I Woke Up and Became an Alpha (GL) - Chapter 7

Song Yuran felt incredibly unlucky today. It was a sunny day when she left, but as soon as she emerged from the subway station, it suddenly started to rain.

To make matters worse, she had forgotten her umbrella today, so she had to sprint all the way to the company building.

“Yuran, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you going in?” A colleague walked over, standing on the steps of the company lobby, closing their umbrella and shaking off the rain as they spoke.

Song Yuran looked up at the sky. In just a few minutes, the sudden downpour came rushing down, and then just as suddenly, it stopped.

Nothing was left but a few puddles on the ground.

Oh, and her clothes, drenched by countless raindrops.

“I was just thinking…” She looked at the sun lurking menacingly behind the dark clouds and said gloomily, “Am I going to have terrible luck today?”

The “To Be Determined” status on her resignation application made her head spin. She couldn’t find the contact information for the colleague who handled resignations yesterday in the backend system, so she would have to take time today to go upstairs again and ask for the reason.

She had just sat down at her desk when she heard her colleagues next to her chatting. She caught a few keywords that piqued her interest: “competition” and “bonus.”

Her office chair glided smoothly across the tiles. Song Yuran joined their conversation, her face full of curiosity. “What are you talking about?”

“A design competition,” a colleague said. “It’s the change of season, so the company needs to prepare new summer and autumn collections. As long as your design is adopted by the company, you’ll get a generous bonus, and a week of paid leave!”

“Wow.” Song Yuran couldn’t help but widen her eyes. For a moment, she was tempted. She quickly added, “But that’s for the design department, it has nothing to do with us.”

“You haven’t been here long, so it’s normal not to know,” the colleague explained. “Our company’s internal design competition is open to anyone, regardless of department or position. You just email your design draft to the person in charge.”

“What’s that saying, ‘art comes from life’? Maybe our non-professional ideas will really impress the boss?”

“Oh, oh, oh.” Song Yuran echoed a few words, then quickly exited their conversation. Although the bonus and paid leave were very appealing, as someone about to resign, she didn’t have the energy to participate.

She had planned to let her clothes air dry naturally, but the heavily soaked area on her shoulder was uncomfortably clinging to her skin. Thinking there was a hand dryer in the restroom, Song Yuran decided to go and deal with it.

She had just stood up when she heard footsteps at the door. She immediately saw the manager, who was slightly turned, speaking to someone beside him.

Upon seeing the person next to the manager, Song Yuran instinctively sat back down, lowering her head like an ostrich.

Rachel, no, Huo Qingzhi! How did she get here?!

Song Yuran was utterly shocked, yet she couldn’t suppress a tiny bit of curiosity. She secretly straightened up to look in their direction.

She couldn’t see the person because they were nearly in front of her. Song Yuran’s workstation was close to the manager’s office, and in a fleeting glance, her eyes met Huo Qingzhi’s.

The other person also saw her. A cold smirk suddenly twisted on that otherwise expressionless face.

Song Yuran was certain it was a cold smirk! Because Huo Qingzhi merely glanced at her like a stranger, walking past her workstation with the manager without a sideways look.

Her attitude was completely different from before!

Oh no, oh no. Although she didn’t know how she had offended the protagonist, this was not a good omen.

Song Yuran felt uneasy. There was a lingering sense of oppression. She quickly fled the scene, feeling her breath ease only after she entered the restroom.

“Small scene, don’t panic,” Song Yuran told herself in the mirror. “Once I resign, I can escape the plot. Then I’ll be soaring high and swimming freely.”

After her pep talk, she remembered why she was there. Looking at the hand dryer mounted at waist height on the wall, Song Yuran glanced around, confirming the restroom was empty. Only then did she half-crouch awkwardly, shrugging her shoulder to position it under the hand dryer.

The warm air blew, feeling surprisingly comfortable, making Song Yuran unconsciously squint her eyes.

But at the same time, the noise in her ears prevented her from hearing any sounds around her, like footsteps.

Suddenly, a person appeared in her gradually blurring vision. Song Yuran instinctively opened her eyes, and upon seeing the newcomer, she jolted and hit her head on the hand dryer next to her.

Ignoring the pain in her head, she stood up, instinctively wanting to run, but just as she took half a step forward, someone grabbed the back of her collar.

She heard Huo Qingzhi coldly ask, “We’re both Alphas, why are you running?”

Her instinctive avoidance made Huo Qingzhi even wonder if she had entered the wrong restroom.

Song Yuran silently wept internally. Different Alphas, different fates. Some were protagonists, while others were cannon fodder, and she didn’t even have *that thing*. Get away from me, please! I don’t want to go to jail!!!!

Seeing that struggling was futile, Song Yuran gave up on escaping in a second. She turned around. Seeing the person in front of her again, her mood was completely opposite to the last time; her eyes were filled with vigilance.

“Pre… President Huo…”

“Oh?” Huo Qingzhi’s glamorous face involuntarily raised an eyebrow, finally showing a hint of warmth. “It seems you know now.”

“But I didn’t know.” Huo Qingzhi smiled coolly. “Lei Feng, no, I should call you Song Yuran, shouldn’t I?”

Huo Qingzhi hated being deceived the most. Yesterday, she specifically asked HR if there was anyone named “Lei Feng” who had resigned, only to find out that person wasn’t named Lei Feng at all. Hmph.

“…” Song Yuran didn’t know how to explain the “Lei Feng” meme to the other person. Why didn’t this world have the good Samaritan Lei Feng?!

She bravely said, “I, I think I can explain the situation about the name. Would you like to hear it?”

She had prepared for the other person to say “no, I don’t want to hear it,” but unexpectedly, Huo Qingzhi once again didn’t follow the script. She slightly raised her chin, signaling for her to continue.

“Well… it’s like this…” Song Yuran racked her brain for words. “Before, in our village, there was a person named Lei Feng. He was a very kind and helpful person, so… when we meet kind-hearted people, we praise them as ‘living Lei Fengs.'”

“So, I really didn’t mean to deceive you.” She held up three fingers in a vow. “I swear on all the future functions of my future partner!”

Huo Qingzhi furrowed her brows, seemingly weighing the truthfulness of Song Yuran’s words. Just then, approaching footsteps sounded from outside the door.

Someone was coming.

Song Yuran quickly found an excuse to leave the restroom. When she returned to her desk, she let out a huge sigh of relief.

No, why did she react as if she was afraid of being caught in an affair???

Song Yuran carefully reviewed the content she remembered from the original novel. Huo Qingzhi in the original novel was someone who held grudges, which was why those who offended her met such tragic ends.

When she was reading that novel, Song Yuran only felt the satisfaction of an upgrade-style wish-fulfillment story. But now that she was in the novel, and a cannon fodder character at that, facing Huo Qingzhi was not satisfying at all!

But… Song Yuran recalled her few interactions with Rachel. Although Rachel had shown hostility towards her during their first meeting due to her susceptible, her subsequent attitude didn’t have the feeling of a hellish demon from the original novel.

Could it be a butterfly effect caused by her arrival?

Before she could figure it out, the interoffice phone on her desk rang. She absently picked it up.

“This is the President’s Office. I’m President Huo’s secretary. Regarding your resignation application, please come to the President’s Office now.”

“???” Song Yuran was still in a daze after hanging up the phone. What? Huo Qingzhi wanted to see her?

But since it concerned her resignation, Song Yuran had to go.

Before entering the President’s office, she imagined a spacious, brightly lit, high-class CEO’s office like those in idol dramas.

But when she actually walked in, the first thing she saw were several rows of movable racks, filled with various lengths and styles of clothing. They must have been design samples.

And Huo Qingzhi sat at the central desk, looking down at documents, with a pair of silver-rimmed glasses perched on her high nose bridge.

Song Yuran once again marveled at Huo Qingzhi’s beauty. If she wasn’t the tragically beautiful and powerful protagonist from the book, she would really want to get to know her better.

The secretary closed the door, leaving the two of them in the office. The sound also made Huo Qingzhi look up from her documents.

Seeing it was her, Huo Qingzhi placed the documents she was holding aside, and habitually took off her plain glasses, pushing her hair back in an unconsciously alluring gesture.

“Sit.” Huo Qingzhi’s demeanor was purely business-like.

Song Yuran sat opposite her. She had been too nervous in the restroom earlier to look closely, but now Huo Qingzhi was sitting in her office chair, behind her a large floor-to-ceiling glass window. The sunlight after the rain refracted through it, and the film on the glass cleverly blocked the scorching sun, leaving only bright natural light.

This made Huo Qingzhi’s bright red lip gloss even more striking. Today’s “bitten lip” makeup added another layer of alluring beauty to her entire persona. With that aura, she could easily pass for a model.

“I’ve reviewed your resignation letter,” Huo Qingzhi said, taking the resignation letter from the folder on her right. She looked at Song Yuran’s signature on it, then raised her eyes to meet hers. “Why are you resigning?”

“Uh…” Under Huo Qingzhi’s gaze, Song Yuran’s mind suddenly went blank. All the excuses she had prepared earlier completely vanished.

“Because…” Her hands were slightly constrained on her lap. A thought flashed through her mind: “Because I feel like there’s no room for advancement if I continue to stay here.”

Huo Qingzhi changed her posture, resting one hand on the side of her face, and took a long breath, signaling for her to continue.

Is she sighing?

Song Yuran had no time to think about anything else and continued to bluster, using every excuse she could think of. In short, it wasn’t the company that was bad; it was her lack of ability and desire for promotion, so she might as well resign and go beg for food under a bridge.

By the end, even she didn’t know what nonsense she was spewing.

Song Yuran said so much, but Huo Qingzhi didn’t really listen. Her evasive demeanor alone was enough to make Huo Qingzhi disbelieve her words.

The office was silent for several seconds, a dead quiet.

“From this morning—” Huo Qingzhi slowly began, her face still composed. “To be precise, ever since you learned my identity, your attitude has been very strange.”

She paused, then hit the nail on the head: “Are you afraid of me?”