Sunlight rarely reached the slums, as if the sky there was always dark and oppressive.
Gray clouds densely covered the sky, blocking out any light.
Just before dawn, Su Zhiyi woke up.
She had a bad temper when waking up, yet she always rose early.
The girl slowly came to, her delicate and beautiful face devoid of any joy, as lifeless as the gloomy sky outside the window.
By the time she woke up, Su Qinghuai was already gone, leaving only a message on her phone saying the driver had picked him up early to return to the Su family.
System 030 booted up and woke up within a minute of Su Zhiyi waking, greeting her energetically: "Good morning, host! System 030 is at your service. Today is another energetic day!"
"Don't be noisy. I just woke up, and I'm annoyed."
Su Zhiyi couldn't muster any energy. She sat on the bed with her eyes closed for a while to calm down, then got up and walked over to the pile of luxurious designer clothes. She only glanced briefly before picking out a light pink Chanel-style dress she had worn last month but not this month.
St. Desmo Academy had its own uniform. Although the rules technically required wearing it on campus, they weren't strictly enforced and didn't restrict the wealthy young masters and ladies.
These were the high-end luxury items that had been packed and thrown out of the Su family along with her.
The only saving grace was that the true heir of the Su family was Su Qinghuai, a male, who had no use for this pile of luxury goods. So the Su family let these genuine luxury items be thrown out of the Su family together with her, the fake young lady.
Otherwise, it would have been even harder for her to maintain the facade of the Su family's eldest miss.
These luxury items could make up about thirty outfits.
Rich people never wore the same clothes twice. She couldn't just wear the school uniform to blend in—that would make people suspicious—and she also couldn't wear the same outfit for a long time; she had to rotate them.
Thirty outfits were just enough for a month, with different clothes each day, reducing the likelihood of arousing suspicion.
Who would suspect that a young lady who wore thirty different designer outfits a month was actually a poor girl living in the slums?
After changing, she washed up in front of the mirror, applied light makeup, slung on her Chanel bag, and left the house at the break of dawn.
To avoid revealing her identity, she had to get up very early, catch the first bus, and rush to St. Desmo Academy as quickly as possible, trying to be the first to enter the school so no one would see she hadn't arrived in a luxury car.
As long as they didn't see it, they would all assume she came to school by luxury car.
"Honestly, couldn't St. Desmo Academy just be built in the slums?" Su Zhiyi muttered a complaint.
Every time she went to school, she had to rush, and just the walk to the bus stop took at least an hour.
System 030: "Ah... ah? Build an aristocratic academy in the slums?"
The host really had a way with words.
"Host, what do you plan to eat for breakfast today?" System 030 chatted with Su Zhiyi as she went downstairs and walked to the bus stop.
"Steamed buns and soy milk." Su Zhiyi yawned, her eyes half-closed, sounding lazy. "Why ask me that? Could it be that you want to treat me to steamed buns? That's not out of the question. I'm in the mood for meat-filled buns."
The meat-filled buns, at one yuan each, were more expensive than the fifty-cent plain buns, but they were tastier, and she craved them.
Mentioning money made System 030 so embarrassed it wanted to crawl into a crack. It stammered out a bunch of nonsense: "Um... well... Host, it's not that I don't want to buy them for you, but I don't have the money... You see, Host, as a system, most of my salary goes into upgrading the system... If I had money, I'd secretly transfer it to you!"
"Alright, alright." Su Zhiyi cut off System 030's rambling explanation. "You're talking too much. Let's stop here."
It seemed her breakfast wouldn't become meat-filled buns.
*
[St. Desmo Academy Forum]
[The young lady looked so beautiful today!]
[1L: I saw the young lady wearing this same outfit last month and bought a similar Chanel-style one too. The young lady's taste is really amazing! Seeing the beautiful young lady in beautiful clothes is a visual feast. I was planning to skip class, but thinking I can see the young lady every day gives me motivation to go to school.]
[3L: When has the young lady ever not looked beautiful? The young lady is naturally good-looking; her clothes are just accessories to her beauty.]
[4L: The young lady looks beautiful in anything, right?]
[5L: Heh, I knew the young lady had nothing to do with that special admit surnamed Su. She didn't say a single word to him the entire morning.]
[6L: Can you stop linking the young lady with that special admit from the slums? You idiot rich guys, can you focus on who your real rival is?]
[12L: Song Lian is back. I saw him in Class A of the fourth year today. Forget about the special admit; Song Lian is obviously a bigger threat.]
[13L: Why be afraid of Song Lian? He's just someone who gets close to the young lady because of his family background. In the end, he'll be dumped by her.]
[14L: Yeah, I don't see anything good about Song Lian. I'm better-looking than him, and I'm a man. If I had his family background, the young lady's fiancé would definitely be me.]
[15L: 14L, your jealousy and confidence are overflowing the screen. Post a photo and let us see what you look like, then we'll see if you can badmouth the Song family heir.]
[19L: Why is every thread about Zhiyi filled with you men competing? You argue so fiercely here, but yesterday you were cursing that kid from the Zhou family. I think you're not even as brave as him. You're like rats in the gutter, gossiping behind people's backs. If you've got the guts, say these things in front of Zhiyi or Song Lian!]
[31L: Wasn't this thread about how beautiful the young lady looked today? Why are we still talking about those men? A bunch of fools, can't you just focus on the young lady?]
Su Zhiyi leaned back in her chair, her eyes downcast. Soft strands of hair fell along her cheek. She raised a slender finger to tuck the stray hair behind her ear, while the other hand tapped on her phone.
Beside her, two girlfriends chatted, moving from the latest luxury goods to their new nail art.
Xia Wan extended her beautifully manicured fingers for Li Yuexin to see, the sparkling rhinestones dazzling and hard to look away from: "Look at my new nails. What do you think?"
Li Yuexin looked left and right, scrutinizing carefully, then sincerely praised: "They really match your skin tone. Absolutely gorgeous."
They chatted a bit more about nail art. Li Yuexin glanced out the window beside her, and as if she spotted something, her eyes suddenly widened. She quickly tugged at Xia Wan's sleeve to get her attention. "Hey, look downstairs."
"What's wrong?" Xia Wan looked puzzled but still followed her gaze out the window.