Red Archives, A Small Cucumber Isn't Filling

At the Dongfang family villa on campus.

The sun blazed high in the sky, but Dongfang Zhixia felt like she couldn’t catch her breath. She jerked awake from her sleep, only to be greeted by a massive lump of "useless fat."

Her little secretary was busy elbowing her in the ribs with said "useless fat," mumbling incoherently in her sleep—probably dreaming about something delicious. Dongfang Zhixia touched her ear and found a faint bite mark, still damp with drool.

Dongfang Zhixia: "……"

Now she understood why she’d had that kind of dream last night—and why she felt so physically drained. In the dream, no matter how many times she tried to resist, she was always pinned down.

Helplessness, shame, fury, and…

Whatever else she was thinking about made her already flushed face burn even hotter, turning crimson.

After a while, she finally calmed down and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost noon… Wait.

Noon?

Shouldn’t it still be morning? Today was Friday—she still had classes. Tomorrow was the weekend. So… she had overslept.

"Hehe… cake… hehe…" The little secretary clung to Dongfang Zhixia’s long legs, nuzzling her cheek against them before chomping down with a satisfied chomp.

Dongfang Zhixia: "……"

A few minutes later.

Whack! Whack! Whack!

"Waaah! Stop hitting me, Miss! Waaah! I’m sorry! Waaah…!"

The little secretary’s pitiful wails echoed through the villa. The more gleefully she had gnawed in her sleep, the more miserably she howled now. Dongfang Zhixia remained silent, relentlessly wielding her "merciless iron hand" to discipline the idiot who had a habit of biting everything in sight.

Dongfang Zhixia wasn’t angry about missing class. Even if she skipped, the teachers wouldn’t mark her absent—her attendance was automatically counted as perfect.

What infuriated her was that because of her secretary’s antics, she’d had that kind of humiliating dream—one where she couldn’t fight back. Even though it was just a dream, the memory was vivid. The entire thing could be summed up in one word: mortifying.

In all her years, Dongfang Zhixia had never been so thoroughly humiliated—even if it was just in a dream. Still, she very "kindly" decided to pin the blame for this entire ordeal on Ye Cheng.

"Bastard!"

Gritting her teeth, she smacked the little secretary again mid-sentence.

"Oww… Miss, it hurts, waaah…" The little secretary looked up at her with tearful, almond-shaped eyes, utterly bewildered by her sudden rage.

"Hurt my ass. With all that fat, how can you even feel pain? And weren’t you supposed to be losing weight? Feels like you’ve gained two pounds instead!"

The more Dongfang Zhixia thought about it, the angrier she got. She dragged the little secretary to the scale, ignoring her desperate pleas. The poor girl’s eyes were wide with terror—No, no, not the scale! Waaah…

As long as she didn’t step on it, she hadn’t gained weight. It was like that "weight-loss truth" she’d seen online: Ice cream is cold, so how can it have calories?

Eat up, eat up! It won’t make you fat! The moment she read that, her already-not-very-bright brain had ascended to new heights of "wisdom."

Half an hour later.

The villa finally quieted down. The little secretary sat at the dining table, staring longingly at Dongfang Zhixia’s breakfast while her own plate held half a cucumber.

Breakfast used to be simple—bread, milk, things like that. But starting today, Dongfang Zhixia’s meals remained unchanged, while the little secretary’s was downgraded to half a cucumber.

As she ate, Dongfang Zhixia skimmed through the student council matters she needed to handle. Missing class today was fine—she’d just take it as a day off and come up with an excuse later. No point going now and giving people more reasons to gossip.

The Dongfang family’s influence was immense. While no one dared to openly criticize them, whispers behind their backs were inevitable. Dongfang Zhixia had grown up with this and had long since stopped caring.

Let them talk. Only the weak worry about others’ opinions. The strong just do what they need to do.

Through sheer willpower and self-delusion, Dongfang Zhixia had already erased last night’s dream—and the memory of her secretary sneaking upstairs to peek at the boys’ dorm with binoculars.

Both of them had silently agreed never to mention the telescope incident. That particular stretch of time had been neatly excised, as if erased by some "King Crimson."

This was for the best. If that last layer of pretense was torn away, both of them would die of embarrassment.

Dongfang Zhixia scrolled through her phone, reviewing documents, while the little secretary stared mournfully at her half-cucumber, unsure where to even begin.

Waaah… It’s so small. I won’t be full at all, waaah…

She didn’t hate cucumbers. In fact, she was an easy-to-please child who never picked at her food—she ate whatever was given to her. She just had a particularly strong fondness for sweets, like little cakes.

The reason she was staring so pitifully at the cucumber was simple: it was too small. One bite, and it’d be gone. She’d still be hungry. Waaah…

Earlier, under Dongfang Zhixia’s insistence, she had stepped on the scale. Unsurprisingly, she had gained weight.

Dongfang Zhixia nearly lost it. She exercises every day, yet she’s still getting fatter? At this rate, by New Year’s, she’ll be plump enough to serve as the main course!

Suddenly, a red-alert notification popped up on Dongfang Zhixia’s screen.

"Possible student suicide attempt—jumping from building! (URGENT)"

"Hm?"

Frowning, Dongfang Zhixia set down her fork, her expression turning serious.

Red was the highest level of urgency—indicating a direct threat to a student’s life, requiring immediate intervention. This covered everything from violent threats to fights, bullying, and other dangerous situations.

School just started. How is someone already trying to jump?

But since the report had been sent to her, it meant the student was still alive—for now. Even so, after this incident, they likely wouldn’t get off easy. The most probable outcome was expulsion.

If there were extenuating circumstances—like threats or harassment—leniency might be possible.

Below the alert were the files of the individuals involved. Two names. Dongfang Zhixia tapped the first one.

"Li Yong, male, only son of Li Corporation…"

Dongfang Zhixia smirked, her eyes glinting with cold amusement. Well, well. Someone’s just begging to be made an example of.

The moment Dongfang Zhixia saw Li Yong, the furrow in her brow instantly smoothed out. She was anything but unfamiliar with Li Yong—in fact, she knew him quite well, as he was the younger brother of her assistant.

Dongfang Zhixia glanced at her assistant, who was still staring miserably at the half-eaten cucumber on her plate, then looked back at Li Yong’s file in front of her. Without hesitation, she wrote "Terminate" in the resolution section of the incident report.

Even if he wouldn’t actually be fired in the end, it would still make the Li Corporation pay a price. Otherwise, they could just wait for Li Yong to be politely shown the door.

Dongfang Zhixia often scolded her assistant, that much was true. But while she alone was allowed to do so, no one else was permitted to bully her. And as luck would have it, Li Yong had stepped on that landmine—though it had been years ago. These days, whenever Li Yong saw Dongfang Zhixia, he could only lower his head like a dog and scurry past, not daring to meet her gaze.

But Dongfang Zhixia hadn’t forgotten a single thing from back then.

"You brainless fool, how dare you call yourself her brother? A proper young lady like her, reduced to serving others as a mere servant…"

And then—well, there was no "then." Before Li Yong could finish that sentence, Dongfang Zhixia had slapped him so hard he questioned his entire existence. Still, her assistant had hidden away and cried for a long time afterward.

In the end, Dongfang Zhixia had to increase her assistant’s allowance just to stop the tears. The girl was easy to placate and didn’t hold grudges—but that didn’t mean Dongfang Zhixia was the same.

She had only held back from further retaliation out of consideration for her assistant, stopping at just enough to give Li Erhe, the girl’s father, some face.

The Li family was complicated. While the rest of the Lis treated the assistant with indifference, Li Erhe, her father, had been surprisingly "benevolent" toward her. Otherwise, with her airheaded nature, how could she have possibly escaped to seek refuge with the Dongfang family?

Did they think the Lis were just sitting around doing nothing?

Dongfang Zhixia had only gone easy on them because Li Erhe was decent. Otherwise, she would’ve acted long ago.

With this matter settled, Dongfang Zhixia decided to take a walk—and incidentally, settle a score with a certain someone. She had been keeping track of all the recent offenses. Kissing her just like that, huh?

Dongfang Zhixia narrowed her eyes, a faint smirk curling at the corners of her lips. Her smile carried an inexplicably wicked edge.

"Miss… munch munch… You’re smiling really evilly right now… munch munch…"

Her assistant, chewing on her tiny half-cucumber, blinked her big, sparkling eyes and spoke with utmost "honesty."

Dongfang Zhixia: "…"

Her smile stiffened. Silently, she speared a piece of fried egg from her plate and held it out in front of her assistant. "Want it?"

The assistant blinked, stunned by the sudden stroke of luck. Her lady was truly the kindest, most wonderful person in the world! She nodded eagerly, opening her mouth wide.

Ah~

Dongfang Zhixia calmly ate the fried egg herself.

"Then keep wanting it."

Assistant: "…"

"Waaah, Miss Dongfang! Waaah… I’m so hungry… Waaah… This cucumber is so tiny… Waaah…"

Tears welling in her eyes, the assistant scrambled around the table to cling to her lady, the two of them tussling until Dongfang Zhixia’s phone clattered to the floor.

"You idiot, all you ever think about is cucumbers! Fine, here, take it, happy now?"

Dongfang Zhixia finally relented, handing over the other half of her breakfast while picking up her fallen phone.

"Hm?"

She frowned slightly at the file now displayed on her screen. The person in the document had changed—previously, it was Li Yong. Now, it showed… Ye Cheng.

Dongfang Zhixia: "???"