The Scummy Alpha Who Transmigrated Into a Book Was Tricked by the Actress Omega - Chapter 20

Yan Xunzhen and Yu Tutu closed the door to the private room. The two stood in the empty, quiet hallway, finding an open window where warm, humid air breezed past them, amplifying the awkward tension between them several times over.

After a long pause, Yu Tutu rubbed the tip of her nose and tentatively asked, “Are you okay?”

“…?”

Yan Xunzhen opened her mouth, then closed it again. At first, she thought the question was a bit nonsensical, but then she suddenly noticed something familiar in Yu Tutu’s tone.

Yu Tutu pressed, “Are you okay?”

Yan Xunzhen blinked in surprise, hesitated for a couple of seconds, then cautiously replied, “I’m fine.”

Yu Tutu’s expression seemed slightly disappointed. She reached to close the window, muttering under her breath with a hint of reluctance, “Ah… if you’re fine, then…”

Wait a second.

A flicker of disbelief rose in Yan Xunzhen’s heart, followed by a hopeful urge to test something.

Yan Xunzhen: “…Want some liuliumei?”

Yu Tutu: “…Damn.”

The two stared at each other, shock mingling with the joy of unexpectedly reuniting in a strange world along with a healthy dose of absurd amusement, twisting their beautiful, composed faces into helpless expressions somewhere between laughter and exasperation.

Yu Tutu pressed her tongue against her teeth, struggling to suppress her grin. The way they had recognized each other was bizarre, but also… utterly ridiculous.

Yu Tutu continued, “Imperial Jade Wine?”

“A hundred eighty a cup?”

Yu Tutu slapped Yan Xunzhen’s shoulder hard.

Her eyes brimmed with laughter, tears nearly spilling over as she gasped for breath between chuckles. “Girl, you got the short end of the stick! I always wondered if someone would transmigrate into that dumbass scumbag Alpha, but damn, the poor soul who did is really down on their luck…”

Yan Xunzhen shook her head with a wry smile. “Trust me, I didn’t want this either.”

“You got the scumbag Alpha, I got the cannon fodder, what bright futures we have! Cough, cough!”

Yu Tutu was laughing so hard she had to clear her throat. Now that she knew Yan Xunzhen was also a transmigrator, most of her previous wariness and distance melted away. Meeting a fellow transmigrator was even more emotional than hometown reunions, tears were practically mandatory.

“Don’t worry,” Yu Tutu finally managed to calm down a little, offering comfort, “I think you’re doing great. In fact, you’re doing so well that it seemed a little suspicious to me that’s how I figured you out. For the female lead, your arrival might actually be her salvation.”

Yan Xunzhen smiled faintly. “I don’t dare hope for that much. I just don’t want Du Zuilan to hate me.”

No wonder in the original novel, Tang Ying had never risen to fame and had seemingly vanished from the entertainment industry. But in this timeline, Tang Ying had become the hottest actress of the era. It was all thanks to the butterfly effect of Yu Tutu’s actions.

Thinking of this, Yan Xunzhen asked, “How long have you been here?”

Yu Tutu rubbed her temples, pondering for a moment. “At least ten years, conservatively.”

Yan Xunzhen nodded. “The time flow must be different. You probably haven’t been gone too long in the real world.”

After all, the memes they had used as code phrases were still relevant, and Yu Tutu hadn’t dropped lines like “If you touch my sister’s wings, I’ll destroy your entire heaven.”

Yu Tutu stretched lazily, unconcerned. “Yeah, but honestly, I don’t really care about the real world anymore. My life here is pretty good.”

A glimmer of amusement rose in Yan Xunzhen’s eyes, paired with her rosy lips, giving her a somewhat teasing expression: “True, after all, you have Tang Ying?”

Yu Tutu patted her chest proudly: “Absolutely, my wife!”

“You’re impressive.”

“Don’t worry,” Yu Tutu opened the window a bit wider, then turned back with a slightly serious expression, “I’m sure you can change your current situation too.”

“I do know some of the book’s contents, but originally, it wasn’t useful to me only a little helpful for my wife. So, I planned to have her help the other person through their difficulties after all, you know how scummy alphas can be.

But my wife mentioned that you seemed to have undergone a drastic change in temperament, which made me a little suspicious. After meeting you, I became more and more convinced that no matter how much that scummy alpha tried to act, they could never replicate your demeanor. So, I guessed you might be a transmigrator too.”

Yan Xunzhen smiled faintly: “I really can’t pretend to be a scummy alpha.”

Yu Tutu wore an “I get it” expression, her dimples brimming with laughter: “Anyway, congratulations! You got to marry a sweet wife right after transmigrating, how lucky!”

Yan Xunzhen’s face flushed, her fair and radiant complexion suddenly tinged with shyness, making her look unexpectedly innocent: “No, Du Zuilan and I are just friends. She might even hate me right now, I definitely shouldn’t be thinking about such things. Just look at what happened to the scummy alpha.”

“Alright, just don’t end up falling for her, ” Yu Tutu giggled, her eyes curving into crescents. She glanced at her wristwatch and suddenly exclaimed, “Oh no, we’ve been gone too long! Let’s hurry back. Just follow my lead when we return.”

Yan Xunzhen nodded. As they walked down the corridor, curiosity got the better of her. Thinking about the unexpected changes in her own situation, she asked, “Yu… senior, my pheromones seem to have undergone some changes. Did you experience anything like this before?”

Yu Tutu, two steps ahead of her, paused with her hand on the doorknob and turned back, winking mischievously, her eyes sparkling like scattered stars. She whispered slyly, “I did. Just be mindful of it but for you, it’s probably a good thing, right?”

Yan Xunzhen recalled Dr. Song’s assessment that her pheromones had “evolved” and nodded in agreement.

The two pushed open the private room’s door.

While they had been talking, the dishes had already been served. Tang Ying and Du Zuilan sat across from each other, seemingly engrossed in a serious discussion about the details of the drama.

Yu Tutu immediately bounded back to Tang Ying’s side like a little rabbit, her voice soft and affectionate as she draped herself over Tang Ying without hesitation: “I’m back!”

Tang Ying smiled gently: “Mm. Du Zuilan and I were just discussing some finer points and approaches for the drama. What about you two?”

Yu Tutu smoothly spun a harmless little lie, her face tinged with a bashful smile as if she’d been gossiping: “I was curious, so I asked Yan Xunzhen a bit about her and Du Zuilan.”

She covered her lips playfully: “Ah, was that okay to ask?”

The only one who understood the inside joke, Yan Xunzhen nearly choked, her ears burning. She hurriedly glanced at Du Zuilan, who was lightly tapping her fingers on the table, and stammered, “No, it’s just.”

She trailed off, staring at Du Zuilan’s ethereally pure and beautiful face, feeling a deep sense of guilt.

Tang Ying smiled and stepped in to mediate: “Let’s not talk about other things for now. Have some food first, and we can discuss our next steps while we eat.”

Yu Tutu nodded, her eyes curving into crescents. “Mm-hm!”

The dishes on the table were naturally sumptuous, a feast for the eyes and palate, making one’s mouth water and fingers itch to dig in. Tang Ying kept serving Yu Tutu, and there wasn’t a single dish Yu Tutu didn’t like. Yu Tutu, in turn, smiled sweetly and obediently, occasionally whispering a few words to Tang Ying. The atmosphere between them was so intimate it was as if no one else existed.

Du Zuilan seemed to glance at the pair across the table inadvertently, though the expression in her moist eyes was unreadable.

She ate like a kitten, making no sound at all, picking only tiny portions from her bowl so well-behaved it was heartbreaking.

Yan Xunzhen couldn’t help but imagine a kitten she had raised, gazing longingly at another kitten being pampered and spoiled, not meowing or fussing, just licking its fur quietly, pretending it was loved too.

She couldn’t suppress a frown and then began to wonder if the original novel had mentioned what Du Zuilan liked to eat.

It probably had, she vaguely remembered. Likely shrimp and fish.

She picked up the serving chopsticks and placed a few pieces of shrimp into a clean bowl.

Rolling up her sleeves leisurely, completely unfazed by the sauce staining her slender fingers, she peeled off the fried shells, removed the veins, and piled up a small bowl.

Then, after wiping her hands clean, she quietly pushed the bowl toward Du Zuilan.

Du Zuilan, who had been silently eating with her head lowered, looked up. Her eyes held a faint surprise and a barely detectable flicker of joy before she curved her lips slightly and murmured, “Thank you.”

The corners of Yan Xunzhen’s eyes lifted subtly. At that moment, despite her sharp phoenix eyes, Du Zuilan felt as though she was looking at an utterly harmless,

Silly puppy.

Watching the stunningly beautiful silly puppy pretend to be serious and turn away to sip plain water after receiving her thanks, Du Zuilan felt a faint ripple in her heart and a quiet amusement.

She chewed slowly for a while, just in time to hear Tang Ying speak:

“Earlier, I was discussing acting with Zuilan. Acting is like appreciating mountains people dislike flatness.”

Tang Ying continued, “Actually, this applies to many things. For the audience receiving the negative press, it’s the same. They crave a story, the more twists, the more thrilling.”

Yan Xunzhen silently agreed. She had faced plenty of public opinion crises before and could understand this well.

“Mm.” Yan Xunzhen tapped the table with her fingertips, a habitual gesture when she was thinking. “We need to wait for the right moment. Clarifying now would only make people think we’re making a mountain out of a molehill.”

“Exactly.”

Yu Tutu affirmed with a smile, sliding her phone forward. “Look here.”

On the screen were audience reactions to the widespread negative coverage: half of them asked, “Who is this? Never heard of her,” while others were fence-sitters jumping on the bandwagon. Most were just sharing the gossip for fun, and only a tiny fraction were Du Zuilan’s fans, fighting to clear her name though their efforts seemed ineffective.

Tang Ying said, “Over the next two days, I expect this kind of blanket negative coverage to continue. The goal is to cement her negative image, making it easier for Rui Wang to distance themselves.”

Du Zuilan nodded. “Mm.”

Yan Xunzhen chuckled. “A deathbed struggles.”

“Public opinion is like a spring, the harder it’s pressed down, the stronger the rebound will be,” Yu Tutu put away her phone with a sly smile. “Let’s wait and see what kind of waves they can stir up in their struggle.”

Tang Ying lowered her gaze slightly, the corners of her lips curling faintly as she watched Yu Tutu’s amused expression. Then, as if remembering something, she turned to Du Zuilan and added:

“And be wary of their artificially manufactured ‘accidents.’ Like that fall you took today, for instance.”

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