After carefully organizing everything from her own schoolbag and placing it neatly into the desk, Meng Huange turned her head and gazed at the fleeting shadows of those three as they left the classroom, gently furrowing her brows.
Almost forgot, those three need to be dealt with too…
Speaking of which, she and Su Wanli were still just ordinary students. Most of their time was spent at school, so if she wanted to strengthen the sense of companionship, it would be best to keep both class and free time within her grasp.
But before that, she had to clarify the relationship between Su Wanli and this little group.
Among the three, the easiest to tackle seemed to be the girl called Wu Bao, compared to the other two, she gave off an air of self-importance. As long as this could be properly used…
No, that’s not right.
Meng Huange snapped herself out of that train of thought, instinctively halting such a plan.
…First, it was Su Wanli’s school clique, then her driver, and then Zhang Shiyu. What about after that?
If she truly broke all of Su Wanli’s social ties for her own purposes, when she had no choice but to leave one day, who would Su Wanli rely on then?
She couldn’t do something so irreversible. Besides, Miss Wanli would never want her to become that sort of person.
Just imagining Su Xiaoli’s disappointed face when she learned the truth, Meng Huange’s heart couldn’t help but sink for a moment.
She sighed softly, looked at Su Wanli’s desk, and smiled faintly, thoroughly dismissing that dangerous idea.
No need to rush, take it one step at a time. As long as she could draw all of Su Xiaoli’s attention, the relationships among the four of them would naturally shift, especially those weak and brittle ones.
In the desk lay a gift Su’s father had asked her to deliver. She’d originally intended to give it to Su Xiaoli as soon as she arrived at school, but it looked like that would have to wait a bit.
Meanwhile, outside the corridor at Baiying Academy—
Su Wanli was gently leaning against the railings, silently gazing at the sky outside, where summer rain fell and the occasional thunder rumbled.
Really, she’d been dragged out here, but now that she was, she couldn’t get a single word out.
She turned around, letting out a deep sigh at the three hesitant girls.
“I’ll give you ten seconds. If you have something to say, spit it out. Just what was so important that you had to call me out here, and even drag Meng Huange in?”
The three exchanged glances, then wordlessly reached out their hands and played a round of rock-paper-scissors. Finally, Zhang Shiyu was pushed forward, holding a note in her hands.
“That, um, Su Old Boss, we just thought, maybe, possibly, we have something we’d like to tell you…”
“…Time’s up. I’m heading back.”
“Wait, wait, wait! I’ll say it, I’ll say it!”
Zhang Shiyu hurriedly grabbed Su Wanli’s school jacket, took a deep breath, pressed her hands together, and gave Su Xiaoli a dramatic bow.
“Su Old Boss, from now on, we’ll turn over a new leaf with you! Please don’t abandon us!”
“Huh?”
Before Su Wanli could even react to what ‘turn over a new leaf’ meant, Wen Man and Li Xinxin quickly stepped forward and bowed with Zhang Shiyu.
“Old Boss, we were wrong. We shouldn’t have gone around spreading rumors about you and Meng Huange…”
“Old Boss, we know we messed up, we shouldn’t have slacked off and fooled around at school…”
“And we really shouldn’t have snuck into the gym after school and seen you and Meng Huange on top of the—”
Zhang Shiyu was about to say something else, but the other two girls quickly pinched her arm, making her swallow her words.
“No, no, we didn’t go to the gym at all on the first day of school, we didn’t see anything!”
Su Wanli’s speechless silence was taken as tacit refusal. Zhang Shiyu bit her lip, straightened up, and made a gesture at the other two.
“Old Boss, yesterday we saw how focused you were during the exam, how heroic you looked while writing your answers! You were so inspiring in your final moments leaving school!”
That made us realize how meaningful it is to study, so…
The next second, all three of them whipped out notebooks and bowed deeply to Su Xiaoli again.
“Old Boss, we want to study hard too!”
After that string of words, Su Wanli couldn’t say a thing. She felt like the wrinkles on her brain were being smoothed out by sheer force.
We…also want to study hard?
System? System, what is going on here?
As if responding to her call, the System’s voice naturally came from the pocket of her school uniform.
[What’s wrong, Host, is there a particular situation where you require the System’s help?]
Can’t you see for yourself!? The three villainesses you assigned to me are suddenly all holding notebooks and saying they want to study hard! Doesn’t this seem suspicious to you? Their villain roles have completely shifted!
[So it’s about those three… Actually, there’s no need for you to worry too much. This is a normal reaction to your previous actions, well within the scope of the System’s non-intervention.]
Then, then what am I supposed to do? Should I try to explain things to them so they get back into their original roles?
[Outside the missions assigned by the System, you just need to maintain your own persona. Of course, if you want suggestions for further action, you may request additional tasks, but these won’t earn you extra rewards.]
Su Wanli turned around in silence, trying to cool her forehead by letting the wind blow against her face.
But before she could lower her temperature by a few degrees, the voices of the three girls behind her sounded again.
“…So, Su Old Boss, are you willing to let us study hard with you?”
Su Wanli turned back with an intimidating glare, slamming her fist against the iron railing.
“Hey, just who told you I was actually studying hard? I’m not! These last two days I’ve just been—”
“Just been…?”
Seeing their confused faces, Su Wanli opened her mouth, but in the end, swallowed her words.
Otherwise, what was she supposed to do, tell them she’d lose twelve billion if she didn’t get a good grade, or another twelve billion if she didn’t recruit fifty study partners?
Forget it, let them study if they want. Encouraging others to be diligent can only be a good thing—maybe it’ll even add a few points of merit for herself.
Su Wanli waved her hand at them, feigning nonchalance as she headed for the Class Three, Year Two classroom.
“…Enough, I can’t be bothered to explain. Study if you want. I didn’t ask you to.”
“Okay, okay, Old Boss!”
Finally getting her response, the three let out a huge sigh of relief, clutching their chests. Zhang Shiyu even tried to shake Su Wanli’s hand.
“Thank you, Su Old Boss! About that other thing, we’ll definitely keep it to ourselves. Absolutely won’t tell anyone! You can rest easy!”
Click—
Su Wanli nearly tripped on the steps at that, almost tumbling down the stairs.
Before she could properly embark on her villainous career, maybe she should first think about how to get these three out of Baiying Academy?