Lei Yating chuckled secretly, her shoulders trembling. Who would have thought the delinquent girl in the lower bunk had such a foul mouth?
"What's wrong with a little self-entertainment? Just admit it openly. There's no need to act like some repressed feudal prude and turn pale at the mere mention of sex." Pei Ye's tone was flat, yet her words were absolutely infuriating. Fortunately, the original owner, Xiao Hong, didn't have much of a relationship with her roommates and usually ignored them anyway, so no one suspected a thing now that Pei Ye had taken over. Who would care about the psychological changes of a delinquent destined for depravity?
BAH! "What are you looking at!" Lei Yating subconsciously hugged her Immortal Water tight. This action drew the attention of the other roommates, such as Bai Xiaoxiao, a skincare enthusiast.
"Is that Florida Water?"
Lei Yating's mouth twitched. "No, it's Immortal Water."
PFFT. Bai Xiaoxiao burst into laughter. "You call that Immortal Water? Please, don't tell me you bought some cheap, inferior skincare product recommended by an internet influencer."
What was Immortal Water? With the financial capacity of students like them, they had to scrimp and save just to afford a small starter kit. Did she think she'd never seen genuine Immortal Water before? That 300ml bottle in Lei Yating's hands looked like a knockoff, and the liquid inside was mint green. How could that be Immortal Water? Bai Xiaoxiao held back her laughter, but the disdain in her eyes was obvious to a blind man.
Lei Yating's face darkened. "This is a medicinal cosmetic made by a relative who practices traditional Chinese medicine. They say it used to be supplied to concubines in the imperial palace. This alone has the right to be called Immortal Water. What do you know?"
It was a treasure secretly formulated by the Hundred Flowers Fairy using the dew of precious flowers from the Heavenly Court. How could mortal goods compare? She was lucky to have fast enough fingers to snatch it.
Bai Xiaoxiao didn't buy a word of it. She curled her lips and said, "Nowadays, everything claims to be 'all-natural' or 'an imperial recipe.' That only fools clueless country bumpkins like you. If ancient palace cosmetics actually worked, why are all those photos of late-Qing dynasty concubines floating around the internet so incredibly ugly? Besides, can the skin even absorb those medicinal concoctions?"
Pei Ye watched the drama from the sidelines, waiting for the female lead, Lei Yating, to deliver her first face-slapping.
TSK. "It's not certain who the country bumpkin is here," Lei Yating scoffed. She supposedly reincarnated, but her personality wasn't particularly mature or steady. She was, however, quite adept at picking fights and arguing.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Bai Xiaoxiao retorted.
Lei Yating pointed at the makeup organizer on Bai Xiaoxiao's desk, which contained a starter kit of Immortal Water that cost over six hundred yuan. "Let's compare them. We'll see if your foreign brand works better, or if my relative's medicinal cosmetic is truly magical."
"Fine, let's compare. What happens if you lose?"
Lei Yating didn't think for a second she would lose. "The loser buys takeout for the winner for a month and fetches hot water for half a semester."
"You're on," Bai Xiaoxiao gritted her teeth. "Mine is authentic, bought straight from the flagship store. Who's afraid of who?"
The two young girls clashed fiercely, the smell of gunpowder heavy in the air. A massive battle seemed imminent, but then—
Pei Ye looked at the two young girls applying their respective Immortal Waters as wet compresses on their faces, and sighed inwardly. Here was the problem: the description of this scene in the novel, The Beauty of the Red Envelope Group, had been absolutely brilliant. The pacing had been perfect, making for an incredibly satisfying read. But witnessing it in real life...
UMM...
It just gave off an indescribable aura of cringy adolescent melodrama. Her tired smile betrayed a hint of awkwardness and unease.
A few minutes later.
Bai Xiaoxiao's Immortal Water performed quite well. After use, her face felt clean and comfortable, and her skin was visibly brighter. She had started using Immortal Water in her senior year of high school. Her skin had always been delicate and fair, her old comedones had vanished completely, and she had bidden farewell to acne a long time ago. Among everyone in the dorm, save for Xiao Hong, her skin was in the best condition. She had thought victory was in the bag, but the result was—
WOW—
"You've gotta be kidding me!!!"
"Impossible, where did that pimple go? Did Yating use concealer?"
"I took a picture! Have you guys noticed that Yating's pores shrank so much?"
"Amazing, these results are unbelievably magical! Yating, does your relative have any more Immortal Water? Sell me a bottle, please~"
The other roommates were all drawn over. Even the internet-addicted girl who was busy gaming heard the commotion and gathered around to inspect Lei Yating's face. Bai Xiaoxiao's expression changed completely.
Lei Yating smiled as she looked in the mirror. Her ears were filled with her roommates' gasps and praises, with some directly proposing they try it out too. She initially wanted to agree, but the bottle only held 300ml, and she had no idea when the Hundred Flowers Fairy would send another red envelope. She needed to use it sparingly. So, Lei Yating refused, using the excuse that the materials her relative used to make the medicinal cosmetics were very expensive.
"How much does this bottle cost to make?"
Lei Yating glanced at Bai Xiaoxiao from the corner of her eye and smiled. "I don't know, but my relative said it took several thousand yuan worth of precious medicinal herbs."
Hearing this, the roommates completely dropped the idea. If a single bottle cost thousands to produce, it would cost over ten thousand if it were actually sold.
Standing to the side, Pei Ye didn't join the crowd. She looked down at the System Record.
[16:29, female lead Lei Yating used the Immortal Water, lifespan reduced by 1 day.]
Looking at the volume of the bottle, if she used it for wet compresses every time, she would lose at least two months of her lifespan by the time she finished it.
"Xiao Hong, do you want to try some?" Lei Yating asked her with a smile.
The other roommates' expressions turned slightly ugly. Lei Yating had just rejected them but was now asking if Xiao Hong wanted to use it. Wasn't this a slap to their faces? At the same time, this was Lei Yating showing off, casually drawing a wave of hatred toward Pei Ye while she was at it.
"No need," Pei Ye said. "I'm naturally beautiful."
Everyone was speechless.
Nailed it. She had securely drawn the aggro of all six roommates.
Lei Yating scoffed, cursing internally that God was unfair. Xiao Hong had no self-respect and zero ambition, yet she was blessed with a beautiful face and flawless skin. What a waste! Lei Yating loved to eat, especially spicy food. As a result, she had enlarged pores, tons of acne, and acne scars of varying depths all over her face. Her bare face, which could barely pass for a six out of ten, was dragged down to a four. But she had the Immortal Water. Sooner or later, she would easily outshine Xiao Hong!
Lei Yating climbed onto the upper bunk in a huff. While browsing an online fiction site for red-envelope-themed novels to satisfy her cravings, she kept a distracted eye on the Heavenly Court Immortals Group's activity, terrified she might miss a red envelope sent by an Immortal. Before long, her phone suddenly rang. The caller ID showed her boyfriend, whose name she had changed to "Pigheaded Scumbag"—no, her ex-boyfriend!!!
"Hello? What do you want?"
Worried about disturbing her roommates, Lei Yating climbed down from her bunk and went to the washroom to take the call. Pei Ye's hearing was freakishly sharp. While playing Fight the Landlord on her phone, she listened in on Lei Yating's conversation with her ex-boyfriend. In Pei Ye's opinion, Lei Yating's "reincarnation" was shrouded in suspicion, and whether her ex-boyfriend was actually a scumbag was highly questionable. However, Lei Yating was already biased. Naturally, she didn't give her ex-boyfriend a chance to explain; she aloofly announced their breakup and hung up the phone. Unwilling to give up, the ex-boyfriend called a few more times, but Lei Yating hung up after just two rings each time.
"Can you block that telemarketer's number? It's annoying the hell out of me!" Pei Ye used her long legs to kick the bottom of the upper bunk, jarring Lei Yating so hard she bounced.
Furious, Lei Yating chucked a pillow down at her, but Pei Ye's reflexes were razor-sharp, and she swatted it right back. "Xiao Hong, are you out of your f*cking mind!" She was blasting her Fight the Landlord background music on full volume, yet she had the nerve to bitch incessantly when Lei Yating's phone merely rang twice.
"I'm not crazy," Pei Ye said aloofly. "I just have double standards."
Lei Yating stared wide-eyed in astonishment, momentarily forgetting to be angry even after getting hit by the pillow. Finally, she cursed a couple of times, grabbed her pillow, and went back to scrolling through red envelope novels. The mortal realm wasn't worth her anger. And idiots were even less so!