NOVEL NEXT
Chapter 3
Yu Shu was not asleep. Perhaps it was the unfamiliar environment, or the bizarre events of this day that prevented her body's protective mechanisms from letting her rest easy.
In her half-awake, half-asleep state, she felt the flight attendant gently lay a blanket over her. The couple in the seats in front were having a hushed discussion over whether it was better to send their child to study in Europe or Australia. The young mother in the back row was softly lecturing her child not to cause trouble for others. And the probing gaze from her side kept hovering over her...
Yu Shu slept in a daze, and dreamed again of the day she bought lottery tickets. That day, just before leaving work, Supervisor Chen had thrown a planning proposal at her that was due the next day. This was a task that had been assigned to their team by the manager the previous week. Up until Supervisor Chen gave it to her right before leaving work, Yu Shu had assumed he had passed it on to someone else on the team to complete.
The other colleagues had found excuses to slip away early, with Supervisor Chen's tacit approval, citing family matters. Only she had been kept back.
"This is an opportunity I'm giving you to hone your skills. Don't act so petty. If you can't finish it, just resign. The company doesn't keep idlers," he ground her down, fully aware that Yu Shu did not dare to resign.
Yu Shu smiled blandly. "Thanks so much for mentoring me."
It was half past two in the morning when Yu Shu left the company building. She was cold and hungry, with no buses or subways running. Taking a taxi was too extravagant for her, so she dragged her heavy footsteps home.
On the way, she passed a 24-hour convenience store. She was so exhausted she could walk no further, and went in to buy some boil-in-the-bag congee to rest at one of the small tables. As she scrolled through social media, she came upon her mother’s post selling boil-in-the-bag food. She couldn’t bring herself to eat a bite, just staring numbly at the congee before her.
The convenience store also sold lottery tickets, pandering to the masses dreaming of getting rich overnight. Yu Shu was originally uninterested, but a string of numbers suddenly popped into her mind unprompted. She took out pen and paper from her bag and wrote them down.
The numbers were all familiar ones—her family members’ and her own birthdays, shuffled and rearranged.
Homesick, I guess.
That’s what Yu Shu thought, as she absently jotted down her parents’, younger brother's, and her own birthdays on the paper. With ready-made numbers, it seemed a pity not to try her luck buying lottery tickets.
Her brain was fried from overwork and couldn’t process anything. As Yu Shu was buying her tickets, the store owner smooth-talked her into getting double, waxing eloquent as he printed out slip after slip.
Mm, nearly two thousand yuan in the end. She didn’t know what got into her to let the owner convince her with just a few words, muddledly handing over the cash.
“Let me tell you, your numbers look good! You’re bound to hit the jackpot. Don’t stint on this money—you’ve got innate fortune in your destiny, just you wait!”
Yu Shu was already numb beyond caring. Her life was already miserable enough; it couldn’t get any worse.
Can’t blame the owner, it was her own lack of resolve.
Clutching her lottery tickets, she took the now-cold congee and left the store.
Just before stepping out the door, she overheard the owner say to another middle-aged customer buying tickets: “I’m telling you, your numbers are solid. You’re guaranteed to win something! I can just tell you’ve got an innate fortune in your destiny!”
Yu Shu massaged her increasingly sore head and trudged home, feeling hollow.
At best she could get four and a half hours of sleep now if she headed straight home.
"I'm telling you, you've got innate fortune in your destiny!"
...
The plane hit some turbulence, jostling for a few moments. Yu Shu, who hadn’t been resting well to begin with, was startled awake.
She had not slept a wink, feeling even more fatigued than before lying down.
It was nearly half past six in the evening when the plane touched down. The sky had already gone completely dark. Yu Shu did not have any checked luggage and followed the signs leading out of the airport.
She had no sense of direction and felt somewhat lost in this unfamiliar place.
Through the glass doors ahead, she eyed the howling north wind outside and shuddered from the biting chill before she even got close.
Yu Shu retreated a few steps, drew her shoddy cotton coat tightly around herself, and found a corner to squat in. She scrolled through her phone as she called a rideshare.
Afraid of cold, despairing.
"Yo, little frozen redundant staff."
"...Please address the moneybags with more respect!"
The uncultured young master giggled and condescended to squat down face-to-face with her. "Little frozen, little frozen, whatcha squatting here for?"
"Waiting for my driver to take me onwards to the glorious Kang Zhuang Avenue."
A gust of frigid wind blew over them. Yu Shu couldn’t help shivering.
The young master looked thoughtful for a moment before opening up his suitcase and fishing out a black down jacket with hood. He casually plopped the hood over her head. "Don't freeze to death on the avenue now, teehee..."
"...Thanks." Before the young master sauntered off to his Maybach, Yu Shu hurriedly expressed her gratitude. "Do you mind leaving a number? I’ll get this cleaned and mail it back to you."
"No need, it's yours. We'll meet again if fate allows! Farewell, my frozen fellow traveler~" The young master casually waved her off, dragging his luggage away without a second glance.
Hmph!
The rideshare car arrived swiftly. Yu Shu got in wearing the long down coat engulfing her to the ankles, deliberated for a few seconds, then gave the name of a rather prestigious shopping area.
Seated in the backseat gazing at the retreating cityscape, Yu Shu reached out and pinched her own cheek.
Ow...
It hurt.
Good, it hurt.
Not a dream then.
Yu Shu retracted her hand and regarded her oily fingers in muted shock. She was naturally oily-skinned and had only hastily washed her face that morning before rushing out. Usually having to deal with excess sebum seven or eight times a day, she had of course neglected it today.
So she had traversed from City A to the capital with this face shiny as a beacon?
Utterly disgraceful.
Yu Shu wanted to cover her face, but was afraid of soiling her sleeves. Only then did she notice the silver embroidery on the cuffs of this down jacket—the vigorous and powerful character “Shen” depicting a dancing dragon and phoenix.
The font was unique and distinguished, unlike any Yu Shu had seen before.
Yu Shu used some wet wipes to clean up before putting on a face mask as she alighted. Slinging her hundred-yuan commemoration bag holding her belongings, she entered a shopping mall.
After first heading to the restroom to take care of business and ditching the subpar wig, Yu Shu regarded herself in the mirror. The woman looking back had fatigued, dark-circled eyes in sallow, wrinkled skin, complexion drab and pores large enough to plant seedlings in.
And worst of all, she was still fat.
In the year after graduation, Yu Shu had gained over sixty-six pounds. Busy with work and no time to exercise, high stress levels left her craving comfort food when upset. She loved spicy, greasy fare and erratic mealtimes wreaked havoc on her digestive system, leading her organs toward subhealth.
This was overwork-induced weight gain, otherwise called ugly fatigue.
Yu Shu recalled the immaculately groomed women in first class. Their refined bearing with inbuilt soft lighting filters and the confidence and poise innate in their bones—she could never match that even if she tried. *sigh* Not only was her temperament lacking, so was her image.
Yu Shu located her long admired luxury brand in the mall. This “admiration” referred to often browsing the official website and flagship stores, gazing longingly at product photos.
On her way over Yu Shu had read numerous posts about arrogant sales associates looking down on poorly dressed customers, preparing ample verbal ammunition to retaliate. But reality did not align at all with her expectations.
Far from disdaining her for her wholly unsuitable outfit, the sales associate warmly and considerately recommended this year’s winter collection.
Yu Shu purchased a large haul of clothes in one go, changing into an outfit right in the store. Thoughtful sales staff recommended matching handbags—styles Yu Shu had admired for a long time. Yu Shu nodded and they were neatly packaged up without her needing to say a word.
The sales associate had excellent taste. The garments she picked complemented Yu Shu’s figure perfectly, easily trimming off ten pounds visually.
"Please help dispose of the rest of the clothes but leave the bags and down jacket. Thank you."
The sales associate beamed delightedly and readily agreed to all her requests.
Exiting after spending three hundred seventy-eight thousand yuan, the sales associate's mouth corners and bowing angle had widened by 15° compared to when Yu Shu first entered.
Once out of the associate’s line of sight, Yu Shu clutched her chest in acute distress.
Three hundred seventy-eight thousand—a BMW 3 Series sedan, gone poof!
Yu Shu checked her account balance on her banking app. Phew, still okay. She still had the equivalent of about a hundred cashmere BMW 3 Series left.
No pain no gain.
Yu Shu silently psyched herself up and headed toward the first floor makeup section with renewed determination.
Seeing her head-to-toe designer outfit and numerous shopping bags paired with big-name handbags, the consultant's crow's feet lifted to rival freshly pan-fried buns.
The two counter girls immediately walked up, and the one lagging behind still looked unhappy and flipped her face color.
Yu Shu remembered when she was still in college, she bravely mustered up three hundred yuan to buy the first tube of a big brand lipstick in her life after reading many reviews and trying many colors, and chose a classic color number claimed to never go wrong.
The counter girl glanced at her arrogantly: "Out of stock."
Then she turned around to serve other customers and never paid attention to her again.
From last night to today, Yu Shu felt more unease and panic than excitement and thrill.
The counter girl did a full make up for her, and Yu Shu bought one of each product used, plus a set of skincare products the counter girl recommended.
It was already quite late, Yu Shu was both hungry and tired, and the things in her hands were so many that she could barely hold them, so she started looking for a hotel on her phone. A five-star hotel nearby was selected owing to its excellent reviews, with the suite priced at 6,800 yuan per night.
Yu Shu took a monthly package at the price of 120,000 yuan. The aloof and remote look on her face vanished instantly upon entering the room, and she pounded her chest and stamped her feet in heartache.
120,000! 120,000! It's enough to cover her rent for 4 years!
Yet here, it could only afford her a month's stay.
Just for today, she had spent 700,000, enough to buy a fully furnished, 4-bedroom apartment in her rural hometown!
It felt like she was dreaming!