Strawberry Flavored A Does Not Want To Be In A Relationship - Chapter 5

A few days after starting work at Hongfu Mall, Ruan Mei realized that what that young lady had said was true: Sister Chuang was truly a… pervert!

Every day when she arrived for work, she would invariably find Sister Chuang scolding the formal employees, her expression severe and imposing, enough to scare people just by looking at her.

Sister Chuang had a multitude of strict rules. Employees had to maintain a smile during work hours, and were forbidden from playing with their phones, pens, or computers. The customer service desk directly faced the main entrance, and Ruan Mei and her colleagues were also responsible for greeting every customer who browsed the mall with a cheerful smile.

They also had to learn to discern customers’ expressions. If a customer showed a look of difficulty or discomfort, they had to step forward to inquire, but without making the customer feel offended, for which there was a set of gentle scripts.

Tardiness or leaving early was absolutely not allowed. Any other activity during work hours would result in point deductions, and points equaled money. Deductions were merciless, but accumulated points could also lead to significant bonuses based on a personal scoring system calculated at the end of the month. Ruan Mei felt she definitely wouldn’t earn a bonus, so she didn’t pay attention to her own point system, focusing instead on being diligent from the tips of her hair to the ends of her toes, following every rule to the letter.

Simultaneously, her academic progress was rapid. She stayed up studying with the lights on until midnight every night, then had to wake up at six in the morning to attend morning self study at school, listening to lectures with extreme focus, even volunteering to answer questions.

During breaks, Li Namei often came over. However, Ruan Mei would always pull her close, earnestly questioning her:

“Did you listen properly in class today? What did you learn, and did you understand it? If there’s anything you don’t know, here’s your book, I’ll explain it to you!”

Li Namei felt like crying but genuinely believed everything Ruan Mei said was correct. She actually took out her own book and showed it to Ruan Mei:

“Today we covered this chapter. I only slept for ten minutes; I listened attentively the rest of the time.”

Ruan Mei:

“Where didn’t you understand?”

Li Namei held up the entire book and said:

“None of it.”

Ruan Mei:

“…”

She probably hadn’t even grasped the basics; listening to lectures was useless for her.

So, Ruan Mei went home, found junior high textbooks for all three years, and handed them all to Li Namei:

“From now on, don’t listen to the lectures in class.”

Li Namei’s face flushed with excitement. Boss finally isn’t forcing me to study anymore?

Ruan Mei then pointed to the small mountain of textbooks in Li Namei’s hands:

“In class, you read these textbooks, you need to study independently and finish all the exercises. I’ll check them every night, understand? I’m telling you not to listen to the lecture because you won’t understand it now. Build your foundation first, and only when I think you’re ready will you start listening to the lectures again.”

Li Namei felt like the sky was falling. How could she possibly finish all these books in several lifetimes!

Ruan Mei supervising Li Namei’s studies was witnessed by classmates from Class Three many times. Many secretly laughed:

“The second to last in the grade is tutoring the last in the grade. What is this Eighth Wonder of the World?”

Some couldn’t resist and posted on the school forum:

[Unbelievable! Attention everyone, the second to last and the last in the grade are about to steal your spots. Please prepare!]

That person had secretly taken a few photos of Ruan Mei and Li Namei talking, one of which happened to capture Ruan Mei holding several stacks of books. The replies below immediately became lively:

[Holy cow, can this actually happen? Wow, I’m so scared, what if they surpass me? P.S. I’m in the top 40 of the grade.]

[To be fair, didn’t these two used to have heavy makeup and look like ‘gaudy flowers’? How did they become so pure all of a sudden?]

[Hahahaha, I zoomed in and they are actually junior high textbooks, from Grade 7 to Grade 9! That’s too funny. Aren’t they high school students? Isn’t it a bit late to start studying junior high material now?]

Ruan Mei used to be a bully at school and made countless enemies. These enemies gathered in the thread, furiously mocking her, quickly pushing the thread to become popular.

But after a while, the entire thread disappeared.

Enemies: ???

Someone else posted:

[Why did the moderator just delete the thread next door?]

The moderator replied underneath:

[It wasn’t me. The forum was just hacked, and the intruder deleted that thread!]

The enemies were bewildered. The next second, they found that the posts they had just made were also deleted.

In the bustling Class Three classroom during break time, no one noticed Fang Zhishui put her phone into her desk drawer and glanced back at Ruan Mei, who was diligently working on problems.

Ruan Mei never checked the forum; her cheap phone couldn’t connect to the internet.

No one knew that Fang Zhishui had deleted those posts. Entering any school forum was easy for her, as she had become a hacker since junior high.

Fang Zhishui herself never wanted anyone to know, especially Ruan Mei. She was merely repaying a favor for that strawberry candy.

A few boys were clamoring while looking at their phones:

“Why did the thread get deleted again? Does that certain person have such strong connections?”

“I’m really curious about what score the School Bully Ruan will get with the monthly exam coming up soon? Didn’t her total score last time only come to a few dozen points? I remember math was only ten points, that’s terrifying!”

Suddenly, someone in the front row turned around and shouted loudly:

“Shut up, you’re disturbing my studying!”

The boys immediately fell silent.

Fang Zhishui glanced at the girl in the front row who spoke. That was the Class Three monitor, the top scorer in the entire class, and Fang Zhishui’s academic rival. She wore thick glasses like bottle bottoms and was named Chu Wanji, a true study fanatic.

Fang Zhishui turned back to look at Ruan Mei, frowning slightly.

Ruan Mei was buried in a mountain of books and questions, completely unaware of the minor commotion happening around her in the class, not even sparing anyone a glance.

In the afternoon, they had Chemistry class in the lab.

High school labs like this had students gathered around small tables, and groups were already pre-assigned. Ruan Mei thought for a moment and tragically realized that the original owner of her body had never been to the lab. The original owner had skipped every lab class since the beginning of the school year, so she didn’t have a lab partner.

The groups were set up for three people. Ruan Mei looked around anxiously, wishing Li Namei was in her class!

Soon, Fang Zhishui calmly walked over and stood next to Ruan Mei.

Some classmates noticed and let out a small gasp, but didn’t do much more, as Fang Zhishui had already actively teamed up with Ruan Mei during physical education class, so this wasn’t the first time.

Ruan Mei’s face almost wrinkled into a walnut. She didn’t dare say anything, so she looked up at Fang Zhishui and smiled:

“Classmate Fang, there seems to be an empty spot over there. Aren’t you going to join them? Working with me might drag down your lab grade.”

Fang Zhishui calmly looked down at Ruan Mei, her expression like a spring breeze on water, leaving no ripple.

“No need.”

Ruan Mei felt a bit nervous under her gaze, so she decided to say, “Then I’ll go over there…”

Just as she was about to get up, the collar of her shirt at the back of her neck was grabbed.

Fang Zhishui held Ruan Mei’s collar with one hand, spun her around, and planted her back in her original spot as if she were a drooping onion.

Ruan Mei:

“…”

The teacher walked in, scanned the room, and asked curiously:

“Why is there an extra student? Student, are you from another class sneaking in for the lesson?”

The whole class burst out laughing.

Ruan Mei didn’t say anything. She turned uncomfortably to look at Fang Zhishui, but saw that Fang Zhishui wasn’t laughing; instead, she looked displeased and glared at the boys who were laughing the loudest.

Ruan Mei felt a strange feeling welling up inside her. Before she could figure out what that feeling was, she heard the class monitor, Chu Wanji, from the front row, say clearly:

“Report to the teacher, this student is a student in our class, Ruan Mei. She was absent before due to some matters.”

The teacher nodded with a complicated expression:

“So, that’s the student Ruan Mei who is often absent but never asks for leave, right?”

Ruan Mei had no choice but to reply with a red face:

“I’m sorry, teacher. I will study hard from now on.”

The teacher didn’t say anything else and began to explain how to perform today’s experiment, walking around the class to check everyone’s equipment and materials.

It was common for students to whisper during lab experiments. Ruan Mei suddenly heard Fang Zhishui quietly ask beside her:

“You don’t know how to do anything, do you?”

Ruan Mei glared:

“Who said that? I know everything! Don’t underestimate me!”

Fang Zhishui raised an eyebrow:

“Let me do everything later.”

Ruan Mei stomped her foot lightly in anger:

“Don’t look down on people!”

Fang Zhishui let out a cold chuckle:

“These materials aren’t enough for you to squander.”

Ruan Mei pouted, her eyes wide with anger, like a round pufferfish.

After being angry for a long time, Ruan Mei could only reply:

“We’ll take turns operating it later. I’m not the same person I was before; I know everything now!”

Fang Zhishui looked at Ruan Mei intently. Hearing these words, her heart moved slightly.

This was indeed a question that had bothered Fang Zhishui for many days. The more she saw Ruan Mei’s earth-shattering changes, the more she couldn’t figure out why, and the more she cared about Ruan Mei.

One possibility was that Ruan Mei was faking it all along, waiting to deceive everyone before doing something big.

Like… assassinating her?

Fang Zhishui was amused by her own thought and quietly said:

“You probably don’t have the brains for that.”

Ruan Mei was so angry she wanted to roll her eyes.

The teacher continued lecturing, and then suddenly posed a question, asking someone to go to the blackboard to write the answer.

“Student Ruan Mei, come up and answer it. I want to check your foundation.”

Ruan Mei was full of confidence. She shot a sidelong glance at Fang Zhishui and went to the blackboard, where she quickly and fluently wrote down the answer.

Take that, for looking down on me! I have some skills too! Tremble, trashy female lead!

“That’s quite good, you actually got it right… You can sit down now.”

A crack appeared in Ruan Mei’s smile. That word “actually” fully expressed the teacher’s prejudice against her.

However, prejudice exists to be broken!

Ruan Mei walked down from the podium like a triumphant general and went to sit in her chair.

But with a “Thud,” she fell heavily onto the ground!

The pain in her tailbone shot sharply to her brain, and Ruan Mei’s expression went blank for a moment.

Surrounding classmates gasped one after another. Many people saw it was Fang Zhishui who pulled the chair!

Fang Zhishui stood coldly to the side, her expression devoid of any warmth.

She wanted to test whether Ruan Mei was acting and if she would lose her composure. She was hoping Ruan Mei would jump up and beat her, so at least things would be like before.

Unfortunately…

“Waaaaah! Owww! It hurts so much! Waaaaah, wuaaaaah, whimper, whimper…”

Ruan Mei sat on the floor and started crying loudly, crying so earth shatteringly, as if the mountains and rivers were changing color. Tears poured out like a waterfall, quickly wetting the floor.

The surrounding classmates immediately fell silent, looking at each other as they watched the former school bully cry like a child on the floor.

The teacher also saw the whole process and was now furious:

“Why aren’t you students united! Fang Zhishui, stand outside. You are dismissed from this class!”

Fang Zhishui:

“…”

She miscalculated. It seemed Ruan Mei wasn’t acting; her brain really must have a problem.