The Quirky Online Friends and the Giant New Employee

“Who… who said I’d be your girlfriend!!”

“Sister Lin, tsundere is out of style.”

“Who… who’s tsundere!!!”

“…”

Seeing that if he continued, Jiang Zilin would reach her boiling point (TL Note: ‘hongwen’ literally means ‘red temperature,’ implying embarrassment or anger reaching a peak), Chen Ran decisively changed the topic.

“Do you have many friends online, Sister Lin?”

“Not that many, really.”

The woman hummed, as if counting sheep, then looked up at the sky, murmuring to herself as she counted on her fingers.

“There’s an older sister who loves fishing; she seems to be a corporate s*ave (TL Note: ‘shachu,’ a Japanese term referring to an overworked salaryman), always lecturing us about fish and insects, just like a biology teacher, speaking tirelessly!!”

“Then there’s a college student little sister who seems unable to speak to people; it’s not that she can’t speak, but that she simply can’t open her mouth, unlike me, so she can only sing—can you believe it, someone who can’t speak can still sing, and beautifully at that!”

“There’s another little sister who has lived in the mountains her whole life; her biggest interest is having me send her all sorts of TV dramas and anime, but only the old, classic videotapes, because her family doesn’t have a computer for internet access, and her phone is also quite outdated…”

“And then…”

Jiang Zilin listed five or six people in a row, including the girl who had just called herself a ‘succubus.’

“It sounds like some kind of support group for people with personality disorders.”

Chen Ran smiled, though without any malice; at least from Jiang Zilin’s descriptions, it seemed that her online friends, more or less, all felt out of place in the normal world.

“There’s nothing for it; everyone has their flaws, and it’s not as if you can simply fix them just by wanting to.”

“The tragedy for most people lies in the fact that even if they know their shortcomings, they can only continue to live with them—everyone bears their own cross, crawling through the dark mire, mm-hmm…”

Crossing her arms.

Jiang Zilin spoke with a solemn air, seemingly quite pleased with herself for having uttered what sounded like a famous quote, but her cheeks quickly flushed a rosy red.

“Cold told me; she said she read it in some book.”

“Cold must read a lot.”

“She does…”

The conversation ended.

The topic had once again reached its conclusion.

After helping Jiang Zilin count the money in the shelves and cash register, Chen Ran quickly finished the shift handover with the new employee, Ipinas, a foreign woman whose height of at least two meters meant she nearly touched the convenience store ceiling.

“Using the cash register is simple: just scan the items with this, collect the cash, and give change. Don’t worry about anything else; if anything comes up, just call me.”

“I’ll come over tomorrow, on the weekend, to sort out the bed and water heater. For tonight, you can just sleep on the floor… As for showering, perhaps you could go to my place tonight?”

Chen Ran instructed the foreign woman before him, watching her nod repeatedly in a flustered manner.

‘The new employee seems to be another strange one,’ he thought.

Then, glancing at Jiang Zilin, who was cowering behind him, afraid to even speak to or make eye contact with the new employee, he mused, ‘Could it be that this girl has a knack for attracting oddballs?’

Although he felt a little uneasy.

He still entrusted the convenience store to the new employee for the time being.

Chen Ran figured that for just one night, nothing significant should happen.

With that thought, he led Jiang Zilin out of the convenience store and headed towards the subway station outside the old street.

The two of them still needed to go to Xijing to buy a birthday present for her ‘succubus’ online friend.

It was now almost six in the evening.

Having just eaten dinner at the convenience store, Jiang Zilin continued to whisper secrets to him along the way, mentioning that the new foreign woman seemed to have an enormous appetite…

“At noon, she finished a portion of ramen, the same amount we usually eat, all by herself—just one mouthful, one mouthful and it was all gone, it completely dumbfounded me!”

Jiang Zilin exaggerated, and from her incoherent description, the scene must have been truly astonishing.

“So then I had her heat up two bento boxes from the store, and I even bought three catties (TL Note: A ‘cattie’ or ‘jin’ is a traditional Chinese unit of weight, approximately 500 grams) of pastries from Granny Yang’s just for her to finish lunch.”

“Xiaoran, are we losing money by providing room and board like this…?”

‘Hmm…’

Chen Ran hadn’t considered this aspect.

What should he do if the new employee ate too much?

Moreover, he figured that Ipinas, being such a tall foreign woman, surely wouldn’t have a bed that fit her; he would have to get one custom-made, which would also be quite troublesome.

No wonder she had initially said she didn’t need a salary, just room and board.

A headache began to throb.

“It’s fine, let her eat as much as she wants; it won’t cost that much anyway.”

The main thing was that he had money now.

Chen Ran still remembered that he had 1.4 million in his bank account.

‘Eat!’

He was curious to see just how much this foreign woman could eat before she managed to bankrupt him!!

Still, Chen Ran was puzzled.

How could a trope usually found in anime (TL Note: ‘er ci yuan fan ju,’ referring to two-dimensional anime or manga) appear in a real-life character?

‘Strange, truly strange,’ he mused—though, looking at the foreign woman, she didn’t seem like someone who would appear in reality at all…

“Compared to that, it’s more important that Sister Lin doesn’t have to force herself to go to the convenience store every day.”

“Really, truly?!”

“Of course, it’s true.”

Chen Ran said slowly.

But he didn’t voice the unspoken thought: ‘Compared to an unfamiliar foreign woman watching the store, Sister Lin watching the store is actually more worrying, and Cold and Mom probably think so too.’

This was because Jiang Zilin was genuinely extremely socially anxious.

Ever since they left the convenience store, the woman had been clutching his sleeve tightly, her head bowed, as if trying to hide her entire being behind him, walking nervously by his side.

Chen Ran was used to it by now.

Before he had grown accustomed, he would often be bumped into by Jiang Zilin from behind if he walked too slowly, or she would stumble, unable to keep up with his pace, if he walked too quickly.

Fortunately.

He and Jiang Zilin now had a “tacit understanding.”

He led her out onto the street, and as pedestrians gradually increased, the woman fell completely silent, remaining so all the way to the subway station.

While waiting for the subway.

He could still feel Jiang Zilin clutching his clothes tightly with both hands, looking utterly pitiful.

He had heard from Sister Cold before.

Apparently, every time Sister Lin waited for the subway, she feared falling onto the tracks or that he or her little sister beside her might fall, which was why she would nervously cling to whoever was with her.

‘Why was this the case?’

He didn’t know.

Jiang Zilin simply became extraordinarily nervous in crowded places.

Even after the subway arrived.

Chen Ran watched as the woman urgently pulled him into the subway car, then found a corner spot and stood there, even though the train wasn’t particularly crowded at the moment.

Not only that.

Jiang Zilin also pulled him to stand in front of her, as if encircling her against the wall in a corner.

For some reason, looking at Jiang Zilin, who was nervously huddled and visibly frightened, completely shielded by him in the corner.

Chen Ran couldn’t shake the peculiar feeling about their current “posture.”