Chapter 42: The Submissive, Obsessive Top Student

The entire building belonged to the Jiang Family, and Jiang Zhiyi’s office was on the thirty-second floor. It was impossible for Jiang Zhiqing and the others to make it all the way here without someone letting them in.

The executive offices were generally occupied by core management personnel, who at that moment pretended to pass by casually to watch the spectacle.

The two women being stopped by security looked haggard. One was in her early twenties, the other in her forties or fifties, and they dressed plainly—bordering on shabby.

“Sis, just let me in—” The woman’s voice was hoarse from crying. She was pretty; even without makeup, her delicate features were evident. Her crying gave her a frail, pitiable fragility that tugged at the heartstrings.

Jiang Zhiyi closed her file, irritated by the noise, but her gaze remained fixed on her computer screen without shifting an inch. Only her voice turned icy: “What? Do I pay you all to sit around doing nothing? She made it all the way up here?”

The secretary felt extremely awkward and didn’t know what to say. Plenty of people in the company wanted to see the general manager make a fool of herself—who knew who had let them through? She could only ask sheepishly, “What do you mean?”

In the surveillance feed, the person had pulled up the blanket. She had just woken from a nap and was preparing to go back to sleep. At home, she dressed casually—a white lace nightgown slightly hiked up, revealing half a rounded shoulder and—

For some reason, the great General Manager Jiang felt a bit uneasy. She knew the secretary couldn’t see anything from her angle, but she still instinctively reached out to block the screen. Her voice remained cold and ruthless: “Throw them out.”

The secretary: “…”

General Manager Jiang was decisive; if she said throw them out, she meant it. The secretary hurried out under her boss’s chilling, murderous gaze, thinking to herself that she hadn’t touched the boss’s reverse scale lately, while clearly conveying the order to security.

Only after the secretary left and closed the door did Jiang Zhiyi lower her blocking arm. Her gaze wandered aimlessly for a moment before she shamelessly turned back to the screen.

Outside the door, under that pitiful gaze, the security guards hesitated for an instant but soon wisely chose their jobs.

The woman was as frail as a flower battered by wind and frost, collapsing to the ground. These past three years had indeed been a nightmare.

Her father had squandered all the money from Jiang Zhiyi’s car accident, then racked up massive gambling debts. This time, no one had led him into it; he simply couldn’t control himself—unpaid debts meant chopped hands. Brother Chuan Jing couldn’t bear to see her suffer and paid to bail her father out. But less than half a year later, right before her college entrance exams, her father got drunk at home, suffered accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, and due to delayed treatment, ended up partially paralyzed.

She had been preparing to study abroad and had to abandon her musical dreams to stay in the country.

Misfortunes never came singly. Due to years of heavy drinking, her father was also diagnosed with liver cirrhosis at the hospital. Paralyzed and cirrhotic, he had almost completely lost mobility and needed constant care—wiping him down, feeding him meals and medicine. The string of blows left her mentally and physically exhausted.

Fortunately, Brother Chuan Jing had always been by her side. But now, even he—

Jiang Zhiqing’s vision blurred, tears streaming down nonstop. Just before security chased her away, a tall youth rushed over.

“What are you doing? Can’t you see she’s sick?”

The youth was tall and slender, strikingly handsome, with a large cello on his back. He looked gentle and wealthy—a figure that drew second glances from passersby.

After yelling at security, he turned back, flustered, and supported Jiang Zhiqing, lightly patting her thin shoulder: “You okay?”

Jiang Zhiqing stepped back two paces, then bit her lip and gently clutched the youth’s shirt, sobbing. Her eyes shimmered with tears: “Senior Qi Mu, please take me in to see my sister—”

Her father was in the late stages of liver cirrhosis and needed a transplant. The surgery and related costs would total at least five hundred thousand yuan. Even with her part-time jobs, she couldn’t afford it.

She had no other option but to beg Jiang Zhiyi.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take you in right now…”

Before the words finished, the office door opened. The onlookers hesitated and stepped back, looking suspiciously toward the person inside.

The woman wore no makeup, but her bare face was still lovely, with long brown hair cascading over her shoulders. She looked thin and pallid from years without sunlight, a shadow lingering in her brows. At that moment, her expression was one of mockery and sarcasm.

She propped her chin slightly, sitting in a wheelchair that she wheeled out herself, coldly watching the farce.

Jiang Zhiqing hadn’t even gotten up from the ground when she first spotted the empty pant leg. She choked up, her voice trembling urgently: “Sis, please save Dad. He’s your uncle too. The doctor says he won’t last much longer…”

Jiang Zhiyi’s posture loomed over her, as if her suffering was worthless in her eyes. Jiang Zhiqing instinctively retreated a step, her momentum crumbling: “Sis…”

Jiang Zhiyi’s gaze merely swept over her and landed directly on the person beside her. She looked at him and revealed a faint smile: “Did you bring them up here?”

For some reason, Qi Mu felt a subtle unease, but he quickly straightened his back.

This endorsement was one he had won on his own merits. This general manager’s attitude toward her own younger sister and the person who had raised her was utterly contemptible.

He decided then to be a hot-blooded youth. His sword-like brows furrowed, and he spoke indignantly: “Manager Jiang, they at least took you in and raised you. Zhiqing has always treated you like a real sister. Don’t you think it’s too heartless to let them die without helping?”

—

“!!! Host, get up quick—big trouble!” The system urged frantically.

Shi Qingyi had taken plenty of cold medicine at Jiang Zhiyi’s insistence lately and felt groggy. With a blank face, she said: “What, has your server expired? Finally time to self-destruct and wipe your data?”

The system was speechless: “Host, how could you think that! It’s the hardworking, devoted second male lead—the endorsement that made him famous overnight—got vetoed by Jiang Zhiyi in one vote.”

This was a huge turning point in the plot. The gentle second male lead would fade into obscurity from then on, never able to deliver warmth to the female lead on rainy nights, offer selfless career help, or bless her and the male lead’s marriage as the wedding witness.

Shi Qingyi finally opened her eyes slowly, inhaling the fresh air of not having to work. With sincere sincerity: “That’s good news. You told me to save the villain from world destruction, but you didn’t say I had to stop her from getting revenge or suppressing the second male lead.”

The system: “But—”

“The person isn’t dead, right?” Shi Qingyi let out a soft, mocking laugh, though no warmth showed in her eyes: “Isn’t staying alive enough? Hmm?”

So even with amputation, disfigurement, nearly dying in a car crash—alive was fine. Since everyone got the same treatment, why distinguish between male lead, female lead, second male lead, villain, and scum?

The system, gradually sensing something off: “…”

It poked its head out weakly: “The world has its own will. The world trajectory adjusts in different directions. Back then, I could only barely protect you from severe injury. If you survived that collision, you and Jiang Zhiyi would’ve been dragged to the lab as test subjects right then.”

Shi Qingyi didn’t want to hear its excuses and just closed her eyes: “You’ve been vague about the past three years. Now tell me—how did she get through them?”

“Even if I tell you, you can’t go back.” The system put on its lid and began transmitting the data.

Shi Qingyi had expected Jiang Zhiyi to have a tough time, but she hadn’t anticipated just how harrowing it had been.

Song Zhiming’s parents initially wanted to bail him out and considered settling privately. That bloodsucking Jiang Family kept upping the demands, squeezing every cent they could. To get more money, they went to TV stations, rolling around and making scenes, broadcasting Jiang Zhiyi’s suffering to the world.

The Song Family was from a respectable scholarly background; once the story aired, it did them no favors. Reporters dug deeper and exposed Song Zhiming’s uncle for abusing power for personal gain.

The other victim—Shi Qingyi’s father—didn’t want money at all; he just wanted the culprit locked up. In the end, he forced the Song Family to abandon any private settlement.

After Shi Qingyi left, Father Shi gave Jiang Zhiyi a large sum of money. She didn’t take it, but that didn’t mean her uncle hadn’t. After the amputation, she needed rehab, and all the expenses piled up, but she had nothing. Her uncle blew through the money in the second month, leaving her not a cent.

The money she had traded her leg for her whole life vanished just like that. In her darkest moments, Jiang Zhiyi once wanted to die, but doctors and nurses pulled her back.

Her aunt held her hand, wiping tears, saying their family had wronged her and to come home— she wouldn’t let her suffer anymore.

Jiang Zhiyi just withdrew her hand. After a long pause, she smiled, her cracked lips showing sarcasm, her voice hoarse: “We’ve even run out of money for the hospital?”

The honest, kind woman across from her looked embarrassed, tears flowing: “Our family has wronged you, Xiaoyi.”

That night, Jiang Zhiyi attempted suicide for the second time. She never wanted to return to that shack again.

She had endured for over a decade, thinking she’d see the light after the college exams and escape it all. But fate toyed with her. Before, the drunkard beat her, and she could run. But now?

She was just a useless cripple. Beaten, she couldn’t fight back or even flee.

She really didn’t want to live this hellish existence anymore. The night she jumped from the building, she murmured Shi Qingyi’s name on the rooftop. On the third utterance, she turned back to find no one behind her.

Only the night wind rustled. The one who had once saved her was gone.

Perhaps heaven took pity; she survived after all. That night, the patrolling doctor pulled her down from the rooftop. Outside the ward stood a white-haired elder. With one glance, tears streamed down his face.

He reached out to touch her long hair, tears falling: “You look just like your mother when she was young.”

His daughter had met the wrong person in her youth, eloped with a poor boy for love, and died in childbirth. When he finally found his only granddaughter after half a lifetime, that eighteen-year-old girl was already saddled with lifelong disability.

Heaven never sealed off all paths.

Jiang Zhiyi survived like that. Then she entered the company with ruthless efficiency. In just three short years, she used thunderous methods to push the Shi Family to the brink and force Shi Qingyi back.

By the time she finished the data, night had fallen. Shi Qingyi rubbed her eyes and asked the system: “What time is it?”

For a host too lazy to even check her phone, the system could only endure. Considerately: “It’s already nine-thirty. Normally, the villain should be back by now, but she hasn’t returned today. Perfect timing for you to show some affection!”

“Why are you suddenly so enthusiastic?”

The system: “…”

Of course, because the villain’s blackening value had broken 100—not enthusiastic wasn’t an option. But it cleverly rephrased: “Host, don’t you want to think about your fate after the villain fully blackens?”

“Car crash, drowning in the river, suffocating to death—”

Shi Qingyi: “…”

She jolted up in shock, though she didn’t believe Jiang Little Pitiful would actually do that to her.

—

It had started drizzling by nine. While working overtime, Jiang Zhiyi had her secretary watch the phone, then handled it herself.

Shi Qingyi was clearly pampered growing up. The snacks and pastries she loved in high school, she used to bring to school, pretending she couldn’t finish them and forcing them on the starving Jiang Zhiyi.

She definitely hadn’t had them in three years abroad. When she lived at her place before, Jiang Zhiyi had always wanted to buy them to spoil her.

But back then, she really had no money.

She had memorized her beloved’s preferences. She just couldn’t afford them. Over these three years, she had ensured Shi Qingyi’s favorite shops stayed open, with minimal staff turnover—the taste should still be the same.

“They say a few types of cookies will take another hour to deliver. General Manager Jiang, still waiting?” The secretary wasn’t in a rush; she got overtime pay and was single. Staying longer was fine.

Lately, company rumors said the general manager kept a canary and clocked out on time every day. Wasn’t she worried about someone waiting at home today?

Jiang Zhiyi glanced at the surveillance feed, confirming the lights were off, but her face still heated up. Just now, the person in the feed had been trying on clothes.

The time had been too short. She hadn’t prepared any clothes for Shi Qingyi at the villa, so the one trying them on ended up wearing her shirt perfectly. She had no idea if that person even realized it—

Even after three years had passed, her skin was still thin. It was just hidden by her long hair, so no one could tell.

The secretary answered a call and came over, looking somewhat troubled. “President Jiang, President Liu called asking why you eliminated Qi Mu. He said you’re acting arbitrarily…”

“Doesn’t he know why I eliminated him?” Jiang Zhiyi slightly lifted her eyelids. She was slender, but the corners of her eyes held a chilling sharpness. “The nepotism kid really thinks he’s talented. Without his stepfather’s protection, he’d never have made it past the first round.”

The secretary coughed awkwardly twice. She shouldn’t know about this sort of thing!

For some reason today, shortly after hanging up, another call came in. The secretary had no choice but to steel herself and come in again. “President Jiang, President Gu from Guangcheng is here. He’s downstairs.”

—Gu Chuanjing.

The girl who once could only bow her head at the sight of Young Master Gu now slightly furrowed her brows. Her voice was flat and emotionless as she refused. “No meeting.”

The secretary pulled a bitter face. “This time, someone brought him along. We probably can’t refuse.”

After a moment of silence, she spoke again. “Then, let’s meet.”

Jiang Zhiyi closed the file, thinking that Shi Qingyi was probably still changing clothes and the snacks hadn’t arrived yet. The timing was perfect for a quick meeting—The person who had once dismissed her without a second thought now had his life and death in her hands. How interesting and ironic.