“Open!”
As soon as she thought about that, another message bounced into the system.
[Received: Summer Time Cool Skin Pill x 1!]
[Effect: You can say goodbye forever to those oily days in the summertime! Clear skin, no oil, no pores. Your face would look like a hardboiled egg without its shell and catch people’s attention everywhere you go.]
Gu Shishi made a “tsss” sound.
Every summer, the T-zone still got very oily. Even though she used oil absorbing sheets everyday along with pore-minimizing toner every day, she was still losing in the battle of preventing her pores to expand.
Thinking about that, she looked into the mirror.
The original owner has a good base to begin with, pale skin and pretty. But precisely because her pale skin tone, whenever she didn’t have makeup on, blackheads and widened pores were particularly obvious.
Thinking about that, Gu Shishi produced the pill from the system.
She sniffed at it. It smelled like Chinese medicine.
All medicines have some type of side effects; it’s not wise to randomly take them.
Gu Shishi valued her life a lot.
[The prize medicinal pill from this system was a product of both Chinese and Western medicines. It’s a product of technology and has no negative side effects. You have nothing to worry about.]
[Some of its ingredients were not available in the modern society.]
Gu Shishi raised her brows.
“Alright! Guess I will try it!”
She closed her eyes and bit off a small piece.
It was not bitter at all, even a little sweet.
As soon as she swallowed it, she could immediately felt a warm stream moving around her body. After that, there was a tingling feeling on her skin as though it had been brushed by a feather.
She couldn’t help but touched her face.
And, there was black oil all over her hand!
She gave it a closer look. It seemed to have some year-old blackheads and whiteheads mixed in there...
Gu Shishi quickly walked over to her dressing table and that when she noticed that her face was covered in a layer of black dirt like a facial mask.
She quickly opened up the drawer on her dressing table and used some cotton balls to gently apply toner to the dirty portion on her face.
Once, twice... each time she had gone over them with the toner, more oil would appear....
She used over half a bag of cotton balls before all the dirt was gone.
“Wow, that almost worked too well.”
She stared at her jade-like pale face and found it hard to believe.
She immediately popped the remaining pill into her mouth and chewed it up like it was a piece of candy.
More dirt appeared on her skin. She looked into the mirror again after she cleaned them all up.... Pinkish skin with a hint of whiteness, her skin was smooth and not one blackhead or widened pore could be found. As though she had applied microdermabrasion or used a camera app filter, her skin was flawless!
Content with the result, she stroked her skin that was smooth like water. It even felt better than it was before.
The effect was amazing!
She laid down on the couch happily and sighed as she looked at the system again.
Doting of the male lead, acceptance by the others.... How was she supposed to achieve that?
If she wanted to level up, she’d need Huo Sishen for the first criteria, and she need just anyone to like her for the second criteria?
The system said for her to figure it out herself, guessed she’d just have to give it a try!
Thinking about that, Gu Shishi fished out the cellphone and looked through her friends’ list on her WeChat account to see who she could start with for their fondness.
Glancing at it, she saw a message from her adoptive mother.
[Mom Jiang: Shishi, mom wants to join force with a friend and open up a wonton shop! Can you lend me $100,000? I will pay you back after I make the money back. I was going to ask Xiao Shuang, but... it seems her health has been back and forth and she doesn’t check her phone often. This is urgent; if I miss this opportunity, my friend will not wait for me!]
Gu Shishi raised her brows.
Mom Jiang tried to contact Gu Wushuang but couldn’t get hold of her?
Was she ignoring her real mother on purpose?
[Mom Jiang: Shishi, help your mom just this one more time, eh?]
Gu Shishi sighed.
Normally, showing filial piety to one’s parents was the right thing to do.
But....
She looked through her bank card, WeChat, Alipay and smiled bitterly.
“Just a bit over $800...”
The original owner’s monthly salary was $4,000, and of those she gave $3,500 to her adoptive mother every month for her mortgage, leaving only $500 for herself.
And now she was asking for $100,000?
“Where did she think all the money is coming from?”
Did she think that the original owner was rich because she had gone home?
But toward the end of the novel, the author mentioned that the adoptive mother completely ignored the original owner once she found out she wasn’t her biological daughter and shifted all her love and attention to Gu Wushuang.
Except, after the death of the original owner, the adoptive mother went over to the Gu’s and demanded payment for her pain and suffering.
The way she used her adopted daughter and squeezed every penny out of her was despicable!
One would have feeling even for a dog after being around it for 20 years.
Let alone a kid that she had raised for 20 years.
Was money all she cared about?
Gu Shishi shook her head and feel deeply sympathetic for the original owner.
She thought about it for a little bit andsent over screen captures of the details of her monthly payments to Jiang Meifang along with the current remaining balance in her account.
She did not receive any other messages after that.
***
At the same time...
“Si Yi, he hasn’t slept for three days ago? Is he a superhuman now?”
A man in a white lab coat walked inside the mansion.
“Why did you wait so long before telling me?”
Si Yi, walking in front of him, smiled bitterly.
“It’s no use to have you over if Young Master didn’t want to see you.”
“Sleeping pills every 3 days? What was he trying to do? Am I his personal pharmacy?”
Qin Ruhai was furious.
He grew up with Huo Sishen.
He had been his primary care physician managing his long-term mental and physical health ever since he had returned after earning his doctoral degree.
And yet, he was the type of patient that doctors hated the most – quick to temper, stubborn, overly opinionated, and refused to listen to his doctor.
He had chronic insomnia, which led to his bad temperament, taciturn, and the progressively more severe germophobic behaviors.
He was almost 30 years old, but more difficult to deal with than a kid throwing a temper tantrum.
Qin Ruhai took a few deep breaths outside of the door to calm himself down.
“It doesn’t matter how strong he is, this could still become fatal.”
“Si Yi, if you don’t want your master to die prematurely, you need to work with me. Chronic deprivation of sleep could permanently damage the brain and heart that would be difficult to recover from.”
Si Yi paused a little and finally nodded stiffly.
As they were talking, he knocked lightly on the door.
“Young Master.....”
Qin Ruhai pushed over the door and walked inside before Si Yi was done talking.
One must be forceful with uncooperative patients.
“Boss, how are you feeling now? Dizziness or swelling of head?”
The man on the couch looked unhappily at the room entrance. His eyes were blood red.
“Sleeping pills. Leave them.” His voice was coarse and dull.
He hadn’t been able to sleep all night long, not even for a minute. Now, he has a splitting headache and couldn’t even think.
Except... for a brief moment in the morning.
Because of the girl’s fearless speech.
It brought back his old memories.
That very moment, there seemed to be a little bit of relief from his splitting headache.
Huo Sishen looked down quietly at his own right hand with his deep and complex dark eyes.
Earlier, the touch of the girl’s skin, the softness and the fragrance.... He seemed to still be able to feel them.
He raised his brow and lifted his hand that he used to pinch the girl’s chin.
Just one second, and he frowned and lowered his hand.
All he could smell now was disinfectant.
“You are coming back to the clinic with me today. We need to do a full physical on you....” Qin Ruhai shook his head.
“Not going!” Huo Sishen’s voice was coarser than ever.
Qin Ruhai almost stopped breathing, “Taking sleeping pills doesn’t solve your underlying issues. You have already taken way more pills in the last 6 months than any normal person should. That tells us that your body is building a tolerance to them!”
Huo Sishen lifted his cold, dark eyes, “That’s because my doctor is incompetent. It has nothing to do with me.”
“.... Me?!” Qin Ruhai just wanted to strangle this man.
The tense atmosphere in the room was interrupted by a knocking sound.
Shortly, a crisp voice that sounded like ice water on the hottest day of summer, came like a welcomed relief, “Mr. Huo, are you in? Can I come in?”
Qin Ruhai had an odd look all of a sudden.
Grimm Huo’s third fiancée?
Huo Sishen, still lying down on the couch, flickered his cold and lonely eyes.He waved impatiently at Si Yi.
A moment later, Si Yi grabbed Qin Ruhai by the back of his collar and took him straight toward the door.
“Sh*t, wait!”
“Please come in, Miss Gu,” said Si Yi respectfully while still holding onto Qin Ruhai.
It was Gu Shishi.
“Thank you.” As curious as she was, she didn’t glance over at Qin Ruhai. She just walked straight into the room.
The room door closed again. The darkness inside made Gu Shishi paused in her steps. It took her a little while to get used to the dim light.
She looked around the room; something wasn’t right.
All the curtains in the room was tightly drawn.
It was the brightest time on a summer day, but the room was dark and quiet like the middle of the night.
She lifted her head and could barely see the man on the couch.
He seemed to be in an extremely bad mood.
He seemed like a vicious beast hiding in the dark that was just now slowly waking up!
A cold look exuded from his dark eyes, full of impatience and coldness mixed with a spiral-like wind storm, as though he was trying his best to keep something in check, as though the very next second he could lose all of his control and tear her to pieces on the spot and devour her...
Goosebumps appeared on the back of Gu Shishi’s neck.
He might have looked cold when she saw him in his closet that very first time, but it was far from this sharp, bloodthirsty look!
In the dining room this morning, he looked cold, but he had calmly handed her the disinfectant and then bought her a closet full of clothes.
Any way she looked at him, he seemed to be a very nice person.
It hasn’t even been that long since then; how did his look turned so scary all of a sudden?
What happened?
At this rate, how was she going to improve his fondness for her?!
“What?” A low, coarse voice rang coldly.
Huo Sishen looked down at the pair of legs that had stopped in front of the couch.
A sarcastic smile on his lips.
She didn’t step any closer...
Just like his mother, who said she loved him, but would always keep a distance between them.
“Are you afraid of me now?” ask Huo Sishen as he looked directly at her.
Gu Shishi gulped. She wondered if he’d kill her if she told him the truth.
His look was unbelievably intimidating.
Huo Sishen let out a slight chuckle.
Ah, she was just another one of them. Even down to the way she looked when she was afraid to tell the truth.
He had seen that one way too many times.
His mother, grandmother, brother, the servants at home ... friends....
Yes, he was the one that cursed his father, his grandfather, and his wives..... he was the one that everybody wanted to avoid at all costs.
“Ugh, Mr. Huo, I am here to return your suit and to thank you for buying me new clothes.” Gu Shishi took a glance at his deep and coldly prideful look, but she told him her purpose anyway.
The smile on the corner of his mouth immediate turned into a cruel look.
“Just throw it out.”
She was just like the woman who referred to him as her son.
That woman couldn’t wait to move everything that belonged to him out of the main house. She said it was so he could continue using them, but in reality, she was scared that anything that belonged to him would bring her bad luck.
And this woman standing in front of him right now was also scared.
Everything that she had said this morning. That she wanted to “stay by his side”... They were all lies!
“Get out!” He couldn’t contain his anger and his pain.
“Oh?” Gu Shishi was baffled. What did she say to anger him?
Eh? Was it the way that she started the conversation?
“Then, should I give your suit to Si Yi for him to take care of?”
Huo Sishen’s splitting headache was a 100-times worse than it was before.
Looking up, he seemed to be able to catch a glance of her jade-like elegant and petite face. It seemed to be even more tender and lovely than it was earlier. And, her pink lips opened and closed, chattering non-stop.... Like those annoying birds outside of the window.
He lifted his hand. He wanted to tell her to get out again, but he couldn’t get the words out of him.
“Eh? Do you want your suit?”
Seeing his stretched-out arm, Gu Shishi naturally handed over the suit.
As soon as she got close to him, Huo Sishen immediately smelled that barely noticeably rose fragrance again.... It was from her.
He smelled it earlier today too.
Soft, sweet, and fragrant. Not too tart, not too overwhelming.
It reminded him of when he used to follow the old butler around when he was watering the blooming roses in the summer days.
The sun had been blinding, and the cicada made nonstop noises. He stayed there soaked in sweat until the old butler smiled and took him home by his hand....
Gu Shishi was trying to hand his suit over to him and accidentally touched his large, feverish hand.
She let out a small cry but when she wanted to withdraw her hand, it was already grabbed tightly by him!
His strength was strong like that of a clamp, and she couldn’t struggle free.
“Boss.... Boss Huo?” Gu Shishi couldn’t comprehend what was going on.
In just a few seconds, however, the large hand that was grabbing her let go of her slowly.
Gu Shishi looked up with her limpid eyes and was surprised.
The vicious person that was on the couch just a few moments ago now had his eyes closed, even his cold and stiff features seemed to have relaxed some.
His breathing was peaceful and relaxing.
His long and thick eyelashes cast shadows on his handsome face. He looked quite like a pretty boy falling asleep.
Eh... he fell asleep?
Gu Shishi was astonished.
[Beep! Passive skill – Sleeping Aid, triggered!]
What the hell?