After two consecutive failed attempts to win Pei Shi’s favor, Bai Tao felt quite disheartened. Adding insult to injury, she received a rejection letter for her submitted time-travel comic. The reasons were always similar—

“The current comic market is oversaturated with time-travel themes. The mainstream popularity focuses on modern individuals traveling back to ancient times. Your manuscript, set entirely in a modern background, lacks novelty and conflict. The protagonist’s travel five years into the future is quite bland. After editorial review, we regret to inform you of the rejection. We encourage you to keep trying…”

Her crush on Pei Shi was not genuine, so those failures didn’t matter much. However, Bai Tao had poured her heart and soul into the time-travel comic. She meticulously crafted the script, carefully drew the storyboards, and patiently colored them. Fueled by passion, she completed ten episodes in one go, hoping for recognition from the publisher. Instead, she faced continuous rejection.

Today’s rejection letter at least offered a template-based encouragement. Some harsher editors had given her even sharper critiques—

“With such lackluster creativity and imagination, you should consider changing careers.”

“Mediocre and uninspiring. You’re not cut out for this.”

…

Feeling frustrated, Bai Tao stuffed the drafts into her drawer and was about to lie down when Yu Guo burst in, exclaiming—

“Bai Tao, hot news! Fresh gossip! Latest update on Pei Shi’s movements, live!”

Bai Tao perked up. Since her comic hadn’t paid off, she might as well focus on Pei Shi. If one door closes, another opens: “What about Pei Shi?”

Yu Guo grinned and held out her hand: “Intelligence fee!”

“How much?”

“Twenty!”

Bai Tao immediately sent Yu Guo a 200-yuan WeChat red packet: “How could information about our Pei Shi be worth just twenty! What a joke, two hundred, final price, no haggling.”

Yu Guo happily accepted the money and dutifully began sharing the scoop: “Pei Fei finished her performance in Los Angeles and came back! It seems it was quite successful, and she’s been bragging about it everywhere…”

“Get to the point.”

“The point is, she’s sitting in the cafeteria chatting with friends. I overheard her mention her brother, saying that Pei Shi swims at a five-star hotel near their home every Saturday morning…”

Bai Tao’s eyes lit up. “What time on Saturday?”

“Six o’clock!”

“…”

Pei Shi is human, right? Doesn’t he need to sleep? If he’s swimming at six, doesn’t that mean he gets up around five?

Yu Guo, sensing Bai Tao’s shock, explained, “That’s what successful people do. You know, Steve Jobs got up at four every morning and finished his day’s work by 9:30…”

“You’ve heard the saying, right? A person can eat nine tons of food in their lifetime; whoever finishes first leaves first.” Bai Tao shuddered. “I think sleeping is the same. There’s a total quota of wakefulness in a lifetime. Whoever uses it up first leaves first. Jobs got up at four every morning, seeming to have a few more hours each day, but what was the result? He died at fifty-six! Because he used up his wakefulness quota too soon! You know, the average life expectancy for American men reached over seventy a few years ago!”

“…”

Ignoring Yu Guo’s speechlessness, Bai Tao shook her head and sighed, “Whoever marries Pei Shi in the future might end up a young widow. Poor thing, poor thing.”

Complaints aside, Bai Tao decided to give it a try. Waking up at five on a Saturday and reporting to the hotel pool at six was doable, as long as Pei Fei hadn’t yet apologized. A “chance encounter” at the pool with Pei Shi was still on the table!

*****

On Saturday, Bai Tao set twenty alarms and only managed to get up when the sixteenth alarm went off.

At 5:50 AM, she arrived at the five-star hotel’s pool, yawning and wearing a bathrobe over her bikini.

At six o’clock sharp, Pei Shi indeed walked in.

The early morning sunlight bathed him, and although Pei Shi’s face showed no particular expression, his every movement exuded a sense of poised strength. Bai Tao stared for a few seconds before she remembered to untie her bathrobe.

She had chosen a sexy bikini to perfectly showcase her curvy figure. Her plan was well thought out: as soon as Pei Shi walked in, she would remove the bathrobe and stand by the pool doing warm-up exercises. Naturally, the warm-ups were just an excuse to show off her figure.

Early in the morning, a sexy beauty was making her presence known. Surely, Pei Shi would eventually give in, even if he tried to resist.

Last time, Pei Shi didn’t go for the delicate and fragile type. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to resist the alluring and sexy type?

Unfortunately, Bai Tao, probably due to lack of sleep, couldn’t untie the bathrobe belt right away. As Pei Shi, seemingly not noticing her, prepared to get in the pool, she grew more anxious. In her haste, she finally managed to untie the belt, only to trip over the trailing end and fall into the pool before she could reveal her perfect figure…

“Splash!”

With a loud splash, Bai Tao fell into the pool. Though she gulped down some pool water and her posture was awkward, she was a good swimmer. As she was about to surface and swim back to the edge, she realized she was very close to Pei Shi!

Adaptability is key to success!

Bai Tao swam towards Pei Shi, her plan meticulously laid out. Once she got close enough, she would pretend to cramp from the unexpected fall, then grab Pei Shi’s neck, holding onto him. With her attractive figure and sultry makeup, she’d plead for help in a soft, alluring voice. Any normal man would have little resistance to such physical contact. Pei Shi would easily fall into her hands, and when he carried her out of the pool, she could use the guise of a grateful damsel to “offer herself” to her savior, successfully positioning herself as his woman.

Perfect, absolutely perfect!

Seeing she was only half a meter away from Pei Shi, Bai Tao was ready to execute her plan. She called out sweetly from behind him—

“Pei Shi, I think I might be—”

Before she could say “cramping,” Pei Shi didn’t even glance back, simply increasing his swimming speed.

The half-meter gap quickly stretched to a meter, then sped towards two meters…

There were other people in the pool. Nearby, a man who appeared to weigh about 200 pounds was swimming. If she pretended to cramp too far from Pei Shi, someone else might rescue her first.

That couldn’t happen!