Around nine that evening, I finish dinner, take a relaxing shower, and suddenly think of Amy. So I send a video call her way, which startles Amy, who's watching anime at the time, making her hand jerk in surprise.
Staring at the incoming video call notification on WeChat, she's so nervous she doesn't know whether to answer it or not. After thinking it over for a moment, she quickly changes out of her pajamas, picks out a short-sleeve shirt to put on, and quickly redoes her hair in front of the mirror.
Meanwhile, I hold my phone and frown, so I hang up the call and send a message instead. "Amy, are you busy right now?"
Meanwhile, Amy isn't idle either. She tidies up her cluttered desk, then pulls out her homework and lays it out on the desk. Once everything's in order, she finally replies, "I was just in the shower. What's up?"
I reply, "Amy, you haven't done today's workout yet."
Amy thinks to herself, ugh, seriously, I finally got a chance to relax. Can't I just get a break? She says, "All right, I'll go work out in a bit."
I think it over for a moment and say, "Don't put it off for later. If you don't have anything else going on right now, just start working out now. I'm worried you'll keep putting it off and forget entirely. Let's open a video call and I'll supervise your workout."
Seeing this message, Amy freezes completely, then replies, "Huh? Do we really need to do a video call? That seems like way too much trouble. I can just work out on my own."
I reply firmly, "Until you've built a solid habit, I need to keep an eye on you, so don't even think about stalling your way out of it."
Even though Amy is a bit exasperated, she obediently starts the video call anyway. The moment the call connects, she sees a handsome face appear on the screen, accompanied by a low, deep voice.
"Amy, can you see me?"
Amy feels a bit uncomfortable, staring at her own reflection on the video screen, growing more self-conscious by the second. She forces a smile and says, "Yeah, I can see you. Hold on a second. Let me switch shoes and head to the gym."
I nod. She quickly changes her shoes, picks up her phone, and walks out of her room.
Grace is in the living room reading a magazine. She glances over at her little sister and casually asks, "Amy, it's already almost eight. Why are you heading out now? Where are you going?"
Amy looks over at her sister sitting on the couch flipping through her magazine. Her sister's exquisite profile, graceful figure, and a pair of almond-shaped eyes gazing at her with a half smile. Suddenly it reminds her of the time she used to attend parties before, when there was always someone fawning over and flattering her sister, praising her sister for being both talented and beautiful, accomplished at such a young age. And then, when it came to her, the best compliment they could manage was that she had a lucky kind of look.
She's not foolish. She can tell perfectly well those people were just paying her empty flattery. Eventually, she just stopped going to those parties altogether, because the comparison was simply too brutal. She didn't want to keep embarrassing herself like that.
Snapping back to the present, she shakes her head and says, "I'm not really going out. I'm just heading to the gym."
Hearing this, Grace looks a bit surprised, thinking to herself, usually it takes coaxing and cajoling just to get Amy to go work out with me. Why is she being so self-motivated about it today? Every time she goes to the gym, she loses patience after no more than ten minutes. If I'm right there with her, encouraging her along, she can usually push through five or six more minutes. Maybe I should go along and keep her company. That way, she might be able to stick with it a bit longer.
Then she says, "Amy, do you want me to come with you?"
Hearing this, Amy shakes her head firmly, turning down the offer. She doesn't want Ethan to meet her sister, because then Ethan would only have eyes for her sister and wouldn't even notice her at all. She thinks, maybe I'll wait until Ethan and I are closer before introducing him to my sister.
"Sorry, Grace."
Grace nods, not pushing the matter, and says, "All right, go ahead then. Good luck, Amy."
Arriving at the gym, Amy says, "All right, I'm starting now." Then she begins her usual workout routine.
On my end of the call, I stay quiet the whole time, only occasionally glancing at my phone. By the time she finishes her whole routine, she's already been working out for almost an hour and a half. She wipes off her sweat and slumps down onto the treadmill.
Exhausted, she thinks to herself, there's no way today's workout wasn't enough. Since he's been watching me the entire time, I didn't want him to think less of me. So I put in a real solid hour and a half. An hour and a half. Normally, I only ever managed ten minutes. Even if some divine being showed up right now, they couldn't find fault with this.
I glance up at her and suddenly say, "Amy, how about another half hour of running?"
Amy's eyes go wide, her face full of disbelief. Wait, is this guy crazy? I've already worked out for an hour and a half today. Not only does he not even praise me for it, he wants me to do another half hour on top of that. A demon. He's an absolute demon.
"I know you've already done really well, but what you've burned so far is just today's baseline. If you can push through another half hour, that's what'll actually get you to lose weight. Don't you want to slim down?"
Seeing her expression waver a bit, I press on further, continuing to encourage her. "Every single workout is a breakthrough in itself. Weight loss is exactly about pushing through when you're already exhausted. That's what actually makes it effective. Honestly, you could handle another half hour of running just fine, couldn't you? This amount of exercise is a piece of cake for you."
She takes a deep breath. "Fine, give me five minutes to rest and then I'll do another half hour of running."
So, under my verbal offensive, she ends up running for another thirty minutes.
Before ending the call, I remind her, "Don't forget, we're all heading out together tomorrow. Don't sleep in too late."
She lets out a listless "mm," her head hanging low, then drags herself, exhausted, out of the gym.