Transmigrated as the Domineering Scumbag Alpha Forced into Marriage by a Delicate Subordinate (GL) - Chapter 4

Qin Jue: “?”

“What did you say? Say it again?” Qin Jue was in disbelief. All the deep-seated, old aches and sleepiness connected to her dream instantly vanished. She couldn’t understand how the System could make such a request at a time like this.

But her memories and pain were her own private possessions. She had no reason to demand that a System, whose nature was unknown, consider her feelings. The dominant CEO Qin, who commanded the business world, was now just a transmigrated worker.

Although Qin Jue could grudgingly understand, she absolutely could not accept this. What kind of absurd persona did the original owner have? Just because she was arguing with someone, she had to drag an unrelated person in to vent?

Unacceptable or not, beggars can’t be choosers. CEO Qin took a deep breath and gritted her teeth, continuing to play the role of a qualified, good-for-nothing rogue.

“Come over.” Qin Jue sent a succinct message to Tang Yun with a serious face.

In the guest room, the screen of Tang Yun’s phone, which lay by her pillow, suddenly lit up in the darkness. The white light illuminated half her face. Tang Yun was sleeping very restlessly in the Qin house and immediately woke up, seeing the message from Qin Jue pop up on the screen.

“Come over.”

Tang Yun glanced at the time at the top of the screen. It was already past midnight.

She subconsciously bit her lip. The meaning of these two words didn’t need any further explanation. So, the birthday banquet was just the beginning, and Qin Jue’s main event was actually happening at home?

Did it have to be at home? Qin Jue’s mother, sister, and even the family’s auntie were all present. If they found out…

Or was it that Qin Jue craved this kind of thrill?

Tang Yun really wanted to pretend she hadn’t seen it, but she couldn’t gauge Qin Jue’s temper. Tang Yun had never thought she would be associated with people of this class, especially in such a secretive relationship. She might already be standing on the edge of a cliff in her life, but what could she do when she desperately needed that money?

She had no choice.

Tang Yun got up to put on her clothes. Qin Jue suddenly sent a second message:

“Asleep?”

Before Tang Yun could figure out how to reply, Qin Jue suddenly called. She fumbled to press ‘reject’ before the phone could ring, subconsciously glancing toward the tightly shut bedroom door, then quickly replied: “Coming now.”

If the phone rang in the dead of night and woke someone up, Qin Jue certainly wouldn’t need to explain, but Tang Yun still couldn’t face that embarrassment.

Tang Yun put on the same shirt and suit pants she had worn back from the hotel, looking proper as if she were going to work overtime. She knew she was going to do something indecent, but at least this outfit gave her a sense of false security.

Quietly pushing open the door, Tang Yun quickly scanned the corridor using the faint light from her phone. No one was there, and she breathed a temporary sigh of relief.

Tang Yun walked lightly and slowly toward Qin Jue’s room, standing outside the door, her heart pounding with nervousness. Her index finger gently tapped the door, and the next second, the door was pulled open from the inside.

Qin Jue was wearing a bathrobe, with droplets of water clinging to the ends of her hair. A burst of warm steam rushed out. She gave Tang Yun a frivolous look up and down, said nothing, and didn’t let Tang Yun enter.

“Is that enough? If you don’t stop, it’s going below the neck,” Qin Jue silently asked the System.

The System could only grit its teeth and concede: “…Just use your own initiative.”

Qin Jue vaguely sensed a feeling of world-weariness in the System’s few words, but it didn’t matter; she didn’t care at all.

Tang Yun, at the door, watched Qin Jue suddenly smile, then turn and walk quickly into the room. Tang Yun hesitated for two seconds, closed the door, and followed, standing awkwardly in the center of the bedroom. Against the backdrop of the avant-garde art collection filling the original owner’s bedroom, she looked like another kind of performance art.

Restrained, normal, and completely out of place.

Qin Jue poured Tang Yun a glass of water and placed it on the coffee table in the outer sitting area, gesturing for her to sit down. The original owner had at least remembered that she was a CEO, and a corner of the room looked somewhat business-like. CEO Qin immediately chose this spot.

A long, long night. “Use your own initiative.” Qin Jue couldn’t think of anything to initiate, so she acted according to the habits she had developed over many years.

“How is your study of the materials I sent you coming along? Discuss your thoughts,” Qin Jue said to Tang Yun.

Tang Yun was stunned. What materials? Was Qin Jue serious? Did she really intend for her to look at that stuff?

Or was “looking at materials and discussing ideas” part of her play?

Tang Yun felt she was finally catching up to Qin Jue’s thought process and was extremely perplexed by this inexplicable ritualistic behavior.

Was she going to punish her disobedient employee next?

“I’m sorry, CEO Qin, I haven’t had a chance to read them yet, so I have no thoughts,” Tang Yun said expressionlessly.

She knew that a true professional wouldn’t speak so directly, but Tang Yun didn’t want to play the boss-subordinate game with Qin Jue. She knew what she was selling. She was nervous and afraid at first, but Qin Jue’s repeated teasing hadn’t earned her any goodwill; instead, it caused the irritation of a guillotine blade hovering overhead but never dropping.

She couldn’t escape it anyway, so better to get straight to the point and get it over with.

“Just tell me what you want me to do,” Tang Yun said.

Qin Jue smiled. It had been a long time since she had seen an employee so justifiably done with everything. In her world, employees who reported directly to CEO Qin were all familiar with her personality: tasks personally assigned by CEO Qin must be completed as quickly as possible.

“Then you read them now. Read them carefully. I want to see a finished proposal by tomorrow night,” CEO Qin said.

Tang Yun: “?”

Qin Jue personally set up the computer for Tang Yun, opened the document, patted Tang Yun’s shoulder, and left the bewildered Tang Yun behind. She then went to bed in a much better mood.

CEO Qin felt perfectly justified. She was paying Tang Yun such a high salary; having her pull a few all-nighters was perfectly reasonable, right?

Tang Yun watched Qin Jue’s actions, which flowed smoothly and naturally. It wasn’t until Qin Jue’s back disappeared under the covers and she was the only one left standing in the vast bedroom that she vaguely realized that this situation seemed a little off?

Qin Jue’s breathing was steady and deep. Tang Yun couldn’t fully assess the situation. She blinked, sat down, and stared blankly at the computer.

Did Qin Jue seriously intend for her to write a proposal?

Tang Yun sat there for a while. The adrenaline rush from her arrival subsided, and the chill of the autumn night penetrated her thin shirt. She couldn’t help but shiver.

Should I just go back?

The thought barely surfaced before Tang Yun quickly dismissed it. Qin Jue had explicitly stated that she wanted to see a finished proposal by tomorrow night. Her expression didn’t seem like a joke. Tang Yun truly couldn’t figure out Qin Jue, but this was a clear and understandable requirement. If she didn’t complete it, she didn’t know what the punishment might be…

It’s just writing something, she could write!

Tang Yun psyched herself up, picked up the water cup beside her, and gulped it down, intending to get started. The hot water immediately warmed her stomach. Halfway through flipping through the material outline, Tang Yun suddenly remembered: Qin Jue had poured this water for her.

It was hot water…

As if she knew Tang Yun would be cold…

No, she must be overthinking it. There was no need to try to romanticize Qin Jue’s actions.

Tang Yun shook her head, attributing this momentary, inexplicable thought to being too sleepy and having a foggy mind. People of Qin Jue’s class were naturally full of bad intentions. She couldn’t and shouldn’t try to guess them. Just do what she was told and be done with it.

Tang Yun narrowed her eyes to examine the material closely. This seemed to be a project description for Xun Dao (Seeking the Dao), a Xianxia (immortal hero) cultivation mobile game developed by Qin Jue’s company, Changfeng Technology. The project was in the mid-to-late stages, user stickiness was declining, the core gameplay was overly repetitive, and monthly revenue growth was sluggish. The new season needed to develop new growth points to entice players to spend heavily.

When Xun Dao was first released for open beta, almost all of Tang Yun’s roommates downloaded it. She also joined in the fun. She remembered that the initial four character designs released were very good-looking, but the gameplay was mediocre: just grinding materials, cultivation, running maps to fight monsters, and then drawing new characters. Tang Yun quickly grew tired of it, and later, when she realized it was impossible to advance without spending money, she simply uninstalled it.

The Tang Yun of that time could never have imagined that she would now be sitting in the CEO of Changfeng Technology’s bedroom, writing a proposal for Xun Dao. Suddenly jumping out of the consumer’s perspective, the materials before her opened a new world. For the first time, she realized that behind the beautiful facade presented to players, at the top of lines of code commands, was such a raw and direct goal.

To use all means necessary to coax money out of the players’ pockets.

In fact, it was no wonder Tang Yun was slow to catch on. She was quite far removed from the target demographic for Xun Dao. Apart from many years ago when she would spend an entire afternoon playing Famicom in front of the TV at home, she later became busy with her studies. Then, when her family experienced a sudden crisis, she became busy earning money day and night. The immense pressure of life fell on her young shoulders. She had long kept her distance from hobbies like gaming that consumed both time and money.

Tang Yun was now like a pilgrim entering a demon’s lair. The various internet jargon in the materials made her dizzy. Although Tang Yun was graduating in a few months, she had never had the chance to intern at a proper company. Terminology, formatting, and conventions all had to be learned from scratch, and Qin Jue had given her an extremely tight deadline of less than a day.

Tang Yun had always been a good student. At this moment, she felt like she was back in the library, burning the midnight oil with instant coffee. Aside from the project at hand, she didn’t have to consider anything else. Thinking back now, that pure, single-minded focus toward a goal seemed as distant as the last century.

Qin Jue finally had a good night’s sleep. Although the first half of the night was rough, the second half was peaceful and dreamless. After several hours of rest, she woke up in a great mood.

Sunlight streamed through the gap in the curtains. She confidently pulled the curtains wide, enjoying the moment the sunlight poured in. After washing up and stepping out of the bathroom, she suddenly saw Tang Yun, who was still sitting in front of the computer, barely having moved. She was genuinely surprised.

“You were here all night?” Qin Jue asked.

Tang Yun looked up at Qin Jue, sporting two obvious dark circles under her eyes.

Tsk, this kid. So earnest.

“So hardworking. I didn’t say you couldn’t sleep, though,” Qin Jue smiled, estimating that in Tang Yun’s heart, she was equivalent to a ruthless exploiter who wakes people up at midnight for work.

“Go back and freshen up. It’s time for breakfast,” Qin Jue reminded her.

As a boss, she was always pleasant after her subordinates pulled all-nighters. Of course, CEO Qin was always generous with overtime pay and various subsidies, provided they delivered the results she wanted.

“Is it finished?” Qin Jue asked while combing her hair.

Tang Yun: “…Almost.”

Qin Jue: “Good. Send it to me after you’ve checked it over.”

There were no spare toiletries in Qin Jue’s bedroom, and she didn’t have the habit of sharing these things with others. After a few perfunctory words that barely counted as human communication, she was about to send Tang Yun back to her guest room, but she overlooked the fact that this was the old family house, and there were more than just the two of them here.

In the corridor, Qin Yao watched with wide eyes as Tang Yun emerged from Qin Jue’s room. She was wearing yesterday’s clothes, and her face was etched with fatigue. It was clear she had been exhausted all night.