The Snail Maiden

Chapter 293

The midday sun was shining brightly.

With one hand in his pocket, Gu Ran walked along the stone-paved path outside the Qingda University cafeteria, looking down and swiping on his phone.

Seeing the viral article on his screen where Brother Hei had defected and wildly praised the free-data SIM card, he couldn't hold back and burst out laughing.

"Dr. Ye, look at this."

He turned and thrust his phone screen in front of Ye Zhenzhen.

"These troll army leaders hired by Penguin actually all defected to our side at the last minute. Penguin must be losing their minds with anger."

Gu Ran waved his phone, laughing heartily.

"I played this zero-cost game pretty well, didn't I? I even snagged Penguin's PR budget while I was at it."

With her hands behind her back, Ye Zhenzhen leaned over haughtily to take a glance, then rolled her eyes beautifully.

The girl shook her head. "Tsk, tsk. The sour stench of a capitalist on you is getting heavier and heavier."

She curled her lips and continued to roast him.

"At your rate of exploitation, even the streetlights would have to make room for you overnight."

Gu Ran wasn't annoyed; instead, he shamelessly leaned in closer.

Relying on his height advantage, he looked down at the girl's beautiful features, his tone carrying a hint of a scoundrel.

"Then I'll have to drag you along with me. A toad finding a frog, we make a perfect pair. How festive!"

Hearing this, Ye Zhenzhen's fair face instantly flushed a light pink.

Embarrassed and annoyed, she lifted her foot in its little white shoe, pretending to kick Gu Ran's calf.

"Gu 'Dog' Ran, are you asking for a death wish?!"

She puffed out her small cheeks like an angry little pufferfish.

"Who are you calling a toad?!"

Gu Ran's figure flashed, dodging the attack with extreme smoothness.

He turned and ran toward the academic building, running backward while not forgetting to wildly tease the bristling girl.

"Dr. Ye, I didn't point any fingers. Why are you voluntarily taking the seat?"

Ye Zhenzhen bit her rosy lower lip, lifted the hem of her skirt, and chased after him.

"Gu 'Dog' Ran, stop right there!"

The girl's crisp voice echoed along the tree-lined path.

"If I catch you today, you're dead meat!"

She waved her small fists, threatening him with what she thought was ferocity.

"Believe it or not, I'll tie you to a dissection table and show you what true physical salvation is!"

Gu Ran ran ahead effortlessly, his laughter hearty.

"Then I'll have to hug your thighs tightly. Dying under a peony flower, even as a ghost, I'd be a romantic one."

The two chased and flirted all the way, causing passing students to frequently turn their heads.

Seeing they were almost at the academic building, Gu Ran deliberately slowed down and was grabbed by the hem of his shirt by the panting girl.

He took the opportunity to loosely hold the girl's slender wrist, smiling and pointing at his watch.

"I know Dr. Ye can't bear to part with me, but time doesn't permit it."

The latter's pretty face turned red as she quickly retorted.

"Stop being so glib! Who can't bear to part with you!"

"Hmph, fine. I'll spare you this once today. Consider yourself lucky."

Ye Zhenzhen glared at him coquettishly and straightened her ruffled hem.

She turned around haughtily and walked toward the medical school with brisk steps.

The young man stood at the door, watching that slender back with an indulgent smile.

It wasn't until her figure completely disappeared that he turned and walked toward the lecture hall for his class.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Shenzhen.

Su Wan, who had just been ruthlessly kicked out by Penguin's board of directors, was sitting on a leather sofa in a high-end apartment.

She stared intently at the MicroChat data on her computer screen, her teeth itching with anger.

In her eyes, that greenhorn Gu Ran had just gotten lucky, and she couldn't swallow this anger no matter what.

"Just you wait, Gu Ran!"

Su Wan gritted her teeth, her eyes full of unwillingness.

"Last time I was careless and didn't dodge. This time, I'm going to show you what I'm made of!"

She did as she said, using her connections to quickly forge an ordinary resume for a junior product manager.

She lowered her educational background and ruined her experience, aiming for a "clear-eyed and naive college student" persona.

That very afternoon, wearing high heels, she aggressively boarded a flight to Qinglin City.

A few hours later.

Su Wan, having changed into a cheap professional outfit, was already sitting upright in the interview waiting area of GR Company.

She coldly observed the nervous fresh graduates around her, then glanced at the somewhat shabby office environment, sneering repeatedly in her heart.

Just this makeshift troupe cobbled together by college students?

Infiltrating this place would be easier than drinking water for her.

She had even pictured a grand drama in her mind in advance.

She would successfully steal their core secrets, and Gu Ran would suffer a crushing defeat, kneeling on the ground crying bitterly and begging her for mercy.

Thinking of this proud moment, the little person in Su Wan's mind was already standing with hands on hips, high heels stepping firmly on Gu Ran's chest, laughing wildly at the sky and shouting, "The advantage is mine!"

"Pfft..."

She really couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.

Feeling the surprised gazes of the surrounding applicants looking at her, Su Wan quickly coughed twice, put away her smile, sat up straight, and forced on the appearance of a nervous, stage-frightened newcomer.

After an unknown amount of time, guided by a staff member, Su Wan entered the interview room.

Li Sinan, sitting in the chief examiner's seat, took the forged resume.

Listening to the other party's textbook-level "newbie" self-introduction, Li Sinan tapped her slender fingers lightly on the desk, her eyebrows twitching imperceptibly.

As the chief steward of GR, Li Sinan had previously dug up every last detail of Penguin's major executives in order to study their competitors.

The more she looked at the woman's face and tasted the arrogance in her bones that couldn't be hidden no matter how hard she tried, the more familiar she seemed.

Under the cover of looking down at the resume, Li Sinan took out her phone under the desk.

She quickly searched for internal photos of Penguin's executives.

The second the comparison results came out, Li Sinan's pupils quaked, feeling like her brain was about to short-circuit.

Good heavens!

Wasn't this Su Wan, the former head of WeChat who had just been disgracefully fired by Penguin a few days ago?!

A dignified former executive of a major internet giant, coming to this startup with only a few hundred people to apply for a junior specialist position?

Li Sinan suppressed the shock in her heart, remaining outwardly as steady as an old dog, maintaining the professional demeanor of an HR manager.

She cleared her throat and deliberately threw out a few very basic, even somewhat idiotic product logic questions.

"Miss Su, what do you think is the core pain point of social software currently on the market?"

Su Wan answered fluently, deliberately using extremely childish and amateurish language, while also pretending to be a well-behaved person humbly seeking advice.

But in her heart, she had already despised Li Sinan into the mud.

[It really is a makeshift troupe. The interviewer can't even ask a question with any substance. A bunch of blockheads.]

To test her further, Li Sinan changed the subject and deliberately asked about the competitive differences between MicroChat and WeChat.

Su Wan pretended to completely not understand the industry's inside story. She crazily flattered MicroChat's design concepts while simultaneously degrading WeChat to being worse than a pile of dog crap.

Listening to this "former biological mother of WeChat" crazily cursing her own biological son without changing her expression, Li Sinan almost pinched her thighs green, holding back her laughter so hard that her stomach cramped.

As soon as the interview ended, Li Sinan calmly walked back to her office.

With a click, she locked the door behind her, whipped out her phone, and quickly dialed Gu Ran's number.

Boss! Massive gossip! You will never guess the absolutely magical event I just experienced!

Li Sinan leaned against the door, panting with excitement.

That Su Wan who just got fired from Penguin actually came here to apply for the Junior Product Manager position!

She lowered her voice, covering the mouthpiece like a thief.

This woman is definitely up to no good! Are we being targeted by Penguin's corporate spies?

At this moment, Gu Ran was sitting in a lecture hall at the School of Economics and Management, bored out of his mind waiting for the professor to take attendance.

Upon receiving the call, he hunched over, slipped out the back door, ducked into an empty classroom next door, and locked it.

After listening to Li Sinan's rapid-fire report, Gu Ran wasn't the least bit panicked; instead, his eyes lit up wildly.

He slapped his thigh and leaned against a desk, letting out a pig-like snort of laughter.

My God, high-level free labor delivered right to our doorstep! How did such a pie-in-the-sky blessing fall on my head?

Holding his phone, Gu Ran's eyes darted around as a bellyful of exploitative, capitalist schemes began bubbling up.

This Su Wan is a Ph.D. returnee and a former Penguin executive. She's the type who needs three assistants just to put together a PowerPoint presentation.

Gu Ran stroked his chin, smiling like a pure, black-hearted capitalist.

Since our overseas-educated Ph.D. loves grassroots work so much and insists on experiencing the common life, we absolutely must satisfy her!

He spoke decisively into the phone.

Teacher Li, just pretend you don't know anything. Hire her first at the absolute minimum base salary for a junior position.

Gu Ran shifted into a more comfortable position against the desk and began feverishly tailoring a special care plan.

Since she's here, we have to arrange the full blessing package for her.

Give her the most broken-down computer in the company. The keyboard has to be the kind where the keys get stuck and don't bounce back when you press them.

He counted on his fingers as he plotted, Give her all the most tedious competitor data entry and the most boring document formatting tasks.

Gu Ran paused, the smile on his lips growing increasingly twisted.

Have her compile the Tieba forum data for over two thousand universities nationwide. Remember, she has to enter it into Excel purely by hand, line by line. No web scraping software allowed!

Also, before getting off work every day, require her to submit a three-thousand-word handwritten daily report, under the guise of focusing on cultivating key employees.

At lunch, don't let her join any group takeout orders. Let her go downstairs and squeeze into the cafeteria with the college students to fight for pork trotter rice!

Listening to these inhumane arrangements on the other end of the line, Li Sinan felt a cold chill run down her spine.

Good heavens, if a real capitalist saw her boss's maneuvers, they would probably hang themselves from a streetlamp overnight and shed tears of shame.

In her heart, she silently lit a neat row of candles for Su Wan's future career.

Amen...

Hanging up the phone, Gu Ran slipped back to the back row of the classroom in a fantastic mood, beaming with a radiant, springtime smile.

His roommate Zhang Qi leaned over suspiciously and asked in a low voice.

Brother Gu, why are you smiling so creepily after stepping out for a call? Did you pick up some money on your way back?

The young man leaned back mysteriously in his chair, his slender fingers nimbly spinning a gel pen as he replied softly.

I didn't find any money. But I just hired a Snail Fairy who brings her own rations and practically pays to work for me.

Zhang Qi was completely confused and gossiped, asking what this Snail Fairy looked like.

Gu Ran spouted nonsense with a straight face: She's a burly woman who looks like Abbess Miejue and could punch a cow to death.

Zhang Qi imagined the scene and instantly felt a chill. He rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and didn't dare ask any more questions.

Meanwhile, Su Wan, who had just walked out of the GR Company building, felt her phone vibrate in her bag.

She took out her phone and looked at the Congratulations, you have been officially hired message on the screen, her eyes filled with lofty disdain.

In her eyes, all the trump cards Gu Ran was so proud of would soon become hers for the taking.

She had even calculated the perfect plan.

Step one, hack into GR's servers!

Step two, turn his core technical staff against him!

Step three, make Gu Ran lose everything!

Su Wan put away her phone and stepped confidently into the early autumn breeze.

Her steps were steady, her high heels clicking sharply on the ground, as if she were already trampling Gu Ran underfoot.

Gu Ran, you are finished!

......