In the dorm, I counted through the clothes Wang Lei had given me again.

One Rem cosplay outfit had already been washed and was hanging on the balcony. There was also a Tokisaki Kurumi school uniform, a “Lolita Dream Amusement Park” dress, and a “Little Bear Lace-Up Hoodie.” Four outfits in total.

Most of my old clothes had been bought by Grandma. Compared to these new ones, they were kind of plain. I barely had any skirts, too. So I’d moved the old clothes I didn’t wear much into another box or left them at the rental place. Then I put things like the little dresses I bought around my high school graduation together with the clothes Wang Lei gave me.

The Rem cosplay outfit went without saying. I really couldn’t figure out when anyone would wear that, other than if the boss specifically asked for it, or if you were working as a waitress or shop assistant. The Tokisaki Kurumi school uniform, though, fit current mainstream girls’ fashion a lot better. It was basically a black academy-style top with a red ribbon tie, plus a blue short skirt. Paired with black tights and uniform shoes, you could wear it out in pretty much any season. As for the “Lolita Dream Amusement Park” dress, that one was extremely gorgeous. It was the puffy-skirt kind, mainly blue and white, with long sleeves and a huge skirt. It took up the most space in the box. Just from one look, I could already tell it would be a pain to wash.

Maybe... maybe one day in the future, after I learned how to be narcissistic and love dressing up, I’d wear that kind of gorgeous long dress out for fun. But for now, I had no plans to wear something like that anytime soon.

Last was the “Little Bear Lace-Up Hoodie.” It was the only outfit Wang Lei gave me that didn’t come with a skirt.

It came with shorts.

The kind that only reached about one-third down the thigh. Just a tiny bit longer than hot pants.

If I wore them, my whole pair of pale legs would probably be out.

The outfit as a whole was light brown. The hoodie had long sleeves, perfect for autumn. There was a little bear printed on the chest, and two dark plush pom-poms hung from either side of the hood near the neck. Paired with those childlike shorts, it looked incredibly cute.

If the Tokisaki Kurumi school uniform suited a mature beauty type, then this little bear hoodie was made for a little girl type.

I walked to the balcony, glanced at the sun outside, then took out my phone and checked the temperature.

Twenty-four to twenty-seven degrees. Sunny for three days straight. Nice and cool weather.

Since it wasn’t too hot, maybe I should try wearing this little bear hoodie out?

Today’s task was to go to Wang Lei’s company and deliver his gift. Logically, this was exactly the kind of time I should wear one of the outfits he’d given me, just to show that I appreciated his “taste.”

Otherwise, if Wang Lei suddenly asked, “So how were the clothes I gave you before? I haven’t seen you wear them. Didn’t they fit?” I’d have a hard time answering.

Back in the dorm, I shut the door and went into the bathroom to change.

Besides the clothes themselves, all four outfits Wang Lei gave me also came with matching socks and shoes. For example, the Rem set came with white thigh-high stockings and maid shoes. The Tokisaki Kurumi uniform came with black tights and uniform shoes. The Lolita dress came with nude tights and blue crystal-colored round-toe chunky heels.

The little bear hoodie outfit came with white lace socks and a pair of “Meruru Sweet House Party Flat Round-Toe Shoes.”

Honestly, I kind of admired Uncle Wang Lei for being able to remember so many proper terms. Girls’ clothes were seriously way too complicated, and the names were ridiculously fussy. Still, I had to learn them. In a way, women’s fashion was like cars or computer models for boys. Knowing more was at least somewhat useful socially.

These kinds of flats were a lot more troublesome to put on than ordinary shoes. They looked extremely cute. There was even a little bow on the toe. Across the middle was a leather strap fastened with a metal ring, and around the ankle there was a similar circular buckle strap, used to “secure” the whole foot in place.

Out of all women’s shoes, I felt like this kind was probably the most secure. No matter how much you ran or jumped, they wouldn’t fall off.

And because they were flats, they didn’t make that click-clack sound against the floor the way those JK uniform shoes did.

After changing in the bathroom, I pushed the door open and went to the mirror outside.

One thing worth mentioning was that while getting dressed, the tiny zipper on the front of those ultra-short shorts that came with the little bear hoodie made me feel slightly offended.

Damn it... every time this happened, I got insanely jealous of boys. They didn’t even need to take their pants all the way off to use the bathroom. Just unzip, stand there, pee, then shake it off and swagger away. Girls had to pull their pants all the way down, then use several sheets of toilet paper to wipe afterward, and then put everything back on...

In the mirror above the sink by the bathroom door, the girl in the cute hoodie looked puffed up with annoyance.

Well, whatever. You win some, you lose some.

Facing the mirror, I picked up the comb nearby and tied my hair into twin tails. Then I put on some simple makeup.

“Meow?”

At the end, looking at my cute self in the mirror, I had no idea whether my brain had short-circuited or I was just feeling playful. I raised my little fists beside my face and did a tiny cute pose.

“Pfft...”

Then even I couldn’t help laughing.

Bi Xinxue, are you an idiot?!

After putting everything away and returning to my desk, I picked up my phone and was just about to head out when QQ suddenly popped up with a friend request:

Friend request from user “Mao Nanbei Customer Service Xiaoyuan”: Hello, may I ask if you accept commercial collaborations?

“Commercial collaboration?”

Curious, I looked at the obviously custom-made profile picture on the screen and opened the other party’s profile.

Corporate QQ. Verified company: “Mao Nanbei Clothing Co., Ltd.”

After hesitating for a moment, I accepted the request.

“Hello.”

“We recently learned about you through some QQ groups. May I ask if you are student Ji Xiaoxue?”

The moment I accepted, they sent a message.

The way you used the word “student” there was a little... subtle.

“Yes.”

I replied quickly: “What is it?”

“It’s like this. I’m Xiaoyuan from Mao Nanbei customer service. Our clothing brand recently opened a Taobao store, and we’ve just listed several pairs of socks. We need a model. Would you be interested in working with us?”

A model? A sock model? A leg model?

Ji Xiaoxue: What exactly would the collaboration involve?

Mao Nanbei Customer Service Xiaoyuan: If you accept, we’ll mail product samples to you. Then you’ll wear them and shoot short videos and related photos from different angles according to our requirements, then send them back. We’ll use those videos and photos for product promotion and the item detail pages. After it’s done, we’ll pay you accordingly.

Mao Nanbei Customer Service Xiaoyuan: Do you have any electronic device that can take high-definition photos?

Ji Xiaoxue: Is a phone okay?

Mao Nanbei Customer Service Xiaoyuan: The same phone you’re currently using to log into QQ? That’s fine.

Ji Xiaoxue: What exactly is the payment?

Mao Nanbei Customer Service Xiaoyuan: One-time payment. A short video plus around ten photos, 300 yuan total. Would that work for you?

300 yuan?

Just wear a pair of socks once, shoot a video, send a few pictures, and earn 300? Seriously?

“Could you wait a little while for me?”

“Of course.”

I sat down at my desk and took out the laptop Mom had bought for me after school started. Then I pressed the power button.

I’d already checked this laptop before. Online, it sold for 2,180 yuan. The processor was an Intel Core i3-3217U, the graphics card was a GT720M, and it had a 120G SSD plus a 500G hard drive. It was a pretty low-end computer. Watching anime on it was fine, but it basically couldn’t handle big games.

Back when Mom bought it for me, her idea had been, “It’ll make it easier for Xiaoxue to do homework after class.”

Forget big games. As a software technology student, if “I” really wanted to use this thing for homework, stuff like Java, JavaScript, C++, Photoshop, and virtual machines would all be too much for an i3 processor like this.

Though to be fair, I didn’t plan to use this laptop for software development anyway.

Once it finished booting, I closed the three glaring speed-up orb widgets on the right side of the screen, shut down XX Security Guard, XX Manager, XX Antivirus in the lower right corner, turned off Battery Saver Master, Power Saving Expert, and the rest of that bundled software family. Then I downloaded a browser and searched online for this “Mao Nanbei Clothing Co., Ltd.”

It actually existed...

After checking the few reviews on their online store, I found their official website through a search engine.

Then I pressed F12, opened the developer tools, and looked through the site’s code.

What I focused on were comments like .

If you want to know what kind of company someone is, sometimes, besides what you can find online, the comments in their official website code can tell you quite a lot too.

In web design languages, anything after “!--” won’t be displayed on the page. It’s purely notes from the coder, or a place for them to vent.

For example, in my previous life, I’d seen some small company websites with backend comments like , , and .

Very soon, I found some comments in the backend of the Mao Nanbei site—

This programmer really was...

Still, at the very least, it proved the company was probably fine. Nothing looked seriously wrong. Their programmers and designers probably still had their hair.

“There’s no problem with the collaboration on my side.”

After doing a rough check on the company, I sent a message to “Mao Nanbei” on my phone: “But I’d like to change the cooperation model a little.”

The customer service rep on their side went quiet for a moment. “What kind of cooperation model?”

“I’d like the payment to be tied to product sales. I checked your Taobao store. One of your blue-and-white striped socks is priced at 19.8 yuan, and its sales count this month is 20. That means monthly sales are about 400 yuan. So I want 5% of sales, which would be 20 yuan, for a period of 12 months. Is that okay?”

“Also, if you need a model for clothes, shoes, or socks in the future, I can help with that too.”

While the other side was hesitating, I added, “For all of them, I’d take 5% of the product’s annual sales as payment. What do you think?”

“I need to ask my boss about this. I can’t make that decision myself. Could you wait a few minutes?”

“Okay.”

“...”

A few minutes later, Mao Nanbei customer service sent me another message: “It’s like this, student Ji Xiaoxue. Our boss is still hesitating. She hopes you can send a few current everyday photos and videos so she can make a judgment. Preferably photos and videos with beauty filters turned off.”

“Okay.”

I picked up my phone and pointed the camera at myself.

“This is Ji Xiaoxue.”

I flashed a few peace signs at the camera, then casually took a few photos and sent them to the customer service rep.

“No problem now.”

Not long after, the rep replied:

“After viewing your video and photos, our boss has agreed to your request. We’ll proceed as you proposed, with 5% of annual sales as your modeling fee.”

“Our warehouse staff has already gone to ship the samples. Could you tell us your delivery address and phone number?”

“Guiyuan Province, Vanilla City, Central District, Vanilla Vocational College, Ji Xiaoxue...”

I typed in the school address and my phone number in the message box.

“Got it. Then the three new pairs of socks will be delivered to this address tomorrow afternoon. Pleasure doing business with you!”

“Pleasure doing business with you.”