Chapter 73: So You Wanna Get Yourself Fired, Huh

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"For this meeting, they said attendance was mandatory, so I dragged myself out of bed without even getting proper sleep, woke up super early, and then right when it was almost time, when I was practically already at school, she tells me, it's cancelled!?"

Su Youmeng looked completely done with life, getting more worked up as she kept talking, like she'd been holding this in for way too long.

"Meetings, meetings, meetings every single day. Every time they only remind you a few hours before. Where do all these meetings even come from? And it's always a safety meeting, everyone's already grown adults, and they still don't know how to keep themselves safe."

"Well, a safety meeting, if they decide not to hold it, then that's their problem."

Bai Ning patted Su Youmeng on the shoulder to comfort her, feeling the same way herself.

Su Youmeng let out a cold laugh, crossed her arms, and scoffed.

"And then there are those other meetings where we all show up, someone flips through a PowerPoint presentation, doesn't say a single word, and then it's over. The absolute evil of formalities..."

Before she could finish, Bai Ning slapped a hand over her mouth.

"You actually dare say that out loud, are you trying to get yourself fired or what?"

"Mmph mmph."

Su Youmeng struggled to pry Bai Ning's hand off, took a deep breath, and though she was clearly still steaming about the whole thing, she didn't continue.

Watching this, Bai Ning gave a satisfied nod, patted Su Youmeng on the shoulder, and put on the expression of someone giving a very sincere life lesson.

"In the future, try not to say things like that, things that aren't good for student unity."

Su Youmeng: ?

Why does she sound like she works for the department.

But she didn't say anything about it. She just rolled her eyes at Bai Ning, feeling utterly drained, and spoke with a face full of drowsiness.

"I'm gonna sleep for a bit. You two go do your couple thing. Wake me up in 2 hours."

She really did want to hang out, but after witnessing what just happened between Bai Ning and Ning Xue, she had zero desire to play third wheel. Hard pass.

"Hey, wait up, I'll take a nap too. Xiao Xue, do you want to rest for a bit?"

Bai Ning's internal clock was wired like this: the moment noon hit, she wanted to sleep. She could push through if she had to, but if sleep was an option, why wouldn't you take it?

It wasn't like she was some overworked 9-to-9 grind machine with no lunch break. She was going to sleep. What's the point of going to university if you can't nap whenever you want?

"No thanks, you two go ahead and rest. I'll come wake you up later."

Ning Xue had spent the past few months with Bai Ning and naturally knew her habits well, though she rarely napped alongside her, there were always more important things to take care of.

After Ning Xue declined, Bai Ning nodded and dragged Su Youmeng toward the bedroom. She knew Ning Xue wasn't coming, asking had just been a formality this time.

She wasn't actually that sleepy this time. She wanted to get Ning Xue out of the way, she had something to ask Su Youmeng.

Stumbling along as she was yanked into the room, watching Bai Ning frantically shut the door behind them, Su Youmeng was a little confused.

"What's up, why are you in such a rush, are you really that sleepy?"

"I'm not sleepy. Set that aside for now. Let me ask you something, have you ever been to 'Her Space'?"

Su Youmeng froze for a second at that, glanced at Bai Ning, clearly not expecting her to bring that up out of nowhere.

"No, I've heard of it, but never been there. Why are you asking?" She hadn't been, but the name was familiar to her, it was one of the more well-known lesbian bars in Yun City, after all.

"Doesn't your family have business in the drinks and alcohol sector? And you've never been there?"

Bai Ning was clearly not buying Su Youmeng's answer. Sure, Su Youmeng looked wholesome on the surface, but she played it pretty wild behind the scenes, that was part of why Bai Ning had originally pegged her as the villainess's little sidekick back then.

"Hey, I may go to bars a lot, but I'm still a wholesome good girl, okay." Su Youmeng couldn't sit still with that accusation. She shot Bai Ning a look of pure indignation.

"Besides, it's not like I'm you. I'm straight, okay? I wouldn't even dare walk into that bar."

Su Youmeng didn't look like she was lying. Bai Ning's brow furrowed slightly.

This was going to be tricky.

"What's going on, isn't Ning Xue enough for you? You still want to go play around in there?"

Su Youmeng gave her a very strange look.

"What are you even saying, Ning Xue and I are just close friends. Stop looking at everything through that yellow-tinted filter of yours."

Hearing Ning Xue's name, the scene from outside a moment ago immediately flashed through her mind. Bai Ning curled her toes, her face going pink as she pushed back, she had genuinely wanted to check the place out before, yes, but that wasn't why she was asking this time.

"Then why are you asking?" Su Youmeng said.

"Nothing much, just asking. Mainly it's because I ended up meeting the owner of that bar through Nan Zha the other day."

"Xia Zhichu? You ran into her?"

"You know her?" Now it was Bai Ning's turn to be surprised.

"Not really, it's just that the Su family has some business dealings with her ventures." Su Youmeng shook her head. She didn't actually know Xia Zhichu, she'd just heard the name before.

Seeing that Su Youmeng genuinely didn't know anything useful, Bai Ning felt a headache coming on.

She hadn't asked on a whim. It was mainly because she'd noticed Ning Xue had been acting a little off these past few days, and on top of that, when the name of that bar came up just now, Ning Xue's reaction had been a little too big. Combined with what the system had said about correcting the storyline, it brought back some uncomfortable thoughts.

In the original story, Ning Xue had also worked a part-time job at a bar. The pay was high, but naturally, high rewards came with high risks. The kinds of people you ran into at a bar weren't exactly easy to deal with.

In the original story, after Ning Xue was bullied at school, her face injured, her entire self on the verge of breaking down, she still chose to go work at the bar for the sake of getting by. And there, by some rotten luck, she ran straight into Li Yue and her crew, the very people who had bullied her.

She'd planned to avoid them, but the fear hit too hard, her hands and feet went cold, her grip gave out completely, and she accidentally spilled drinks all over Li Yue.

Li Yue recognized her and assumed it was intentional. Even as Ning Xue frantically tried to explain, Li Yue still got her fired.

It was like the final straw that broke the camel's back. Ning Xue went back to her crumbling little rental apartment and made a final, complete break from who she used to be.

All of the above was what had happened in the original story, but in reality, Bai Ning had saved Ning Xue, threatened Li Yue, and quietly set Ning Xue up with some easy, well-paying work and a cheap but comfortable place to rent.

It was safe to say she had cut off just about every possible root cause that could have led to Ning Xue's turn to the dark side.

At first she hadn't been too worried about it. But then she thought about how Li Yue had still dared to threaten Ning Xue back in the classroom building, how Ning Xue had gone off to work at a bar again, and what the system had said about the storyline correction.

The correction didn't mean everything would revert back to the way it was before, it just meant that things couldn't be so harmonious when she was around someone who was supposed to be a villainess. But for some reason, it gave her an unsettled, anxious feeling she couldn't quite shake.

Asking Ning Xue directly was never going to get her any answers. Su Youmeng didn't know anything either. So the only option left was to find some time and go check things out herself.