Chapter 52

Gu Tongqiu looked at her with gratitude. "Classmate Shushu, I just found out that you counseled my sister last night. Thank you so much. My family has prepared a dinner, and the invitation has already been sent to the Tao residence. We hope you and your parents can grace us with your presence."
Gu Tongqiu’s voice trembled slightly. "My cousin hasn’t been in a good state recently. We’re all so relieved that she’s doing better now."
Tao Shushu glanced at her phone, her parents had also sent a message saying the Gu family had suddenly expressed interest in promoting the Tao family’s chip exports.
"I’ll attend," Tao Shushu said.

Tao Shushu and her parents attended the Gu family’s dinner. The parents of both families hit it off instantly, feeling as if they had known each other for years.
Gu Lanchun affectionately linked arms with Tao Shushu. "Shushu, I had a friend while studying abroad, Luo Liming. I recently saw his company’s logo in a photo Su Momo posted, so I reported some details to the relevant authorities. He probably won’t bother you for a while."
Then, Gu Lanchun handed her an invitation.
The gilded page bore details of the Princess’s Evening Gala, the very same invitation Luo Liming had used to try and dissuade Tao Shushu from participating in the competition.
"The princess and I are pen pals," Gu Lanchun said. "You can decide for yourself whether to attend. No one should be able to use this as leverage to stop you from joining the competition."
Tao Shushu accepted the invitation with some surprise.
She had almost forgotten about the matter. Su Momo had set a trap, hoping Tao Shushu would humiliate herself at the princess’s gala and become the laughingstock of high society. Tao Shushu had already prepared a counterattack, but Su Momo proved too fragile, defeated before the gala even took place.
"But I think you might like this even more," Gu Lanchun said mysteriously, producing a gift box. The glass case was tightly sealed, equipped with a small temperature and humidity control system and an anti-theft mechanism. Inside were two pages of handwritten notes. "These are manuscripts by the experimental physicist Ailan. I collected them during my historical research. I’m giving them to you."
Tao Shushu’s eyes widened. Ailan was one of the most prominent figures in the history of physics. His theories from decades ago were still the subject of analysis in countless laboratories. Anyone studying physics had to acknowledge Ailan as the founding master.
The value of these two manuscript pages was equivalent to a small apartment in Yancheng.
"It's too valuable." Tao Shushu restrainedly averted her gaze.
Gu Lanchun smiled and shook her head, "I believe that since you helped me recover my most important possession, you deserve this gift."
The Gu family was deeply engrossed in business discussions with Tao Shushu's parents.
Gu Lanchun and Gu Tongqiu, the two sisters, held hands.
Both cannon-fodder families were now living beautifully.
In a corner of Yancheng, a girl who thought her inspiration had dried up and she could never compose music again suddenly felt a spark of creativity. She immediately sat down at the piano and began playing a piece with effortless grace.
A chemistry student, who had been on the verge of deleting his experimental design because he believed the pressure had driven him insane and he could no longer conduct experiments, found that all the knowledge of polymer formulas and chemical reactions had returned to him. Overwhelmed with joy, he called his psychologist in tears.
A student who had been losing hair over mathematics slowly woke up in a hospital bed... He thought it had all been just a dream.
Su Momo, the former broadcast station director at her previous school before transferring, muttered, "I'm never watching those Northeastern dialect videos again. My accent has been messed up for days. Ugh, I'm using inverted sentences again. Ah, I can't fix this inversion habit. Aaaaaah, I'll just watch English debate masters instead."
None of them realized that a part of their knowledge had once been stolen. Fortunately, their lives had returned to normal. The things they had worked hard to learn belonged solely to them.
After arriving home, Tao Shushu opened the game and was about to pat her cub's head.
The cub noticed her first and proactively leaned his head closer. "Shushu."
"Cub, want to wear new clothes? Let's buy some." Tao Shushu put on a rich persona.
The system-converted gold coins had finally arrived, and Tao Shushu's balance suddenly reached 10,000 gold.
It was the first time since she started playing the game that she had such a large sum of money.
Nan Yuan opened his backpack. "Shushu, I already have plenty of clothes."
In his backpack, several sets of clothes had gradually accumulated. Recently, the Bloodsucking Grass had been very cooperative, obediently producing fibers suitable for making clothing.
So Nan Yuan had made a few more outfits.
"Alright." Tao Shushu said. The cub was so considerate and well-behaved, truly worry-free.
She couldn't resist continuing to ruffle the cub's head.
Just then, a prompt appeared on the screen: Gold coins have reached 10,000. Unlock original artwork appearance?
Confirm, 0 gold coins to unlock / No.
0 gold coins?
Tao Shushu's hand, which was about to tap close, trembled violently. Would the system really be this generous and let her take advantage like this?
Ahem, this system does not recommend unlocking below 10,000 gold coins, mainly considering the alignment of players' spending expectations and spending capacity.
Tao Shushu understood, this meant the original artwork would make players eager to spend money, but with less than 10,000 gold coins, they wouldn't have enough to splurge.
Is he really this captivating? She had seen the original artwork of her cub before.
Anyway, opportunities to take advantage of the system were rare, so Tao Shushu clicked confirm.
The screen went dark for a moment.
When it lit up again, the bed, backpack, and clothes in the room had all reverted to their original artwork state, no longer the exaggerated Q-version lines.
Tao Shushu didn’t have time to observe these changes, her gaze was firmly captured by the cub in the center of the screen.
Nan Yuan was folding a shirt, his slender fingers deftly working through the fabric, making them appear even paler and colder.
Tao Shushu stared at his movements for a long time, until Nan Yuan placed the folded shirt into his backpack, and his hands were temporarily hidden from view.
She picked up her water glass, took a sip, and patted her cheeks before turning her attention back to the screen.
Nan Yuan had already finished folding the shirt and was now searching for something in his backpack.
Reflexively, Tao Shushu averted her gaze from his hands and shifted it to Nan Yuan’s face.
Nan Yuan’s eyes were slightly lowered, his long eyelashes casting shadows as he focused intently on his palm. His eyes were very dark, yet his skin was strikingly fair.
Tao Shushu immediately purchased a lamp.
Before this, the cub rarely turned on the lights in the room, and Tao Shushu had grown accustomed to it.
But now, seeing a beauty in dim lighting only made her more captivated.
It would be better if it were a bit brighter, she thought, and directly bought an energy ball lamp. Instantly, the room became as bright as daylight.
“What’s wrong, Shushu?” Nan Yuan asked.
Tao Shushu instinctively glanced at Nan Yuan’s lips. Under the bright light, they appeared even redder against his fair skin, and even his slightly puzzled eyes seemed to glow.
He was too enchanting.
Like a fox spirit.
Tao Shushu abruptly turned off the lamp again.
“It’s nothing, the lighting was bad and could strain my eyes,” Tao Shushu said, patting her chest. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, after all, she was the cub’s mom. She could buy whatever she wanted, no questions asked.
Nan Yuan didn’t ask why she turned the light off again. “Shushu, are you in a good mood today? Did you manage to resolve something that was troubling you?”
Tao Shushu smoothly changed the subject. “Cub, I was amazing today.”
She didn’t realize she was subconsciously seeking praise, even though many people had already praised her that day.
After briefly recounting what had happened, Tao Shushu said excitedly, “Now I feel like I have a treasure trove at home. Do I really own the master’s manuscripts? No, I need to go take another look.”
“Shushu deserves this gift,” Nan Yuan said with a smile.
His smile made Tao Shushu even more unable to handle it.
He really was too captivating, no wonder she couldn’t see him when she didn’t have enough coins. Paid content really was better.
Tao Shushu barely resisted the cub’s stunning beauty. “By the way, little… cub, what were you doing just now?”
Nan Yuan took out what he was holding.
It was a few sets of clothes made for dolls.
“I had some leftover scraps today, so I dyed them. They can be used to change our dolls’ outfits.”
“Wow!” Tao Shushu examined the doll clothes closely. Though small, they were exquisitely made, with a set for the cub, one for her, and one for the little lion.
They would look adorable on the three small dolls.
“They’re so pretty, I love them,” Tao Shushu said.
“I’m glad you like them.”
Tao Shushu reached out, instinctively wanting to pat the cub’s head, it was how she always expressed her affection for him.
But when she saw the cub’s face on the screen, she suddenly hesitated.
The previous version of the cub was a chibi character, with a three-heads-tall proportion that was incredibly cute. She could naturally ruffle the cub's head, but now that the cub had suddenly transformed into a handsome man with a slender waist and long legs, Tao Shushu felt even calling him "cub" was strange.
She opened the game settings and decided to switch back to the chibi version.
The system quickly prompted, "Switching display modes requires 10,000 gold coins. Insufficient gold coins, unable to switch."
Tao Shushu: "..."
As expected, the system's advantages weren't so easy to take.
Tao Shushu had no choice but to close the settings page and continued staring at the cub's face.
She hesitated for a moment, "Cub, from now on, I'll call you by your name."
Nan Yuan suddenly looked up, his eyes shifting slightly, "Okay."
In the few seconds Tao Shushu was lost in thought, Nan Yuan had already finished making a small crown.
"For Shushu, who won today," he gently picked up the small crown and fixed it on the head of the doll figure representing Shushu.
His gaze as he looked at the doll figure was so focused that it made Tao Shushu's heart beat faster for no reason.
Seeing that Nan Yuan had picked up the doll clothes she had selected, Tao Shushu quickly snatched them away, "I'll change the clothes for the dolls. Nan Yuan, you should get ready to rest, it's very late."
"Okay," Nan Yuan didn't argue.
Through the screen, Tao Shushu operated for a while before finally changing the clothes.
Nan Yuan was already prepared and could go to sleep.
Every night before, Tao Shushu, considering herself a qualified "old mother," would always wait for the cub to lie down in bed before logging off.
But today, with the cub switched to the original art mode, it suddenly felt like he had grown up, making her previous behavior seem somewhat overstepping.
Tao Shushu hesitated for a moment, then thought, whatever, appreciating a handsome man isn't wrong. She cleared her throat lightly, "Well, cub, have a good rest. I'll come see you again tomorrow."
After saying goodnight to the cub, Tao Shushu quickly logged off.
She also finished washing up and lay down in bed, but her mind was still excited, and it took her a while to fall asleep.
Before drifting off, Tao Shushu thought, the cub's hair had grown a bit long. It seemed that ever since she mentioned she liked the cub with slightly longer hair, he had never cut it particularly short again.