After being rejected twice that day, Wanqi Aotian didn’t show up for quite a while. Two weeks passed, and once the secretary officially resigned, only Que Tang and Lan Mi remained in the general manager’s office suite, facing each other daily.
Que Tang was feeling quite anxious about the happiness value, which had stalled at ten and refused to budge. Logically, the female lead and the male lead should have been seeing each other in private, but for some reason, there wasn't the slightest bit of movement.
On another front, having discovered issues with the Sales Department’s source of funds, she had started digging through even older records. This resulted in her living a life of daily overtime. Today was no different; she waited until Lan Mi had left for the day before using her overtime hours to organize the data. She suspected the Sales Department was engaging in wash trading and embezzling company funds.
“Miao~ Female lead’s favorability toward the host has increased by ten. Current value: twenty.”
Que Tang, in the middle of balancing accounts, was startled by the notification. “Holy crap, favorability can increase even when the person isn't right in front of me? How come? I’m working so diligently, can’t you give me a break?”
“It’s precisely because the host is working so hard that the female lead’s favorability has increased. Miao~”
“It’s basically just the female lead using her most powerful innate ability—‘over-imagining’—again, isn't it? It’s so hard to be human these days...” Que Tang lamented.
“If the host doesn't want to be human, you could consider immigrating to my Great Meow Planet. We just passed an alien race immigration policy recently, and applications are now open. As long as you have the purchasing power for one ton of dried small fish, you can obtain residency. Is the host interested? Miao miao miao!”
“...Is your currency dried fish? That sounds like a remarkably unreliable planet.” No wonder it produced an unreliable pitfall like Little Mushroom. Que Tang thought with dead eyes. “However, rather than becoming a cat so fat its belly drags on the ground, I’d rather stay human.” she rejected righteously.
“Miao-woo~ Hmph.” Little Mushroom gave a tsundere snort. “I came today to tell the host that I just received a notice from the Central System Administrator. All systems are going to undergo an upgrade, so we have to go back to have new equipment implanted. Miao.”
“You guys actually have a Central System Administrator? And an upgrade? No wonder you said before that you once sold the Meow Planet’s latest high-tech cloud memory to a hater with brain-deficiency to save her IQ.” Que Tang was surprised. “I think you should take this chance to install a few extra sticks of RAM for yourself and save your own IQ. Don’t let it go offline again. Let your IQ go; it’s still just a child.”
“Miao!” Little Mushroom hissed angrily. “The host’s IQ is the one that’s never been online! Anyway, since I won’t be able to contact the host for a while, please survive well on your own in the mission world. Miao!”
“...You know, I’ve always been surviving on my own in these mission worlds,” Que Tang said slowly and deeply. “By the way, I want to ask you a question before you go.”
“Loved you once, miao~” Little Mushroom answered instantly.
“...Not that.” If that stupid cat were in front of her, she would immediately execute a 360-degree tumble-dryer punishment.
“Lanxiang Vocational School, miao~”
“No! Not that either!” Cracks were already appearing in the binder in Que Tang’s hands.
“Then... New Oriental Cooking School? Miao?”
“...Do you dare to appear before me right now? I promise I’ll leave your corpse intact.”
“Don’t dare~ miao~”
“If you don’t dare, then shut up! What I want to ask is, why hasn't the happiness value of the female lead in this world increased at all? Didn't I already max out the male lead’s favorability toward her?”
“Host, did you forget that this is a rebirth novel? How could a reborn female lead truly trust the male lead? She’s back for revenge, miao~”
“Then what was the point of me grinding favorability earlier... What is the plot direction of this rebirth novel?”
“The plot of a rebirth novel should be: after the female lead is reborn, to get revenge on the male lead and the original heroine, she still lets the heroine enter her company as her assistant. However, she remains indifferent and ignores the male lead when he tries to seduce the heroine. As a result, the male lead falls for the female lead again and clings to her side. This situation only lasts for a while before the male lead, unable to endure the loneliness, returns to his old ways and starts fooling around outside. This time, he successfully hooks up with the heroine. The female lead suddenly thinks: wouldn't it be better if she wooed the heroine herself, gave them a taste of their own medicine by stealing her away, and then dumped the heroine after she broke up with the male lead? Finally, once everything is exposed and the male lead, heroine, and female lead have all broken up, the female lead suddenly realizes she has truly fallen in love with the heroine’s innocence, purity, kindness, and courage. She works hard to win the heroine back for a ‘everyone-is-happy’ ending. That’s roughly the plot. Miao~”
Que Tang listened quietly. Her expression didn't change, but the twitching at the corner of her mouth betrayed her true feelings. “So this is a...”
“This is a Female Lead x Female Supporting Character story, miao~”
“Meow your sister...” Que Tang felt herself age instantly. Her beating heart shattered into pieces, leaving a scene of devastation too painful to look at. “No wonder the female lead’s happiness value won’t go up. It’s because she’s just toying with the male lead... And if I want to increase her happiness value, I have to throw away my integrity and sell my chastity...”
“Yes, that’s exactly what it means, miao~”
Que Tang’s face suddenly went cold. “No wonder... No wonder you told me at the beginning to have a good romance with the female lead. You didn't pick the wrong mission; you did it on purpose!”
“I didn't say that, miao~”
“Don’t give me that. You clearly said it.”
“No, miao!”
Que Tang was too exhausted to argue and numbly accepted reality. “...Right, will there be any changes to the transmigration missions with this upgrade? What are the main updates?”
“Please rest assured, host, it won't affect the main program, miao~”
“Then what are you upgrading...” She had a premonition that the answer would make her cough up blood.
“Updating the Meow Snack Library to V3.2, miao~”
“Just get lost.” Que Tang’s eyes were dead. She knew that when it came to this stupid cat, she couldn't believe so much as a punctuation mark. It was a professional troll.
“Miao-woo~ Host, don't miss me too much. Complete the mission well. Be careful on your own without me.” Little Mushroom sounded reluctant to part.
“No, it makes no difference whether you’re here or not. Just get lost, and preferably never come back.” Que Tang cut off the communication without hesitation.
Because the information dump was simply too large to absorb and digest all at once, Que Tang stared blankly at the screen for a long time. Her mind was filled with eighteen different ways to cook a cat.
When Lan Mi stepped into the office, she saw her usually shy, head-bowed assistant dazed, looking as if she were lost in thought. She couldn't help but curl her lips into a smile. “Que Tang?”
Hearing the voice, Que Tang snapped back to her senses immediately. Realizing it was Lan Mi, she stammered, “G-General Manager.” After hearing the story Little Mushroom told, her fear level toward the female lead was now at maximum.
Lan Mi had long since grown accustomed to her little assistant’s shyness. She walked over to Que Tang’s side and pulled over an empty chair to sit down. “It’s already nine o’clock, and you’re still working overtime? Have you been that busy lately?” She lowered her eyes slightly, looking at the documents on Que Tang’s desk, and smiled secretly.
“N-No, it’s just that my ability isn't as good as the secretary’s, so I stayed to finish things up,” Que Tang explained in a small voice. “Did the General Manager forget something again?” she asked innocently.
Seeing her naive appearance, Lan Mi’s eyes lowered slightly, and a surge of malice—a desire to ruin that innocence—rose within her. However, she restrained herself and replied, “No, I just thought you seemed to be working overtime often lately, so I specifically came back to see if you were still here.”
Que Tang’s eyes widened in genuine surprise at being so favored. Her heart, however, was full of blood and tears.
“Que Tang. What exactly are you busy with? I haven't assigned you anything recently, have I?” Lan Mi had intended to tease her, but remembering Wanqi Aotian’s smug look earlier that evening... she suddenly felt it was time to end things. Whenever Wanqi Aotian appeared before her, she felt a surge of nausea she could hardly endure.
Que Tang’s face turned pale, and she lowered her head. “G-General Manager, I... while I was organizing last quarter’s accounts, I found several instances of unclear fund flows in the Sales Department.” She gathered the documents on the desk and handed them all to Lan Mi. “Because I wasn't sure and had no evidence, I stayed late every day to cross-reference the accounts.”
Lan Mi took them and gave them a casual flip. Her gaze turned cold. How could she not know about this? In her previous life, this was exactly what had brought her down until she had nothing left, leaving her with no choice but to drive off a cliff with the intent of dragging them down with her. Unfortunately... they had escaped while she paid with her life.
But this time... it was actually Que Tang who gave her these materials. She smiled ironically.
She placed the data on the desk and reached out to lift Que Tang’s habitually buried chin. “Que Tang...” Her index finger brushed against the girl’s skin suggestively. “Why are you working so hard... what is it for?” She had long noticed that her little assistant was always looking at her, intentionally or not. And whenever Wanqi Aotian appeared, Que Tang’s expression always held a hint of dissatisfaction.
Que Tang was stunned. She realized the atmosphere seemed a bit off, as if the plot’s art style had shifted toward... the direction she least wanted to see. She spoke urgently, “I-I just...” Is it a crime to work hard?! Que Tang roared internally.
Lan Mi placed her hand over Que Tang’s lips, stopping her defense. “No need to rush to explain. Let’s solve this problem first. As for the rest... we’ll talk about it later.” Smiling, she picked up the data and sat to the side to browse through it seriously.
The molested Que Tang was full of grief and indignation, wanting to cry but having no tears. She was one hundred percent certain that the female lead had just "over-imagined" something strange again. Now that the pitfall cat was gone, she finally found the value of Little Mushroom’s existence—at least it could have alerted her to various integrity-lacking "values."
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Transmigrated as the Mary Sue: The Villainess's Revenge System | Chapter 38 | The Script Flips | Novela.app | Novela.app
