Did I Succeed in Redeeming the Villain Today? - Chapter 19.1

Chapter 19.1: “Can You… Can You Stop Being Angry with Me…”

The roar of the speeding vehicle whistled in the wind as night approached. The setting sun gradually set the entire plain ablaze; from the city center to the outskirts, towering buildings were replaced by single-story houses and field ridges, making the world seem boundless.

This kidnapping was as abrupt as it was frantic. The wind whipped the kitten into a disheveled mess. Lu Ning clung desperately to the back door, her fluffy fur blown straight back.

The structure of a van’s iron door was far more complex than a school bathroom stall or a bedroom window. Lu Ning exhausted her strength just to phase through it, and then, after a sharp jolt, she rolled clumsily into the trunk.

The old vehicle was cluttered with various junk. The smell of rust mixed with chemical agents was particularly pungent. Lu Ning’s nose twitched incessantly; she had to exert all her willpower to keep from sneezing.

Amidst this foul stench, she performed an emergency localization. The van was practically flying; the system’s red dot could barely keep up. Finally, after a series of frequent bumps, the positioning stabilized.

An old, dilapidated gate stood half-open. The faded red characters of “Wu City No. 2 Chemical Plant (Old Site)” appeared outside the window. Abandoned factory buildings were densely packed into the cramped grounds, and the earth, untouched for years, was overgrown with wild grass.

Lu Ning used her trimmed claws to scramble onto the seat. As the low buildings flashed by, she suddenly felt this place looked familiar. That half-collapsed building over there… it looked like a corner of Mu Qiuyu’s Inner World. She had been standing behind that collapsed wall covered in weeds just the day before. And that steady wall—she had been lying on it drinking milk tea yesterday!

Why would Mu Qiuyu’s Inner World have these buildings?

Lu Ning was bewildered. She had read in a book once that people cannot imagine things they have never seen. If Mu Qiuyu’s Inner World contained this factory, did it mean she had been here before? But how…

“Host, were you here in the past—Ouch!”

Lu Ning had intended to ask while stepping over the seats to jump into Mu Qiuyu’s arms. But the ragged seat caught her claw. Before she could finish her sentence, her hindquarters flipped up, and she rolled directly onto Mu Qiuyu’s lap.

The kitten’s black fur was now covered in dust, making her look like a grey ball of lint. Falling head-first, tail-up, she looked utterly ridiculous.

With her mouth taped shut, Mu Qiuyu’s expressionless face flickered for a single second with a ghost of a smile. Her eyes held a mix of amusement and exasperation as she stared at the kitten that had suddenly appeared on her lap. She remained as still as a mountain.

Even though her hands were tied behind her back. Even though, even if she weren’t tied up, she probably wouldn’t help Lu Ning.

“Ow, that hurt like a dog—er, cat.” Lu Ning, dizzy from the fall, struggled to twist her body into a better position on Mu Qiuyu’s lap. She lay on her back, frowning in pain.

But noticing Mu Qiuyu was watching her, she immediately put on a determined face and signaled: “Host, don’t be afraid! I’m here to save you!”

The kitten was a novice; she didn’t realize that in times of danger, one should show claws and teeth, not a belly. That dusty belly lay exposed under the sunset; the crimson light made it look fluffy, soft, and vulnerable—like a Black Forest cake sprinkled with powdered sugar.

But terms like “soft” and “cake” are never used to describe reliability or security. Naturally, she didn’t look very convincing. Mu Qiuyu’s gaze lingered on Lu Ning’s belly for a second before shifting away. She returned to her “I can’t hear you” act, coldly observing the buildings the car passed.

“Host, please don’t ignore me at a time like this!” Lu Ning was frantic. How could Mu Qiuyu still give her the silent treatment in this situation?

“Host, I won’t—”

“Bro, we’re here.”

The car slowed down. The driver held the steering wheel with one hand, speaking nonchalantly. Lu Ning was still lying on her back on Mu Qiuyu’s lap. She heard the voice and was about to run when the man in the passenger seat turned around to grab Mu Qiuyu.

Two pairs of eyes—one large, one small—met directly.

“Where did this cat come from?” The man narrowed his small eyes, clearly displeased to see Lu Ning.

“What?” The driver parked the car and followed the man’s gaze.

“A cat!” The man frowned, his disgust palpable. He yanked open the car door and threw Lu Ning out without hesitation. “D*mn it, no idea when it snuck in. And it’s a black cat—bad luck. Get lost!”

Lu Ning felt herself being grabbed by the scruff of her neck. She had zero strength to resist. With her big tail curled, she was tossed like a ball of dust against the base of a broken wall. This treatment was even more violent than Shi Jin’s.

Lu Ning felt like her bones were being pulled apart. She struggled to stand up just in time to see Mu Qiuyu being dragged out of the car. The man was much gentler with Mu Qiuyu than he had been with her. However, with her hands tied, Mu Qiuyu had no balance and stumbled as she stepped down.

The abandoned factory had long since been stripped of anything valuable. Large windows lined the walls one after another, and the blood-red sunset stained the dusty floor. Mu Qiuyu walked calmly into the center of the crimson light. Her slender figure was silhouetted against a pillar, but she was suddenly shoved to the ground.

The shove caught her off guard. She tensed her body to keep from falling too clumsily. At that moment, a pair of men’s leather shoes entered her low-angle field of vision. A man in a suit stepped out from the shadows.

He was dressed “like a human,” but seeing Mu Qiuyu on the ground, he merely adjusted his trousers and squatted in front of her with a smile: “Long time no see, Miss Mu.”

Mu Qiuyu found it laughable. He had kidnapped her; what was the point of such a polite greeting? This man wasn’t like her System, who was friendly to every human. Moreover, Mu Qiuyu recognized this man. He had been at her family’s New Year’s banquet—he was the secretary to Uncle Chen, a friend of her father’s. He had even tried to toast her back then, though Mu Jingyi had refused on the grounds that she was a minor.

Mu Qiuyu had experienced this kidnapping in her previous life as well. After her family’s mysterious overnight bankruptcy, many people were skeptical and didn’t believe she truly had nothing left. This “Uncle Chen” was the first to lose patience, hiring these thugs to take her.

“Since you’re here, you should understand that you won’t be leaving without telling us what we want to know,” the suited man said, getting straight to the point. He reached out and ripped the tape off Mu Qiuyu’s mouth.

Instantly, a sharp pain flared across her face. The tape had been on for too long; as it was torn away, her naturally pale lips were left flushed with a bloody red.

“Let’s not waste words. It’ll save your time and mine.” The man showed no mercy. He stared at her, lacking patience but looking certain of victory. “Tell me, where did the remaining 15% of the Group’s assets go?”

If one looked closely, there were inconsistencies everywhere. At first, Mu Qiuyu herself couldn’t believe the Mu Group would be devoured so quickly after her parents’ death, with no legal agreement leaving her anything. She knew her mother wasn’t that careless; she must have left a fallback. But she truly didn’t know where those missing assets were.

In her previous life, she had been so arrogant, yet those assets only returned to her hands after she turned eighteen. She had investigated many times; the assets had been intentionally transferred multiple times over several years, making the source impossible to trace. And the “benefactor” who returned them to her? Even her System, which claimed it could find anything, couldn’t track them down.

Fate had played a massive joke on her, making her lose everything and suffer cold ridicule, only to have it restored on the first day of her adulthood.

Thinking of this, Mu Qiuyu’s expression turned icy. “I don’t know.”

This answer clearly displeased the man. “Are you joking? You don’t know?” He sneered. In their world, how could parents not plan for their children? Especially in their circle. Mu Qiuyu being penniless was not only a joke for their tea-time gossip, but it also made those who didn’t get a piece of the Mu Group suspicious and dissatisfied. Human greed is insatiable.

“My time is very precious. If you won’t speak, I’ll have to use methods.” The man rotated his wrist and removed his gloves. He looked at Mu Qiuyu as if she were a piece of merchandise, then reached for her neck without hesitation.

Her neatly tied bow was violently torn open, and the button at her collar was popped… The man reached toward Mu Qiuyu’s collarbone. He grabbed the small gold lock necklace hanging around her neck.

There was no lust in his eyes, only ruthlessness. He pulled with force. The tiny bell on the gold lock gave a weak, crisp tinkle, protesting his brutality. Gold is soft yet resilient; the thin chain dug into Mu Qiuyu’s neck as if it were going to embed itself in her flesh. Finally, forced to choose between hurting its master or breaking itself to protect her, the chain snapped. The broken clasp fell to the floor, covered in dust.

The gold lock given to her by her mother was ripped away.

“Your mother gave this to you on your first birthday, didn’t she? I believe she wore it when she was a child, too.” The man held the gold lock, dangling it before Mu Qiuyu’s eyes. The golden light was a blatant threat.

Mu Qiuyu looked at it, hatred nearly overflowing from her eyes. She had hidden the bracelet the man had stolen in her previous life, but he had still found something else to threaten her with.

“Give it back,” Mu Qiuyu said, her voice hard and cold with a warning tone.

The man found her “high-and-mighty” tone hilarious. “You still think you’re the Eldest Miss? Your mother is dead; no one is going to block drinks for you anymore.”

He mocked her, stabbing his words into her heart. He was about to “teach her a lesson” on who the superior was now when his phone rang.

Buzz, buzz, buzz.

The man looked annoyed, but his expression shifted the moment he saw the caller. Even before answering, his gaze became as submissive as a dog’s.

“I’ll give you some time to think,” the man said, casually tossing Mu Qiuyu’s necklace to the driver sitting at the table. “Keep this safe.”

“You got it!” The driver happily caught the gold lock, hoping the man would forget about it. Mu Qiuyu watched the driver’s greedy eyes, wishing she could gouge them out. But now was not the time to vent; she needed to find an escape route.

In her previous life, after being kidnapped, the suited man used many “methods” to force a confession she couldn’t give. That pain was far worse than having tape ripped off her lips. Resentment, pain, and suffocating oppression had expanded in her heart overnight. She would never forget this place.

She remembered the man taking her to the second floor for interrogation after the call. She had fought back, but she wasn’t strong enough. He caught her and retaliated a thousandfold. Blood had trickled down her hair, the metallic scent almost masking the lingering smell of the chemical plant. After that, she couldn’t remember what happened. She had blacked out. When she woke up, Mu Jingqin was by her bed, calculating how much the hospital stay had cost her.

Even knowing this would happen, Mu Qiuyu had chosen to experience it again in this life. She felt there was something fishy about it all. She didn’t want to change the past just to be safe; she was never afraid to step into the fray. Only by facing it directly could she notice details she might have missed before. The suited man wanted information from her; little did he know she wanted to pry open the mysteries of her past life from him.

As she was observing her surroundings, a familiar voice suddenly whispered in her ear: “Host, I’m here.”

Mu Qiuyu paused. She felt something fluffy brush against her bound hands. A kitten’s warm breath fanned across her palm, followed by the feel of sharp feline teeth.

The arrogant men hadn’t noticed a grey ball rolling in through the door. Lu Ning had watched the whole thing from the shadows. She had previously spent her points on milk tea, flower seeds, the cat body, and a cuteness buff. Her current points weren’t enough to buy a “controlled weapon” like a knife or even a small blade from the System Mall.

Helplessly, Lu Ning decided to use her teeth to bite through the rope. Since she had a feline body, she spent her last point to upgrade her “Feline Primal Attributes.” Now, not only were her teeth terrifyingly sharp, but her claws were honed to points.

“Host, I’ll bite the rope for you!” Lu Ning whispered, immediately starting to loosen the binds. The kitten gnawed furiously behind the girl. Mu Qiuyu didn’t move. She didn’t believe Lu Ning could bite through such thick hemp rope. Nor did she appreciate the gesture.

She wouldn’t trust the System again. She shouldn’t be foolish enough to try. Systems always betray you.

Lu Ning didn’t know her “trust rating” had dropped to negative numbers. She only found the rope incredibly difficult to deal with. The kitten hadn’t experienced the hardships of life; her skin was tender. She bit the rough hemp with all her might. The rope slowly began to fray, but the coarse fibers repeatedly scraped against her lips. Soon, Lu Ning tasted blood in her mouth, mixed with the taste of dust.

But could she care about that now? Being a toothless cat was better than having no Host. She was still a kitten; she’d grow new teeth anyway!

Lu Ning went all out, gnawing and growling softly. Mu Qiuyu listened to the subconscious sounds Lu Ning made, waiting for her to be exposed. Then, she felt something warm drip onto her palm. The crimson sunset covered the concrete floor in front of her. As she felt that drop of “water” slide across her skin, her expression froze.

She realized what it was. The scent of blood bloomed in her palm. But her hands were tied; no matter how she moved her palm, she couldn’t hold Lu Ning’s blood.

How foolish. Mu Qiuyu let out a faint, bitter laugh. She didn’t know if she was laughing at Lu Ning or herself.

“Crap, that cat’s back.”

Just as Lu Ning was about to finish biting through the rope, a man’s voice struck her head like a heavy stone. The kitten looked up at the “two-legged beast” many times her size. Her heart skipped a beat. She had been found.

“Damn it, it’s like a ghost that won’t leave.”

Before Lu Ning could dodge, the man kicked her. This kick was far more deadly than when he had tossed her from the car. Lu Ning tumbled several meters away, her mouth filling with dust. Her head hit something, and her vision became blurry.

In her tilted vision, the suited man returned from his call. He stood nearby, commanding the men to bring Mu Qiuyu upstairs while he went ahead. That was why she had been spotted.

D*mn it. Lu Ning was unwilling to give up. Her animal instincts made her hiss at the man who had kicked her: “Hiss—!”

“Oh, quite a temper on this one.” The man walked toward her, wanting to see if the cat’s temper was harder than his wrist.

In a daze, Lu Ning saw the man’s ragged shoes approaching. Sensing danger, she turned to run but was snatched up. Held in a human’s grip, the kitten had zero combat power. The man intentionally squeezed her neck, making it hard for her to breathe.

“Are you going to take me over there or not?”

Mu Qiuyu’s cold voice rang out. She had stood up and was staring at the man holding the cat with dark, bottomless eyes. Suddenly, the man felt a chill. He subconsciously loosened his grip and turned his attention back to Mu Qiuyu. “Oh, Miss Mu is quite eager.”

“If you cooperate and stay by my side, I won’t drag you.”

“Fine,” Mu Qiuyu nodded, walking at a steady pace.

Seeing her calm demeanor, the man thought the girl was interesting. He lost interest in playing with the tiny life in his hand and tossed Lu Ning aside into a pile of ash. He hurried to catch up with Mu Qiuyu to lead her upstairs. As they passed the table, they saw the driver playing with ants out of boredom.

“Keep watch here. Don’t let anyone in. Stop playing with ants,” the man warned.

“Don’t worry, Bro.” The driver swept the ants off the table and reached for his phone, ready to start a game once the others were gone.

The second floor of the factory appeared to be a former office area, divided into small cubicles. The hallway ran between the rooms; there were no windows here, the smell of dust was heavy, and footprints were clearly visible on the floor.

Mu Qiuyu followed the man upstairs, her eyes locking onto the third room on the north side. The suited man was already waiting, sitting leisurely in a chair that was still somewhat intact. He looked relaxed, not at all like someone who would resort to violence.

Heh.

Mu Qiuyu let out a cold laugh in her heart.

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