Chapter 12: That Damn Ruan Mianmian!
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Ruan Mianmian had been locked in the restroom by someone.
It was obvious who the culprits were: Li Xiaofei and Fang Yali had joined forces against her.
How petty and childish!
Who goes to the bathroom without their phone these days?
She tried to call Xu Weiwei, and when no one picked up, she immediately understood—Xu Weiwei must have been called away or held up by Li Xiaofei and Fang Yali as well.
After thinking it over, Ruan Mianmian tagged everyone in the company group chat and sent a message:
"I’ve been maliciously locked in the restroom. If anyone sees this, please come help me open the door immediately. If no one comes within three minutes, I will call the police. If this incident brings any negative impact to the company, the person responsible will bear full responsibility."
Not only did she tag Li Hao, she also tagged the company’s senior management, adding:
"Please be informed, leaders, and address this problem. Hold the perpetrator accountable and prevent such unhealthy practices from spreading in the company. To put it plainly, this is workplace bullying."
It hadn’t been long since lunch, so most people were still up and about, except for Li Hao, that lazy oaf.
He was snoring loudly on the office sofa, but the ringing phone woke him in a foul mood. He answered irritably, “What, is someone dead? Who calls at noon? May lightning strike anyone who disturbs my nap!”
A furious roar came through the phone, “Li Hao, say that again if you dare!”
Li Hao was so startled he fell off the sofa. “S-sorry, Manager, I didn’t know it was you.”
“Check the work group chat immediately. You have one minute to resolve this. If not, pack your things and get out!” The manager hung up in a huff.
Li Hao wiped the sweat from his brow and hurried to open WeChat to check the work group.
After reading the messages, he dragged his rotund body out of the office.
Ruan Mianmian had waited less than three minutes in the restroom before someone came to unlock the door—a female colleague from the same office.
After thanking her, Ruan Mianmian stepped out and saw Li Hao standing outside the ladies' room. She said coldly, “You’d better give me an explanation for this.”
With that, she walked away without a backward glance.
Li Hao’s face was clouded with uncertainty.
He didn’t need to guess—this was Li Xiaofei’s handiwork.
Li Xiaofei really was brainless. After the morning’s plan failed, she came up with this scheme to deal with Ruan Mianmian.
Page 2 of 3
They hadn’t managed to get at her, but now the whole company knew about it, and the instigator had vanished.
As the supervisor, he still owed Ruan Mianmian an explanation!
Damn it!
He kicked the wall hard, wincing in pain, then sent a message to Li Xiaofei before returning to his office.
Ruan Mianmian went back to her desk to rest. It wasn’t until the afternoon work hours resumed that Xu Weiwei finally returned.
As soon as Xu Weiwei arrived, she whispered, “Mianmian, Li Xiaofei and Fang Yali took me to the milk tea shop downstairs. They said they had something important to tell me and wouldn’t let me bring my phone, saying it was so important they were afraid I’d record them. Then they just rambled on for ages and only let me go when it was almost time to get back to work. They never said anything important. Isn’t that weird?”
“Not at all. Once you check the work group chat, you’ll understand why they wanted you out,” replied Ruan Mianmian.
Xu Weiwei retrieved her phone from her desk drawer, saw the missed call from Mianmian, and then opened the work group chat. After reading everything, realization dawned.
“So they deliberately took me away so I couldn’t help you. That’s disgusting. Who ended up letting you out?”
No wonder those two kept dragging things out at the milk tea shop and wouldn’t let her leave.
“Chen Jiemin. She said someone had jammed the door from outside with a mop and put up a ‘maintenance’ sign. Li Hao showed up too.”
“What did he say?”
“I told him he’d better give me an explanation. He said nothing—probably off to scheme with Li Xiaofei!”
Even if Li Hao and Li Xiaofei were plotting, it was never for anything good.
They were surely figuring out how to make things harder for her.
“So what will you do if he doesn’t give you an explanation?” Xu Weiwei didn’t believe Li Hao would ever give Mianmian a proper answer.
“There are no cameras in the restroom. If she flatly denies it, I have no proof, so there’s nothing I can do—at most I can curse her out.”
No sooner had they finished whispering than they saw Li Xiaofei heading towards Li Hao’s office.
Once inside, Li Hao gave Li Xiaofei a tongue-lashing.
“Were you the one who locked Ruan Mianmian in the restroom?”
“Yes, it was me,” Li Xiaofei didn’t bother to deny it.
“Are you brainless? Didn’t you think before acting? Because of you, I got reamed out by the manager. Now, how are you going to fix this? She wants an explanation.”
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“Uncle, what are you so afraid of? She has no proof it was me. As long as I don’t admit it, what can she do?”
She and Fang Yali had counted on there being no security cameras in the restroom. Even if Ruan Mianmian knew who did it, she had no way to prove it.
Li Hao paced the room, hands clasped behind his back, his belly protruding like someone pregnant. “She sent that kind of message in the work group; everyone knows now. She tagged the senior management, hoping they’ll intervene and punish the perpetrator, to stop this sort of thing from taking root in the company. She even called it workplace bullying.”
He went on, “The higher-ups are paying attention to this. If she blows it up, I’ll be the one in trouble. The bosses will want an explanation from me—so tell me, what should I do?”
Li Xiaofei hadn’t expected Ruan Mianmian to dare post such a message in the group chat.
That damn Ruan Mianmian!
“So what do you think I should do, uncle?”
“How about you apologize to her? We’ll deal with her another way later—there’s no need to rush. And stop bossing her around like before, or you’ll just give her an excuse to report you. She’s not the same as she was before.”
As much as he’d like to see Ruan Mianmian out of the company or suffering, now wasn’t the time.
Ruan Mianmian had found her backbone.
She was no longer the pushover she once was.
“What? You want me to apologize? No way! I’ll never apologize to her!”
Someone who’d always been beneath her—how could she possibly accept that?
Li Hao scowled. “If you don’t apologize and she insists on escalating this to the manager, and the manager demands an explanation from me, what am I supposed to do?”
“Uncle, Ruan Mianmian won’t dare cause a scene. She’s eaten plenty of losses before—has she ever spoken up?”
Li Hao, tired of standing, flopped onto the sofa. “That was before. Now she’s different. Since last Thursday, she’s changed. She even dares to yell at me—why wouldn’t she dare to escalate this? I’ll call her into the office, and you can apologize. That way, there are no witnesses and the matter is finished.”
Li Xiaofei reluctantly agreed, “Fine.”
As long as she didn’t have to apologize in public, she could just about accept it.
After all, once she left the office, no one would know she’d ever apologized to Ruan Mianmian.