The next morning, at dawn.

After spending an entire day cleaning the rundown house, Luo Yu was mentally and physically exhausted. She lounged lazily on the sofa, limbs spread out.

“I should at least take a bath first.”

She let out a cold snort, glanced back at Plum—who was still lying on the bed unconscious after accidentally swallowing the canned candy—and pulled a shirt and short skirt from her travel backpack, hiding them in her arms.

She walked into the bathroom, stripped naked, found the rusty shower head, and snapped it onto the pipe with a little clack.

She patted her chest lightly with both hands, making sure the shower was turned on, then stood in place and admired her own body in the big flower-framed mirror.

“Hehe… I really am gorgeous.”

Luo Yu started on her daily routine reward.

System: activated.

Above her head, the shower head finally let out a sputter as time crawled by, and at last, water came out with a soft puff.

Ice-cold water crashed down on the girl’s tender skin, seeping into her bones and straight into her heart.

Like those helpless, tragic souls at the very bottom of the tide of the times, whose fates were doomed to grow colder and colder as time went on.

Colder and colder…

“Damn it, where’s the hot water?”

With an annoyed pop, Luo Yu yanked off the shower head. Her mood to mess around vanished in an instant as she stalked angrily out of the bathroom.

“Oh, Luo Yu, you were trying to bathe?” Plum had already woken up. Seeing Luo Yu standing there naked, hugging her chest and shivering in place, she quickly explained,

“The magi-tech water heater in our house broke ages ago. When I finish business with a client, I always go to the big bathhouse in town. The boss there’s an old customer of mine; he gives me lots of discounts.”

“Fine, whatever.” Luo Yu wiped the droplets off her body, resigned, and changed into her fresh clothes. “Sis Plum, you really work hard. You’ve got connections everywhere.”

“Of course.” Plum sat up on the bed and casually brushed her bangs aside. “Even as a Lower Demon, you’ve gotta have big dreams. My dream is that one day the entire city—no, the whole world—will be my customers. I’ll rake in a huge fortune, then marry a man who truly loves me.”

“Ah…” Luo Yu suddenly pictured the entire city catching something from her and couldn’t help the little twitch at the corner of her mouth. She felt a bit scared.

“So, Luo Yu, don’t you have a dream?”

“Of course I do.” Luo Yu folded her arms confidently. “One day, I’m definitely going to become the Demon King.”

“That’s way too unrealistic.” Plum sighed in regret. “If I had your face and your body, I’d just go sleep my way into the Demon King’s Army and become one of his consorts. That’s how you reach the peak of life…”

“Your idea is even more unrealistic, okay!”

“Lying down and making money is the best, alright? Luo Yu, you’ve never been taught, so you don’t get it… And you wouldn’t even have to worry about food and clothes. You’d eat like a queen every day…”

After they chatted for a bit, Luo Yu’s stomach let out a few cute gurgles. Looked like she was hungry.

She lowered her head and instinctively reached into her backpack for some dry rations. But the moment she pulled out that pink dough ball, Plum slapped it right out of her hand.

“At your age, you can’t just be eating junk with no nutrition.” Plum frowned, righteous and stern. “What did I always tell you before? A woman needs to treat herself better…”

Luo Yu said, “You never even fed me before. You told me to fend for myself and beg for food when I was eight. And you’ve got the nerve to lecture me…”

“Stop, stop.” Plum cut her off in time, avoiding stirring up bad memories on the other side.

She got off the bed, slipped an apron over her naked body, and muttered with conviction, “The past is the past. Now is now.”

“Little Luo Yu.” Plum spun around handsomely and dove into the kitchen. “Today your Sis Plum is gonna cook you a proper meal, wash away all that childhood trauma I caused you, and show you what a kind, pure, simple, loving person I really am.”

“…” Luo Yu said dryly, “You’re not planning to put something dirty in my food again, are you?”

“How’d you know?” Plum blinked, then instinctively clapped a hand over her mouth. “Crap, I almost let it slip. That was close.”

“You already let it slip!”

“It’s fine.”

Plum planted one hand on her slender waist and confidently waggled her index finger in front of Luo Yu’s face. “You still don’t get how amazing my cooking is, do you? Even a Demonic God would get hopelessly hooked after a couple bites of my dishes.”

Luo Yu’s memories stirred. “I remember you’ve never actually cooked anything yourself. Wasn’t there that one time you tried to celebrate your own birthday and almost blew up the kitchen?”

“Times have changed. My sense and judgment for flavor are now at a point where I can do it with my eyes closed. Anyway, you’re a little Luo Yu who’s barely eaten meat her entire life. You think you can resist this kind of temptation?”

“Today I’m gonna charm you senseless, then tie you up real pretty like a piece of art, package you, and ship you straight to the Champion for a reward. Hohohohoho, hahaha…”

Laughing wildly, Plum strode into the kitchen, pulled a cookbook out of the cupboard, and started “researching.”

“Don’t blow up the kitchen again.”

“Relax, I’ll have you swooning in no time.”

“…,” Luo Yu glanced at Plum’s confidence, which was somehow even greater than her own, then pulled back her anxious gaze. She bent down, lay on the floor, and picked up the dry pink dough ball that had fallen.

She gently blew the dust off the dough ball, popped it into her mouth, chewed it twice with a couple sticky smacks, and swallowed it down.

“Tastes awful.”

With her stomach at least barely padded, Luo Yu gave her butt a quick pat as she got up from the sofa, brushing off nonexistent dust. Then, very quietly and without a sound, she made her way toward the kitchen where Plum was.

The kitchen was a war zone. The big stove was crammed full with firewood, burning so hot the iron pot on top was glowing red.

Oil in the pot was crackling and snapping wildly, splattering everywhere. Plum was so terrified she hid in the nearby cupboard, squatting with her hands over her head, not daring to make a sound.

Luo Yu: “…”

“Luo Yu, Luo Yu, save me… This pot’s gonna eat me…” Plum spotted Luo Yu and immediately grabbed at her skirt, nearly yanking it clean off in one go.

Luo Yu slapped away her callused hands and hitched her skirt back up. “Miss Plum, weren’t you the one who said you already knew how to cook?”

“This is not the time to be talking about cooking or not cooking!” Plum was so anxious she was about to cry. “Hurry and get that man-eating monster away from there. If the hot oil splashes my face, I’ll be ruined…”

Silently, Luo Yu turned around, lifted the pot off the stove, and moved it aside to cool. “If you can’t do it, then don’t force it. I’ll cook.”

“Oh… o-okay.”

Plum dazedly crawled out of the cupboard and watched as Luo Yu dug out two heads of cabbage that had been sitting there for a month and were on the verge of wilting. Luo Yu weighed them in her hands.

She rinsed them clean, then took a kitchen knife and skillfully chopped the cabbage into fine pieces. She tossed them into the pot and let them simmer for seven or eight minutes, then started seasoning with coarse salt.

“Wait, add this.” Plum pulled a candy out from her cleavage and held it out to Luo Yu. “Really, thanks for cooking, Luo Yu. But I still need you to put this candy in. When this pot of cabbage soup is done, I’m going to…”

Luo Yu: “…”