After Getting Bound to Both the Protagonist and the Villain at the Same Time - Chapter 3

Lin Chuyi turned slightly, leaned toward Gu Mian, and sniffed gently.

“You smell pretty nice.”

“Hah, right?” Gu Mian’s throat tightened, drawn taut like a bowstring. Even speaking felt risky—she didn’t dare breathe too loudly, afraid her breath would brush against Lin Chuyi.

“Go to sleep. Tomorrow’s Monday. We both have class and work.” Lin Chuyi tugged a corner of the blanket over her chest. Gu Mian immediately pushed more of the blanket toward her and then a little more.

“Sleep.” Lin Chuyi patted the hand that kept offering the blanket. Gu Mian flinched as if burned and pulled it back instantly.

In the darkness, Gu Mian kept her eyes open, listening to the rhythm of Lin Chuyi’s breathing. It felt sweet.

But mixed into that sweetness was a faint, indescribable sting. Her “older sister” didn’t avoid closeness at all—she treated her like a good friend, like a little sister. No hint of anything else.

But she—she did have other thoughts.

A fire burned inside Gu Mian. A dark, shameful fire she couldn’t name.

She wanted—shamelessly—to swallow whole the one person who gave her warmth. Every drop of her blood craved Lin Chuyi’s nearness; every inch of her skin whispered its longing.

“Jiejie.” Gu Mian called softly, her voice forced into restraint.

Her mind was already a storm of blood and thunder, but reality was tight and controlled—she refused to let herself so much as overstep by half an inch.

She didn’t know when she finally fell asleep. When she woke to golden sunlight, Lin Chuyi was already gone.

Gu Mian had no morning classes. When Lin Chuyi left for work, she hadn’t woken Gu Mian—she wanted her to rest a bit more.

The library opened at eight. Lin Chuyi had to be at school by 7:30. When she got up, the sky was only beginning to pale. She moved quietly, prepared breakfast, and closed the door behind her as usual when she left.

[Breakfast is on the table.]

Gu Mian noticed the sticky note by her pillow. Her once-turbulent heart softened instantly. She peeled the note off gently and treasured it, placing it inside the notebook she had prepared.

And when she opened the notebook—there were already many sticky notes written by Lin Chuyi.

Written for her.

Gu Mian couldn’t help but smile.

According to her plan, after making breakfast this morning, Lin Chuyi should have gone straight to the library to begin the day’s preparations. But something stopped her.

“Ding. Hello. This is System 0927, the Villain-Cultivation System.”

On her way to work, a cool, unfamiliar voice appeared abruptly in her mind. “Your previous system host has been requisitioned for emergency use. Please cooperate with my work.”

Lin Chuyi halted.

Mengmeng, her original soft, timid system, finished its sleep mode and fluttered its tiny wings nervously at 0927.

“Really? I didn’t get any notice from the System Bureau.” Mengmeng flipped through its files. “See? Nothing.”

“It’s an emergency requisition.”

A pitch-black orb floated up, cold and imposing. If Mengmeng was a soft, shy system, 0927 was a domineering CEO.

“The situation is urgent. No time to explain. Please accept binding and confirm transfer to the target location.”

Lin Chuyi glanced at Mengmeng, who clearly knew nothing.

0927’s voice hardened. “Hurry. If we’re any later, someone will die.”

Someone’s life was at stake.

Lin Chuyi didn’t ask another question. 0927 pointed her forward, leading her through several turns into a narrow alley.

“You think you’re so tough? Gonna tattle to the teacher again?”

The moment she approached, a sharp, mocking girl’s voice cut through the alley, mixed with a few others’ laughter.

The residents here were mostly elderly; only on good sunny days did they come downstairs. The bullies clearly knew this—they dragged their target deep into the alley, beating and kicking with impunity.

Bullying the weak gave them some twisted thrill. The girl being beaten—an orphan, timid, dirt-poor, her schoolbag a repurposed fertilizer sack—was already at the lowest rung of life.

“Other people can pay protection fees. You can’t. Other people buy things for our boss—you don’t. Other people help us with chores. And you.”

The ringleader smirked. “You’re useless. So, all you’re good for is entertaining us.”

Curled in the middle, the pitiful girl clenched her fists, shrinking into herself, face dark with humiliation.

A nameless fury roared up inside Lin Chuyi, burning her reason. Her voice dropped low:

“The ringleader—she’s the villain? She’s bullying kids at this age?”

Her tone sharpened with anger.

“Cultivate that into a villain? I’d rather send her straight to prison.”

0927 flickered and replied, “No. Not her.”

It paused.

“The one being beaten is the villain.”

Lin Chuyi froze.

The girl in the white-washed autumn uniform was being kicked around like a ragged sack. Dirt smeared her clothes; she was curled small, like a dying spark.

There was no time to question anything. Lin Chuyi raised her phone and shouted:

“What are you doing? If you keep this up, I’m calling the police!”

Her voice startled the bullies—the last thing they expected in such a hidden alley was an outsider.

Wait, was she filming?

Everyone’s first reaction was to avoid the camera, but in the next second, the girl in the lead gave a low, sinister laugh.

“Go on, record,” she taunted, stepping forward. “If you think you can even get that video out.”

The others quickly caught on and swarmed toward Lin Chuyi, reaching for her phone. Lin Chuyi weaved through the gaps between bodies with practiced agility, but she still couldn’t avoid being shoved hard in the chaos.

At last, she reached the little pitiful one’s side. She grabbed the girl’s wrist and barked, “Run!”

The girl stumbled. As she lifted her head just slightly, the hatred in her eyes—and that vicious, beast-like resolve—made Lin Chuyi’s heartbeat stop for an instant.

But there was no time to think. Lin Chuyi flung her phone in the opposite direction and dragged the little pitiful one as they sprinted madly out of the alley. The bullies, unable to catch up, turned back for the phone, smashing the already shattered screen to bits and kicking the pieces until debris littered the entire alley.

“Boss, should we keep chasing?”

“What’s the rush? They can run, but they can’t hide,” the leader said maliciously. “Hasn’t it always been this way? No matter how many times she tattles to the teachers or whatever, she still has to come back to school.”

Among the group of girls, the second-in-command—the one usually praised for her “fearlessness”—unexpectedly flinched.

She had been leading the charge, yet the two of them still managed to slip away.

All because that filthy little Shen Qing from the bottom of the hierarchy had glanced her way, stopping her cold.

It was a look like that of a cruel beast, icy and razor-sharp.

When Shen Qing looked at her, it felt as if she was staring at a corpse.

Lin Chuyi had been running hand-in-hand with Shen Qing for a while now, her palm burning hot—a warmth Shen Qing wasn’t used to at all.

Shen Qing looked at her own wrist where Lin Chuyi held it, her lips pressing together.

Only when they reached the perimeter of H University did Lin Chuyi finally exhale in relief. She glanced at the little pitiful one—her hand had been sliced by something along the way, and she’d been clenching a bloody fist the whole time.

A sharp ache hit Lin Chuyi’s chest. She coaxed softly, “Open your hand for me. Can you do that?”

Shen Qing bit her lip and opened her palm.

The center of her hand was torn raw, blood and flesh blurred together. Between the damaged tissue, tiny shards of glass were still visible. Lin Chuyi’s brows drew tight. “This is too much!”

She softened her voice immediately, afraid Shen Qing would misunderstand.

“I mean they were too much. I’ll take you to the infirmary to get treated, okay?”

The little pitiful one stood still.

Her eyelashes trembled—like a butterfly’s wings weighed down by rain, fragile and tragically beautiful.

Her hand was a mangled mess, yet she didn’t make a sound.

Lin Chuyi lowered herself to meet Shen Qing’s gaze and waited patiently. Shen Qing stood motionless for a long moment before finally giving a tiny nod and obediently following her to H University’s infirmary.

“Oh heavens, how did it get this bad?” The school nurse frowned as soon as she saw Shen Qing’s hand. She turned to Lin Chuyi. “I can only clean the wound here. She needs a hospital for the rest. Since she can open and close her hand herself, it’s unlikely the tendons are damaged, but still.”

The nurse couldn’t bring herself to say anything harsher in front of Shen Qing. The girl was thin and small, her skin sallow. Her black-and-white eyes shimmered with unshed tears—so pitiful it tugged straight at the heart.

Shen Qing didn’t say a word. She simply stood there silently, watching Lin Chuyi.

“I understand. Please write us a referral to the hospital,” Lin Chuyi said.

“Alright. I’ll contact the doctor there and let them run some checks.”

“Thank you so much.” Lin Chuyi accepted the supplies for wound cleaning. The nurse began treating Shen Qing. “It’ll hurt a little—be careful.”

The moment the disinfectant touched the torn flesh, sharp, piercing pain flared instantly. Shen Qing instinctively looked toward Lin Chuyi, as if the sight of her alone could ease the pain—like she could breathe easier if she kept staring.

Her lips had gone completely bloodless, and her gaze clung to Lin Chuyi with unsettling fixation—so intense it could make one’s heart skip.

Lin Chuyi, busy swiping her staff card to pay the medical fee, didn’t notice any of it.

Mengmeng had gone to the System Bureau to verify some information. Beside Lin Chuyi remained the villain-cultivation system 0927. She let out a long breath.

“Good thing we made it in time. If such a pitiful little thing had been bullied like that any longer, I don’t even know what we’d do.”

“Mm,” system 0927 replied curtly.

The world will gave all its blessings to the protagonist, smoothing every step of their path—and pushed every hardship onto the villain, shaping them into a rival equal to the protagonist.

Only to turn them into a stepping stone in the end.

All of the villain’s childhood suffering existed to justify why, once grown, they lacked the protagonist’s bright and righteous heart. But what if the villain refused that fate? What if she chose to resist?

System 0927 fell silent.

It did not tell Lin Chuyi that according to its earlier calculations, the one who was meant to die was not the villain Shen Qing at all, but.