Dressed as the Scumbag Alpha Mom of the Tragic Female Lead (ABO, GL) - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jiang Chuxie worked at a chain café, but to avoid interacting with people, she wasn’t a server—she was a barista.

Given her current financial situation, working at a café seemed somewhat unnecessary. The side income from developing software for her dean and her stock market earnings far exceeded her part-time wages. She didn’t work here just for the money, though—it was for something else.

Omega mandatory heat suppressants—that was Jiang Chuxie’s reason for being here. Suppressants came in two types: one for Alphas and one for Omegas, further divided by usage timing. One type was used preemptively, while the other was used during a heat. Though both were suppressants, their mechanisms, side effects, and government regulations differed.

Preemptive suppressants, also called pheromone suppressants, primarily reduced or blocked pheromone production, delaying the onset of heats, regulating heat cycles, and allowing Omegas to experience their heats in safer, more comfortable settings.

These were available over the counter at pharmacies. Even a single Alpha like Jiang Chuxie could buy them easily, though they cost more for Alphas than Omegas.

Mandatory suppressants, however, could forcibly halt an Omega’s heat mid-cycle. The downside was that afterward, the Omega would feel as if they’d run a marathon—sore, exhausted, and weak for a long time.

These suppressants were strictly rationed, available only to registered Omegas and their authorized spouses. Jiang Chuxie had no way to obtain them on her own.

The café’s owner, Liu Wen, was an Omega who’d connected with Jiang Chuxie due to a certain incident. Since then, she’d been supplying Jiang Chuxie with mandatory suppressants, with the sole condition that Jiang Chuxie work at the café.

They’d known each other for about two years, and Liu Wen was one of the few people Jiang Chuxie considered a friend in this world. The reason Jiang Chuxie didn’t mind interacting with her was simple: Liu Wen had a devoted Alpha spouse, so she wasn’t part of Jiang Chuxie’s potential plot flags. Liu Wen’s interest in her was even more peculiar—Jiang Chuxie’s pheromones smelled like coffee.

According to Liu Wen, she wanted to find or create a coffee blend matching Jiang Chuxie’s pheromone scent, so she kept her around for research. In return, she provided the suppressants.

“Chuxie, I’m heading to the restroom. Can you keep an eye on things?”

The café was near the university, and its customers were mostly students. On weekday afternoons, foot traffic was light—students usually ordered coffee to study or hang out with friends, so the shop wasn’t busy, and staffing was minimal.

One cashier, one server, and one barista. Besides Jiang Chuxie’s role as barista, the other two employees’ duties weren’t strictly defined.

“Got it, go ahead.”

The other server was on a break to eat, and with no tasks at hand, Jiang Chuxie took over the cashier’s role and stood at the counter.

Wearing the café’s uniform, she looked quite different from her school persona. A white shirt, a grayish-brown vest and apron, her shoulder-length hair tied into a simple ponytail, her bangs tucked under a cap to reveal a smooth forehead—only her thick glasses still obscured her face.

Since she’d avoided the main storyline of latching onto Gu Lingjun, she’d worked tirelessly these past six years. Being a barista was one of her easier jobs. Thankfully, her Alpha body had good physical resilience, enduring the grind without collapsing or repeating her previous life’s tragedy of dying from overwork.

Mentally, though, she was far from relaxed. Staying vigilant every time she stepped outside was enough to give her a headache.

The cashier hadn’t returned yet when two customers walked in. Jiang Chuxie instinctively said, “Welcome,” but her brows twitched when she saw one of their faces.

The pair consisted of a male Alpha and a female Omega—a common enough combination, but given how rare Alphas and Omegas were, encountering them in daily life was far less likely than one might think, making them a focal point of attention.

Jiang Chuxie noticed them mainly because of the Omega. Though they’d only met once, this Omega was far more than just familiar to her. If she wasn’t mistaken—and she couldn’t be—this was the junior standing with Zhao Zi on freshman registration day.

This female Omega, or rather, this young girl, stood demurely beside the Alpha. Their distance wasn’t intimate, and the Omega exuded a restrained, uneasy air.

Yet this didn’t diminish her charm. Autumn sunlight filtered through the light brown glass door, casting a halo around her. Her glossy, raven-black hair seemed to reflect the light, and for a moment, Jiang Chuxie almost imagined tiny elves dancing around her—wait, dancing elves? No way!

She was in an ABO adult novel, not a fantasy adventure story!

Jiang Chuxie desperately tried to banish the overly vivid descriptors flooding her mind as the pair approached the counter. As expected, she caught the scent of orchids—a flower from the lily family, specifically the white “Elegant” variety, with a refined, orchid-like fragrance.

Having lived in a place with many such flowers, Jiang Chuxie had recognized the scent instantly and later looked it up out of curiosity.

But now wasn’t the time to think about “lily family” flowers. As a competent employee, she couldn’t let this distraction compromise her professionalism.

Jiang Chuxie quickly averted her gaze from the Omega. Staring too long at an accompanied Omega was trouble—it could spark a bloody conflict. Fortunately, her glasses hid her scrutiny, and the pair didn’t notice.

“Hello, what would you like?”

“One black coffee.”

The male Alpha glanced at Jiang Chuxie, his attitude neutral. To him, the cashier was just an unremarkable female Beta.

Jiang Chuxie always used pheromone suppressants, rare for an Alpha, and with the café’s coffee aroma as cover, even Omegas, who were most sensitive to Alpha pheromones, couldn’t detect her scent. It was only natural for this male Alpha to misjudge her.

But the Omega seemed to sense something. Her doe-like, dark, glistening eyes stared unblinkingly at Jiang Chuxie, tinged with a hint of confusion.

Jiang Chuxie’s heart skipped, though she appeared calm, asking evenly, “And what would you like, miss?”

The male Alpha turned to his companion, asking solicitously, “Lingjun, what do you want? Cappuccino or mocha suits Omegas better—they’re not too bitter.”

Hearing the name “Lingjun,” Jiang Chuxie’s hand trembled, knocking over an acrylic sign advertising specials. The noise made the female Omega’s eyes widen slightly, her clear, autumn-water-like gaze startled. Just meeting her eyes made Jiang Chuxie feel an inexplicable pang of guilt.

“Sorry,” she said, giving the Omega a slight smile as she bent to pick up the sign. “What would you like, miss?”

The Omega, seeming a bit dazed while looking at Jiang Chuxie, snapped out of it when prompted, saying softly, “Then… I’ll have a cappuccino.”

Her voice was like an oriole’s morning song, a nightingale’s moonlit melody, as if Erato, the Muse of love poetry and music, were singing a hymn of love—wait, who the hell is Erato?

Even for Jiang Chuxie, who’d experienced something as bizarre as transmigration, this moment felt utterly surreal. Every move this Omega made seemed to resonate with her. In both her lives combined, she’d never known she had such a romantic streak, conjuring up a Muse just from a single sentence.

Was this that mysterious, fateful force at work again?

“One black coffee, one cappuccino,” Jiang Chuxie said, forcing herself to focus and shift her attention from the Omega. The name Lingjun didn’t necessarily mean anything—maybe it was just a homophone or a coincidence. Even if she was Gu Lingjun, she was just a customer here, unlikely to have any real connection with her. “Please find a seat, and I’ll bring the coffee over shortly.”

The male Alpha took the order number, saying to the Omega, “Let’s sit for a bit.”

The Omega nodded obediently, casting one last glance at Jiang Chuxie before leaving. Though Jiang Chuxie maintained her composure outwardly, a powerful sense of crisis surged within her.

It wasn’t that she was being presumptuous—past experiences had conditioned her to stay on edge. This Omega was named Lingjun, and Jiang Chuxie was having strange reactions she’d never had before, as if the universe were screaming: Your destiny is here.

No, no, no. My fate is mine to control. As a proud descendant of her homeland in her past life, Jiang Chuxie wouldn’t bow to destiny so easily. Even if Gu Lingjun was standing here now, it didn’t mean anything. In fact, this was proof of her success in altering her fate.

In the original novel, Gu Lingjun and the scumbag Alpha got engaged young and never attended university. But this Omega was a freshman in the Life Sciences Department, accompanied by an Alpha—a significant deviation from the novel’s plot!

Moreover, her reaction wasn’t like other Omegas who’d shown interest in Jiang Chuxie. As long as they didn’t interact further, and as long as Jiang Chuxie could ignore the bizarre descriptors popping into her head, she wouldn’t repeat the original’s mistakes!