Becoming a Scum A in an Old-School Melodramatic Novel - Chapter 1

It was already close to midnight. On the top floor of the Qichu Corporation, one office still had its lights on. A woman with a cold and elegant appearance was sitting at her desk, writing something. Her slightly wavy black hair draped loosely over her shoulders, and the sleeves of her blouse were neatly rolled up to her forearms, revealing arms as fair and delicate as lotus roots. Her slender fingers tapped lightly on the desk, as if deep in thought.

No one knew how many consecutive nights Shen Xian had worked overtime like this. Even though she was only 28, she was already the president of Qichu Corporation. Having grown up in an orphanage, she had climbed her way up to the position of president through her own efforts. Aside from her astonishing talent, her hard work was what mattered most. Even now, sitting at the top, she never slacked off. People in the company privately called her a workaholic. For her, staying up late and working overtime was just another normal day.

In Shen Xian’s world, work was everything. There were plenty of men and women trying to suck up to her, but Shen Xian remained completely indifferent, never giving anyone a chance. What’s the point of dating? Can it be eaten? Can it make money? Can it bring her joy? If not, then why even bother? Better to work than fall in love!

And so, as the president of a corporation, Shen Xian had been single since birth for 28 whole years. Her life was completely filled with work. She often stayed overnight in the private break room connected to her office, not even bothering to go home. Today was no different. Even though it was midnight, Shen Xian was still sitting there reviewing monthly reports from various departments. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows behind her was a sky full of stars and moonlight.

For some reason, Shen Xian felt especially exhausted tonight. She picked up the bitter coffee beside her and took a sip. The unbearable bitterness was nothing new to her. She pinched the bridge of her nose and lowered her head again to look at the reports in front of her, but her vision grew blurrier and blurrier — until finally, her heavy eyelids closed.

Her consciousness remained awake, but it had been separated from her body. Shen Xian tried desperately to return to her body, but it was all in vain. In a daze, a powerful force sucked her into a vortex. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a gray, foggy space.

“Welcome, Host, to the [Old-School Tragic Romance Transformation System]. Due to the Host’s chronic late nights and endless work, your heart stopped, leading to sudden death. However, because you are an elite individual, the system has selected you. Complete the transformation of outdated tragic romance plots that go against core values. By raising the ‘favorability‘ of the ‘relevant characters‘, you will be able to survive in the book’s world. If their ‘favorability’ is too “low”, the system will {erase} you.”

“So I’ll be transported into the world of a novel? Then whose body am I going into?” Shen Xian quickly composed herself and thought things through. She hadn’t expected that her intense workload and late nights would really cause sudden death, but at least now she had a second chance at life.

“There’s no time to explain. Please choose now whether to accept the mission. If you choose { ‘No‘ }, your consciousness will be immediately erased,” the system’s cold voice said again.

Shen Xian thought to herself, “What other choice do I have? Living is better than dying.” She immediately pressed the {– “Yes” –} button.

Suddenly, her vision blurred, and her consciousness was yanked by something invisible. When she came to, she was standing at the entrance of a kindergarten. In front of her stood a little girl holding her small bag cautiously, looking at Shen Xian with suspicion. The girl had two little pigtails tied up on her head, and she wore a top with a small bunny on it. Everything about her was pink and cute to the extreme.

Shen Xian pinched her own arm and gasped at the sharp pain — it really hurt. Looks like she had already been transmitted into the world of the book.

“Host has successfully bound to the system. Consciousness transmission is successful. Now beginning transmission of the original novel’s plot to the host,” a cold, mechanical voice echoed in Shen Xian’s mind.

Shen Xian felt a massive influx of plot details from the original novel into her brain. She had transmigrated into an old-school melodramatic angst novel titled [“Saying Goodbye to Scumbag A”], becoming the character of the ‘Scumbag Alpha’ in the story — someone who constantly borrows money, angers her mother into taking pills, drives her wife to divorce her, and terrifies her child.

Shen Xian quickly sorted through the plot in her head. The original character had just tricked her mother out of | 20,000 yuan |, which she squandered in three days. Embarrassed to go home, she planned to stay out a few more days and return with some excuse in a week or two to get more money. Everyone around her had already been scared off by her constant borrowing and refused to lend her anything. Yesterday, while wandering around, she happened to run into her daughter with her ex-wife. The little girl was cutely holding her bag and waiting for her mom. The original character went over, chatted with Shen Tian for a bit, and then asked if she had any pocket money. Shen Tian was already afraid of her — every time she went to her ex-wife for money, she’d yell and scream, and Shen Tian had been scared to tears more than once.

Yesterday, the original character actually had the nerve to take the | 10 yuan | pocket money from her daughter to buy a bowl of noodles to fill her stomach. And now, today, she was planning to see if the kid had more money.

Shen Xian’s head throbbed. The original character was truly outrageous — scamming even her own daughter’s pocket money. The kid was only three and a half years old, and had only been in kindergarten for a few months.

Shen Xian’s data extraction only took a few seconds, so Shen Tian was still clutching her little bag, tearful eyes fixed on Shen Xian, scared that she’d come over again asking for money. Yesterday, she had wanted to buy bunny-shaped cookies, but her money was taken. She didn’t dare tell her mom because she didn’t want to make her cry. Lately, she often saw her mom crying and didn’t want herself to be the reason again. But this was her last 10 yuan of pocket money for the week. All the other kids had tried the bunny cookies, only she hadn’t. Shen Tian’s mood dropped even lower.

Shen Xian was about to explode. She was a CEO of a large company — and now she had transmigrated into a piece of human trash who scammed even her daughter for | 10 yuan |?! What kind of hellish suffering is this?

Looking at the [-100] floating above Shen Tian’s head, Shen Xian suppressed her fury and asked the system in her mind, “System, what’s that on the child’s forehead?”

“That’s Shen Tian’s favorability toward you. If any of the four key characters’ favorability drops below ‘-200′, the host will be directly {erased}. The host must “max out favorability” with –four individuals– to survive in this world: your parents, your daughter, and your ex-wife. If even one of their favorability scores falls below ‘-200′, the host will be {erased},” the system responded coldly.

What kind of death-level starting point is this? With how awful the original was, even Shen Xian wanted to beat her up. And the original only had a college diploma — what decent job could she even get quickly?

The system, seemingly sensing Shen Xian’s confusion, comforted her, “The host doesn’t need to worry too much. Completing randomly assigned system tasks will earn you monetary rewards.

Now issuing your first task:

Please go up and have a warm, friendly conversation with Shen Tian. <Task reward: ‘100 yuan’>”

Shen Xian had no choice but to grit her teeth and go for it. In her previous life, she had never interacted with children. Every day, it was just documents and reports — until she literally worked herself to death.

Somewhat awkwardly, she crouched down and gave Shen Tian a gentle smile, “Tian Tian, Mommy just wanted to see you. I’ll return your | 10 yuan | from yesterday soon, okay? Come on, don’t be afraid, let Mommy give you a hug.” Shen Xian spoke while smiling, arms open.

Shen Tian pursed her lips, clearly deep in thought. Mommy rarely hugged her since she was little. Then one day she just stopped living with mommy. It was always her mom who picked her up from kindergarten. Every time mommy came over, she only made mom cry. Shen Tian hated bad mommy!

But a few other kids had said she was a “bad kid that even her mommy didn’t want.” She didn’t dare tell her mom that. Looking at Shen Xian’s outstretched arms now, Shen Tian felt a tiny bit moved — she also wanted to be hugged by her mommy like the other kids.

Shen Xian noticed the child waver, so she stepped forward and gently pulled Shen Tian into her arms. The child stiffened, then was lifted up. Her gloomy little face finally bloomed with a faint smile, her tiny arms tightly hugging Shen Xian’s neck.

Shen Xian smiled at Shen Tian and noticed the number above her head change to [-90]. Her heart ached a little. After all, she was just a kid. Just a hug had raised the favorability by [‘10′].

Then the mechanical voice of the system rang out in her mind, “Congratulations to the host for completing the task. A reward of <“100 yuan”> has been placed in your pants pocket.”

Holding Shen Tian with one hand, Shen Xian reached into her pocket — sure enough, she felt a {100 yuan} bill in her left pocket. She never expected that as a CEO, she would one day be worrying about pocket money. Well, better than nothing. Might as well buy something for the kid. The original scumbag caused all this loss of favorability. Whatever, one step at a time.

“Tian Tian, how about Mommy takes you to buy some snacks?” Shen Xian smiled as she bounced the child in her arms a little. But wow — this body was weak. Just holding a kid for a bit already made her tired.

Shen Tian quickly hugged her little bag tighter. “But Tian Tian only has a little bit of pocket money left this week.”

Shen Xian sighed. A child this young is already worrying about money. That made her even angrier at the original. Had a kid but didn’t take care of her — just ran around all day racking up debts that her parents had to repay, never took care of the child, and even harassed the ex-wife for money now and then.

“Mommy has money. Tian Tian, pick anything you want, okay?” Shen Xian gently pinched Shen Tian’s small hand.

Shen Tian hesitated for a long time, then finally nodded at Shen Xian. She rarely went to the snack shop and didn’t have much allowance, since her mom worked so hard to earn money. She didn’t want to make her tired. If only her mommy could be as nice as other kids’ mommies… Shen Tian thought to herself.