Chapter 59: The Self-Important Zheng Wen’an

Jiang He, Su Zhucheng, Lin Xuyuan, and Xie Silin each exchanged their items in turn. The least got 2 gold coins, the most 4. Watching this, Chu Jiangyue felt greedy.

She was certain they had carefully picked out things they didn’t really need to exchange. After all, some gold and silver jewelry, jade bangles, and the like—keeping a few behind could be useful for winning a girlfriend’s favor one day.

Right now, they might only be thinking about making money and enjoying good food, drink, and rest in Jianglin Hotel. But when love comes, it can’t be stopped. It’s better to be prepared.

“Host, host, the male lead went to find the female lead, I…”

The little fox didn’t even know why, but it felt like the male lead of this world didn’t deserve the female lead.

What’s more, since the female lead had arrived in B City earlier than expected and had even met the male lead in advance, the plot it could see had completely collapsed. The later development was now a mystery.

At this point, it wasn’t even sure whether this story had any meaning left.

Hearing the little fox’s words, Chu Jiangyue could roughly guess its thoughts.

“I still have something to do, I’ll leave first.”

After saying a word to Shen Zhigui and the others, Chu Jiangyue left the office hall and headed toward the restaurant.

Just as she reached the entrance, she saw Zheng Wen’an carrying his tray to sit down near Jin Chuyu and his group.

Chu Jiangyue was certain that if Jin Chuyu’s table hadn’t already been full, Zheng Wen’an would have thick-skinned his way into sitting with them.

Jin Chuyu saw Zheng Wen’an but only glanced at him briefly before losing interest.

In her eyes, Zheng Wen’an was clearly paired with the girl who had been clinging to his arm back in the office hall.

Besides, men of the mild, jade-like type weren’t to her taste at all.

As Chu Jiangyue appeared, quite a few people greeted her proactively.

She nodded to each in return, then casually ordered one meat dish, one vegetable, one soup, and a bowl of rice before finding an empty seat.

『From the look of it, the heroine doesn’t seem too interested in the hero. Can your script still work?』

If not, then was there even a need for Liu Yiyi, the so-called vicious supporting female, to trigger her plot?
If the male and female leads never sparked, could they still even be called the leads?

These were things Chu Jiangyue had to figure out. Otherwise, she might one day accidentally cross paths with the protagonists, and their halo could suppress her at every turn.

“The plot’s collapsed. My script’s already turned into garbled text, waiting to reload.

Since no alarm went off, it should… be fine, right?”

This was also the little fox’s first time as a system. It had never run into something like this before. All it could do was let things run their course.

As for what it had said earlier about Liu Yiyi triggering a plot with the heroine, that was probably useless now.

The little fox lay weakly on Chu Jiangyue’s shoulder.

『Relax, relax. No alarm means no problem. You don’t need to worry too much.』

Chu Jiangyue had already died once before. She had a much more open attitude toward these things.

At worst, she’d just die again. It wasn’t like she hadn’t experienced it.

Meanwhile, at the table beside Jin Chuyu’s, Zheng Wen’an also noticed Chu Jiangyue’s arrival.

Thinking about how he had just come to the restaurant and then Chu Jiangyue showed up as well, he firmly believed she had come for him.

Otherwise, why did her eyes keep drifting toward him?

It must be because Shen Zhigui and the others had happened to be around, and Chu Jiangyue had been too shy to respond to his confession.

Next time, when they were alone, if he confessed again, he was sure it would succeed!

Chu Jiangyue, of course, had no idea. She had only come to the restaurant to calm the little fox, yet Zheng Wen’an had twisted it into “she’s interested in me.”

If she had known Zheng Wen’an’s delusional thoughts, she definitely wouldn’t have shown up in the restaurant today. She’d have let the little fox do the observing on its own.

Not long after she sat down, Shen Zhigui and his group of five also entered the restaurant. Seeing her with a tray in front of her surprised them a little.

After getting their food, Shen Zhigui walked over to her table.
“Boss Chu, mind if we join you?”

“Go ahead.”

Chu Jiangyue wasn’t the type to hog an eight-seater all by herself and forbid others from sitting.

When Shen Zhigui and the others took their seats near her, Zheng Wen’an’s expression cracked for an instant.

But here, in front of everyone, he couldn’t do anything.

If he made Chu Jiangyue angry and she kicked him out of the hotel, the loss would outweigh the gain.

“Boss Chu, what brings you to the restaurant today?”

She usually ate in her own quarters and rarely came here for ready-made meals.

“Just a whim.”

She couldn’t say the real reason. The excuse was flimsy, but everyone could hear she didn’t mean to explain further.

Fortunately, Shen Zhigui knew when not to press.

“How about those people? Did the base say how they’ll handle it?”

The main point was that those people had to pay the price.

Shen Zhigui’s expression turned serious.
“Captain Song escorted those teachers and students back to the base, so he’s not in the hotel now.

For the moment, Deputy Captain Ren Jie of the patrol team is in charge here, and we handed the culprits over to him.

The base will probably compensate that mother and child, but how much exactly—I don’t know.”

He was only responsible for turning them over. What the base decided wasn’t his to interfere with.

“That’s fine. Some compensation is better than none. And since they’re heading to the base anyway, giving it there saves the trouble of sending it further.”

With compensation, the mother and child’s lives would hopefully improve. But how far they could go depended on themselves.

Chu Jiangyue could save them for a while, but not for a lifetime.

“I thought… Boss Chu might keep them in the hotel.”

On the way back, she had let the girl and her mother ride in her car. Shen Zhigui had thought she might treat them with special care.

After all, she didn’t look like someone who played the saint for everyone.

“No rooms available at the moment. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.”

She wasn’t about to bring strangers into her cabin. That was never her idea.

“I heard Captain Song say the B City Safe Base has been sending people to other bases to promote Jianglin Hotel.”

That was basically free advertising for her?

Sure enough, hearing this made Chu Jiangyue’s eyes light up at once.

“Seriously? The base is that generous?”

Everyone sought profit. Why would the base spend resources with no gain?

“Boss Chu doesn’t go out often, so you might not know. Out there, mutated plants and mutated animals have already started appearing.

Human living space is shrinking fast.”

In fact, Shen Zhigui felt this was nothing less than a battle between humanity and nature itself.

Humanity had burdened Blue Star too heavily. Now that it could no longer bear it, it seemed to want to change its master.

Humanity was in a weak position. One misstep could mean extinction.

Chu Jiangyue had only gone out once today, and she hadn’t run into any mutated animals or plants.