyu kept her head down. She knew her own situation best, but she still stubbornly refused to admit defeat. "I'm still alive and kicking, what kind of problems could I possibly have?"
Mu Xiaoxiao grew anxious too. As much as she despised Zhan An, she had to admit that some of the things he said were right. "Go look in the mirror! Just how many years has it been since graduation, and look what you've turned into! Anyone passing by would think you're almost thirty!"
"Nonsense, I'll always be eighteen, okay?" Ruan Shiyu raised her head to retort, but seeing Mu Xiaoxiao glare at her, she shrank back down silently and drooped her head in a weak defense. "Isn't this all for work..."
Mu Xiaoxiao sneered, too lazy to entertain her excuse. "Starting tomorrow, you're moving in with me. I'm going to supervise your workouts."
Naturally, Ruan Shiyu refused outright. "I just rented this place, plus I still have to work."
Ignoring her, Mu Xiaoxiao made the final decision right then and there. "It's settled. We're going to pack up your things right now." She started to stand up, but was held back down by Ruan Shiyu.
"What are you doing?" Mu Xiaoxiao looked down sideways at Ruan Shiyu.
Ruan Shiyu smiled ingratiatingly at her. "Xiaoxiao, do we really have to go?"
Mu Xiaoxiao turned completely around, sitting up straight to look at Ruan Shiyu with utter composure. "If you don't want to come with me, fine. As for the next Idiopathic Sports, I'll be checking your daily step count. If you fall short of ten thousand even for a single day, you're packing your bags and moving into my place to live with me."
Because of her work, Ruan Shiyu mostly communicated with her editors over QQ. Idiopathic Sports was just an app Mu Xiaoxiao had coaxed her into downloading, and she rarely ever used it normally. Therefore, hearing about this so-called Idiopathic Sports left her completely blank, with no idea what on earth it was.
Knowing Ruan Shiyu's lazy disposition, Mu Xiaoxiao wasn't angered by her blank expression. She simply pulled out her phone to explain. "Look, it's this app. It automatically calculates your walking steps."
Ruan Shiyu took the phone and looked at the app with fascination. Seeing that Mu Xiaoxiao had already walked over ten thousand steps today, she looked surprised.
Mu Xiaoxiao proudly lifted her chin. "As long as you walk, it records your steps. That way, I can see at a glance how much you actually exercised today."
With that, Mu Xiaoxiao held out her hand toward Ruan Shiyu.
Ruan Shiyu looked at her in confusion. "What?"
Mu Xiaoxiao clicked her tongue and said as a matter of course, "Give me your phone, I'll set up this app for you."
Hearing this, Ruan Shiyu instinctively patted her own pocket and said awkwardly in a low voice, "I didn't bring it."
"What do you mean?" Mu Xiaoxiao frowned. "You don't bring your phone when you go out?"
Ruan Shiyu cowered slightly under Mu Xiaoxiao's twitching eyebrows and forced a smile. "Well... I missed my deadline the last couple of days, so my editor has been hunting me down every day..."
"Even so, you can't just leave your phone behind. And don't think I don't know—you only have to submit your manuscript once a month, which is plenty of time for you to draw it." Still unable to understand, Mu Xiaoxiao looked at Ruan Shiyu with a gaze of mingled disappointment and exasperation.
Ruan Shiyu's voice dropped even lower. "Well, you know, after breaking up with Zhan An the other day, I went wild for a couple of days..."
"All right, cut the excuses." Mu Xiaoxiao waved a hand. "We're going to my place right now, and then we're making a trip to the gym."
"Huh?" Ruan Shiyu let out a groan of despair. "What are we going to the gym for?"
Mu Xiaoxiao arched her delicate brows in anger and poked a fair finger at Ruan Shiyu. "To get you a membership card and hire a personal trainer, so you don't stay cooped up at home and grow mushrooms!"
Mu Xiaoxiao hadn't visited this apartment for quite a while, ever since the day Ruan Shiyu moved in. Having left the place sparkling clean that day, she figured that after only half a month, nothing could possibly go wrong. Still, she had underestimated Ruan Shiyu's destructive power.
The entire apartment now looked like a large-scale disaster zone. It wasn't filthy, but it was so cluttered that there was hardly anywhere to put one's feet.
The living room was relatively better off, except that the sofa was covered with all sorts of magazines and comics, and a few snack bags littered the coffee table.
Standing at the doorway and looking at the chaotic living room, Mu Xiaoxiao's pretty face twisted in fury. She took a few deep breaths, silently reminding herself that Ruan Shiyu had just gone through a breakup and couldn't be yelled at. Only then did she manage to force a twisted smile, turn her head, and look at Ruan Shiyu, who was cowering behind her. "Did... did a thief break into your place?"
Ruan Shiyu raised her head blankly, looked past Mu Xiaoxiao's shoulder into her own apartment, and answered, "No."
Unable to hold back any longer, Mu Xiaoxiao raised a trembling hand, pointed at the apartment, and roared at Ruan Shiyu, "Then you tell me how on earth you managed to turn a perfectly good house into this!"
Ruan Shiyu instinctively hugged her head, lowered it toward Mu Xiaoxiao, and admitted her fault: "Xiaoxiao, I was wrong! I'll never dare do this again!"
Mu Xiaoxiao raised her hand, intending to smack Ruan Shiyu over the head, but seeing her greasy hair, she ultimately couldn't get past her own psychological barrier and let her off the hook for the first time.
After waiting quite a while without feeling a hand strike her head, Ruan Shiyu cautiously opened one eye to peek at Mu Xiaoxiao and saw her standing at the doorway with an expression of utter disgust.
"Alright, cut the act." Mu Xiaoxiao crossed her arms, walked into the living room, and said to Ruan Shiyu behind her, "I'll clean up your room. As for you, go open Idiopathic Sports and then take a proper shower."
She suddenly snapped back to attention, fixing a fierce glare on Ruan Shiyu that startled the absent-minded girl standing behind her. "If I'm done cleaning and you still aren't out..."
Sensing the threat in Mu Xiaoxiao's tone, Ruan Shiyu nodded her head like a pecking chick.
Seeing Ruan Shiyu act so obediently, Mu Xiaoxiao's expression finally improved quite a bit, and she waved a hand at her. "Go on."
Having finally gained Mu Xiaoxiao's permission, Ruan Shiyu breathed a sigh of relief, turned around, and jogged all the way into her bedroom.
She didn't dare disobey Mu Xiaoxiao's words, and moreover, she was extremely curious about this Idiopathic Sports app. Therefore, the very first thing Ruan Shiyu did upon returning to her room was pick up her phone, which finally had some charge.
Seeing well over thirty QQ messages flashing on the newly powered-on screen, Ruan Shiyu guiltily pretended not to see them, cleared her throat twice, and opened the Idiopathic app.
Following the steps Mu Xiaoxiao had mentioned earlier, she opened Idiopathic Sports. Just as she was about to press start, a user agreement suddenly popped up on the page.
Ruan Shiyu found it a bit strange, but figuring that software on computers often popped up things like "user agreements" too, she simply frowned, skipped reading it entirely just like she always did, scrolled straight to the bottom, and pressed "I Agree."
With that done, Ruan Shiyu tossed her phone aside and headed into the bathroom, failing to notice that the screen, which had just locked, suddenly lit up again with an azure glow as a strange mechanical voice chimed out: "Welcome to Idiopathic Sports v3075."
When Ruan Shiyu emerged from the bathroom while drying her hair, Mu Xiaoxiao had already tidied up the entire living room.
Seeing the spotless living room, Ruan Shiyu's eyes lit up. She lunged straight at Mu Xiaoxiao, who was sitting on the sofa drinking water. "Xiaoxiao, you really are my patron goddess!"
Crying out as she was knocked forward by the impact, Mu Xiaoxiao spat out a mouthful of water and turned around ready to smack her. Yet, catching sight of Ruan Shiyu's bright, sparkling eyes, she simply couldn't bring herself to do it and had to resort to verbal blustering instead: "Ruan Shiyu, are you trying to get yourself killed?!"
Sitting down beside her, Ruan Shiyu chuckled ingratiatingly and asked affectionately, "What are we having for dinner?"
Mu Xiaoxiao poked her forehead twice and said irritably, "All you ever think about is food! A Cantonese restaurant just opened on Huaihai Road, and the food is supposed to be good. Want to go?"
"A Cantonese restaurant..." Ruan Shiyu looked somewhat reluctant. Having survived on takeout for the past two days, she was craving something with bold flavors. Cantonese food, being so light and plain, really didn't suit her current palate.
Guessing what she was thinking, Mu Xiaoxiao sneered at her. "You can forget about hot pot, skewers, and all that junk. You're going to obediently eat greens for the next couple of days. Don't even mention those things to me until every single pimple on your face clears up!"
Ruan Shiyu wanted to argue back, but after reaching up to touch her own face, her spirit finally deflated. Like a sun-withered head of Chinese cabbage, she reluctantly agreed to Mu Xiaoxiao's terms.