Dressed as the Scumbag Alpha Mom of the Tragic Female Lead (ABO, GL) - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

“No, I’m really troubled.” Just as Jiang Chuxie was fuming with anger, Gu Lingjun gently took her arm. “Sorry, I already have a dance partner in mind, so I hope you’ll stop bothering me.”

The Omega’s voice was soft and gentle, even her rejection so tender, yet Jiang Chuxie could hear the firmness in it.

She instinctively looked down at her arm, where Gu Lingjun’s slender, well-proportioned hands were lightly wrapped around her elbow, with a touch as gentle as a feather.

Her fair fingertips seemed almost transparent in the sunlight, and her rounded nails were slightly pale, trembling faintly.

She must be really scared, right?

Jiang Chuxie’s heart swelled with boundless tenderness, so much so that she overlooked the “partner” Gu Lingjun had mentioned.

“Did you hear that? Please stop doing things that trouble her.”

“You have a dance partner? Lingjun, you didn’t invite this Beta, did you? The school welcome party isn’t a place for a Beta like her. You’ll be laughed at!”

The Alpha across from them clearly didn’t get it, and Jiang Chuxie showed a trace of impatience.

“I never said—”

I’m a Beta, right?

Normally, Jiang Chuxie only brought up her Alpha status when dealing with trouble. Though she still hadn’t fully adapted to the mechanics of her secondary gender, there was no denying that being an Alpha had brought her quite a few practical advantages.

“I really do want to invite Senior. It has nothing to do with whether she’s a Beta.”

But this time, Gu Lingjun didn’t give her a chance to reveal her status. Jiang Chuxie looked at Gu Lingjun’s face in surprise, only to see a hint of determination in the otherwise delicate Omega’s expression.

“Senior, would you be my dance partner?”

Gu Lingjun looked up at Jiang Chuxie, her gentle brows slightly raised, her bright eyes filled with expectation.

This… in this situation, how could she possibly say no?

If she’d known things would turn out like this, Jiang Chuxie would’ve gone back and slapped herself from two minutes ago, telling herself to get lost. But time couldn’t be rewound, and she had to make a choice now.

Saying no would give that self-important Alpha an opening, but saying yes… ugh, she knew Gu Lingjun wasn’t just saying it for show. She was 100% serious about getting an answer.

If she agreed now, there’d be no going back later!

“Of course. It’s my honor.”

It wasn’t her first time playing the shield for someone. Though it had been a while since she’d been in this kind of situation, Jiang Chuxie was still practiced, her skills sharp—or so she thought! She’d totally screwed up, completely and utterly screwed up!

Jiang Chuxie was screaming inside, but what she saw was Gu Lingjun’s radiant smile.

“Great! Thank you, Senior.”

Gu Lingjun’s smile was like the light of the ancient goddess of light, Theia, shining not just on the earth but into people’s hearts—Jiang Chuxie was starting to get numb to it, even finding herself distracted enough to grumble.

Her protagonist’s name was so Eastern, so why were her brain’s compliments full of Western mythological deities?

No matter how you looked at it, that wasn’t normal!

“You!” The Alpha across from them looked humiliated, ranting furiously, “Lingjun, I didn’t expect you to have such bad taste. Hmph, take this Beta to the welcome party, and just wait to be laughed at!”

After spitting out his harsh words, he stormed off without looking back. Jiang Chuxie, hiding behind her eyes, rolled them hard.

In truth, not all Alphas in this world were this classless. People like Zhang Luping, Zhuang Qi, and Gu Lian were pretty normal. It’s just that she seemed to run into these types a lot, and now it looked like Gu Lingjun had the same knack for it. Maybe that was just the power of the plot.

“Senior, thank you.” Once the Alpha was far enough away, Gu Lingjun quickly let go of Jiang Chuxie’s arm, her face shy. “If you hadn’t helped me out, I really wouldn’t have known what to do.”

“You sure do attract trouble easily.”

Jiang Chuxie couldn’t help but tease, though there was no blame in her words. After all, wasn’t she the same way?

“Sorry… it’s probably because I can never reject people properly and come off too ambiguous.” But the Omega seemed to misunderstand her, her face paling as she apologized. “If I could be more firm…”

“I didn’t say that. I saw the situation clearly…” Jiang Chuxie scratched her hair in frustration, looking at Gu Lingjun, who was hanging her head like she’d done something wrong, and sighed. “Being subtle in your rejection just shows you’re polite and well-mannered. The ones who need to reflect are those adults who act like grade-schoolers, can’t take a hint, and are way too full of themselves.”

Gu Lingjun looked up at her, her voice trembling with a hint of tears. “Senior, no one’s ever said that to me before.”

Oh no, oh no, oh no!

This was bad in every possible way!

Seeing Gu Lingjun’s slightly red eyes and nose, hearing her voice filled with both joy and grievance, Jiang Chuxie’s heart couldn’t help but race.

No, wait, this was the moment to clarify that her agreement to be Gu Lingjun’s dance partner didn’t count.

“Tch, it’s nothing…”

Done, done, done! She couldn’t even keep up her calm facade anymore! Say it already—she absolutely couldn’t agree to be Gu Lingjun’s dance partner!

Gu Lingjun gave a faint smile, her teary eyes glimmering as if they could reflect light, making her clear, lovely face even more captivating.

“Thank you so much, and sorry for causing you trouble again.”

Jiang Chuxie felt extremely uneasy, so uneasy she didn’t know what expression to make, what pose to strike, or what to say.

“I didn’t say that.”

Sure, it was troublesome, but she didn’t mean to blame Gu Lingjun. After all, no matter how you looked at it, Gu Lingjun wasn’t at fault—she was just an innocent victim.

“About the dance partner thing…”

Gu Lingjun hesitated, seeming like she wanted to say something but couldn’t. Jiang Chuxie figured the inevitable was coming, steeled herself, and prepared to refuse.

“About that—”

Gu Lingjun suddenly bowed her head deeply, her voice full of apology. “I know Senior only said that to help me get rid of him, not because you actually agreed. I’m sorry for putting you in a tough spot. I… I’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about it.”

Huh?

Huh?!

Why wasn’t this going the way she expected?

It was considerate and helped her out a lot, but… why wasn’t it what she expected?

“Are you… going to find another dance partner?”

“No, it’s not like that. Like I said earlier, I really did want to invite Senior to go with me. But I know you don’t want to get too close to me, and you don’t like those kinds of events.”

Just moments ago, Jiang Chuxie was stressing over how to refuse, but now her brain was short-circuiting, unsure of what to do. She could just accept it and walk away coolly, so why was she still standing here?

“So what about the welcome party? You’re not going?”

Gu Lingjun shook her head. “I’ve already missed a lot of student council work because of… that thing. If I don’t go to the welcome party, it’d be hard to justify.”

Jiang Chuxie thought of what that Alpha had said and couldn’t help picturing Gu Lingjun being ignored or bullied by the student council members.

“You don’t have to worry about me, Senior. I can go alone.”

Worry? She wasn’t… okay, she was really worried!

If things ended like this today, who knew how Gu Lingjun would be treated if she went alone tomorrow?

“Ahem, were you at the library to return a book?”

Maybe, just maybe, changing the subject was the best move right now.

Gu Lingjun seemed a bit hesitant, her face flushing as she pulled a copy of “Western Mythology Systems” from her bag.

But just when Jiang Chuxie thought she’d say she was returning it, Gu Lingjun suddenly clutched the book, lowered her head in embarrassment, and apologized. “Sorry, I actually knew you were at the library and came to ‘run into’ you by pretending to return a book. Like I said earlier, I… I wanted to invite you to be my dance partner. I just didn’t expect to run into him on the way…”

Faced with Gu Lingjun’s honesty, Jiang Chuxie was momentarily speechless.

Thinking of the shy, delicate Omega going to such lengths, thinking of her being criticized and sidelined by her student council peers, thinking of the awkward situations she might face going to the welcome party alone, Jiang Chuxie… couldn’t bring herself to refuse anymore.

“It’s not like I can’t go with you,” she said. Fine, she’d already stepped in today, so she might as well go all in. Consider it repaying the five million from the Gu family, being Gu Lingjun’s tool for a bit. “But you have to tell me who told you I was at the library.”