It wasn’t so much the sound of fabric ripping as it was the crisp, successive pops of threads snapping.

Zhu Yun stared down, unable to process what had happened. Her soft little belly had popped out, forming an audacious round pouch. A wide expanse of her beautiful, snow-white waistline—and her white...—was exposed to the man beside her.

Chu Shenyu could barely contain his smile. He brought a fist to his mouth and let out a few restrained, forceful coughs. "Good thing we got sidetracked just now. Otherwise, if this happened on the street, wouldn’t I have had to go shirtless to protect my wife’s honor and end up looking like a street performer’s monkey?"

Zhu Yun ground her teeth. "So I’m the monkey in this scenario?"

She stood up as she spoke, patting her belly and declaring petulantly, "I’m only having porridge for lunch and fruit for dinner! If I don’t get rid of this paunch, I swear I’m not fit to be human!"

"Honey," Chu Shenyu said, pulling her close and coaxing her earnestly, "why are you being so hard on yourself? I think you’re perfect right now. Cuddling you is like hugging a soft, squishy little dumpling. It’s so comfortable."

"Skipping meals is just a temporary fix, not a real solution. You’ll make yourself sick before you lose any weight."

"Besides, who makes bets with themselves like that?"

Zhu Yun shot him a glare. A woman’s desire for beauty knows no fear of hunger or cold. "To be beautiful, you have to be cruel to yourself. No pain, no gain!"

With that, she clutched her waist and went into the bedroom to change into looser clothes. Then, she took out a pen and paper, wrote out her slogans in huge letters, and, with hands on her hips, directed her husband to stick them up one by one: on the refrigerator door, the dining room wall, the living room TV, the wardrobe, and the bedroom ceiling.

They were posted in every conspicuous spot, each slogan more ruthless than the last.

Chu Shenyu tried to talk her out of it, but his attempts not only failed, they spurred her on to expand the territory of her great weight-loss campaign.

"The difference between a pig and a person is that a pig has fat and is destined for the dinner table! Pick the right team!"

"A chicken eats grain and lays eggs. Can you lay an egg?"

"Birds can fly, so they burn a lot of calories. Are *you* a bird-person, eating that much...?"

"A person needs ambition. Gluttony is the lowest form of pleasure..."

"If you want to be beautiful, eat less, drink more water, and get rid of your potbelly and thunder thighs..."

"Put down your chopsticks and instantly become a better person..."

Whenever Chu Shenyu went out to get their meals, he had to pass by one blood-curdling, ferocious slogan after another. When he returned, he had to eat surrounded by them. As he ate, he couldn’t help but apply them to himself. What a uniquely awful experience!

Zhu Yun was serious about her diet. She refused to touch any meat or starches, eating only green vegetables and nursing a bowl of porridge.

No matter how Chu Shenyu tried to tempt her, she was like a monk in deep meditation, remaining unmoved and eating her vegetarian meal with a stoic expression.

That evening, she just gnawed on an apple, ate a single thin pancake, and drank a carton of milk.

Chu Shenyu felt completely helpless. As he turned off the lights and wrapped his arms around her for sleep, he grumbled, "I’m feasting on meat and fish, and you’re just having some vegetables and porridge. If you won’t feel bad for yourself, I’ll feel bad for you!"

"And look, you’ve gone and starved our bunnies."

Zhu Yun let out a soft gasp. "Really?"

’How could she have forgotten about that? Some people’s bodies were just built that way—when they lost weight, their chests were the first to shrink.’

’And she had worked so hard to nurture them.’

"Of course it’s true. Do you think you know them better than I do?" Seeing her reaction, Chu Shenyu declared with the utmost seriousness, his tone righteous and unwavering.

"Fine, fine. Starting tomorrow, I’ll eat normally. At worst, I’ll just eat a little less meat and carbs. I won’t be so extreme. I’ll just exercise more," Zhu Yun compromised, snuggling into his arms.

’Having someone manage your diet for you is both blissful and decadent.’

’And she hated exercise most of all!’

"So, when I get up, I can tear down all these slogans?" Chu Shenyu pressed, fighting for the sake of his own appetite.

"No way. I need to be constantly reminded to lose weight," Zhu Yun said firmly. "At the very least, my attitude has to be right. I’m only twenty-four right now. If I don’t practice self-control and stay vigilant, by the time I’m thirty or forty, my horizontal growth will be unstoppable!"

Chu Shenyu patted her back. "Alright, alright, you little tyrant. I’ve never seen anyone torment themselves like this."

This was a woman who, in the name of skin-whitening, would arm herself from head to toe on a scorching hot day. It just went to show the lengths she would go to for the sake of beauty.

「The next day」

Zhu Yun woke up feeling a little dizzy.

She swayed a bit, and after washing up, she chose a loose-fitting outfit. She looked longingly at the form-fitting dresses that accentuated her figure. "My little darlings, I’ll have you back out in the light again soon!"

Bag in hand, wearing a pair of woven, breathable leather shoes, she tilted her head, smiled softly, and placed her hand in the hand of the man waiting for her.

The door across the hall creaked open. Lin Jin emerged, clutching a handbag, her large belly prominent. She looked completely haggard. When she saw the loving couple, she pressed her lips together, lowered her gaze, and started down the stairs.

As she passed Zhu Yun, she seemed unable to contain her anger and bumped into her with a little bit of force.

Zhu Yun instinctively dodged with the momentum of the bump, but her vision suddenly went black, and she lost consciousness...