Chapter 37

Tao Shushu handed over the milk that Li Anyu loved.
Li Anyu widened her eyes, "Shushu, you're the best!"
"It'll get even better." Tao Shushu glanced at Li Anyu and then at the lively classmates around her.
"Shushu, if you keep flirting with me like this, I'm going to fall for you. I don't care, I'm calling on all my girlfriends to vote for you right now to make you the campus belle," Li Anyu exclaimed.
Her shout drew the attention of nearby classmates, who, after looking over, actually took out their phones and opened the forum.
Not far away, Su Momo was so furious she nearly snapped the chopsticks in her hand.
Tao Shushu had no idea about Su Momo's inner turmoil, and even if she had known, she wouldn't have cared.
After finishing her meal, Tao Shushu returned to the teaching building and stood in the corridor, pulling out her phone.
She happened to see a message on the forum, posted by Su Momo using a side account with many photos, asking why no one had replied.
Only then did Tao Shushu open and look through all the photos.
She actually found one useful picture, a selfie of Su Momo with a faint company logo in the background.
Tao Shushu saved the photo, edited it thoroughly, and then randomly selected two others to tweak slightly.
After sending all three edited photos to Su Momo, Tao Shushu logged out of the school forum. Whether Su Momo would crash and burn depended on how much she liked these photos.
Next, Tao Shushu opened the game. She and Nan Yuan had agreed to check on the Bloodsucking Grass every day.
It was nighttime on the cub's side.
Tao Shushu glanced casually and asked, "Cub, why is everyone still awake so late?"
As soon as she asked, she saw Cheng Feimao directing everyone to move supplies.
Nan Yuan explained, "Everyone wants to gather more resources."
Tao Shushu instinctively checked her gold coins. Lately, she had been making progress with her study tasks and had already saved up over 1,000 gold coins.
Inspired by the bustling atmosphere, Tao Shushu declared, "Then I need to work hard to earn more gold coins too."
Her voice was soft, almost a murmur to herself, but Nan Yuan heard it and his eyes flickered.
The two of them, along with the little lion, headed toward the patch of Bloodsucking Grass.
This patch was only a few dozen square meters in size, nowhere near comparable to the dozens of acres of Bloodsucking Grass by the artificial trench.
Tao Shushu clicked "Explore" every few days, but it only showed ordinary Bloodsucking Grass.
Nan Yuan released the little lion, letting it spar with the mindless Bloodsucking Grass to practice its combat skills.
"I look at it every day, but I can't really tell if there's any change. It seems like it's taken up a bit more space." Tao Shushu glanced left and right.
Nan Yuan aimed at one of the Bloodsucking Grass clusters and threw a stone. The Bloodsucking Grass had endured enough attacks lately and didn't react quickly.
He threw another stone, and this time the Bloodsucking Grass gave a slight reaction.
Only then did Nan Yuan speak slowly, "They're learning too. I think the intelligence level of the Bloodsucking Grass is determined by the amount of energy they possess."
Tao Shushu watched Nan Yuan's analysis with curiosity.
The dozens of acres of Bloodsucking Grass had absorbed an enormous amount of energy, so their overall intelligence was quite high.
This small patch of Bloodsucking Grass had little energy, so they showed no signs of intelligence as a whole.
"But cub, how can you be sure it's not because of the number of Bloodsucking Grass?" Tao Shushu asked.
She had a vague feeling that she was touching upon the core issue of the cub's post-apocalyptic world.
Tao Shushu pulled a miniature notebook from her school uniform pocket, quickly took a screenshot, and recorded the cub's response.
"I've observed that whether you give a patch of Bloodsucking Grass a portion of energy or give a single stalk the same amount of energy, their reaction speed doesn't differ. But if you cut off the energy transmission while eliminating the Bloodsucking Grass, the remaining grass will react more slowly."
Tao Shushu pondered Nan Yuan's words. the cub was quite clever, knowing about the control variable method, maybe it really was energy-driven.
Wait, where did the cub get the energy to experiment?
"Cub! Do you still have any Health Potion left?" Tao Shushu asked. That was something she had given Nan Yuan for survival, not that she was stingy, but she was afraid he might not be able to protect himself in danger.
"Shushu, I used mutated animals for observation," Nan Yuan said, omitting the part where he also observed whether the Bloodsucking Grass absorbed the thoughts of the mutated animals and so on.
Tao Shushu felt slightly relieved. "Cub, next time you can tell me, and we can do it together, then use the Health Potion for the experiment."
Nan Yuan agreed, "Okay, I won't put myself in danger."
He valued his life more than ever, wanting to survive. Only by staying alive could he hope to see her.
"Then shall we try tomorrow?" Nan Yuan asked.
Tao Shushu hesitated. For Nan Yuan, "tomorrow" meant tonight. Recently, after finishing physics training every day, she still had to rehearse for the play and returned home very late.
"How about the day after tomorrow?" Tao Shushu said. Fortunately, it was already Thursday today, and by Saturday, she could focus on grinding the game.
Nan Yuan and the others had to leave the base before the full moon, and there were many tasks in the game. It would be perfect to clear a wave of rewards on Saturday.
"Alright, I'll wait for you, Shushu," Nan Yuan replied. He silently noted Shushu's schedule, remembering when she was more available and when she only had time for a quick greeting before disappearing.
He knew Shushu had been very busy lately; otherwise, she wouldn’t have failed to notice that he had been feeding the Bloodsucking Grass every day as part of his research.
Nan Yuan asked, "Shushu, is there anything I can do to help?"
"Just seeing you, cub, fills me with motivation," Tao Shushu replied. Suddenly, an idea struck her. "Why don’t you try on a new outfit for me?"
The image of Su Momo she had edited earlier had been a bit challenging aesthetically, and Tao Shushu wanted to refresh her eyes.
Nan Yuan’s Adam’s apple bobbed slightly. "Alright."
Tao Shushu immediately opened the system store.
Everything looked appealing and stylish to her. In the end, she restrained herself and selected a long trench coat, a pair of combat boots, along with an inner shirt and fitted pants.
Tao Shushu placed the clothes on Nan Yuan’s bed. "Cub, I’ll step out for a bit. Come out once you’ve changed."
Even though it was just a game, Tao Shushu politely switched to the space outside the room. The game had made the character reactions so realistic, back when Nan Yuan lived in a cave, he had even crafted a "curtain" to protect her privacy. As a result, she often subconsciously treated him like a real person.
Lost in her thoughts, the door to Nan Yuan’s room opened.
Nan Yuan stepped out in his new outfit.
He wore a sharply tailored light-colored trench coat, his hair cut short, his eyes carrying a hint of sharpness. The inner shirt featured delicate embroidery, giving him an exceptionally elite look.
Even as a chibi character, he exuded an imposing aura, as if ready to jump into battle at any moment.
Yet, when Tao Shushu tugged at his sleeve, his expression softened.
Tao Shushu pulled gently at Nan Yuan’s sleeve, utterly satisfied. "Cub, you look absolutely stunning in this outfit!"
After spinning him around a few times, Tao Shushu rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought. If it were the original artwork version of Nan Yuan, he would probably look even more striking in this outfit.
She realized that the chibi version of him had become so ingrained in her mind that she could hardly recall what the original artwork looked like.
Tao Shushu ruffled his head affectionately. The chibi version was incredibly cute too, both versions were absolutely delightful.
She took several screenshots of her hardworking miracle boy before letting Nan Yuan rest. Then, she returned to the classroom and pulled out her homework to start working.
Li Anyu tapped Tao Shushu on the shoulder. "Shushu, do top students like you never take midday naps?"
"I did take a break," Tao Shushu whispered. "I played the game for a while."
"I’ve been meaning to ask, you even take notes while playing games. I truly don’t understand the world of academic prodigies."
Tao Shushu replied matter-of-factly, "There are many precious things in games too, so of course I have to jot them down."
That evening, Tao Shushu came across the photo she had edited.
It was posted on Su Momo’s social media feed.
Li Anyu sat beside Tao Shushu. "Guys really are all about looks. So many boys are calling Su Momo their goddess under her photo."
Tao Shushu leaned over to take a look. Sure enough, Su Momo had chosen the only retouched photo, the one that accidentally revealed the company logo.
"Haha," Tao Shushu chuckled. Su Momo had taken and posted the photo herself, it had nothing to do with her.
A few minutes later, Tao Shushu noticed that Su Momo’s photo on the campus belle submission page had been changed to her latest social media picture.
In this photo, Su Momo was dressed trendily, with a more aggressive and eye-catching vibe.
The most important thing was that it didn’t match her usual style at school, so no one would see it and accuse her of using deceptive photos.
It seemed the photo incident had greatly affected Su Momo.
Su Momo was indeed troubled by the photo situation.
Before leaving home in the morning, she had been happily scrolling through the campus forum, reading the flood of complimentary comments.
But by the time she went to the cafeteria for lunch, the forum’s praises had been mixed with many harsh voices.
People kept saying she looked worse in person than in her photos, expressing disappointment and claiming her real appearance was only one-tenth as attractive as in the pictures.
Su Momo was so furious she felt her lungs might explode. She created a burner account to argue with these critics, giving herself a headache from the stress.
Because she was constantly bickering with the forum trolls, her teacher reprimanded her for not paying attention in class, causing her a small but embarrassing moment.
After the scolding, she realized she had been labeled as a brainless admirer, with some even questioning if it was her real account.
Terrified of being exposed for using a burner account to spew insults, Su Momo didn’t dare say another word.
Suppressing her anger, she continued reading the forum comments.
The campus belle contest was also using the same stunning photo, and many had already warned others that the picture was misleading. They argued that if the person in the photo were elected campus belle, it would become a joke among other schools.
Some even speculated conspiratorially that such an eye-catching photo appearing just one day before the campus belle election was a deliberate attempt to attract attention and garner votes. They accused Su Momo of using marketing tactics in the contest and called for a revote.
Su Momo’s expression darkened. She was determined to win the campus belle title, she was the prettiest, and those people simply had no taste.
She quickly checked the election results and saw that Tao Shushu’s votes had caught up, trailing by only a few hundred.
A revote was absolutely out of the question!
But the post’s author mentioned they were considering whether to introduce a revote mechanism.
Su Momo realized it was all because of that photo. She had to replace it quickly to prove she truly was beautiful.
She selected the most flattering photo from the ones sent to her, completely overlooking the logo on it.
Su Momo deliberately posted the photo on her social media first, then pretended to be a helpful bystander by reposting it to the forum with her burner account.
Just as she expected, once the new photo was up, the negative comments decreased slightly.
She didn’t notice at all that some people had already spotted the logo in the photo.