I'm Really Not Some Scumbag [Through the Book] - Chapter 1

“Sis, the new people have arrived. Do you want to go take a look?”

The young woman working under her pushed the door open. She saw the boss, a woman sitting casually on the sofa with her legs propped up, and immediately reported the news.

Lu Linxi yawned. She pulled a cigarette case from her leather bag, and her slender fingers placed a cigarette between her lips. She said indifferently, “I won’t go. Just stick to the usual rules. I don’t care if they just got out of ‘that place’ or if they’ve been floating around for years. They take legitimate work, and if anyone crosses the line, they’ll regret it.”

“Don’t worry. Besides, Sis, we’re a security company. What kind of dirty work could we even take on?”

The young woman cheerfully sat down next to her. “You can relax about the company business. But Sis, you’re not getting any younger this year. When are you planning to get married?”

“I don’t even have a partner. Marry whom?”

“Is it hard for you to find a partner, Sis? All you have to do is say the word, and people will be lining up!” The young woman teased, laughing. “At the last gathering, didn’t Ah K bring a bunch of young girls? You didn’t like a single one?”

She took a drag from her cigarette, then smiled. “The spark just wasn’t there. Besides, what’s the use of being young? I like the type that… looks especially respectable, and preferably has good stamina.”

The young woman chuckled. “Why do you need someone with good stamina, Sis?”

Lu Linxi scoffed. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Fine, fine, I don’t understand.” The young woman put down her own handbag and said, “By the way, Sis, since you’re not going to see the newcomers, I’ll go check them out. There’s fruit in the bag, help yourself.”

“Alright, go on.”

After the young woman left, Lu Linxi peeled and ate a mandarin orange.

Perhaps it was the beautiful weather that afternoon. As the sunlight streamed in, Lu Linxi slowly drifted off to sleep.

When she woke up again, the ceiling of the office had been replaced by the ceiling of a strange room.

Her head was pounding from the sheer volume of unfamiliar memories she had inherited.

ABO…

Pheromones…

What in the world is all this nonsense?

After sorting through her memories, Lu Linxi realized that the original owner of this new body, who was also named Lu Linxi, was a well-known romance novelist.

Her parents were deceased, but she had many friends. She was a notorious ‘fish pond owner’—a player—who loved to project a gentle Alpha persona, rarely refused advances, and was a massive sucker for a pretty face. Currently, she was single.

The key point was that this battle-hardened player Alpha didn’t actually consider herself a player.

Lu Linxi’s headache intensified.

Setting aside the original owner’s style and personality, the thing that completely baffled Lu Linxi was that the people in this world had two genders!

The primary gender had three types: Alpha, Beta, and Omega. The secondary gender was simply male and female.

Moreover, there was a very clear hierarchical system based on gender.

From the moment the gender assessment report was issued, people were divided into three classes. The naturally powerful A’s, the B’s who were the most numerous and ordinary, and the rare, reproductive O’s, who were at the bottom of the hierarchy.

If one was a B, that was okay; they could at least live a normal life. If one was an A, that was great. Their intelligence and physical fitness far surpassed ordinary people, and they could easily live a comfortable life based on their own abilities.

If one was an O, however, life was truly miserable.

They had to bear children, and a heat cycle arrived every month, requiring them to take inhibitors regularly to stay calm and lucid.

Here, due to a severe imbalance in the gender ratio, same-sex marriage had long been legalized.

Lu Linxi: Should I be grateful that I transmigrated into an Alpha?

After a moment of speechlessness, Lu Linxi noticed a book near her hand.

My Husband is an Extreme, Sadistic Alpha

She recognized the book. It was the lesbian erotica her young subordinate loved to read lately.

How much did she love it? Enough to bring it to the office to pass the time.

That’s right, that’s right.

The subordinate seemed to have mentioned something to her.

“Sis, I found a minor character in my favorite smut novel who has the same name as you!”

At the time, she hadn’t been very pleased.

“But it’s okay! The character with your name doesn’t have any bed scenes. She’s just a fringe character.”

After that, she hadn’t given it any more thought.

Now, it seemed this was no mere coincidence.

Lu Linxi casually flipped open the book lying at her side—

Clothes scattered on the floor one by one. Su Ruan-tian walked step-by-step toward the woman. In the soft, ambiguous light, her exquisite body seemed to be draped in a shimmering, new garment.

“Sister, don’t you want me?” Her soft pants were enough to stir the heart of any female Alpha.

In this room, saturated with Su Ruan-tian’s pheromones, no woman could resist her temptation.

It was only their first meeting, but without a doubt, the woman before her had already had her heart and soul captivated by the enchanting Su Ruan-tian.

“Sister…”

The level of detail was too much, prompting Lu Linxi to quickly snap the book shut.

Her brow furrowed.

That’s right. This book was about Miss Su Ruan-tian, a wild and unrestrained modern-day female Omega—a total player who was also rather smutty.

After sleeping around with countless people, she finally met the major boss of her life, a sadistic Alpha.

Following this, under the Alpha’s ‘strong hand,’ the promiscuous submissive from the erotica fell in love with the cruel dominant, and they lived happily and shamelessly ever after.

Lu Linxi opened the window and clicked her tongue.

The situation was clear.

The book was left behind in the office by her subordinate that day, and she transmigrated after her afternoon nap.

Everything checks out.

… Screw checking out!

Lu Linxi quickly put on her coat.

Stepping out of the bedroom…

“Miss Lu, the sun is quite strong right now. Are you going out?”

The cleaning lady, who was tidying up the living room, was surprised to see her leave the bedroom at this hour.

Lu Linxi paused. “Yeah, going to buy cigarettes.”

*******

Standing outside the convenience store, Lu Linxi held a cigarette between her lips and watched the flow of traffic on the street.

She lit the cigarette with a lighter.

She took a deep breath…

“Cough, cough, cough—” Lu Linxi coughed violently, nearly choking herself to death.

The old smoker meets the new body.

Crap. Can’t smoke.

Just then, her phone alarm went off.

“You have a reminder.”

“November 12th, seven PM, Donghuang Hotel, class reunion.”

Memories belonging to the original owner surfaced.

After several years, the high school classmates who still lived in G City had somehow reconnected and proposed a reunion.

It was tonight.

Lu Linxi didn’t particularly care; she didn’t have anything else to do anyway. If she had to hole up in the bedroom writing angsty teen literature, she’d probably have a breakdown first.

A class reunion? That’s not bad…

She was a supporting character in this book. If she went out, maybe she’d run into the protagonist, Su Ruan-tian.

And if she ran into her, then what?

Naturally, she’d kill her.

In the world of a book, without the protagonist, wouldn’t the story have to end?

If it ended, the world should cease to exist, and then she could go back home.

Think about it—was there a flaw in this plan? No, there wasn’t.

Of course, if she didn’t happen to run into her, it didn’t matter.

Spending a little money, surely someone would be willing to help her find Miss Su Ruan-tian’s address, right?

With that thought, Lu Linxi put the unlit cigarette back in her mouth, shoved her hands into the pockets of her wool coat, and ambled back home.

******

That night, the bright moonlight illuminated the road as if it were daytime. A sedan screeched to a halt in front of the hotel entrance.

The ‘Donghuang Hotel’ sign was quite prominent.

Lu Linxi then made a turn and drove into the hotel parking lot.

For a hotel with a lot of foot traffic, the parking garage wouldn’t be small.

Following the ramp down to the basement, Lu Linxi parked her car and walked toward the elevator.

Suddenly, a fierce argument intruded on her ears without permission.

“What are you doing here? Didn’t you refuse the invitation?”

“I just came to look around… What are you doing here? Didn’t you say you were working late today?” The man’s voice sounded guilty.

“If I weren’t ‘working late,’ how could I have been here waiting for you?” The other person speaking was a woman. Her tone was icy, and she mocked him. “Your heart hasn’t settled down since you found out she was coming tonight, has it?”

“I…” The man’s voice was laced with the shame of being exposed. “It’s my own freedom where I choose to go!”

“Meeting your ex-lover—your first love—behind your married partner’s back, is that your so-called freedom?!”

“You…”

The woman chuckled, her voice full of sarcasm. “Since you know you’re a Beta, don’t do anything that makes me, your Alpha partner, feel embarrassed. Otherwise, if word gets back to your father, I won’t be able to help you.”

“You…”

Oh, so it was a cheating confrontation.

The argument was still going on, but it had nothing to do with Lu Linxi. Seeing the elevator doors open, she didn’t hesitate and stepped right in.

Cheating when you already have a partner. Truly, the well-fed man doesn’t know the hunger of the starving.

The elevator slowly started to close. Suddenly, a hand blocked the doors.

Lu Linxi looked up.

As the elevator doors gradually opened again, they revealed a formally dressed man.

She raised an eyebrow slightly. An acquaintance.

Made it… Phew.

Rushing into the elevator, the man sighed in relief and loosened his suit tie. He glanced to the side and his eyes instantly went wide.

“Lu—”

She really hadn’t changed at all.

Her slightly wavy long hair and cream-colored wool coat highlighted her elegant presence. A pair of knee-high boots perfectly outlined the curve of her legs.

She was tall and stunningly beautiful.

Her face… was more mature than in his memory, but her indifferent eyes were still beautiful enough to make it impossible to look away.

The surprise of encountering an acquaintance hadn’t fully registered before Zhang Bowen’s face instantly went pale. Just now, he was arguing with Yi Nanyan… Did she hear everything?

“Sister Lu… long time no see.”

Lu Linxi nodded. “Long time no see.”

Zhang Bowen, a Beta, married, with a four-out-of-ten face and a four-out-of-ten height. From head to toe, he was perfectly ordinary, save for his relatively decent family background.

The awkward part was that Lu Linxi accidentally discovered from the memories that this Class Representative Zhang was one of the ‘fish’ in the original owner’s dating pool back in school.

Simply put, he was a former boyfriend from an unknown number of relationships ago.

Lu Linxi: …

So, the ‘first love’ they mentioned during their argument just now, was that referring to her?

The silence in the elevator was unnerving. Zhang Bowen watched the floor numbers climbing and couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, “Sister Lu, did you hear all that just now?”

Lu Linxi felt awkward. “Yeah. Don’t worry… I won’t go spreading it around.”

After all, whether this guy was a jerk or whether his marriage was having problems had absolutely nothing to do with her.

Zhang Bowen nearly cried. That wasn’t what he was trying to say!

“Sister Lu, let me explain! The marriage was arranged by my parents! I don’t love Yi Nanyan, truly!”

When he and Yi Nanyan got married half a year ago, Lu Linxi hadn’t shown up. He had to use this meeting to explain everything clearly!

Lu Linxi: “Ah… got it.”

Why are you explaining it to me?

Just then, the elevator doors opened.

Lu Linxi: Saved!

Lu Linxi put her hands into her coat pockets, ready to step out.

The person behind her, however, blushed uncontrollably and said, “Sister Lu! I… I still like you!”

Lu Linxi: …

Yes, well, but isn’t the problem that you’re already married?!

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