Chapter 57
…Although she didn’t know what he was playing at, Zhuang Chi suddenly realized: Lou Che seemed to be unhappy right now.
Or rather, he seemed to be suppressing his emotions. Despite the sunny smile on his face, he wasn’t like Gu Ximian, who would genuinely smile when she was at the peak of her anger. His acting skills in this regard weren’t very good. It wasn’t just Zhuang Chi; everyone present probably sensed a different undertone from him.
Although Lou Che tended to do as he pleased, he was someone who would speak his mind directly. So, for him to act this way made Zhuang Chi a little concerned. Thus, she didn’t stop him, wanting to see what would happen.
And so, the trio couldn’t stop Lou Che either. He really did, in a very prim and proper manner, recount Zhuang Chi’s work. To be honest, there wasn’t much to say. The only substantive task was playing the Huggy Bear mascot. What was worth mentioning was that Lou Che had even compiled statistics, meticulously explaining the comparison between this year’s Mental Health Research Club recruitment results and last year’s—the data was surprisingly good. It seemed the recruitment strategy of using Kuma to attract attention was a great success.
Just when he finished talking about all this, Zhuang Chi thought that was about it, but she heard Lou Che continue without stopping, “…And then, during the lunch break, she noticed that Gu Ximian might be in danger. She went alone to confirm and, surrounded by more than ten unidentified Alphas, she ensured Gu Ximian’s rescue but was taken away herself, unable to complete the second half of the club recruitment.”
“That’s about it,” Lou Che said, putting down the documents in his hand and returning to his seat. He looked left and right. “What are you all staring at? It’s time to give your scores.”
The trio exchanged glances, still looking a bit dazed, but they managed to give their scores. Lou Che watched them finish writing and asked, “How much?”
They hesitated for a long while—mainly wary of Ling Jing. In the end, they all flipped over their scores at the same time.
“This really doesn’t surprise me,” Gu Ximian’s voice was calm as she watched from the sidelines, tinged with a hint of laughter at the absurdity. “3, 2, 2. To dare give such scores in front of us, are they idiots?”
…Indeed. Thinking about it, it was something that required a lot of courage. Zhuang Chi, who had received the low scores, had anticipated it, so she just gave a wry smile, her mood still fine. She watched Ling Jing roll up her sleeves and charge forward, and even had the spare thought to break into a cold sweat for the feather duster baptism these people were about to receive.
“Wait a minute, Ling Jing. Five minutes.”
But just as Ling Jing menacingly extended the feather duster toward the boy next to her, Lou Che stopped her first. “It’s not over yet. I still have something to ask them.”
“Huh? Why should I listen to you?” But Ling Jing’s engine was already fully revved up, and she glared hostilely at Lou Che as well. “It was you who insisted Zhuang Chi come for this stupid interview. This is a play you all cooked up, isn’t it! What the hell are you doing, you little shorty!”
Lou Che, who was indeed slightly shorter than Ling Jing, was visibly taken aback. He turned his head away, a rare sight of him being at a disadvantage. His gaze paused on Gu Ximian for a moment before turning to Zhuang Chi. “…Zhuang Chi, I want five minutes. Can you hold Ling Jing’s reins?”
…It was like he was tattling to a parent. Zhuang Chi felt an untimely urge to laugh, while Ling Jing grew even angrier. While yelling, “How dare you even speak to Zhuang Chi,” she seized every second to swing the feather duster. The three had already been hit several times, and for a moment, the room was in chaos with feathers flying everywhere. The rising dust made Zhuang Chi sneeze twice in a row, and she had no choice but to speak up with a helpless smile to stop Ling Jing. “Stop for a moment, just let them finish talking—and you should probably put that feather duster away, it’s full of dust.”
Ling Jing stopped with a huff, hugged the feather duster, and walked over to the storage shelf, where she began to sulkily search for other handy weapons. Lou Che, who had also been hit a few times and was now covered in dust, coughed twice and quickly turned to the trio, seizing the moment to get to the point. “…Alright, you three, why did you give those scores?”
“Wh-why… It’s a very fair score,” although still cowering a little, Boy A retorted, unconvinced. “She only did that one job, and besides, being a mascot… isn’t that something anyone could do? A job with no technical skill at all…”
“Yeah, and she didn’t even finish it, did she?” The girl in the trio chimed in. “I heard she even took the Mental Health Research Club’s mascot costume when she left, so they couldn’t even use it in the afternoon. From the perspective of a helper, she’s already disqualified, right?”
“…My opinion is similar to theirs,” Boy B, who had been hit the most by the feather duster, looked slightly disheveled as he put his knocked-off glasses back on and sneered. “And, I heard a rumor that Gu Ximian was the one who rescued her. Getting kidnapped and then needing an Omega to be saved, can you even call that an Alpha… You think so too, don’t you, Lou Che?”
He looked at Lou Che with great confidence, seeking his approval. After all, everyone knew that Lou Che’s standards for an “Alpha” were quite strict. The slightest flaw would earn his criticism with words like, “An Alpha wouldn’t make this kind of mistake, would they?” So, for someone as severely disqualified as Zhuang Chi, it went without saying—
“…”
But to his surprise, Lou Che didn’t nod immediately. Instead, he was silent for a long moment, then silently scribbled a score on his own scoring paddle and slammed it on the table with a loud smack.
Boy B sensed something was wrong and leaned over to look. He caught a glimpse of a 0 and was instantly overjoyed. “See! You also—huh?”
He took another look, and his expression changed drastically. He shot to his feet and exclaimed, “10 points? Lou Che, are you—are you crazy!”
“I’m crazy?” Lou Che shot his head up and stood up as well. He grabbed Boy B’s scoring paddle with a 2 on it from the side, his brow furrowed tightly, and tossed it onto the table as if unwilling to touch it. “…I think you’re the ones who are crazy. You gave this kind of score?”
“And you two.” He said, turning to the other two who were stunned. He angrily swept their scoring paddles over, growing more indignant the more he looked. “…Did you even hear what I just said? Do you not understand what Zhuang Chi did?”
“First, she encountered Alphas who were let in ‘due to St. Blaisedon’s inadequate security.’ Then, she rescued a person from the hands of Alphas who ‘far outnumbered her.’”
“Is this also something anyone could do? Hmm?” he said, looking at the speechless Boy A. “Why don’t you give it a try? I’m afraid you’d run faster than anyone else.”
“So why does St. Blaisedon have such a major security problem? Who should be responsible for that? You want to say the principal, right? Then I have to ask,” Lou Che walked around and slapped the “Presidium” sign on the door hard, “what is this presidium for? The presidium is responsible for everything on recruitment day, right? Why were so many dangerous individuals allowed into the school, and no one knew their origins… Do you really think this has nothing to do with you?”
“Of course, I share a part of the responsibility, but this completely unaware look on your faces… it’s really…”
For a moment, he seemed to want to curse, but he ultimately held back and took a deep breath himself. “…I guess you might want to say that Zhuang Chi rescuing someone has nothing to do with this interview, that I’m stretching the point and being biased. Then let’s talk about her actual work. No matter what, the actual results of the club recruitment are an important criterion for evaluation. So, looking at the Mental Health Research Club’s recruitment results this year, which are several times higher than last year’s, aren’t your pathetic little scores the result of your own prejudice?”
“Anyone could do it… Don’t be ridiculous. I doubt the three of you could do it at all. You’d definitely be whining, ‘I don’t want to do this kind of thing, give me a more important job,’ right?” Lou Che looked coldly at the three of them and shook his head in disappointment. “You need capital to be arrogant. If it were you helping the Mental Health Research Club, I doubt your results would surpass Zhuang Chi’s.”
“I said it before, score fairly. If you can’t even do that, you…”
Lou Che paused, seemingly trying to restrain himself, but ultimately failed. He explosively threw the office door open and roared at the three of them, “Can you even call yourselves Alphas! All of you, get out!”
The trio was scared silly and didn’t move for a moment. Lou Che grew even angrier and called out behind them, “Ling Jing!”
Ling Jing shot out in response, swinging a long ruler she had found from somewhere so hard it whistled through the air. She mercilessly struck the backs of the three, herding them out like sheep. When the three of them stumbled out the door and paused to look back, Ling Jing raised an eyebrow and feigned a charge, and they instantly dared not linger, fleeing in disgrace while spouting useless threats. She stood at the doorway like a fierce guardian deity, brandishing the ruler and shouting, “Stay away from Zhuang Chi from now on, or I’ll give you more of the same!”
Her mood seemed to be on the same excited frequency as Lou Che’s, but the other people in the room now looked at each other, falling into a silence filled with unspoken words.
…It was a sudden and dramatic turn of events. Having lost track halfway through the developments, Zhuang Chi blinked blankly. Olivia and An Chen clearly felt similarly, their faces showing varying degrees of bewilderment. Gu Ximian was doing better; her expression looked like she wanted to laugh but didn’t know if she should. She said slowly, “This is… quite unexpected.”
It took everyone a moment to process the situation. Finally, they all turned their gazes to the still-huffing Lou Che. He was scowling as he disgustedly piled the papers and pens the trio had left on the table to the side, muttering under his breath as he tidied up, “Ugh, so disgusting. I was just sitting with those three… damn it, I feel like I’m going to get a rash… Hey, Ling Jing, I heard the principal is your mom, right? Then come with me to see her later, help me convince her to kick those three out of the presidium. The princess over there has to come too, use the lack of smooth international exchange to pressure her—”
His gaze shifted and fell on Zhuang Chi, and his eyes instantly lit up. “Oh, right, Zhuang Chi, you should come with us too! The principal feels the most indebted to you right now. If you ask her for anything at a time like this, she’ll probably consider it. A small matter like this, won’t she agree immediately!”
He was calling out to her so naturally. Zhuang Chi was startled and first exclaimed, “Huh? You’re going to kick those three out directly? Isn’t that too…”
“Yeah.” Lou Che stopped what he was doing and looked back with a puzzled expression, as if to say, “what else?” “After all that, are we supposed to keep them? Letting people like that stay in the presidium… St. Blaisedon’s reputation would plummet, wouldn’t it?”
…He said it with such righteous conviction that Zhuang Chi was momentarily at a loss for words. She could only glance at An Chen, asking with her eyes, “Is this reasonable?” An Chen returned a sheepish look that said, “I-I don’t know either,” and cleared his throat, trying to join the conversation. “…While I don’t completely disagree with you, kicking out three people at once is too arbitrary… Besides, wouldn’t that leave just you and me in the presidium? You’re not even a dedicated member of the presidium. I definitely can’t handle it all by myself—”
“What are you talking about? Being short-staffed is a simple problem.”
Lou Che interrupted An Chen, still wearing a puzzled expression, and gestured towards the three people huddled in the corner—Zhuang Chi, Gu Ximian, and Olivia.
“Aren’t there exactly three people right here? And we even have an extra Ling Jing. We’ve made a profit.”
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