Did I Succeed in Redeeming the Villain Today? - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: The Kitten Getting Better at Playing Pitiful…

The afternoon sun fell onto the open floor beside the podium, drawing a perfect golden square, much like the 3D geometric figures on the blackboard. The math teacher tapped on a diagram with a piece of chalk, constantly reciting combinations like ABCDEFG, making everyone feel drowsy.

The math teacher for Class 2-13 was the school’s famous “Exterminator Nun”; no one dared to zone out or doze off in her class.

But a kitten could.

Lu Ning was currently sprawled out on the windowsill in a “Ge You Couch Potato” slump, her fluffy tail swishing back and forth. However, her swishing frequency was slow and rhythmic, practically screaming “depression.” She was absent-minded, her gaze drifting back and forth among the students.

Actually, since arriving at class this morning, Lu Ning had been tracing every person in the room. Anyone who had even a brief conversation with Mu Qiuyu was tracked for a long time. But even so, in her eyes, there wasn’t a single person whose relationship with Mu Qiuyu seemed better than Li Xiang’s.

Besides, Pei Yinyue had even brought her delicious chicken breast this morning. Why wouldn’t Mu Qiuyu consider being friends with her? In Lu Ning’s view, Li Xiang and Pei Yinyue were the perfect candidates—one was a sunny puppy, the other an elegant and steady “favored daughter of heaven.” They were the standard configuration for a protagonist’s squad.

Thinking of this, Lu Ning suddenly grew worried. In the books she used to read, the “friend configuration” for a villain was worlds apart from a protagonist’s. Instead of normal friends, they were either bloodthirsty lunatics or mad dogs obsessed with the villain.

Could it be… Mu Qiuyu was already showing signs of becoming a Great Villainess, so her standards for choosing friends had begun to diverge from those of ordinary people? Mu Qiuyu didn’t go off and make friends with some hoodlum or a triad boss, did she?

Lu Ning fell into a state of nameless panic. Behind Mu Qiuyu’s mission success was her own mission failure. Not only had she failed to influence the villain toward goodness, but she had also somehow used the mission to push the villain toward darkening. Would I be caught by the Main System and sent for destruction right away…?

“Stop overthinking.”

Just as Lu Ning was about to scare herself to death with her wild imagination, Mu Qiuyu’s voice landed on her ears. Her words carried no emotion, as light as the wind blowing past the window frame. Yet, because of that very calmness, it perfectly brushed away Lu Ning’s jittery mood, settling her heart back in place.

However, after finding peace, surprise followed. Lu Ning snapped her head toward Mu Qiuyu, thinking: I was just muttering in my head, I didn’t say anything out loud!

Mu Qiuyu turned her head to look at Lu Ning’s lingering expression of shock and bewilderment. While taking math notes, she told her: “Lu Zero, your emotions are written all over your eyes.”

The kitten’s round eyes widened with disbelief as she quickly turned around to look at the clean windowpane behind her. In the reflection on the glass, the little black “coal ball” was staring back with bright eyes. Her crystal-blue pupils were dilated like round glass marbles, and her expression of shock was unmistakable.

Having been a cat for so long, Lu Ning finally remembered the physiological habits of felines. But why do kittens have eyes that are so easy to read?! Lu Ning raged helplessly in her heart, suddenly feeling a sense of wanting to crawl into a hole.

In her peripheral vision, the kitten’s figure shifted slightly, like a ball rolling across her heart. Mu Qiuyu unhurriedly turned a page in her notebook and said to Lu Ning: “If you really have nothing to do, pick some ordinary missions for me.”

Hearing Mu Qiuyu proactively ask for missions, Lu Ning was stunned. “Host, you actually want to do missions?”

“You’re busy?” Mu Qiuyu looked at her with a neutral gaze.

“Not busy, not busy! My time belongs to the Host, how could I be busy!” Lu Ning was overjoyed. She leaned her little head forward and flatteringly rubbed against Mu Qiuyu’s hand.

When Mu Qiuyu did missions, she got a commission of points. Though it wasn’t as much as the main quest, “even mosquito legs are meat.” It was enough to buy her a cup of milk tea.

With that in mind, Lu Ning immediately opened the “Mini-Mission List” that she could assign as a System. She began meticulously filtering for a suitable task.

“Is the ‘Mutual Aid’ series interesting to you, Host? Answering classmates’ questions can earn 30–50 points depending on difficulty. Helping teachers record grades earns 30–70 points based on complexity.” The kitten salesperson pushed the mission panel toward Mu Qiuyu, looking at her “client” with total sincerity.

Mu Qiuyu remained unmoved and coldly vetoed it: “Not interested.”

Lu Ning knew it would be like this. She scrolled down to another panel. “How about this? ‘One Good Deed a Day.’ Content includes giving up seats on the bus, helping old ladies cross the street, or doing community service. If Host performs heroically, there’s an extra 250-point bonus.”

“Two hundred and fifty?” Mu Qiuyu turned to look at her kitten, letting out a mocking scoff.

Note: 250 is Chinese slang for “idiot.”

Lu Ning gave an embarrassed laugh and immediately added: “If Host is willing to accept, I can submit an application to the higher-ups to change the reward to 300!”

But the kitten’s enthusiastic service failed to move her master. Mu Qiuyu coldly dropped three words: “I am not.”

“What about ‘Respect the Elderly and Love the Young’?”

“Pass.”

“Healthy Exercise?”

“Pass.”

“Tech Innovation?”

“Pass.”

Sunlight swept through the classroom, and chalk dust floated slowly in the air. The students were focused on the final question of the lesson; no one noticed the kitten lying on the windowsill on her back, looking utterly soul-tired.

Lu Ning had read out over ten series of missions, and Mu Qiuyu wasn’t interested in a single one. Her throat was truly dry. Looking at the full yet seemingly empty mission list, she looked at Mu Qiuyu with pitiful, watery eyes.

“Host, that’s all of them. Could you give me some face and just pick one you can barely tolerate?”

“Meow~ (Your kitten is begging you.)”

As she spoke, Lu Ning raised her paws and started doing a “begging” motion toward Mu Qiuyu. Sunlight hit the kitten’s blue eyes, reflecting a tiny dot of light in the girl’s pupils.

Watching this kitten who was getting better and better at playing pitiful, Mu Qiuyu looked at her in silence for a long time. Then, she put down her pen and said directly: “Lu Zero, there is one mission you haven’t mentioned to me.”

The girl’s slightly raised eyes seemed to have seen through everything, striking right at Lu Ning’s weak spot and making her swallow hard. Lu Ning had indeed hidden one mission. And she knew that if she recommended it, Mu Qiuyu would definitely accept.

“It’s the ‘Study Hard’ series.”

Reluctantly, Lu Ning opened the panel she had deliberately hidden and pushed it to Mu Qiuyu. The reason she hadn’t mentioned it first was that she wanted Mu Qiuyu to interact more with society through other small missions. Perhaps if she felt the warmth and sincerity of the world, her inner world would heal, and she wouldn’t turn into a villain.

“Completing homework with high quality daily earns 5 points. Ranking first in a single subject exam earns 10–25 points depending on difficulty. Ranking first in the class overall is 20–40 points, and first in the grade is 35–60 points.”

Lu Ning’s voice lacked the passion of her earlier sales pitch. When she reached the bottom of the description, she tried one last struggle: “But Host, these missions have time limits. If you fail to complete them on time, there are penalties.”

But how could Mu Qiuyu back down? This was the very mission she had done in her previous life. Back then, the System’s reaction was much more enthusiastic than this kitten’s, and it never cautioned her to give up. With over a month until midterms, it was well within the limit. Back when she was in the International Class, her scores weren’t included in the grade rankings; now she could finally see where she stood.

Looking down upon the masses from the top—even if she had to do it all over again—always brought her pleasure. Mu Qiuyu’s lips curved slightly. It had been a long time since she encountered something that interested her. Ignoring Lu Ning’s dissuading gaze, she decisively clicked “Confirm.”

[Mission Accepted. Daily missions will refresh at 8:00 AM. Please complete them on time. We wish you a happy life.]

The notification box flickered with blue light, as if celebrating the first mission Mu Qiuyu had accepted of her own accord. Lu Ning finally understood how Mu Qiuyu felt when she saw “Make a Friend.” She really wanted to pour a bucket of cold water on these “fireworks”—provided it wouldn’t short-circuit her.

The kitten wagged her tail vigorously, still not quite giving up: “Host, I think you shouldn’t just bury yourself in studies. It’s not good for your physical and mental development. you should socialize more; you might even gain some unforgettable life memories.”

Mu Qiuyu withdrew her gaze, calmly continuing the notes she had missed. “But don’t you think that for someone who has nothing, I should work even harder at studying?”

“…”

She was so right that Lu Ning, as a teacher, couldn’t find a single word to argue back.

“Fine,” Lu Ning compromised.

The sun traced the kitten’s silhouette as she stepped off the windowsill onto Mu Qiuyu’s scratch paper. Her “plum blossom” paw prints landed squarely on a formula, looking like she was full of secret mischief. The road is long; I can convince her slowly.

Just as Lu Ning crawled onto Mu Qiuyu’s textbook to lie down, the math teacher’s voice crackled through the portable loudspeaker. A high-pitched, piercing screech erupted in the classroom, and as if affected by it, a buzzing sound of static rang in Lu Ning’s head.

[Main Quest 2: Join a Club. Reward: 2000 points. Time limit: Three months.]

System Tip: “Facing missions negatively will result in random penalties. We wish the Host a smooth completion.”

In an instant, the air went still. That wasn’t the screech of the teacher’s loudspeaker; that was the sound of the mission system messing with her.

Lu Ning wondered if the System was playing her. Mu Qiuyu just said she didn’t want to socialize and only wanted to study, and then this “Join a Club” quest pops up. This thing arrived so abruptly that it overturned all her strategies and plans. And in Mu Qiuyu’s mind, this quest was being assigned by her.

There was no explaining this away. After a long silence, Lu Ning chose to face reality. She prepared herself psychologically and walked over to the silent Mu Qiuyu.

“Host, this isn’t a problem! You can join the Pet Club. I’ll help you handle it; blending in won’t be an issue at all!” This act of self-sacrifice was truly touching.

Mu Qiuyu listened and raised her hand to hook the kitten’s tail. She rested her chin on her hand; it seemed while Lu Ning was thinking, she had been thinking too. Her slender finger wound through the soft fur, slow and casual, then she shook the tail in her hand as she spoke: “No need.”

Lu Ning looked at her own tail and tilted her head in surprise, a look of worry surfacing in her eyes. “…Host, do you still not want to do this mission?”

“I’ll do it.”

But unlike last time, Mu Qiuyu gave a definite answer. The girl’s long, thick lashes slowly lifted, looking straight at the kitten lying before her. The corners of her eyes curved slightly with a hint of a smile, and the fingers that had been playing with the fur moved from the tail to stroke the kitten’s bottom.

“But I want you to satisfy one requirement of mine.”

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