I Heard I’m a Scummy Alpha? [Transmigration] - Chapter 37

After lunch, Qi Yunwei felt drowsy. With nothing scheduled that afternoon and no need to return to the office, she simply went home for a nap.

When she woke up at two, she found a message from Du Yifan on her phone.

Du Yifan: Boss, Xuanqian Group has work for us again! This time they’re offering half a million upfront!

Qi Yunwei went to the washroom, splashed her face awake, then sat down on the living room sofa with her phone before replying.

Qi Yunwei: Send me the details of the job.

Du Yifan immediately forwarded the files.

After reading through them, Qi Yunwei couldn’t help but find Xuanqian Group amusing. They were blatantly outsourcing a pile of problems related to Zhi Niao. Weren’t they afraid of word getting out?

Qi Yunwei: Tell them the job’s too complicated this time. Price is one million.

Du Yifan nearly jumped in shock. One million? Just like that, double the price?

But if the boss said so, she must have her reasons. Without asking further, he relayed Qi Yunwei’s demand.

Sure enough, the other side didn’t even hesitate before agreeing.

When Du Yifan confirmed the deal, Qi Yunwei went into her study, turned on her computer, and suddenly laughed to herself as she stared at the screen.

Yan Zui had given her a card with a monthly credit limit of one million. Yet here she was making the same amount off just two jobs. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before she could reverse sponsor Yan Zui.

She spent the entire afternoon working on Xuanqian Group’s task. Once she sent it over and it checked out without issue, the payment came through right away.

After deducting the ten percent commission she owed Du Yifan, she still cleared 1.35 million.

Feeling like a newly minted little rich woman, Qi Yunwei opened WeChat and sent Yan Zui a message.

Qi Yunwei: Yan Zui, dinner’s on me tonight!

Yan Zui must have been free, because her reply came quickly.

Yan Zui: Where’d you make money this time?

With how well she knew Qi Yunwei, if the woman had been using her card, she would never have said something like “I’ll treat you.”

Qi Yunwei: I don’t know the good places around here. You pick somewhere with great food, book a private room, and I’ll tell you when I arrive.

Yan Zui: Mm. I’ll come pick you up.

It was almost quitting time anyway. Yan Zui had already wrapped up her work. After informing Secretary Shen, she left the office early.

Secretary Shen recalled how, not long ago, while sorting files in the president’s office, Yan Zui had suddenly asked her about restaurants with both good food and ambiance. Now, seeing her leave early, she thought: Qi Yunwei really has some sway—she’s actually making President Yan duck out of work.

Yan Zui got into the car and sat in the backseat, saying to Zhou Xiao, “I’ll trouble you again today. Pick up Qi Yunwei, then drive us to Hongyue Pavilion in the suburbs.”

Zhou Xiao quickly responded, “Of course, President Yan. It’s no trouble—it’s my job!”

He pulled onto the road, and before long they arrived at Yan Zui’s apartment building. Yan Zui sent a WeChat, but Qi Yunwei was already waiting outside.

She wore a light-colored dress, her hair longer now, brushing past her ears. Her skin was pale, her dark eyes luminous, and her soft pink lips carried a constant hint of a smile.

It was the first time Yan Zui had seen her in a dress. For a moment, she couldn’t look away.

When Qi Yunwei opened the car door and got in, Zhou Xiao couldn’t help but blurt out, “Boss’s wife, you look stunning tonight!”

Qi Yunwei laughed. “Thanks. I dressed up for our Yan Zui. If she says I look pretty, then it counts.”

She turned toward Yan Zui. “Well? What do you think? Do you like my new dress?”

Yan Zui pressed her lips together, gaze fixed straight ahead with studied restraint. “It’s not bad.”

“Ah.” Qi Yunwei let out a tiny sigh of disappointment.

At the wheel, Zhou Xiao grew nervous, worried the two might quarrel. President Yan is way too cold—please don’t let the Boss’s wife get upset. If they fight, I’ll be caught in the middle, and who would I even side with?

But before he could panic further, Yan Zui glanced at Qi Yunwei and added, “The dress isn’t as pretty as you.”

Zhou Xiao: Did those words really just come out of President Yan’s mouth?!

Boss’s wife is incredible!

Meeting Yan Zui’s gaze, Qi Yunwei’s smile bloomed all the brighter. “You too. No matter what you wear, you’ll never be as beautiful as you are yourself.”

Complimenting a great beauty in turn made her feel her own beauty had leveled up.

Zhou Xiao: “….”

Zhou Xiao thought silently, eyes locked on the road. Careless of me. This dog food ambush really came out of nowhere.

The drive from downtown to Hongyue Pavilion took about an hour. After escorting them to the reserved private room, Zhou Xiao found himself a seat in the main hall close to them.

Qi Yunwei told the waiter, “That gentleman’s with us. Put everything on the same bill. Let him know he can order whatever he likes.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The waiter nodded.

Inside the private room, a new waiter came to take their order.

Qi Yunwei waved him off cheerfully. “It’s my treat. Order whatever you like best.” She looked every inch the magnanimous big spender.

Seeing her like this, Yan Zui’s brows furrowed slightly.

Suddenly, she felt a pang of worry—what if her one-million-a-month allowance wasn’t enough to keep Qi Yunwei by her side?

If an Alpha wanted a divorce, an Omega had no right to refuse.

Switching to a new Alpha would be too troublesome—removing a mark, readjusting.

A flood of possibilities flashed through Yan Zui’s mind.

Outwardly, though, she remained composed, casually ordering a few signature dishes.

After the waiter left, she lowered her gaze, poured tea for both of them, and asked lightly, “You’re treating me tonight—not with my card, I presume. Did you land a big order on the forum?”

Qi Yunwei blinked in surprise. “You can even guess that?”

Yan Zui’s tone was calm. “Not hard to figure out.”

Qi Yunwei grinned. “Earning money isn’t the important part. The real question is—who paid me? Can you guess that?”

She hadn’t yet told Yan Zui that Xuanqian Group had come to her for help.

Those deep, bluish-black eyes lingered on Qi Yunwei’s face. Seeing her expression—half challenge, half smug secrecy—Yan Zui’s thoughts clicked into place.

“Xuanqian Group?”

Qi Yunwei was impressed. She ended up telling Yan Zui everything that had happened over the past two days.

“I hadn’t planned on taking jobs anymore, but they directly identified themselves as Xuanqian Group. When I compared it with the jobs I’d taken before, I quickly realized that most of the functions in Zhi Niao’s useless little sphere had actually been developed by me.”

“The three so-called experts from Xuanqian Group are nothing but half-baked amateurs. I honestly don’t understand why Xuan Mingzhu thinks inventions like theirs would ever impress you enough to invest.”

Strangely, in the novel there had been no mention of her at all. Without her involvement, Zhi Niao probably wouldn’t have come with so many useless functions. Even so, Yan Zui had still invested—only to be deceived and suffer heavy losses.

Yan Zui took a sip of tea. Her long, dark lashes lowered as she gazed at the rippling reflection in her cup. In a soft voice, she said, “I remember telling you before—if I hadn’t met Xiao Jiu, I probably would’ve liked Zhi Niao and agreed with

Xuanqian Group’s AI development strategy.”
“The only reason I see through Zhi Niao now, the only reason I caught Xuan Mingzhu’s trick, is because of Xiao Jiu. I really like its intelligence. Talking with it relaxes me.”

A sudden realization struck Qi Yunwei. “What you like is Zhi Niao’s ability to learn.”

Although most of Zhi Niao’s features were rather useless, it did have one remarkable function: it could continuously learn during conversations, expanding its vocabulary and generating increasingly natural dialogue.

That impressive feature, of course, was something Qi Yunwei had designed.

But compared with Xiao Jiu’s childlike ability to learn, Zhi Niao’s capacity seemed more like that of a seventy-year-old man.

Yan Zui nodded. “You should be able to tell from my situation at home. My parents only handed the company to me because I’m their only daughter. To force their marriage-averse daughter to wed and have children—well, even if I brought home someone like you, even if it was you, they wouldn’t care. All they want is for me to get pregnant and give them a grandchild as soon as possible.”

“I need someone I can talk to. Ideally, a robot.”

Most importantly, there were some things she could only ever say to a robot.

Qi Yunwei sensed there was more to Yan Zui’s family story—hidden complications, just like the secrets within the Qi family.

【Xiaoman, is there anything in the novel about Yan Zui’s family background?】

【Master, Xiaoman couldn’t find anything.】

As expected.

It seemed she would only know once Yan Zui chose to reveal it herself.

Right now, she was just the roommate who had shared Yan Zui’s space for a month. Yan Zui hadn’t fully come to trust her yet.

She would have to wait.

Qi Yunwei steered the topic back to Xuanqian Group. “They came to me again this afternoon. This time they claim to have developed a new feature. Why do you think they’d suddenly unveil something new right after pitching Zhi Niao?”

Yan Zui immediately saw the point. “To revise tomorrow’s contract terms—reduce the investment amount, but demand more equity.”

Qi Yunwei nodded. “That’s what I thought too.”

Seeing Yan Zui’s frown, Qi Yunwei reassured her. “Don’t worry. Negotiating contract terms takes days, sometimes weeks. If I push hard enough, I can make sure they’re out of the game before it even gets that far.”

Her warm voice carried a kind of quiet magic, gently dissolving the worry in Yan Zui’s chest.

Just then, a knock came at the door. Qi Yunwei called, “Come in,” and waiters entered in a line, carefully setting the dishes on the table.

“Please enjoy your meal. If you need anything, just press the red button on the wall,” one of them said.

The waitresses, all dressed in elegant qipaos, swayed gracefully as they left. Only after Qi Yunwei made sure the door was closed did she turn back.

Yan Zui shot her a glance. “Did you like what you saw?”

“What?” Qi Yunwei didn’t quite catch her meaning.

“The waitresses,” Yan Zui said, lowering her gaze as she picked up some food. “They were all beautiful, with great figures.”

Qi Yunwei slipped on a pair of disposable gloves, picked up a prawn, and began peeling. “The most beautiful woman with the best figure is sitting right in front of me. As for the others—you’re asking the wrong person. I didn’t even pay attention to them.”

Yan Zui muttered, “Didn’t pay attention? You were staring for quite a while just now.”

Only after she spoke did Yan Zui realize her tone sounded a little jealous.

Qi Yunwei placed the peeled prawn at her lips and smiled. “You’re mistaken. I wasn’t watching them—I was waiting for them to shut the door so I could keep talking to you.”

Heat crept into Yan Zui’s cheeks. She parted her lips without thinking, and Qi Yunwei slipped the prawn right into her mouth.

The savory sweetness spread across her tongue before she suddenly came to her senses. “You don’t need to peel them for me. I can do it myself.”

Seeing her flushed face, Qi Yunwei decided not to push further. “Alright, no more business talk. Let’s just enjoy the food.”

Outside the private room, Zhou Xiao had ordered two dishes and a bowl of rice for himself. Even while eating, his eyes never strayed far from the door.

Not far away, Qin Lifeng entered with a few of his underlings. One of them—who had previously lost to Zhou Xiao—spotted him right away and leaned close to whisper, “Boss, I see Zhou Xiao over there.”

Qin Lifeng followed his gaze and indeed saw Zhou Xiao eating alone.

A dark glint flickered in Qin Lifeng’s eyes.

After all his men had failed, Qin Lifeng had once thought of bribing Zhou Xiao to spy on Yan Zui for him. But no matter how he hinted, Zhou Xiao had never budged.

Since the day of the bodyguard selection, Qin Lifeng hadn’t seen Yan Zui, hadn’t heard a word from her.

But Zhou Xiao was Yan Zui’s bodyguard. If he was here, then Yan Zui must be close by.

And with her status, of course she’d be inside a private room.

From a distance, Qin Lifeng studied Zhou Xiao. The man’s occasional glance toward the room next to him was all the confirmation he needed—Yan Zui was inside.

The thought of finally seeing her again made Qin Lifeng’s blood run hot, his heartbeat quicken.

“Keep Zhou Xiao busy for me,” he ordered three of his men.

“Got it, Boss Feng!”

He shot them a sharp look, and they quickly corrected themselves: “Yes, President Qin.”

Satisfied, Qin Lifeng smoothed the front of his suit.

Yan Zui was “President Yan.” He would be “President Qin.” That was how it should be.

Just as Zhou Xiao was finishing his meal, a prickling sense of danger washed over him. Looking up, he saw the same man who had lost to him before, now with two others, sliding into seats around him and boxing him in.

His heart sank. He immediately glanced toward the private room—only to see Qin Lifeng striding up and knocking on the door.

“Out of my way!” Zhou Xiao exploded with sudden force, shoving them aside as he lunged for the room.

But he was one step too late.

Qin Lifeng had already pushed the door open.