After Her Death, They Begged for Forgiveness - Chapter 44.1

Jiang Ruo kept glancing at the time during the wait.

Time seemed to stretch, everything around her blurred, and every second felt excruciatingly long.

[Host, there’s still half an hour until the agreed time. There’s no need to be so anxious, right?]

“I know. I don’t need you to remind me,” Jiang Ruo snapped impatiently.

This system only hindered her from doing what she wanted. She was thoroughly fed up with this updated version of the system that came with the task reset.

She hated being told what to do more than anything, even if it was just a system with no consciousness of its own.

[But the plot is continuously falling apart. According to the novel’s storyline, the host should be on a date with Xiao Hua, not Xu Bingqi. The host’s stubbornness will only cause the plot deviation value to rise higher and higher.]

“None of that matters. Do you really think Xiao Hua would lower his favorability just because of one or two broken appointments?”

To her, Xiao Hua was nothing more than a passable vessel. As long as nothing happened to him for the time being, she had no intention of wasting energy trying to decipher his inner world.

She had encountered far too many cookie-cutter male protagonists like Xiao Hua in novels, to the point where seeing one more would make her physically nauseous.

[But this is the host’s final task. If it weren’t for the accident during the mission, the host wouldn’t have had to restart the novel world and redo this task.]

After countless complex simulations and in-depth analyses, the system finally detected a troubling trend Jiang Ruo’s behavior was increasingly veering off course, heading in a direction that was becoming difficult to control.

In short, Jiang Ruo was even more unpredictable than the collapsing novel plot.

The system was secretly calculating when Jiang Ruo had begun to lose the composure of a rational, outstanding task performer and become increasingly obsessive.

During Jiang Ruo’s repeated time checks, the system pulled up the historical logs to review the failed save from last time.

Just before the novel’s climax, as Xiao Hua opened his arms for an embrace without any suspicion, Jiang Ruo unexpectedly drew a gleaming knife and plunged it deep into his chest.

Xiao Hua bled profusely instantly.

But Jiang Ruo showed no intention of stopping. She mechanically swung the blade, and the scent of blood quickly filled the entire room.

Under her frenzied assault, Xiao Hua bled out every last drop of blood.

“Those who have lost their value deserve to die.”

Sitting calmly in a pool of blood, Jiang Ruo’s eyes brimmed with tears, her gaze filled with hatred.

When the system later questioned why she had acted so suddenly, she replied nonchalantly, “I’m not done playing yet. Reload the save and restart this task.”

Jiang Ruo had indeed made a habit of reloading saves to redo tasks before, so the system saw no reason to doubt her and applied to the main world to restart the novel’s conquest mission.

But now, through simulation analysis, it seemed Jiang Ruo had lost control the moment she turned the knife on Xiao Hua.

Or perhaps there was another possibility.

That Jiang Ruo had always been a madwoman.

Only, this rational madwoman had once concealed her nature flawlessly, but now, she was slowly revealing her true self.

“Mind your own business. Don’t interfere.”

Jiang Ruo seemed to have guessed what the system was doing and said leisurely, “Before you report the anomaly to the main system, I can make this novel’s plot completely collapse. By then, forget about whether you can return even your continued existence will be in question.”

[Host, don’t you want to complete the mission immediately and receive the rewards? What benefit does this bring you?]

The system was now completely certain of one thing: its host was truly a madwoman.

“Rewards for completing the mission?” Jiang Ruo’s originally gentle laughter turned somewhat piercing. “Those are utterly worthless. Right now, I only want the reward I’ve been dreaming of.”

“There are only ten minutes left until the agreed time. Sister has always been very punctual.”

Jiang Ruo took a compact mirror from her bag, picked up an eyeliner pen, and carefully filled in the smudged gaps. Then, she picked up a bold red lipstick, starting from the cupid’s bow and meticulously tracing along her lip line. Her movements were gentle and focused.

“Sister will definitely like it.”

After finishing her makeup, Jiang Ruo smiled contentedly at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes shimmering with a captivating allure.

Once the system realized its host was abnormal, it began frantically simulating scenarios. It had to find an opportunity, unnoticed by the host, to report this anomaly to the main system.

However, Jiang Ruo, thoroughly satisfied with her makeup, did not let her guard down. She knew all too well that every system’s goal was to complete missions. Only by rendering the system completely useless could she sever this novel world from the main world entirely.

At the moment, Jiang Ruo was well aware that, given her current abilities, she couldn’t destroy the system in one fell swoop. She could only quietly plan and wait for the right moment to obliterate it.

She had collaborated with the system on countless missions, but now, she and the system only wanted to eliminate each other.

Yet, Jiang Ruo felt no sentimental regret over the shift from camaraderie to conflict with the system. She was merely looking forward to her meeting with Xu Bingqi in a few minutes.

After all, in this battle with the system, she couldn’t possibly be the one to lose.

Just as Jiang Ruo glanced at her wristwatch again, a knock finally sounded at the door.

Her sister had arrived.

Jiang Ruo took one last look at her reflection in the compact mirror, then calmly put it away. With a slight rustle of her skirt, she opened the door.

“Sister, I’ve been waiting for you for so long.”

After speaking, the perfect smile Jiang Ruo had practiced hundreds of times showed a faint crack.

“Why are you here too?”

It was nine o’clock in the evening. For Song Guanjin to come with her sister at this hour, the most likely explanation was that they were living together.

Was it a coincidence? Or had they already moved in together?

Jiang Ruo subtly shifted her gaze away from Song Guanjin’s pale, slender neck, suppressing the urge to snap it with her bare hands.

She was nothing but an ordinary human with a limited lifespan.

Jiang Ruo wouldn’t care about someone who was about to die. After all, in the future, the only one who could stay by Xu Bingqi’s side forever would be her, and only her.

“Because Sister and I are always together.”

The cat demon, already basking in Xu Bingqi’s boundless favor, lifted her face proudly, a smug smile curling at the corners of her lips as she noticed Jiang Ruo’s darkened expression.

Jiang Ruo’s face only darkened for a moment before she resumed her gentle, considerate smile.

“That’s fine. Come in together, then.”

Letting this ignorant human in might be a good idea that way, she could witness firsthand the look of panic and tears on this human’s face.

Perhaps she could even use this human’s lifespan as leverage to force her to stay away from Xu Bingqi.

Noticing Jiang Ruo’s momentarily darkened expression, Xu Bingqi instinctively tightened her grip on the zipper of her bag, preparing to adapt to any sudden changes.

Inside the bag were the wrench and file she had just bought from the hardware store.

“Sister, you must have had a tiring journey. This is Qimen black tea I brewed especially for you, it won’t disturb your rest tonight.”

In the delicate glass teapot, the Qimen black tea was slowly steeped in boiling water, revealing a captivating, bright red hue.

The tea was then poured into cups, resembling the sealed glow of a setting sun so dazzlingly beautiful it almost hurt the eyes.

But there were only two cups.

Jiang Ruo completely ignored Song Guanjin, who was sitting beside Xu Bingqi, placing a cup only in front of herself and Xu Bingqi.

“What do you mean when you say Guanjin’s life is on a countdown?”

Xu Bingqi had no interest in savoring the tea, especially not Jiang Ruo’s tea.

“Exactly what it sounds like.”

Jiang Ruo tilted her head and smiled, though she frowned slightly upon noticing that Xu Bingqi’s speech was faster than usual.

“Are you joking?”

Xu Bingqi didn’t really believe this was possible, but her concern clouded her judgment. She had to confirm it with Jiang Ruo personally to set her mind at ease.

After all, even if Jiang Ruo was the protagonist of a novel, she couldn’t possibly have the power to decide someone else’s life or death, could she?

Jiang Ruo maintained her smile. “Sister should know very well that I’m not a humorous person.”

It was just a pity that the vase beside her sister seemed unbothered, even gently kneading her sister’s fingers at a time like this.

How dare she flaunt such cheap tricks in front of me?

She must be too uninformed, thinking my words are nothing but a fantasy.

Xu Bingqi took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. “If your goal is to complete the novel’s ending, you should understand that Guanjin’s existence poses no threat to your objective.”

Jiang Ruo shook her head gently. “But that’s not my goal. Come to think of it, sister, you don’t actually know what my true personality is like, do you?”

After being reborn, Xu Bingqi gradually realized that Jiang Ruo was not the simple, kind-hearted person she had mistakenly believed her to be in her previous life. But after her rebirth, she had no desire to provoke the main characters or analyze Jiang Ruo’s personality.

In her previous life, everyone connected to her had gradually blurred into unfamiliar symbols she needed to avoid.

“I will stop at nothing to achieve my goals,” Jiang Ruo murmured, taking a sip of tea as if answering her own question. “Anyone who stands in my way like a stubborn rock, I will shatter them into dust.”

Xu Bingqi felt a headache coming on. It seemed the conversation was going in circles again. “But Guanjin has no conflict with you. She isn’t standing in your way.”

Song Guanjin continued kneading her sister’s palm, feeling how soft it was like the flesh of a freshly peeled peach. Since her sister hadn’t pulled her hand away, she must have tacitly approved of her actions. The little cat continued her kneading with delight.

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