Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Do you have any other questions?"

The assistant looked at the young Beta before him and spoke more slowly.

Ji Liao took a deep breath.

This feeling was strange.

He’d been transported into a book.

Before going to bed, he’d just finished reading a novel called *Forbidden Match*.

*Forbidden Match* was a pure love story about a gentle, kind, universally adored Omega and a brutal, domineering Alpha.

The main story was fine—except for one side character that really rubbed Ji Liao the wrong way.

In the novel, the infatuated villain Alpha, unable to win the protagonist Omega’s love, snatched up some random Beta to be his substitute.

At first, the Beta was reluctant, but after the villain Alpha wore him down, he slowly developed Stockholm syndrome, fell in love with the villain Alpha, came to hate the protagonist Omega, and even tried to run the protagonist Omega down with his car.

Naturally, the villain Alpha didn’t forgive the Beta. Not only did he take back everything he’d given the Beta, but he also personally had the Beta thrown in prison.

Maybe because the Beta was the only broke person in the whole novel, Ji Liao couldn’t help relating to him.

Ji Liao clenched his fists, frustrated. What good was love, anyway? He should’ve just taken the money and run!

But when he woke up, Ji Liao was the substitute Beta.

The scene before him was exactly the moment the substitute had been dragged back to sign the agreement.

The assistant, also a Beta, saw Ji Liao go quiet and felt sorry for him.

But after glancing at the boss, he urged anyway, "If there’s no problem, just sign it."

Ji Liao held the pen, looked down, and picked up the document on the table—the substitute agreement.

He didn’t need to read it to know what it said. He was Party B, and the villain Alpha was Party A.

Once signed, Party B would get 500,000 yuan a month from Party A.

Five hundred thousand! A month!

He couldn’t even imagine how happy he’d be with that kind of money!

The only problem was—

"This agreement..." Ji Liao secretly pinched his thigh to check he wasn’t dreaming.

Pain shot through him, and his voice came out a bit strained.

"Ahem..."

He cleared his throat before finishing:

"Is this agreement legally binding?"

Come on, he’d watched legal TV shows too. If this wasn’t a dream, he still needed to make sure the money would actually land in his pocket.

The assistant pressed his lips together, reading Ji Liao’s question as "a last-ditch struggle."

Sympathetic but not wanting to offend the boss, he said in a neutral tone, "As long as you hold up your end, the agreement will be valid."

Ji Liao obviously knew what the substitute’s obligations were.

In other words, the villain Alpha would be sleeping with him.

The five hundred thousand wasn’t for free.

Ji Liao looked up at the villain Alpha.

An Alpha radiating aristocratic elegance stood by the window, turned to the side. His jet-black hair set off his pale skin, and gold-rimmed glasses sat on his high-bridged nose.

He stared out the window, looking totally indifferent to Ji Liao.

But the suit-clad body kept catching Ji Liao’s eye.

That solid chest, those broad shoulders, that narrow waist, those long legs!

Ji Liao swallowed.

That works too.

A man this gorgeous, glowing so bright he outshone the biggest stars—Ji Liao had never even seen someone like that, let alone touched one.

Now this man not only wanted to sleep with him, he was paying him too?

How was this a villain? He was practically a living bodhisattva!

You can’t give up benefits just for the sake of dignity, right?

With that in mind, Ji Liao stopped hesitating.

He scribbled his name down in a flash, hopped onto the big bed nearby, and lay flat out, excited, saying, "Come on, let’s start fulfilling the agreement right now!"

The Beta assistant: ???

To keep Ji Liao from causing trouble, they’d holed up in a remote villa and brought bodyguards to make sure he couldn’t escape.

But what was going on now? He gave in that easily?

Even Wen Qiu turned his head, looking over in confusion.

Just then, the silent phone rang.

Ji Liao closed his eyes, heard the phone ring and the door open, and figured the assistant had stepped out.

Then the room went quiet, with no further sound.

*

He opened his eyes, and the room was empty except for him.

Villain A had left too.

It was only then that he remembered—on the day the substitute signed the contract with the villain, the villain had been called away by the protagonist.

He'd been too excited a moment ago to remember.

He scrambled to his feet and took in his surroundings.

Beautiful velvet curtains covered the wide floor-to-ceiling windows, and the beige floor was immaculate. Besides the king-sized bed, the room also had a sectional sofa, tables and chairs, a dresser, and more.

He used to live in a shared apartment—a two-bedroom place converted into several cramped rooms, and he rented one of them.

A working person's salary mostly went to lining the landlord's pockets. To save money for a house, he could only live in such places.

By comparison, everything before him was luxurious enough to rival a palace.

This better not be a dream.

Ji Liao nearly cried with joy.

As his memories resurfaced, he also recalled that on the day the original owner signed the contract with the villain, the villain came back in the middle of the night, and they had their first night together.

For Ji Liao, that still felt quite rushed.

*

Growing up, Ji Liao had never been in a relationship, let alone been intimate with anyone.

It wasn't that he didn't want to—he just didn't have the time.

His parents divorced when he was very young and both remarried. Since neither wanted to take him in, they dumped him at a boarding school.

That rootless life made him determined to buy his own house and give himself a home. So throughout his upbringing, aside from working part-time and saving money, he had no time for romance.

Now, without ever having been in love, he was about to jump straight into the thick of it.

To ease his nerves, Ji Liao ran to the walk-in closet and looked in the mirror. The original owner was at most 175 cm tall, slim, and because he was young, he looked somewhat frail. He wore a gray tracksuit and looked very much like a student.

Then he studied his features.

A delicate nose bridge, soft lips. Thin eyelids with a slight double fold, and clear, bright eyes.

The beautification in the novel world was at maximum, and since the original owner bore some resemblance to the protagonist O, his features were naturally flawless.

He looked much better than his former self, and Ji Liao was thoroughly pleased.

"Steady now."

He quietly told himself.

Think about the 500,000.

Before, he worked from six in the morning to midnight, working himself to the bone and still not making much money.

Either way, it couldn't be harder than before.

He understood all that, but he was still nervous and instinctively patted his pocket.

No phone in his pocket.

How could a modern person survive without a phone?

So he walked to the door and opened it without hesitation.

"Mr. Ji, is something wrong?"

The assistant hadn't left; he was sitting right outside the door.

Ji Liao didn't mind being watched over. He ignored the bodyguards flanking him and just smiled at the assistant. "Can I have my phone back?"

He couldn't live without the internet; Ji Liao felt that what he needed most right now was a phone.

But the assistant hesitated.

Ji Liao had been forcibly brought back, and although he had been cooperative so far, there was no telling what he might do...

"Don't worry, I won't call the police." Ji Liao kept smiling. "I could never earn this much money on my own—why would I run?"

The original owner was a college student, and a young person's sincere, innocent smile was hard to refuse, especially since what he said was true.

It just didn't match the innocence of a college student.

So the assistant's eyes filled with even more sympathy.

Poor kid—was he starting to brainwash himself after signing the contract?

Shaking his head, the assistant handed Ji Liao the phone and reminded him:

"Behave, and Mr. Wen won't make things difficult for you."

He wasn't afraid of Ji Liao calling the police, or even running away.

Because in the end, Ji Liao would definitely be the one to suffer.

"Got it."

Ji Liao got his phone back and smiled even brighter.

*

Back in the room, Ji Liao quickly unlocked the phone with his fingerprint.

The original owner was written as a poor student, so the phone was naturally a low-end model.

But at least it worked.

Fortunately, the novel world wasn't much different from the real world in terms of daily life—everything was there, from mobile banking to payment apps.

The only difference was that this was an ABO world, where humans, in addition to male and female, were also divided into three genders: Alpha, Beta, and Omega.

Reading about it in a novel was one thing, but experiencing it in reality was a bit strange.

However, the original owner was a Beta.

According to the book's setting, Betas were completely unaffected by pheromones, so Ji Liao felt he could adapt, just as he had in his old life.

The villain could return at any moment, so Ji Liao used the time to quickly jot down the plot he could still remember in his notes app.

At this point, the protagonist O, under pressure, had decided to accept an arranged marriage and marry the sickly protagonist A.

The villain rushed there to dissuade him, failed, and in despair got into a car accident. He came home, saw the original owner, and then...

Ji Liao opened Xibo and searched for the main character O, planning to study him closely.

But just as he found the person and was about to tap in, his phone buzzed with a notification.

"Hua Bank Alert: Dear customer, your account ending in 7788 has received a transfer of ¥500,000.00. Balance: ¥500,280."

Ji Liao: !!!

He immediately realized this was the "advance payment" from the villain A.

Signs the contract, gets paid right away—what a dream client!

His employee instincts kicked in, and Ji Liao followed the transfer record to find the villain's phone number—

Bosses who pay this well are hard to come by—he had to grab this chance.

He added the villain as a friend.

Note: My God.

Right—money is a god too, and this villain was now his god!