Who Says the Director Is Frigid? (Lily ABO) - Chapter 1

The results of the annual JMA International Jewelry Design Competition were posted on the official website Friday morning. Xu Mengyan deliberately arrived at the company half an hour early, didn’t even touch the breakfast she’d bought, and immediately checked the site on her phone. She hadn’t expected a total rookie to snatch the championship, but no matter how many times she scrolled she couldn’t find her own name. Instead, among the works displayed by the organizers, the design that took third place looked extremely similar to hers.

She clicked in to check the data. The designer listed was her boss, Li Zhongguang. Instantly she was furious. She had entered the JMA under her private name in secret; she hadn’t even told her closest colleagues at the company. How the hell had he gotten hold of her design, only modified a few places, and submitted it as his own?

And what about hers? She had submitted a piece too. How could Li Zhongguang win a prize without the organizers thinking two similar works were suspicious?

Xu Mengyan’s Omega intuition told her something was off. She opened the final file she had submitted and discovered that the draft she had handed in that day had completely changed. The overall design was vulgar and crude, unmistakably Li Zhongguang’s usual tasteless style…

When the fuck had he swapped out her design drawings?!

Li Zhongguang walked in right at nine. He had already seen the results on the way to work. When he entered and saw Xu Mengyan glaring at him with murder in her eyes, he just raised an eyebrow, wore an “you can’t do shit about me” expression, turned, and headed for his office.

The moment the door closed, Xu Mengyan shoved it open again, beyond furious. Having her design stolen and the version she submitted turned into something unrecognizable already made her chest hurt with rage. She pointed at the man casually taking off his suit jacket and yelled:

“Director Li, what the fuck is this supposed to mean?! You stole my work and entered it in the competition! How did you swap the drawings I submitted?!”

Li Zhongguang would never tell her the truth. One night a month ago he had simply forgotten some important documents and come back to the office. He saw her asleep at her desk, got curious why she was working so late, and glanced at the computer. On the screen was a necklace design. He carefully clicked around for a better look, his hand slipped, and he opened a browser tab about the JMA competition. That was when he realized Xu Mengyan planned to enter too.

Right—he had also registered. The company had told him to. He had drawn a design, but no matter how he looked at it, it wasn’t as good as hers.

He immediately photographed several images from her computer with his phone, went home, and carefully refined that already near-perfect draft with his own “style.” He also specifically arranged for a trusted subordinate sitting next to Xu Mengyan to keep an eye on her. The moment she was about to email the finished file to the website, the subordinate was to notify him at once.

Two days before the deadline, the subordinate reported that Xu Mengyan seemed to have packaged the files and was ready to send them. Li Zhongguang immediately invented a client request for design changes, called her into his office, and deliberately talked for half an hour—long enough for the subordinate to swap the packaged files with the crude version he had thrown together.

Xu Mengyan had been a little careless herself. She thought she had checked everything multiple times and, having just prepared the submission, didn’t re-check the compressed archive before uploading.

In the end, Li Zhongguang’s vulgar finished piece only passed the first round and didn’t even touch an excellence award. And he still had the fucking nerve to sit as the company’s design director!

Li Zhongguang shamelessly pointed at her with a smile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What ‘took your work to the competition’? Oh, so you entered too? Aiya, your own design sucked so now you’re blaming me? According to company rules, entering an international competition requires reporting to a superior. You violated company regulations. I’ll be reporting this to the boss.”

The main reason he could sit as design director was his older sister—the company boss was his brother-in-law.

“You! Just wait until I get evidence. Otherwise we’ll see each other at the police station!” Xu Mengyan’s face was red with rage. Something felt stuck in her chest, making it hard to breathe. What hurt even more was that Li Zhongguang could still take third place with a butchered version of her design. If the original had been submitted, it might have fought for the championship.

After throwing out that threat, Xu Mengyan stormed out of Li Zhongguang’s office. People outside looked at her strangely as she left with red eyes. She didn’t leave the company—she went to the security department to request office surveillance footage from the past month. The security supervisor seemed deliberately obstructive, made her fill out a form, and said it needed higher approval.

Xu Mengyan left disappointed. She already knew she would never get the footage. Everyone in the company knew Li Zhongguang was the president’s wife’s younger brother and had status. The security supervisor had probably been bought off by him long ago.

She still didn’t give up. She ran to the IT department to ask if they could check whether her computer had been accessed. The whole company seemed to have been smoothed over by Li Zhongguang; the IT supervisor dismissed her with a single “impossible.”

After striking out at several departments, Xu Mengyan returned to her seat with red eyes and stared blankly. When she came back from lunch, the whole department was looking at her strangely. A colleague named Xiao Li who had a bit of a private friendship with her quietly messaged her on WeChat.

Xiao Li: “Quick, look at the company announcement!”

Her heart sank as if she already knew. Xu Mengyan opened the company homepage and read the notice. It criticized her for committing a serious work error. Fortunately it hadn’t damaged the company’s reputation. She was dismissed effective immediately. It even added a touch of “humanity,” saying she had made decent contributions and they would pay her severance according to labor law.

Being driven out by Li Zhongguang was something she had expected, but she hadn’t guessed he would be this ruthless—making her leave the same day. Clearly he was afraid she might eventually get evidence.

She swallowed the urge to cry, silently packed her personal belongings into a large bag under everyone’s eyes—nothing more than a water cup, a seat cushion, the few personal items she rarely brought to the office.

One big bag was enough. Xu Mengyan picked it up, didn’t wait for the remaining hours until quitting time, went to HR to return her work badge, and left.

Carrying a bag of stuff was inconvenient, so she went home first to drop it off. After putting everything away she sat silently in the living room hugging a pillow and watching a comedy variety show. When something funny came on she laughed out loud, but the laughter turned into tears. She cried herself to sleep without realizing it and woke up after dark.

It was already eight in the evening. She figured since she didn’t have to work tomorrow she might as well invite her sisters out for a drink. But when she messaged them they all already had plans. They could tell something seemed wrong and wanted to ask, but she brushed it off.

If her sisters were busy, she’d just go alone. As long as she didn’t drink too much it should be fine. She only wanted a little alcohol to ease the knot in her chest.

She chose a quiet bar she and her sisters had been to before, picked a corner table, and ordered some beer. Xu Mengyan’s looks weren’t bad—fresh and pretty. Because she had cried earlier she had taken off her makeup and, since none of her sisters were free, she couldn’t be bothered to reapply any. Right now she looked like a pure college student pretending to be an adult out drinking.

Her pure appearance attracted quite a few Alphas who came over to hit on her. She drove them all away with a few words. Two of the Alphas got a bit nasty when they were rejected, saying she was acting high and mighty, refusing the face people gave her, putting on airs while out playing. She ignored them and kept drinking.

Xu Mengyan had drunk quite a bit. The beer left a bitter taste in her mouth, so she ordered an iced cola from the waiter.

The bartender poured the iced cola and a server carried it over. On the way, the two Alphas from earlier used a trick to intercept the server—one pretended to ask him a question while the other quickly dripped a few drops of aphrodisiac into the iced cola.

When the cola arrived, Xu Mengyan downed more than half of it in one go. After a belch the bitterness in her mouth lessened. The distinctive cola flavor cleared some of the drunkenness. She sat for a while, then slowly, for no reason she could understand, the gland on the back of her neck began to burn. The suppressant patch she was wearing couldn’t stop the pine-scent pheromones from leaking out.

Shit… was her heat coming early?

Impossible. There should still be about nine days left!

She thought it was just the alcohol and finished the rest of the cola. Then she grabbed her bag, paid the bill, and planned to go to the restroom to pee and change her suppressant patch.

When she came out of the stall, Xu Mengyan was startled by two extra Alphas suddenly appearing. They were the same ones she had driven away earlier. This was the Omega restroom—why the fuck were they inside?

“What are you doing in here? This is the Omega restroom!” She stepped back warily, wanting to retreat into a stall. Just as she was about to turn, her legs went soft and her gland released an even thicker scent.

“Whoa~ big bro, her scent is so fragrant and nice. Fuck her faster later—she’s gonna be so slutty when you do her.”

The speaking Alpha was already impatient. He walked over, grabbed her, and immediately started groping her chest while licking her neck. “Mmm~ so fragrant~ Why don’t we fuck her here first? Just lock the door.”

“Don’t—what are you doing? Let go of me! I’ll scream! This is illegal! Raping an Omega can get your gland dug out as the maximum penalty!” Xu Mengyan felt sick to her stomach, but somehow her body had no strength, and her lower body was reacting—her crotch was already wet and sticky.

She quickly realized she had been drugged!

“Don’t rush, little bro. We can’t cause trouble in Brother Li’s place. Take her out the back door. We can fuck her to death in the car later.”

The subordinate Alpha agreed, but still couldn’t resist sticking his hand into Xu Mengyan’s pants and feeling her. When he found her soaking wet between the legs, he grabbed her hand and forced it toward his own crotch.

Xu Mengyan was losing strength fast. She struggled with everything she had, but the Alphas were bastards—they released their pheromones to stimulate her. Thinking back on everything that had happened today, she wondered how she could be this unlucky: first discovering her design had been stolen and still won a prize, then getting fired, and now being drugged and about to lose her virginity.

“Little bro, stop playing. Hurry up and help her walk.”

The two Alphas dragged the still-struggling Xu Mengyan away. She desperately grabbed the sink, but her consciousness was growing fuzzy as the aphrodisiac took effect. Soon her hands refused to obey and could no longer hold on.

They pretended to be her friends, one on each side supporting her as they left. Halfway there, Xu Mengyan still had a sliver of awareness. She saw a woman drinking alone at the bar and tried to ask for help. Using the last of her strength she broke free and lunged toward the counter, crashing straight into that person.

“Help… me…”

After saying those two words she completely lost consciousness, clinging to the woman and rubbing against her body. Under the influence of the drug she was extremely sensitive to Alpha pheromones. The faint plum-wine scent on the woman was very attractive to her.

“Sorry, sorry, she’s my friend—she’s just drunk.” The big-brother Alpha laughed politely and tried to pull Xu Mengyan back.

His hand almost reached her, but he only grabbed empty air.

The woman pulled Xu Mengyan into her arms, raised an eyebrow, and coldly glared at the Alpha. “Your friend? But she just begged me for help.” She lowered her head and sniffed the rich pine scent of the person in her arms. Heat instantly stirred below her belly. She squeezed her legs together to suppress the reaction that had been provoked. This was the first time an Omega’s pheromones had given her such a strong sexual urge.

She hadn’t planned on playing hero and getting involved in the kind of thing that happened often in bars, but the girl’s pheromones were too appealing. Plenty of Omegas had clung to her before; their scents at most made her a little hot. None of them had ever pulled a reaction out of the thing between her legs like this.

The Omega’s pheromones were unusually thick. She released a light Alpha pressure and stared at the two of them with icy eyes. “You drugged her? She’s in heat. According to the criminal law, giving an Omega aphrodisiac carries a maximum sentence of ten years.”

Xu Mengyan’s cheeks were flushed red. She mumbled that she was so hot and kept trying to pull her clothes off.

“Which eye of yours saw us drug her?! I already said she’s our friend. She’s drunk and doesn’t know what she’s saying!” the subordinate Alpha said urgently. The meat that was almost in their mouths couldn’t just slip away!

“Is that so? The owner of this place is my friend. I’ll call her right now and have her pull the surveillance for me. If you leave now I can choose not to pursue it. But if the footage proves you did something you shouldn’t have to this Omega, you can wash your asses clean and prepare for prison.”

For the sake of one Omega the two brothers decided it wasn’t worth gambling that the cameras hadn’t caught them slipping the drug into the cola. What if they had been recorded? Then they’d really be looking at ten years inside.

They left with sour faces, unwilling to give up, and went to another venue to find a genuinely drunk Omega they could take home and enjoy “legally.”

Unaware that the danger had passed, Xu Mengyan was burning with need. She forced her eyes open, trying to see the face of the person holding her, but everything was blurry. All she could tell was that it was a female Alpha with long hair who seemed quite good-looking.

She felt awful—worse than the days of her actual heat. After a whole day of blows her mind had completely collapsed. So many shitty things had happened one after another that she felt nothing could get worse. She steeled herself and clung to the woman without letting go.

“They’re gone. Let go already.” The woman frowned. The Omega’s pheromones were too seductive. The front of her loose casual pants was already tented—that thing had gotten hard for the first time and refused to behave.

“No… don’t… please… help me one more time… I’m really suffering… can you… mark me…”

The woman wasn’t the kind of Alpha who turned into a dog the moment she smelled something. She was hard, yes, but she had years of self-control. Even facing a heat-stricken Omega who matched her tastes, no matter how tempted she was, she still held back and pulled the girl away to keep some distance.

“Miss, do you know what you’re saying? You’re not trying to blackmail me, are you?” She had just returned to the country. Friends had warned her to be careful—there had been quite a few Omega blackmail incidents in domestic bars.

“No… help me! I can’t take it! Please!” Xu Mengyan felt another wave of wetness about to pour out between her legs. She squeezed her thighs together, twisted her waist, and clung to the woman again, rubbing her chest against her and kissing her without any restraint.

Soft flesh pressed against her. A wet, sweet little tongue invaded her mouth. Most importantly, the pheromones were too damn tempting. The woman couldn’t hold back any longer. She wrapped her arms around Xu Mengyan’s waist and kissed her back. The two of them made out heatedly in the bar for a while; when they finally separated a silver string of saliva still connected their lips.

The woman tilted Xu Mengyan’s face up, wiped her soft lips with a thumb, eyes full of hunger and desire. “Just don’t regret it when you wake up tomorrow.”

Satisfied by the kiss, Xu Mengyan gave a sweet smile, nestled into the woman’s shoulder, and hummed in agreement. The woman took it as consent that she wouldn’t regret it, paid for the drinks, and supported her to the nearest hotel.

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HELLO~ Long time no see~ Because the serious channel’s story dragged on too long, I finally have time to open a new meaty story over here~ Hope everyone still remembers this little tomato of yours~

As the synopsis said, this is an office story—superior and subordinate, the usual tropes, but the meaty version~ Hope you like it. Quite a few people seem to like NP, but this one is dual-clean 1V1. Maybe I’ll consider writing NP next time~

PS: Chapter 1 is setting up the backstory so it’s longer. I don’t want to be like some other authors and split it into two chapters just to screw readers (will saying this offend a lot of people??)~ Haha~ I’ll control the word count later.