Seventh Day of Pretending to Be an Alpha

When people have little moods, they need to be coaxed. But Chu Mo couldn’t coax Xie Songchen. The image of a brother-protecting Alpha coaxing his brother’s suitor was too shocking for Chu Mo to even imagine.

Chu Mo wasn’t sure why Xie Songchen was upset. But thinking about it carefully, it was probably because he’d said Xie Songchen wasn’t suited to be a secretary—denying his abilities—which made him sad.

“What, you’re upset because I said you’re not suited to be a secretary?” Chu Mo said expressionlessly, looking at Xie Songchen. “Xie Songchen, can’t you handle such a small setback?”

Xie Songchen looked at Chu Mo coldly, as if he were looking at an idiot. After a while, he said in a deep voice, “Then find someone who can handle it, President Chu.”

Oh no. Now he had really angered the main character. The original story depicted Xie Songchen as a cold iceberg, making Chu Mo almost forget that he was just a college student who hadn’t graduated yet. College students’ emotional states were often unstable.

Chu Mo took a deep breath and, after careful consideration, decided to coax this male college student without breaking character. “Even if you’ve been doing well at work recently—buying coffee to my satisfaction and handling documents well—can’t I say a few words to you?”

This was the most comforting thing Chu Mo could think of to say to Xie Songchen. Saying any more would break character. After speaking, Chu Mo looked at Xie Songchen, but the latter had no reaction. Seriously, even this didn’t work?

“Don’t you want to be my secretary?” Chu Mo continued to think of ways to salvage the situation, deciding to use reverse psychology. “If you can’t even take on such a simple project, how can you be my secretary?”

Chu Mo wasn’t even concerned about Xie Songchen’s position anymore; he just wanted the main character to accept the task. Still, Xie Songchen didn’t give Chu Mo a direct look. 

Chu Mo appeared calm on the outside, but inside he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. His task was to make the male lead a big shot within three months. But the male lead wasn’t even taking on the first task! This NPC was almost ready to do the task himself.

“As long as you successfully negotiate this order…” Chu Mo took a deep breath, staring at Xie Songchen and speaking word by word, “I’ll get you a custom suit immediately.”

Xie Songchen paused in his packing. He looked up at Chu Mo. After a moment, he asked expressionlessly, “Really?”

Chu Mo feigned disdain. “Wearing such a cheap suit to work every day, and being a perfect match with my brother—it’s embarrassing to even talk about.”

In reality, he was watching Xie Songchen closely, feeling very nervous, afraid that he would refuse. To Chu Mo’s surprise, Xie Songchen didn’t get angry.

“Project materials,” Xie Songchen put down what he was holding and spoke calmly, “send them to my email.”

Chu Mo secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, the main character accepted the task! It seems college students aren’t that hard to coax after all. Just a suit would do.

Li Shuo, standing nearby, was dumbfounded, trying to stop this absurdity from happening. “President Chu, Xie Songchen is a secretary—and an intern at that. How can you…”

“Since Xie Songchen has experience in business, why not let him do it?” Chu Mo raised an eyebrow, speaking as if it were obvious. “If he can’t do it well, I’ll personally fire him—ensuring fairness and justice.”

Li Shuo wondered if he was dreaming. Not only Li Shuo, but everyone present couldn’t believe it. Dingming Group was one of the top five real estate groups in the city. All the companies were vying for their cooperation projects, yet Chu Mo handed such an important project to an intern?

Soon, the whole company knew about it, even alerting some shareholders. Those on the board who were envious of Chu Mo’s position took the opportunity to spread rumors. 

Most people speculated that Chu Mo was using this big project to set up Xie Songchen for failure—aiming to fire him. To outsiders, this seemed the most likely scenario.

Chu Mo didn’t acknowledge these speculations, only responding that he recognized Xie Songchen’s abilities. Thus, Xie Songchen, as an intern, took on the project—finding himself in the spotlight.

In the following days, aside from work, there was no interaction between Xie Songchen and Chu Mo. 

Since the day Chu Mo said Xie Songchen wasn’t suited for the secretary position, Xie Songchen seemed even more like an iceberg. Chu Mo thought this was fine. 

According to the original story, Xie Songchen was supposed to dislike Chu Mo. Fortunately, Xie Songchen was someone who kept personal and professional matters separate, not letting emotions affect his work.

After taking on the project, Xie Songchen worked overtime almost every night—nearly sleeping at the company. This was just like in the original story. 

In the novel, to prove he was worthy of Chu Yun, Xie Songchen seized this opportunity, working overtime every night to increase even the slightest chance of a successful negotiation.

One day, after a team meeting, a few members were complaining in the corner.

“Why do we have so many meetings every day? Having more meetings doesn’t mean we’ll succeed.”

“I’ve dealt with Dingming a few times, and it seems they have no intention of cooperating.”

“I don’t know what President Chu is thinking, assigning an intern to lead the team.”

“Of course, President Chu wants to fire him. Because of the matching issue, President Chu is probably very annoyed with him.”

“…”

Coming out of the restroom, Xie Songchen heard these discussions at the door and paused. Seeing him, everyone quickly dispersed.

A few minutes later, Xie Songchen brought a stack of documents to the president’s office and handed them to Chu Mo. 

During this time, Chu Mo appeared to be watching the show, waiting for Xie Songchen to make a fool of himself. In reality, he was more concerned about the project’s progress than anyone else, reviewing the materials organized by Xie Songchen every day.

“Redo the charts in this document.” Chu Mo sat with his legs crossed, glancing at the charts as he spoke coldly. “And here, here… all the data I’ve marked needs to be revised.”

Looking at the charts, Xie Songchen silently took notes. Chu Mo looked up at him, sarcastically saying, “Is this your ability, Xie Songchen? Then I can only say you’re far from being regularized.”

Faced with Chu Mo’s cold sarcasm and nitpicking, Xie Songchen didn’t react much. He simply pressed his lips together and left a quiet, “I’ll check the materials again,” before walking out of the president’s office.

Although Chu Mo kept nitpicking at Xie Songchen, he knew very well that Xie Songchen was highly capable and progressing rapidly. In just a few days, he had fully adapted to the role of team leader. 

Chu Mo was secretly amazed and couldn’t help but think it was no wonder Xie Songchen would become a big shot in the future.

The night before the project negotiation, Chu Mo stayed late at the company with the project team members. 

As midnight approached, the entire office building fell silent. The members clocked out and went home one by one. Chu Mo packed up his things, telling the driver to wait for him in the parking lot.

At that moment, as Chu Mo passed by the secretary department, he noticed a light still on at one of the workstations. He walked in and was taken aback. 

It was Xie Songchen’s workstation. Xie Songchen was asleep at the desk, a jacket casually draped over his shoulders. His broad back rose and fell rhythmically. The office was so quiet that the hum of the computer and the soft breathing of the sleeping boy could be heard.

On the screen of Xie Songchen’s computer were a bunch of files with chaotic names like “xx Final Draft,” “xx Final Draft 2,” “xx Final Final Draft,” and some randomly named ones like “1,” “1111,” “.” and so on. 

Looking at these files, Chu Mo couldn’t help but chuckle softly. On the surface, he was as cold as an iceberg, but in reality, he gave his work documents strange titles.

Standing by the workstation, Chu Mo hesitated. Xie Songchen looked very tired. But with no one else in the company, he couldn’t let this guy continue sleeping here. After much thought, Chu Mo decided to wake him up.

Just as he reached out, ready to tap him on the shoulder, Xie Songchen woke up. Sensing someone nearby, he sat up abruptly. The jacket on his shoulders fell from the sudden movement. 

Chu Mo instinctively caught it. Looking up, he saw Xie Songchen’s eyes filled with sleepy confusion. The corners of his eyes had red marks from being pressed, and red veins ran through his gaze.

The moment their eyes met, Chu Mo froze. The next second, his hand trembled, and he let go of the jacket. The fabric fell onto the chair with a soft rustle. 

Chu Mo withdrew his hand and, covering his awkwardness with a cough, tried to find a topic to break the ice. 

“This jacket of yours, ahem, shouldn’t have any pheromones, right? Don’t let it get on me.”

His tone carried a hint of disdain. Xie Songchen frowned slightly, his voice hoarse from sleep. 

“What do you think?”

Chu Mo was taken aback, looking at him. Xie Songchen was an Alpha with overwhelming pheromone strength, still a young college student. 

At this moment, he was only wearing a white shirt, outlining smooth and full muscle lines. His sleepy, narrow eyes were filled with an aggressive aura. He looked like the kind of hot-blooded Alpha who might accidentally get pheromones on his clothes.

Chu Mo’s expression changed, as if facing a formidable enemy. 

“Could there really be pheromones?”

Even though he had taken inhibitors, he didn’t know what would happen if he encountered top-tier Alpha pheromones. Xie Songchen frowned, looking at Chu Mo with a strange expression. 

“I’m single.”

Chu Mo was momentarily stunned. In this ABO world setting, Alphas don’t enter heat unless induced by high-matching Omega pheromones. Single Alphas generally didn’t emit pheromones.

“Ahem, of course, I know about the Alpha heat mechanism.” Chu Mo touched his nose, speaking a bit guiltily. 

“You think I don’t understand? I was just joking.”

His explanation, however, felt like a cover-up. A flash of confusion crossed Xie Songchen’s eyes. “Heat mechanism?” He had only heard that term in ABO physiology class.

Chu Mo also realized his words were odd and quickly changed the subject. 

“It’s best if there’s none.”

Picking up his suit jacket, Xie Songchen casually put it on, lazily asking, “Are you afraid of my pheromones?”

“Just kidding. How could I be afraid of your pheromones?” Chu Mo immediately tried to maintain his top Alpha persona, stubbornly saying, “My pheromones are stronger than yours!”

As the “enemy of Alphas” in the early part of the book, Chu Mo couldn’t admit defeat in front of Xie Songchen. Even though he was actually an Omega, he had to claim his pheromones were stronger than Xie Songchen’s.

Xie Songchen let out an “oh,” casually raising his eyes to look at Chu Mo. 

“Have you tried?”