Chapter 40: Saved Tens of Thousands in Gas Money Again!

Chapter 40: Chapter 40: Saved Tens of Thousands in Gas Money Again!

Meanwhile, Zhong Qing also woke up.

Even on weekends, she maintained a good sleep schedule. And this was despite not sleeping very well the night before.

The reason for her poor sleep was naturally because of a certain someone who hadn’t replied to her messages. It was clear that Zhong Qing actually had a bit of a tendency to overthink things.

As a result, when she woke up in the morning and saw that he had actually replied, she was instantly delighted.

"It looks like the situation isn’t as bad as I imagined," she thought.

Checking the time of the message, Zhong Qing was even more surprised. "He gets up so early."

It seemed he had genuinely gone to bed early last night, rather than deliberately ignoring her. After thinking for a moment, she replied, "The one you sent also looks like the Black Cat Detective. [Snickers]"

As for Chen Jingle’s question about whether there were many stray cats at her school, she added, "There aren’t too many strays, but if you walk around campus, you’ll bump into one or two every so often. They’re mostly all spayed or neutered. We have a charity club at school specifically dedicated to neutering the strays. Otherwise, if they overpopulated, the school administration would step in and have them exterminated."

Before the other side could reply, her roommate in the opposite bed, Li Yuting, rolled over. Waking up to see Zhong Qing’s face full of smiles, she immediately raised an eyebrow. "Qingqing~"

"Huh?" Zhong Qing looked up in confusion.

"Did he reply to your messages?"

"Yeah!" Zhong Qing’s face flushed slightly.

"TSK, TSK, TSK."

Li Yuting didn’t press the matter. Well, as long as he replied normally, that was fine. It seemed the guy on the other end wasn’t some scumbag player just stringing her along.

Otherwise, she’d make sure to teach that guy a lesson!

Chen Jingle only saw Zhong Qing’s new messages after he returned home.

He couldn’t help it. As someone who lived alone, aside from a select few people, delivery couriers, and his network provider, basically no one called or texted him on a daily basis. His phone was permanently on silent. Replying the moment he saw a message was already good enough.

The two chatted a bit more about cats, such as cat food and his own kitten, Tiger, as well as how he had gotten up so early to exercise.

As for his feelings toward Zhong Qing...

How should he put it? He wasn’t exactly resistant, but he wasn’t particularly proactive or passionate either.

"Just let nature take its course," he thought.

They were just sharing their daily lives with each other, waiting for a turning point to advance their relationship. If that turning point never appeared, they would most likely just remain ordinary friends.

He was thirty years old this year. He had long passed the age where hormones controlled his brain, and it was hard for him to let his emotions rush to his head anymore. His main task right now was still to complete his transformation step by step with the help of the system.

He was well aware that all these changes in him were brought about by the system. If he were still the man from a month ago, even if Mr. and Mrs. Liang Cheng played matchmaker for him, Zhong Qing probably wouldn’t have given him a second glance.

This was reality.

"To forge iron, one must be strong oneself," Chen Jingle reminded himself. He hoped he could always maintain this clear-headed awareness.

[Great job, baby! Successfully completed the eating task. Reward: 0.1 kg of physical strength. Current physical strength: 35.4 kg.]

The system prompt interrupted his thoughts.

Compared to his height, which had only grown one centimeter after so long, his physical strength had increased rapidly, growing by several kilograms compared to before. The system rewards were one factor, but it was mostly because Chen Jingle insisted on doing strength training every day.

Bodyweight push-ups were still very effective; the key was persistence.

"Once standard push-ups stop showing results, I’ll switch to close-grip and wide-grip. After that, I’ll move on to diamond push-ups or weighted ones." Chen Jingle had already made a plan.

In short, as long as one had the resolve to keep exercising, there was always a way. There weren’t that many restrictive conditions. If there was a biggest limitation, it was actually a lack of initiative and willpower!

As long as one was willing to put in the effort, there would be rewards!

Today, the pre-class task assigned by the system was cleaning up. This was a piece of cake for Chen Jingle. He was already a little master at household chores by now.

It was just that the gecko droppings on the windowsill were rather annoying. There was nothing he could do. In the rural South, even if you lived in a villa, creatures like geckos would still be around. It wasn’t something that window screens could solve.

Other than that, everything else was fine. He was quite particular about cleanliness, not some humanoid walking trash generator who left mountains of garbage wherever he went.

"How much trash can one person produce alone at home?" he wondered.

Sweeping the entire house and gathering all the trash together didn’t even fill half a small trash can. Without any foul-smelling waste, he usually took out the trash once every day or two.

As long as the house was clean, it basically wouldn’t attract mice or cockroaches. Besides, he had a cat at home; he hadn’t seen a single mouse anywhere nearby. As for cockroaches, Chen Jingle regularly sprayed dinotefuran in the corners and on the thresholds. No crawling insects could ever dream of getting inside!

After finishing everything, he took his usual shower and received another reward for removing scars and marks from his body.

Chen Jingle dried himself off, stood in front of the full-length mirror, and inspected himself from front to back, left to right. "My body is indeed much cleaner now."

Who wouldn’t want their body to look flawless? Although most marks were hidden beneath his clothes, they still existed. Just because he could ignore them didn’t mean they weren’t there.

At present, the smoothness of his skin could almost rival that of those wealthy Cadillac owners who got daily essential oil back massages. Invisibly, he had saved himself tens of thousands of yuan in massage fees.

How delightful!

"Ah, so annoying!" Chen Qiyun looked exasperated.

She had overestimated her willpower. She hadn’t even finished one exam paper, yet she already couldn’t resist the urge to play on her phone.

It was as if there were two little people in her mind: an angel and a demon.

The angel said, "Chen Qiyun, oh Chen Qiyun, how can you be so degenerate! You’ve only written half of it. You promised to study hard, have you forgotten?"

The demon argued, "What are you afraid of? You’ve been writing for so long; it’s time to take a break."

Both little people made valid points. Chen Qiyun was annoyed beyond belief.

The desire to play on her phone was undeniable, but she also knew perfectly well that with her level of willpower, once she started, she wouldn’t be able to stop. Therefore, she absolutely could not touch her phone!

The more she thought about it, the more annoyed she became!

Giving up, she smacked the back of her hand a few times, then flopped onto her bed, exhaling heavily as if trying to blow all the frustration out of her chest. After lying there for a good while, she finally felt less irritable. She crawled back up, returned to her desk, and continued working on the exam paper.

She repeated this cycle over and over.

By the time her grandmother called her for lunch, she had actually managed to finish two exam papers. This was truly a rare feat!

Chen Qiyun walked out of her room looking exhausted. The thought of having to face several more exam papers in the afternoon made her feel even more miserable.

"No, I need to go to Chen Jingle’s place and eat something delicious to comfort myself," she decided.

So, she hastily gulped down a bowl of plain congee and ran off toward Chen Jingle’s house, leaving her grandmother nagging behind her.

"I’m here!"

Looking at Chen Qiyun’s exhausted face, Chen Jingle asked in surprise, "Did you... just come back from plowing the fields with an ox?"

"No, it’s the exam papers. I did two exam papers this morning. I’m so tired." Chen Qiyun collapsed into a lifeless slump on Chen Jingle’s mahogany sofa.

Chen Jingle realized in understanding. "I see."

He didn’t say anything dismissive like, *How is studying tiring?* He had also been through his student days. Studying might not be as physically exhausting as manual labor, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t tiring.

"It just so happens I made some red date and peanut cream. Have some first to change your mood before eating lunch."