The Live-In Alpha Only Wants To Inherit The Young Lady's Estate - Chapter 1

Zhu Qingjia sat in the back of the car, her legs elegantly crossed, as she text-edited back and forth on her phone.

Her brow would knit slightly one moment, and her lips would press into a fine line the next.

Up front, the driver glanced at her through the rearview mirror. Caught in the act, he guiltily snapped his gaze back to the road.

This Miss Zhu wasn’t very old, but she carried herself with a striking composure. She hadn’t said a single word the entire trip, completely immersed in whatever she was doing.

A simple white T-shirt and a pair of jeans hugged her well-proportioned figure. Her naturally straight black hair cascaded over her shoulders without any tint or perm, catching the light with a soft, subtle sheen.

Her skin was exceptionally pale, yet it was a healthy, radiant fair with a natural flush of color, making her look full of vitality. She had large eyes with warm amber-brown pupils. When she smiled, she looked incredibly gentle and strikingly beautiful.

Taking a left turn, the car glided into the Royal Gold Palace—a renowned luxury residential district in Huajing. The real estate prices here were dizzyingly exorbitant. It was the kind of property someone working an ordinary job wouldn’t be able to afford even if they labored their entire life and then begged heaven for another three hundred years.

Zhu Qingjia looked up, her fingers lightly gripping the edge of her phone. She felt a twinge of anxiety. After paying her university tuition, she barely had any money left.

She had transmigrated into this world seven days ago following a car accident. The lucky part was that she had read the original novel. The unlucky part was that she had transmigrated into the villainous female supporting character who married into the second female lead’s family as a matrilocal wife.

Generally speaking, villainous supporting characters never met a good end. Zhu Qingjia had already done everything in her power to steer the course back on track.

But she was still a step too late. By the time she transmigrated, the marriage certificate had already been issued and the matrilocal arrangement was locked in.

That frail, sickly, and eccentric young mistress—who threw violent tantrums and smashed things at the slightest provocation—was already her legal wife.

One shared no love, while the other possessed a volatile temperament. What good could possibly come from throwing the two of them together?

However, Zhu Qingjia had no intention of following the script laid out by the original novel. She decided she would just be herself.

Sigh, why should one miserable soul make life harder for another?

For a villainous character to bully a fragile, sickly girl was simply monstrous.

The rationale behind forcing them together as a couple was entirely transactional. Zhu Qingjia was a top student from Peking University with excellent grades and character, but she was dirt poor. She was a high-quality Alpha from a remote, impoverished village who had made it to the capital solely through financial sponsorship. Gu Rueling, on the other hand, came from an immensely wealthy family but possessed a terribly frail body. Doctors had once predicted she wouldn’t survive past eighteen. If she wanted to prolong her life, she had to rely on a highly compatible Alpha’s pheromones.

Zhu Qingjia was exactly that life-extending pheromone source.

She also happened to be the impoverished Alpha whom the Gu family had previously sponsored.

Oddly enough, before Zhu Qingjia transmigrated, the Gu family had run a compatibility match with her, but it hadn’t reached 100%. However, because they couldn’t find anyone better, they decided to give it a try. Yet the moment Zhu Qingjia transmigrated, the data in the cultivation pod began to fluctuate wildly, and the compatibility rate skyrocketed straight to the top.

That was precisely why the Gu family wanted her to come back today.

Before realizing this was an ABO world, Zhu Qingjia had assumed she had transmigrated in her original physical body because everything felt completely familiar. Aside from the newly formed gland at the back of her neck, her muscle tone and lines remained unchanged, identical to her previous self.

Since she was here, she might as well make the best of it and treat it as a second lease on life.

The car came to a stop in front of the villa. The driver sprinted over to open the door, and Zhu Qingjia stepped out.

This was only her second time here. Their first meeting hadn’t been particularly pleasant. It had been a dreary, rainy day, and Gu Rueling had been wearing a white fur coat with a plush collar. Her face was tiny, her chin tucked deep into the fur, making her look so exquisitely beautiful she didn’t seem real.

She wore no makeup and didn’t speak. She just sat silently in her wheelchair.

At the time, Zhu Qingjia had taken the initiative to greet her, but the young mistress completely ignored her. She simply turned the pages of her artbook, refusing to grant her even a moment of attention.

Zhu Qingjia had been given the cold shoulder, but she hadn’t thought much of it then. She had only wondered if the girl suffered from autism.

In a way, she felt relieved. This young mistress wasn’t quite as bizarre as she had imagined, nor had she thrown a random tantrum. The first impression was actually decent.

Curving her lips slightly, she headed inside. In the garden, maids were already tending to the plants and flowers. The villa was massive, yet Gu Rueling lived here alone. Fearing something might happen to her, the Gu family had hired an army of staff to care for her. Along the short walk from the entrance to the house, four or five people had already greeted Zhu Qingjia.

“Miss Zhu is back. The young mistress is upstairs; breakfast was just brought up to her,” Nanny Zhang greeted her, holding a serving tray.

“Understood, I’ll go up and check on her.” Zhu Qingjia took the elevator to the second floor, retracing her memory to find Gu Rueling’s room.

She had only walked a few paces when she heard the sound of an argument.

“Get out! All of you, get out!”

It was Gu Rueling’s voice.

Zhu Qingjia quickened her steps. The bedroom door wasn’t locked; it was slightly ajar.

The moment she pushed the door open and stepped inside, several porcelain plates came flying through the air and shattered right on the floor. Before she could even react, she felt sharp fragments of porcelain spray across her skin.

Nanny Li, who was tending to the young mistress, was also startled. Turning around, she spotted Zhu Qingjia.

She immediately dropped what she was holding. “Oh my, Miss Zhu, your arm is bleeding!”

Only then did Zhu Qingjia notice several thin, long scratches scoring her arm. Blood was seeping out from her skin, looking rather alarming at first glance.

Gu Rueling suddenly stood up from the bed. Pushing Nanny Li aside, she lunged toward the floor barefoot, completely reckless.

The scene instantly descended into chaos.

Seeing that the girl was heading straight for the window, Zhu Qingjia bolted forward like an arrow and locked her tightly in her arms.

The girl in her embrace thrashed wildly, striking her arms. “Let go of me! Let go!” she screamed, violently throwing her body toward the window pane.

She was clearly trying to jump.

Zhu Qingjia held on even tighter, though she didn’t dare use too much force. The waist beneath her hands was slender yet deceptively strong, twisting like a thrashing shrimp. She refrained from exerting her full strength, terrified she might accidentally break that fragile waist.

Seeing that Zhu Qingjia was on the verge of being overwhelmed, Nanny Li immediately turned on her heel. “Miss Zhu, please hold on! I’ll get help right away!”

Zhu Qingjia seriously began to question if the Gu family had lied to her. This wasn’t “frail and sickly” at all—this was completely unhinged. She wondered if the girl had ever been evaluated by a psychiatrist.

Fortunately, Gu Rueling lacked stamina. After throwing a frantic tantrum for a brief moment, her strength evaporated. Her entire body went limp against Zhu Qingjia’s chest. She didn’t resist being held anymore, but when Zhu Qingjia looked down, she saw that the girl’s eyes were stark red, as if she were on the verge of tears.

Zhu Qingjia gently laid her back onto the bed and pulled up the covers. Looking up, she realized Gu Rueling was staring intently at her arm—specifically at the wounds she had just caused.

Nanny Li rushed back into the room accompanied by several servants. Seeing that the young mistress had calmed down, she let out a sigh of relief. She instructed the others to sweep up the broken porcelain and asked Zhu Qingjia if she should order a fresh breakfast.

“If she doesn’t want to eat, let it be.”

By now, Gu Rueling had closed her eyes, her brow pinched in obvious discomfort.

“I’ll stay with her for a bit. You may step out first,” Zhu Qingjia said softly. She pulled up a chair and sat down right by Gu Rueling’s bedside.

Nanny Li looked at her, then glanced at the young mistress resting on the bed. Placing a first-aid kit within Zhu Qingjia’s reach, she quietly withdrew from the room.

Gu Rueling’s biological mother had explicitly told her that companionship was the single most crucial factor in pheromone therapy. She wasn’t allowed to only come home on weekends; whenever she didn’t have evening classes, she was expected to eat and sleep at the villa. To facilitate this, they had specially assigned a personal driver to chauffeur her back and forth.

Zhu Qingjia checked the time; it was still quite early for lunch. She fished some antiseptic out of the medical kit, cleaned her scratches, and applied a layer of ointment. It stung a little.

Gu Rueling appeared to have fallen asleep, but her rest was fitful and unsettled. Her hands and feet would twitch occasionally.

Zhu Qingjia stared blankly into space, occasionally checking on the girl in bed. On the thirty-third time she looked over, Gu Rueling opened her eyes.

Her very first words were, “Why are you here?”

Followed immediately by, “Get out.”

She didn’t scream or throw a tantrum this time; her tone was entirely cold and flat as she demanded her departure.

Zhu Qingjia stared at her, genuinely wondering if this girl suffered from short-term memory loss. It wasn’t long ago that she had literally just tucked her in, yet now she was acting as if Zhu Qingjia had rudely intruded into her space.

“I—”

“Get out.”

Zhu Qingjia turned and left without the slightest hesitation. “I’ll call someone in for you.”

The moment she stepped downstairs, she bumped into Nanny Zhang. “She’s awake. She might need someone to attend to her.”

Hearing this, Nanny Zhang panicked and hurried upstairs. Fearing something might go wrong, Zhu Qingjia followed her back up.

“The young mistress cannot be left unattended. If this happens again, Miss Zhu, you just need to call out for us.”

Thinking back on their two interactions, Gu Rueling always had someone hovering around her; she was never left entirely alone. It seemed her physical condition truly was incredibly precarious.

There were two personal maids assigned to take close care of the young mistress: Nanny Zhang and Nanny Li. Both were highly experienced and quite adept at handling various emergencies.

Nanny Zhang spoke softly, “When the young mistress isn’t throwing a tantrum, she’s actually quite easy to get along with.”

What kind of logic is that? Zhu Qingjia thought wryly. It’s like saying life is great when you don’t have to work, or your body feels wonderful when you aren’t sick.

Zhu Qingjia didn’t step back into the bedroom. Recognizing that Gu Rueling was about to change her clothes, she proactively pulled the door shut.

After waiting for a long while without seeing them come out, Zhu Qingjia strolled out to the garden to pass the time. She encountered Nanny Li, who was cradling a bundle of freshly cut flowers, intending to arrange them in a vase.

“Miss Zhu, take a look and see if there are any you like. You can select a few to place in your bedroom.”

Zhu Qingjia happened to have questions she wanted to clear up, so she paused and picked out a few stems.

“Nanny Li, do the young mistress’s parents not live here? They seem to care a great deal about her; they gave me a lot of instructions before I came over.”

Nanny Li pondered for a moment. Realizing this wasn’t an absolute secret, she lowered her voice and said, “The young mistress lived with her foster family previously. She was only brought back three months ago.”

“Why is that?” Zhu Qingjia couldn’t fathom the reason; the original novel hadn’t shed light on this detail either.

“Because of certain complications. Now that those complications are gone, they settled the young mistress here.”

It wasn’t appropriate for Nanny Li to elaborate on the specific details, and Zhu Qingjia didn’t pry any further. She had initially assumed her matrilocal marriage carried a traditional superstitious intent to “ward off bad luck and bring health,” but it appeared there were other layers involved.

As Zhu Qingjia was selecting her flowers, Nanny Zhang wheeled Gu Rueling toward the courtyard, mentioning that the sun was lovely and she could sit under the veranda for a while.

The young mistress had changed into a soft, pale-yellow dress that reached her calves. The fabric was dotted with tiny, delicate floral patterns—a highly youthful and vibrant design. However, the wearer’s complexion was so excessively pale that it drained away much of that natural vitality.

Her hair had been styled into a loose fishtail braid resting over her right shoulder, secured with a glittering diamond hair clip. She looked stunning.

Zhu Qingjia let her gaze linger for a moment before dropping her eyes to the girl’s legs. There was nothing physically wrong with them, yet she absolutely insisted on relying on a wheelchair.

She felt a genuine pang of worry that those legs might eventually atrophy. The calves peeking out from beneath the hem of her dress were fair and straight.

Yet the muscles lay entirely dormant.

Zhu Qingjia felt a wave of pity.

She arranged her chosen stems, crossing them together. Finding her own composition quite pleasing, she prepared to look for a vase to display them.

Out of nowhere, the young mistress spoke up. “I want that one.”

Out of everyone present, Zhu Qingjia was the only one holding anything, and Gu Rueling’s eyes were fixed directly on the arrangement in her hands.

Sure enough, upon seeing the subtle shift in Zhu Qingjia’s expression, Gu Rueling wanted them even more.

“Nanny Zhang, find a vase, put those flowers in, and bring them up to my room.”

“This…” Nanny Zhang looked slightly conflicted, considering Miss Zhu was technically a master of this house as well.

“It’s rare for her to take a liking to something. Do as she wishes.” Zhu Qingjia handed them over completely naturally. She hadn’t been set on keeping them for her own room anyway; since the girl wanted them, she could have them.

It was merely a bunch of flowers.

Having secured the flowers, Gu Rueling found her curiosity piqued by this person. This was the very first time she had successfully obtained something she wanted through such petty, direct malice.

She wanted to see exactly how much this wife her family had bought for her could endure.