Chapter 23 : How Exactly Do I Get In
23: How Exactly Do I Get In?
Located in the southern city of Suzhou, after 6 PM in early summer June, the sun had lost its midday intensity.
As the sun set in the west, the clouds on the western horizon were dyed with beautiful sunset colors, like a great fire burning at the edge of the sky.
Against the backdrop of this beautiful sunset, Su Mo was currently walking against the flow of workers heading home from work, stepping lightly toward Vanke Beautiful Plaza.
Having just secured a job and successfully rented a very appealing apartment, Su Mo's mood was elated.
Especially thinking about how generous President Chu had agreed to use tutoring money to pay rent at month's end, even waiving the deposit.
The daily work was also simple—just tutoring the two little ones with homework at 5 PM each evening, telling stories when there was no homework, helping watch the children. The work was unexpectedly easy, making Su Mo hum with happiness as she walked.
As for why Su Mo was now heading to Vanke Beautiful Plaza?
Emmmmmm regarding this reason, there were two.
First, as a rental tenant who would now be living independently, Su Mo naturally needed to purchase some bedding such as sheets and quilts.
Although beautiful girl President Chu Tianlan had kindly mentioned she could provide some 'extra' bedding from home, Su Mo had declined. While the president's bedding and sheets would surely be high quality and definitely odorless, as a conservative boy, Su Mo still felt somewhat shy, especially since the other party had already given enough discount on rent—Su Mo was too embarrassed to trouble her further.
Besides purchasing bedding and other living necessities, Su Mo had another plan for going to Vanke Shopping Plaza—completing the second stage of the SSS-level Heartbeat Hide and Seek mission: girls' panties.
The experience of having her secret discovered by that evil little loli An Xiaoqian this morning was still vivid. And this afternoon while playing with the two little ones, little girl Ningning's "big sister" comment had made Su Mo break out in cold sweat. Fortunately, children were innocent, and Su Mo had corrected it to "big brother" with a few words.
To reduce exposure risk, Su Mo decided to quickly complete the ten SSS-level missions, or at least first purchase the Disguise Technique worth 500 Challenge Coins. After all, from today's experience, crossdressing with just short hair and long sleeves was completely insufficient.
Buzz~ Buzz~ Buzz~
Just as Su Mo was thinking about her upcoming plans, her phone in her jacket's inner pocket suddenly vibrated.
Feeling the strong vibration from her Redmi phone transmitting a faint tingling to her chest, Su Mo's fair little face blushed slightly. After silently marveling at how sensitive a girl's body really was, she took out her phone. Seeing the caller was her dorm roommate, she answered with some confusion.
As the call connected, the next second brought Wei Yan's excited howling from the other side.
"Ah Mo, you didn't attend class all day. You weren't really on a date with Goddess Lin, were you!"
Wei Yan's voice was loud, full of disbelief and amazement.
Su Mo held the phone away from her ear in distaste.
Recalling this morning's theater acting, that should count as some kind of date. She softly hummed in agreement, then remembering the apartment she'd just acquired, Su Mo added another blow:
"Um... Lin Muyao and I rented a small apartment outside. I'll be staying out for the next few days."
Su Mo's disguised male voice wasn't loud, but the content caused automatic silence on the other end. After a full five seconds of quiet, the phone came back to life.
"Damn it, you guys won't let people live! Boss Lin Kun got back together with his ex-girlfriend today, and Ah Mo you're dating Goddess Lin. Have you forgotten the single oath we swore freshman year..."
Hearing Wei Yan's emotional outburst, even starting to make up some nonexistent single oath, Su Mo's mood was complicated. She clearly remembered that in the second semester of freshman year, Wei Yan had gotten a girlfriend himself.
He'd show off their affection every few days, then proved that saying—show off love, break up fast.
How was it that now when she was just in love, albeit fake love, even single oaths were coming out?
Could this be the reality of "officials are allowed to set fires, but citizens can't light lamps"?
Emmmmmm that didn't seem quite fitting. Better to say "afraid brothers will suffer, also afraid brothers will drive Range Rovers"?
After silently complaining in her heart, Su Mo was about to ask Wei Yan what this call was actually about—was it specifically to inquire about her love life?
Then she heard Wei Yan's wailing transition to serious business.
"Ah Mo, today's Marxist theory class only had 12 people attending. The Monkey was furious. You know our dorm is the Monkey's key focus. For future absences, he announced in the class group that there must be legitimate reasons, otherwise regardless of final exam scores, you'll definitely fail..."
The "Monkey" Wei Yan mentioned referred to their university advisor Lu Mingyuan. Lu Mingyuan was a nearly 40-year-old male advisor. Calling him Monkey wasn't because he had a pointed monkey face.
Rather, in the previous "four-no-two-direct" incident when the four from Room 503 impersonated high-ranking leaders, everything had gone smoothly until Lu Yuan's "fiery eyes and golden pupils" recognized them at the school gate. Since that was Sun Wukong's ability, Wei Yan had secretly nicknamed him "Monkey."
Su Mo always felt nervous for Wei Yan whenever she heard this nickname, while also finding it amusing.
However, hearing Wei Yan mention the "Monkey's" information now, Su Mo couldn't laugh at all.
After all, attending class meant interacting with former roommates, increasing exposure risk. What worried Su Mo more was that Advisor Lu with his fiery eyes was actually a performance teacher who had participated in many TV drama productions—not an ordinary university instructor at all.
If he discovered her disguise in class, wouldn't that be game over?
Just as Su Mo's mood began to grow heavy, thinking about how to overcome this new challenge, Wei Yan's tone shifted from excited to lecherous chuckling.
"That... Ah Mo, oh wait, Master Mo... hehehe, I just wanted to ask, since you're dating the Campus Belle Lin. She's somewhat famous now. Could you work harder at night plowing the field, whisper some pillow talk, and help me ask if any crews need actors or hosts lately?"
Hearing Wei Yan casually mention plowing field innuendos over the phone, Su Mo instinctively looked down. The emptiness made her momentarily dazed, since she no longer had plowing tools—instead, she'd become a pristine field herself.
After brief disorientation, Su Mo thought of something else.
The Monkey... oh no, performance-background Advisor Lu Mingyuan's favorite saying was that practice trumps theory, and empty intellectual talk won't amount to anything.
If she could really get some theater internships or voice acting work, she could take an alternative path and skip classes.
As for working in theaters full of strangers, who would pay attention to and recognize an ordinary sophomore student?
After agreeing to help Wei Yan find "work," Su Mo hung up and unconsciously arrived at Vanke Beautiful Shopping Plaza.
Due to working at KFC for nearly a month, Su Mo was quite familiar with Vanke Beautiful Plaza. She took the gleaming escalator toward the third floor women's clothing area she'd never visited before.
Perhaps because today was Friday with the weekend ahead, everyone wanting to relax, although Su Mo had no experience visiting the women's clothing area, seeing the foot traffic on the third floor still amazed her.
Generally every 3-5 meters, there would be groups of girls arm-in-arm or couples.
While not crowded to the point of being unable to walk, in this era of developed online shopping, the third floor women's section was doing remarkably well.
Walking down from the escalator, due to being a boy for 19 years even though temporarily transformed into a girl now, walking in the third floor women's clothing area and feeling occasional glances from people, Su Mo still felt uncomfortable in every sense.
She unconsciously quickened her pace, finally stopping in front of a women's lingerie store called "Milk Candy Party."
Su Mo had considered her choice in stopping at this lingerie store. The second stage requirement of Heartbeat Hide and Seek was for panties with beauty rating above 90 points.
Although Su Mo didn't know how ordinary underwear ratings were determined, 90 points sounded high-level and should require visiting somewhat larger stores to complete.
Now looking through the transparent glass windows at various panties and bras worn by mannequins under projection lights, unconsciously emanating luxury and temptation under the lighting and mall music.
Staring at those shameful clothes, while Su Mo felt shy, she somehow had a premonition that the panties here could meet the system's requirements.
But now a major problem faced Su Mo.
Why did this store use so many display lights and transparent windows to show its luxury?
So conspicuous—how exactly was she supposed to get in?