After Becoming the Scummy Alpha in a Substitute Romance (GL) - Chapter 2

The moment Jian Ya asked that question, the air between them grew thick with silence and tension.

She stared at the woman in front of her—so perfectly matching the description from the book.

Her skin was as pale as snow, and in those beautiful eyes shimmered the cold stillness of ancient ice.

That aura of strength wrapped in quiet fragility… exactly as described.

In the novel, Shen Shuyi was portrayed as breathtaking. But seeing her in person now, Jian Ya felt that words couldn’t capture her real beauty. She was even more stunning than the book had described.

Yes, Jian Ya had figured it out. She had transmigrated—into an ABO yuri novel.

The woman standing before her, Shen Shuyi, was the tragic and powerful female lead. Just because her pheromones smelled exactly like the scumbag Alpha Jian Ya’s long-lost “white moonlight,” Su Qing, she was treated as nothing more than a substitute.

And the reason the original Jian Ya was called a scumbag… was because her actions were beyond anything a decent human would do.

To get close to Shen Shuyi, she pretended to be a respectable person and entered a marriage contract with her. But once they started living together, her twisted desires began to show.

To keep smelling Shen Shuyi’s sea-salt pheromones, she used artificial inducers to force Shen Shuyi into heat again and again. She demanded that Shen Shuyi copy Su Qing’s every move. She even threw out Shen Shuyi’s clothes and replaced them with the exact outfits Su Qing used to wear, forcing her to change into them.

Shen Shuyi, proud and strong-willed, refused to cooperate. So Jian Ya used her natural Alpha strength to intimidate her, beat her, insult her. Eventually, in a horrifying act of control, she even removed Shen Shuyi’s pheromone glands—just so the scent would stay frozen in time.

That left Shen Shuyi permanently disabled.

Later, Shen Shuyi barely survived—and finally met her true Alpha, someone who sympathized with her, protected her, cherished her. Together, they took down the monster that was Jian Ya, breaking her both physically and emotionally, until she died a miserable death.

…

Now, with the woman from the book standing in front of her, Jian Ya’s mind filled with flashes of the original story.

But before she could fully process it, Shen Shuyi’s cold and mocking voice cut through the silence.

“Jian Ya, what trick are you playing this time? Faking amnesia? Pretending you have a split personality again? Or are you going to tell me this time that someone took over your body?”

Jian Ya opened her mouth, but no words came out.

She didn’t know what to say.

Shen Shuyi kept up her calm front, trying to hold on to the last bit of strength she had left to face the person she saw as a devil.

But in truth, her hands were clenched so tightly that her nails were digging into her palms.

The forced heat brought on by the pheromone inducer was overwhelming—and unresolved.

The wild sea-salt pheromones storming inside her felt like they were about to tear her apart. Her throat tasted sweet with bl00d. She could smell it—pheromones mixed with a metallic tang.

She had no idea how much longer she could keep this up.

“Ding-ding-ding—”

A notification sound chimed from her phone.

Still watching Jian Ya carefully, Shen Shuyi glanced at the screen from the corner of her eye.

It was a message from her friend, Ni Ruoyun.

“Shuyi, I’m downstairs already. Are you okay? Did that lunatic hurt you? If anything goes wrong, leave immediately. I’m really worried about you being there alone.”

That message felt like a lifeline to a drowning person.

Shen Shuyi turned off the screen. Looking straight at Jian Ya, who was still standing there stunned, she said in a steady voice:

“My friend is here. The police have already been called. If you don’t want the Jian and Shen families to become a public joke, then let me go.”

With that, she turned and walked toward the door.

As Shen Shuyi passed by Jian Ya, every hair on her body stood on end from fear.

Her heartbeat grew louder and clearer in her ears. Every step she took felt like a test, as if she was walking closer and closer to the edge of a cliff.

It felt like the person behind her wasn’t human at all, but a predator. Jian Ya was like a wild animal, ready to tear her apart at any moment.

Shen Shuyi knew exactly what kind of person Jian Ya was. That was why she never dared to trust her.

Right now, she was taking a risk. She was betting that even if Jian Ya had lost control, she still wouldn’t go so far as to bring shame upon the Jian family.

That short walk to the door drained all the strength from Shen Shuyi’s body.

When she finally made it outside and sat down in Ni Ruoyun’s car, she was able to drop her guard. All the pain she had been holding back surged at once, nearly making her lose consciousness.

Her clothes were soaked with cold sweat.

“Take me… to the hospital,” she said, forcing the words out. A moment later, she blacked out completely.

Ni Ruoyun had felt slightly relieved when she first saw Shen Shuyi walk out on her own.

But that relief vanished the second she saw her condition. Her pale face, trembling body, and soaked clothing made it obvious that something terrible had happened.

Even as a Beta, Ni Ruoyun recognized the signs. Shen Shuyi had clearly been forced into heat using pheromone stimulants.

She didn’t need to ask what had taken place.

“Jian Ya, you monster,” Ni Ruoyun said through clenched teeth.

Without hesitation, she hit the gas and drove as fast as she could toward the nearest hospital.

In the room upstairs, Jian Ya stood alone.

Her mind was still replaying everything that had just happened. It was almost too strange to believe.

Just yesterday, she had still been living as a top-level software engineer in the modern world.

People often called her Boss Jian.

Through her leadership in artificial intelligence and big data, she had secured a strong foothold in the tech industry. In an age of information overload, she had built success from the ground up with her team.

At just twenty-four years old, she had already made it onto the list of the top fifty richest people.

People admired her. They praised her talent. They envied her achievements.

But no one knew that even after fulfilling her lifelong dream, she felt like something was missing.

It was like there was a hollow space in her life that nothing could fill.

Her friends often joked that she was so calm and logical, she might as well be a machine.

And yet, someone like her had stayed up all night reading a novel.

The reason was simple.

Shen Shuyi.

She felt a strange sense of compassion and affection for that character. Shen Shuyi’s strength, her silent endurance, her pride even in pain—all of it drew Jian Ya in. Her heart, which had been quiet for so long, had suddenly started to beat faster.

She wanted to care for her, protect her, give her the best of everything.

But she couldn’t.

There was an entire dimension between them. Even the thought of touching her was impossible.

She never expected that the first person to make her heart race would be a fictional character.

With a bitter smile, she had finished reading the novel and slowly closed her eyes.

She had fallen asleep without knowing that when she woke up again, everything would change.

Before falling asleep that night, Jian Ya had a quiet thought.

If only she could be by Shen Shuyi’s side.

And now, somehow, that wish had come true. Something beyond logic or science had actually happened to her.

She had entered the world of the novel. She had met the one person who had stirred her heart for the first time in her life—Shen Shuyi.

She should have been happy. But thinking about what had just happened between them, all she felt was cold.

This had to be a mistake. Yes, she had wanted to be close to Shen Shuyi, but not like this. Not in the role of that scumbag, the one who hurt her so deeply.

Jian Ya let out a bitter smile. Even someone as calm and rational as she was had no idea how to handle a situation like this.

There was a knock at the door.

Jian Ya lifted her eyes slightly. She wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone.

She stayed silent, but the door creaked open anyway. The sound of high heels clicking against the floor echoed in the room, followed by a crisp, familiar female voice.

“Jian Ya, are you still in here? I just saw Shen Shuyi leave by herself. She didn’t look good at all. What happened between you two…”

The speaker was Xun Yiting, a bold and outspoken woman who was known for dating top-tier Omegas one after another.

She was also one of the few people Jian Ya could call a real friend.

“Honestly, I think you went too far this time. Shen Shuyi might be from the Shen family, and sure, they’ve declined a lot, but she’s still a daughter of a wealthy house. You Jian family people are still way above her socially, but that doesn’t mean you can treat her like this all the time. She’s been patient with you, but if it were anyone else, they would’ve gone crying to the elders by now, and you’d be getting chewed out at home…”

Xun Yiting spoke while walking further into the room. The moment her eyes landed on Jian Ya, she stopped talking.

Jian Ya had always been a classic second-generation heiress. Raised by one of Ancheng’s most elite families, the Jian family, she was known for her boldness, sometimes even arrogance.

But she was also always full of life.

This was the first time Xun Yiting had seen Jian Ya looking so defeated, so drained.

Something serious must have happened between them.

As she tried to process it, her eyes dropped lower. Then she saw Jian Ya’s right hand resting on the floor.

Her pupils instantly contracted.

“What happened to you?” Xun Yiting’s voice rose sharply. She rushed forward and grabbed Jian Ya’s wrist.

There, in the center of her palm, was a deep cut from a piece of broken glass. Bl00d was still flowing steadily from the wound, and a small pool of bl00d had already formed on the floor where her hand had been resting.

“It’s nothing. I just fell,” Jian Ya said with a forced smile, brushing it off casually.

Xun Yiting clearly didn’t believe such a poor excuse. “You just happened to fall and ended up like this?” Her voice carried obvious doubt, but now wasn’t the time to press for details.

“Come on, I’m taking you to the hospital.”

Without waiting for any explanation, Xun Yiting grabbed Jian Ya’s arm and led her out of the club.

Jian Ya didn’t resist. On the way, her mind kept circling back to the novel she had read the night before, and the scenes that had followed in the original story. She remembered what Shen Shuyi still had to go through.

The luxury car sped through the city streets.

Jian Ya stared out at the unfamiliar scenery, her brows slightly furrowed.

No matter how unfriendly this new identity might be, the fact remained that she had somehow been given the chance to be near Shen Shuyi.

That alone was enough.

Since she was here now, she would do everything in her power to protect Shen Shuyi and keep her from suffering the same pain she had endured in the book.

Whether that pain came from others, or from the original version of herself.

“We’re here,” Xun Yiting said as the car pulled to a stop.

The sound of the brakes snapped Jian Ya out of her thoughts. She looked up and saw the hospital entrance.

Without a word, she stepped out of the car and followed Xun Yiting inside.

The wound on her right hand had been roughly bandaged earlier, but bl00d still oozed through the fabric and occasionally dripped to the ground.

“We’ll go straight to the emergency room. You keep bleeding like this and you’ll pass out,” Xun Yiting said.

“Mm…” Jian Ya replied distractedly.

Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a familiar figure walking past her.

The sharp scent of sea salt pheromones was gone now, but a faint trace of that fresh, ocean-like fragrance still lingered in the air. It was subtle, but unmistakable.

“Shen…” Jian Ya instinctively called out.

She reached out her hand, as if to stop her.

But her fingers never touched even the edge of Shen Shuyi’s clothing.

Jian Ya froze in place, watching the figure walk away. She couldn’t explain why, but something inside her suddenly felt distant, as if it had slipped right through her fingers.

They had been so close, yet Shen Shuyi didn’t even glance at her. Maybe she hadn’t seen her. Or maybe she had—and simply chose to treat her like a stranger.

For reasons she couldn’t name, Jian Ya felt a dull ache in her chest.

Without thinking, she clenched her fist tightly.