Scumbag Woman, But Pampering My Wife - Chapter 1

Qin Jue massaged her throbbing temples, her body submerged in the bathtub as steam swirled before her eyes.

A hangover headache.

Feeling—

As she slowly sank into the warm water, the pain in her head didn’t ease—instead, it grew sharper.

A strange mechanical voice echoed in her mind: “Hello there! I’m the Protagonist Aura System of this book.”

The scent of alcohol clung stubbornly to Qin Jue’s skin. She instinctively tried to push herself up, but her exhausted muscles refused to support her weight.

“What… is this?”

Pressing her temples, Qin Jue glanced through the floor-to-ceiling window at the steady drizzle outside.

Amid the rain, a pale silhouette seemed to flicker.

Everything felt utterly unfamiliar—the surroundings were absurdly luxurious. The bath bubbles clinging to her skin carried the scent of agarwood oil, more expensive than gold. Through the rain-streaked window on the left, the distant cityscape stretched out before her.

This was a villa built halfway up a mountain.

Qin Jue sucked in a sharp breath. Was she still dreaming?

The system’s voice in her head, annoyingly reminiscent of a smartphone assistant, prattled on.

Before she could make sense of anything, her phone, perched on the edge of the bathtub, suddenly rang.

An unknown number flashed on the screen.

Qin Jue’s damp fingers brushed against the display, leaving behind a faint trace of agarwood.

A droplet landed on the answer button.

Qin Jue: “…”

The mechanical voice chimed in: “Villain plot loaded. Host, please answer the call and ignore the protagonist your agent has sent over.”

She hadn’t intended to pick up, but it was too late to hang up now.

A woman’s voice crackled through the speaker.

“President Qin! I’ve sent Yuebai over to you. That girl’s a bit stubborn, so please… teach her properly. If she acts out, don’t go easy on her. And I’m not exaggerating—Yuebai’s looks are top-tier among her peers. Trained in dance since childhood, that body of hers—”

Qin Jue felt like she was listening to a brothel madam.

Wait—

“Yuebai?”

For a moment, Qin Jue froze. Wrapped in a bathrobe, she stood abruptly from the tub.

“You mean Lin Yuebai?!”

The spacious bathroom was filled with the refined melodies of a vinyl record. Just steps away, an array of crystal bottles—each holding expensive, vibrantly colored essential oils—sat atop a cabinet. The mirror reflected Qin Jue’s face.

It bore an eighty percent resemblance to her appearance before she transmigrated.

The voice on the phone oozed sycophantic laughter. “Exactly—Lin Yuebai! We’d appreciate your leniency regarding the online rumors, President Qin.”

Qin Jue’s pupils constricted slightly.

“You’re Lin Yuebai’s agent?”

Then it hit her—Lin Yuebai was the protagonist of a novel she’d recently read.

Qin Jue pressed her fingers against the mirror, leaving streaks of water behind.

The novel was an entertainment industry story without romance, chronicling Lin Yuebai’s rise through adversity to fame and fortune.

And the so-called “President Qin” she was now embodying? The story’s ultimate villain.

When Qin Jue had first noticed the villain shared her name, she’d sensed something was off. But that very night, while listening to an audiobook in the car, she’d lost focus for just a second—and the next thing she knew, she was here.

Qin Jue grabbed her phone and checked Weibo. Several negative hashtags dominated the entertainment trending list.

#LinYuebaiThrowsHerWeightAround

#LinYuebaiFakesAFaintingSpell

A Lesson in How Not to Be a Diva in the Entertainment Industry

Qin Jue frowned as she scrolled through one of the trending hashtags, the comments beneath it densely packed.

“Damn, can lyb just get out of the entertainment industry? Wasn’t she in a girl group before? Now that the group disbanded, she wants to cash in on acting??”

“Instead of focusing on singing and dancing, she’s just looking for shortcuts. Someone like her should just quit already.”

“lyb must have made enough money by now. How can someone be so greedy?”

“Exactly! In that food show, everyone else was enjoying their meals, but she vomited at the sight of fried chicken and pretended to have a weak stomach. How ridiculous! Is she the only delicate princess here? The only one who’s precious?”

“As a longtime fan of Yuebai, I want to say being in a girl group isn’t easy. Let’s be more understanding, okay? QWQ Maybe our Yuebai really has stomach issues and severe hypoglycemia. That’s why she fainted during the event. The way she fell didn’t seem fake.”

“Still defending her, you brainless fan?”

“At yesterday’s event, so many seniors were there, and lyb was the only one with hypoglycemia? Everyone else was fine. Are you saying the organizers specifically starved her?”

Qin Jue closed Weibo, hung up the phone, and slipped her phone into her bathrobe pocket.

Her brows furrowed as she asked internally, “Why ignore it?”

The system replied, “Because creating more challenges for the protagonist will temper her and make her stronger in the future.”

Qin Jue thought this so-called “protagonist halo system” was utterly unreasonable.

“I see.”

The novel she transmigrated into was titled “Starlight Journey,” where the protagonist, Lin Yuebai, was signed to an agency as a minor and spent years as a trainee. She finally got the chance to debut in a group, but with so many girl groups in the domestic entertainment industry, only a handful ever stood out. Many faded away for various reasons.

Debuting in a group was already a decent outcome—many trainees aged out without ever getting the chance.

The good news was Lin Yuebai successfully debuted.

The bad news was her agency, deeming girl groups unprofitable, diverted resources meant for her group to one of their boy groups instead.

Years of trainee life had taken a toll on Lin Yuebai’s health. The agency imposed strict weight requirements, often forcing her to go days without food, surviving only on water. Developing an eating disorder was inevitable.

Yet, the agency signed her up for a food show. Faced with greasy fried chicken, her stomach instinctively convulsed, leaving her pale.

While being cyberbullied, she fainted at an event, becoming fodder for gossip among marketing accounts.

Qin Jue massaged her temples, hungover, her gaze landing on a pile of expensive liquor bottles beside the bathtub.

All bought with Lin Yuebai’s money.

Qin Jue: “…”

Damn it all.

Lin Yuebai’s agency was inhumane, and her manager was the worst of the worst. To curry favor with the wealthy heiress Qin Jue, they sent Lin Yuebai over as a “gift,” even using the artist’s own savings to fund the setup.

As the protagonist of a story, one naturally must endure numerous trials before finally achieving success.

The protagonist must gain something from every disaster, relying on unyielding willpower and exceptional abilities to persevere, ultimately stepping into the hall of victory.

In the novel, Lin Yuebai used her connections to land the lead role in a low-budget TV drama. However, due to issues with the investors, the broadcast was repeatedly delayed.

In the end, she had no choice but to compromise and maneuver among the investors, barely securing the opportunity for the show to air.

But in doing so, she also signed an unfair contract, forced to be at their beck and call. The more hardships she endured as the protagonist, the more dazzling her later achievements became. Battling through countless obstacles, she eventually ascended to the highest podium of acclaim.

Yet the bitterness of it all was something only she truly knew.

That damned investor was none other than Qin Jue, the spoiled rich kid.

As the antagonist meant to hinder the protagonist’s rise, Qin Jue naturally met a gruesome end. Lin Yuebai bided her time, gathering ample evidence of Qin Jue’s illegal activities, ruining her reputation and reducing her to kneeling on the ground, begging for mercy—only to be met with several sharp slaps. In the end, Qin Jue died in a car accident, the explosion leaving barely any remains behind.

As for whether the original owner of this body had truly died by accident—only the now-famous and wealthy superstar would know.

The woman in the mirror wore a wine-red bathrobe, her long hair dripping at the ends, the scent of agarwood and rose essential oil lingering on her skin. When she wasn’t smiling, her face carried a sharp, aggressive edge, but the faint upward tilt of her eyes and the fox-like smirk added a touch of lazy allure.

It wasn’t until Qin Jue had pieced together the plot from the jumble of memories that she noticed the rain outside growing heavier.

Bean-sized raindrops pelted against the floor-to-ceiling windows, creating a relentless drumming sound.

Out of the corner of her eye, Qin Jue caught sight of a pale figure crouched outside, seemingly enduring intense pain.

……

Outside the door.

Lin Yuebai closed her eyes in despair, her knuckles whitening from the cold.

Last night, her phone and bank cards had been confiscated by her manager. Today, she had been forced into a car, blindfolded, and when she was finally let out, she found herself standing before the gates of this villa.

She would never forget the manager’s cold sneer from the passenger seat—

“If you have any sense at all, you’ll do your best to please President Qin. Not only will she help you clean up your current scandal, but she could even make your delayed drama a massive hit. But if you offend her…”

The manager had more than just Lin Yuebai under her control, and her words were particularly cutting—

“If you offend President Qin, you won’t even know how you died.”

The black sedan sped away, and soon after, rain began to fall.

The heavy gate showed no signs of opening, and the shallow overhang at the entrance offered little shelter from the storm.

She wore only a thin white dress, the low neckline providing no warmth, the hem stopping above her knees to accentuate her slender waist and long legs—but this only made her appear all the more pitiful.

Lin Yuebai’s carefully applied makeup had long been washed away by the rain, her smooth hair now plastered to her cheeks in wet strands, a few clinging to her pale lips.

The soaked hem of her short skirt clung to her body, outlining her slender figure, yet making her appear even more fragile in the cold rainy night.

The girl’s dark brown pupils gradually dimmed as she curled herself toward the door, desperate to gather even the slightest warmth.

Her shoulders trembled helplessly in the biting wind.

The humiliation she endured now—she would repay it tenfold in the future.

Lin Yuebai closed her eyes, her lashes quivering from the cold. Beneath the hatred and resentment in her gaze lay a trace of confusion.

Would this door open?

How could it?

Qin Jue was notorious in their circle for her wild lifestyle. Backed by her family’s wealth and status as the sole heir, she treated people as disposable playthings—changing partners three times in five days was considered tame for her.

Lin Yuebai stared into the endless curtain of rain, her lips growing paler by the second. Her already delicate stomach ached mercilessly, as if mocking her suffering.

Just as she had resigned herself to despair, the door behind her suddenly swung open.

Stumbling, she collapsed onto the plush rug at the entrance. When she looked up, she met the gaze of a woman draped in a wine-red bathrobe, holding a cup of warm milk.

Qin Jue merely stood there, bathed in the warmth of the indoors, looking down at the girl sprawled on the ground.

“How long did you plan to keep crying at my doorstep?”