Chapter 80: A Gift from an Online Friend
In the office, Ye Ziming spent some time finishing up the work he didn’t complete over the weekend. Now done, he sat bored in his chair, playing with his phone.
Since Lin Muqing wasn’t around today, time seemed to pass more slowly, and it felt a bit dull.
He glanced at his phone again. Earlier, when chatting with Sister Yu, she said she’d let him know after finishing the lesson.
But then... nothing. Up until now, there hadn’t been any updates.
His eyes shifted and landed on a pink envelope. Suddenly, he realized he wasn’t completely out of things to do.
Taking the chance, he turned his phone screen back on and started typing a message to someone.
Meanwhile, in the café's break room...
"Good job. Go eat."
Sister Yu smiled as she gently patted Lin Muqing’s head. Clearly, she was in a good mood and very pleased with Lin Muqing’s performance.
Compared to her own first time learning this stuff, Lin Muqing was doing great, truly impressive.
One thing was clear: the moment money was mentioned, Lin Muqing would get super serious. Her learning speed would shoot up like crazy.
“Ah~ okay.”
After finishing the day’s lesson, Lin Muqing lay sprawled across the table like she had been completely drained, looking totally worn out.
Hearing the signal for "class dismissed," she slowly lifted her head in confusion, glanced at Sister Yu, opened her mouth as if to say something, then finally realized...
Class dismissed ≈ Time to eat
So she took a deep breath, slapped her hands on the table, and jumped to her feet. Just like that, her energy returned!
She grabbed her lunchbox, spun around, and headed to the kitchen. Tonight, she felt she could eat a whole big bowl of rice!
[Sister Yu: Just finished the lesson.]
Watching Lin Muqing leave, Sister Yu covered her mouth with a smile, pulled out her phone with her other hand, and sent a message to the café manager.
“Everyone, I’ll be counting on you from now on to help teach Muqing makeup.”
After sending the message, she turned around and smiled at the other maids resting in the break room.
“No worries, Sister!”
“Even if you didn’t ask, we’d still help teach her!”
“Totally! Muqing is so cute, I’d be super happy to teach her.”
“……”
The maids in the break room chatted happily. Everyone was very willing to help teach Lin Muqing makeup.
Since they still had to work and the material was just the basics, the maids took turns helping her recognize and memorize the items.
Once Lin Muqing had a solid foundation, that’s when Sister Yu would step in to teach her the real skills.
After finishing her meal and packing her things, Lin Muqing changed back into her regular clothes and got ready to go home with her good friend.
“How was it?”
Before getting into the car, Ye Ziming looked at her with concern and asked gently.
He didn’t know much about makeup, just had a general idea but no real experience.
“Uhh… it was okay, I guess.”
Lin Muqing’s mouth twitched slightly. She avoided his gaze, looking off to the side. Her heart felt bitter, but she didn’t say anything.
It hadn’t been easy at all, but when she thought about how expensive all that makeup was, and about her own salary situation, she knew she couldn’t complain.
Money! It had already been spent, so even if things got tough, she would grit her teeth and push through. She had to figure this stuff out no matter what.
Then she’d make big money with it!
“If you feel tired, you can tell me—”
“No no no! I’m not tired at all. I’m super awesome, okay?”
Before Ye Ziming could even finish his sentence, Lin Muqing quickly cut him off and gave him a smile, one that was clearly forced.
What kind of joke was that? How could she give up now? That was a lot of cash she’d already spent!
“…Alright then.”
Ye Ziming felt a bit awkward. He knew she had never learned this kind of thing before, she didn’t know anything about it. At least he knew a little bit.
Sister Yu had mentioned it to him. She also specifically said that Lin Muqing was smart and took learning seriously, so he could trust her with this.
Originally, when he saw her reaction, he wanted to tell her not to rush. She could take her time, there was no need to hurry.
But when he saw how fired up she was, even forcing a smile, he figured it was best to just relax.
He could leave it all to Sister Yu. She was the professional after all.
The car started slowly. Uncle Liu drove smoothly, and they arrived safely at the entrance of her apartment complex.
“See you tomorrow, boss!”
She waved goodbye to her good buddy, opened the door, and got out.
This time, she didn’t go upstairs right away. Instead, she went to the delivery pickup spot to get her package before heading home.
She had already received a delivery notification in the afternoon, along with a message from her online friend saying that the gift had arrived.
Smartphones nowadays were super convenient. After sending a package, you could track everything in real time. Lin Muqing thought that was pretty high-tech.
[Mumu-chan: Got the package! What kind of treasure did you send me~?]
After picking it up, Lin Muqing opened QQ and sent her online friend a message.
[Old Iron: Open it and you’ll see.]
The reply didn’t come right away. It showed up after a while, once Lin Muqing was already home.
[MuMu-chan: Hehe~ kiss.jpg]
Sitting on the sofa, she replied to the message and then grabbed a pair of scissors to open her package.
The box wasn’t too big. Inside were two items: one square box, and another sealed bag that looked like it held clothes.
“A figure! And a cosplay outfit?!”
She exclaimed to herself after opening the package.
Both were related to Eromanga Sensei.
The figure was pretty normal, Eromanga sensei lying on a cushion, hugging a pillow. Very cute. She liked it a lot.
But the cosplay outfit… was hard to describe.
In the anime, the male lead goes to the beach to take some photos, and when he comes back, Eromanga sensei puts on a swimsuit and shows it off to him.
Yup, that exact outfit. If it hadn’t come with the matching jacket, Lin Muqing might not have even recognized it.
“Is this some kind of devil trick?!”
At first, she didn’t think it was a big deal. Just another online friend pulling a prank.
What really shocked her was the size of the cosplay outfit. It was perfectly her size, as if it had been custom-made just for her.
You ask how she knew that?
That’s not important. So Lin Muqing refused to answer and didn’t want to deal with anyone asking about it.
(；｀ヘ´)
“Emmm…”
Coming out of the bathroom, Lin Muqing held the swimsuit in her hand. Her cheeks were flushed red, and she didn’t know what to do with it.
She didn’t want to throw it away, it actually looked really nice. And judging by the fabric, it probably wasn’t cheap either.
But if she kept it… it felt super embarrassing. A muscle-bound “man” having something like this in their house? That couldn’t be normal, right?
But… if no one saw it…
Then maybe she could pretend this never happened.
With a red face, Lin Muqing convinced herself of that.