I Heard I’m the Scumbag Alpha of a Top-Tier Leading Actress? - Chapter 15

Gu Xin actually had no artistic cells to speak of. She did not love listening to music, did not love watching movies, and as for going to watch a stage play, that was even further from her interests.

Gu Xin’s greatest imagining of theater was a group of exquisitely dressed people sitting beneath the stage, pouring one hundred percent of their attention into experiencing an immersive performance where they handed control of their emotions over to others. If the actors wanted them to laugh, they laughed. If the actors wanted them to cry, they cried.

Regrettably, Gu Xin did not belong to the group of people who could get these things. Perhaps she had been born missing some ability to appreciate art. Watching this sort of “high art” only made her sleepy.

But Yan Shuangshuang was an actress. Her talent was so high that she could empathize at any time and anywhere, becoming another person entirely. Her profession was also a part of what made up “art.”

Gu Xin, an insulator against art, and Yan Shuangshuang, overflowing with inspiration—two leaves from completely different worlds. How exactly had they fitted together into one shape and walked into marriage?

Professor Ma’s words interrupted Gu Xin’s absent-minded thoughts. She said warmly, “Our institute doesn’t get weekends off. We only have Saturdays off.”

The hidden meaning of that sentence: it was paid, so she could play around as she pleased.

Gu Xin immediately returned to herself and said decisively, “I’ll go.”

If you were not a salary thief, you were unworthy of being a working stiff!

After Professor Ma left, the male colleague at the workstation next to hers poked his head over. “Newbie? Director Ma invited you to watch a play? I’m so envious. Cherish this chance properly. It might be your only time getting paid to have fun. In the future, you won’t have time to go even if you want to.”

Gu Xin asked curiously, “Have all of you gone before?”

“We’ve all had our turn.” A passing female colleague pushed up her glasses indifferently. She stood beside Gu Xin and looked her over from above. “I heard you’re very capable. Director Ma wants to give you the newest project.”

Gu Xin thought, Why didn’t I know there was a new project? But outwardly, she said calmly, “Everything will depend on Director Ma’s opinion. I’m merely assisting.”

Their gazes met. Gu Xin did not know what she had done to offend this female colleague, but the woman gave a noble, cold, and glamorous snort before turning and leaving.

The male colleague leaned over to comfort Gu Xin. “She’s the famous grind king of our institute, the kind who treats the research institute like her home. She is pretty capable and has always wanted to run a project independently, but Director Ma has never approved it. Now, the moment you arrive, rumors start saying the opportunity will be given to you instead. Of course she can’t swallow that. Although her personality is a little intense, she’s not a bad person. Don’t take it personally.”

Gu Xin said blankly, “But I really don’t know anything about it.”

The male colleague froze. “You really didn’t receive a new project?”

“Director Ma didn’t mention a single word of it.”

The male colleague hissed and rubbed his thick hair. Gu Xin could practically see the question marks materializing all over his forehead.

“Oh. Then you should get used to the working environment first and wait for Director Ma’s arrangements.”

Immediately afterward, Gu Xin heard him muttering, “Impossible,” “Then why did she recruit someone?” and “What is Yama Ma trying to do this time?” With a slide of his feet, his office chair drifted back.

Gu Xin did not show any curiosity toward her colleague’s strangeness. Without thinking about it for even one extra second, she simply followed the procedure and logged into her account on the computer. But no one assigned her any work, and there were no materials to read either, so she had no choice but to stare blankly at the computer.

To Gu Xin, her heart had actually always been very small. So small that there were only two things she cared about: herself and science. There were far too many things she did not care about. Many things that seemed unbearable to others felt perfectly fine to her instead. This made her seem impervious to persuasion while also making her look good-tempered; even when someone provoked her to her face, she would not get angry.

Unlike those arrogant geniuses in the stereotypical impression, Gu Xin’s abilities and personality had received widespread praise.

Although X City Communications Research Institute was not as famous as the Capital Communications Research Institute, it was still not a place any random cat or dog could enter. Gu Xin did not know how much effort Professor Ma and Professor An had put in behind the scenes to help someone with a “stain” like her pass.

This was Gu Xin’s final chance, but she herself did not know it.

A logistics department worker pushed a small cart over. When passing by Gu Xin’s workstation, they handed her a large box of inhibitors and reminded her to inject them regularly according to her cycle.

Inhibitors were generally divided into three types: long-acting, short-acting, and special inhibitors. One long-acting shot could last half a month, while a short-acting one lasted only three days. Special inhibitors were used for Alphas in their susceptible period or Omegas in heat and could greatly ease the symptoms.

When Gu Xin had been in the hospital before, she had used a short-acting one. The ones she had later bought herself were also short-acting, and there was still a pile of them at home.

The logistics department was very thoughtful and had prepared all three types for Gu Xin.

The cart only stopped for a short while, but the male colleague, born with a love for gossip, instantly leaned over.

“Whoa…” The moment he saw the box packed full of inhibitors, the male colleague was shocked. In disbelief, he said, “You’re actually an Omega?”

Only now did Gu Xin finally take a proper look at the name tag of the male colleague—Huo Yuanfei. His name sounded quite nice, but unfortunately, his perception was not very sharp.

Gu Xin did not answer directly. Instead, she asked, “Are you a Beta?”

The moment Huo Yuanfei heard that, he slapped the desk emotionally, spittle flying everywhere. “Nonsense! Our entire research institute is made up of Betas! What kind of background do you have that Director Ma actually made an exception and admitted an Omega?!”

His voice unconsciously rose, drawing the attention of everyone around them. Although no one crowded over, they all raised their ears in equal shock. For a moment, the entire area fell quiet.

In truth, within the scientific community, there was an unwritten rule—all research institutes tended to admit relatively stable Betas rather than A/O sexes troubled by susceptible periods or heats. Especially Alphas. Once their hormones went to their heads and they became irritable, what they destroyed might be several years of everyone’s hard work. Some experts had even privately made extreme remarks that Omegas still had a sliver of possibility, but Alphas had absolutely no ability to do scientific research, because they could barely control themselves.

Amid the silence, only Gu Xin’s slightly uncertain voice could be heard.

“Maybe because I’m amazing?”

…Honestly, a little punchable.

Huo Yuanfei spoke extremely quickly. “What exactly did you do before? How many papers have you published? What journals? What was the impact factor? If someone as amazing as you really existed, there’s no way I wouldn’t have heard of you!”

To this, Gu Xin’s answers were only: she did not know, did not know, and still did not know.

First, she really did not know. Second, her achievements were still classified even now, so she could not speak about them casually.

This attitude clearly made it very difficult for everyone to accept. Huo Yuanfei directly went crazy and became everyone’s mouthpiece. “Do you not know, or are you not allowed to say?!”

Kindly, Gu Xin gave the sincerest answer. “I both don’t know and can’t say.”

Not only was it punchable, it also carried a wicked sense of humor. This answer made everyone unable to resist sucking in oxygen.jpg, but Gu Xin swore that subjectively, she truly had no intention of creating this kind of show effect.

Huo Yuanfei sat back down, his expression peaceful.

At that moment, the female colleague who had previously shown Gu Xin attitude walked over. She smiled mockingly at Huo Yuanfei. “X City’s Little Smart? You don’t know anything, so how exactly are you the Little Smart?”

Gu Xin focused and saw that the female colleague was named Hua Ran. Her appearance was bright and elegant too, simply a perfect match for her name. But at this moment, every word she spoke stabbed straight into the heart, comparable to the edge of a blade. She was simply aiming to anger someone to death.

“You!” The first person almost angered to death was indeed Huo Yuanfei. Furious and aggrieved, he could not help retorting, “If you’re so capable, then you know?!”

“Gu Xin. Came from Capital Communications. Previously worked on a project with An Pingyu. Now she’s crossed both research topics and disciplines.” Hua Ran’s fluent words were simply the best possible mockery. She paused, then shifted her firepower and looked at Gu Xin provocatively. “She does have some skills, but the research you submitted was far too immature. It’s a direction our group already passed through a year ago. I didn’t expect there would still be people working on it. Scientific research isn’t playing house. I don’t know why you came to our institute or why you casually changed directions, but if this is all you’re capable of, I advise you to pack up and go home early. We have no interest in playing games with you.”

Her words were very harsh, but since they were not aimed at Huo Yuanfei, his attention was obviously still on the previous topic. He clamored, “Oh, I see. Do you two have some private connection? You even know this? I won’t accept it, I won’t accept it! Hua Ran, you cheated!”

Yet Gu Xin, who was directly facing the hostility, remained calm. She even had the leisure to put the inhibitors into her drawer, then looked up with a smile. “Whether it’s a game or not, we’ll know later. Saying anything now is meaningless.”

“Heh. Then I’ll wait and see. Don’t just talk empty words.” Hua Ran crossed her arms and stared directly at Gu Xin with an icy, mocking expression, while Gu Xin also smiled and refused to move her gaze away. Between the two of them, it seemed as if terrifying lightning and thunder were gathering, waiting only for one spark to explode instantly.

Under this extreme low pressure, only one person still could not read the room and persistently asked, “So how exactly did you know? Did you meet her when you went to the capital for an exchange before? Or did you get to know her at some conference? Hua Ran, Hua Ran, stop talking about other things first and tell me.”

Hua Ran finally could not help rolling her eyes. She looked at Huo Yuanfei with a smile that did not reach her eyes. “If your brain remembered even the slightest thing, you would know that I was the one screening résumés for this interview.”

Huo Yuanfei looked as if he had been struck by lightning and said in shock, “It was that simple?!”

“Heh.” Hua Ran’s standard mocking laugh. In just a few short minutes, Gu Xin had already heard it several times.

Huo Yuanfei received the answer, but lost his color. Annoyed, he smacked his own head and finally remembered that a few days ago, Director Ma had been pulling people into the group chat to serve as labor. Everyone had held back and said nothing. Only Hua Ran, who was usually the most proactive, had unfortunately been chosen. At the time, he had even privately messaged to laugh at her. He had not expected that today, he himself would become the clown.

“Oh, right.” Before leaving, Hua Ran remembered something and pretentiously paced over in front of Huo Yuanfei. “You also made a huge mistake. Want to know what it is?”

“What?” Huo Yuanfei looked up warily. “If it’s about the project, I temporarily don’t want to hear it. Don’t speak yet!”

Hua Ran turned a deaf ear. “The data from a few days ago was recorded incorrectly, because the instrument you used for the experiment that day happened to be broken. It was just that no one reported it for repairs. It was fixed today, so remember to redo it.”

“Ah?! Why didn’t you say so earlier!”

“Director Ma wants you to rewrite the report for her later. The previous one wasn’t clear enough.”

“How much clearer does it need to be?!”

“Also.”

“How is there more?! Can’t you say everything at once next time?! Being so slow and hesitant is disgusting!”

Hua Ran said, “The person beside you received inhibitors, but she isn’t an Omega. Guess what her sex is?”

Gu Xin had not expected the final sentence to involve her too, so she could only innocently spread her hands at Huo Yuanfei when he turned back in shock, indicating that she herself was also very surprised.

“What are you surprised about?!” Huo Yuanfei roared.

Gu Xin calmly gazed into the distance. “Maybe I’m surprised that my life is always so full of surprises.”

After all, subjectively speaking, she really did not want to create this kind of show effect.