After hanging up the phone, Yan Shuyu was excited for having money all over again.

Manager Chen’s call came abruptly. Did she think it was odd? Certainly! But she only had $250 left in her account. She was more worried about starving to death than the storyline.

So, how was it that she had about $10,000 in saving when she first transmigrated and suddenly turning into a pauper with only $250 left in the blink of an eye? Even Yan Shuyu blamed herself for being too overly wasteful.

She only knew that the original owner had paid off 6 months of rent as well as the fees for the kindergarten and still had money left over. In addition, she was expecting her wages to be paid in the middle of the month. As long as she has some money with her, and it was sufficient enough to last her until she found herself a new job and picked up the responsibility of supporting her family, she didn’t worry too much. Thus, the pressure was lifted off of the optimistic and proactive Yan Shuyu

The next day after her transmigration was a weekend, she dragged her instant son to go shopping in high spirits. She bought herself a new set of clothes to start her new life – she may not be able to afford clothing from the mall, but she could afford to barter with street vendors. Yan Shuyu was fair too, she bought herself a pretty dress, but she also bought the little kiddo a set of new clothes as well. The two of them further enjoyed some good food and drinks, and blew through about $1,000 over the two weekend days.

And then, she received a payment notice. The original owner had taken out a loan online, the interest was to be paid off before the principle. This was the last payment so the principal amount was deducted from her account directly – a whole $10,000. When she learned about it, there was only $250 left in her bank.

After her savage spending, and looking at her remaining amount, Yan Shuyu was stunned and began to have doubts about life – no work, two mouths to feed at home and only two hundred or so dollars left. That’s the perfect setup for starving to death!

Yan Shuyu didn’t blame the original owner for taking out a loan online. Any normal person would know that borrowing money from online was a bad idea. Thinking about the timeline, a year ago was when the original owner and her kid were going through their rough patch.

Now that it was all over, there was no point in trying to figure out the reason she did what she did. More importantly was to find out whether the original owner had other loans besides this one. Yan Shuyu anxiously searched through her memories and checked all the major apps on her phone and finally came to the conclusion that this was the only loan that she had, and it had already been paid off in full. Things could definitely have been much worse.

That wasn’t much used to her though. With only $250 left, she worried that she and her instant son would not survive until payday in the middle of the month. Yan Shuyu stared at the remaining amount, worried sick, and deeply regretted going out over the 2-day weekend – had she not spent the $1,000, at least they could last till her next pay day.

Luckily, Yan Shuyu wasn’t a bitter person by nature. She quickly collected her emotions and planned to go look for work proactively. After all, having a job would be like having a lifeline. In any case, it beats sitting around and waiting to die.

Speaking of job-hunting, that’s another sad, sad story.

Yan Shuyu had sent out a bunch of resumes the very first day she had transmigrated over. She even reached out to a few companies that she was particularly interested in; yet, now that the weekend had come and gone, and it's already Tuesday, she still has not heard anything back. Of all the resumes that she had sent out, she only received one paltry response, “Thank you for your interest in our company, but our company required blah blah blah….”

Welp! That was a bit awkward.

Yan Shuyu started to notice that her beauty was kind of worthless in the talent market, and only academic qualifications count.

Original translation is from fuyuneko dot org. If you’re reading this elsewhere, this chapter has been stolen. Please stop supporting theft.

To put it in another way, her plan on using her looks to find a cozy and prestigious job that didn’t require any technical skills was more a fantasy that she could only daydream about. She was dead broke and have zero skills; now that she wanted to have a job, she should seriously consider lowering her standard and consider positions in the service industry that she frowned upon in the past. They just might be her only options now.

This was the spoiled Yan Shuyu, who was going to stay home and mooch off of her parents. Never had she imagined the day she would have to become a waitress. Well, money talks. She better learned quickly to put aside her self-esteem for now.

Yan Shuyu comforted herself that she was a very flexible person before she tidied herself up and went out to look for jobs.

Once her standards have been lowered, job-hunting had become much easier. Yan Shuyu walked around the neighboring areas and had her mind set on a fancy-looking Western restaurant. With or without any working experience, someone as smart as Yan Shuyu would naturally figured out that if she worked in the food industry, her employer would for sure provide meals as well. It wasn’t like it’d cost a lot more.

It was still ten or so more days before she could get her paycheck. She’d have to rely on meals provided at work to tie her over.

Thinking of that, Yan Shuyu suddenly felt that being in the service industry wasn’t that bad after all.

Once she stepped foot into the restaurant, her desire to work there had grew even stronger because she saw this restaurant even provided piano and violin performances!

Even though Yan Shuyu had always said that her only strength was her pretty face, she was being way too humble. She came from a reasonably well-off family and, as the single child, her parents had spent a lot of money on her. She has attended more extracurricular classes since she was a child than she could count with both hands. Sadly, her passion had always been short-lived, and most of them just went to waste. Piano and violin were the exceptions to the rule in that she’d still practice them from time to time, but only because she felt that these were skills that a goddess should possess.

In her past life, Yan Shuyu had pretty good self-awareness. She knew that she only has average talent when it came to musical instrument so she never put too much time into them. Her level was amateur at best. But now, everything was different than before, with her looks so gorgeous that it could bring about trouble, and she could play piano? That was like saying that she could totally rely on her look but, no, she insisted on her own abilities!

The owner of this restaurant would have to be blind to not want to hire a goddess like her who possessed both looks and talent!

Feeling already that this position was hers to take, Yan Shuyu walked inside filled to the brim with confidence. She asked the server whether she could use the piano and, after a definitive answer, she walked to the piano and showed them what she could do.

Yan Shuyu had been focused on her examinations lately and hasn’t touched the piano for quite a bit of time. Perhaps, it was the trauma that had caused her to mature, her fingers, instead of feeling rusty, had never been so smooth and in control before. Full of emotions, she finished her performance. A few individuals, who had some knowledge of piano even applauded.

It was a little after 10 AM, and there were no customers in the restaurant. All the workers at the restaurant had gathered around Yan Shuyu during her performance. The young restaurant manager, Yang Zifeng, believed that she’d be a great catch, so as soon as he found out that she was looking for a job, he immediately showed her into his office upstairs, “Come with me. Let’s talk.”

Yan Shuyu loved to take a mile whenever she was given an inch. Seeing how enthusiastic Manager Yang was, she started pushing her luck. When she heard of the work hours, she frowned and expressed concerns, “I have to drop off and pick up my kid from school every day, I am not sure the time would work for me….”

After Manager Yang heard that the kid would be finishing kindergarten next year, he kindly waved his hand and said, “That’s not a problem. Your kid gets out a little after 4 PM, that’s not busy hours for us. You can just go pick him up. If you don’t want him to stay home by himself, you can bring him here directly. We will all help you look after him.”

Ever since she had stepped foot inside, Yan Shuyu had immediately opened up about being a single mother. Not only did Manager Yang not felt that it would be a hassle, quite contrarily, he had been thoughtful to her in every detail. Yan Shuyu felt more and more that this was the right job for her. As for the food issue that she was most concerned about, she was right that they could dine at the restaurant. They even provided dormitory for employees. “Even if you are not staying at the dormitory, you won’t receive any additional supplemental income, but you can bring your kid to eat here,” said Manager Yang.

That made Yan Shuyu even happier, “That’s wonderful! His school provides only lunch.”

That way, all they’d need was to take care of breakfast. Two hundred some odd dollars for ten days, Yan Shuyu saw a sliver of hope all over again.

After they have discussed all the details, the wages offered to her by Manager Yang was no lower than what she made at Hotel Dorsett. In addition to being a server, she would also perform for an hour each day. It was equivalent to have two jobs. Yan Shuyu didn’t let it show, but she couldn’t be happier with the arrangement.

Perhaps her acting was a little too good, Manager Yang seemed a bit disappointed, “I don’t know how long I can keep you here. You can play both piano and violin; with a certification, you can teach at an institution for better opportunities.”

Yan Shuyu beamed. It had never occurred to her to obtain her a certification, but it beats being a server for sure.

Nonetheless, she wasn’t too confident in her own skill level. With some hesitation, she asked, “Manager Yang, you think my skill level is at the professional level?”

The young man held nothing back in front of the pretty girl, “I don’t know a lot about music, but my niece is taking piano lessons right now. Her instructor graduated from a musical institution. I’ve heard that he has some small fame in the circle. After hearing your performance, all I can say is I couldn’t tell the difference between your performance and his.”

Yan Shuyu knew that, not being in the same field, the comments coming Manager Yang was meaningless. Yet, somehow, they had solidified her determination because she felt that her skill level had increased significantly while she was playing the piano earlier. Now that her feeling was confirmed by Manager Yang, she thought to herself that perhaps her musical talent was the cheat that she had gained from her transmigration.

Now that she has this cheat, she might as well make full use out of it. Brimming with confidence, she said, “Thank you so much for your suggestion, Manager Yang. I will look into that further.”

Manager Yang wasn’t bothered by that. It would take a while to earn a certificate like that and the turnover had always been high in the food industry. He never expected someone as pretty as Yan Shuyu would work at his restaurant for the rest of her life. The moment he heard that she was looking for work he already figured out that the pretty girl was probably just down in her life for the moment. She would, naturally, seek higher grounds once she got back on her feet.

Yang Zifeng only had more respect for Yan Shuyu after hearing that she was considering to earn her certificate as a piano teacher – with her looks, she was passing up on taking the shortcut and, instead, going to go through the proper channel – all the more Yang Zifeng felt that he had made the right decision with her. Instead of being bothered by her intention to become a piano teacher, he asked caringly, “It would be rough trying to earn your certificate while you work.”

Yan Shuyu thought about it for a second. Was it going to be rough? Certainly. But she had already signed up to be a server, what’s some more work on top of that?

Once she passed the examination and become a piano teacher, she’d have her cozy, status dream job that she has already wanted. She would also be able to raise her child without worries. As the son of the villainess stepmother, this little kiddo was quite talented himself. His abilities and plotting skills rivaled that of the male lead. As long as he stayed on the right path, he very well could become a CEO, marry White, Rich, and Pretty (WRP), and walked on top of the world. And she’d only be a little over 40. She could very well spend her instant son’s money and find herself a young lover. Life would just be amazing then~

(T/N: White, Rich, and Pretty – Chinese internet slang for a girl who has light skin tone, wealthy, and pretty. From this point forward would be abbreviated to “WRP”.)

The future that she had planned for herself had further her determination. Full of raw emotions, she sighed, “Aye, anything for the child, right?”

Having secured her new job, Yan Shuyu still didn’t waste any time but took her instant son with her to the restaurant that very afternoon for a meet and greet. The mother and son successfully got their free dinner that night. She donned her new uniform and started her new job the very next day.

Yan Shuyu received the call from her former direct supervisor out of the blue while she was getting settled with her new her. She told her to go in, sign some documents, and pick up her paycheck, and the full-month’s amount to top! Even though the call came a little later than ideal, but after the $250 scare, Yan Shuyu was still very appreciative.

Truth be told, before she landed her new job, Yan Shuyu even thought about whether she should go back for a shot at the male lead’s father. After all, if she could succeed, she would become a rich woman with a net worth of over hundreds of billions of dollars. If she didn’t, she was just a dirt broke person with barely $250 in her account. When she thought about it that way, becoming the male lead’s whetstone didn’t seem too bad after all.

Yan Shuyu finally gave up on that thought but not necessarily because she believed that one should always rely on oneself. It was more because she had transmigrated way too early. The original owner had just started to lure the male lead’s father, that’s like the first step of paving the road to Rome and the road was long. She wasn’t sure she has the stamina like that of the original owner, so it’s best that she gave up now. Besides, she had already ran away from him.

If she tried to engage again, and he gave her a “And, who are you?” that’d be quite embarrassing.

After weighing her options seriously, Yan Shuyu had, once again, firmly decided that dumping the male lead’s father was her best move.