0114: Why does it keep showing 99+ again?

The next morning, Xu Lin woke up early and sat on his bed, beginning his breathing exercises. Instantly, his mind cleared, and his body adjusted to an excellent state.

He quickly calculated his current total favorability points—262—still 128 points short of unlocking the system’s voice function. This was absurd. To reach 400 favorability points, at least ten girls needed to have 40 points each. It wasn’t that easy to raise these points.

He also wondered if the favorability points had a cap of 100. The top three were Chu Fengyi, Chu Qingchan, and Ji Yun, with only about forty-something points each. Chu Fengyi led with 46 points, partly due to awakened memories, while Ji Yun and Chu Qingchan had 43 and 45 points respectively.

Based on his intuition, the actual cap might be 60 or 70 points. He decided not to dwell on it and checked the system's shop, which should have refreshed on Monday.

Upon opening the system shop, the available items had increased from four to five due to reaching 200 favorability points, though he wasn’t sure how far it had upgraded. He hoped there would be useful items this time because only last night had he realized the points given by the system were limited. Recklessly spending them like before was not an option.

If the maximum favorability for the twelve girls was 60 each, that meant six rewards per person, totaling 72 rewards and corresponding points. So there was an overall limit. If he didn’t choose carefully and bought useless things, he would regret it later.

Besides, he hadn’t deliberately tried to increase favorability; it had gradually risen through his interactions with them.

He looked at the five items in the shop:

- Super Fighting Master Experience Card (1 hour) (Side Effects): 2000 points
- Super Tracking Dust (Side Effects): 300 points
- Super Healing Potion (Side Effects): 100 points
- Random acquisition of a level 5 ability: points
- Lingxi Breathing lv2: points

Why were so many “super” items listed, and with side effect warnings? Who would dare buy those?

However, the Lingxi Breathing could be purchased. Even at level 1, it was extremely effective. His constitution had rapidly improved, and maintaining his vitality and spirit relied heavily on it. He suspected the breathing technique might be some kind of cultivation method, but that seemed unlikely; otherwise, as a reborn individual, he would have encountered many strange events already.

As for the level 5 ability, his highest abilities were only around level 2. Even level 2 was considered very proficient — for example, level 2 cooking meant restaurant-level chef skills, and level 2 acting reached the standard of a regular actor. Level 5 was probably the pinnacle of human achievement, or perhaps beyond human. Still, it was just for looking; with 100,000 points needed, he couldn’t afford it.

So he first purchased the Lingxi Breathing, leaving him with over 45,000 points, some of which he had obtained from Qin Yunhe.

Speaking of Qin Yunhe, he wondered if she had handled the tiger at her home zoo. He hoped she could resolve the Ma Zhiyu situation peacefully without any unexpected dangers.

With that in mind, he also bought the three super items. Despite their side effects, they were cheap, totaling only 2,400 points.

After buying, he smacked his forehead, recalling that he had just said points were limited and not to buy recklessly.

Ah, why couldn’t he control his own hands? But at least he now understood the emotions behind girls going shopping for clothes.

He closed the system interface and picked up his phone, noticing his friend count had increased.

“Yesterday, didn’t I tell everyone I was acting in a short film? I have no plans to enter the entertainment industry.”

Was a public service short film really that important? After the edits, his role lasted only about 30 seconds.

Opening WeChat, this time the messages weren’t screenshots of the short film but news screenshots and links.

“What’s all this?”

He clicked on a message Li Bin had sent that morning—a picture and a link.

The image was simple but surprising: their short film, which wasn’t really promoted as a public service ad, had actually made it to the trending searches!

The image showed Weibo’s trending list, with the short film ranked third under “Public service short films can actually be this good!”

Then fifth and sixth were “Shocking! Chu Qingchan can actually act?!” and “Liu Qin Nuan and Chu Qingchan, fairy sisters unite!”

At tenth place was a discussion about the short film itself, mainly criticizing a recently released youth movie, saying its two hours couldn’t compete with their four minutes.

Further down the list were news about the director and crew, and trending upward at number 21 was “I want this young man’s name, immediately!”

Xu Lin felt a sudden unease and quickly opened the link to the trending content.

He skimmed through and realized that the “young man” was indeed referring to him!

The official CCTV Weibo had posted behind-the-scenes footage of the short film, mainly focusing on Chu Qingchan, Liu Qin Nuan, and the director’s expertise.

His screen time was only about four or five seconds, which he had asked the director for to avoid being too conspicuous.

But the hottest comment below read: “I only noticed this young man whose acting is so good and who is so handsome!”

“Give me his Weibo account! I want the young man’s name, now!”

The comments were a chorus demanding his information. Director Sun even commented casually:

“Sorry, this kid doesn’t like fame. We had to drag him along to shoot this short film, but we’re working on something, so maybe you’ll see him in movies in the future.”

Liu Qin Nuan reposted the comment with a Weibo post saying the young man was even more handsome in real life. Chu Qingchan liked it.

These people were determined to dig up everything about him. Luckily, small towns had their advantages; gossip reporters couldn’t easily get his information.

Moreover, over the years, he had taken fewer than fifty photos in total, none uploaded online, and even his classmates had no pictures of him.

No prominent influencers knew him either; he was just an ordinary student, and with such a common name as Xu Lin, no one would believe it anyway.

Thinking this, he instantly felt more at ease. He changed into sportswear and headed toward Chu Qingchan’s house.

Half a month ago, she had said she wanted to exercise. Words were nothing; he had to set an example! It was time to make her sweat properly!

Arriving at the entrance of Chu Qingchan’s apartment building, he was about to head to the elevator when a tall, stylishly dressed woman pulled a suitcase and came over.

She stopped at the small threshold of the entrance, and Xu Lin quickly reached out to help her lift it over.

“Thank you,” she smiled gently.

Xu Lin nodded, but upon seeing her face, he felt a vague familiarity that he couldn’t quite place.

The two entered the elevator together. She pressed the button for the sixth floor and then looked at him.

“What floor?”

“Sixth floor as well.”

“Oh? You’re from across the hall…”

“Yes, across the hall.”

Xu Lin instantly realized why she seemed familiar. She resembled Ji Yun somewhat. This was his mother-in-law!