Chapter 3: What...I am alive (1/2)

8:30 pm, B city modern-day china

At a closet-sized room of a small apartment in the local student community west of B city. A slender feminine figure laid heads down on a narrow single bed.

The small window opposite the bed was left open to allow the cool night breeze to come in. It is typically hot in the summertime but gets colder at night.

The sole occupant of the small room Su Liya was dressed lightly to allow easy access to a cool breeze, in louse white cotton shorts and an equally louse blue coloured strapped cotton singlet.

Su Liya lay flat on her stomach dead to the world. When the alarm clock on the bedside table began to ring, The alarm blasted loudly, shocking her out of sleep. She had set an alarm for 8:30 pm since she had an online appointment by 9 pm. She rushed down from the bed and rushed into the bathroom.

Ice cold water gushed out of the nuzzle as she turned on the shower. It fell on her shoulder and back as soon as she turned on the shower. Su Liya jumped away from the flowing water once the water hit her back.

”Damn this old plumping system. Ahh, dear universe, please bless me with an overbearing CEO so I can get out of this old house” Su Liya chuckled as she soaped her body up and stepped back under the water. Su Liya was no daydreamer but like every girl out there she enjoyed the little escape romance novels gave her.

Su Liya was a romance novel enthusiast, she followed quite a few books but her favourite book was Dizzy Scholar's The Emperor's cunning wife. She had followed the entire first volume of the book from start to finish and was anticipating the start of the next volume.

The first chapter of 'The Emperor's cunning bride' Volume 2 would be released in the next thirty minutes. Su Liya, as one of the top fans of the author, promised her 1000 followers on weibo to host a live stream and give her a review of the web series.

Su Liya was a die-hard fan of the author of 'The Emperor's Cunning Bride' Dizzy scholar. She had followed her for over five years, back when Dizzy Scholar was still starting. After so many bestsellers Dizzy scholar had become a household name in the web novel industry for her unique writing style.

Su Liya ran out of the bathroom as soon as the soap ladder was washed out of her body. She quickly ran her soft cotton towel around her body and put on some comfortable house wear.

Su Liya picked up her small pink brush and ran it through her short-cropped pixie cut hair. She had grown comfortable with leaving her hair short for many years. It was also cheaper and easier to manage so Su Liya didn't bother growing her hair out.

Keeping short hair was very economical as it saves her the high cost of maintaining long hair which was a luxury for a ward of the state like her. It was because of her financial situation that she got involved in an online review of books.

Su Liya was a sophomore student of the department of international relations at B city university. She wasn't one of the top students but her results were okay.

Su Liya got inspired to try her hand at online novel reviewing after reading an article on one of the biggest internet influencers in China.

She started with just a hundred and fifty followers on Weibo but has now grown to over a thousand followers in just four months. That in itself was huge progress.

After her daily grooming, Su Liya connected her electric cooker and after filling a small pot with enough water for a serving of noodles and placed the pot on the burner. While the water began to heat up, Su Liya cut some vegetables for the noodles into a bowl.

Su Liya dropped a serving of ramen into the boiling pot then poured in the vegetables and stirred gently. Su Liya watched the clock in intervals.