Chapter 40: Day X without Darya, missing her.

Chapter 40: The X-th Day Without Daria, Missing Her

No one is born a master of romance. Even the greatest geniuses are left stumbling when they first encounter love. Only after enduring eighty-one tribulations and constant tempering can one achieve a true breakthrough; Gao Yun is no exception.

From the awkwardness and bewilderment of his first love—where he tried to please everyone only to be heartlessly dumped—to the ups and downs of his subsequent four relationships, including how they met, how they interacted, and how they eventually broke up, his close brothers had learned it all through countless heart-to-heart sessions at gatherings like this one.

In a sense, they had watched Gao Yun evolve from a romantic novice into the so-called "scumbag" he is today. They felt a mix of gratification and regret.

Looking back at the original Gao Yun—the simple boy in his first relationship who swore he would marry no one else—to the romantic expert he is now, capable of lecturing them with a cold, sharp, and thorough perspective on love, filled with objective and detached terminology like "utility value," "love is a transaction," "I am the commodity," and "emotional control," it was quite a transformation.

Yet, they knew that Gao Yun had simply been forced to grow up by reality. He used various techniques as armor to protect himself on the bumpy road of love, but deep down, he still yearned for romance. He was still that same boy who, from the very beginning, only wished to hold one heart for a lifetime.

"...Whew."

After listening to the song, Gao Yun let out a long breath of alcoholic vapor, raised his hands to rub his eyes, and laughed, "I love this song so much. What an incredible gift!"

After speaking, he took the guitar from Wang Xiaole and said with great enthusiasm, "I'll play one too. Let's do our classic, 'When Dreams Awaken.' Everyone who wants to sing along, join in."

Because there were so many happy occasions to celebrate today, everyone had drunk more than usual. They were all a bit buzzed, and the atmosphere was incredibly lively and high-spirited.

"Let's go!"

Gao Yun held the guitar, his left hand plucking the chords while his right hand performed the arpeggios. A few seconds later, A-Hua’s drum beat kicked in perfectly on cue.

After the familiar and pleasant melodic intro, Gao Yun strained his neck and belted out the lyrics with his rudimentary singing skills: "You said..."

Everyone tapped their hands on the table to keep the beat, joining in the chorus together:

"You said you loved someone you shouldn't have loved,"
"Your heart is full of scars,"
"You said you made a mistake you shouldn't have made,"
"Your heart is full of regret,"
"You said you’ve tasted all the bitterness of life,"
"And can’t find anyone you can trust,"
"You said you feel deeply discouraged,"
"And have even started to doubt life itself,"
"If you had known that heartbreak is always inevitable,"
"Why bother with such deep devotion?"
"Because love is always hard to let go of,"
"Why care about those fleeting moments of warmth?"
...

The gathering soon turned into a private concert. The six men shifted rapidly between the roles of singer and audience. Dozens of familiar songs—"Sudden Self," "Boy," "Chengdu," "Southern Girl," and many others—were sung by the group from start to finish.

It was fortunate that this was a detached villa and the occupancy rate in the neighborhood was low, otherwise, they would have been reported for disturbing the peace long ago.

By ten o'clock at night, everyone helped tidy up the terrace before reluctantly parting ways. Gao Yun called designated drivers to take them home. Once back in his bedroom, he exported the footage to his computer and spent two hours editing a video.

By midnight, he had only managed a rough cut. Overcome by sleepiness, Gao Yun washed up and went to bed. As usual, he checked his system panel. To his surprise, he found that, apart from slight improvements in guitar, singing, filming, and editing, his "Romance" skill had skyrocketed.

【Skills】
【Fitness: (Expert Level) 53%】
【Romance: (Professional Level) 73%】
【Flirting: (Advanced) 10%】
【Mixed Martial Arts: (Advanced) 10%】
【Russian: (Advanced) 1%】
【Video Editing: (Intermediate) 80%】
【Film Production: (Intermediate) 80%】
【Street Dance: (Intermediate) 76%】
【Guitar: (Intermediate) 75%】
【Writing: (Beginner) 38%】
【English: (Beginner) 36%】
【Singing: (Beginner) 25%】

His "Romance" skill had climbed from 3% to 22% during his time back with Daria, but today it had surged from 22% to 73%. Gao Yun analyzed that it must have been the result of "lecturing" his friends at the party.

As the saying goes, one learns by teaching. Although he understood these romantic techniques before, this was the first time he had explained them so systematically and coherently to others, so the massive experience gain wasn't entirely unexpected.

Aside from romance, Gao Yun lay in bed pondering which of the remaining eleven skills to focus on. Since he wasn't working and the gym setup was progressing smoothly without needing his direct intervention, he had plenty of spare time that would be a waste not to utilize.

He hadn't made any formal progress in fitness since obtaining the system, only performing daily training, which had netted a meager 1% increase.

The fitness skill had truly reached a plateau. After reaching the Expert level, every single point of progress was incredibly difficult. Unless he was willing to spend the time attending famous training institutions at home and abroad, followed by practical training with professional bodybuilders, there might be a glimmer of hope for reaching the Master level—and that was only a "might."

Gao Yun felt the time and energy cost was too high and the return on investment too low, so he decided to put fitness skill improvement on hold for now.

As for flirting and writing, both were stagnant. Gao Yun didn't want to touch them; after all, it would be inappropriate to improve his "flirting" skills while in a relationship.

Writing? Even less likely!

Gao Yun, the struggling writer, declared he was done with typing! Let someone else do it. It was back-breaking work, and the agony of staring at a computer screen with a dried-up brain was a pain he didn't want to experience a second time.

Mixed Martial Arts was shelved as Liu Xingsheng had closed the gym to focus on the construction of the fighting zone in their new venture.

Russian was already at the Advanced level; the theoretical knowledge was too dry, and without a partner to practice with, the difficulty of improving was high, making it a poor investment.

Video editing and film production were seeing steady progress, so he could continue maintaining those.

English was a headache, so he would leave it for later... for now, it was shelved.

After thinking for a long time, Gao Yun concluded there were three skills with relatively high returns on investment that he could focus on:

【Street Dance: (Intermediate) 76%】
【Guitar: (Intermediate) 75%】
【Singing: (Beginner) 25%】

Having settled on these three, Gao Yun finally succumbed to the overwhelming wave of sleepiness and drifted off.

The next morning, Gao Yun woke up feeling refreshed and headed to the bathroom to wash up.

Even though he had been drinking from 2:30 PM until 10:00 PM the previous day—a marathon drinking session lasting seven and a half hours—he had only consumed ten beers in total. He had sobered up long before the party ended, so there were no lingering effects.

Drinking was fine, but controlling the amount was essential. It must never affect the next day's training or muscle synthesis; that was Gao Yun's principle.

After washing up, Wang Lina prepared his first fitness meal according to the menu he had provided:

Two hundred grams of lean steak seasoned with black pepper, rose salt, and rosemary; seventy grams of oats mixed with three hundred milliliters of warm milk; and a large bowl of vegetable and shrimp salad dressed with apple cider vinegar and honey.

He tasted each dish and was quite satisfied. Everything tasted good, though the salad, while delicious, still felt a bit inferior to the one Daria made.

"I really do miss her."

Gao Yun sighed. While eating, he took a photo of his breakfast and sent it to Daria via WeChat: "Breakfast."

Afterward, without waiting for a reply, he put his phone down and looked at Wang Lina, who was eating the same meal. He noticed her expression was slightly uncomfortable as she took small sips of the oatmeal.

Gao Yun laughed: "Sister Wang, you don't have to eat the same thing as me. In the future, you can prepare two portions and eat whatever you like for your own, just don't leave any leftovers, and don't let me see it."

"Alright, thank you, Boss. Everything else is fine, it's just that I really can't get used to this oatmeal."

Wang Lina looked relieved. She thought to herself that the stuff really was terrible; she didn't know how the boss managed to stick with it. She cast a secret glance at the muscles on Gao Yun's body and sighed at how hard-earned a good physique really was.

Gao Yun thought for a moment and said, "Sister Wang, after you finish eating, prepare the remaining five meals I need for today. Pack them in lunchboxes, and I'll take them with me. From now on, unless I specifically instruct otherwise, prepare the food for the whole day every morning and pack them in boxes. I probably won't be eating at home for any meals other than breakfast recently."

Wang Lina nodded: "Understood."