Chapter 1: I didn’t mean to [Volume1: Silent, Inferior Alpha]

[Prompt: You are poor and ugly, a withdrawn, inferior Alpha.
Your wife is a stunningly beautiful Beta.
You always take smug pride in having married a gentle, considerate good wife, unaware that your wife despises you from the bottom of her heart and has long since formed substantive relationships with your friends, your boss, and even your neighbors.
Later, you wake up in the middle of the night and discover her affairs.
Yet you can’t bear to lose your gentle, considerate wife, so you forcibly endure it, placing one green hat after another upon your own head.]¹

[ Ding! The storyline has begun. Please complete the plot, Performer. ]

[ Main Quest: Obtain Green Hat Value: (0/100) ]

[ Attention! Honored Performer, please do not let anyone discover that you are an outsider~ ]

Liu Qiu tapped repeatedly, but the blue-glowing task panel in front of her showed no changes at all.
With a thought, the task panel vanished from her sight.

[System, am I really the female lead?]

System 203 replied firmly: [Of course!
The host’s actions are unrestricted.
You can complete the tasks however you like—just try not to be discovered.]
[Also, Host, you’re about to be late for work.]

In an instant, Liu Qiu’s heart sank.
She had transmigrated right as the original body was on the way to work, yet she needed time to sort through this mess of memories and tasks.
As a result, she had stood in place for a long time, and without realizing it, it was already nearly nine o’clock.

In the memories, the original owner was an honest, rule-abiding office worker who had never been late.
If she was late the very first day after arriving, wouldn’t that quickly expose something abnormal?

Liu Qiu pushed up the black-rimmed glasses hanging on her face.
She had tried taking them off before—turns out the original owner’s nearsightedness was real, at least five hundred degrees.
Without the glasses, everything was a blur.

Liu Qiu took a deep breath and started running.
During morning rush hour, who would dare take a taxi!

[System! What kind of female lead has to run to work!]

The system replied righteously: [Mine!]

A flood of speechless frustration swept through Liu Qiu’s mind.
She had originally been standing on a bridge, letting the cold wind blow, her legs sore from standing.
Seeing no one around, she had climbed onto the railing to sit.
Then, out of nowhere, some lunatic came charging at her and shoved her off the bridge.

She drowned.
When she opened her eyes again, her soul had already drifted out, and she encountered the system.
It asked whether she wanted to bind with it, travel to other worlds as a female lead, experience an ultra-satisfying life, complete some simple tasks, and revive after finishing them.

Thinking of all the female leads she’d read about in novels, Liu Qiu agreed without hesitation.

Only after entering the small world did the system tell her—she was the female lead in green-hat literature.²
She didn’t understand what AABB stood for, but she knew exactly what “green hat” meant.

Well, she was already on this pirate ship called “System.”
She might as well do the tasks properly and revive herself.

With three minutes left before nine, Liu Qiu was running hard enough to feel warm.
Her curly hair became even messier.
An outdated blue-and-white plaid shirt, loose light-blue jeans, and a pair of sneakers.

An outfit that inspired absolutely no curiosity.

Liu Qiu stood panting in front of the time clock.
In front of her was a tall woman wearing flared pants and high heels.

Liu Qiu glanced at her phone—one minute until she’d be late.
But the person in front didn’t move at all.

In a voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, Liu Qiu said, “E-excuse me… could you let me through?”
The person ahead showed no reaction.

Seconds ticked by.
Growing anxious, Liu Qiu rose onto her toes and craned her neck to see what the woman was doing.

The woman was much taller than her, especially in heels.
Liu Qiu struggled onto tiptoe, her gaze landing on the time clock.
She stretched out her arm, brushing past the woman’s arm, and shoved her badge toward the scanner.

The next second, the woman suddenly turned around.
Startled, Liu Qiu lost her balance from standing on tiptoe and pitched forward.

Beep.
The time clock sounded.
She successfully clocked in—and crashed straight into the woman’s arms.

[ Ding!
Target Character No. 1 confirmed: Superior (a premium-grade green hat) ]

“A?”
The magnetic voice from above made Liu Qiu’s face flush completely.

This person was actually her boss!

She hurriedly straightened up and pulled away, stammering, “S-sorry!”

Song Ciyu frowned slightly as she examined the Alpha who didn’t even dare raise her head.
She’d been lost in thought just now and hadn’t noticed anyone behind her.

Song Ciyu’s gaze carried an oppressive pressure as it traced over Liu Qiu inch by inch.
Even without lifting her head, Liu Qiu could feel that aura.

Black-rimmed glasses.
Black curly hair falling to her shoulders.
Head lowered, looking terrified of her.

Song Ciyu formed an impression of the Alpha who had just crashed into her arms.
Their company did have such a small Alpha—named Liu Qiu.
Silent, tongue-tied, withdrawn.
Song Ciyu’s impression of Liu Qiu stopped at “an honest, married Alpha.”

They’d been in the same company for over half a year, yet she didn’t even know what Liu Qiu looked like.
Song Ciyu had no interest in probing into other people’s private lives.

She smoothed the wrinkles in her clothes that had been disturbed by the collision and said calmly, “It’s fine.
Just don’t be so reckless next time.”

Liu Qiu nodded repeatedly.
“I-I won’t.”
She even stuttered when speaking, looking like someone who struggled just to communicate.

Song Ciyu had never seen such a timid Alpha.
Short, thin—her body even more delicate than those pretty little Omegas.

As an Omega, that might be fine.
But as an Alpha, that made her a defective product.

If Song Ciyu hadn’t caught a faint trace of Alpha pheromones on Liu Qiu, she might have mistaken her for an Omega.
At the moment Liu Qiu crashed into her arms, Song Ciyu’s body had completely enveloped her.

“Mm.
Go in and get to work.”

Hearing that, Liu Qiu felt as if she’d been granted amnesty.
She immediately scurried back to her workstation.

Watching this, Song Ciyu inexplicably thought of a rabbit.

“Director Song, the documents have been printed.”

Song Ciyu withdrew her gaze, took the documents handed over by an employee, and didn’t pay much attention to the minor incident.

At her desk, Liu Qiu let out a huge sigh of relief.
A boss really was a boss—such overwhelming presence.

The system’s noisy voice rang out in her mind: [Host, you need to have a relationship with the target character!]
[Otherwise, how would the target take a liking to your wife?
How would you get cuckolded?
How would you complete the mission?
How would you revive!]

The system spoke with passionate fervor.
Liu Qiu couldn’t understand how an artificial intelligence could sound like this—it was like a pyramid scheme leader.

Liu Qiu replied weakly: [But she looks really fierce.
I don’t dare get close.]
[She’s also my superior.
If I act overly enthusiastic, what if she thinks I have ulterior motives?]

System: [That makes sense.
Host, you’re actually quite cautious.]

Liu Qiu turned on her computer.
She discovered that even though she knew nothing about design, her hands automatically and skillfully began drafting.
Looks like she didn’t need to worry about work matters.

Liu Qiu unconsciously began to space out.
In the original owner’s memories, her wife was gentle and beautiful, cooking dinner every night and waiting for her to come home.

But in the system’s prompt, that gentle, beautiful wife didn’t like the original owner at all.

A sudden worry struck Liu Qiu.
The original owner lived together with her wife—wouldn’t it be very easy to get exposed?

Liu Qiu asked: [System, what happens if I’m discovered to not be the original owner?]

System: [Oh, nothing much.
You might just have your soul crushed by the world consciousness and disappear completely.]

Liu Qiu’s heart lurched, her vision darkening.

Wasn’t she the protagonist?
Why was her life so miserable?

“Xiao Qiu, when are you and your wife planning to have a child?”
A teasing voice came from beside her.

Liu Qiu looked over, her mind filling with huge question marks.
Her wife was a woman.
She was also a woman.
How were they supposed to have a child?

But in the memories, whenever someone brought up her wife, the original owner’s face would light up with happiness, and she’d talk more.

Liu Qiu curved her lips into a smile.
Two deep, round dimples appeared on her fair cheeks.
“That depends on my wife.”
“Whenever my wife wants a child, that’s when we’ll have one.”

That should be safe to say, right?

The person burst out laughing.
“Xiao Qiu, you’re such a wife s*ave!”
“But with a defective Alpha like you, you probably can’t even get a Beta pregnant, hahaha.”

Liu Qiu understood—it was mockery.

Relying on memory, she identified the speaker.
Zhao An.
A colleague who often bullied the original owner.

Liu Qiu fell silent and focused on her own work.
She had no reason to talk to someone like that.

Seeing Liu Qiu ignore her, the person turned away to chat with others—loudly enough for Liu Qiu to hear.

“Liu Qiu gets mad just from hearing the truth.”
“Defective Alphas being worse than Betas—that’s common knowledge, isn’t it?
What’s there to get mad about?”
“If I were Liu Qiu, I wouldn’t even dare get married.
Poor and ugly—anyone who follows her suffers.”

As these words were spoken, laughter spread through the office—mostly ridicule.

Liu Qiu suddenly felt a swell of grievance.
This was the original owner’s emotion.

This female lead had lived suffocatingly.
Now she was the female lead.
And she felt suffocated too.

Even a clay figure has three points of anger.
But she couldn’t just jump up and beat them—that would definitely draw suspicion.

Suppressing her anger, Liu Qiu kept working with her head down.
But her inaction only emboldened the chatter.

“I saw Liu Qiu throw herself into Director Song’s arms today.”
“Wow.
Does that count as cheating?
I mean, no matter how useless she is, she’s still an Alpha, right?
She wouldn’t be into AA relationships, would she?
So gross.”
“Then her wife is really pitiful.
She probably doesn’t know her partner has that kind of fetish and is already being betrayed.
Tsk, tsk.”

The baseless rumors grew increasingly outrageous.
Liu Qiu couldn’t take it anymore.

She grabbed the paper cup of plain water on her desk, stood up, and dumped it over the head of the person leading the gossip.
“You—you’re not allowed to say I betrayed my wife!”

Her speech stuttered slightly.
She worried the system’s so-called world consciousness would notice she wasn’t the original owner.
But after the words fell, nothing happened.

Her action brought the entire room to silence.

They often spoke like this about Liu Qiu, but they had never seen her lose her temper.
This was the first time this cowardly, silent, inferior Alpha had ever exploded.

But the person she splashed was a well-regarded Alpha—someone favored by society.

Liu Qiu crushed the paper cup in her hand and hurled it at that person.
Clenching her fists, she glared furiously through her thick glasses and repeated, “You’re not allowed!”

As an Alpha, Zhao An had always held herself in high regard.
She never imagined she’d be splashed with water by trash like Liu Qiu.

In this society, Alphas enjoyed great privilege.
Zhao An wasn’t afraid of fighting and getting fired.
She brushed back her damp hair and stood up with a sneer.

Company rules forbade releasing pheromones in public spaces—otherwise she would’ve already suppressed Liu Qiu with them.

Zhao An reached out, grabbed Liu Qiu by the collar, and yanked her close.
“I’ve disliked you for a long time.”
“Every time you mention your wife, you look so smug. What are you smug about? You just married a Beta.”

Only then did Liu Qiu realize—women in this world were really tall.
Pedestrians on the street were.
Her boss at the time clock was.
And now this colleague too.

She was like a little chick, easily controlled.

It was obvious at a glance that the two were about to fight.
Someone had already run out to get help.

Liu Qiu reached out and grabbed Zhao An’s wrist.
Her lips trembled, looking meek and cowardly—but her words were not.
“I want to be smug.”

After saying that, Liu Qiu hurriedly took off her glasses.
She felt like she was about to get punched in the face—and glasses were expensive.

Without her glasses, everything turned foggy.
Fear crept in.
Her eyes reddened slightly.
“If you hit me, you’ll have to pay a lot of medical fees.”

That was the harshest threat she could think of without breaking character.

Zhao An almost laughed from anger.
Was Liu Qiu threatening her?

Zhao An stared at Liu Qiu’s rapidly trembling long lashes, feeling even more irritated.
Why did an Alpha have to look like this?

Soft and pure.
Even the little Omegas she’d dated weren’t this soft.

Zhao An raised her fist, about to swing it toward Liu Qiu’s face—yet when it stopped near her cheek, she found she couldn’t bring herself to strike.

Liu Qiu stiffened her neck, staring at the fist inches away.
She gritted her teeth and leaned forward, deliberately brushing against it.

“I’ve already been hit.
We’re even now.”

The soft sensation from where Liu Qiu brushed spread through Zhao An’s entire body.
Instantly, her scalp went numb.
“f*ck! What are you—”

Before she could finish, a powerful wave of pheromones swept over her like a tidal storm.

Zhao An shuddered violently, released Liu Qiu, and hunched over in humiliation.

A superior Alpha held absolute suppression over a lower-level Alpha.
Zhao An couldn’t resist at all.
Her knees gave out, and she dropped to the ground.

Liu Qiu tugged at her own collar, confused by Zhao An’s strange reaction.
But she quietly let out a breath—she’d really thought she was about to get beaten up.

A pleasant voice sounded behind her.
“If you don’t want to work, you can leave. Have I ever said fighting is allowed in the company?”

The voice made Liu Qiu’s ears tingle.
She clutched the hem of her clothes, turned around, and slowly lifted her head.
A blurry figure crashed into her vision.

She remembered this voice—distinctly pleasant and arresting.
Tilting her face up, her misty eyes looked unusually affectionate.
She said softly, “I-I wasn’t fighting.”

Song Ciyu lowered her head and met Liu Qiu’s gaze.
Her appraising eyes swept lightly over Liu Qiu’s face, and the once-vague features in her mind became clear.

Fair skin.
Big eyes.
Deep double eyelids.
Drooping eye corners.
Straight, long lashes.
Not only was she small, her face was small too—soft and white, a little like the glutinous rice balls her niece loved to eat.

So there really were Alphas who looked this soft.
In bed, she couldn’t help but wonder—was it her Beta wife doing her, or her doing her wife?

It felt like even an Omega could push her down. And yet—this person was an Alpha.

Notes:
¹ “Green hat” (绿帽) is a Chinese idiom meaning being cheated on by one’s partner.
² Green-hat literature refers to fiction centered on infidelity and cuckoldry themes.