When Ruan Shiyu finally finished running the fourth lap, she felt like she just wanted to collapse on the ground and not move an inch. Heaven knows how she managed to endure such a long stretch of the way.
Probably because Xu Xiangqian had originally only intended to run this much distance, he stopped right alongside Ruan Shiyu when she paused, beginning to do some stretches on the spot.
Ruan Shiyu lacked the energy to support herself in doing any of that; the moment she finished running, she plopped right down onto a stone bench by the roadside, panting heavily.
Her heart was beating violently, as if it was about to jump out of her chest. After this experience, she felt an even deeper sense of admiration for Xu Xiangqian, who had run four laps without his face turning red or losing his breath, with only a light sheen of sweat on his forehead.
Ruan Shiyu sat on the stone bench with her hands on her hips, trying hard to steady her breathing. Because of this, she didn't notice that Xu Xiangqian, who had originally been stretching in the distance, had walked over to her side.
"Don't sit right down after running; walk around a bit," Xu Xiangqian said in a calm voice. Yet it gave Ruan Shiyu the exact feeling of a high school disciplinary director, making her stand right up the moment she heard it and do as he said.
After walking a few steps, Ruan Shiyu sheepishly turned back to thank him: "Thank you so much."
Xu Xiangqian glanced at her: "You should have been taught this back in school."
Ruan Shiyu felt a bit awkward; she found that whenever she was with Xu Xiangqian, it seemed easy for things to become awkward. Still, remembering his help just a moment ago, she smiled and said to him: "Let me treat you to breakfast later? Thanks for your help just now."
Xu Xiangqian refused without any surprise: "I have breakfast at home."
"…Fine." It was rare for her to take the initiative with an invitation, only to be rejected. Even with Ruan Shiyu's thick-skinned nature, she felt a bit embarrassed at the moment.
The atmosphere between the two of them instantly turned awkward once again.
Fortunately, Ruan Shiyu had remembered to bring her phone out when she left home.
"Ding-dong~" The phone rang, and Ruan Shiyu let out a secret sigh of relief as she walked off to the side.
Even though it was a phone ringtone that sounded, no phone number was displayed on the screen. Ruan Shiyu frowned, remembering that elusive System, and ended up answering the call after all.
"Host has successfully completed the task. Reward: one copy of a daily special breakfast recipe." Sure enough, the familiar electronic voice of the System rang out from the phone.
"A breakfast recipe?" Ruan Shiyu was puzzled.
Although the System wasn't always entirely reliable, it was still quite capable of clearing up Ruan Shiyu's confusion within its own scope of service: "This breakfast recipe has been designed according to the Host's current physical condition. It can both ensure the Host's daily energy intake and cater to the Host's palate." By the end of this, the System sounded faintly proud of itself.
Ruan Shiyu's focus, however, was not on this: "Does that mean my breakfasts in the future will have to follow the recipe completely?" Pondering all kinds of Chinese delicacies while thinking about the things fitness enthusiasts ate every day, even though the System had said it already catered to her palate, she was still somewhat reluctant.
Fortunately, the System gave her an answer in a timely manner: "Rest assured, Host, this recipe is simply the optimal choice for the Host's daily breakfast. If the Host wishes to eat something else—as long as it isn't too excessive—that is also permitted."
Hearing the System say this, Ruan Shiyu was still somewhat doubtful: "When you say 'not excessive,' what kind of limit does that refer to?"
"Low oil, low salt, primarily light and refreshing," the System quickly provided her with the scope.
Having obtained the ultimate limit, Ruan Shiyu's mind settled slightly, and she thanked the System with a rare, lively bounce in her step.
Receiving gratitude from Ruan Shiyu for the first time, the System was somewhat at a loss. After giving a vague, mumbled response, it immediately hung up the call.
Listening to the busy signal on her phone, Ruan Shiyu felt for the first time that although the appearance of this System was somewhat suspicious, it was still rather cute after all.
By the time she hung up the phone, Xu Xiangqian had already left. Although Ruan Shiyu felt a bit regretful that she hadn't been able to say goodbye to him, she let it go once she thought about how the two of them weren't really that close.
Walking all the way back along the path to her apartment, she was surrounded by pedestrians hurrying to get to work, or elderly people carrying vegetable baskets and bringing their grandchildren along. The dense, bustling atmosphere of everyday life formed the simplest yet most precious slice of mortal existence.
Ever since she started making a living through manga—though it sounded great to be a freelancer with plenty of time to do whatever she wanted—the reality was that most of the time, Ruan Shiyu was cooped up in her room with a graphics tablet, portraying the world under her hands stroke by stroke.
She didn't even know when it started, but manga had already become a burden to her. With no time to go out, all information came entirely from the internet, and the initial inspiration she had when she first started drawing manga had completely vanished. At times, Ruan Shiyu even doubted whether she wouldn't be able to draw a single thing the very next moment.
Today, being forced by the System to get up early for a run—though Ruan Shiyu had been furious at the beginning—once she actually started running, a sense of gratitude towards the System welled up within her. She was grateful to it for letting her catch a glimpse of this slice of mortal life once more; grateful to it, as she seemed to have regained her inspiration once again.
Lost in these random thoughts, Ruan Shiyu greeted the passing pedestrians all the way, bought some xiaolongbao and soy milk she hadn't eaten in a long time, and even picked up an order of cifan tuan on the side.
As for that breakfast recipe the System gave her... she would look at it whenever she happened to remember.
When she reached the upper floor, Ruan Shiyu had just taken a bite of her rice ball when she spotted Mu Xiaoxiao standing by her front door, continuously pressing the doorbell.
"Xiaoxiao? Why are you here?" Ruan Shiyu spoke with her mouth half-full, looking at her in some surprise.
Mu Xiaoxiao had been waiting at Ruan Shiyu's door for ages. She had knocked on the door for a long time with no one opening it, and her phone calls went unanswered. If she hadn't known that this silly girl Ruan Shiyu was the most carefree person in the world, she would have almost thought the girl had died in her sleep at home.
Hearing Ruan Shiyu's voice at that moment, she hurriedly turned around and saw Ruan Shiyu with a towel wrapped around her neck, holding the rice ball in her left hand and soy milk in her right hand, while still chewing on something in her mouth.
"You went out?" Ruan Shiyu was surprised, but Mu Xiaoxiao was even more surprised than her.
Ruan Shiyu stepped forward and raised her right hand toward Mu Xiaoxiao. Mu Xiaoxiao habitually fished the keys out of her pocket to unlock the door, saying as she did so: "How come you're so energetic today? Didn't you used to refuse to get out of bed until ten o'clock?"
Ruan Shiyu stepped inside, kicking off her shoes with a quick slide of her feet: "I went out for a run today! Wasn't it you who told me I needed to hit ten thousand steps every day?"
Mu Xiaoxiao followed behind her to change her shoes: "You actually went out for a run? Who was the one back in college who wouldn't budge even if I dragged her?"
Ruan Shiyu walked a few steps into the apartment, turned around, and looked at her rather solemnly: "You can't pigeonhole me just based on things from college, you know. I'm also a person who loves sports. Besides, after the past few days, I've completely realized that my physical activity is far from enough, so for the time being, I'm going to work out properly!"
"You? Love sports?" Mu Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes, showing her no mercy at all as she retorted: "Just who was the one who said back then that she would die the moment she did any exercise?"
The expression on Ruan Shiyu's face collapsed instantly. She put down the things in her hands and came over to act spoiled in front of Mu Xiaoxiao: "Can't you let me be serious just once!"
Mu Xiaoxiao's reaction to this was to pull her hand back from Ruan Shiyu's grip, give it a little shake, and say: "Alright, alright. Tell me the truth, how did you suddenly think of going out for a run?"
Ruan Shiyu couldn't fool Mu Xiaoxiao, and she couldn't just talk about the System casually, so she half-jokingly and half-seriously lied out of spite: "Because there's a handsome guy who moved in across the way, and I saw he was good-looking, so I specially got up early to run and flirt with him. How about that, will that do?"
Who would have thought that upon hearing this, Mu Xiaoxiao actually said: "So that's how it is. No wonder you suddenly woke up so early."
Hearing this, Ruan Shiyu widened her eyes, looking at Mu Xiaoxiao with a gaze full of disbelief: "You actually believe that?!"
Mu Xiaoxiao had originally been keeping a straight face and nodding, but seeing Ruan Shiyu's foolish look, she couldn't hold it together much longer. With a "pfft" sound, she burst out laughing: "Silly child, I've known you for so many years, don't I know you? I was just joking."
Only then did Ruan Shiyu realize she'd been played with again. She inhaled and exhaled for a long time without coming up with any way to teach Mu Xiaoxiao a lesson, and in the end, she could only wrinkle her nose and accept her defeat.
"Right, why did you come over to my place so early today?" Ruan Shiyu went to the kitchen to re-plate the xiaolongbao and carried them out. Looking at Mu Xiaoxiao sitting by the dining table, she asked curiously: "It's a good thing I also bought a portion of xiaolongbao, otherwise you wouldn't even have breakfast to eat."
Mu Xiaoxiao looked at the mere three or four xiaolongbao left on the plate, then looked at the half-eaten cifan tuan, and finally looked at Ruan Shiyu's exceptionally proud expression. Mu Xiaoxiao wore a look that clearly said, "Are you kidding me right now?"
Ruan Shiyu felt thoroughly uncomfortable under her gaze: "What's wrong? These xiaolongbao are actually quite delicious. Do you want to try a couple?"
Mu Xiaoxiao let out a deep sigh. The kind of thing where someone takes the leftover food they've already eaten from and offers it to entertain a friend was probably something only Ruan Shiyu could pull off. But thinking about this child's intelligence, she unexpectedly felt it was quite normal.
She got up and carried the plate of xiaolongbao back into the kitchen. Ruan Shiyu was left completely baffled by her actions: "What are you doing?"
Dragging her toward the door, Mu Xiaoxiao said, "I'm taking you out for morning tea!"
Sitting inside the teahouse, Ruan Shiyu still hadn't quite processed how she had just ended up following Mu Xiaoxiao here to the teahouse.
Mu Xiaoxiao flipped through the menu, rattling off one dish after another to the waiter standing nearby.
Hearing her list so much without stopping, Ruan Shiyu hurriedly intervened: "Xiaoxiao, order a bit less, we won't be able to finish all this."
Mu Xiaoxiao raised her head to look at her, then closed the menu, looked up at the waiter, and said: "Let's stick with this for now. Please hurry up, thank you."
The waiter acknowledged the request, took the menu from her hand, and turned to leave.
"Why did you come find me so early today?" Seeing that she finally had a free moment, Ruan Shiyu leaned forward slightly to ask her.
Mu Xiaoxiao picked up her teacup and took a sip of water: "Isn't it all for your own good?"
Ruan Shiyu slightly turned down the corners of her mouth, completely clueless.
"The gym," Mu Xiaoxiao reminded her, seeing that she wasn't catching on.
Ruan Shiyu still didn't understand: "What about the gym?"
"The gym membership card we got yesterday—the coach said we need to go in for a body composition test this morning. Did you forget?" Mu Xiaoxiao sighed helplessly, knowing full well that this girl had forgotten everything she said yesterday.
Prompted by Mu Xiaoxiao, Ruan Shiyu finally slapped her own forehead; she really had forgotten.
However, thinking of her morning run, Ruan Shiyu said to Mu Xiaoxiao with some difficulty: "How about we go tomorrow instead? I just ran four laps around the residential compound this morning, and I really have no energy left."
"You actually went for a run?" Mu Xiaoxiao's first reaction turned out to be just that.
Hearing this, Ruan Shiyu slumped onto the table, looking rather dissatisfied as she glared at Mu Xiaoxiao: "Hey!"
Only then did Mu Xiaoxiao realize she seemed to have blurted out her true thoughts, and she hurriedly changed the subject: "How about I discuss it with the coach? But this coach is a gold-medal coach at their place and is pretty hard to book. If we don't go this time, there's no telling when the next chance will be."
Hearing this, Ruan Shiyu was overjoyed. Her eyes rolled around a few times, and she deliberately put on a look of regret as she said: "In that case, there's nothing to be done. I really have no energy left right now, so even if I went, nothing accurate would show up on the test anyway."
Hearing this, Mu Xiaoxiao also hesitated a bit: "Then... should I just cancel this appointment?"
Ruan Shiyu's eyes lit up instantly. Just as she was about to nod, her phone rang again.
Looking at the phone that kept ringing without any caller ID appearing, Ruan Shiyu's hands trembled, and an ominous premonition involuntarily rose within her heart.