The next morning.
In the graduate dorm, a roommate groggily woke to use the bathroom and found Emma busy at the sink.
Looking closer, she couldn't help exclaiming:
"Emma, you're so domestic! You're already up early washing your delicates."
"Uh, not really, not really."
Emma responded with a smile, her expression a bit awkward.
Her roommate didn't notice the abnormality in Emma's demeanor, only muttering: "Emma, you're seriously something—you're hardworking and your work ethic is amazing. Whoever marries you in the future will be so lucky!"
"It's not that dramatic, just average."
Emma felt a bit shy about her roommate's praise.
After all, washing her underwear this morning wasn't because she was hardworking, but because she woke from a dream to find them... compromised, so she had no choice but to wash them.
So embarrassing!
The key was that the dream, even after waking, left a particularly vivid impression, making Emma feel incredibly guilty.
Actually, during military training, Emma had already noticed Arden. He was a steady, detached guy, much more mature than his peers.
His looks were among the most handsome in that incoming class, and even by Emma's standards, he could be called the most attractive in this year's CS Department.
His features were more upright and masculine, full of manliness—not the same style as the soft, effeminate pop idols popular in entertainment today.
He had a bit of that classic leading man vibe.
During military training, advisors sometimes supervised. When Emma watched them train, her gaze would fall on Arden, standing at attention, tall and straight as a pine.
She just didn't expect the physique beneath those clothes to be so... As she hung the delicates to dry, Emma's mind uncontrollably wandered again, her cheeks flushing...
After hanging them up, Emma had no desire to go back to sleep, so she idly played with her phone.
By some strange impulse, she clicked into the private chat with Arden.
His profile picture was a goose emoji, and his username was "WestOfEden." He seemed to really like geese.
After internal struggle, Emma finally started typing.
"Emma Anderson: Arden, remember to return to campus on time for class today. Let me know when you're back."
Mm, this was an advisor's duty—caring for students, being responsible for Arden's safety.
No problem!
After some self-deception, Emma sent the message.
Unexpectedly, Arden replied instantly.
"WestOfEden: Okay, I'll be back around nine for second period. I'll let you know when I arrive."
"Emma Anderson: Sounds good."
"Emma Anderson: You're up early, Arden."
"WestOfEden: I was tired from swimming last night so went to bed early."
"Emma Anderson: Haha, that's great. Early to bed, early to rise—good for your health ~"
"Emma Anderson: You go do your thing. I need to head to my research group too."
"WestOfEden: \[goose waving\]"
"WestOfEden: Advisor, you work so hard."
At that moment, Arden had just sprung out of bed, stretching.
Ah!
He felt refreshed and full of boundless energy.
Last night he'd experienced the JW Marriott's pool.
He'd also coincidentally encountered two young women who tried flirting, but Arden rejected them.
They looked pretty experienced and gave him bad vibes.
Incidentally, Arden had used the system to scan them. After seeing their shocking "body count," he felt crystal clear about his decision to refuse.
Ultimately, Arden still preferred things fresh and clean.
What guy deep down wasn't like that?
After swimming, Arden went to the executive floor and ordered two cocktails at the executive lounge.
They were pretty tasty, not too strong, just a pleasant buzz.
After returning to his room, he'd only meant to lie down and rest briefly, but ended up falling asleep.
He probably crashed around eleven and slept soundly until seven-thirty in the morning.
Sleep quality was incredibly high—truly baby-like slumber!
This confirmed the system had indeed enhanced Arden's physique through the primary body strengthening serum.
With a solid eight hours of sleep, he couldn't sleep any longer.
This was Arden's ideal physical state.
Too much or too little sleep indicated something was off with the body.
Also... the system said the strengthening serum would further enhance Arden's original strengths.
Yesterday Arden had been a bit unclear about what his strengths actually were.
Now, Arden looked down.
He immediately understood.
"Man, it's early morning and there's no one to help me out. Scarlet's probably still sleeping."
Having no choice, Arden left a message for Scarlet and went swimming.
After swimming, he hit the breakfast buffet.
The hotel breakfast was quite extensive. Some online reviews said it could get boring if eaten too many days in a row. Arden hadn't experienced eating it for several consecutive days yet—he'd test that theory over the next few days.
This was also the point of Arden staying at the JW Marriott for a week: to experience whether long-term hotel living was comfortable enough.
Incidentally, he'd use this time to spend money, get cashback, and accumulate funds, giving him more housing options later.
While eating breakfast, Scarlet replied, saying she planned to go straight to the dealership to resign, then come find Arden at the hotel.
"WestOfEden: Then I'll pick you up. Roughly when will you be able to wrap things up?"
"Scarlet: Very soon. Interns don't have much hassle resigning. Plus I told the manager last night, so the paperwork's basically all ready."
"WestOfEden: \[goose thumbs up\]"
"WestOfEden: My girl's so efficient."
"Scarlet: Oh, isn't it because I'm afraid if I'm too slow, you might overthink things? After all, a job like luxury car sales isn't appropriate once you're in a relationship."
"WestOfEden: True."
"Scarlet: Hehe, I'm very devoted. From now on, all my attention belongs only to you ~"
Not bad.
Girls as devoted as Scarlet were genuinely rare these days.
Admittedly, the root of Scarlet's devotion was Arden's wealth, his decisiveness and ease in spending on her.
However, many girls, even after hooking a rich guy, still felt restless, thinking of using it as a stepping stone to become even more elite socialites.
Even worse, while dating a wealthy guy and receiving his material support, they'd still complain life was too boring and cheat with other men.
Don't think rich people didn't get cheated on. Some gold-diggers were genuinely shameless. Put bluntly, their service mentality was terrible.
No matter how good you were to them, they could always rationalize cheating.
Bottom line?
Completely nonexistent.
In contrast, Scarlet, both from Arden's observation and the system's assessment, proved to be genuinely pure.
Arden would only invest in girls who were loyal to him and consistently provided emotional value.
Around eight o'clock, Arden got ready and drove his Mercedes GLE to the dealership he'd visited yesterday.
This time, his objective and mindset were completely different.