In the end nobody left their rooms to meet up with each other till the next morning for various reasons.
A refreshed and clean Tang Muxin was the first to leave her room, touching the doorway a little reluctantly before heading off to collect Jin Bao and Da Gong first.
Aiyah, even if the new transmigrator turns out to be a hostile, Tang Muxin felt like she was very willing to do her best to be friends ah. Just for the blueprints of the plumbing alone.
Now that she has gained many friends (five, three if you exclude the non-humans) she was more or less confident she could befriend this one!
...Worse comes to worse, she had a cute dragon transmigrator by her side as a secret weapon hehe.
In an unprecedentedly good mood after fully experiencing somewhat modern facilities including not just a bath with hot running water but even herbal soaps and conditioner, Tang Muxin felt like their was a little skip in her step.
As she gets closer to Jin Bao's room she realises it was a bit mean of her to have left the two animals alone like that. After all, Jin Bao was also a modern day person on the inside, she was sure he would've wanted to experience what she had did but she wasn't sure that he could make all the rather finicky taps and such work with his claws without breaking them.
She felt a little guilty thinking about it, and silently promises to give the two animals a nice 'hot spring' experience in their tub this evening. At the very least the vain Jin Bao will certainly enjoy it. Da Gong likes whatever Jin Bao does so she doesn't have to worry much on his end.
Thinking that she takes out the spare key for Jin Bao's room and opens it. Surprisingly neither animal was on the bed. Her ears pick up the soft splashing sounds and faint clicking in the bathroom.
Tang Muxin: '...'
It seems her worries are for naught then.
Unable to help herself, she crept toward the bathroom door curiously. Because the two were still animals they couldn't lock the doors or at least, they were too lazy to keep jumping up or stretching to reach the handles whenever the door closes so the door was already half open.
Silently she peeked in and immediately her eyes were blinded.
Da Gong was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, despite being so large he easily balanced himself on the relatively thin metal side. In his beak was a glass bottle of essential oils which he would occasionally shake a few drops out producing the strong scents of roses. Occasionally the rooster will make some croaking and coo-ing noises and fans his wings, letting them drop down stiffly and making a quivering motion.*
*This is apparently called wing drag or wing flicking, part of the rooster mating ritual hehe
Meanwhile Jin Bao was floating belly up and wiggling lazily in the hot rose scented bath water which was also... full of scattered black feathers. Occasionally he would respond to Da Gong with coquettish trilling noises and flicking his tail upwards to ambiguously stroke the offered wings, making Da Gong shake excitedly.
Tang Muxin: '...' What kinky shit is this then?
She recalled her lovely soak last night all alone in her room and compared it to this visual image in front of her and suddenly felt like she was being given critical damage in her single dog heart.
Jin Bao, most likely sensing her complicated emotions at the moment, stopped swaying languidly in the water and peered up out of the bathtub. 'Mu Mu? What are you doing here ah?'
However with the little dragon changing his attention to her, he also managed to bring Da Gongs attention as well.
Da Gong was much less mild in his reaction. Immediately seeing a trespasser on his territory his feathers flared and fluffed up, instinctively making him even bigger and fatter than before.
Tang Muxin immediately put her hands up, the motion swift and well-practiced after many many confrontations with the fierce rooster. "It's just me Da Gong!" She shouts out, "Just Muxin!"
Da Gong puffed up harder and started flapping his wings harder, his pace of clucking picking up like a rebellious motorcycle revving up before it attacks a police car.
Police car Tang Muxin: '...…..'
'You should probably run Mu Mu,' She hears Jin Bao's seductive and mature drawl ring amusedly through her head. Tang Muxin felt that it was quite irritating to the ears currently. 'Da Gong is awfully embarrassed you saw him in such an intimate setting ah~'
'Can you not do something?' She hisses mentally.
The little dragon stares at her, before glancing at Da Gong and 'mrp'ing.
Da Gong looked back at the dragon, clucked a few times before continuing to flap his wings menacingly.
Tang Muxin didn't need an animal translation skill to know that the bird was dead set on kicking her out.
Jin Bao: 'Pft, sorry~ I did all I could~'
Tang Muxin: '…' With such a coquettish tone, it would be strange to believe him.
As a lover of cliche romance stories, she knew most transmigrator protagonists were usually quite adept and intelligent. How come this particular transmigrator was such a cheap guy ah?
Thankfully her agility was top class, especially supplemented with her own spiritual energy enhanced food, so after backing out warily she turned and dashed out of the room.
"Come down for breakfast in the lobby!" She calls back before running faster as she hears the sound of Da Gong jumping off the edge of the bathtub and landing on the floor with an audible thump that was honestly loud enough to be a bit terrifying. Fuck that cock got really big.
She would put him on a diet, but admittedly she was too afraid of what would happen if the bird thought that she was calling him fat.
Dashing out at the fastest speed out of the room and into the hallway, Tang Muxin nearly crashes into someone in her mad escape from the angry black cock. If not for her nearly inhuman reflexes, and her penchant for flight over fight, she might have really hurt someone ah.
"Ah!"
Twisting her body, she nimbly sidesteps the surprised young lady, her hand grasping toward the wall to support herself from her own sudden move. "Are you, are you okay?" Tang Muxin gasps out.
Pan Shuchun who had gripped her sleeves tightly and fully expected to be tackled to the ground, relaxed a little seeing she was still standing upright and relatively unharmed. Forcing herself to not swear like an old grandpa who saw a kid running through their freshly mowed green lawn, she smiles politely as she tries to unwrinkled the creases of her new outer shirt. "I'm fine, thank you miss-?"
Tang Muxin hesitates before sticking her hand out in offering. After all, this lady seemed quite wealthy give the clothing and wasn't offended by almost being violently bumped into. It was better to establish a shallow friendship first and see if there was any potential to develop a future customer relationship, "Tang Muxin, I just arrived here yesterday with my friends."
Seeing the offered handshake, and the clear gaze that held neither the disdain of the arrogantly spoilt nor the flattering and envious fear of a petty and submissive commoner, Pan Shuchun's smile became a touch more genuine. She accepts the handshake happily, "It's nice to meet you Miss Tang, I'm Pan Shuchun. The designer of this establishment and owner of Pure Beauty Designs*."
*Shuchun means pure beauty. Designs in chinese is Shèjì. So it's Shuchun Shèjì.
Tang Muxin: '…'
Tang Muxin: '???'
"You are… Pan Shuchun?" Tang Muxin stares at her with wide eyes, grip slackening and hand falling to her side in shock. "You, you, you decorated this inn and made all those new clothing?"
Pan Shuchun lifts her chin up, feeling quite proud and finding the other lady very pleasing to the eyes. She was still a relatively new designer and while she had some die hard fans, it took a lot of coaxing and scheming just to get people to try her clothing given that she was a) a woman, b) an unmarried woman, c) an unmarried woman with no status or background. Now it was much easier for her to accomplish what she wanted to accomplish but that didn't mean she could so easily forget the struggles she had experienced to get here.
Even now there were many scheming bitches trying to get her things. However Pan Shuchun was shrewd and managed to outwit them all so far. She is very intuitive and instinctively, looking at Tang Muxin's expression, knew that the lady was genuinely shocked and awed. No envy or disdain or anything ah.
This must be a true fan!
Her first true fan in this era! ╰(⸝⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝⸝)╯
Pan Shuchun felt like she understood well, and immediately softens her gaze and pats the stiff Tang Muxin on the shoulder. Aiyah she's so tense, she must be super nervous. How cute ah~
Tang Muxin, still malfunctioning: Where am I? Who am I? 0w0??
Pan Shuchun: Ah, I'm feeling a bit shy now, what to do~? Maybe I should give her a free gift voucher? Oh she's practically trembling in awe! Could my beauty be intimidating her? Hehe.
This was the scene Jia Hyson came up to.
Sitting on a still huffy and embarrassed Da Gong's back, Jia Hyson coaxingly curls the tip of his tail around the bird's ankle. "Brother Gong, don't be shy~ Mu Mu won't tell~"
In a way Jia Hyson felt a little bemused at Da Gong's situation. He had always been very proud and domineering, even if he was doting, it was rare to fully show off his sappy side. Now that someone other than his baby saw him like this, the bird was very upset and humiliated.
In human terms, the equivalent is probably domineering CEO Gong finally had some alone time with his little white flower Bao, the CEO relaxed his guard, took off his clothes and pounced on the little white flower. In the middle of doing the deed, the naggy secretary came in and saw his exposed white butt jiggling every time he thrusted back and forth.
Bebe: 'Pft-!' Bebe just imagined the scene and it's... really fucking beautiful hahaha.
Jia Hyson had to coax the embarrassed for a while before he could waddle out of the room with his head held high. Feeling the muscles under the feathers tense at the sight of Tang Muxin, Jia Hyson chuckles and begins to shower his back with soft, affectionate head nuzzles and kisses to calm him down.
"There, there darling~" he coos gently, enjoying the soft warm feathers. Maybe it's because of the spiritual energy supplement, but Da Gong's body heat has soared rapidly, especially so when he was angry. But for a cold blooded dragon like Jia Hyson this was simply the best.
Jia Hyson absentmindedly bites one of his front claws, the sharp, curved nail clicking against his even sharper teeth as he stares heatedly at Da Gong. He could feel himself salivate a little. Like he had just eaten a bowl of salad while there was a juicy steak sitting across the table, Jia Hyson felt inexplicably hungry and unsatisfied with his current state of affairs. Lately his skin has been itchy with something and his murderous tendencies which has been ignored for a while have slowly begun campaigning to be known once more.
Letting his tail wind and unwind around Da Gong's ankle as he trots down the hall, Jia Hyson clenches his jaw, grinding his claw against his teeth.
'Host...' Feeling something was wrong Bebe quickly started to scan it's host's vitals. Luckily, while all the skills Bebe had previously amassed were sold up for the laser canon, Bebe's vast experience was not in vain.
Dragons weren't very common characters, and a host would probably only get to play one once or twice in their career if they were lucky enough. But Bebe has had enough hosts to get a decent understanding of the general trend of dragon biology even if the world's consciousness' tend to change the concept to best fit the Author Gods' variations and ideas.
Seeing the various fluctuations of data, Bebe made a tongue clicking noise, 'The increased aggression and higher demand for sensory stimulation, the current state of your physical dragon traits, coupled with your previous and current lethargy... essentially your body is preparing to enter the next growth phase but you're still undernourished and the spiritual energy provided for you at this rate is enough to survive well enough but isn't enough to meet the growth conditions.'
Jia Hyson understood. Essentially they were at a stale mate. Right now the energy in his body is enough to maintain his current state but not anything more. His body wants to get bigger and mature both physically and physiologically but it's pretty much writing cheques the body can't cash.
Tang Muxin has improved her cooking skills and subconsciously has gotten better in keeping spiritual energy in the dishes but three meals a day can no longer support his needs it seems. After all, in this world dragons need to be practically bathed in spiritual energy, especially the younger more vulnerable ones.
'Can we bulk order spiritual energy?' Jia Hyson asks.
'It's a bit expensive…' Bebe hesitates. Even if they earned a bit of compensation at the beginning, spiritual energy seriously wasn't cheap stuff. Plus systems haven't been able to successfully recreate this yet and can only buy from willing Heavenly Paths. Not to mention, which Heavenly Path was willing to let systems research this thing. If they knew how to make it wouldn't that make them redundant and the world's consciousness even poorer than before? Therefore the ability to mass produce wasn't possible.
Jia Hyson smiled toothily, 'Tsk, why go to Bebay? Don't we have a supplier right here.'
He pointedly looks through the inn window and at the sky.
Bebe: 'Oh? Oo~h, hehe, of course, of course, Bebe will contact them now ah.'
Suppliers World's consciousness and Heavenly Path: '…'
What could they do? If they don't comply aren't they asking to be reported for messing up? Wuwuwu everyone was right, hosts and systems were super mean QAQ.
While Bebe begins blackmailin- *ahem* asking politely for some spiritual energy, Jia Hyson finally meets the long awaited protagonist. Technically.
At his and Da Gong's very obvious arrival, both women stopped to look at them. While Tang Muxin relaxed at the sight, Pan Shuchun was shocked silly.
Eh? Do we have roosters this big in ancient China? No, no, disregarding that, isn't that clearly a fucking dragon on the giant rooster? Even though the features were a bit stunted and a little chibi that was clearly and undoubtedly a dragon right???
Similarly, Jia Hyson was also surprised at Pan Shuchun.
Pan Shuchun is very pretty.
But more than that she is very fashionable.
Her hair was curled and pulled up into a pair of high wavy twin tails, tied up with white hair bands with petal shaped fabrics sewn in giving a blooming lotus effect. With a one shoulder pink mini dress on top of a thin simple white, long-sleeved undershirt, both decorated with a line of lotus themed golden ink patterns on the sides, it definitely produced a seductive fairy like feel without conflicting too harshly on the current societal views. A classic pale green long skirt was worn underneath it all which complemented the flashy design of the top well.
Not only that her physique was very good, tall, curved but still within the realms of slim, and a decent sized chest. Overall, a typical provider of what was considered first class beauty for Asian standards. Western too really. Of course it was expected since she took over the body of the protagonist, not to mention being nourished by that magic spring of hers, it would be weird if she wasn't attractive.
The most surprising thing is that Pan Shuchun didn't really look like what Jia Hyson was imagining when reading the story. Even though the story is mainly in Tang Muxin's perspective, obviously as the main character of the story world Tang Muxin transmigrated to Pan Shuchun would be given enough screentime to describe her appearance.
Honestly her looks should fit her character archetype. Dainty, cute, pure white lotus. Big shiny lychee eyes, pink plush lips, long lashes, soft and sweet. However, Pan Shuchun was tall and elegant, with thinner phoenix eyes and… okay the lips should be the same but it was dyed a deep, ruby red, giving a more seductive and mature feel. In short, this Pan Shuchun looked like a fierce businesswoman or a top model- the serious high society type models that could probably bitch slap you and look fabulous doing it.
'She's got good skills to make her face like that.' Tang Muxin's voice suddenly echoes in his head. She had calmed down somewhat form her initial shock and had begun to analyze the small details to process better. 'They're probably better than my own.'
Jia Hyson blinks and tries to squint up at Pan Shuchun. With his enhanced vision as a dragon he could see there was clearly makeup on her face, but only on closer scrutiny did he realise how certain shadows don't match up to her facial structure. Her facial contouring skills were definitely top notch.
As an experienced man who is affectionate to both sexes, Jia Hyson is a little familiar with make up products and application. There were many women who would look like completely different people with and without make up but usually it was to enhance their best features not to curb them and transform them into something completely different.
Jia Hyson wasn't the sort of man who would feel 'betrayed' knowing that a lady uses such makeup to change her appearance. To put it kindly he truly doesn't care as they are both the same person he was initial attracted to.
To put it crudely, Jia Hyson just wasn't very picky and had such a wide range of tastes that unless you've self mutilated yourself with an assortment of tacky face tattoos and piercings, he didn't care if you were plain, chubby, had an unfortunately large birthmark etc.
It's impossible to be surrounded by pageant kings and queens everyday, the majority of people were not beautiful and no one should expect them to be. Jia Hyson personally didn't either. While he has preferences for the more handsome end of the spectrum like most people do, that didn't mean he only had eyes for people that exceeded a certain level of beauty.
People who thought they were plain or chubby or even a little ugly, Jia Hyson could see the beauty in them and easily treat them like he would treat any top class beauty. It made many easily fall in love with him with such an attitude.
It's unfortunate that no matter the appearance Jia Hyson was a fickle bastard who threw people away faster than he throws milk cartons out.
Bebe: 'So… you're shallow but not shallow enough to be decrease your strike zone of being okay with sleeping with anybody who is technically human and with a functional brain.'
Jia Hyson: 'Tsk. Listen to my monologue. I don't like people with a lot of piercing and tattoos on their faces. See, I have physical preferences. Oh and I guess unhygienic people too. That's a physical preference too I suppose.'
Bebe: 'Ah. My apologies. Excluding a very small demographic of humans everyone else is fair game.'
Jia Hyson: 'In a way it is my way of promoting the self esteem of the human population really.'
Bebe: 'Oh.' More like your way of promoting the moral degradation of the human population. 눈_눈
So after some mild surprise he immediately turned to appreciation. "Wow!" If he could he would clap his hands, instead he just swishes his tail enthusiastically, "You're right. The make-up is really good." He marvels. "Do you think she'll teach you if you ask?"
Tang Muxin: '…What the fuck does that mean?' ಠ_ಠ
Realising he made a faux pas, Jia Hyson immediately activated [Cutie Beam]. Right now the level was at an extremely high level 8, and at this point as long as it had a consciousness and ability to feel even a tear drop worth of emotions, the person would definitely be moved. Jia Hyson believes that because not only does he use it often but he also uses it often on important characters (protagonist Tang Muxin, villain boss Yan Huizhong, supporting male lead Duan Mengyao) the experience points gained are also much higher than usual.
Immediately Tang Muxin's anger calmed down under the brute cuteness force attacking her heart and forcefully soothing her offended emotions.
Tang Muxin: '...You're lucky you're damn cute you know.'
Jia Hyson: 'I know uwu.'
Now that his meng selling powers have taken complete effect, Jia Hyson uses his sweet mouth to explain that he just wanted to learn about the skills himself ah and it would be better if Tang Muxin taught him through allowing him to see her being taught by Pan Shuchun.
Tang Muxin who was still feeling the effects of the [Cutie Beam] squinted suspiciously. It seemed even if she was easily suppressed by the skill she has gained a smidgen of resistance after all this time. 'Why would you even need to learn this skill?'
Jia Hyson: Because I don't want to pay to learn this life skill ah~ _(:3」∠)_
Such a good makeup skill will be useful in the future. Isn't it better to learn a bit now than have to pay for classes later?
Of course he couldn't say that.
After some thought he gave a sorrowful sigh, 'My mother was in cosmetics. I didn't really care about her work but I sort of regret it now ah. She worked really hard for me and even helped me do makeup for my modelling career in the beginning. Now that I have the opportunity, I would like to learn a bit about makeup at least.'
Tang Muxin didn't know much about Jin Bao and Jia Hyson purposely did this. In order not to blow his identity, he made sure to only give minimum information while maintaining a joking persona so it's a bit difficult to prove deeply into his so-called 'past life'. Other than knowing his sister wrote the story they were in, that he was known for being ultra good looking and acknowledged for his looks to the point he made a living off his high appearance value, Tang Muxin actually knew very little other than his personal preferences and such.
To be honest this was a skill well honed from his original life. After all Jia Hyson loved to love em and leave em, it would've been a nightmare if everyone knew where he lived and got all clingy.
Sure he liked to nurture up a few stalkers when he was in the mood for a twisted romance but Jia Hyson always was of the mindset that stalkers were like growing potatoes. You have to grow them a few at a time, keeping an eye on them carefully in a pot lest they grow wild and suddenly your garden bed has nothing but small ugly potatoes everywhere and there's no way to fully get rid of them without drastic measures such as burning your metaphorical garden down.
Fun was fun but one should make sure not to be excessive about it lest it reaches out of your control.
Therefore, in Jia Hyson's original world there were many cases of men and women with a story to tell about a gentle scum man who swept them off their feet then left with barely a trace. Sometimes it was a case of reservations at the hotel and other date spots were from a fake identity. Other cases was merely as simple as a phone number no longer in use and their online account deleted.
One of the more elaborate stories is by a very incensed man who revealed his rich boyfriend of three months suddenly ghosted him and broke up via text after his birthday. After trying to contact Jia Hyson he found that the phone could not be reached, the email address deleted, the social media accounts weren't his real accounts and the name he used was not his real name.
Jia Hyson: 'Who told my mother to give me such an uncommon and unique first name ah?' ╮(╯∀╰)╭
Bebe: 'Maybe she knew how green tea* you'll be when you grow up ah.'
Jia Hyson: …
*Hyson is a brand of chinese green tea that comes from the Anhui province of China, the leaves are usually twisted… like Jia Hyson heh. The name Hyson does seem to have a Chinese meaning which is "flourishing spring"- that was what this author saw when making the name. However, it has been pointed out to the author multiple times now that the name is based after an English tea merchant, Phillip Hyson and is more a western name than Chinese. However... it's too late now isn't it ah. _(:3」∠)_
This ex boyfriend however was very interesting though. If not how could Jia Hyson pay attention to him for so long? The man had a fair number of connections and a strong unwillingness to part with his spicy chicken lover like in such a cheap manner. Unfortunately Jia Hyson at the time had the sort of richness that allowed him to buy apartments
In fairness the man did a pretty good job. He had most of the things required to find a person- connections, money and just enough crazy to be borderline dangerous when stimulated hard enough. And after giving his heart to Jia Hyson only to have it so casually tossed away, he indeed went a little mental.
Unfortunately for him at the time Jia Hyson was almost around the peak period of his career and was not only stupid rich but extremely well connected as well. The man was always a step behind and Jia Hyson took great pleasure in purposely dragging him here and there like a sadistic puppet master.
Still, the man finally got too close for comfort and Jia Hyson was self aware enough that he knew he probably couldn't handle the guy after provoking him like this for so long. In the end, Jia Hyson gave him one final clue- the address to one of his apartments and a promise to meet him there to talk.
When the man finally arrived, half expecting his infuriating lover to have been moved by his persistence and half planning to shove him into a little black room, he only saw an apartment being burnt to the ground.
Man: …motherfuck.
The worst part was probably that the apartment was under a different alias and the man who finally gave up still never even got Jia Hyson's real name.
Jia Hyson, mainly due to this sort of sick hobby, did not like to put his face on the books he wrote and chose to take the 'mysterious handsome writer route' so his face would always be partially covered or only the back of his head would be used in interviews. It was a very good selling point honestly, and in the dog blooded world he lived in, it was also a pretty acceptable concept. So unless you were a dedicated fan or someone in the literary and entertainment circle you wouldn't really be too familiar with his face.
It also helped that while he was certainly handsome, he was only above average, neither owning particularly striking features other than his slanted eyes or an inhuman handsomeness to the point one would fall in love and never forget his appearance at first sight.
However contingencies and such aside, it was still pretty impossible not to be recognised. Because he feared for his reputation, Jia Hyson did his best to minimise the number of affairs attached to himself so not only had a tendency not only to lie about his name, age and identity but would occasionally alter his appearance and temperament. It was pretty fun to do so either way anyway. Since it was only short term lovers, it wasn't too hard to fake it until he got bored. Luckily for him, he had changed his appearance while dating this ex or he may have had to resorting to murder again ah.
Bebe: …
Jia Hyson: 'Anything you want to say Bebe?'
Bebe: 'Well. Most people don't jump to murder when their lies get pierced but whatever ah. Bebe is used to it.'
Jia Hyson: ...Oh no. Am I, am I getting stale? （・―・）
Of course while this all was very scummy, other than that the ex boyfriends and girlfriends couldn't exactly call the police about it either. After all, Jia Hyson showered them with money and affection. He didn't steal money or their valuables, didn't sell any intimate photos he took or blackmail them, nor was he a marriage scammer. Just a lying scum slag man.
And now this lying scum slag man was pouring out a bunch of misery to Tang Muxin. Those white lotus acting classes weren't for naught ah. At the very least his ability to sell pity was much better than before.
Tang Muxin who was cold on the outside, warm on the inside, felt instinctively there was something wrong with Jia Hyson's sob story but was inevitably moved anyway. 'I understand,' Even the voice in her head was much softer and full of something suspiciously like maternal love, 'I'll see if I can broach the topic with her once we determine her attitude in this world okay?'
Jia Hyson fakes a sniffle, 'Okay. Thank you wuwuwu. You truly are my best friend and I'm so glad you were the one who transmigrated with me.'
Tang Muxin became even more touched, 'I feel the same way.' She replies emotionally. 'If it wasn't for you I think I really would have had a different journey, and I'm so happy that's not the case.'
Jia Hyson: 'I couldn't agree more.'
Heh. It was almost too easy ah.
Bebe, who was watching: ...No, wait, what happened to your super spy intuition? Σ(T□T) Don't just let the super slag win!