106: Both whole and odd amounts

Jiang Ye looked at the WeChat message Ye Cheng had sent on his phone and curled his lip.

Honestly, a person really shouldn't be idle. Back when he was dirt poor, why had he never considered whether he was handsome or not?

But it wasn't a big deal!

How did that saying go? There are no ugly men, only lazy ones!

He, Jiang Ye, was at least 1.8 meters tall with regular features and a hint of wildness between his brows. Before, he didn't have the means to groom himself and had to rely purely on his natural looks.

Once he hit the gym to work on his physique, found a Tony to style his hair, and finally bought some branded clothes, his charm score might not hit 90, but 85 wouldn't be too much to ask, right?

Jiang Ye rubbed his chin, tossed the matter of his looks to the back of his mind, and opened his WeChat wallet to check his balance—281,764.3.

"Money really doesn't last long, damn it..."

The hundreds of thousands he'd just received hadn't even gotten warm yet. After sorting out the house, transferring 100,000 to Ye Cheng for pocket money, and adding in miscellaneous expenses, he only had a bit over 200,000 left.

While sighing, he opened TikTok and topped up his account with 100,000 yuan.

This was the "ticket money" he was preparing to tip the drama queen, Yao Yao, on Christmas Eve.

Although this Girl had been a bit too dramatic lately and even tried to manipulate him, she was still one of his two major cashback channels. He had to invest what was necessary.

After topping up, Jiang Ye sank his consciousness into his mind and looked at the system mission interface that was giving him a headache.

The [Crossover Etiquette Consultant] mission was still sitting there quietly, with zero progress.

During this time, he had "studied hard," but he hadn't learned much knowledge. Instead, he had completely ruined his algorithm.

Now, his home page recommendations were filled with suggestive women; even seeing a silly animation once in a while felt refreshing.

What was even more annoying was that the major anime conventions in Shengtian were mostly scheduled for New Year's Day. This meant he would have to wait until next month to complete the mission, wasting this month's mission opportunity for nothing.

"Sigh... System, how much does it cost to refresh a mission once?"

[Based on the host's account balance, refreshing a monthly mission will consume 60,588.1 yuan.]

Jiang Ye sighed speechlessly.

Still one-third, as expected... This crappy system's rules are outrageously rigid!

Just as he was about to give in and was considering just spending the money to refresh the mission, his phone buzzed. A WeChat message from Yao Yao popped up:

Yao Yao: [What are you doing, Brother? What are you planning to eat tonight? My roommate and I ordered a lot of skewers. We're going to have a feast tonight!]

Yao Yao: [Heehee~ After being busy all day, I'm one day closer to meeting Brother. Looking forward to it~!]

Looking at this sappy message, Jiang Ye couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Heehee," huh? "Looking forward to it," huh? Addicted to acting, are we?

Fine, fine, fine. You brought this bad luck upon yourself!

He took a screenshot of his TikTok wallet balance and sent it to Yao Yao, intending to give her a thrilling rise before a crushing fall, letting this drama queen experience the sinister nature of the human heart.

The moment the image was sent successfully, while staring at the words "Account Balance" in the screenshot, a bolt of lightning suddenly flashed through Jiang Ye's mind!

An extremely bold, even somewhat absurd, thought suddenly emerged!

"Holy... crap... Account balance... consume one-third of current funds..."

Jiang Ye froze instantly, his eyes fixed on the screenshot in WeChat, his breathing becoming rapid.

Yao Yao: [Oh my god!]

Yao Yao: [Brother! Is this Yao Yao's unique, one-of-a-kind pampering?]

Yao Yao: [Ahhh! I love you to death, Brother!]

Seeing the screenshot of a million diamonds, Yao Yao on the other end was indeed instantly excited, and a WeChat voice call popped up immediately after.

But Jiang Ye was in no mood to answer the phone now.

With a swipe of his finger, he hung up and quickly replied [Busy]. Then, he pulled up his "unfilial son" Fang Wei's WeChat and sent a ten-yuan red envelope.

Before he could even type to urge the "unfilial son" to accept it quickly, Fang Wei had already accepted the red envelope in a second and sent a question mark:

[? Dad, what do you mean? An early Christmas gift for your father?]

"..."

Jiang Ye had no time to bicker with him and immediately sank his consciousness into his mind: "System, how much does it cost to refresh a monthly mission once?"

[Based on the host's account balance, refreshing a monthly mission will consume 60,584.8 yuan.]

"Damn! It's three yuan and three cents less! It really works!"

Jiang Ye felt a surge of ecstasy and immediately began extreme testing.

He checked his account balance again, opened his mom's WeChat, and directly transferred 181,754 over.

Just as the transfer was sent, before he could type an explanation, Xu Man's voice call came in.

"Hello, Mom, I sent you..."

"Xiao Ye! What's wrong with you?!"

Xu Man's voice on the other end was extremely anxious, even tinged with panic: "Did you hit some kind of insurmountable obstacle? Tell Mom the truth! Don't scare me! Where are you? Mom's coming to find you right now!"

Jiang Ye was dazed by this barrage of questions: "Huh? Nothing's wrong with me, Mom. I'm fine! What's wrong with you?"

He was completely confused: "What could possibly happen to me? Hurry up and accept the money."

"Accept what?! I don't want it!"

Xu Man's voice became even more urgent, filled with worry: "What exactly happened to you? Huh? Is it... is it that fund or whatever that lost everything? Do you owe people money? Whatever it is, we'll face it together. Don't do anything rash!"

"Do anything... rash?"

Jiang Ye suddenly realized what she meant and was caught between laughter and tears: "Mom! I'm really fine! Is your son really that fragile of a person?"

Xu Man listened carefully to her son's tone. It didn't sound like he was putting on a brave face, and she couldn't hear the sound of wind from a rooftop in the background. She finally breathed a sigh of relief, but her anger immediately flared up:

"You little brat! If you're fine, why did you send such a precise amount of money? You scared me so much my heart almost jumped out! I thought you were on a damn rooftop!"

Jiang Ye: "..."

He wordlessly held his forehead: "Mom, where is your mind going? I just... I simply wanted to show some filial piety to you! Really!"

"Filial piety? Is this how you show it? You scared me to death!"

Xu Man was completely relieved and said crossly, "This money... did you give me all the capital from that fund of yours? Are you quitting? I don't need this much money anyway. I still have the 100,000 you gave me last time..."

"Mom! Stop, stop!"

Jiang Ye quickly interrupted, fearing she would start overthinking again. "This is just your son's filial piety. Just take it and don't worry! I have some things to do. I'll tell you more later! Hanging up now!"

Xu Man gave a skeptical "oh." After hesitating for a moment, she still clicked to accept the payment and muttered:

"Alright then... so mysterious. You go ahead and be busy; we'll talk later. Stinky Kid, always scaring people!"