Ruan Shiyu looked at her incessantly ringing phone, a rare look of hesitation crossing her face.
Mu Xiaoxiao sat opposite her, fiddling with the cutlery. Although she hadn't seen who was calling, she caught Ruan Shiyu's expression and stopped what she was doing, frowning at her. "Whose call is it? Why aren't you answering?" Suddenly, as if remembering someone, she asked, "Is it Zhan An?"
With a serious expression, Mu Xiaoxiao raised a hand as if to grab the phone.
How could Ruan Shiyu dare let her see? She hurriedly raised a hand to block her. "It's not Zhan An. Just a—a relative I don't really like." Without giving Mu Xiaoxiao a chance to say another word, she answered the call.
"Hello, what is it now?"
"The second mandatory task is now issued: go to the gym for a physical assessment and work out for one hour. Please complete it as soon as possible, Host." The System didn't care about her terrible tone and calmly stated its purpose.
Ruan Shiyu, on the other hand, was startled. "How did you know I was going to..." The remaining words trailed off into a mumble.
"I am in your hands." Those few brief, disdainful words made everything click for Ruan Shiyu, filling her with deep regret.
"Do I really have to go?" Ruan Shiyu asked somewhat reluctantly.
"Mandatory task."
"Fine, fine, I get it." Ruan Shiyu answered impatiently, then muttered softly, "You only ever use this to pressure me!"
The System had come to issue the task; now that the Host had accepted it, it simply ended the call.
Having hung up, Ruan Shiyu slumped over the table, looking completely drained.
"What happened?" While she was on the phone, Mu Xiaoxiao had wanted to ask because she saw her expression shifting constantly. Now, seeing her look even more dejected after hanging up, Mu Xiaoxiao couldn't help but worry.
Ruan Shiyu replied listlessly, "Nothing much. Just a relative from home is coming and wants me to pick them up."
Mu Xiaoxiao nodded in understanding and offered, "Are they a handful? Do you want me to go with you?"
Naturally, Ruan Shiyu couldn't tell her the truth, so she quickly refused, "No need. That relative is endlessly annoying, I can just go handle it myself."
Since Ruan Shiyu refused, Mu Xiaoxiao didn't press the matter. She remembered what they had been discussing before the call came in. "I'll call the gym right now. Let's skip it today and go shopping instead after we head back?"
"Mm..." Ruan Shiyu acknowledged, then snapped back to reality and hurriedly raised her hand to stop her. "No, wait! I'm going to the gym!"
Mu Xiaoxiao paused, phone in hand, looking at Ruan Shiyu in confusion. "Didn't you just say you had no energy? Why do you suddenly want to go again?"
Ruan Shiyu slumped back down. "I thought about it—since that trainer is so hard to book, they must be really good. I'd probably regret missing out for a long time. I might as well just go today. A physical assessment is a physical assessment, it's not like it's going to kill me."
Hearing Ruan Shiyu's self-defeating words, Mu Xiaoxiao couldn't help wanting to laugh. But seeing her state, she kindly swallowed the laughter back. "Since you've made up your mind, let's go later then. Just don't complain to me when the time comes."
"Got it," Ruan Shiyu dragged out her tone, answering listlessly.
Perhaps the only thing that could comfort her today was the food at the teahouse. Even though she had previously said Mu Xiaoxiao ordered way too much for two people to finish, when the dishes actually arrived, Ruan Shiyu ended up eating more than half of the dim sum all by herself.
When the two of them arrived at the gym, Ruan Shiyu was still holding her stomach, occasionally letting out a burp.
Mu Xiaoxiao looked at her in a dilemma; eating that much meant she might just throw up once they started exercising.
As for Ruan Shiyu, she was torn between excitement and distress, desperately suppressing the urge to bargain with the System. Maybe, just maybe, the System would take pity on how stuffed she was and let her off the hook from working out? However, both of them thought in vain.
After waiting five minutes without any sign of the legendary personal trainer, a front desk receptionist came over to inform them that the trainer had overslept and was stuck in traffic, and would take at least another twenty minutes to arrive.
The two looked at each other and sighed in unison. Although both wanted to leave, seeing as they had already made the appointment, they could only obediently sit in the gym and wait for the trainer to show up.
Finally, after twenty-odd minutes, a robust man hurried over. Seeing the two sitting bored on the sofa, he immediately apologized, "I'm so sorry I'm late. I'm Shi Qianjin, your booked personal trainer."
This man named Shi Qianjin clearly looked like he had been working out for a long time. His exposed arms were packed with muscles, and his full pectoral muscles bulged against his shirt, looking remarkably larger than the chests of most girls.
Ruan Shiyu looked, subconsciously glanced down at her own chest, and then glanced at Mu Xiaoxiao beside her. Upon discovering that she was actually the smallest of the three, she couldn't help curling her lip, turning her gaze back to stare at Shi Qianjin's pectoral muscles.Shi Qianjin looked like a muscle-bound man, but he was unexpectedly shy, even blushing when talking to Mu Xiaoxiao. Observing this, Ruan Shiyu felt she had a measure of how their upcoming personal training sessions would go.
"Ms. Ruan?" Shi Qianjin had finished speaking with Mu Xiaoxiao and was preparing to ask Ruan Shiyu to do a physical assessment, but after calling her name twice, he received no response.
Mu Xiaoxiao gave Shi Qianjin an awkward smile and secretly reached under the table to give Ruan Shiyu a hard pinch.
"Ouch!" Ruan Shiyu snapped back to reality, turned to glare at Mu Xiaoxiao, her eyes full of accusations.
Mu Xiaoxiao smiled at Shi Qianjin again before turning to Ruan Shiyu with a fierce look and hissing, "What are you spacing out for?"
Ruan Shiyu rubbed the pinched spot, feeling aggrieved, but her expression shifted back the moment she turned to Shi Qianjin. "Is something the matter?"
Watching their interaction, Shi Qianjin struggled to keep a smile on his face. "Ms. Ruan, please come with me for your physical assessment."
"Understood." Ruan Shiyu replied and followed Shi Qianjin to the testing room.
She started by stepping onto a body composition analyzer. Having never seen such a device, she found it quite fascinating when Shi Qianjin told her that she only needed to stand on it and grip the handles to measure various stats.
Before long, the machine printed out a long slip of paper. Ruan Shiyu looked it over with curiosity, but the data on the long sheet might as well have been written in a foreign language; she had to rely entirely on Shi Qianjin to explain it.
Shi Qianjin brought them back to their previous spot and went through the chart item by item. The data was so dull that Ruan Shiyu’s mind began to wander after only a few items, leaving only Mu Xiaoxiao to listen earnestly to Shi Qianjin's analysis.
By the time Shi Qianjin finished, Ruan Shiyu had only gathered two main points: her basal metabolic rate was low, and her BMI was also on the low side. In short, it was clear that she needed to exercise properly.
Once the basic assessment was finished, Shi Qianjin led the two of them to the private training room.
Halfway there, Mu Xiaoxiao received a phone call. After hanging up, she apologized to Ruan Shiyu. "I can't stay with you today." She held up her phone and said, "My dad wants me home; he says I need to meet someone."
Ruan Shiyu knew the family had a lot of business to attend to and was quite understanding. She waved her hand. "Go ahead and get back to your business. I can head home on my own later."
Mu Xiaoxiao was skeptical, seeing how readily she agreed. "Are you sure you're okay on your own?"
"Of course I am." Ruan Shiyu insisted. Fearing that Mu Xiaoxiao might see through her plans, she ushered her toward the exit. "Go on, I’m an adult now; I’ll really be fine."
Pushed along and pressured by her father's urgency, Mu Xiaoxiao figured that even if she were worried about Ruan Shiyu, she had no choice but to give Shi Qianjin a few parting instructions before hurrying away.
Once she saw Mu Xiaoxiao leave the gym, Ruan Shiyu gave a sly smile and, standing on her tiptoes, draped an arm over Shi Qianjin’s shoulder. Seeing his ears turn bright red, she felt more confident about what she was about to ask. "Coach, can we strike a deal?"
Shi Qianjin tried to pull away, but seeing Ruan Shiyu’s posture, he feared she would lose her balance if he moved, so he leaned in slightly, eyes flickering. "Wh-what is it?"
"Well, you saw it—I'm not very fit," Ruan Shiyu lied smoothly. "I just came to the gym to do some running. Why don't you just schedule me for the treadmill for our future private sessions?"
Ruan Shiyu’s logic was sound: running around her neighborhood was running, and running on a treadmill was also running. It was all the same, so what was there to fear?
To her surprise, Shi Qianjin reacted with intense opposition, forgetting entirely that she was still leaning on him. "Absolutely not. Since I’ve taken you on as a client, I have to be responsible for you. How could I just slack off like that?"
His sudden movement caused Ruan Shiyu, who was already struggling to balance on her toes, to lose her footing and stumble forward. Fortunately, Shi Qianjin was tall with a long reach, and he scooped her up before she could fall.
Ruan Shiyu recovered, though her mind was still on her objective. She hurried to say, "How is that slacking off? This is something I'm requesting myself. Don't worry, I’ll still pay you the full private training fee."
"It’s not about the money," Shi Qianjin said, exasperated. Unable to find the right words to explain his reasoning to her, he finally said firmly, "In any case, the answer is no."
Ruan Shiyu looked at him, growing anxious herself. "Why are you so stubborn? I told you, this was my idea." She softened her tone. "Please, do me a favor. Just let me use the treadmill, okay?"
To her surprise, Shi Qianjin wouldn't even look at her. Despite his face turning bright red from her flirting, he stood his ground. "If you keep doing this, I’m calling your friend!"
Hearing Shi Qianjin use Mu Xiaoxiao as a threat, Ruan Shiyu realized she was out of options. She gave the wall a kick and retorted, "Fine, let’s go work out then!"
With that, she limped away.