Chapter 25: A Bratty System’s ‘Optimal’ Advice

The raven-haired girl clutched her head, glaring at the disdainful Liu Ruyan. Zhou Ruoyu was furious, though she hadn’t yet labeled the incident as workplace bullying. She was simply busy nursing the massive lump on her head and mentally pleading her case.

After all, anyone would be cranky if they were suddenly jolted awake like that right after falling asleep.

Zhou Ruoyu’s mid-day crankiness had reached its boiling point. Furthermore, Liu Ruyan, her team lead, hadn’t offered her a shred of support lately, leaving Zhou Ruoyu with no reason to hold back.

However, things in the workplace are rarely as simple as they seem. Despite the girl’s popularity among her male colleagues, not a single person dared to stand up for her.

Leaders like Liu Ruyan were not to be trifled with. If she felt challenged, she would go to great lengths to suppress anyone she perceived as a threat—especially Zhou Ruoyu, whom she already held a grudge against for stealing her spotlight.

Facing the girl’s attempt to argue her case, Liu Ruyan merely offered a cold smirk. She shook her head, ignoring the girl’s words entirely, and stood with her hands on her hips to lecture her.

“Heh… a new intern, and you dare to talk back? I am your team lead, and I see every piece of your work and performance! And you… Miss Zhou, you are dead last in the ninth team’s performance this week. How dare you argue with me?”

“I… I!”

Listening to Liu Ruyan’s warning, Zhou Ruoyu began to tremble with indignation. No… that wasn’t right. This was only her first week on the job!

She wasn’t familiar with the work yet, so expecting her to match the efficiency of veterans who had been there for years was absurd. Besides, she had spent the first two days just practicing on the system and familiarizing herself with the documents.

Comparing three days of performance against others’ five days? Was that even fair?

She wanted to argue further, but Liu Ruyan narrowed her eyes and continued:

“Forget it, Miss Zhou. I’ll remind you: whether you pass your probation is entirely up to me, and I’ve run out of patience. Our department has a rule: if a new intern ranks at the bottom for two consecutive weeks and shows a poor attitude, we have the right to let them go!”

“In other words, if your performance is at the bottom again next week, pack your things and get out! I mean what I say.”

With a cold sneer, Liu Ruyan turned and walked away, leaving Zhou Ruoyu stunned in place. For a long time, the woman’s voice continued to echo in her ears.

…

Fired… during the probation period?

Zhou Ruoyu looked at her colleagues. From their glances—some sympathetic, some mocking—the raven-haired girl realized that Liu Ruyan wasn’t just trying to scare her. She was fully capable of doing it.

If she stayed at the bottom next week, she would be fired out of pure spite.

But… she was the only new person in the ninth team. With limited resources and a lack of experience, she could barely handle communicating with clients. How could she possibly pull her performance out of the gutter by next week?

It would take at least a month to gain any momentum.

But she couldn’t get fired!

With a base salary of twenty thousand, this was a job she had barely managed to secure. It was the position she had worked so hard to attain just to get close to Gu Jiachen. Was she really going to lose it all?

The panicked girl shook her head. Her appetite for a nap was gone. As a fresh university graduate, she had never faced such direct, targeted malice. She stood there, frozen, her mind completely blank, leaving only a mechanical thought looping in her head: What… what do I do?

She didn’t want to be fired. She didn’t want to be unemployed. She didn’t want to have to rely on being kept by Gu Jiachen to survive!

Thinking of this, Zhou Ruoyu slumped back onto her desk, a wave of profound grievance washing over her. She had been hit for no reason and then threatened to her face; her heart was a mess of frustration.

After a long while, she gritted her teeth. She couldn’t swallow this humiliation. Her gaze suddenly drifted to the faint, glimmering light in the upper right corner of her vision… that lightbulb icon.

A tip for successful people?

Zhou Ruoyu hesitated for a moment. Should she use it? The advice from this thing was always a bit abstract. But if she didn’t, her mind was so blank she couldn’t think of any other way out.

Damn it, whatever! At least it might solve the problem and let her vent some of this frustration!

Zhou Ruoyu took a deep breath and tapped the lightbulb.

[Ding-dong! Detecting a trash-tier host in need of help. Based on the current situation, here is the optimal solution: Contact Boss Gu Jiachen for assistance, have him help with your sales, and boost your performance. Executing this tip will grant you 5,000 success points and top-tier communication skills. If you reject this tip, Gao Lan—who is in cahoots with Liu Ruyan—will point to the security footage to prove you slept for one minute during your lunch break, leading to you being fired and forced to move into Gu Jiachen’s house…]

…

Wait, what?

Listening to the bratty system’s teasing tone, Zhou Ruoyu fell silent. To be honest, when she first heard the words “contact the boss,” she had slapped her thigh, feeling enlightened and nearly cheering on the spot.

Right! How could she forget? She was a major contributor to Longyu. If someone bullied her, couldn’t she just report it to the boss?

But… when she heard the boss’s name was Gu Jiachen, her expression crumbled. Wait… why would she go to Gu Jiachen about a conflict at Longyu? He was the boss of Chensi! And… having him boost her performance?

How on earth could this bratty system claim its advice was the “optimal solution”? Damn it!

…

However, after a moment, looking at the glowing task notification, Zhou Ruoyu noticed a blind spot. The failure penalty mentioned that Gao Lan and Liu Ruyan were in cahoots?

Ah… she had to admit, this matched her suspicions. Liu Ruyan was so arrogant because she constantly sucked up to Gao Lan. But the fact that this bratty system knew this was… interesting.

Could it be that contacting Gu Jiachen was actually better than contacting the boss of Longyu?

…

It made sense. So far, even though she was a corporate spy for Longyu, she hadn’t provided any intelligence. Without enough contributions, if Gao Lan decided to openly support Liu Ruyan and ostracize her, the Longyu boss might get annoyed and fire her for real.

At the end of the day, her value wasn’t high enough yet. She hadn’t managed to contact Gu Jiachen during this time, so… was it really time to execute the plan?

Zhou Ruoyu took out her phone. After a long pause, she took a deep breath. Forget it, the task had to be done; otherwise, how would she ever change back?

With that, the girl slowly dialed the number.

“Hello? President Gu…”