The Mid-Autumn Festival holiday lasted three days, and today was the main celebration.
So, Su Bai decided to arrange a more elaborate dinner.
After browsing Meituan for a while without finding anything satisfying, he simply turned to Xia Lin for recommendations.
【CrispyWhiteGoose: Xia Lin, any good restaurants around Tianrong? Preferably Chinese-style with a quiet atmosphere.】
【SummerLin: Oh, Su Bai, are you treating me like the Jiangcheng City encyclopedia now?】
【CrispyWhiteGoose: [WhiteGoose_ScratchingHead]】
【CrispyWhiteGoose: It just means I trust you. Didn’t you say during orientation that advisors are here to help students with academic and daily life issues?】
【SummerLin: Well, I’d argue that a "good" restaurant doesn’t exactly fall under "daily life issues" for the average student. Most students don’t get to hang out with four campus-beauty-level girls either.】
【CrispyWhiteGoose: [WhiteGoose_PlayingDumb]】
Su Bai caught the drift—Xia Lin was teasing him about his social circle.
She had even commented on his recent post.
Admittedly, coming from a wealthy family, Xia Lin had a refined way of expressing even playful jealousy, carrying herself with the poise of a well-bred lady.
At one point, she even flirted with him:
【SummerLin: When it comes to advisor assistance, you’re supposed to ask for study materials or, you know… other aspects of life.】
【CrispyWhiteGoose: Please, Xia Lin, spare me the teasing. Let’s just focus on restaurants.】
【SummerLin: [Smirking]】
【SummerLin: Hold on, I’ll compile a few options for you.】
Soon, Xia Lin sent over a neatly organized list.
It included details like location, ambiance, signature dishes, and even the temperament of the head chef—meticulously arranged, as if she were drafting an official report.
By her own admission, she’d be a mediocre or even terrible engineer or professor.
But administrative and managerial tasks? She excelled at those.
After reviewing the options, Su Bai quickly made up his mind.
【CrispyWhiteGoose: That last private kitchen looks perfect.】
【SummerLin: Heh, you’ve got taste.】
【SummerLin: But it’s members-only. No walk-ins—you need an existing member to vouch for you. Too bad.】
Xia Lin assumed Su Bai wouldn’t have access.
She had been there once with friends, going through an asset verification process to become a member.
At its core, the place was an exclusive social hub for the affluent.
Technically, she could take Su Bai and his friends.
She was free, too—waiting to see if he’d ask. If he did, great. If not, no big deal.
A freshman’s gathering wasn’t something a grad student like her needed to crash anyway.
But Su Bai replied immediately:
【CrispyWhiteGoose: Membership isn’t an issue. I can sort it out. Thanks, Xia Lin.】
【SummerLin: No problem~】
Well, well.
Confident in his connections, huh?
Then again, with his resources, securing a last-minute membership wouldn’t be hard.
These so-called exclusive restaurants loved flaunting their rules and prestige.
But when someone influential enough showed up, all those "unbreakable" rules suddenly became flexible.
"Damn, Lin, this student of yours is something else—managing to take out so many pretty girls at once. Guess this is where your ‘priority monitoring’ targets are," teased Xia Lin’s roommate, who’d seen Su Bai’s group photos through a mutual friend.
Xia Lin laughed. "What ‘monitoring’? They’re all good girls—law-abiding, not troublemakers."
"Oh~ Someone’s being awfully magnanimous. Don’t come crying to me when he ends up dating one of them and you regret not making a move sooner."
"Regret? Hardly. For someone like Su Bai… a little playboy, why limit himself to one? Mutual benefit among the girls leads to broader horizons."
"…Lin, I swear, ever since you became an advisor, you’ve started talking like a bureaucrat."
Xia Lin sighed. "I don’t want to, but bureaucratic talk is safe. In any professional setting, countless eyes are watching, ready to pick you apart."
"Ugh, so true!"
Her roommate knew exactly what she meant.
Though only a first-year grad student, she was already scrambling for internship opportunities.
Ridiculous, right?
But in some fields, the competition for internships was cutthroat—because without a good one, landing a full-time offer became nearly impossible.
High-paying jobs in big cities? Fiercely competitive.
Sigh. Meanwhile, Su Bai was out here living the carefree life—traveling, gaming, having fun.
Not that she envied him too much, though.
As Xia Lin had mentioned, Su Bai traded in overseas markets—a high-stakes game requiring nerves of steel. Not something your average straight-A student could handle.
…
Evening.
The secluded garden courtyard, which had originally expected no guests today, suddenly shifted into hospitality mode.
Fortunately, this place also happened to be the chef’s residence.
Su Bai had made the reservation just over three hours in advance. After providing his name and phone number, the reception manager informed him that the chef would immediately begin preparing dinner.
This private kitchen operated entirely at the chef’s whim—whatever he felt like making, the guests would eat.
Having been a hotspot in Jiangcheng’s affluent circles for years, the place showed no signs of losing its appeal.
Clearly, the food was both exquisite and upscale.
You might not trust the morals of the wealthy, but you could always trust their taste!
So, whether preparing a day in advance or just three hours ahead—each approach had its merits.
A Chinese-style Omakase, if you will.
Wan Xinyue took the wheel.
Despite the morning’s kitchen music discussion and the afternoon’s mountain hike, she was still full of energy.
A natural-born driver, Su Bai marveled silently.
For drivers, stamina was the first rule of the road.
Legally mandated rest intervals might ensure safety in theory, but in reality, the sharper the focus, the better.
As the setting sun cast a lazy golden glow over the broad roads of Tianrong Resort, the car approached the garden courtyard nestled against the mountains.
Wan Xinyan suddenly grew a little self-conscious. “Uh, Brother Su Bai… do you think showing up in our hiking outfits might be a bit too casual for a place like this?”
“Overthinking it,” Su Bai ruffled her hair. “Plenty of people come here straight from outdoor activities. Relax—since you’re with me, you’ll need to toughen up. Scenes like this? They’ll be routine in the future. Small-time stuff, no need to stress.”
“This is small-time??”
Wan Xinyan nearly fainted. Brother Su Bai was just too much!
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
