NOVEL NEXT 104: Fated Date Preparation!
Having trained until sweat was just starting to drip down their faces and their training outfits were just starting to get a little wet, the four of them wrapped the training session up. After a quick debrief and promise to keep each other posted in case of an update later, all four of them left. Han Youhong and Wang Taigang in one direction and Lin Songmei and Yan Mingqing in another.
Avoiding an awkward conversation with the receptionist, Songmei and Mingqing bolted back to their apartment. Well, bolted in this instance being more of a speed walk than anything close to a run.
One out-of-breath elevator ride later, the door to their apartment was slammed shut as both Mingqing and Songmei ran into separate showers to wash their sweat and training field grime off themselves.
Songmei, of course, wouldn’t have minded using the same shower, but she still felt it was a little early...
She still had shame, she wasn’t a weirdo! Also, it didn’t fit the mood to be showering naked with Mingqing before going on a date with... Mingqing.
Showering faster than she had ever before—maybe it was the nerves, maybe it was the excitement—Songmei dried herself before taking a long breath, sinking down onto a stool in the bathroom.
She and Mingqing had agreed to not intrude on each other while getting ready. Of course, it didn’t have anything to do with egos or another contested disagreement, they just wanted to be able to surprise each other with their outfits.
“What to wear...” Songmei murmured while pinching her nose. She didn’t have that much to wear in all honesty, so it didn’t make sense that she had to debate.
Songmei had, maybe... two dresses that would fit the occasion. Beyond dresses, Songmei had one pair of pants, two tops, and one skirt.
Humming some game show thinking music, Songmei slid her spatial ring on and off.
Deciding that it’d be smarter to start with some underwear, Songmei dried the last drops of water off her body and blow dried her hair before getting dressed—nobody wanted to sit in the bathroom butt naked while pondering their upcoming date after all.
Sitting back on her trusty stool, Songmei fell back into the same thinking position for another few minutes. Why was it so hard to decide whether or not to wear a dress?
“Dammit, I’ll just wear a dress!” Songmei sighed, giving up on trying to weigh the pros and cons of the different outfits. Being cultivators who moved their body for a living, Songmei and Mingqing both wore shorts or pants much more than skirts or dresses. Now with an opportunity staring straight at her, why shouldn’t she wear one?
Also... Mingqing had murmured a few times that Songmei should wear dresses more so...
As a good girlfriend... Songmei would wear a dress!
What a great girlfriend Songmei was, she even had a dress that matched Mingqing! Definitely a total coincidence how that turned out. Songmei had definitely not bought the dress long ago just because it matched her “best friend.”
Pulling the dark blue dress that matched Mingqing’s hair out of her spatial ring, Songmei slid it on before taking another moment to deliberate about her footwear.
There sure seemed to be an unending amount of things she needed to figure out...
Sure, she had one pair of heels. Sure, they looked nice. Sure, they also matched her dress pretty well.
The problem was that Songmei was still pretty bad, and super inexperienced with wearing heels...
Deciding to just pull out a normal pair of shoes, Songmei set them aside while reassuring herself that there’d be plenty of opportunities in the future to wear the heels. After all, with how rich Mingqing was, it was almost guaranteed they’d attend formal parties in the future.
With her shoes lined up next to the door, Songmei slumped over while dragging the stool over to the mirror. Breaking out her makeup for once, Songmei squinted at herself and puffed out her cheeks a few times in the mirror before getting down to business.
------
One tortuous makeup session later, Songmei was ready to go!
Well... as ready to go as she could be. Having decided to not even attempt anything like a multi-wing eyeliner look, Songmei had kept it simple—and even then it was such a PAIN!
Songmei was lazy, not when it came to school of course, but that wasn’t even relevant anymore. Songmei the honor student? No, now it was Songmei the Starlight Lake disciple.
However, Songmei was a total bum, total couch potato, total slacker when it came to things like makeup. Her skin was pretty nice naturally—lucky her—and it had become even more supple and smooth when she had gone up in cultivation realms.
That meant she could skimp! No need for primer, no need for foundation!
That still left her with concealer, blush (she had also decided to skip on highlighter and bronzer), eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara, and lip... stuff.
Having done all that, Songmei was quite satisfied with herself. She hadn’t meant to go too overboard, yet... she knew Mingqing was... so she too had to at least look... passable...
Giving herself a pair of finger guns in the mirror, Songmei had to suppress the urge to congratulate herself—Mingqing was going to be shocked, Songmei was certain, Songmei was so certain, she’d be willing to put money on it!
With a final check over, Songmei made sure her makeup didn’t have any obvious mistakes—damn, maybe cultivating had made her better at makeup...
Well, Songmei had felt her dexterity get better...
Shaking the random thoughts out of her head, Songmei pulled out a pair of gold butterfly earrings and a gold hair clip. Songmei didn’t want to admit it, but these were also pre-bought a couple months prior... Bought specifically to match Mingqing’s golden eyes.
Slipping the earrings on and pinning her hair back, Songmei couldn’t think of anything else she needed to do. Time-wise, she was also fine, she still had another five minutes before her and Mingqing’s promised meeting time.
She looked great! Well... maybe not great, great, but better than usual... Winking at herself in the mirror, Songmei, not one second later, felt a bit of a blush creeping up onto her cheeks. Being a person with an almost-too-much dose of shame, Songmei chose not to then blow herself a kiss in the mirror—that would be way too much.
With one final deep breath, one final big stretch, Songmei was ready to go! She was so ready! She was so ready that she was shaking just thinking about opening the door!
With one actual final deep breath, Songmei cracked the door open, bending down to pick up her shoes as she left.
