After Being Transmigrated into a Cannon Fodder Scum Alpha - Chapter 43

Lin Chen felt that Yun Qi was very different today, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on how.

For instance, right now—after the Alpha had carried her downstairs, she hadn’t let go even after reaching the table. It seemed she wanted to hold her and feed her. Although the Alpha’s embrace was warm, Lin Chen wasn’t used to being held and fed in front of the butler and the other servants.

Perhaps she could suggest dining in the bedroom next time, with just the two of them. If Yun Qi recovered by then, they could even add some “digestion activities” after the meal.

“May I start eating now?” The Omega looked at her partner and shifted her body slightly. Her meaning was clear: she didn’t want to be held while eating.

“I was just lost in thought.” The Alpha let go with a composed expression, allowing the Omega to return to her own seat as if the person who had foolishly refused to let go just a moment ago wasn’t her.

Perhaps because she had realized her own feelings, Yun Qi found Lin Chen exceptionally alluring today. Holding her felt soft and fragrant, making her reluctant to let go, which was why she had kept Lin Chen in her lap upon sitting down. It wasn’t until Lin Chen spoke up that she realized how inappropriate her behavior was.

[Scum Value -30.]

‘?’

[Thanks to the help of our dear butler.]

Yun Qi turned her head and noticed the butler was looking at them with a smile. Upon meeting the Grand Duke’s gaze, the butler suppressed her smile and reverted to her usual stern, joyless expression.

In her youth, the butler had loved a gentle girl—an Omega who was like a “little sun.” That girl’s warmth had melted the butler’s cold exterior, making her unable to resist the approach. But life is fickle; the little sun eventually passed away from illness, and the butler closed her heart once more, dedicating her life to the Ducal family.

Perhaps because she would never have children of her own, the butler viewed Yun Qi—whom she had watched grow up—as her own child. Yun Qi’s resistance and dislike toward Lin Chen looked just like her younger self in the butler’s eyes. Back then, she too had resisted that overly familiar Omega, thinking she was too flighty, only to lose her armor and fall in love as the girl drew closer.

Only the Old Duke, the Old Madam, and a few elder servants knew of this past; after all, that bold Omega had once chased the butler all the way into the Ducal Mansion.

Yun Qi knew nothing of this, so she had always felt it was a pity the butler never found a partner. She felt that if the butler had married, she would have been an excellent mother and partner. In the few days since she transmigrated, she had come to deeply respect this seemingly rigid elder.

She didn’t think there was anything wrong with being unmarried; she just felt for the butler’s constant solitude. Every Lunar New Year, the mansion would give the servants a few days off, yet only the butler stayed behind. During those days, the original host would run off to her uncle’s place, leaving only Lin Chen and Lin Xi to keep the elder company.

The food on the table was light to suit a pregnant woman’s appetite.

One of the dishes near Yun Qi was Honeycomb Corn. For some reason, she felt Lin Chen would like it, but it might be inconvenient for the Omega to reach.

“Is this food fit for humans?” The Alpha tasted a bit of the Honeycomb Corn and frowned. The taste was “terrible.” She glanced at the arrangement of the dishes and noticed a dish in front of the Omega that suited her own taste perfectly, so she swapped their positions.

“Who arranged these dishes?” the Grand Duke asked angrily.

After a moment, a young girl was brought before her.

“Do not place this dish in front of me ever again.” The Grand Duke made the girl memorize the arrangement. “I hope this is the last time—and it can only be the last time.”

The girl agreed tremulously. She had heard stories of the Grand Duke’s past punishments for servants when her aunt first brought her in. As she was led here, her aunt’s words replayed in her mind like a horror movie; she thought she would at least be whipped. But seeing that the Grand Duke, though angry, did not state a specific punishment, she breathed a sigh of relief, and her fear gradually dissipated.

Perhaps because she was new, the “cruel” image of the Grand Duke from the rumors began to fade. The beautiful face appeared much softer in its Omega form, and the impatience on her face looked like “noble elegance” to the girl’s eyes.

Thinking about the Grand Duke’s transformation from Alpha to Omega, the girl felt it was natural for her to be frustrated. She couldn’t help but feel a bit of pity; it was only normal for the Grand Duke to be irritable right now. She felt the rumors the other servants told her were just cases of people being fooled by the lady’s disguise.

Her aunt had told her that the Grand Duke lost her parents at age seven. How helpless she must have been! To lose parents so young and be left to inherit immense power, surrounded by “relatives” with glowing green eyes waiting to snatch a piece of the pie. The girl hadn’t seen how the Grand Duke interacted with her family, but wasn’t that how it always went on TV? The wealthier the family, the thinner the blood ties. The Grand Duke was likely just forced to put on a fierce front to protect her inheritance.

Yun Qi looked at the kneeling servant and was puzzled. The girl had gone from trembling to looking at her with… pity? She wasn’t seeing things, was she? In just a few minutes, this kneeling Omega had undergone such a massive shift?

“Did you hear what the Grand Duke said? If there is a next time, you won’t need to come back. You can leave along with your aunt.” Lin Chen spoke coldly, her gaze fixed on the food, not sparing a single glance for the kneeling servant.

“I’ll let you go this once as a prayer for my child’s blessing. Leave.” Seeing the girl didn’t move, Lin Chen added another sentence and continued eating.

The Honeycomb Corn was sweet. She had fallen in love with the taste the first time she came to the mansion as a child. Later, her mother had people try to replicate it, but it was never as good as the version here.

Lin Chen knew this young girl was brought in by an elder servant before Yun Qi’s “incident.” She hadn’t even worked there for two months and had been helping in the back kitchen. Whenever someone was added or removed from the household, the butler would tell her, treating her as the second mistress of the mansion.

Young, beautiful Omegas love to fantasize; she could understand that. But when the object of that fantasy was Yun Qi, she could not tolerate it. Perhaps the Alpha was confused by the girl’s shift and hadn’t guessed her thoughts, but as a fellow Omega, Lin Chen saw it clearly.

Back in school, she had heard classmates discussing Yun Qi: losing parents young, a violent temper, a beautiful face, and the status of a Grand Duke. These four combined were a perfect catalyst for an Omega’s “savior complex”—fantasizing that they are the “light” appearing in the other’s life, rescuing the Alpha from a hell of self-torture.

They even loved to add “melodrama” to Yun Qi’s backstory back then, like believing it was Yun Qi’s idea for the Old Duke and his wife to vacation in the forest. Therefore, after they died, Yun Qi chose to “lose her memories” out of guilt and pain, yet because of subconscious emotions, she had nightmares every night. Tormenting herself led to her becoming more irritable, and out of self-abandonment, she lingered among different Omegas and fooled around with friends.

Although Lin Chen hadn’t had much contact with the adult Yun Qi—or rather, was unilaterally rejected—based on the Yun Qi she knew as a child, she didn’t think the other was that fragile. She wouldn’t give up on herself and choose self-degradation because of those things.

Yun Qi looked at Lin Chen. This was the first time she had seen Lin Chen like this: indifferent, high and mighty—yet it unexpectedly made her heart race even more. She wanted to tear through that disguise and “bully” her until she cried, just like those few times before.

Seeing that her partner wasn’t angry about her interjecting—and was even staring at her with a trace of infatuation—Lin Chen felt her irritation toward the servant dissipate slightly.

The girl didn’t move. She remembered her aunt telling her that the Grand Duke didn’t like the Madam and to follow the Grand Duke’s orders in all things.

“Go on.” The Grand Duke was quite pleased with the servant giving Lin Chen the cold shoulder. She spoke to the servant in a mild, even somewhat gentle tone. Hearing this, the young girl left with a blushing face.

The moment she spoke, the girl left—a sharp, ironic contrast to the lack of reaction after Lin Chen had spoken. The Alpha burst into laughter before the girl even made it out the door, which gave the girl confidence in her actions. She felt she had done the right thing. The girl even felt the other servants had things backward; clearly, the Madam was the fierce one.

“Once I recover, kick her out along with whoever brought her in,” the Grand Duke said to the butler. She knew the household elders brought in new people and hadn’t thought to interfere before, but she didn’t expect someone to bring in one so stupid. The girl’s young, pretty face might be outstanding elsewhere, but before the Grand Duke, who was used to beauties, it looked “crude.”

She indeed didn’t like Lin Chen—she never intended to hide that fact—but she didn’t like others presumptuously guessing her thoughts and actions. Moreover, Lin Chen was carrying a child who might be an Alpha. Even if she didn’t like the child’s mother, her, Yun Qi’s, Alpha child was not someone a lowly servant could ignore.

“Yes.” When the girl ignored Lin Chen’s words, the butler’s expression had already shifted. A mistake by the servants was a mistake of her own in her mind, which made her feel ashamed before Yun Qi and Lin Chen.

‘A Scum Alpha can also be temperamental—so gentle to the young Omega just now, then turning around and telling the butler to kick her out. How scummy.’

[Scum Value +20.]

Hearing the satisfactory answer, Yun Qi stopped talking to the system.

“Remember to seal their mouths. I don’t want to hear any rumors about recent events after they leave,” the Grand Duke added.

“Yes.” Sealing mouths was what the butler was best at. One mistake was enough. If it happened again, she felt she should resign; even if the Grand Duke didn’t say it, she would have no face to stay.

“This is delicious,” the Omega said softly to her partner, pointing her chopsticks at a dish nearby.

“Can’t you pick it up yourself?” The Alpha looked at the Omega with disdain. So delicate! She had no intention of helping.

“Your daughter just told me she wants to eat it.”

The Alpha could only helplessly pick up food for her delicate partner. It wasn’t that she wanted to help; it was for the sake of her unborn daughter. Once the child was born, she wouldn’t care anymore.