Easy Win

Shi Clan Mansion.

Han Liqi sat beside a table, beside the Shi clan head, Shi Caiqing.

"So... do we have an agreement?"

Shi Caiqing stroked his scruffy beard. He grabbed Han Liqi's hand and shook it.

"You have a persuasive way of talking. How could I say no?" He laughed heartily.

Han Liqi let out a sigh of relief. He didn't expect the Shi clan head to give in so easily. His naughty son didn't really show any promising future aspects, but the clan head still agreed on bethrothing his daughter.

Of course, that may very well be because of the benefits that he had posed as a merchant cooperating with a noble family.

'Finally. I can rest easy knowing that naughty son of mine will be safe in the future.'

"When do we announce it?"

Han Liqi turned serious once more. The announcement of an engagement, especially one between a merchant family and a noble family was a serious matter. It would be easy to mess up and attract the ire of the other noble families.

Shi Caiqing just shook his head, his smile exuding confidence. "Do not worry about this matter. I will handle it."

"Well, I will leave it to you then."

After settling the formalities, Han Liqi grabbed his hat and left the mansion.

.....

Han Ganxing laid in bed, staring at the shop interface.

"...If the cultivation manual is this cheap, wouldn't it be a waste if I grabbed that as my freebie?

Besides, since I can cultivate now, no matter how heartless father is, he will surely give me a cultivation manual."

In the end, he decided on putting the freebie in the back burner for now. There were more pressing matters at hand.

'I acted awkward in front of Shi Wenyang earlier, so surely, she's suspicious of me now, right?'

While contemplating how to solve this problem, 5 days had passed.

In this time, Han Liqi had still not arrived yet. Meanwhile, Shi Wenyang, for some reason, was still camping out in the Han mansion.

The awkwardness that the two shared that one morning was swept under the rug.

The affection bar naturally increased to 75% within the day, and until now, it kept rising as it reached a staggering 99%. In this sense, he didn't have to do anything with her affection constantly rising without reason. Her affection would probably max out within the day. By then, Han Ganxing would reap whatever rewards the system would give him.

But that didn't answer the question, why did Shi Wenyang's affection start to drastically rise all of a sudden? He guessed that the 70% that the system first showed was what built up during the last 8 years that they've been friends. For that reason, it was incomprehensible for these measly 5 days to generate 29%.

'Well, I'll take what I can get.'

After Shi Wenyang beat his ass up, ahem, sparred with him, she looked at Han Ganxing strangely.

'Is that... the gaze of love?

With close to a hundred percent affection, she must be madly in love with me now. I don't know how she could restrain herself with such a high percentage.'

A smile crept up his lips. Looking at her, he wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

Affection: 98%

97%...

He stopped the eyebrow movement and put on an indifferent look.

Low-profile, I must be low-profile...

.....

At night.

Han Ganxing was lying on his bed, eagerly watching Shi Wenyang's affection bar fill up.

99%. [|||||||||||||||.]

'Come on... Come on, only a little bit left! You can do this! I believe in you!'

100%. [||||||||||||||||]

'Yes! Finally! Heart = captured!'

While Han Ganxing cheered himself, the blue bar suddenly started draining all of its content...

'Wait. What...'

100%. 50%. 25%. 10%. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

As it approached the verge of emptiness, the blue color turned into a bright shade of pink and stopped decreasing.

.....

In the guest room.

Shi Wenyang buried her face in a pillow.

"Ganxing acted kinda weird earlier. His eyebrows...

Was he trying to signal me something? Or was he... seducing me? Ai, that wasn't alluring at all.

But, he was kinda cute doing it..."

Shi Wenyang, noticing something weird, slapped her face on both cheeks.

"What am I doing, entertaining the thought! We're friends, right, friends. Er, but since we've shared the bed, he's become conscious of me. In turn, I've become conscious of him being conscious of me, making me conscious of him..."

As her thoughts went in a circle, she didn't realize that she had acknowledged him as a potential love interest.

.....

"Congratulations on taking the first step to capturing a heart: exiting the friendzone!"

"Missions tab has been unlocked."

While the system celebrated his exit of the friendzone, Han Ganxing stared at the interface blankly, not knowing what to think.

'It was too good to be true...'