Luo Pingting smiled and even turned to look at Luo Zheng, who was sipping his wine nearby.

  “Big Brother, didn’t you say you want to have lamb chop this morning? Thank you in advance then, Shishi.”


  Luo Zheng grinned an evil grin and raised his glass at Gu Shishi from the other side of the swimming pool.

  That fool…… did he read one too many domineering CEO novels?

  Gu Shishi’s lips twitched.

  In comparison, her Tsundere Huo at home was much more straightforward and cuter than this bunch over here. She suddenly felt appreciative that the system had picked a good male lead for her.

  Thinking about that, with her eyes narrowed, she calmly shook off Luo Pingting’s arm that was grabbing onto her and said, “I’m sorry. I only make love meals at home.”


  Gu Shishi curled her lips and smiled.

  “I only cook for my future husband and my most beloved man.”


  Under the sun, she reached out her delicately slender fingers.

  “Other times, I need to take good care of my hand. I mean, if they become coarse or injured, I’m not sure anyone can…… make that up to me.”


  Her meaning was: Yes, I can cook, but they were neither worthy of nor could afford to try her cooking.

  Everybody changed colors as soon as she finished talking.

  Luo Pingting, the one who brought it up, gritted her teeth.

  Gu Shishi didn’t take the bait?

  Of course, it was part of their plan to insult her by having her cooking at the banquet.

  No Young Miss would take on the role of a chef and busy herself inside of the kitchen when the others were enjoying themselves.

  She thought that even if Gu Shishi was to turn her down, she’d at least be courteous about it and the purpose of insulting her would still be accomplished. She hadn’t expected that Gu Shishi would just go up against her like that.

  “Oh yeah, Miss Luo. Wushuang mentioned to me before that you are very good at playing the piano? I wonder if I’d have the honor to hear you play today? I love having background music when I swim in the past. You know, some excitement is always necessary for one to persist in exercising.”


  Luo Pingting’s face turned black all of a sudden!

  This Gu Shishi was thorny and sharp with her words!

  Gu Shishi had struck back and asked her to play the accompaniment while she swam. Did Gu Shishi not know that she is the host today?!

  If she was to snap at her in front of everyone, that was like admitting that asking Gu Shishi to cook was her purposefully giving her a bad time.

  Her picking on a guest as the host would sound very bad when words were spread by the servers.

  This Gu Shishi was not an easy target!

  Gu Wushuang, standing next to her, turned pale all of a sudden. “Shishi, when have I mentioned to you that……”


  “Oh? It wasn’t you? That’s strange. It’s not like I have a lot of friends otherwise.”


  Gu Shishi smiled. Of course she had just made that up.

  Luo Pingting was an arrogant young miss from a prestigious family. It was only natural that she was well versed in a couple of musical instruments simply for the purpose of showing off. And piano was the most common one.

  “Alrighty. I’m going to go change now. I can’t wait~”


  Gu Shishi walked upstairs chuckling.

  Gu Wushuang wanted to go upstairs with her, but she also wanted to clarify the misunderstanding with Luo Pingting. Now she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

  “It’s fine.” Luo Pingting took a deep breath. “I’ll play. Not like she could appreciate it anyway.”


  ***

  After Gu Shishi had gotten up to the second floor, she saw Chen Kexin squatting inside of the dressing room.

  The young girl had a blanket wrapped around her in distress.

  She was pacing back and forth in front of the mirror, looking troubled.

  Gu Shishi raised her brows and finally found out what it was when she walked closer to her.

  Chapter 178 – But now… what she got in return were friends who’d talk about how awful she looked behind her back?! (1)

  Chen Kexin had on a swimsuit that exposed her back, but low and behold, she had a couple of pimples on her back.

  Chen Kexin, concealer and foundation in hand, seemed to want to cover them up. But, as the pimples were uneven, that wasn’t an easy task.

  “Need some help?” asked Gu Shishi after she watched Chen Kexin for a little bit.

  Chen Kexin startled and almost dropped her foundation.

  When she turned around and saw that it was just Gu Shishi and nobody else, she let out a sigh of relief.

  “Oh, it’s you. You scared me.”


  After that had slipped out of her, Chen Kexin’s look became complicated all over again.

  Why was it that she felt alright when it was Gu Shishi?

  Would she not be alright if it was anyone else?

  Wait. Something wasn’t right here. Wasn’t she friends with the others?

  Her relationship with Gu Shishi was just buyer and seller!

  But, quickly, she figured out why she felt what she felt.

  Gu Shishi pulled out a bottle of hand sanitizer from her purse and disinfected her hands.

  She looked at the make up on the table and said to her, “Want me to draw you a plum blossom?”


  “Plum, plum blossom?”


  Chen Kexin got it now. She felt relieved because Gu Shishi was always calm and never panicked when something happened.

  If it was any other one of her girlfriends, they’d just yak.

  In fact, she had a pretty good idea what they’d say.

  Most likely along the line of “Oh, Keke, what did you eat yesterday that brought this?”, “What brand of body lotion have you been using? It’s kind of oily. You need to switch to a different brand.”, “Ah, you need to go see a doctor for this.”, or “Guess you won’t be able to wear anything that will show your back today. What a bummer.”.…… or something equally useless.

  They’d only irritate her more.

  But now…… Gu Shishi wanted to draw her a plum blossom?

  “Yeah, the skin on your back is fairly pale. And your swimsuit today is a light yellow color. A plum blossom would complement them very well.”


  Having said that, Gu Shishi picked up her bright red lipstick and an earth tone eyeshadow.

  “Except that you won’t be able to go into the water today. And don’t have a towel on your back. That’d smear it.”


  Chen Kexin thought about it for a little bit. Plum blossoms on her back.

  That sounded pretty…… so what if she couldn’t go into the water?

  She can watch the others play from the shore. She just needed to be pretty.

  Plus, it’d be done by Gu Shishi. That’s worth at least tens of thousands of millions. No way she’d put a towel over her back!

  She would only be too busy showing it off!

  “No problem!” replied Chen Kexin immediately.

  “Gu Shishi had enraged Pingting.”


  “Hehe, Pingting’s piano is good enough to perform overseas. Who did that Gu Shishi think she is?”


  “Speaking of, we should be happy that she is so ignorant. Lucky for us all! We don’t get to hear Pingting’s performance all the time!”


  Chen Kexin’s cheeks burned a little. She recognized the voices.

  They belonged to a couple of her girlfriends from their WeChat chat group.

  She glanced over at Gu Shishi and felt somewhat uncomfortable all of a sudden.

  She prayed that the ones standing by the door would leave soon, but they kept on chatting.

  “Speaking of, where is Keke? I didn’t see her downstairs.”


  “Shhhh…… don’t talk too loudly. She had a breakout on her back. It was awful…… and she had a backless swimsuit…… I never even think that her back was all that. And now…… tsk tsk tsk……”


  “For real? Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s talk downstairs.”


  There were three to four dressing rooms on the second floor.

  The footsteps resumed and Chen Kexin’s face looked awful.

  She never would have thought that her girlfriends from her group would talk about her like that behind her back.

  She felt very emotional all of a sudden.

  The two years that she had studied abroad, she had kept in touch with all of them.

  She thought she had been nice to everyone and that she had a good relationship with everyone.

  But now…… what she got in return were friends who’d talk about how awful she looked behind her back?!

  Chen Kexin clenched her fists.

  Chapter 179 – But now… what she got in return were friends who’d talk about how awful she looked behind her back?! (2)

  Chen Kexin suddenly felt a cool touch on her back. She was taken a little aback. When she looked up into the mirror, she saw Gu Shishi very focused on putting liquid lipstick onto a lip brush.

  It was as though she didn’t hear a word coming from the outside.

  “Aren’t you upset?” Chen Kexin asked again.

  “Huh?” Gu Shishi squinted her eyes as she was still carefully finishing up the plum blossom on her back.

  “What they’ve said about you. Aren’t you upset?” Chen Kexin couldn’t help but feel much calmer from Gu Shishi ’s nonchalant look.

  She felt the same when she watched Gu Shishi streamed. She only went into Gu Shishi’s channel for the fun of it the very first time, but she was immediately attracted by the way she painted.

  It was almost as though all of her annoyance had gone away as the ink spread.

  It seemed that Gu Shishi had the natural ability to calm others.

  Gu Shishi’s hand never stopped. Her lips moved a little, and then they curled.

  “So what if I am angry? What a waste of my time if I had dashed out and started a fight with them. My life is very valuable. I don’t have that much time to waste.”


  If it wasn’t for her need to collect fondness, she had zero interest in this swimsuit party.

  “And it’s even more worthless to get angry at them.” If I get sick…… my healthy bar would drop very quickly.

  Chen Kexin was shocked by her wordGu Shishi, but they oddly made sense.

  She could make upward of 1B yuan a month from her paintings. Fighting with these young missus with zero skills was, indeed, a waste of her time.

  As her mind wandered, Chen Kexin suddenly had a beautiful mental picture of Gu Shishi chatting away with her grandmother. She felt that Gu Shishi would get along better with the older generations?……

  How scary was that?!

  “Okay, done.”


  Gu Shishi patted her on her shoulder as all sorts of random thoughts crossed Chen Kexin’s mind.

  Gu Shishi gestured for Chen Kexin to turn around and look into the mirror.

  Chen Kexin was a little surprised. She was done already?

  She turned slightly but wasn’t able to see much. Chen Kexin picked up the vanity mirror sitting on the table and aimed it at her back.

  Then, she saw her back through the lighted vanity mirror on the table.

  Just one look and Chen Kexin’s mind exploded.

  Gorgeous……!

  When plum flowers bloom, there are no leaves.

  Meaning, there was only a branch with red, blossoming, and fiery-looking flowers on her back. They were petite and rounded, reserved and calm, in groups of 2-3 flowers. They were bright and lively!

  And this bright and stunning red plum blossom, being painted on her clean and smooth back, looked like it had grown out gracefully in the snow.

  Along with her backless swimsuit today, it had given her an added charm.

  Earlier, the others were making fun of how she wasn’t suitable for a backless swimsuit. Most likely because her bone structures weren’t pretty enough or that she has more fat that she should have on her back. Now that the red plum blossoms had become the focal point on her back and brought out how pale she was, it had accomplished hiding her weakness while emphasizing her strength.

  In addition, antique style painting like this had always been her favorite.

  She enjoyed collecting Han dynasty outfits normally but would only wear them when she was home.

  She had tried painting floral patterns on her forehead before and had challenged plum blossom in the past. Unfortunately, she just wasn’t talented enough to pull that off.

  But the ones that Gu Shishi drew today were simply too pretty!

  Chen Kexin really wanted to go home and try on her Han ruqun with gold threads. Perhaps, Gu Shishi would be willing to help her paint something on her forehead as well.

  “How does it look?”


  Gu Shishi, too, looked into the mirror.

  “It’s awesome! It’s beautiful!” said Chen Kexin definitively.

  All these plum blossoms spread outward around her pimples and making her prettier than she was before.

  After the reassurance from Chen Kexin, Gu Shishi nodded and put the pen away. She turned to change into her own swimsuit.

  Chapter 180 – But now… what she got in return were friends who’d talk about how awful she looked behind her back?! (3)

  Seeing Gu Shish like that, Chen Kexin blushed.

  If it was Pingting and the others, they’d always say, “So we’ve helped you solve a problem, how are you going to thank me?”.……

  Yet when Gu Shishi had done her a favor, she did not mention a word about what she had done for her as though nothing had happened.

  “Say, what do I owe you?” asked Chen Kexin as she bit down on her lip.

  In the past, she had given one of her girlfriends a pair of high heels or taken everyone out to a Michelin 3-star restaurant, or to the bar, etc.

  “What do you mean?” asked Gu Shishi as she looked up from her swimsuit.

  Though the curtain that divided them, Chen Kexin blurted out, “You’ve done a favor for me. I need to repay you for that.”


  “Oh,” said Gu Shishi. “There’s no need. It only took me a minute.”


  Chen Kexin was a little stunned, then she looked at the beautiful painting on her back again.

  When she was still a child, her grandmother had once said this to her.

  That being part of the Chen’s, there would be many who would want to be her friends and butter her up in the future. She’d need to learn to be able to tell those who were sincere from those that were only superficial.

  Over the last few years, she thought she has accomplished that already.

  Externally, she almost never told anyone that she was a Chen and made friends with normal people. All it mattered was whether they meshed well with each other.

  Inside of her immediate circle, she was only closed with the few girls that she grew up with. She would always maintain a distance with any newcomers and observe them before she would trust them.

  But, when she met Gu Shishi today, she was rattled.

  If real friends would never ask for anything in return, then what about Luo Pingting and the others who had always asked about what they would get in return?

  And if real friends were the ones who’d lend her a hand when she needed it, then what would you call Gu Wushuang, who had always been weak and expected others to take care of her?

  [Beep. “Letting Chen Kexin See the Truth” assignment progressed to 75% completion!]

  Gu Shishi heard the system notification when she had finished changing and walked out in her swimsuit cover.

  She paused in her way.

  That worked too?

  That had never occurred to her before.

  What if she told Chen Kexin that the painting on her back was inspired by Qi Baishi’s “Plum Blossom Paintings”? Would she pass out right away and her assignment would be completed all in one shot?

  Gu Shishi tsk’d and shook her head.

  “Oh yeah, did you try the balancing lotion that I gave you?”


  Chen Kexin looked up and blushed right away. She didn’t dare to use the brandless skincare product.

  “Give it a try,” said Gu Shishi. “It’s very expensive.”


  It cost 24 hours of her life. She could at least get fondness in return, sheesh.

  Dumbfounded, Chen Kexin just nodded and said, “Okay. I will give it a try when I get home today.”


  It was from the guru. It couldn’t ruin her face, right?

  She gritted her teeth and made up her mind to give it a try.

  Just when they were about to walk out of the dressing room, Luo Pingting’s voice came from the outside again. “Chuchu, look who’s up there! Come and say hi to your sister-in-law!”


  Gu Shishi paused in her way.

  Sister-in-law…… Huo Chuchu? Darn, Huo Sishen’s real sister.

  Gu Shishi poked her head out and peeped downstairs. She saw a rebellious-looking short-haired girl with her hair dyed grandma grey. She was wearing a jean jacket surrounded by the others.

  “Luo Pingting, you shut up! Are you here to end your friendship with me today? I don’t have a sister-in-law!! How many times do I have to say that?!”


  Obviously, Huo ChuChu’s personality was quite the opposite of what her name suggested.

  “Was the only purpose of you hosting this bullsh*t party is for me to come here, meet this woman, and then get into a spiff with her in front of everyone today? You are a nutcase!”