The next day, Xia Yu arrived at Xu Youxiang’s place, only to be told that the programmer had not yet arrived as arrangements were still being made.
He realized that he had been too hasty.
Because he had witnessed Yuliang’s impressive efficiency in dismissing the head maid and replacing her with Auntie Ning, he had assumed that the arrangement of a programmer would be equally efficient. In reality, even if Yuliang could find a programmer at an incredible speed, the programmer’s own efficiency couldn’t possibly match that.
There was no way someone could be dispatched and arrive the very next day after being requested the day before.
Picking up his notebook, Xia Yu opened the game and suddenly remembered something else.
He pulled up Xu Youxiang’s buffs.
[Programming Bonus Lv2, Makeup Bonus Lv2, Styling Bonus Lv2]
Seeing these buffs, Xia Yu couldn’t help but sigh.
If Xu Youxiang had followed a normal life trajectory, she would surely have become the trendiest female programmer in the entire district.
“Why the sigh?” Xu Youxiang asked.
“Nothing,” he brushed it off, then began thinking about which skill might be useful.
At Lv2, a bonus could elevate a skill to Lv2 by default, so which skill should he choose?
Styling seemed most useful, but Xia Yu had no interest in that, so he chose makeup instead.
After acquiring makeup at Lv2, he used the Lv1 bonus effect on styling.
Gaining two new skills, Xia Yu felt delighted.
He launched the game.
He had arrived at seven in the morning, and by three in the afternoon, the game session ended, and he returned to his own body.
“Brother?” Youxue called him. “I was talking to you!”
“Come here,” Xia Yu said, grabbing Youxue’s hand.
“Huh?”
As Youxue looked on in surprise, Xia Yu pressed her into her seat and removed the hair elastic from her ponytail.
Having acquired new skills, he naturally wanted to try them out on his sister first.
“What are you doing!” Youxue protested.
“Don’t move,” Xia Yu said, holding the girl down as he picked up a comb and neatly brushed her hair.
Yielding, Youxue wanted to see what her brother was going to do.
Without a mirror in front of her, she took out her phone to observe.
After seeing Xia Yu skillfully style her into neat twin tails, she was surprised.
Braiding hair might seem simple, but it was actually no easy task—just like stick-figure drawings that only have a few strokes, yet beginners still struggle to get them right.
Such neat and symmetrical twin tails would have taken her some time and careful effort to achieve on her own.
But Xia Yu had done it effortlessly.
With only one hair elastic, only one ponytail could be tied.
“Wait, I need to get another elastic!” Youxue hurriedly said.
But Xia Yu ignored her. He undid the ponytail and divided Youxue’s hair into two sections—one in front and one at the back.
He tied the hair at the back into a ponytail and braided the front section into three strands, wrapping it around the ponytail to create a bun-like hairstyle.
Taking a photo of the neat braid with her phone, Youxue was delighted.
She saw Xia Yu undo her hair again, but this time she didn’t stop him, assuming that an even prettier hairstyle would follow.
However, Xia Yu simply re-braided her hair back into the original ponytail.
When Xia Yu finally let go and showed no intention of continuing, Youxue turned her head in disbelief.
Patting the girl’s head, Xia Yu walked out of the house.
Lu Zhiwen had invited him over that day, and Xia Yu figured since he had nothing else to do in the evening, he might as well go.
There wasn’t much to do at night in the town, so he assumed they’d just play games when he got there.
However, his judgment turned out to be wrong.
“Want to play games?” Xia Yu asked after arriving at Lu Zhiwen’s house.
“Play games?” Lu Zhiwen looked surprised. “What’s fun about games? Come, let me show you my collection.”
He led Xia Yu to a multi-purpose empty room and took out a treasured painting to show him.
It was an oil painting, seemingly somewhat well-known, though Xia Yu didn’t recognize it.
But that didn’t stop him from giving it a proper critique.
With his Painting Skill at Lv3, he could easily sound like an expert.
Noticing the professionalism in his words, Lu Zhiwen’s eyes lit up. “You also know oil painting?”
“A little,” Xia Yu didn’t modestly downplay it. Compared to his Lv5 music skill, oil painting was indeed just a little.
“If we’re both enthusiasts, then you must paint something too!” Leading Xia Yu to an easel, Lu Zhiwen invited him to paint something.
He pulled out some other paintings for Xia Yu to see. “Every fellow enthusiast I’ve met has left a painting here. Once you guys become famous, I’ll be set.”
Xia Yu looked at those paintings. Their quality varied, and the techniques were diverse, so it was clear that Lu Zhiwen genuinely had this hobby.
Lu Zhiwen continued, “Since we’re both here, let’s paint together. I’ll paint one for you, and you paint one for me, to commemorate our bond.”
“…”
If Xia Yu hadn’t been certain that Lu Zhiwen genuinely had this hobby, he would have thought he was just showing off.
Picking up the brush, Xia Yu finished a painting in half an hour, then pretended to work meticulously while actually letting his mind wander.
An hour later, Lu Zhiwen had also finished. Looking at his painting, he nodded in satisfaction.
Although he had painted quickly, he had unexpectedly exceeded expectations—his work was on par with the average level of city-level competitions.
He felt a bit proud.
Xia Yu had made a slight miscalculation. As a passionate young man, how could Lu Zhiwen not have a competitive streak? Knowing Xia Yu’s proficiency in three musical instruments, he wanted to balance things out through oil painting.
Putting down his brush, he told Xia Yu he was done. Xia Yu approached his painting and politely praised it.
His professional critique made Lu Zhiwen feel like he had finally met a kindred spirit.
In his heart, Lu Zhiwen thought he would reciprocate the praise when he saw Xia Yu’s painting. He could privately enjoy how good or bad the painting was but mustn’t let it show on his face so Xia Yu wouldn’t notice.
He approached Xia Yu’s painting. Xia Yu had painted a plate of dumplings, with very simple lines.
He smiled at first, but after looking at it more closely for a moment, his smile froze.
He leaned in to examine it carefully.
The colors, the light and shadow, the composition—wow—
If his painting was at the average level of city competitions, Xia Yu’s was at the winning level of city competitions and already approaching the average level of provincial competitions.
His judgment was correct—Xia Yu’s painting skill was around the middle of Lv3, with the bonus pushing it directly to the middle of that level.
Looking at the painting in front of him, Lu Zhiwen completely lost the mood to boast.
Only when the painting was poor could one boast.
He forced out a few compliments before swiftly steering the conversation away from oil painting, producing an ocarina instead.
Ocarinas were a niche instrument, and Xia Yu definitely wouldn’t know how to play it, he thought.
However, Xia Yu effortlessly played a complex piece on the ocarina.
If the painting had only been slightly better, this time the ocarina was an outright domination!
Should he continue with the guitar?
He asked Xia Yu first, “Can you play almost any instrument?”
After receiving Xia Yu’s affirmative answer, Lu Zhiwen avoided the guitar. He thought hard for a long time and finally thought of something he himself wasn’t very good at but was sure Xia Yu definitely wouldn’t know.
He brought out artificial flowers and a vase. These were practice props for flower arranging—after all, not every household could have fresh flowers like An Siyao’s.
He spent ten minutes arranging the flowers and looked at Xia Yu.
Xia Yu stepped forward, casually adjusted the arrangement, and with the activation of his Flower Arranging Lv2 skill, the vase instantly looked much better than before.
Standing silently for a minute, Lu Zhiwen stood up. “Let’s just play games then.”
A smile appeared on Xia Yu’s face. He hadn’t realized it at first with the painting, but after Lu Zhiwen tried so many things afterward, how could he not figure it out?
When facing an excellent person, wanting to find areas where one is better than the other to maintain one’s self-confidence is a very normal thing.
“I told you games are fun, but you insisted on doing all this,” Xia Yu said, patting Lu Zhiwen on the shoulder.
Lu Zhiwen felt bitter inside.
They played games together all night, and the next morning, Xia Yu handed his body over to Tuo Yu and logged into An Siyao’s body.
The head maid had been dealt with, and the remaining two were An Feixiong and Luo Yali.
An Feixiong was somewhat clumsy, but Luo Yali seemed quite well-behaved. Xia Yu hesitated over how to deal with the two.
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