Xi Linghe was pleasantly surprised when she first saw herself becoming slim and beautiful. Tianmiao told her that this was her appearance after she slimmed down. Xi Linghe looked in the mirror for a long time, thrilled.
But after calming down, she made a decision. She wanted to exercise, lose weight, take care of her skin, and truly own this beauty.
Dong Xiao was slightly stunned upon hearing her decision; human thoughts and persistence were sometimes beyond his imagination.
Tianmiao was not surprised at all, seemingly having anticipated Xi Linghe’s determination long ago. She smiled and agreed to Xi Linghe’s request. During the day, Xi Linghe would appear as she did after successfully losing weight, and at night, she would return to her original form. Once she successfully lost weight completely and could match her daytime appearance, the spell would lose its effect. Tianmiao then had Dong Xiao devise a weight-loss and skincare plan for Xi Linghe, to be strictly followed daily.
"Borrowed things always have to be returned..." murmured Kong Hou, "That seems to be the case. Then this human is quite clever."
"Of course, she’s smart. Divine Moon High School only has a few special admission free spots every year, and she was specially admitted with the first rank," Dong Xiao responded, flipping through the Heavenly Mechanism Memo in his hand.
"Ah, wait, but didn’t I hear that it was the person with the hat who was first today?" Kong Hou asked.
"Dai Shiqi, not the person with the hat," Dong Xiao corrected helplessly.
"Oh, oh, don’t blame me, I’m coiled around the master’s wrist pretending to be a bracelet. How can you expect a bracelet to understand human words clearly?" Kong Hou argued.
"Your... dragon hearing, does it get affected by what form you’re in?" Dong Xiao rubbed his forehead, wondering if he could come up with a more sincere excuse.
"Before Xi Linghe was bullied, Dai Shiqi wasn’t the first," Tianmiao said as she picked up a cherry, gently placed it in her mouth, and savored its sweetness.
"So, was Xi Linghe being bullied related to Dai Shiqi?" Kong Hou blurted out.
"It was Wu Yihan and her group who bullied her," Dong Xiao said.
"But, is there any connection? Didn’t you say that human thoughts are the most complex, Dong Xiao? Could she have been fanning the flames, or secretly planning something?" Kong Hou asked with wide eyes.
"Why are you suddenly so smart today?" Dong Xiao was a bit surprised.
"Hmph, don’t underestimate dragons! Lao Bai taught me a lot," Kong Hou, unwilling to admit defeat, glared, "So, tell me, is there any connection or not?"
"You’ll have to observe for yourself in the future to see if there’s a connection," Dong Xiao said with a smile, "This way, you can become smarter, and when you do get smarter, you can return to Lao Bai and proudly tell him you’ve grown up."
"That’s right, that makes a lot of sense." Kong Hou immediately felt that Dong Xiao’s words made a lot of sense and decided not to pursue further, planning to observe more on their own.
...
After exercising, Xi Linghe took a shower but didn’t go to sleep right away. Instead, she took out her textbooks and started reviewing.
Studying, she would never slack off.
At around one o’clock in the morning, when Tianmiao went downstairs to the kitchen to get something from the fridge, she saw the light was still on in Xi Linghe’s room, and a faint smile appeared on her face.
A diligent and hardworking child like this had endured so much injustice.
It’s okay, such things will never happen again.
In the morning, when Tianmiao got up, she found that Xi Linghe had already risen and had prepared breakfast for both of them.