cell phone
Qu Shiyao stared at the disconnected phone, blinking her innocent big eyes, and looked at the pale-faced receptionist:
"Miss, I was going to explain things to Mr. Si on your behalf, but unfortunately he hung up too quickly."
The receptionist was secretly overjoyed.
Fortunately, Mr. Si died quickly; who knows what shocking explanation this woman would have given.
Without her "backing up," he might still be able to struggle and defend himself.
But her face was full of gratitude, and she even reached out to hold Qu Shiyao's hand:
"It's nothing, it's nothing! Thank you so much! I can explain the rest to President Si myself, I can't trouble you any further."
"How can this be?"
Qu Shiyao gripped the receptionist's hand tightly, so firmly that the receptionist almost lost her smile.
"What if President Si misunderstands you? That senior Yu Zhe doesn't seem like someone to be trifled with. If she turns around and talks nonsense to President Si, you'll be in big trouble!"
Mentioning Yu Zhe made the receptionist's face even uglier. Although betraying her teammate was a bit underhanded, all she wanted right now was to get rid of Qu Shiyao, this plague god.
She forced a hint of regret onto her face:
"Sigh, I never thought she would lie to me... She was so certain at the time, saying that President Si sent her. You shouldn't get involved, lest she hold a grudge against you and cause you trouble later."
These words completely absolved him of any responsibility, making him appear as an innocent victim deceived by a villain.
As for the truth, only she and Yu Zhe know the truth.
"Then you must be careful!"
Qu Shiyao grabbed the receptionist's hand and shook it up and down excitedly, her movements exaggerated, her tone as sincere as if she were sending a friend off to the battlefield.
"If she bullies you, you must tell me!"
Zhang Li watched as these two women, whom she had only met that day, displayed their sisterly affection, feeling so embarrassed that she scratched her toes on the ground and got goosebumps all over.
The system was even more blunt in its criticism: 【Yay! What a pair of fake besties! Disgusting!】
Qu Shiyao's gaze swept casually over the location of the system, and the system instantly felt a chill and immediately fell silent, pretending to be just a quiet background character.
"Alright, now that the documents are gone, let's head back!" Qu Shiyao finally let go of her hand and waved to the front desk.
"Okay, okay! Take care!" The receptionist waved hurriedly, wishing she could set off firecrackers to celebrate.
Just as the receptionist picked up her phone, trying to immerse herself back in the world of the novel, Qu Shiyao suddenly turned around and said, "Oh, right!"
The receptionist was so startled she almost dropped her phone. She quickly put it down and forced a professional smile: "Is...is there anything else?"
Her body tensed up involuntarily.
Qu Shiyao didn't go back; she just stood there and sincerely suggested:
"If the ending of this kind of novel is that the heroine suddenly realizes her mistakes and sends the scumbag and the vicious supporting characters to prison, then it's okay to read, as it can be considered legal education."
"But if in the end the female lead forgives everything and they get a happy ending... I advise you to watch less of it. That's probably late-stage Stockholm syndrome. Watching too much of it can easily affect your IQ and values."
"Remember, the right thing to do in this situation is to call the police!"
After saying that, she turned around gracefully, grabbed Zhang Li, and walked away.
Receptionist: "..." Is this person crazy?! She has to tell me what to do just because I'm reading a novel?! I'm going to read it anyway!
She picked up her phone in a huff, randomly clicked on a chapter, and it happened to jump to the part about the female lead's background being revealed.
It turns out that she and the villainous female supporting character were switched at birth. The heroine's kind parents actually thought the female supporting character was innocent, so instead of sending her away, they asked the heroine and the female supporting character to live together peacefully.
The biological parents of the female supporting character who plotted the child swap also escaped any punishment because of her pleas for leniency...
Based on this plot, would the female supporting character's parents be charged with abandonment? Or child abduction? It seems neither is strictly speaking…
It's also possible that they just won't sell?
"Wait! What am I thinking?!" The receptionist snapped back to reality, scratching her hair in frustration.
"Why should I think about these real-world issues when I'm just reading a mindless, light-hearted novel?!"
She shook her head, trying to shake off those chaotic thoughts and wanting to continue watching the plot unfold.
But the words of Qu Shiyao and Zhang Li kept swirling uncontrollably in his mind:
"Unlawful detention", "crime of assault", "intentional injury", "Stockholm syndrome"...
"Ugh! This is so annoying!"
The receptionist couldn't concentrate on reading anymore. As soon as she opened the novel, she felt that apart from the female protagonist who seemed to have Stockholm syndrome, everyone else in the story was dancing wildly on the edge of the law!
She angrily threw her phone back on the table.
As soon as Qu Shiyao and Zhang Li stepped into the elevator, they could vaguely hear the sound of the receptionist collapsing in the distance.
Zhang Li glanced at the culprit beside her and saw that Qu Shiyao was laughing so hard she couldn't stand up straight, and tears were about to stream down her face.
"Why did you have to say those things to her at the end?" Zhang Li had guessed a bit, but she still wanted to hear Qu Shiyao say it herself.
"It's nothing~" Qu Shiyao wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, her smile carrying a hint of mischievousness.
"It's only fair to return the favor. She tried to annoy us, and although she didn't succeed, it's not too much for me to retaliate with a little bit of mental annoyance, is it?"
Zhang Li: "..." Just as expected.
She remembered when Qu Shiyao first arrived on the 66th floor, they deliberately gave her a hard time.
Unexpectedly, the next second, Qu Shiyao critiqued everyone's makeup, leaving them unsure how to do their makeup for the next few days.
This woman's vengefulness never disappoints.
"bite--!"
The elevator stopped on the 50th floor.
Zhang Li's heart skipped a beat.
No way? Not again?
She subconsciously raised her phone again, the camera quietly pointing forward.
The stairwell door opened, and a woman dressed extravagantly and exuding a strong perfume walked in, talking on the phone as she swayed her hips.
She seemed not to see Qu Shiyao at all, and bumped straight into her.
"Oh no! My phone!" the woman exclaimed, dropping her phone from her hand.
Everything happened seemingly naturally, yet it also seemed like a deliberate coincidence.
"Are you blind?! This phone of mine costs 15,000 yuan!"
Before the phone even hit the ground, the woman, accompanied by a gasp, slapped Qu Shiyao across the face!
Qu Shiyao seemed to have anticipated this, and reacted extremely quickly!
She instinctively crouched down to take the phone, and the vicious slap almost grazed her hair.
"Smack!"
A crisp, solid sound echoed in the elevator.
Then came a loud "bang".
Zhang Li's brand-name mobile phone, which she had only bought less than a month ago, was sent flying by the slap, crashing hard into the elevator wall before falling to the ground.
The phone screen shattered into a spider web pattern instantly, and even the phone body separated into two pieces!
The air seemed to freeze, and the woman remained in the slapping position, completely dumbfounded.
She had no idea that Qu Shiyao could dodge, let alone that she would hit Zhang Li behind her and even knock her phone away with perfect accuracy!
"Hey lady! Here's your phone! I'm catching it!"
Qu Shiyao seemed completely unaware of the tragedy that had occurred behind her. She nimbly caught the woman's phone and stood up as if nothing had happened.
She enthusiastically shoved the phone back into the woman's hand, which was still frozen in mid-air, and even thoughtfully bent each of her fingers back into place so she could grip the phone tightly.
At this moment, as if only then realizing what was behind her, she turned around abruptly, saw the phone on the ground and Zhang Li's stunned expression, and immediately let out an exaggerated exclamation:
"Oh my god! Sister Zhang Li! Isn't this the top-of-the-line phone you just bought a few days ago?!"
Qu Shiyao rushed over, carefully knelt on the ground, picked up the severed wreckage of the phone, and spoke with heartbreaking grief.
"Didn't you always treat it like a treasure?! You send it to a professional grooming salon for a ten-minute thorough cleaning every day! You also burn incense and pray for it every day, saying you want to accumulate merit for it! You even put it next to your pillow when you sleep at night!"
"Didn't you say this was bought for you with the last of your grandmother's savings? Didn't she pass away peacefully after giving you this phone? This is the last thing she left you!"
She spoke with such intonation and conviction that anyone who didn't know better would think she was mourning a deceased relative.
Oh! Your hand!
Qu Shiyao's gaze fell again on Zhang Li's obviously swollen and red hand, and her voice became even more shrill.
"Why is it so red?! Did you break a bone? Could it be fractured? Could the blood vessels inside have ruptured? Does it hurt? Should we call an ambulance?!"
She held Zhang Li's hand, her eyes brimming with tears, as if she herself were the one who was hurt.
Zhang Li's skin was already fair and delicate, and that slap was indeed delivered with great force. At this moment, the back of her hand was red and swollen, looking quite frightening.
Zhang Li was originally furious and wanted nothing more than to pounce on the woman and tear her apart.
But after seeing Qu Shiyao's extremely exaggerated performance, she suddenly realized what Qu Shiyao's intention was.
My acting urges can come on anytime!
She trembled as she carefully took the broken phone from Qu Shiyao's hand, clutching it tightly to her chest. Her eyes instantly reddened, and she murmured, on the verge of tears:
"I...I'm fine...my hand doesn't hurt...it really doesn't hurt..."
Her voice choked with sobs, filled with endless grievances and suppressed sorrow.
Faintly, it seemed that a tear really did slide down the corner of her eye.
The woman finally snapped out of her daze, and looking at Qu Shiyao's affected performance and Zhang Li's heartbroken appearance, she couldn't help but sneer and mock:
"Keep acting! There are only the three of us in this elevator. Who are we putting on this for? You can only fool President Si with this act."
Qu Shiyao immediately raised her head angrily, glaring at the woman, her voice firm and resounding:
"You've gone too far! Your phone was perfectly fine, yet you broke Zhang Li's phone and injured her hand like this! How could you be so vicious!"
"It's alright, Shiyao."
Zhang Li grabbed Qu Shiyao's arm at the opportune moment, sobbing, trying her best to play the role of a kind, weak, and victimized innocent girl.
"My phone...it's okay if my phone is broken...my hand...it's okay too...sob sob sob..."
She stammered and couldn't continue, so she buried her head and burst into tears, her cries mournful and poignant.
The sound echoed in the cramped elevator space, truly giving off the feeling of a vengeful spirit seeking revenge.
"No! I must get justice for you!"
Qu Shiyao stubbornly shook off Zhang Li's hand, pointed at the woman, and spoke righteously and sternly:
"Apologize! You must apologize immediately! Also, compensate Sister Zhang Li for her phone and emotional distress! It has to be at least 100,000 yuan! Otherwise, this matter is not over!"
"Pah! What kind of crappy phone costs 100,000? You think you can rip me off? Dream on!"
That woman was no pushover either. Although she hit the wrong person, she felt no remorse. Instead, she thought that anyone who hung out with Qu Shiyao was a bad person.
"You! You hit someone, broke things, and even swore at people!"
Qu Shiyao trembled with anger, her finger shaking as she pointed at the other person. Then she suddenly raised her hand, pointing diagonally upwards, her voice filled with grief and indignation as she accused them:
"Aren't you afraid that there are gods watching from above, and even the heavens won't stand for it!"
"Good heavens?" The woman looked Qu Shiyao up and down as if she had heard the funniest joke, her disdain evident in her expression.
"Anyone still believes this stuff these days? It's laughable—"
Her words came to an abrupt halt.
Because she saw the surveillance camera in the corner of the elevator, which was facing them and flashing a faint red light, in the direction Qu Shiyao was pointing.
The woman's face instantly transformed like an overturned palette, becoming a kaleidoscope of colors before finally freezing completely, draining all color from her face.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
