There was also a piece of information about a hair salon under the video. The salon was run by a married couple, and the wife had poor health, needing to visit the hospital every Thursday, which conveniently aligned with the schedule.
Originally, having a romantic relationship wasn’t an issue, but the fact that she was a married woman made it problematic.
Xia Yu stored the information in his phone. He didn’t actually need to give it to Tina, mainly because Tina didn’t even own a mobile phone to receive it.
Anyway, just a brief mention would be enough to deal with that middle-aged woman.
The night passed, and the next morning, Xia Yu went to Tina’s place.
He spent the morning reading as usual. At noon, the middle-aged woman brought Qiao Ting back home.
Qiao Ting was somewhat reluctant to look at Xia Yu, sitting obediently on the sofa, waiting for lunch.
After a while, Qiao Yang also returned, and the three were about to go out for a meal when the middle-aged woman stopped them.
“You kids go to Burger King every day; it’s too expensive. I know a more affordable place. I’ll take you there,” the middle-aged woman said.
Without waiting for their response, she insisted that Xia Yu and the other two follow her to the small eatery she mentioned.
It was a modest shop in the urban village, with outdated equipment and questionable hygiene.
Xia Yu had initially hesitated a bit, wondering whether threatening the middle-aged woman with the hair salon issue was excessive. However, seeing that she wouldn’t even let him enjoy a decent meal peacefully solidified his resolve.
The small shop had no seats, so the group could only take their poorly made burgers and head back home.
Back at home, the middle-aged woman casually ordered Xia Yu again: “Tina, pour me a glass of water.”
Xia Yu didn’t move.
“Don’t you hear me?” The middle-aged woman raised her eyebrows.
“Hair salon,” Xia Yu replied.
“What hair salon?” The woman looked puzzled.
“Master Wang’s Hair Salon,” Xia Yu mentioned the name of the salon the woman frequently visited.
The middle-aged woman’s expression froze, and she immediately put down her legs that had been crossed.
“Oh, there is indeed a Master Wang’s Hair Salon along the way,” the middle-aged woman tried to feign ignorance, unsure what Xia Yu was implying.
“I also passed by there yesterday; Master Wang was quite busy,” Xia Yu smiled at the middle-aged woman.
The middle-aged woman started to feel uneasy. She sensed hidden meaning in Xia Yu’s words but found it hard to believe that such a young girl could be so subtly insinuating.
Xia Yu stood up and headed to the backyard. Before closing the door, he turned and glanced at the middle-aged woman.
The woman quickly made an excuse and followed him outside.
Once in the backyard, away from others, Xia Yu spoke plainly: “The opportunity for Master Wang’s wife to go to the hospital for a checkup was really great.”
“How do you know that?!” The middle-aged woman was shocked. She thought she had been very discreet, even avoiding parking her bicycle in front of the salon, instead leaving it at the stationery store across the street.
“That’s something you don’t need to know,” Xia Yu refused to answer. Although it was unlikely for the woman to trace the information back to the driver, caution was still necessary.
“I was just going to play mahjong!” The middle-aged woman tried to deceive Xia Yu.
“Well, you can tell that to Master Wang’s wife,” Xia Yu said, taking a step as if to leave, appearing ready to expose everything.
The middle-aged woman hurriedly blocked Xia Yu’s path, gritting her teeth: “What exactly do you want!”
“I just want to be a good kid quietly. As long as you behave, I won’t tell anyone. But if you don’t obey, there’s nothing I can do.”
Looking at the little girl who smiled sweetly while making threatening remarks, the middle-aged woman felt a chill in her heart.
She had no choice but to agree.
Opening the door, Xia Yu returned to the living room. He threw the messy burgers from the small shop into the trash and took Qiao Ting and Qiao Yang back to Burger King, where the middle-aged woman dared not voice any objections.
As the day passed and Qiao’s foster father came to pick up his daughter, a prompt message flashed before Xia Yu.
[Tina’s bonus has been upgraded to LV3.]
Finally, it had increased.
This was already Xia Yu’s fourth and a half LV3 level. The other three were Xu Youxiang, An Siyao, and You Xue, while the half was the elderly lady Yin Shulan, who had risen and then dropped.
Based on the elderly lady’s experience, Xia Yu first used the opportunity to upgrade one of the skills associated with the bonus to LV3.
Tina’s three bonuses were: combat, business, and acting cute. Business had already reached LV3, and acting cute was useless, so he could only invest in combat.
His combat skill was upgraded to LV3.
Next came the unrestricted time benefits, just like the previous three and a half, with the final highlight being:
[You may choose one of the following three items:]
[AI Personality Change]
[Empty Slot *1]
[Skill Upgrade Enhancement Card LV3]
Xia Yu chose the empty slot. After the brown bear incident, his slots were filled, and he hadn’t had the chance to wander around other women or the black cat for a long time.
Now, he finally had an empty slot.
This reward reminded Xia Yu of a previously saved three-choice reward.
He brought up the reward interface to check. Previously, he had kept the reward because one of the three choices was garbled text.
Looking at it now, the garbled text was gone, replaced by:
[Star Fragment Clue *1]
It was the same star fragment related to Wen Ziying’s mission. Was the garbled text previously because the star fragment mission hadn’t appeared yet? Or had the game changed the reward?
Xia Yu didn’t know, and he wasn’t planning to use it yet. He didn’t even know what the star fragment was, and Wen Ziying’s mission hadn’t made any progress either.
His serious expression while thinking about the issue caught Qiao’s foster father’s attention.
“What’s wrong?” Qiao’s foster father asked. “Tomorrow is Saturday. I can take you out to play!”
Already Saturday?
Feeling the joyous emotions coming from Tina, Xia Yu nodded in agreement, representing Tina’s willingness to go out and play.
“How have you been feeling these past two days? Getting used to it?” Qiao’s foster father asked again about the arrangement of staying with the Qiao family.
“Getting used to it. It’s quite nice,” Xia Yu replied politely.
He had put in so much effort to finally tame the Qiao family. If Qiao’s foster father suddenly changed his mind and didn’t let him stay any longer, it would be a huge headache.
Hearing Xia Yu’s response, Qiao’s foster father laughed heartily: “I told you there wouldn’t be any problems.”
Xia Yu inwardly scoffed, thinking that adults were always so arrogant.
A bad thing turned into a good one through his efforts, yet Qiao’s foster father believed it had always been good.
When the car arrived at the apartment, Xia Yu logged out of Tina’s body and returned to his own.
Picking up his phone, he checked the QQ messages.
You Xue had posted a photo with her female friends drinking milk tea today, An Siyao shared a picture of Hu Lianglu pouring water for her, and Xu Youxiang posted foot photos.
The last one was the odd one out—Zhong Yunxin, who posted a text message:
“I’m coming to your place tomorrow at noon!”
So Xia Yu sent a message to An Siyao, inviting her to come over with Hu Lianglu the next morning.
He was very much looking forward to Zhong Yunxin’s reaction.
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