Chen Qi hailed a rideshare and didn't bother going back to his cramped rental. Instead, he headed straight to the Hilton Hotel nearby — the Hiltondo, the nicest one in Donghai.
The front desk receptionist was pretty, but her Charm Rating fell short of ninety, and her relationship count was well into the double digits. Not his target demographic.
"Do you have a presidential suite available?"
"Yes, sir. We have options at fifty thousand, eighty thousand, and one hundred thousand per night."
Always heard about presidential suites on TV. Tonight I'm living it.
"The hundred-thousand-a-night one. Book it for three nights."
The receptionist immediately picked up the phone. Minutes later, a middle-aged man in a sharp suit appeared at the front desk.
"Good evening, Mr. Chen. I'm your dedicated butler — you may call me Manager Li. For the duration of your stay, any needs at all, please come directly to me."
Manager Li escorted Chen Qi up to the twenty-eighth floor.
The suite sprawled across roughly four hundred square meters. You could ride a bike in it. Maybe play basketball.
"Holy—" Chen Qi exhaled. "This is how rich people live."
He had plans. With over twenty-eight million in the bank, he figured he'd spend the next few days looking at real estate. The nicest villas in Donghai were still out of reach at that price point, but the best mid-rise complex in the city had 200-square-meter units for around eight million. Good enough for now.
The presidential suite was glorious, but burning thirty grand a night wasn't a long-term strategy. He needed to keep the Goddesses engaged — keep the FL Coins flowing, build up his war chest.
From the moment the System had activated the night before, Chen Qi had been running on pure adrenaline. Now, after a long shower, he finally crashed. He lay on the king-sized bed, staring at the balance on his phone — twenty-eight million and change — silently counting the zeros until his eyes closed.
He slept until ten o'clock the next morning, dreamless and deep.
Well, not entirely dreamless. He'd dreamed he'd awakened a system and was living off beautiful women.
He grabbed his phone in a panic. The zeros were still there. He exhaled.
"Rise and shine, Freeloader."
"Rise and shine?" the System shot back. "You lazy piece of work — you slept away four prime hours you could've used finding new Goddesses. Keep this up and you'll starve."
"Noted, duly noted."
Chen Qi scrolled TikTok, working through the dance and beauty livestream categories. Dozens of accounts. Most of the streamers hovered around 80 Charm Rating; anything above 85 was rare.
"This one's gorgeous. How is she only a 73?"
"Makeup, filters, and technology. Without the editing, you'd run."
"Incredible. Your eye is truly unmatched, System."
There were plenty of 90+ women on TikTok — he found maybe a dozen after an hour of scrolling — but every single one had a relationship count in the high single digits or worse. The lowest was six. The highest was thirty-something.
Then a WeChat notification popped up. Xu Lu.
What time are we going shopping?
Chen Qi thought it over. Better not get ahead of myself. Keep this connection steady.
He typed back: How about 2 p.m.? Come find me at the Hilton.
He knew how long women took to get ready. His ex, Li Ting, was a minimum two-hour operation — makeup, outfit coordination, the whole ritual.
In her apartment, Xu Lu sat at her vanity in a spaghetti-strap pajama top, phone in hand. Her expression went cold.
Typical rich boy. They're all the same.
[ SYSTEM ] ────────────────────────────── ⚠ Affection change detected Xu Lu : -5 pts → Current: 10 ─────────────────────────────────────────
"Wait, what?" Chen Qi stared at the notification. "Why did that drop? She must've misread it."
Lower Affection meant lower odds of a Goddess spending on him. This was a partnership — she had to be happy. He fired off a follow-up message immediately:
Staying at the hotel for a couple days. Just come to the entrance and I'll meet you there.
Four hours until two o'clock. Xu Lu opened her full makeup kit and got to work.
A guy like Chen Qi — handsome, wealthy, charming — easily scored ninety points in her internal ranking. If she could land a man like that, she'd never have to stand behind a retail counter again.
Meanwhile, in the presidential suite, Chen Qi ate lunch prepared by the hotel's private chef.
Simple by design: one fish, one bowl of rice. But the fish was a three-pound coral grouper — three thousand three hundred yuan — steamed clean to preserve every note of its natural sweetness. The flavor was almost absurdly good. He ate the whole thing.
At two o'clock, Chen Qi sat in the hotel lobby wearing his full LV ensemble from yesterday.
Several women glanced at him as they passed through. He kept himself busy, quietly asking the System to score each one.
"Why are there so few good-looking people in real life when the internet is full of them?"
Technically, a Charm Rating of 80-something meant strikingly above average — but the System's bar was set high.
Freeloader only eats quality.
A rideshare pulled up outside. Xu Lu stepped out wearing a white floral sundress — the kind that looks effortless but takes hours to pull together. Poised, elegant, every bit the department store floor manager she wasn't today.
Heads turned on the street.
Chen Qi was on his feet before he realized it, waving to her from the entrance.
"That outfit — you look incredible."
He meant it without thinking.
Xu Lu was used to compliments. She'd heard them from clients, colleagues, strangers. But she smiled anyway.
"Still look like Han Hyo-joo?"
She'd actually gone home last night and looked the actress up after Chen Qi mentioned the resemblance. This morning, she'd styled herself with that reference in mind.
"Not like her," Chen Qi said. "Better."
"You really have a way with words."
"Where are we going?" she asked as they settled into the hotel's on-call car — a private vehicle with a full-time driver.
"You'll find out when we get there."
[ SYSTEM ] ────────────────────────────── 〖 Xu Lu: "A mystery? Fine. But if this is some outdoor thing in this heat, dressed like this, I swear to god... 〗 ─────────────────────────────────────────
Twenty minutes later, Xu Lu had her answer.
"A Ferrari dealership?" She turned to him. "You're buying a car?"
"Yeah. I don't know much about cars, though." He glanced over. "You've got great taste — help me pick one?"
[ SYSTEM ] ────────────────────────────── 〖 Xu Lu: "Ferraris start at over two million. Is this real, or is he just here to look impressive and leave...〗 ─────────────────────────────────────────
She'd read about this type — fake rich boys who haunted luxury spaces for the 'gram, sometimes hiring actors to play along. It was practically a genre of viral news story.
Chen Qi caught the thought and suppressed a smile. Two million? I'll take it off the shelf.
They stepped inside.
A sales associate moved to greet them immediately.
[ SYSTEM ] ────────────────────────────── Name : Zhang Li Age : 25 Height : 166 cm Charm : 88 / 100 Occupation : Auto Sales Relationships : 18 Affection : 20 ─────────────────────────────────────────
"Eighteen relationships and she already has 20 Affection points for me?"
[ SYSTEM ] ────────────────────────────── 〖 Zhang Li: "He's gorgeous. Full LV, must be ten-something thousand just in clothes. And the girl with him is stunning too. Why can't I meet guys like this...〗 ─────────────────────────────────────────
"Do you have an appointment?" Zhang Li asked, smile polished and warm.
Walk-in shoppers typically didn't close deals, but you never turned anyone away.
"No appointment. Just browsing."
"Then allow me to show you around."
The Ferrari lineup wasn't as common on Donghai streets as Porsches — the entry price kept the numbers down. But God, they were beautiful. Chen Qi had spent years admiring these cars on automotive websites. Now they were three feet in front of him.
Zhang Li clocked his interest immediately.
"This is the Ferrari Roma," she said, stepping alongside it. "It's fitted with a 3.9-liter twin-turbocharged V8, producing 620 horsepower. Wheelbase is 2,670mm — length 4,656, width 1,974, height 1,301. Seats four, though the rear is more symbolic than practical."
"Can we sit inside?"
"Of course."
Chen Qi gestured for Xu Lu to join him. They folded themselves into the low cabin — tight for a six-footer, but that was the trade-off. He hadn't come here for legroom.
Every man had a sports car dream. He finally had the money to buy his way into one.
The Roma's white paint glowed under the showroom lights. Xu Lu sat beside him, dress pooling against the leather seat. Outside, Zhang Li waited with a practiced smile.
Chen Qi glanced at the steering wheel, then at Xu Lu.
Two million, he thought. Not bad for a Sunday.
— End of Chapter 4 —