Chapter 3: Extreme 30 Days
The next morning.
Gu Heng slowly opened his eyes, waking from his slumber. He groggily raised his arms and stretched with all his might before sitting up in bed.
"Huh?"
"My alarm didn’t go off?"
When Gu Heng picked up his phone and saw the time on the screen, he froze for a moment.
Last night, by the time he finished creating his weight-loss plan, it was already the dead of night.
He had set an alarm for seven o’clock before going to sleep.
And yet, it was just a few minutes past six, and he had woken up naturally.
What Gu Heng found most incredible was that even though he had only slept for five hours, he felt better than he usually did after sleeping for ten.
His mind was clear, his spirits were high, and he felt completely refreshed.
He was even in a great mood.
’Could it be...’
’Is this the buff from the Eternal Day Engine?’
As the possibility crossed his mind, Gu Heng’s heart began to beat much faster.
If he had felt a sense of unreality about the sudden appearance of Brother Tongzi before going to sleep last night, he was now a firm believer in its existence.
He rolled out of bed and yanked open the curtains.
Instantly, a cascade of golden sunlight poured into the room.
The overnight storm seemed to have washed the entire city clean.
...
After quickly washing up, Gu Heng changed into his workout clothes and left the house to begin his fasted cardio.
According to his training plan, morning fasted cardio was supposed to be sixty minutes on a high-incline treadmill.
Unfortunately, Gu Heng didn’t have the equipment for that at home, so he had to substitute stair climbing for the incline treadmill. As long as he kept his heart rate between 130 and 140, the workout effects would be more or less the same.
At first, Gu Heng felt pretty good about himself.
But after more than half an hour of climbing stairs, he felt like his legs were filled with lead.
He let the sweat stream down his face, gritting his teeth and forcing himself to persevere until the 60-minute timer on his alarm went off. The moment it did, he collapsed onto the stairs.
"HUFF... PUFF..."
Gu Heng gasped for air, his entire body soaked in sweat.
He sat on the stairs resting for a good while before finally getting up and heading home.
Back home, he took a quick, warm shower and began to prepare his fat-loss breakfast.
Gu Heng’s breakfast for the day consisted of six egg whites, 200g of broccoli, and 300ml of black coffee.
By the time he finished eating, it was nine o’clock.
Gu Heng found a backpack, stuffed two sets of workout clothes and a pair of athletic shoes from his closet inside, added his toiletries, and then shouldered the bag and left the house, hailing a cab to the city center.
...
「9:30 AM, Lion Sports Fitness Center.」
"Hello."
"I need to get a gym membership."
Gu Heng stood at the front desk with his backpack on, getting straight to the point with the receptionist.
Zhao Ling, who had been cleaning the front desk, saw a new customer arrive and quickly put down her rag. She greeted him with a smile, "Sir, how long of a membership are you looking for? I can have one of our membership consultants come over and give you a tour."
"Three months is fine."
"I want the Diamond Card."
Gu Heng shook his head. "No need for a tour. Let’s just get the membership."
If he wanted to lose 13 kilograms in 30 days, working out at home just wouldn’t cut it. He needed professional equipment.
At the same time, he also needed professional supplements and a professional fat-loss meal plan to support his efforts.
The Lion Sports Fitness Center where Gu Heng now stood was the most high-end gym in all of Beichun.
It occupied a standalone building in the city center, with a total of five floors.
The first floor was a rest area, the second was for cardio, the third was for strength training, the fourth was for group classes, and the fifth was a swimming area.
Each floor was over a thousand square meters and the entire building was equipped with an advanced fresh air ventilation system.
Since opening at the beginning of the year, Lion Sports Fitness Center had quickly become the most exclusive gym in Beichun, attracting many wealthy people and beautiful women to sign up.
The memberships here were divided into Gold and Diamond cards. The only difference was that the former didn’t include access to the fifth-floor swimming area, while the latter did.
In addition, the center was also equipped with a professional light-meal restaurant. It was, in a word, a perfect match for all the needs of Gu Heng’s self-made weight-loss plan.
Although a little surprised by how decisive Gu Heng was, Zhao Ling did as he asked and contacted a membership consultant to set up his membership.
From the moment Gu Heng arrived at the gym to the moment he entered the locker room with his new card, not even fifteen minutes had passed.
After changing into his workout clothes, Gu Heng went to the third-floor strength training area and continued to strictly follow his weight-loss training plan.
The core of weight loss was, in fact, maximizing one’s calorie deficit.
If Gu Heng wanted to lose 13 kilograms in 30 days, he had to maintain a daily state where his total calories burned exceeded his intake by at least 1500 kcal.
9:00 AM, Strength Training: 8 sets of squats + 8 sets of deadlifts + 3 sets of pull-ups.
12:00 PM, Lunch: 150g of boiled chicken breast + 200g of cucumber.
1:00 PM, Midday Cardio: 60 minutes of rope skipping.
3:00 PM, Resistance Training: 8 sets of bench presses + 5 sets of high lat pulldowns + 5 sets of crunches.
6:00 PM, Dinner: 200g of steamed cod + 300g of spinach.
7:00 PM, Evening Cardio: 80 minutes of breaststroke.
9:00 PM, Recovery: 15-minute cold bath + 500mg magnesium tablet.
...
By the end of the day, as Gu Heng walked out of the Lion Sports Fitness Center, he had the distinct, undeniable feeling of being released from prison.
Exhausted!
He was so damn exhausted!
Gu Heng felt like the little bit of food he ate today didn’t even amount to one of his regular late-night snacks.
Just now, during his evening cardio, Gu Heng had almost drowned in the pool.
The thought that he had to endure this for another 20 days—and that the final 10 days would be even more grueling than this—plunged Gu Heng into a faint sense of despair.
"Damn it..."
"Once I survive this month, I’m going to order every single version of the ’I Don’t Eat Cilantro’ challenge—the Grad School Edition, the Civil Servant Edition, the Get Rich Edition, the Employment Edition, the Hustle Edition. I’ve got to see for myself what that’s all about!"
Clinging to that promise, Gu Heng fought his way past the ultimate temptation of the roadside food stalls and returned home. He didn’t even dare to scroll through TikTok or his Moments, just flopped onto his bed and went straight to sleep, terrified of being backstabbed by some troll’s food post.
...
Time flew by. Over the next twenty days.
Gu Heng came to profoundly understand what it felt like to wish for death. Waking up every day with a gnawing hunger only to start training—it truly felt like every day was a year.
If Brother Tongzi hadn’t dangled the reward in front of him early on, serving as a constant source of motivation, he probably would have given up long ago.
Of course...
The initial buff from Brother Tongzi, the Eternal Day Engine, also played a part. Under its effects, Gu Heng could recover his physical energy and regulate his emotions to the greatest extent possible through sleep in a limited time, which prevented his body or mind from breaking down.
Under these circumstances, he was certainly exhausted, and the suffering was real.
However, the results were remarkable.
From his starting weight of 93 kg, after 21 days of training.
As of today, he had successfully lost 10 kg, leaving only 3 kg to go.
The goal seemed close, but Gu Heng wasn’t optimistic.
Because he didn’t have a high starting weight to begin with, it only got harder the further he went.
Losing another 3 kg in the final 9 days would be no easier than the first 21 days, and might even be more difficult.
Today, there were less than nine days left until Brother Tongzi’s deadline, and according to Gu Heng’s weight-loss plan, he would officially enter Phase Two today: the dehydration sprint.
In the final nine days, he would gradually reduce his water intake.
From the initial 3L per day, he would cut down to 1.5L, and then to 500ml per day for the last two days.
By then, Gu Heng would truly push himself to the absolute limit.
...
「Day 27 of the weight-loss plan.」
Night fell, and the city lights twinkled to life.
"HUFF... PUFF..."
Gu Heng was on the treadmill, doing his evening cardio training.
Incline 15, speed 5 km/h.
In front of Gu Heng was a clean, bright glass curtain wall, which now reflected his face.
In just over half a month, he had shed more than ten kilograms.
This made Gu Heng, who had looked swollen before, appear handsome and refined once more.
His lost jawline was gradually returning, and the excess fat on the corners of his mouth and cheeks had disappeared.
As Gu Heng watched his reflection in the glass, with every long stride he took, he had the faint illusion that he was about to meet and merge with his 14-year-old self.
By this point, Gu Heng’s water intake had been restricted to 1L.
He had also started to employ all sorts of high-tech tricks and hardcore supplements.
Liquid protein powder, EAA branched-chain amino acids, L-carnitine, spirulina powder, and so on—these things were gradually replacing food as the source for his body’s most basic needs.
"BANG!"
The moment his countdown alarm went off, it was as if all the strength had been drained from his body. He slammed the red emergency stop button on the treadmill, and his legs went weak, nearly causing him to collapse onto the machine.
"HUFF... HUFF..."
At that moment, Gu Heng’s breathing sounded like a broken bellows.
"Are..."
"Are you okay?"
Just as Gu Heng was seeing stars, a woman’s voice, tinged with uncertainty and alarm, sounded by his ear.
"I..."
Gu Heng managed to lift his head to look beside him. He had just uttered a single word when the rest of his words got stuck in his throat.
So beautiful!
Gu Heng stared at the girl before him, completely stunned.
Her face was delicate and refined, with clear eyes beneath gently arched brows. Her features were exquisite and well-defined, and her small, cherry-red lips were naturally colored without makeup. Her smooth, raven-black hair was tied back in a simple low ponytail, with a few stray strands falling softly across her forehead, adding a touch of gentleness to her otherwise cool aura.
She was wearing a simple and modest yoga outfit—a light, sky-blue top with dark gray yoga pants, paired with shorts of the same color. The attire perfectly accentuated her superb figure and her long, straight, beautiful legs.
On top of all that, she possessed the kind of naturally fair, cool-toned skin that countless women envied. Under the lights, her face seemed to glow.
Back in the day, Gu Heng had seen his fair share of beauties in nightclubs, yet he was still stunned by the girl in front of him, which was a testament to just how breathtakingly beautiful she was.
The girl watched as Gu Heng stared blankly at her without a word. Her delicate brows slowly furrowed, and when Gu Heng noticed the change in her expression, he realized he had been staring.
"I’m fine, thanks..."
Gu Heng snapped back to his senses and replied politely.
Hearing his response, the girl simply gave a slight nod.
Then she turned, got on the treadmill next to Gu Heng’s, put on her headphones, and started her workout.
Seeing this, Gu Heng took the hint and didn’t bother her any further. He turned and left the treadmill, heading to an open area to stretch...