Jiu Yi: ?
The System: 【?】
“Even a thick browed, big eyed, upright system like you has learned how to lie now?”
【Huh? What I said is clearly the truth, how did I lie?】
“When did I ever sleep with her? More importantly, I am absolutely not together with her.”
【Host, last night you clearly… you actually still refuse to admit it?! And! Weren’t you incredibly happy?! I… I really misjudged you!】
The System was practically in disbelief, its tone laced with a distinct sob, giving Jiu Yi a massive headache.
Deciding not to argue with it, she simply continued, “Is there no other mission?”
【This mission is the most direct and the fastest one!】
“Fine then.”
Jiu Yi was left speechless. Bringing her awareness back to reality, she saw Leng Xuelang staring blankly at her phone, looking entirely unsure whether she should answer the call or not. Jiu Yi directly reached out to take the device from her hand. “I’ll speak for you.”
Then, completely ignoring whatever expression Leng Xuelang was making, she answered the call.
“Leng Xuelang, where are you?” As soon as Jiu Yi connected the call, Si Yining’s less than pleasant tone rang out. Hearing it was truly exasperating.
“What do you want with her?” Jiu Yi’s relationship with Si Yining wasn’t bad. To be precise, the original owner’s relationship with him was decent. Si Yining’s father and mother had an exceptionally close relationship with Jiu Yi.
Especially Si Yining’s mother, who was best friends with Jiu Yi’s mother. Consequently, when misfortune befell Jiu Yi’s mother and the family suffered such a drastic downfall, she had offered no small amount of care and protection to Jiu Yi.
Furthermore, Jiu Yi wasn’t much older than Si Yining, and they had been fairly familiar with each other since childhood. Although Si Yining was a playboy who loved to muck around everywhere, he truly didn’t dare to act up in front of his family elders.
Last night… when Jiu Yi suddenly appeared in the “underground treasure vault,” it had truly scared him half to death. He was terrified she would report his actions to his parents. If that happened… he might end up getting thrashed with a rattan stick even in his twenties.
Just thinking about it was miserable.
“Aunt… Auntie, why are you on the line?” Si Yining never expected that the person answering the phone would be Jiu Yi. His heart completely collapsed into utter panic.
“If I wasn’t here, what exactly were you planning to have Xuelang go over to your place to do?” Jiu Yi didn’t bring up the events of last night either, merely asking out of idle curiosity.
“I… I was just calling to show some concern for her… After all, she is an intern working on my end.” Saying this wasn’t exactly a lie, but for some reason, speaking these words in front of Jiu Yi always made him feel incredibly guilty.
“Concerned about what?” Jiu Yi found him rather ridiculous. “Concerned about whether she’s being bullied by me? Or what? Eager to have her complain about me right to my face?”
“…Auntie, you wouldn’t do something like that. Actually, there was a misunderstanding regarding last night’s matter.”
“What misunderstanding? You made someone wear so little clothing in that kind of weather…”
“She… she did it willingly.” Si Yining felt the misunderstanding here was far too massive. He hadn’t actually done anything to Leng Xuelang at all, and she was the one who chose to wear those clothes herself. How could that be blamed on him?
“Willingly?” Jiu Yi felt as though she had just heard the world’s biggest joke. She looked at Leng Xuelang, who was keeping her head lowered beside her, rendering her emotions unreadable, and asked her: “Did you willingly dress like that last night?”
“I didn’t.”
Faced with this direct question, Leng Xuelang could no longer hold it in. Her eyes welled with red, looking as though she had suffered a monumental grievance. “I don’t even like wearing that kind of clothing… I… I really only went there to work hard and earn money. I completely… completely never thought about anything else…”
Jiu Yi cast a glance at her, reaching out her hand to brush away a stray tear rolling down her cheek. The gesture seemed like pity, yet it also carried an air of seeing right through her, causing a sudden, inexplicable wave of goosebumps to rise across Leng Xuelang’s back.
It felt as though she was being targeted by something dangerous yet hidden, causing her to instantly straighten her spine. Her pupils almost uncontrollably narrow into vertical slits.
However, Jiu Yi withdrew her hand the moment contact was made, behaving exactly as though she were merely wiping away a tear. After doing so, she made no further unnecessary movements and simply continued her conversation with Si Yining.
【Host, she seems to have been moved! Her heart is beating dokidoki~ Ah~】 The System suddenly burst into a wild bloom of peach blossoms inside her mind, looking entirely too thrilled.
“Who is moved?” Jiu Yi asked out of curiosity, casually wiping away those eyesore peach blossoms within her mindscape.
The System felt its host truly lacked a sense of romance: 【Who else could it be? Only Leng Xuelang!】
“Is that so? Why do I feel like she’s experiencing fear instead?” Jiu Yi replied noncommittally.
【What fear?】 The System was bewildered.
Jiu Yi stopped responding to it, focusing instead on continuing her maneuvering with Si Yining.
“Yining, you should have heard what Leng Xuelang just said, right?”
Jiu Yi found his behavior laughable, and her tone turned uncharacteristically stern. “If you truly cherished her, even if she had uttered the words ‘willingly’ regarding those clothes back then, you should have stopped her instead of indulging it.”
“You didn’t just fail to respect her, you failed to respect yourself as well.” As she spoke, she seemed to lose all patience for continuing the conversation. “She is with me right now, and she won’t be returning to your place for her internship anymore. Issue her an extra month’s salary.”
“Huh?” Si Yining thought he had misheard. What did she mean by issuing an extra salary?
It was bad enough that he couldn’t get the person back, but why did he have to cough up an extra sum of money?
“Didn’t you say Xuelang is your intern? Is it wrong for me to help her demand an extra share of pay?”
“…What if she doesn’t want it?” This was, after all, Jiu Yi’s intention and not Leng Xuelang’s.
When Leng Xuelang first came to work by his side, she had actively chosen to forgo a salary just to remain with him. Why was she suddenly demanding an extra share of pay now?
“System, is this guy currently talking to me on the phone really the male lead of this book?” Jiu Yi rubbed her temples in sheer exhaustion, wondering if she had misheard. How could there be a male lead who was this stingy and self-righteous?
【Host, I am absolutely certain he is the male lead of this book. The novel you’ve transmigrated into belongs to the transition period from old school clichéd tropes to slightly modern ones. Furthermore, this is a ‘crematorium to win the wife back’ novel, so the male lead is bound to act a bit less than human.】
“Even so, that’s no reason to make a stand-in Omega work for free. Besides, Leng Xuelang… I recall her family situation isn’t very good, is it?”
【That’s true, but as I told you before, she has a love-brain character profile in the early stages. Even when she gets bullied, she feels it’s no big deal.】
“…She certainly doesn’t show that kind of personality in front of me?”
【You aren’t the male lead, so of course she won’t show her love-brain side to you.】
“When she gets bullied by me, she doesn’t swallow her grievances silently at all; she retaliates immediately.”
【Host, why don’t you put in a little effort to kick the male lead off his pedestal and become the main character yourself? Leng Xuelang would definitely fall for you.】
“…I decline.”
It wasn’t that Jiu Yi was jealous or upset because she was receiving differential treatment, nor did she find it unfair. Rather, she consistently found this Leng Xuelang to be incredibly bizarre, wasn’t her face changing a bit too fast?
Then again, it wasn’t that strange. Showing one face to the person she liked and an entirely different face to someone she disliked was perfectly normal behavior.
But no matter what, she could not allow her to remain a love-brain any longer.
【Host, you still haven’t completed the mission yet. Remember to say that line to the male lead to solidify your relationship with Leng Xuelang!】
“Got it.” Jiu Yi sighed internally. Why was life before retirement still so incredibly difficult?
“Aunt… Auntie, can you let Xuelang listen to the phone? I… I want to apologize to her personally…”
“Apologize to her personally over the phone?” Hearing this, Jiu Yi only wanted to laugh. “You’re quite a comedian.”
Leng Xuelang cast a glance at her. For some reason, watching Jiu Yi look so completely at ease and command the situation with such absolute poise made her want to shatter that very serenity.
She utterly detested people like this, they made everyone else look like utter fools.
However, since this person… was currently sticking up for her right now, she would let it slide. It wouldn’t be too late to play a trick on her afterward.
“I… I definitely won’t just do it over the phone. I… I will certainly bring a formal apology gift to say sorry to her in person later.” Si Yining had been completely stripped of his dignity by her remarks. His face burned with intense heat, feeling a level of shame he had never experienced before.
How had his little aunt’s ability to tear people down grown so drastically after not seeing each other for a while? He was entirely defenseless against it.
“An apology gift is a must, of course. Go ahead and bid on the tourmaline peach blossom brooch from today’s auction to offer her your personal apology.”
“She likes it?”
“I already gained a thorough understanding of her preferences last night. How could I possibly be unclear about what she likes?”
“…Auntie, Leng Xuelang is the person I like. You cannot possess her like this.” Si Yining seemed to grasp the hidden meaning within her words. His tone shifted instantly, leaking a heavy, volatile aura of hostility.
“Is that so? I already stayed together with her last night, sleeping soundly until we woke up naturally. If you truly like her, we’ll just have to see if she’s still willing to return to your side in the future. If she’s unwilling, there’s nothing I can do either.”
Jiu Yi truly could not bring herself to utter a line that was so crude and direct. She felt that blurting it out raw would be no different from completely destroying the original owner’s character setting, which she was naturally unwilling to do.
But failing to complete the mission would also bring its own set of troubles, so it still needed to be executed properly.
Only after she finished delivering this heavily modified, round-about version of the line and saw the mission indicator light up to signal her success did she finally relax her tense nerves.
Truly a handful.
“Auntie… that sentence you just said… what exactly did you mean by it?” Si Yining thought he had misheard, but Jiu Yi gave him no time to question further: “Exactly what it sounds like.”
With that, she hung up the phone immediately.
【Host, you played dirty!】 The System accused loudly.
Jiu Yi’s expression remained completely unbothered, making the System look even more anxious: 【How could you do that!】
“The desired effect was achieved, wasn’t it? What do you mean, ‘how could I do that’?”
【You didn’t say the exact line at all!】
“That line doesn’t match the original owner’s character setting in the slightest. Saying it outright would only cause my character profile to collapse.”
Jiu Yi couldn’t be bothered to pay it any more attention. Instead, she looked toward Leng Xuelang. Seeing that she still carried a sorrowful expression, seemingly weeping in silence, Jiu Yi let out a soft sigh. She lifted the girl’s chin, her touch softening by a fraction: “Do you like him that much?”
“I don’t.” As she spoke, tears unexpectedly spilled over once more, making her look pitiable to the extreme.
“Still denying it?” Jiu Yi reached out her hand to wipe away her tears. “Good Alphas are everywhere, there’s no need to tie yourself to a single tree.”
“Do good Alphas include you?” Leng Xuelang seemd genuinely heartbroken, looking at her through a hazy mist of tears as she choked on her sobs.
“When I’m acting as your boss, I’m actually pretty good.”
Leng Xuelang: “…”
This time, she could no longer hold back. Subtly reigning in her tears, she quietly released a tiny serpent. It slithered stealthily down to Jiu Yi’s ankle, preparing to deliver a sharp bite.