After Transmigrating Into A Scum Alpha, I Fell In Love With Her Wife - Chapter 5

Shen Li sat in the celebrity van, rubbing her slightly aching gland with a somewhat unsettled heart.

Sheng Xing’s heat had come on fiercely. She had spent almost the entire night soothing her.

Her gland and pheromones seemed to have received only one command.

Want.

Still want.

She had originally planned to leave Sheng Xing painlessly and as quickly as possible. In the end, not only had she failed to leave, she had temporarily marked her instead.

The gardenia scent all over her body naturally could not escape Xia Ran’s nose. Under Xia Ran’s suspicious gaze, Shen Li could only curl her lips in an ambiguous smile.

Within these two weeks, she did not plan to reveal the news that she and Sheng Xing were getting divorced.

The car soon arrived at the hospital. Xia Ran naturally got out with her, but Shen Li stopped her.

Following the directions, she found the pheromone department and, with practiced ease, got a prescription for three months’ worth of blockers.

For an S+ Alpha, when rut arrived, it was no easier to endure than an Omega’s heat.

Like a trapped beast unable to control its desires, wandering along the edge of making mistakes and hurting others.

Even more painful was the temptation. Even knowing clearly that it was pheromones at work, one could only watch helplessly as they fell.

There were no small number of celebrities in the entertainment industry who had ruined their reputations because of this.

At sixteen, half a year after Shen Li first entered the industry, she had personally seen a senior actor who had taken to her at first sight and treated her like a final disciple get set up. Overnight, intimate videos covered the internet.

By the time Shen Li and the others arrived, only a cold gust of wind remained on the twenty-fourth-floor rooftop.

From that day on, she had used blockers every month.

Shen Li soon got back into the car. Xia Ran saw nothing unusual in her expression and finally relaxed. Then, frowning, she took out a tablet and handed it to Shen Li.

“A media outlet you offended before is going to expose the fact that you don’t memorize lines and only say numbers.”

Shen Li took the tablet. The news headline exaggeratedly read: “Top-Tier Celebrity Acts Like a Diva, Miss Numbers with Sky-High Paycheck, See You Next Week.”

The attached image was a sultry black silhouette, with an alluring figure and highly recognizable curls.

They were only short of writing her name outright.

Shen Li tapped open the video. It was a candid shot that was not very blurry. The actress acting opposite her was full of emotion and expression, while beneath Shen Li’s dull, empty, beautiful face, her mouth only produced string after string of cold numbers.

Shen Li lazily closed the video.

So now she was a top-tier celebrity.

“Money can be negotiated, but it won’t be a small amount. After all, the other side clearly came with other motives from the start,” Xia Ran analyzed.

Shen Li looked at the comments beneath that silhouette. The top few were all naming her.

Under every comment, people were adding fuel to the fire and filling in her “evil deeds.”

[This eighteenth-line washed-up nobody dares call herself top-tier?]

[Staff member here. This one used pheromones to bully a makeup artist before because she wasn’t satisfied with the styling.]

[Her acting being bad is common knowledge, right? What’s so surprising about her being Miss Numbers?]

[What kind of logic is that from upstairs? Just because it’s dog crap, we don’t have to complain that it stinks?]

[Exactly, isn’t saying lines the most basic thing for an actor?? This counts as fraud and she needs to be blacklisted, right? Aren’t the audience the ones paying for those sky-high salaries?]

[Going off topic… but I actually kind of want to see xl’s god-tier face saying numbers…]

[She latched onto a rich backer and bought her way into the production. You should be grateful she’s willing to act for you people at all. How dare you nitpick?]

[What kind of capital is powerful enough to gag everyone like this? Who is it?]

[The Sheng family.]

[…Sorry for intruding into the royal court.]

Shen Li closed the tablet, thoroughly uninterested.

The insults had no creativity at all.

“At this point, is there even any need to silence them?”

Xia Ran agreed with her thinking and nodded.

“I think so too. After all, we can’t rely on sky-high PR fees to take down trending searches every time.”

“I reached out to an ongoing celebrity voice-acting show. It’s recorded broadcast. You can go as a one-episode flying guest, and the airing time would fall right after the exposé. It can relatively clean up your reputation in terms of line delivery.”

Shen Li could not help laughing.

“A professional voice-acting show. Are you sure that’s cleaning me up and not hanging me out to dry?”

Xia Ran frowned. Her brows seemed to have developed two faint vertical lines from being furrowed for so long.

“You graduated from a professional acting program, and your vocal conditions are good enough. You only need to perform normally.”

“The show has professional audio tuning. Every line will be carefully polished. They’ll also do their best to find someone with a similar voice to yours for supplementary recording, mixing real and fake together. The effect won’t be bad.”

The original owner’s voice quality was indeed extremely good.

Shen Li had noticed it on the first day when she was saying numbers.

Her voice was clean and clear, her breath steady and long. Her articulation was melodious and flowing. Even without deliberately stirring emotion, her voice naturally carried a gentle rhythm, pleasant to hear and full of texture.

With even a little emotion or rhythm added, her speech had the liveliness of singing.

If it had to be summarized with a popular vocal type, it would probably count as a “young mature” voice.

In her previous life, Shen Li had suffered precisely because her voice was not pleasant to hear. The reason she had been slow to win her final Best Actress award was also because the nominated work had used dubbing.

Now that she had been reborn into another life, even this final regret had been made up for.

“I’m not recording it,” Shen Li said lightly.

?

Xia Ran gave her a questioning look.

Shen Li looked at her.

“Having good line skills doesn’t mean I didn’t say numbers. Having ability but no attitude—this kind of whitewashing is effort with little reward.”

Xia Ran drew in a breath.

“I know this method isn’t the most effective. But having ability with no attitude is still better than having nothing, right? The internet is becoming more and more transparent. Miss Numbers is only the trigger. Once this spreads, it’ll be very hard for you to get acting work.”

“Then I won’t take any.”

Shen Li said it lightly, as if it were nothing. Xia Ran clearly had not yet fully accepted the fact that Shen Li wanted to lie flat.

“If an actor doesn’t act, what will she do?”

“Travel? Open a shop? Become a writer and write memoirs? Sell secondhand luxury goods? That actually sounds pretty interesting.”

After Shen Li finished speaking, Xia Ran fell silent. Then she quickly rummaged through her bag and pulled out a handful of what looked like health supplements, unscrewed the large water bottle she carried with her, and poured them all into her mouth in one go.

She held her chest and recovered for quite a while. Once her breathing smoothed out a little, she said,

“Shen Li.”

“Not every time you get into trouble and get dragged online can you just give up and rely on President Sheng to spend money cleaning up your mess. Are you expecting her to clean up after you for the rest of your life?”

“It won’t be that long,” Shen Li quipped offhandedly.

“…”

Xia Ran turned to look at Shen Li. Even her wide-framed glasses could not hide the disappointment in her eyes.

“From not going to set early, to not preparing for interviews, then to not attending script readings, then to not memorizing your lines properly, and now to today’s Miss Numbers—you… why did you become like this, step by step?”

Shen Li felt Xia Ran’s brows furrow deeper and deeper, her voice shake more and more, her eyes grow wetter and wetter. When Xia Ran lowered her head, a tear actually fell.

“…”

Shen Li was most unable to deal with girls crying. She frowned slightly, hurriedly pulled out a few tissues, and handed them to Xia Ran. Even her sitting posture grew a little more restrained.

In the original book, Xia Ran was the person closest to Shen Li, part of the “protagonist group” the author had given her.

The reason she could choose Shen Li over her friendship with Sheng Xing was only because that was how the original book had been set up.

As a paper person, her task was merely to push Shen Li along her plotline.

No soul, no choice.

Shen Li pulled out two more tissues and handed them over, her eyes turning toward the window as she took a step back.

“I’ll think about this matter again. Maybe there are other opportunities or methods.”

Xia Ran nodded, quickly wiped away her tears, and recovered the professionalism of a manager.

“Rest well these next two days. The day after tomorrow is your final scene. The driver will pick you up downstairs at five in the morning.”

“I’m not staying at home lately. Help me book a hotel near the set. Also send over a copy of the script for the final scene.”

“…”

Xia Ran’s expression was very complicated. After a brief internal struggle, she lowered her head and refused.

“I won’t book it.”

“You… still smell like gardenias.”

Shen Li thought through the logic of that sentence. Thinking of the photos Sheng Xing had thrown out, Xia Ran probably believed she was going to a hotel with someone.

“Then book me a hotel suite closest to my home. Is that fine?”

Xia Ran’s eyes widened.

“Even more not fine!”

“Don’t overthink it. It’s to use together with President Sheng.”

Xia Ran coughed lightly and cleared her throat.

“Then okay.”

Her phone had not rung for two days. It seemed Sheng Xing’s physical condition had not gotten that bad.

Perhaps in this world, there really was some soothing medication more effective than Alpha pheromones.

Shen Li had also directly injected blockers these past few days.

Eliminating every possible chance of losing control or becoming sensitive.

This was also the first time in both lifetimes that she had marked an Omega.

She did not know if it was because of the temporary mark, but Sheng Xing’s cool and beautiful face, the scene from that night, and that scent frequently invaded her mind—along with the soft kisses Shen Li had left using this body.

It was her first kiss.

For the remaining time, she still went through the script from beginning to end.

This was a very simple modern yuri idol drama. It told the story of a couple from university who broke up, then reunited, with one of them becoming the other’s direct superior.

Shen Li played the pursuer role, while the actress acting opposite her played her CEO boss.

Filming usually did not follow the chronological order of the script’s plot, so although this was the final scene, what they had to film was the first scene where the former lovers reunited five years after breaking up.

Without a doubt, this increased the difficulty of the acting.

It was past seven when Shen Li arrived on set. Following the on-site assistant, she went directly up to the sixty-sixth floor.

The production company for this drama likely had good connections to be able to borrow a completed office building of this scale in City A.

The preview storm over “Miss Numbers” had clearly already affected her. As Shen Li walked all the way toward the dressing room, the expressions of several actors and more important set assistants were already quite colorful.

Shen Li nodded to a supporting actor as she passed and vaguely heard someone from somewhere mutter, “Miss Numbers.”

The entertainment industry was never short of people kicking someone while they were down.

Even more so when it was a vase who had bought her way into the production and brought everything on herself.

Even if the fall did not kill her, watching her end up battered and bruised was spectacle enough.

Today’s scene was also “a good show” many people had been looking forward to.

If the Miss Numbers storm alone was already like this, Shen Li did not dare imagine how public opinion would drown her once news of her divorce from Sheng Xing was officially announced a few weeks later.

Quit the industry to stay safe.

After finishing hair and makeup, Shen Li walked out of the dressing room.

Today, she was playing a pure, inexperienced rookie who had just entered the workplace. She wore fitted light-blue jeans and a simple white shirt on top, with an employee badge hanging at her chest.

Her red waves had been replaced with a black high ponytail wig, and the pure makeup made everyone’s eyes light up.

Shen Li was a classic rich-featured beauty, bold, bright, and radiant. Her usual makeup looks rarely had such a pure and understated style.

Under everyone’s gaze, she walked to one side and quietly watched the lighting stand-in test the light.

In the past, she had always been the kind of person who had to be invited out again and again. Today, arriving so early instead made everyone somewhat unused to it.

The assistant director personally came over to exchange pleasantries.

“Teacher Shen, testing the lighting here will still take some time. Why don’t you go back to the lounge and wait first?”

Shen Li shook her head.

“It’s fine. I’ll watch the blocking first.”

There was some surprise in the assistant director’s eyes, and then he politely said,

“Alright, alright. Then please watch first.”

Shen Li looked at the staff’s arrangement: lighting, sound, blocking. Following their logic, she first sketched out in her mind the image that would be filmed later.

About half an hour later, everything was finally set up.

The female lead acting opposite her appeared, dressed in a high-end office-lady suit, styled as a CEO.

She nodded to greet Shen Li, polite but distant.

As the two of them walked toward the cameras together, the assistant director suddenly ran over and softly said beside Shen Li’s ear,

“Teacher Shen, Teacher Chu’s side spoke with us today and said she hopes that when you say numbers, you can say them a little more slowly so it’s easier for her to pick up her lines.”

“Today’s scene really is difficult. Thank you for your hard work, Teacher Shen.”

Shen Li smiled.

“Got it.”

All departments took their positions. The slate clapped.

The newly arrived female CEO led a group of people forward, stepping in high heels as she gave instructions about the meeting arrangements, her aura fully imposing.

At a corner, a reckless, graceful figure suddenly appeared and unexpectedly crashed right into the female CEO.

The documents in the young employee’s arms scattered all over the floor. She did not dare raise her head at all, bowing while quickly lowering herself to pick them up.

The assistant behind the CEO was just about to say something, but the CEO stopped her with a gesture.

Blushing, Shen Li picked up all the documents, her high ponytail swaying back and forth behind her.

She lifted her head and met the female CEO’s eyes.

All the cameras focused on the two of them, recording this most important moment from every angle.

Behind the monitor, the director stared closely at Shen Li’s expression.

He saw her face lightly redden, the brief panic in her eyes silently turning into shock, disbelief, and a trace of hidden joy at the bottom of her gaze when she clearly saw the person before her.

Looking at that gaze, the director also suddenly froze. He immediately signaled for the camera to move a little closer to Shen Li’s face.

“I’m guessing you’re about to say ‘sorry’ again, aren’t you?”

The female CEO spoke her line.

Shen Li looked into her eyes, the joy in her own gaze gradually deepening. She drew in a shallow breath, and the corners of her pale-red lips lifted slightly, but she did not dare move too much. They soon fell again. As her beautiful eyes flickered away, it was as though the complicated longing of five years had flashed through them.

Shen Li sniffed lightly. She took half a step forward, just as the sunlight happened to fall across her sharp brow bones and clear eyes.

The shift of light and shadow from dark to bright was like the change in Shen Li’s heart over those few seconds.

She opened her mouth, her voice very soft and very captivating.

“Can I say… long time no see?”