Spending a million to buy a house is quite common in this day and age.
After all, in any city where housing prices aren't particularly low, buying a house of over a hundred square meters could easily cost more than a million in total.
Money nowadays really isn't worth as much as it used to be.
But renting a place is an entirely different concept. Buying a house, no matter what, is still an asset. The money spent on rent is purely gone, with absolutely no possibility of getting those funds back.
"Goodness, how luxurious must that place be... I guess even the long-term hotel suites that celebrities stay in are only about that level, right?" Guo Xiaoyan was full of envy, her eyes practically sparkling.
Her only source of knowledge about ultra-luxurious rentals came from entertainment news, where she would see how much money a certain celebrity spent per night staying at a luxury hotel.
Celebrities do have privacy needs, and luxury hotels tend to do a good job in that regard.
But there's actually a specific background to that. Nowadays, tax audits in the virtual economy sector are very strict, which means they can't secretly transfer benefits as easily. So, instead of officially paying a celebrity a massive salary and having to pay hefty taxes on it, it's better to legally spend the money under the guise of business reception expenses.
Who could have imagined that a wealthy person of a similar caliber would appear right beside them in the guise of a college student.
Moreover, to Li Xingya, Su Bai's most important identity right now was her boss.
This couldn't help but strengthen Li Xingya's confidence, making her even more expectant about the prospects of her internship.
A boss who spent money like water proved that the company had plenty of funds. If the boss was stingy, the company's prospects probably wouldn't be great either.
Li Xingya's thinking leaned much more toward this practical side.
How should one put it? Because she had spent a lot of time in work environments, she wasn't really in the same social class as these classmates who spent their days eating, drinking, and having fun. She had to understand the hardships of life much earlier.
However, when talking about the goddess dorm and Jiang U's Mysterious Guy, her roommates cared much more about the extravagant lifestyle revealed behind it all.
If they were all in love with the same man, wouldn't they be at the Ascott... Uh, just thinking about it felt so absurd!
Just how outstanding did a man have to be to pull that off?
"Not to mention anything else, wouldn't his body just give out? When the girls in our class who are dating talk about their boyfriends, they all say they're useless," Guo Xiaoyan complained.
She hadn't actually had any intimate contact with a man herself; she was just repeating what she heard the girls chatting about.
Miss Manicure rolled her eyes. "That's completely normal. Men nowadays are generally just useless!"
"Really? Isn't it a bit unfair to generalize like that? I think it depends on the person..." Guo Xiaoyan said weakly. Her way of thinking was still quite innocent and hadn't been influenced by certain mysterious ideologies.
However, Miss Manicure was clearly a martial arts master in this regard. With a look of disdain, she said, "Let me analyze for you why men nowadays are all useless."
"First are those homebodies who don't like to exercise. Whether they are fat or skinny, their stamina is too poor, so they're useless."
"Then there are those who hit the gym. They might look like they have great bodies, but they actually use steroids, which affects their function in that area, so they're useless."
Guo Xiaoyan interrupted, "Wait, not everyone uses steroids. What about those who do cardio? They surely don't need steroids, right?"
"The ones who do cardio are all middle-aged uncles. They're getting old, so they're useless!"
Good heavens!
To sum up Miss Manicure's philosophy: Men are useless!
No matter how Guo Xiaoyan thought about it, it sounded weird. But she had an agreeable personality, so she just figured, alright, whatever you say goes, and didn't argue back.
Li Xingya, however, used this to think of another layer. While working at the lab, she had accidentally overheard a bit of a phone conversation between Chen Yusheng and Su Bai. The content of their chat was... quite scandalous.
Perhaps because she was a girl and a work partner, Chen Yusheng didn't avoid her too much and just let her hear a bit of it.
According to what Li Xingya heard, Chen Yusheng had teamed up with another girl, yet both were very decisively defeated by Su Bai...
At the time, she thought she had misheard. Maybe they were talking about something proper like playing a video game, and Li Xingya was just having dirty thoughts.
Looking at it now, and comparing it with the gossip spreading around, it might actually be true!
Suddenly, several bizarre images popped into Li Xingya's mind. Her cheeks instantly turned crimson, and she looked like a timid little kitten.
"Xingya, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell? I've noticed a lot of people catching colds and getting fevers lately, you need to be careful too!" Guo Xiaoyan reminded her. "I have some traditional Chinese medicine for preventing colds here, do you want to drink some?"
"I, I don't need it, thank you Xiaoyan."
"Hehe, no problem. I got a lot prescribed when I went to the hospital anyway, and I can't finish it all myself. If I leave it too long and it passes its expiration date, it'd be a pure waste. To be honest, once you get used to it, this medicine actually tastes pretty good..."
She was actually enjoying the traditional Chinese medicine prescribed by the school hospital. It had to be said that Guo Xiaoyan was quite a unique character, truly worthy of being the dorm's ray of sunshine...
Speaking of traditional Chinese medicine.
Li Xingya remembered that Su Bai had asked Chen Yusheng back then if he should prescribe her some medicine to help her recover, but Chen Yusheng sternly refused, saying she would improve herself through fitness!
If things had escalated to the point where she needed to rely on fitness to improve herself, then it seemed the boss really was quite formidable...
Leaving aside how other men were, at least the boss was absolutely top-tier in this regard.
A strange feeling couldn't help but well up in Li Xingya's heart.
How should she describe it? Although she was a girl who had faced the realities of society very early on, she had still looked forward to love. It was just that she only thought about it in her heart and wouldn't spend time and energy on it.
Her background was too poor, and her family couldn't offer any help. But she really wanted to settle down in Jiangcheng. It had the bustling feel of a big city, but it wasn't as exorbitantly expensive as a first-tier city. Overall, it was a very livable place.
Even so, as a student from an ordinary second-tier university, she had to put in a lot of effort to build a home here all by herself.
Tonight's dorm room chat managed to stir up a little bit of the young maiden's heart hidden within Li Xingya.
Whenever she thought about how the seemingly cold but actually very kind-hearted Teacher Chen Yusheng was so sweet with Su Bai behind the scenes, and played so wild, Li Xingya couldn't help but swallow hard, her whole body starting to feel hot.
This caused her to not sleep well the entire night. She tossed and turned in bed, and when she got out of bed in the middle of the night to pour some water, she was even complained about by Miss Manicure.
Miss Manicure was just like that. If she needed to stay up late or get up early and make a fuss, her roommates had to endure it. But if a roommate made a slight noise occasionally, she couldn't stand it at all. Li Xingya had long seen through her selfish nature, but there was nothing she could do about it.

g Yu was preparing for retirement when her organization decided to eliminate her. She transmigrated to a zombie apocalypse world. However, a tiny unexpected situation occurred: She somehow transformed into an adorable little girl?!

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...

] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"

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?"