The female boss is mighty; a guide to becoming a business tyrant

"That's really good ne… The two of you're going to the same college! That way, you two can go back and forth from campus to here together… It's safer that way." Seeing the enthusiastic attitude of the old lady preparing tea and snacks while slowly moving about in the tiny kitchen downstairs, Xu Jiao lost half her motivation to bring forth any refusal.

And, turning around to witness the beseeching look in the eyes of the third person in the room, Xu Jiao could do nothing but sigh heavily, the remaining bits of her conviction disappearing down the drains.

[Seems like I'll start living in this place from now on..]

And, then more to convince herself if not for anything else, [This place is safer, and people are good too. Plus, my roommate doesn't look like the bad sort. Just a bit… weird.]

Discreetly observing the other girl over the rim of her cup while slowly sipping the light, but fragrant tea, Xu Jiao felt the corner of her mouth twitching. Her new roommate gave off a rather delinquent air, with her hair dyed into a dark red color, and one of her ears pierced, not to mention the particularly intimidating tattoo peaking from one side of her t-shirt neck collar. And even without all of that, she still looked rather tomboyish with her hair cropped short and her rather lanky build and tall height, unusual for a young girl who barely reached 20, especially in their country.

But, all of this delinquent vibe is destroyed the moment you look at her large limpid eyes, with their puppy-like expression.

[What a weirdo…] Xu Jiao thought, bowing her head to concentrate on drinking her tea, but she also had to admit that her heart had turned a little bit soft, even if not too much, seeing the pleading gaze of the other.

[I really should stop acting so soft-hearted to strangers…] She sighed inwardly, but still continued chatting idly with grandma Sun about the weather and the newest policies mentioned in the news.

***

Wu Man, her new roommate, is a rather bizarre creature, even if you ignore her delinquent looks and rather questionable fashion sense. This concept she had was further cemented after the two of them had sat down for a proper get-to-know-each-other session, on the night Xu Jiao had finally moved to the new place.

During the day, her new roommate helped her to move her rather sparse luggage from the university dorms to grandma Sun's place and very enthusiastically helped her to clean it and pack up her stuff, all the while talking in a rather hesitant tone. But, it would be apparent to any keen observer that she was only trying to be helpful and friendly and nothing else.

"I-I was really scared earlier that you wouldn't like to share this place with me, but luckily you did… You're really nice" Wu Man said, her tone coming out sounding a bit nasally.

"Eh, why wouldn't I?"

"I know you aren't like that... that's why I said you're nice. But many people think I'm scary, just because I look like this…" Her voice trailed off at the end, while her limpid doe eyes filled with tears, suddenly giving Xu Jiao a feeling of impending disaster, prompting her to assure her new companion quickly by saying stuff like "I don't think you look scary…" and "I think you look cute."

[Phew..] She sighed, feeling not just a little amount of relief seeing the waterworks had finally stopped. [That seemed to work.]

And her final verdict of Wu Man as of now is 'a cross between a cry baby and fragile glass heart.'

[Well… as long as she doesn't cause any trouble for me, I'm good with anything… But I can't say just yet.]

[I'll wait and see for now.]

***

"Eh, you got a haircut?" Seeing Wu Man observing her with even her head tilted to the side, Xu Jiao felt an unprecedented surge of nervousness.

"Not good? I only trimmed it just a bit."

"Noo… It's actually pretty good, ah! I was trying to figure out in what way you look different with that style….."

Xu Jiao: "…"

Wu Man: "…"

"Uh… you can tell me you know? I won't bite." Xu Jiao sighed out with slight exasperation colouring her voice. Sometimes, she really couldn't tell what this girl was thinking inside that head of hers. [Or maybe I'm too old to understand what a youngster like this is thinking?]

"Actually… I was thinking that you looked prettier… Um, and less gloomy too…" Seeing her looking at a loss for words, Wu Man hurriedly waved her hands around trying to explain, nearly knocking down the cup on the table. "What I meant is… waist-length hair makes you look a bit older. It doesn't suit you that much… ah, that's right. That's it! You look cute like this. That's what I was trying to say!"

Seeing the other look at her with an expression like that of a dog expecting praise from its owner, which somehow came out looking pathetically comic, what else could Xu Jiao say except "Thank you so much. You're really sweet." while her face showed an expression of utmost joy and gratefulness?

Probably, for the umpteenth time within the past few days, she wondered exactly how she managed to end up sharing a place with such a… how to put it? Such a weird fella?? And, this isn't the first nor will it be the last time she'd be questioning herself in this manner, but for now, our heroine doesn't need to know that, does she?

Ignoring the snoring of Wu Man while typing away at the keyboard, Xu Jiao looked thoughtful and serious at the same time, her hands moving so fast they almost looked like a blur, her movements practiced. Before arriving at K city, one of the things she had busied herself with while still at home had been sorting the ideas she used to create her novels with, in her past life.

After much contemplation and debating over and over in her mind, she had finally settled her sights on one among those story ideas, which was rather simple and looked good enough for a beginner author.

It was about an office worker whose boyfriend cheated on her with her enemy at the office. In the original story which she wrote in her last life, after dumping him, the protagonist would meet a rich businessman during one of her company's business meetings. That initial encounter would start the true melodrama, with ML's multiple rich and powerful admirers making things difficult for the MC here and there, with a kidnapping scene to spice things up a bit. Not to mention, the second, third, and even a fourth male leads (that's right, you read it correctly- It was four!), all from rich and powerful backgrounds, who'd inexplicably fall in love with her. And then all the misunderstandings and accidents!

It was quite dog-blooded, to be honest, but then this had been the general flow of her novels before her death,

[But now I want to change.] Xu Jiao kept on typing furiously, ideas seemingly flowing into her mind with no obstruction whatsoever.

Actually, before her rebirth, she had already wanted to write novels with more independent and strong female leads after nearly more than a decade had passed since she had first started writing web novels; writing the same dog-blood plots had become quite boring to her by then, especially since she had lost her initial youthful fervor which had been fuelled by her immature ideas about love and relationships.

But the management of Caihong had been opposed to this idea, thus prompting her to give up in the end; not that she blamed them too much on this matter. After all, her fanbase had long since been established by then, and turning her writing into a completely different style would probably overturn it since not everybody likes the idea of strong women, not even all the women at that.

But, now that things have turned out this way, why not take advantage of it? Even though she was quite frightened of this whole rebirth business at the start -she still is- especially since she couldn't find any sort of solid argument to explain this matter, after thinking carefully for some time had made her realize that it had quite a few perks unique to itself as well. So, why not take advantage of this rather big cheat, to easily reach success?

[Let's first make MC give an earful to the cheating couple instead of crying and wallowing in self pity, and then… resign from her company? That's right... Let's do it that way. That company doesn't sound like anything good; it was nothing but a den of snakes!]

Xu Jiao vented in her mind for her MC, but then laughed out loud at her own silly behavior, nearly waking up Wu Man who fortunately went back to sleep after turning over in bed.

How about letting MC move to a different city and start a small business there, like a dessert shop? After all, she also likes sweet stuff, so why not?

[let's make this book into a food porn while I'm at it] Xu Jiao snickered in her mind, this time being careful not to wake her sleeping roommate. She can then make MC develop her business and become a rich and powerful lady, all the while defeating all sorts of business and other enemies! That would be a nice touch.

And, as for the romance aspect of her novel, why not put it aside for now? After all, considering everything that has happened up until now, she doesn't think she is exactly qualified to write about love and romance, right? And to be honest, she isn't that sure if that so-called love even exists in this world.

"Here goes nothing!" Xu Jiao muttered to herself, satisfaction filling her heart seeing the notification on Xuri's interface indicating she had successfully updated the first chapter of her novel named 'the female boss is mighty; a guide to becoming a business tyrant'.

For a start, this is not too bad after all.

###

A/N:

This is an edited chapter.