After Becoming a Scumbag Alpha, the Green Tea Omega is Reborn - Chapter 5

The sales clerk, Tao Ran, and Shi Yi all wore the exact same expression of utter shock.

What does it mean to be rich and willful? This is it! Was there a scent of a more alluring Alpha in the world than this?

The sales clerk was overjoyed. She had just earned back several quarters’ worth of sales targets in a single day. Recalling her earlier misjudgment, she wanted nothing more than to slap herself twice. She had come so close to losing such a massive client. She bowed deeply to Yu Li and immediately hurried off to pack the shoes.

The thought of that pair of high heels—the ones everyone had internally reviled hundreds of times for being hideous and cheap—suddenly landing in her own hands made Shi Yi feel both humiliated and infuriated.

“You bought so many pairs of shoes, and you’re giving the ugliest, cheapest one to me?!”

Yu Li scratched her head, looking puzzled. “Didn’t you say you’d be satisfied as long as you got the things she picked over? The shoes are yours; take them and go.”

Tao Ran couldn’t help but let out a soft snort of laughter.

Shi Yi glared at the two of them, her voice a low growl. “You… you did this on purpose, didn’t you? You just wanted to humiliate me!”

Yu Li frowned. Wasn’t she the one who asked for this?

Tao Ran provocatively leaned her head against Yu Li’s arm and said, “Honey, this older sister is so scary, she’s frightening me.”

Shi Yi’s face turned green with rage. She slammed the shoebox onto the ground, gave it a hard kick, and stormed out.

Watching her aggressive departure, Yu Li thought to herself that Shi Yi probably wouldn’t have the thick skin to come back and beg her again after this.

As soon as the love rival left, Tao Ran let go of Yu Li’s arm. The clerk walked over with a beaming smile and said, “Packing will take some time. The VIP lounge has coffee ready. Why don’t you two ladies come in, have a cup of coffee, and relax while you wait?”

“That’s very thoughtful.” Yu Li led Tao Ran into the VIP room.

The room was bright and airy, filled with the aroma of Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee—Tao Ran’s favorite. Tao Ran sat on the sofa about a foot away from Yu Li, sipping her drink.

After hesitating for a long time, she finally spoke. “Honey, you really didn’t need to buy so many shoes for me.”

Tao Ran couldn’t figure out why Yu Li was suddenly being so nice. After thinking it over, she could only attribute it to the gossip she’d overheard in the hotel restroom earlier. Yu Li probably felt pity for her and spent the money to save face.

Yu Li watched the clerk busily packing the heels outside the door and said to Tao Ran, “As long as you like them, I’ll buy them for you.”

She had seen it all earlier—Tao Ran liked almost every pair in the new autumn collection. She had taken down and tried on nearly every single one, but she hadn’t dared to ask for more, fearing Yu Li would refuse. After trying them back and forth, she only dared to pick two.

Yu Li’s brow had furrowed the moment she saw those two pairs. Forget two; she was willing to buy her twenty.

“Which pair is your favorite?” Yu Li asked.

“The silver ones with the embellishments.”

“Then wear them home.” As Yu Li spoke, she brought that pair over and placed them at Tao Ran’s feet. “I’ll help you change.”

Yu Li knelt on one knee and carefully removed the shoes Tao Ran was wearing. Tao Ran’s feet were small and delicate, encased in stockings. Yu Li kept her gaze focused, gently sliding her foot into the new shoe, then looked up at Tao Ran in the mirror with a radiant smile.

“Very beautiful.”

Looking into those smiling eyes, Tao Ran wondered how much of it was genuine and how much was an act, but she felt a slight stir of emotion in her heart.

Meanwhile, Yu Li rested her chin on her hand, thinking that Tao Ran was a perfect fit for Felina’s shoes. It would be great if she were the brand’s spokesperson.

On the way home, Yu Li stopped at a furniture store to buy a luxury shoe cabinet and arranged for it to be delivered to their door, specifically to house Tao Ran’s new collection.

Tao Ran traced the large Felina logo on the sole of a shoe and sighed softly. When would she ever have the financial backing of the Yu family? When would she be able to buy whatever she wanted like Yu Li?

To make money, she needed to act or get endorsements, but it seemed like no advertisers had contacted her in a long time.

Tao Ran opened her contact list and suddenly remembered that her manager, Sister Zhang, hadn’t contacted her in a while either. After marrying Yu Li, she had broken her contract with her former company to join the entertainment firm under the Yu Group, where she was assigned the same manager as Yu Li.

At the time, she was full of hope, thinking she could frequently be with Yu Li and have overlapping schedules. Little did she know, this was only to make it easier for Yu Li to control her—allowing the Alpha to frolic among flowers without a single petal sticking to her.

After the wedding, Sister Zhang’s attitude toward Tao Ran had been poor. She barely arranged any schedules for her and constantly belittled her, trying to turn her into a mere appendage of Yu Li—a shadow for the rest of her life. Looking back now, Sister Zhang was Yu Li’s person; those were likely all Yu Li’s orders.

Thinking of this, Tao Ran felt a surge of displeasure. Yu Li had committed so many villainous acts; how could she be bought off by a few pairs of shoes? Actually, this was fine—she would just keep using Yu Li to get the resources she wanted.

As soon as Yu Li got home, she pulled out her phone and saw that messages from several friends were strangely identical: just strings of giant question marks.

Immediately after, Aubrey asked, “Sister, what is wrong with you? Do you really like that Tao Ran? Are you serious? You’re actually going home to ‘wash your hands and make soup’ (become a housewife)?”

Yu Li frowned. These “friends” were like pagers, constantly nitpicking her life. She hadn’t understood them yesterday, and she was still in the dark now. “What do you mean, ‘what’s wrong’?”

“Still trying to hide it from me? The Weibo Hot Search exploded!”

Startled, Yu Li immediately opened Weibo. The top trending topic was: “Yu Li and Tao Ran Buying Shoes at the Mall.” Clicking on it, she realized she’d been secretly photographed while taking Tao Ran to the luxury counter.

It made sense; they didn’t even have assistants right now, so they wouldn’t have noticed the onlookers. Yu Li thought she had a thick skin, but seeing the top comments under the search made her heart sink.

“Fake couple putting on a show…”

“Married yesterday and on the hot search all day; on it again today. Who are they trying to impress?”

“Why pretend to be so in love? Everyone knows Yu Li wanted the face and Tao Ran wanted the money.”

“The person above is being too harsh; maybe they’re actually in love.”

“Your idea of ‘true love’ involves a hot search every time they go out to buy shoes?”

“Fake is fake; it can never become real.”

There were plenty of comments supporting them too, though Yu Li wondered if they were just paid “water army” commenters from the company.

“If you want to watch, watch; if not, get lost! Li-Ran forever!”

“The marriage might be fake, the love might be fake, but those Felina shoes are 100% authentic!”

“Haha, the sister above is right. But I believe the shoes are real and so is the love.”

Yu Li’s heart was a mess of emotions. she wondered what Tao Ran would think of the comments. Just then, a message arrived from a contact labeled “Manager Sister Zhang.”

“Yu Li, can I call you ‘Big Sister’? Next time you fire an assistant, can you let me know first? This is the eighth one. What exactly are you trying to do?”

Yu Li remembered the contact “Assistant 8” who had cursed her and deleted her the night before. She realized the original scumbag Alpha must have had a terrible temper, firing assistants at the slightest inconvenience until even the manager couldn’t take it.

Yu Li thought for a moment and replied, “I’m sorry, I’ll definitely pay more attention next time.”

Sister Zhang didn’t even give her a chance to apologize; her voice messages came rapid-fire like a machine gun: “And what’s with you buying two hot search slots in one go? Why didn’t you tell me beforehand?”

Two hot search slots? Yu Li hurriedly checked the rankings again. To her surprise, the second trending topic was also about her and Tao Ran.