Did I Succeed in Redeeming the Villain Today? - Chapter 37

Chapter 37: “Give Me Back the Hangover Soup.”

The dim yellow streetlights carved a circle into the night-shrouded street, pulling this small area out of the darkness. Lu Ning leaned against the lamppost, a layer of thin light reflecting in her pitch-black eyes, clearly illuminating her loneliness. A single tear rolled down in a bright silver line, tracing the profile of her face.

Mu Qiuyu felt an inexplicable ache in her chest. Her empathy arrived abruptly and clearly, making her realize instantly that it was the words Lu Ning had just said to her that caused this sadness. This “fake system,” who usually seemed cheerful and happy, also had secrets she couldn’t share with outsiders.

A wisp of mist brushed against the girl’s thin lips as she exhaled slowly. Mu Qiuyu looked at the hand resting just beneath her eye in her peripheral vision and asked Lu Ning, “Would your mother also be heartbroken for you?”

“Her…” Hearing this question, Lu Ning seemed to remember something. Her heavy head tilted to one side, looking past Mu Qiuyu’s slender figure toward a lonely cherry blossom tree in her blurry vision. The night wind brushed through its brilliance, shaking the tree until its petals fell solitary to the ground.

Was the blooming and falling of the cherry tree also its own choice? Lu Ning didn’t know. But she knew one thing. With that thought, she straightened up against the lamppost. She looked at Mu Qiuyu and flashed a beautiful, wide smile, telling her loudly: “Not at all.”

That smile blooming under the streetlight was more piercing than ever. Even though the person looked beautiful and radiant when she smiled, she was like a gilded apple—rotten to the core. One didn’t even need to dig deep to see the long-decayed sadness inside.

Mu Qiuyu’s expression darkened. Before she could react to the emotion of this image, she felt a weight on her shoulder. Lu Ning swayed and fainted, her head falling onto Mu Qiuyu’s shoulder. The tears that hadn’t been dried by the wind soaked the girl’s sweater, seeping through the light fabric, into the bone, and straight to the heart.

The wind swept through a vast, silent world; one could hear its sound but not see its shape. Lu Ning felt as if she had been in this place for a very long time. The world beneath her feet was like a movie screen, flashing back to stories from her original world.

The smell of disinfectant wafted out; the sound of cicadas through the thick glass felt muffled. She ran forward with all her might. On the hospital bed, the messy long hair on the woman’s face kept entangling her as if to swallow her whole.

“Mom.”

“Why…”

“Why?”

Lu Ning struggled in agony, her tears a flood about to drown her. At that moment, the wind carried a faint floral scent down from above, and Lu Ning caught a familiar smell. Overwhelming warmth wrapped tightly around her. She supported herself to stand up and opened her eyes…

A gentle white light spread before her, and the world was enveloped in silence. She smelled the unknown fragrance in the air and turned her head. As expected, she had returned to the territory of the “Internal World” Mu Qiuyu.

The bed beneath her was the familiar one. Lu Ning sat up with complete peace of mind and saw Mu Qiuyu’s back not far away. Steam drifted along the girl’s slender, elegant figure in a hazy white mist. If not for the sight of the hot liquid being poured from an exquisite teapot, it would have been a picture-perfect scene.

Thinking of this, Lu Ning couldn’t help but smile. Mu Qiuyu happened to turn around with the soup. Seeing Lu Ning’s smile, she was somewhat puzzled: “What are you laughing at?”

“I’m laughing because it seems your teapot can pour out anything except tea,” Lu Ning leaned back on her hands, naturally sharing her perspective. Her tone was familiar and relaxed, showing no worry that Mu Qiuyu would be angry at her teasing. Even though they had only met a few times, it felt as if they had known each other for a long time.

Mu Qiuyu didn’t get angry. She smiled warmly and said, “It can pour tea too, otherwise what would I be drinking every time?” As she spoke, she handed the cup to Lu Ning. “Hangover soup. Drink it, and your headache will get better.”

Reminded by Mu Qiuyu, Lu Ning recalled that Mu Qiuyu had indeed been holding a teacup earlier when they chatted. She realized this and murmured, “Oh, right.” She took the cup and said, “Thank you.”

“Were you having a nightmare? I heard you asking ‘why’ repeatedly,” Mu Qiuyu said, looking at Lu Ning on the bed and helping her brush away the sweaty strands of hair from her face. At the touch of the warmth, the cool sweat on Lu Ning’s face was replaced by the girl’s finger temperature.

Lu Ning froze for a second but didn’t push Mu Qiuyu away. She found that when she was with this Mu Qiuyu, there was an inexplicable sense of natural familiarity. Her damp hair was tucked behind her ear, leaving Lu Ning’s clear eyes to blink several times in the silence.

Lu Ning wasn’t as simple-minded and guileless as she appeared. If there was something she didn’t want to mention, she definitely wouldn’t say it. “Maybe,” she answered vaguely, giving Mu Qiuyu another smile, her eyes full of indignation. “Or maybe I was asking myself why my alcohol tolerance suddenly became so poor.”

Mu Qiuyu quietly noted Lu Ning’s evasion and followed her lead: “Was your tolerance good before?”

“It wasn’t just good, it was exceptional,” Lu Ning emphasized. “In university, I could stay in a bar until 2:00 AM and still make it to my 8:00 AM class the next day without a hitch.”

“A bar?” Hearing this relatively foreign term, Mu Qiuyu’s gaze paused. “Did you like going there a lot in university?”

“Mhm,” Lu Ning nodded. The warm soup pressed against her palm, slowly releasing a mist of heat. Lu Ning took a small sip, seemingly reminiscing about her youth. “Bars are glitzy and glamorous; they help you forget a lot of troubles. And let me tell you, bars in college towns have lots of beautiful older sisters—tall, slender, and they smell so good. When you go to university, I’ll take you—”

At the mention of “beautiful sisters,” Lu Ning’s eyes grew brighter. But just as she was inviting Mu Qiuyu to go with her, Mu Qiuyu reached out her hand.

“Give me back the hangover soup.”

Mu Qiuyu’s voice was much flatter than before. The softness in her tone was replaced by another emotion, sounding sharp and abrupt. Lu Ning didn’t react in time, her hand holding the soup freezing. “Huh?”

Mu Qiuyu’s change was swift. She pulled back her exposed emotions, her eyes curving back into a soft look as she explained to Lu Ning: “I just remembered, I forgot to add an ingredient to your soup. I have to redo a bowl.”

“Really?” Lu Ning handed the cup back, puzzled. A strange feeling lingered in her mind. She remembered that Mu Qiuyu’s ability was to manifest things she already knew. When did she actually “make” this soup?

Before Lu Ning could think deeper, Mu Qiuyu handed her another cup. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Lu Ning politely took the cup. But as she brought it close to smell, a thick, bitter odor pierced her nose. There was no sweetness at all; it was as if a handful of dirt had been tossed into the cup.

“Wh—why did it become so bitter?” Lu Ning looked at Mu Qiuyu with a scrunched-up face.

“This recipe belongs to traditional medicine. Chinese medicine is naturally bitter, but it works fast,” Mu Qiuyu explained, sitting down beside Lu Ning. “Don’t you have to go back soon? Or were you able to go to work with a hangover in your previous world?”

The girl’s gentle gaze seemed so considerate that any refusal would seem ungrateful. Lu Ning swallowed, held her breath, and tilted her head back. For the sake of Mu Qiuyu’s kindness—and because she had to return to the real world to face the much more difficult “Real World” Mu Qiuyu—she drank it.

The heavy bitterness exploded on her taste buds. Lu Ning instantly felt her resolve wasn’t deep enough. She felt like she couldn’t breathe, mechanically gulping down the soup.

“Ah—” The cup was empty. Lu Ning looked like a drowning person who had just been saved, gasping for fresh air.

Mu Qiuyu took the empty cup and handed her another one filled with a milky-coffee-colored liquid. “There.”

Lu Ning was immediately on high alert. “Again?”

Mu Qiuyu was somewhat helpless. “Milk tea. To clear your palate.”

Whether it was because her sense of smell finally returned from the numbness of the medicine or Mu Qiuyu’s words snapped her out of it, Lu Ning looked at the cup. In the rising steam, she smelled the fragrance of milk tea. “…Oh.” She smiled sheepishly at Mu Qiuyu.

The rich aroma filled the air, and the hot milk tea instantly washed away the lingering bitterness. Lu Ning felt like she had finally come back to life, sighing as she held the cup, “If only your medicine could taste as good as milk tea.”

“You should say, ‘If only I didn’t need you to prepare medicine for me,'” Mu Qiuyu replied nonchalantly. The cup she had taken from Lu Ning was now filled with clear tea, her reflection shimmering in the green ripples.

Lu Ning’s words made Mu Qiuyu remember something. She held her cup and sighed softly, “It’s just that, except for the first time I met you, every time I see you, you’re in a terrible state.”

Lu Ning froze. She looked at the Mu Qiuyu sitting beside her; the softness on the girl’s face had visibly dropped away. Sensing Lu Ning looking at her, Mu Qiuyu turned back with a bitter gaze: “It seems our meetings are never your active choice.”

Lu Ning suddenly remembered that the flow of time in the Inner World was different from reality. She asked cautiously: “Have you been waiting for me for a long time?”

“Twenty-seven days,” Mu Qiuyu’s lips moved slightly as she spoke the number easily. The number was precise—neither too large nor too small—pressing right onto Lu Ning’s heart. Guilt surged through her. “I’m sorry.”

Mu Qiuyu shook her head, seemingly understanding: “You surely have your own things to be busy with. I have nothing to do here anyway. Waiting for you can count as a task.”

The more sensible Mu Qiuyu was, the sadder Lu Ning felt. This person was abandoned by the “Outside” Mu Qiuyu, imprisoned and trapped here with nowhere to go. She could go nowhere but count the days waiting for her. For the Outside Mu Qiuyu, wasn’t this rejection of herself also a way of sealing herself off from the world?

Lu Ning really wanted the real Mu Qiuyu to accept this version of herself. She wanted to tell her that she didn’t need to suppress herself or use indifference as protection. But there was still a long road ahead.

The air went silent. Lu Ning held her cup, many thoughts swirling in her lowered gaze. The wind, seemingly unwilling to be left out, blew in from afar. The chains hidden under Mu Qiuyu’s skirt clinked, and her white skirt billowed in the wind.

But that white didn’t seem to be pure white. On the fabric near her ankles, there was a faint hint of pink… no, it was red.

Lu Ning’s gaze paused. She turned and asked, “What’s on your skirt?”

Mu Qiuyu followed Lu Ning’s gaze. Seeing Lu Ning looking, she tucked her feet back guiltily. “It’s nothing.”

Lu Ning realized something and frowned. “What do you mean ‘nothing’? Is it a wound from the chains?”

A sense of awkwardness emanated from the girl’s bare, overlapping feet. Seemingly embarrassed, Mu Qiuyu nodded gloomily. “Mhm.”

“How did it get like this? Have you not applied medicine?” Lu Ning’s frown deepened.

“No,” Mu Qiuyu shook her head, a sense of powerlessness in her voice. “I don’t seem to have that kind of medicine here.”

“I do,” Lu Ning said immediately, opening the System Mall. She didn’t even look at how many points the ointment for skin damage cost; she just saw the exchange button was lit and clicked it. In the blink of an eye, a small white tube appeared in her hand. Her frown finally relaxed. She waved the tube at Mu Qiuyu and said happily, “What you don’t have, I’ll provide.”

“Lift your skirt a bit, let me apply the medicine,” Lu Ning said.

“Okay,” Mu Qiuyu replied.

But as Lu Ning was looking at the instructions from the System Mall, a heavy shadow fell over her lap. Perhaps Mu Qiuyu had misheard the instruction—she lifted her skirt and placed her foot directly onto Lu Ning’s lap.

Mu Qiuyu’s gentle eyes held an inexplicable hint of pitiableness as she whispered into Lu Ning’s ear: “Thank you.”

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