Note to self if anyone offers you a load of money on their first meeting, [Run.]

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How did I end up here...

"Bai Yu! Please be more expressive! The world just wants one thing!" At the man... women's voice. I tilted my head slightly while lifting the white folding fan closer to my face making a brilliant fake smile.

"Perfect!" A sound of brush hitting the board repeatedly followed the woman's voice, as she repeatedly moved her hand to make fast strokes...

...

I followed the rich woman who I now know was the owner of the Yun Clothing store, the store I had just shopped at to act as a model for their clothes. Something about needing a beautiful model to advertise their expensive dresses.

"Yes! Please, show the world your beauty. Yes, perfect! Such raw beauty!" The huge woman? who was probably a cousin of Mil-tan or hulk was repeatedly moving her hands to paint me at such an inhumane speed that her hand appeared to be blurred.

I was currently in her studio, standing against a pure white background. I was wearing an expensive black robe while being barefooted...

I sighed once again as the woman finished another of her paintings.

"Mou...Bai Yu! Such a talent. Extremely beautiful. Now please change into this." The moving mass of muscles then took out another pair of dresses and pushed me into a changing room.

I looked at the white robe in my hand which seemed to shine due to its high quality.

*Sigh*

I sighed as I began to change.

...

"Perfect! Such otherworldly temperament. The people, the masses are just waiting for the moment to utterly fall in love with you! I will guarantee it!" With the sounds of heavy strokes, the moving mass of muscles was breathing heavily looking at my face and her canvas.

I hope they don't and seriously when will this end?

I had been a model for this woman's absurdity for almost two hours already...and she was supposed to be really busy too!

At first, the owner of the store had told me about how picky this person was. Something about being a genius spiritual painter or so. It was normally good if she painted even a single painting that's why the previous models were rejected. So in a panic, the owner lady found me who just happened to be in the shop.

She was supposed to be a hard-to-approach genius but looking at the massive woman with the build of a bodybuilder who was breathing deeply and fanatically painting...

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Please have some pride!

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-*-*-*-*-*-

Finally, it's over...

I was exhausted. Even till the end, the supposed genius painter was holding onto me saying how I needed to be her model. Something about how I could elevate her painting to the next level.

So I did something anyone sane would do, and I politely declined. So with unwillingness written on her face, the woman handed me her address and ran away as one would expect in a shoujo manga...

I walked out of the studio with five hundred spirit stones and an exclusive membership card to the clothing store. Normally, I would have been overjoyed to earn such an amount of spirit stone but I was too exhausted to care.

I need food...

Just as I walked out of the studio, someone patted my shoulder.

"Hmm..?" I turned back to see the person who had abandoned me, Qin Yue.

Qin Yue was standing there with a glass of ice water in her hand.

"Hmph!" I turned my head indicating I did not want to speak to her. She had abandoned me to talk with the owner lady. While I was standing in agony, she was having a fun time with the owner lady laughing and glancing at me with amusement.

"Don't be angry, Bai Yu. The owner lady is an old acquaintance of mine so she pulled me away for a chat."

Qin Yue turned toward me and pleaded her case innocently. She even blinked her eyes innocently...

Hey! That's my thing.

"Fuwah...I forgive you this once." I said as Qin Yue pushed the cup into my cheeks. I took the water and sipped it.

Cold water truly is the best~

"Well, why don't I treat you to lunch, Bai Yu?" Qin Yue said, after all, they still did not have lunch.

Angel, You are an angel.

"Where? Let's go now!" I pulled Qin Yue to hurry up. Exhaustion what is that? Food?!

...

Qin Yue and I entered a nearby restaurant. It seemed quite fancy with the jade collection and the well-dressed greeters and waiters along the way.

"The truffle dumplings and the wanton soup noodles are quite famous, so let's order these two dishes. Also, add an order of fried pork. Would you like to order any other dishes, Bai Yu?" Qin Yue asked me as the waiter started to take our order.

"No, that's enough," I say shaking my head at them.

"Please wait for a few minutes. Your dishes will be cooked soon." The waiter left us with those words.

Qin Yue and I made some small talk as our dishes soon arrived at our table.

"Enjoy your meal." The waiter said as he put down our dishes.

Then my tired dumbass replied, "You too" surprising both the waiter and Qin Yue.

The sudden awkwardness disappeared with a burst of laughter from Qin Yue as the waiter hurriedly excused himself.

My hard stare finally calmed down the amused girl as she said with a smile, "I will not tease you anymore. Go on, eat."

I ignored the girl as I lunged at the food on my table.

...

"That was good," I said as I put down my chopsticks.

Especially, since it was free~

"I'm glad." Qin Yue said as she elegantly wiped her lips. She then raised her hand to bring her bill.

The waiter slowly walked toward our table and he said, "Yes. That would be ten spirit stones."

Oh! It's not that expensive...

The frick is not! We just had some noodles and dumplings why is it so expensive? I would have asked that aloud if I had to pay but...

"Good." Qin Yue didn't even blink at the price and paid the hefty sum of ten spirit stones.

Turning to me she then asked, "Hmm...What should we do now, Bai Yu?"

I looked outside from the window of the restaurant spotting several things. At the same time, a weird feeling crawled into my heart as I looked at a huge crowd surrounding various shops.

[Insight]

I opened insight as my senses sharpened, and the extremely vague feeling became somewhat clear as I spotted a group of people gambling.

*Crunch*

I bit through the ice.

"Let's go to Myriad spirit garden. I want to try opening some spirit ores." I said to Qin Yue.

"Sure." Though a bit surprised, Qin Yue also seemed to be interested.

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"Well, let's go gamble, shall we?"