“Little Yue, come here, I need to tell you something.” Zhao Cheng waved Su Yue over. He started by asking about her health, then rambled about this and that, and only finally got to the actual matter.
The moment Zhao Cheng called out to Su Yue, Du Chengfeng, training nearby, instinctively stopped what he was doing and perked up his ears.
“Brother Zhao, can I think about it for a bit?” Su Yue didn’t answer right away. If it weren’t for raising the male lead’s favorability, she’d have left this world in an instant.
“Host, you’d better use these three days to push the remaining 20% favorability up, because coming up, the plot has the male lead meeting the female lead during a match, it’s love at first sight, and the female lead will go back to the country with the male lead. You know how it is, you’re just a background character. Once the female lead comes back, none of this concerns you anymore.” The system’s voice rang out in Su Yue’s mind at that moment.
“Didn’t you say the female lead wasn’t coming back for another half a year?” Su Yue cursed inwardly. Now it was throwing this at her, what was she supposed to do about it?
“In the plot, the female lead does come back after half a year.” The system sounded a little not sure of itself, had it forgotten to mention that the male lead would be staying abroad for several months?
“Forget it, I’m dropping this mission. Let’s pull out of this world.” Su Yue gave up. As unwilling as she was, there was nothing she could do besides feel helpless. Du Chengfeng’s attitude yesterday had already made things clear, if she wanted to raise favorability further, she’d need a different approach entirely.
Before she could even think of a way, he was already about to leave, and for several months at that.
“Host, I feel like we could still push a little harder. What if we, you know, went all the way and won him over that way?” The system sounded reluctant to give up, favorability was already at 50%, with only 20% left, and it really could be done with some effort.
“Get lost…” Su Yue roared inwardly, then shut the system off in one smooth motion.
“Don’t worry, just stay at the gym. I already had a word with Manager Chen, he won’t dare make things hard for you anymore.” Su Yue’s expression turned grim, and Zhao Cheng assumed it was because they weren’t taking her along.
Maybe he should discuss it with Du Chengfeng later and bring her along after all, worst case, he’d pay for it out of his own pocket.
“Thank you, Brother Zhao, for looking after me this whole time. You’re the first good person I’ve met in my whole life. Brother Du is a good person too, it’s just that I didn’t do well enough.” Su Yue bowed deeply to Zhao Cheng.
She had felt their kindness. To them, she was nothing more than a stranger they’d crossed paths with briefly, and yet they had shown her the greatest kindness.
Whether in her original world or in this parallel one, she was like a rootless dandelion, belonging nowhere.
So she decided to leave. She was dropping this mission, worst case, the next one would just be a bit harder.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t worked hard enough, it was that time simply wasn’t on her side. In fact, the main issue was that her own conditions weren’t good enough, but that was something she’d never admit.
“Little Yue, you’re not about to…” Something felt off to Zhao Cheng, was Su Yue about to quit?
Du Chengfeng’s heart sank too. Was this because of what happened yesterday?
Wasn’t she supposed to think it over?
“I’m planning to find a new job.” Su Yue closed her eyes and cut through the matter cleanly. She was afraid that if she waited any longer, she might do something that crossed a line, like that method the system had suggested, which wasn’t entirely off the table either.
“My family’s company is short a little secretary, just serving tea and pouring water, printing documents.” Zhao Cheng also felt it wasn’t quite right for a young girl to be working as a cleaner. His family’s company was big enough, surely he could arrange a spot for her without any trouble.
Du Chengfeng, eavesdropping nearby, went cold in the face immediately. He’d just gotten dumped by an employee, and now his own close friend was poaching her right in front of him.
“No need to trouble yourself, Brother Zhao, you’ve already helped me so much.” Su Yue turned it down outright, and Du Chengfeng let out a breath of relief.
“If you think the pay is too low, it can be raised.” Du Chengfeng suddenly cut in, absolutely refusing to admit it was because of that nagging guilt in his heart.
“Thank you, Brother Du, but my current pay is already plenty. Raising it further wouldn’t be right, a person shouldn’t be too greedy.” She was already making 5,000 a month, raising it further would mean taking advantage of him for no reason, and her pride wouldn’t allow that.
“All right then. If you run into any trouble, don’t hesitate to come find me, even if I’m not in the country.” Zhao Cheng didn’t expect the girl to be so stubborn, though it also showed she had solid values.
When Su Yue placed her resignation letter in front of Manager Chen, he thought she was messing with him.
“You were doing fine, why quit now?” Manager Chen’s eyes fell on the resignation letter. Before, he’d have jumped at the chance to get rid of this tactless girl, but Young Master Zhao had just given him a warning.
He’d just been warned on one end, and now she wanted to quit on the other, what was going on here?
Was she trying to set him up?
“People climb upward, water flows downward. If I don’t want to work here anymore, do I need a reason?” Su Yue kept her face cold. She was about to go die anyway, so what was there left to fear?
Manager Chen: fair point…
“Wait a moment.” Manager Chen immediately called Du Chengfeng, wanting to check with his boss’s wishes, after all, Su Yue was currently the boss’s life assistant.
The call connected quickly, and hung up just as quickly. Manager Chen then signed off with a flourish of his pen, from that moment, Su Yue was unemployed.
After settling her final pay with accounting and packing up her personal belongings, she had nothing left to do with this gym.
Walking out of the gym once again, she felt gloomy, standing lost on the street. This was a world unfamiliar to her.
She was like a grain of sand that had suddenly fallen into this world. Quietly, she had come. Quietly, now she would go.
“Host, why don’t we push a little harder!” the system coaxed. The host had been working so hard before, why give up so suddenly now?
“Heh heh…” Su Yue suddenly let out two cold laughs, startling the passersby nearby into instinctively giving her a wide berth.
Su Yue: …
“I’m going home now to sleep for three days and three nights. Whatever needs discussing can wait until I wake up.” Su Yue snapped back at the system in her heart, then shut it off and headed straight for her studio apartment.
In her original world, she’d been busy earning money, busy studying, busy preparing for the college entrance exam. After coming to this parallel world, she’d been busy working, busy racking up the male lead’s favorability. She was exhausted, she’d been through so much, she needed to rest, not even the gods could stop her now.
She first went to the food street and had a good meal, treating herself, then went home to shower, turn off her phone, and sleep.
Her turning off her phone was no small matter, it scared Zhao Cheng half to death. At first he thought her phone had just broken, but after two days and two nights of being unable to reach her, he started to suspect something had happened.
He’d planned to pay out of his own pocket and bring her along after all, only to find he couldn’t locate her anywhere.
Su Yue, sleeping like the dead, was woken up by loud knocking at the door. At first she was confused, then irritated.
Was a person not allowed to live in peace anymore?
All she wanted was to get a good night’s sleep, why was that so hard?
Whoever the damned troublemaker at her door was, disturbing her precious sleep, where was her knife?
She was going to stab this person to death. With that thought, still in her pajamas with her hair a complete mess, she opened the door, and the person outside stared at her, dumbstruck.