110. Transformation Happens When You Least Expect It

Where to stay? A hotel, naturally.

Bai Haonan had originally intended to suggest that Yu Jiali return to the training base with him. With over a dozen strong young players there, the security would be quite high if anything were to happen. However, after making a call from a public phone to Qian Niu, he learned that a silver sedan had arrived at the base that afternoon looking for Wang Jianguo. Bai Haonan felt that the location had already been compromised.

It didn't matter if the car was a bit run-down, but Yu Jiali found a shabby hotel hard to tolerate. "The main thing is that the security isn't up to par," she said, immediately vetoing the budget hotel near the training base.

Bai Haonan thought about it and agreed. "In that case, we should have just stayed at that state guesthouse earlier. It seems having money doesn't make things as easy and carefree as you'd think; you have so many relatives eyeing your and Old Yu's wealth."

Yu Jiali seemed accustomed to it. "Dad always says they're family, so we should help them out so they have food and clothes, as long as they don't meddle in company affairs. But people are never satisfied. Old Tan is in charge of security, so he often deals with the family; consequently, their relationships have become a messy, secretive problem. I'd be driven mad if I stayed home now. If I didn't have to deal with the police tomorrow, I’d have gone on a vacation."

Bai Haonan had no choice but to find a five-star hotel. While he was at it, he bought some toiletries for her at an international supermarket next to the hotel. Brother Nan had far too much experience spending nights with women; he was more meticulous than Yu Jiali, who usually brought everything from home. Come to think of it, she had almost no experience wandering outside this late at night. She was yawning vigorously, yet her eyes remained bright with a hint of excitement. Bai Haonan remarked that her facial features were perhaps slightly marred by eyes that were a bit too small, and with her face being round and chubby, she looked particularly plump.

Yu Jiali had to ask him for advice. "So, does that mean I need to use makeup to make my eyes look bigger?"

Bai Haonan looked at the items he had grabbed. "Here, you need to use a small brush to gently apply it right here. Let me do your makeup for you. Take this, and this."

Yu Jiali felt a bit nervous. Clearly accustomed to high-end hotel environments, she kept trying to sweep her hair messily over her forehead as they walked into the lobby. Bai Haonan gestured for her not to follow him to the front desk, handled the check-in with his own ID, and then walked upstairs with the woman, who kept her head bowed. In the elevator, he mocked her, "Hey, we're just staying the night. You're acting like I'm some delivery service you ordered. What are you feeling so guilty about?"

Yu Jiali didn't even dare to look at the security camera. "What if I run into someone I know? I even know the manager of this hotel."

Bai Haonan laughed. "Look at what time it is. Big bosses are either sleeping with beauties or busy with business at this hour; who’s working on the front lines?"

Despite being mentally prepared, when Bai Haonan unlocked the room, Yu Jiali still felt a wave of dizziness, her temples throbbing. As she followed him inside and saw it was a luxury suite with only one bed, she tried to remain composed despite her stuttering: "W-why? A standard room with two beds would have been more appropriate, at least." She wanted to slap herself for saying it.

Bai Haonan looked at her with disdain. "You're overthinking it. I'm sleeping on the sofa in the outer room, all right? Even if I were picking up a girl, I'd have it agreed upon before getting into bed. You're the boss right now, so I’m just acting as a temporary bodyguard for your eight-thousand-a-month salary. Ah Da, come here..."

The dog clearly had never been to such a high-end room and began running around excitedly. Yu Jiali took the opportunity to compose herself while calling for the dog. "You said you were going to help me with my makeup. Where is it?"

Bai Haonan watched this woman, who remained relatively calm in the face of life-threatening danger and various professional conflicts, now flustered by such a trivial situation—a naive, flustered quality that felt different from the beauties he was used to who treated nights in hotels as routine. Perhaps he had just been deprived for too long.

Or perhaps it was because this girl had truly reduced her body fat to under thirty percent, reaching a stage that felt quite pleasant to the touch.

Finding himself having sexual fantasies, Bai Haonan quickly pulled himself together and retorted, "Who are you putting on makeup for in the middle of the night? Do it tomorrow morning!"

Yu Jiali tried to act a bit coquettish, though it came out stiffly: "I don't want to!"

Bai Haonan immediately got goosebumps. "Damn! A beauty doing that is called being coquettish; you're just acting weird. Come, come, sit in front of the vanity, and I'll do it for you..." He busied himself unpacking what he had just bought and explained professionally, "This is just to demonstrate how to fiddle with eyeshadow and such. These are entry-level items. I actually suggest you go to a high-end mall and have the brand-name makeup consultants help you pick these out and teach you the details. Look, this brush only cost twenty yuan. I’ve seen a girl use one that cost over six hundred—isn't it just a little brush for foundation? The way women spend money is terrifying."

Even Qiao Yingna, who believed it was impolite not to wear makeup, admired Bai Haonan's innovative blending techniques and unique results. A novice like Yu Jiali could only look on with awe. Looking in the mirror at herself—who usually wore almost no makeup beyond basic skincare—she suddenly appeared strange yet beautiful!

He had originally intended to paint just one eye to show off, but once Bai Haonan started, he couldn't stop. Besides, he enjoyed seeing a girl look beautiful. Aside from her eyes being slightly small, Yu Jiali's face was a bit round and chubby. Even though Bai Haonan didn't understand the profound theories of makeup, he simply followed the routine he was familiar with: eyeshadow, foundation, concealer, lip gloss, and highlighting the eye sockets and bridge of the nose. Once her face gained dimension, the roundness faded significantly, and her refined, dignified features began to shine. He even hummed a little tune, feeling quite proud, and stepped back to admire the woman who seemed transformed.

Yu Jiali wasn't looking at him; she was looking at herself in the mirror.

It would be a lie to say she had never worn makeup, but due to her long-standing insecurity, she rarely allowed others to apply it for her and didn't like discussing the topic. At most, she would secretly tinker with it herself, but "flaming red lips" was perhaps the extent of her understanding of makeup. Every time she tried, it might have been another disappointment, so she simply went bare-faced.

Bai Haonan was familiar with the heavy makeup seen in nightclubs—the kind that was heavy but guaranteed to turn a girl into a beauty—and now, it had completely changed Yu Jiali.

Yet, one had to admit that makeup was the core necessity for modern beauties. Most "passable" beauties, stripped of that artifice, might not look as good as a slimmer Yu Jiali.

Perhaps it also had something to do with her fitness routine over the last half-month. At the very least, Yu Jiali reached out to touch her shoulders in disbelief; the shoulder and neck area, which people used to consider broad, had vanished. Bai Haonan helped her arrange her hair a bit and suggested, "Tomorrow, find a hair salon and get this curled, then pull it up into a bun. I once dated a chubby girl, and after she was styled like this, she had great temperament."

Yu Jiali paused, then, remembering something, she picked up the wall-mounted phone in the open-concept bathroom to ask the front desk about salon services. It turned out that it was past ten, and they had no technicians left. Yu Jiali, unwilling to wait until morning, even pulled out her phone to call her secretary; she absolutely had to find a place to get her hair done overnight.

Bai Haonan could only tease the girl’s sudden burst of vanity. "You're asking for a haircut at this hour? Technicians for massages are everywhere, but who's going to cut your hair now? Forget it, forget it. Let me try a simple trick to show you the effect; do the rest tomorrow..."

His methods were picked up from countless encounters; he had many templates in his memory. He took a small towel, dampened it, rolled it into a cylinder, wrapped her wet hair around it, and slowly dried it with a hairdryer. Sure enough, when he unwrapped it, there were bouncy curls. Finally, he styled it into a bun as he had described, and using a long comb and scissors from the drawer, he gave Yu Jiali a crisscross, wispy fringe!

It was clearly not a standard salon method—it was definitely something he had seen a clever girl do as a temporary fix—and he had surely done this more than once. Heaven knows how many women's experiences it took to piece such a man together. Regardless, Yu Jiali was thoroughly stunned by Bai Haonan's handiwork. "You... I go to hair salons, and those messy stylists just recommend all kinds of weird ways to style hair. You should just become a stylist—only for me."

Bai Haonan was self-aware. "It'll probably fall apart by tomorrow morning. Ultimately, this is because you were hit too hard by insecurity in the past, and because of your family's status, you deliberately hid yourself and missed the youth to learn these skills. Haha, you said I missed out on upbringing as a child; you're the same! Oh, finally, let's draw your eyebrows. I'm good at that too, haha!"

Drawing eyebrows required them to be face-to-face. Bai Haonan had to use his little finger to lift Yu Jiali's chin to make it easier for him to work. The girl gazed fixedly at the busy, tall man, her eyes glistening. "Do you know what drawing eyebrows signifies?"

Bai Haonan, a thief who stole hearts but not culture, didn't have a clue. "What could it signify? It's not something just anyone can do well; this is an ancestral technique of mine!"

Yu Jiali spoke candidly: "In ancient times, only husbands and wives would draw each other's eyebrows as a gesture of deep affection..."

Bai Haonan had been quite intoxicated by his own artistic creation, but upon hearing this, he quickly finished up in a few strokes. "Then I've helped plenty of girls draw their eyebrows!"

Yu Jiali looked at herself in the mirror, feeling a bit stunned, and of course, she also looked at the man standing in the mirror. "Stealing fragrance, filching jade, drawing eyebrows, and a slender waist—these are the four romantic pursuits of ancient scholars. Actually, 'stealing fragrance' and 'filching jade' both refer to young ladies from wealthy families secretly having affairs with down-and-out playboys. Especially Zhuo Wenjun, who resolutely eloped with Sima Xiangru to live together, earning money to help her husband reform and achieve greatness—that is the true meaning of 'filching jade.' Do you understand what I mean?"

With such a clear implication, which could even be called a blatant hint, how could Bai Haonan not understand? "Hmm, a slender waist? At the very least, you're still a long way from a slender waist. Let's talk once your waist is thin. Satisfied? Thank you for your patronage—one thousand yuan. That's not too much, is it?"

Yu Jiali couldn't help but glare at him. "That's not what 'slender waist' means at all!" She then switched to an angry expression. "The jade! If you'd really 'filched the jade,' would you even care about a thousand yuan?"

Before Bai Haonan could speak, he heard Yu Jiali jump up and cheer, "Yes!" Then, he watched, dumbfounded, as the girl danced around chaotically in front of the large mirror in the luxury bathroom. "Did you take the wrong medicine?"

Yu Jiali turned to face him directly. "I fully understand that saying now: if you're ugly, everything you do is just acting weird, but once you're beautiful, every movement and expression feels pleasant, right?" With that, she gave him a flirtatious wink.

It was true. Before the makeup, even if she tried to act coquettish, it felt exceptionally stiff. Now, with the added effect, every little movement with her bright, watery eyes looked beautiful!

It was Bai Haonan's turn to resist his own primal impulses. "Alright, alright! You're beautiful now. You can wash this makeup off. Tomorrow, go to a cosmetics store or somewhere like that, hire a professional to fix you up with high-end products, and from then on, you can start your journey on the bright path of a wealthy beauty. Remember to lose weight! When that time comes, wear some alluring dresses, and I guarantee that with just a snap of your fingers, a group of men will come flocking to you."

Yu Jiali faced him and, with slight nervousness but determination, snapped her fingers!

Because her hand trembled, it was a bit of a failure and not very loud.

Bai Haonan said proudly, "I'm the one who's steady!"