Chapter 18: I Can’t Take It Anymore
“It’s okay, I guess. This is my first time doing this kind of work, so there are a lot of things I don’t understand. But overall, it’s not bad. I think I can do it.”
After saying that, Lin Muqing silently cheered herself on in her heart. For the sake of that raise, even if she can’t, she must!
“Pfft~ Then what were you two doing just now?”
Seeing how serious Lin Muqing looked, Sister Yu wanted to laugh. What she meant to ask wasn’t that.
She accidentally let out a small giggle, quickly covered her mouth, then adjusted her expression before asking again.
“Emmm... The manager was teaching me how to do my work, and showed me how to do it.”
With her brows raised and a hint of confusion in her eyes, Lin Muqing thought she had heard a weird sound, maybe a laugh? She wasn’t sure.
She looked up at the ceiling in thought, then honestly answered what had just happened.
“So... the whole time, you were just doing that?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“He didn’t give you any other tasks?”
“Nope, just that one thing.”
After hearing Lin Muqing’s answer, Sister Yu narrowed her eyes slightly and stared into those big pretty doe-like eyes, staying silent for a moment.
She didn’t really believe that doing a simple income report on a computer could be that hard. Software these days makes everything easier, there shouldn’t be much to do.
But from the look in Lin Muqing’s eyes, it didn’t seem like she was lying or hiding anything. So Sister Yu didn’t press further.
Though… looking at it a different way, taking a simple task and making it complicated was, in itself, not simple.
So to sum it up in one sentence, the store manager really is something.
“Alright then, take your time eating. There’s still some seaweed soup in the kitchen, you can have some later if you want.”
She gently patted Lin Muqing on the head with a smile, left her with that sentence, then stood up and walked out.
Before leaving, she turned around and gave Lin Muqing a meaningful smile.
“Mm-hmm.”
Lin Muqing nodded, feeling like Sister Yu was acting a little strange today…
Actually, now that she thought about it, everyone in the store had been acting weird since yesterday.
Emmm…
She had no clue what was going on. But since nothing bad had happened, she decided maybe she was just overthinking.
And if she couldn’t figure it out, she’d focus on her true goal, eating.
There wasn’t much food in her lunchbox, but ever since her transformation, Lin Muqing’s appetite had dropped a lot. She hadn’t even eaten much yet, and already felt full.
It was weird, she couldn’t figure out why it was happening either.
Inside the break room, more and more maids walked in with lunchboxes, joining the food squad and sitting around the big table.
While eating, they would look at Lin Muqing with meaningful smiles, and chat with each other in gossip mode.
“Nothing happened, seriously! He just taught me how to use the account book, that’s all!”
Surrounded by questions from the other maids, Lin Muqing felt like she couldn’t take it anymore.
Everyone was giving her these strange looks. It made it hard for her to eat, suddenly the food didn’t taste as good.
“Okay, okay, we won’t ask anymore.”
Seeing that she was starting to get anxious, the maids backed off and stopped messing with her.
But to them, the light blush on her face from being flustered was just way too cute—“wah~ so adorable.”
The stories they were imagining in their heads? Also very “wah~”.
After dinner and a bit of rest, Lin Muqing finally changed out of her maid uniform and put back on her own clothes.
Her long black hair flowed down her back like a waterfall, but the clothes she wore didn’t match her at all. In fact, they looked kind of ugly.
A T-shirt that had been washed so many times it was turning yellow, and a pair of track pants that looked like they were from who-knows-what era.
Probably because the maid outfit from earlier had made Lin Muqing look too cute, when she changed into these old clothes, it caused a wave of dissatisfaction from everyone around her.
They all felt that such a cute girl had just been ruined by these terrible clothes.
“No! I can’t take it anymore!”
Just as Lin Muqing stepped out of the changing room and was about to leave the break room and head home, one of the maids suddenly slapped the table and stood up.
“Me neither!”
“Same here!”
Three maids in total slammed their hands on the table and stood up, marching straight over to Lin Muqing and surrounding her with serious expressions.
“Uh… huh?”
When she heard the sound of the table being slapped, Lin Muqing froze for a second. Then, hearing all their voices, she froze again.
By the time she realized what was happening, her way out was completely blocked. She had no escape route.
“What’s going on?”
The maids in front of her were looking at her with intimidating stares. Lin Muqing started to panic, swallowing nervously before asking carefully.
“Lin Muqing!”
“Y-Yes?”
They spoke with such strong energy, while she answered with a timid, shaky voice.
“From today on, I won’t allow you to wear those clothes anymore!”
One of the maid sisters declared in a commanding tone.
“Huh? If I don’t wear these, then what should I wear?”
Lin Muqing looked confused, totally not understanding why they were so upset.
Their expressions looked kind of scary too…
“Because those clothes are way too ugly. They don’t suit you at all!”
Right after that, the other two maids nodded seriously, showing their full support.
“Huh? Really?”
She looked down at her clothes and didn’t think there was anything wrong. Then she looked back up at the maid with a confused face.
“What do you mean ‘really’? It’s so obvious, okay?!”
“Yeah! As a girl, how can you dress yourself like that?!”
“Just thinking about how Lin Muqing is letting herself be treated like this makes it hard for me to breathe!”
“……”
Faced with the maids’ passionate “education session,” Lin Muqing couldn’t say a single word in response. She didn’t even know how to respond. She just backed up against the wall, shivering.
Should she… tell them the truth? That she’s actually a boy?
Everything was happening too fast. She had no idea how to escape or what to do next.
Right at that critical moment, the break room door opened, and Sister Yu walked in.
“Sister Yu!”
Like seeing her savior, Lin Muqing quickly called out to her, hoping she would help her out.
All she wanted was to go home… sob sob sob.
“What are you all doing?”
As soon as she opened the door, Sister Yu was stunned by the scene in front of her.
She looked at poor Lin Muqing, shaking in the corner, then at the three furious-looking maids who had surrounded her.
The scene looked… questionable. Sister Yu couldn’t help but feel awkward seeing it.
“We’re educating Lin Muqing!”
All three maids responded in unison, full of justice and determination.
Even if we’re wrong, we won’t change our minds!