Did the Tsundere Miss Get Slapped in the Face Again Today? - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: “The Arrogant and Proud Her.”

 

You want to go home? What does that mean? Do you want me, your boss, to be lenient and let you off work early?

 

Jiang Yi, you must be down-to-earth. Don’t always try to cut corners. As your superior, there’s no way I would let you off work early.

 

Of course, if you beg me, if you butter me up, I might consider it.

 

Start now. Let me see how you beg me. I’ll listen.

 

Jiang Yi looked at the pile of messages she sent, feeling slightly speechless, yet also slightly amused.

 

Jiang Yi was engrossed in her chat on the phone when a colleague suddenly leaned over her shoulder.

 

The sudden appearance nearly made Jiang Yi drop her phone.

 

“You scared me. A fluffy head suddenly popped over.”

 

“Who are you chatting with? Your face is practically blooming with smiles,” the colleague said, holding a thermos and teasing her.

 

“No, just chatting casually with a friend,” Jiang Yi shrugged.

 

“Chatting casually? Do you think I believe you? Look at how cheaply you’re smiling. Did you get a boyfriend?”

 

Jiang Yi dimmed her phone and tucked it into her pocket: “No, nothing like that.”

 

Her colleague completely ignored her: “I have a younger sister. When she first got a boyfriend, she was constantly holding her phone and smiling like that—a cheap smile, just like you now. You can’t fool me. With my discerning eyes, I see right through you.”

 

Jiang Yi: “…”

 

After the colleague left, Jiang Yi picked up a small mirror and looked at herself.

 

The Jiang Yi in the mirror was bare-faced, with black-rimmed glasses perched on her nose—clean and attractive.

 

Was she smiling cheaply? No, not really.

 

Lin Anran’s trip home was quite long this time; a week had already passed. They contacted each other every day via text, and occasionally Lin Anran would call, usually late at night after Jiang Yi had fallen asleep…

 

Jiang Yi often suspected she did it on purpose, deliberately waiting until she was asleep to call and wake her up.

 

Although a week had passed since they last saw each other, it felt like they were in constant contact.

 

Today, after finishing her part-time shift at the convenience store, Jiang Yi headed home. While climbing the stairs, she noticed the light on the second floor was fixed.

 

Lin Anran had complained that this light was broken and no one fixed it. She hadn’t expected it to be fixed just a week after she went home.

 

She walked up to the third floor, always quickening her pace here.

 

Because the resident on the 3rd floor liked to leave their smelly shoes outside, the entire corridor reeked.

 

Every time Lin Anran passed by, she wanted to kick the door and curse the person. Jiang Yi always had to hold her back.

 

The main issue was that the 3rd-floor resident was already a difficult and unreasonable person. Many tenants had arguments with him.

 

Especially concerning the smelly shoes, people constantly complained, but the 3rd-floor resident simply wouldn’t listen and even made threats. There had even been incidents of fighting and knife injuries, which was quite scary…

 

If Lin Anran wanted to kick the 3rd-floor door, Jiang Yi would fear for her, worried she’d get beaten up. Since her bodyguard wasn’t around, Jiang Yi, with her slender arms and legs, was afraid she wouldn’t be able to protect her.

 

Jiang Yi’s steps paused as she reached the third floor, her face showing surprise.

 

The smelly shoes were all gone, even the shoe rack had been removed, and the awful smell had dissipated.

 

Could the 3rd-floor resident have moved out?

 

The 2nd-floor light was fixed, and the 3rd-floor resident might have changed. Today was full of good things, even if they were minor.

 

Continuing up to the 4th floor, she belatedly realized that the walls, previously covered in dense advertisements, had all been stripped, and even painted with a new coat of off-white.

 

The walls were now completely clean.

 

Also, the motion-sensor lights, which often flickered on and off, were highly responsive today. There was no need to clap or stomp to activate them.

 

How strange…

 

In this old, dilapidated neighborhood, the property management was just for show. They certainly wouldn’t send anyone to fix lights or clear advertisements.

 

Jiang Yi ran her hand over the stair railing. It used to be dusty, but now it was clean, as if someone had thoroughly scrubbed it.

 

What’s going on? Jiang Yi scratched her head, confused.

 

A neighbor’s door opened—a man and a woman, presumably a couple—and they acknowledged Jiang Yi.

 

Though they were neighbors, they didn’t really know each other. Jiang Yi smiled politely, and the neighbors did the same.

 

The couple chatted as they walked downstairs.

 

“Why is our corridor so clean? Even the ads have been cleared, and they even painted the walls. All the sensor lights were replaced, and those lights aren’t cheap.”

 

“I don’t know. I saw three or four professional cleaners working during the day.”

 

“Since when did the property management of this old, run-down place become so generous? Hiring people to clean? That’s strange.”

 

Hearing these conversations, Jiang Yi paused while opening her door. A guess flashed through her mind, but she dared not confirm it immediately.

 

The broken light on the 2nd floor, the smelly shoes on the 3rd floor, the advertisements on the walls, and the sensor lights.

 

All these replaced items were things Lin Anran had complained about or disliked.

 

Did she hire people to fix everything at once? The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became.

 

She quickly opened the door to go inside; she had to message her and ask.

 

But as soon as she opened the door, Jiang Yi froze.

 

She backed out, checked the door number, and looked at the floor.

 

It was the right door, so why was all the furniture replaced?

 

Her mind short-circuited for two seconds. After it rebooted, she closed the door first, took out her phone, and called Lin Anran.

 

The moment the call connected, before Jiang Yi could even speak, Lin Anran’s chattering voice started up.

 

“What’s going on? Jiang Yi, you high-and-mighty poor ghost, why did you actually call me? Are you abandoning your aloof persona?”

 

“Weren’t you pretending to be cool every day? Not today? Oh, I know. Did you go home and see the surprise I gave you? Look at how pathetic you are…”

 

Jiang Yi quickly interrupted. If she let her keep chattering, she might not get a chance to say a single word in a half-hour phone call.

 

“Did you hire people to replace all the furniture in my house? And the things in the corridor, did you hire people to take care of those too?” Jiang Yi asked.

 

“What else? You don’t need to thank me too much. I just felt sorry for how shabby you live, so I had a moment of great compassion,” Lin Anran gloated with a humph.

 

Jiang Yi was silent for a moment: “You replaced my furniture and completely changed the house. Shouldn’t something like this require my consent?”

 

The phone conversation fell into a brief silence. For a moment, neither of them spoke.

 

After about three or four seconds, Lin Anran’s voice lost its initial arrogance and asked timidly: “Are you angry?”

 

Jiang Yi said helplessly: “No. What I mean is, when you make a decision, and that decision involves me, you can just ask me a little instead of making the final call yourself.”

 

Lin Anran replied with an “Oh,” a hint of grievance in the sound.

 

Her grievance quickly turned into anger.

 

“I just wanted you to live more comfortably! Why are you so ungrateful? Not only are you ungrateful, but you’re blaming me! Jiang Yi, how can you be so excessive? I don’t want to talk to you anymore! I’m ignoring you!”

 

Sometimes Jiang Yi truly felt she was a childish brat, like a three-year-old, constantly threatening to ignore her…

 

“I am grateful. Why would I not be? But let’s be clear: I’m not paying for this furniture.”

 

“Money, money, money! All you ever think about is money! You don’t need to pay for it, beggar!”

 

Jiang Yi sighed softly: “The house belongs to the landlord. It’s not worth it to replace the furniture with such good stuff. I might not be able to take it when I move.”

 

Lin Anran: “The house belongs to the landlord, but the life is yours.”

 

Jiang Yi was stunned. Although Lin Anran was completely clueless about social etiquette, sometimes her words were surprisingly insightful.

 

The life was her own, yet Jiang Yi had always lived frugally and stingily. She had rented this apartment for over three years, but she had rarely added any furniture.

 

The furniture was the same as when she moved in three years ago, and it remained the same after three years of living there.

 

No one expected that the apartment, which had remained unchanged for three years, would suddenly undergo a massive transformation.

 

After ending the call with Lin Anran, Jiang Yi walked around the “brand new” apartment.

 

The apartment used to be quite sparse: a small wooden table, a small sofa, a bulky old TV, and nothing else.

 

Now, it was full of items. The bulky TV was replaced by a projector, the small sofa by a pink long sofa, the small wooden table by a pink table, and even the curtains were pink.

 

Jiang Yi smiled and shook her head as she toured the room.

 

The apartment was practically a pink castle. Lin Anran had decorated it entirely according to her own preferences.

 

She pushed open the bedroom door, where a pink bed was the first thing to meet her eye, and the cabinets were also pink.

 

Jiang Yi always knew Lin Anran liked pink, but she never realized she liked it to this extent. Everything visible was pink.

 

She opened the closet. Excellent. As expected, Lin Anran had thrown away her few remaining clothes and, without permission, replaced them with shirts that Lin Anran deemed not “unsophisticated.”

 

Lin Anran insisted her shirts were unsophisticated. Now that she had the chance, she simply threw her old clothes away and replaced them with new ones.

 

Jiang Yi picked up a random shirt. Compared to the old ones, it was indeed more stylish and the material was better. It clearly wasn’t cheap.

 

The thing about Lin Anran was that her intentions were good. She wanted to give her better furniture, better clothes, and better things.

 

But she had a flaw: she liked to make decisions herself and never asked for input.

 

Jiang Yi had known about her flaw from the beginning, so when she saw her clothes thrown away and replaced with new ones, Jiang Yi accepted it naturally, as it was within her expectation.

 

If Lin Anran knew how to be considerate and ask for input, she wouldn’t be Lin Anran.

 

Self-willed, arrogant, aggressive, self-centered, and inconsiderate of others’ feelings were Lin Anran’s inherent labels.

 

She had many faults, and in the eyes of ordinary people, she was a terrible person. But Jiang Yi knew that she was very good. She just didn’t know how to express herself; she was just too domineering.

 

She just needed someone to patiently teach her.

 

So, Jiang Yi taught her: “Next time you make a decision like this, remember to ask me first.”

 

Lin Anran: “I won’t. Why should I ask you? I replaced the furniture because I wanted to. I replaced your clothes because I wanted to. Don’t boss me around.”

 

She maintained the attitude of I won’t listen, I don’t care, and I’ll do it again next time. But Jiang Yi knew she was listening. The next time she made a decision like this, she would definitely ask for her opinion first.

 

Every time Jiang Yi taught her, she was stubborn, but she always learned well.

 

She was very good, and very obedient.