Chapter 5: The Cat

In the morning, Xia Yu returned to his own body. He sat up and whispered, “Skill panel.”

In the next moment, a small panel appeared in front of him.

On the panel, there were two skills:

[Painting Lv1, Music Lv1]

Lv1 was likely the entry level. To apply for a job, at least Lv3 or Lv4 would be required.

According to An Siyao’s estimation, it would take a maximum of one month.

Arriving at his desk, Xia Yu glanced at his homework. The system that controlled his body completed the assignments exceptionally well.

Relying on this, he might even become a dark horse during the college entrance exam.

However, body swapping was the main focus; body control was just a side aspect. Even if he became the national top scorer, without real ability, it wouldn’t be meaningful.

Xia Yu disliked living in a castle in the air. Only by being down-to-earth could one feel secure.

Returning to bed, he opened his phone and began searching for the wealthy individuals in the first district.

The An family wasn’t generally rich; perhaps her father’s name might appear on the ranking.

As for how to distinguish which one was her father, checking the surname would suffice. An wasn’t a common surname like Ma or Liu.

After scanning the rich list, Xia Yu locked onto a target.

He was the richest man in the first district, a real estate developer named An Tianfeng.

Rubbing his chin, Xia Yu searched online for more information about An Tianfeng.

Most of the content was about An’s business activities. Fortunately, there was a Wikipedia-like page in this world, where Xia Yu found information about his family.

The records mentioned only a wife and a son.

Had he found the wrong person?

But there were no other Ans on the rich list.

Forget it, anyway, searching was just to satisfy his curiosity and wouldn’t really matter.

Closing the webpage, Xia Yu randomly opened a mahjong game.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to play other games, but mobile gaming development was extremely backward in this world. However, PC single-player games and online games were quite prosperous.

Today was Saturday, no classes in the morning. Xia Yu went out to eat the breakfast made by You Xue, then returned to his room, idling around.

Around nine o’clock, You Xue knocked on his door.

The girl who entered said to Xia Yu, “Brother, lend me the classical Chinese translation book.”

Xia Yu was slightly stunned. Nowadays, who checks books when doing homework? Everyone uses their phones. A moment later, he remembered that his sister didn’t have a phone.

He pulled the classical Chinese translation book from the bookshelf and handed it to You Xue.

After the girl left, Xia Yu fell into thought.

You Xue was already in the seventh grade. Unlike the Earth from his past life, children in this world started using mobile phones in elementary school. The girl should have one too.

However, expecting their cheap father to buy one was wishful thinking. Xia Yu’s own phone was bought with part-time work money during his freshman year of high school.

Opening his messages, Xia Yu checked the balance in his bank account.

During his three years of high school, he had saved six thousand yuan. Originally, he planned to save until he had seven or eight thousand to buy a notebook capable of running AAA games.

Which was more important: games or his sister?

Choosing games meant the sister would just be without a phone, but choosing the sister meant the games would be gone entirely.

After weighing the pros and cons, Xia Yu sighed.

At noon, after finishing lunch, he went to the convenience store where he worked part-time and started his shift.

On Saturdays, his shift was the entire afternoon, but he didn’t work on Sundays.

Although cashier work was relatively easy, it wasn’t as effortless as in his past life. Back then, a simple Alipay scan completed the payment, requiring almost no manual work. But in this world, mobile payments hadn’t emerged yet, so people could only use paper money.

Paper transactions were highly susceptible to counterfeit money. However, Xia Yu had experienced the era without mobile payments in his previous life and was very familiar with the tactics of counterfeiters. So far, he hadn’t made a single mistake.

The sun slowly moved from the center to the west. Under the lazy orange light, the passersby on the road seemed more leisurely.

Xia Yu had finished his work. The girl coming to relieve him was a female student from a neighboring university. She had an average appearance but a good figure.

“Feng Lin said he has something to do tomorrow. Can I ask you to cover for him?” the girl asked Xia Yu.

“I still have things to do,” Xia Yu casually made an excuse.

This surprised the girl greatly. Previously, people often asked Xia Yu to cover shifts, and he had never refused before.

This was because Xia Yu, who had obtained the body-swapping game, no longer valued this small amount of money. The fact that he continued working at the convenience store already showed his prudence.

“Okay then, I’ll refuse him,” the girl hesitated and asked again, “Is something wrong? Maybe I can help.”

She had some affection for Xia Yu, who was somewhat handsome and not as immature as his peers.

“Thank you, but I just don’t really need money lately,” Xia Yu thanked the girl for her concern and entered the changing room.

In this world, not only convenience store cashiers but even bakery cashiers had specially designed uniforms.

Xia Yu felt that apart from providing more material for adult films, these uniforms were basically useless.

He could only say: emphasis on appearances.

After changing into his own clothes, Xia Yu went to a mobile phone store and picked out a white phone that was priced at over 1,900 yuan after discount.

Without Alipay, online shopping was also far from mature, so buying a phone in a physical store became the only feasible option.

Returning to his residential community, Xia Yu saw Xia Dongyang downstairs, sitting by a flowerbed not far from the stairs, frowning and smoking, looking troubled about how to solve some problem without letting his children see.

However, this wasn’t out of concern for his children but rather due to his fragile sense of pride.

It was like someone who refuses to step on the grass not because they care about the plants but because they don’t want to dirty their shoes.

Xia Yu ignored him. He still deeply admired this father’s desperate attempts. Previously, when he had gotten into trouble with a group of hooligans and accumulated gambling debts, he had managed to resolve everything by seeking help everywhere.

Avoiding the man, Xia Yu entered the stairwell and returned home.

You Xue wasn’t in the living room. Xia Yu opened the girl’s bedroom door, but there was no one inside, likely out buying groceries.

He placed the phone on the girl’s desk and returned to his bedroom.

Lying on the bed, he entered the game.

[Please choose a character]

[1. An Siyao]

[2. Empty]

The game provided two character slots, with An Siyao occupying one. The other could be used, and deleting An Siyao would free up the slot.

Even so, two slots were still somewhat limited. He hoped new slots would be unlocked later.

He clicked on the first slot. Xia Yu’s vision went dark, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw a massive trash can.

It was literally gigantic, at least five or six times his height.

What was going on?

[Unknown bug occurred. Please remain calm and wait for the 8-hour game session to end.]

A bug?

Xia Yu looked down at his hands.

It was a black cat’s paw.

Standing in front of a store window, he saw a black cat.

He had turned into a cat? This game was too unreliable. A bug occurred as early as the third session.

[Body swap successful]

[Generating bonus based on the new body…]

[Bonus generation complete]

[Acquired bonuses: Night Vision Lv1, Intimidation Lv1, Agility Lv1]

[Enjoy your game]

Intimidation? Agility?

They seemed like decent skills.