Chapter 1: If I Go Bald, Will You Still Love Me? (1)

Late at night, Bai Yao lay in bed, unable to sleep.

It had only been a month ago, she thought, when she had been showing off her wealth to her so-called friends, and in the blink of an eye, she found herself in a strange place.

She understood what had happened—this was called transmigration.

Sure enough, a burst of static sounded in her mind, accompanied by a mechanical, genderless voice that stiffly announced, “Welcome to... the game... Please, player, begin your... conquest...”

The electric noise was so harsh that Bai Yao clutched her ears in pain; what she could make out was fragmented and jumbled. Soon, the voice in her head vanished without a trace, as if the signal had dropped or the power had suddenly been cut.

Yet Bai Yao was nothing if not clever. She had read enough melodramatic novels to know the drill: after transmigrating, she was supposed to win over some ill-fated man, fall in love with him, and rescue him from his loneliness and cold.

She gazed at her reflection in the mirror—skin like porcelain, stunning features, a delicate face flawless in every detail, her long, slightly wavy hair tumbling down her shoulders, reminiscent of the “heartbreaker” waves that had been all the rage not long ago.

Of course, that was exactly what her so-called friends said about her behind her back.

But Bai Yao never thought of herself as a heartbreaker. All she wanted was to give each handsome boy a warm home—was that so wrong?

Of course not!

What comforted Bai Yao most was that her beauty had come with her. The difficulty of this romance game had instantly dropped to beginner level—what was there to worry about?

The sound of footsteps jumping and thumping from upstairs echoed through the night. Even with her head buried under the covers, Bai Yao couldn’t ignore the noise from above.

She had assumed that, with her family background, she’d be able to have a dorm room all to herself and avoid any conflicts. She never imagined that, every night, there would be strange noises from every direction.

Bai Yao had had enough. She threw off her covers, got out of bed, went to the balcony, grabbed a clothes rod, and jabbed it forcefully at the ceiling. “It’s almost three in the morning! Can’t you save your energy for the daytime instead of making a racket now?”

Perhaps she sounded angry enough, because the noise from upstairs stopped.

At least the person upstairs had some sense of decency.

Bai Yao tossed the rod aside and went to the bathroom, turning on the light. After taking care of her needs, she stood at the sink, turned on the tap to wash her hands, and suddenly felt the water turn noticeably warm. When she looked down, the clear water had become red.

Startled, Bai Yao snatched her hands away. But on closer inspection, the water from the tap was as clear and clean as ever; the strange change must have been her imagination.

She examined her hands carefully—slender, fair fingers, as flawless as her face, with no trace of any strange color.

As she lowered her gaze, she caught, from the corner of her eye, the reflection of a woman with disheveled hair in the mirror. She jerked her head up, but the mirror showed only herself.

She quickly touched her own hair, and the person in the mirror did the same. Bai Yao breathed a sigh of relief. “I knew it—how could someone as beautiful as me ever turn into such a malnourished, ugly creature?”

She reasoned that her recent lack of sleep had made her nerves fragile. Shutting off the tap, she prepared to leave the bathroom, but then strands of black hair began to spread across the sink, growing longer and longer until they spilled over the edge.

Bai Yao’s body went rigid with fear, and she retreated until her back was pressed against the wall, with nowhere left to go.

The bathroom light began to flicker, and in the mirror, vague shadows appeared and disappeared. When the image finally settled on a woman with loose, tangled hair, Bai Yao had already fled, screaming, out of the bathroom.

She frantically called her boyfriend. He answered immediately, and she cried out in terror, “Shen Ji! Come here, quick! The drain in my dorm is clogged, and something disgusting is coming out of it!”

Clutching her chest in distress, she whimpered and sobbed, “I think I’ve been losing a lot of hair without realizing it. What am I going to do? Am I going bald? If I go bald, will you still love me?”

The flashing bathroom light stopped for a moment, but then, as if provoked again, flickered even more violently. The bedroom light joined in, flashing wildly.

Outside, the wind howled and trees cast eerie shadows, the shifting light making the atmosphere even stranger.

Huddled on her bed, Bai Yao could see the reflection of a woman in the dressing table mirror opposite, her sparse hair hiding her face as she wept in despair.

The next moment, there was a knock at the window.

A dark silhouette appeared on the glass, pressing close, its pitch-black eyes shining brightly. Amidst the ominous wind and shifting shadows, a voice called out, “Yao Yao, I’m here!”

Bai Yao rushed from the bed to open the window. The boy jumped inside, and as soon as he landed, she flung herself into his arms. With tear-streaked cheeks, she said pitifully, “Shen Ji, I’m losing my hair! I’m so young, but I’m already going bald. I’m terrified—what if I go bald?”

The boy cupped her face, kissed her gently, and comforted her, “A fairy could never go bald.”

He stroked her head, eyes curved in a smile. “Yao Yao’s hair is thick and beautiful. Even when you’re a hundred years old, you’ll still be stunning.”

He was tall and slender, dressed simply in a white T-shirt and black shorts. His features were clean and handsome, his smile bright and sunny, instantly infectious—especially when he was soothing her, overflowing with patience and tenderness.

Gradually, Bai Yao’s panic subsided. Still shaken, she said with a tremulous voice, “You have no idea how scared I was seeing all that hair. I was so frightened I started hallucinating, thinking that even my reflection was going bald.”

Shen Ji glanced at the mirror.

Instantly, the shadow vanished, and the flickering light in the room shone steadily once more.

Bai Yao looked up at the light and complained, “Old buildings are the worst—always with unstable voltage.”

She pulled Shen Ji into the bathroom. “The drain is clogged. Fix it for me.”

Just as he always did when she needed him, Shen Ji had hopped the wall from the boys’ dormitory, rapped on her fourth-floor window in the middle of the night, and arrived like magic.

But when they entered the bathroom, the sink and floor were spotless—not a hair or a drop of water in sight.

Bai Yao blinked.

Shen Ji said, “The water must have washed it all down the drain again. Don’t worry, I’ll check to make sure it’s not clogged.”

Bai Yao nodded and watched as he carefully inspected the faucet and then squatted down to check the pipes. She squatted beside him and asked, “Shen Ji, do you love me?”

He looked up at her, then leaned in and kissed the corner of her lips, his eyes smiling, “Of course I love you. I love you every single day.”

Ever since they’d gotten together, she asked him this question every day, and his answer was always the same.

Bai Yao pursed her lips and nestled into his arms, muttering to herself: if he loved her this much, why hadn’t she received the notification that she’d cleared the game?

Was her affection score still not high enough?

After making sure everything was fine, Shen Ji washed his hands and, like a koala, carried the girl clinging to him out of the bathroom. He nuzzled her cheek and asked softly, “Are you afraid to sleep alone at night, Yao Yao?”

Bai Yao pressed her face to his chest, unconcerned. “It’s not like a ghost is going to come knocking on my door in the middle of the night. Why should I be afraid?”

Shen Ji said nothing.

Bai Yao looked up, smug. “Aren’t I brave?”

Shen Ji laughed. “Yes, my Yao Yao is the bravest.”

Bai Yao beamed, pleased with herself.

Ridiculous.

It was just a campus romance game—there was no horror element. What was there to be afraid of?