Did I Succeed in Redeeming the Villain Today? - Chapter 45

Chapter 45: “Lu Ling, Try Dying In Front Of Me Again If You Dare…”

It wasn’t until today that Lu Ning truly experienced the kind of evil that textbooks couldn’t even begin to describe.

The moment she was caught in the net, Lu Ning wanted to use her invisibility to phase through the bag and escape. But just as she was entering that state, her neck was suddenly squeezed through the fabric. The boy’s rough, powerful fingers clamped tightly around the kitten’s windpipe, making oxygen scarce.

Lu Ning visibly struggled to breathe. It felt as though her neck was about to be snapped. Forget escaping; she could barely maintain consciousness. She fought desperately inside the bag, but the more she struggled, the harder it became to breathe. After a sudden, forceful blow, her vision went black.

The person’s technique was practiced; he hadn’t struck the cat hard enough to kill it. Consequently, Lu Ning only fell into a coma rather than being sent back to Mu Qiuyu’s Inner World. When she finally woke up, a thick, coppery scent of blood flooded her nostrils.

The world was dim, and light couldn’t penetrate the space. Lu Ning felt completely disoriented. She struggled to stand up. Her four limbs could still manage some strength, and aside from a dull ache at the back of her head where she’d been hit, she didn’t feel any bleeding wounds on her body.

“Meow…”

Faintly, Lu Ning heard a kitten’s cry nearby. She looked around blankly, her gaze passing over a cage made of rusted, moldy wire. Not far away, she saw a huddled kitten. Its eyes were matted with filth, yet in the gloomy environment, they still glowed with an emerald-green light. Its orange fur was soaked in blood; not a single patch was clean. It was nearly on the brink of death.

Looking at it, Lu Ning felt her heart tighten. A strange and cruel term flashed in her mind. She asked the kitten in disbelief, “Meow~ (Were you brought here by them to be abused?)”

Hearing Lu Ning’s voice, the kitten looked at the newcomer, a black cat, with a mix of confusion and suspicion. It realized Lu Ning wasn’t communicating through animal sounds, but through human language. The kitten, having no positive impression of humans, dragged its broken body into an arch and hissed at Lu Ning. “Meow!”

It seemed to be asking: Traitor! Why do you speak the human tongue?

Lu Ning instantly understood why the kitten was so guarded against anything remotely “human.” Among the group that had snatched her today were sub-human scum who abused cats.

When Lu Ning was taking her professional courses, the professors had once analyzed such cases cryptically. Such situations were difficult; they required positive guidance from teachers to find the students’ underlying triggers. But who would guide the innocent animals who died? Who would find their triggers? What had they done wrong to suffer such torture for no reason?

Lu Ning realized she wasn’t just facing school bullying; this was a severe social issue. These little brats needed someone to punish them. She couldn’t leave alone; she had to take the kitten with her. If she simply vanished, their fury would be redirected toward the helpless kitten.

Lu Ning thought for a moment and then stood up proudly. “Meow~ (Because I am a Great Cat Deity! If I just enlighten you, you’ll be able to understand me!)”

As she spoke, Lu Ning tearfully exchanged points in the System Mall for a language translator. Then, acting like a deity bestowing enlightenment, she pressed her paw onto the kitten’s head.

The kitten looked at Lu Ning and thought she was being eccentric. It was resistant to the paw reaching out, but since it couldn’t move its body, it just wailed repeatedly: “Meow—Meow—!? (What deity? Don’t talk nonsense! Get away from me!!)”

Mid-wail, the kitten froze. It listened to its own words and looked at Lu Ning in surprise. “You really are a deity!”

“Of course. Trust me, I’ll lead you out of here,” Lu Ning promised, patting her chest.

“But if you’re a deity, shouldn’t you kill them?” The kitten was filled with indignant resentment, tears welling in its eyes. “They… they tortured my older sister to death yesterday…”

Hearing this, Lu Ning’s gaze shifted painfully to the kitten’s side. She had wondered why such a small kitten cast such a large shadow. It wasn’t a shadow; it was the curled-up, cold body of another kitten. Most of the blood on the survivor had come from this cat, which had suffered a thousand times more. Lu Ning could hardly imagine what this kitten had endured; its body, which appeared stronger than her own, was mangled, with bones exposed in several places.

What kind of night must yesterday have been? Perhaps it was just another day for the abusers, but for the kitten, it was a night spent guarding its sister’s body, only to wake up to a cold corpse. Was it relieved to be out of pain, or worried that its younger sister, now without protection, would suffer the same fate?

The resonance between members of the same species buried deep in her cat body made Lu Ning unable to look any longer. She remembered the kitten’s words and hated herself—why couldn’t she just kill these bastards? She had the sharpest claws given by Mu Qiuyu and a sturdy body; she could surely take down these weaklings—if they didn’t have tools.

Humans pride themselves on using tools; is this what they use them for? To cruelly treat animals weaker than themselves?

Lu Ning’s body tensed, shaking uncontrollably. She kept scrolling through the System Mall, searching for a solution. After a moment, her brow relaxed. In her vision, the “Discount Area” of the mall was flashing with a sale on Truth Serum.

Lu Ning immediately hatched a plan, feeling as though even the system was helping her.

“Dinosaur carrying a wolf, dinosaur carrying~”

Just then, a boy’s unpleasant singing drifted from a distance, accompanied by approaching footsteps. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew into the cage, and the light stabbing through the opening stung Lu Ning’s eyes. A tall boy with a pockmarked face peered in at her, shaking a piece of scrap cloth.

So, it was still daytime.

As Lu Ning thought this, the ugly face reached a hand into the cage. He didn’t grab Lu Ning first; instead, he poked the kitten hiding in the back. With a condescending sneer, he scoffed, “You lucky little brat, your sister died and now another one has come to replace her. Rest up for a couple of days; I’ll deal with you then.”

With that, the boy grabbed Lu Ning by the scruff of the neck and lifted her up. The kitten, despite its fear, dragged its broken leg forward to reach for Lu Ning. “Meow! (Cat Deity!)”

Lu Ning was no less nervous than the kitten. She didn’t know what she was about to face. Even so, she had to play the role of the kitten’s new “sister” and comforted her softly, “Meow~ (I’ll be fine, don’t worry.)”

The big guy seemed to be in a genuinely good mood. Carrying Lu Ning, he continued to hum along to the loud music playing from his phone. Lu Ning took the opportunity to observe her surroundings, quickly noting the location and sending a report to the police station.

She hadn’t ignored Mu Qiuyu. But rather than having her Host risk coming here to save her, it was better for Lu Ning to finish this and run back to her. These people wanted to use her to make Mu Qiuyu’s life a living hell. She wouldn’t let Mu Qiuyu get hurt. She would protect her Host.

The system quickly delivered the Truth Serum. This item only required the user to think of the target’s image in their mind for it to take effect. Lu Ning only remembered the girl who lured her, but since her points only allowed for a limited number of doses, she decided to use them one by one as she saw the targets.

Lu Ning clicked “Use” in her internal system, targeting the big guy first.

The big guy’s mouth, which had been humming, suddenly went out of control. He began to spill his heart: “D*mn it, I have to do this stupid work every time. It’s so boring. That bastard Cen only cares about his own fun, d*mn it.”

Just then, a figure stepped out from around the corner. A thin, tall boy wearing the First High school uniform stood with one hand in his pocket, smiling at the rambling big guy. “Wang Qiang, I think I just heard my name?”

Wang Qiang froze at the sight of him and clamped his mouth shut. But his mouth seemed to have a mind of its own, opening up: “You heard right! I was talking about you, you bastard Cen!”

Despair was visible on Wang Qiang’s face. The boy he called “Cen” immediately looked vicious and slapped Wang Qiang across the face.

Slap!

The crisp sound echoed through the hallway. But his strength was too weak; Wang Qiang didn’t even budge. Nevertheless, the act caused Wang Qiang some mental distress. He touched the red mark on his face and spat, “F*ck, what are you so proud of? You have no strength at all. You’re just a nerd who can only study. If you didn’t help us cheat every time, who would follow you?”

Wang Qiang’s powerful voice echoed in the quiet hallway. Lu Ning dangled in the air, blinking. She hadn’t expected her plan to go so smoothly. She had thought she would need to scheme to cause infighting, but thanks to Wang Qiang’s incredible assist, the tall, thin boy’s face was turning shades of green and purple.

Wait, do you villains turn on each other this easily? Lu Ning was in disbelief.

Then, something even more unbelievable happened. Madmen are called madmen because their logic is unpredictable to normal people. Before Lu Ning could see clearly, a flash of silver slid from the thin boy’s pocket and lunged toward Wang Qiang.

“You won’t follow me? I’ll make you follow me today!”

“Arghhh!”

The thin boy’s vicious voice and Wang Qiang’s scream happened almost simultaneously. The sharp knife accurately sliced Wang Qiang’s arm. Wang Qiang winced in pain, jumping around the hallway like a monkey, and suddenly let go of Lu Ning.

A few drops of blood landed on Lu Ning’s fur, making her feel “unclean.” She shook her fur frantically and tried to slip away along the wall. But at the corner, a familiar pair of legs appeared.

The girl in the Guanghua uniform who had lured her was walking over. She had changed back into her own clothes; her shorts were so short they almost revealed half her backside. The girl noticed Lu Ning and smiled at the cat. But Lu Ning didn’t like her and backed away, trying to keep her distance.

How could a kitten escape a demon’s palm? Just as Lu Ning was about to run, her tail was grabbed roughly by the girl. She didn’t care if the kitten got hurt; she pulled with enough force to snap the tail. “Little thing, trying to run?”

The girl didn’t care about the tail, but Lu Ning did. Pain radiated through her spine and temples. she arched her body, preparing to attack. The girl was unfazed; she was an expert at handling cats. She smiled coldly, “Why look at me like that? You think you’re as clever as that ‘Old Schemer Cen’?”

As soon as she spoke, the girl’s expression froze. Lu Ning’s attack wasn’t physical; she had already prepared the Truth Serum.

“…?”

Within a minute, the tall, thin boy had gained a new nickname. He looked at Wang Qiang in surprise, then turned in disbelief to the girl.

The girl covered her mouth, waving her hands frantically. She wanted to say it wasn’t true, but her mouth was as out of control as Wang Qiang’s: “Old Schemer, didn’t you know? I’ve been using you every time. If it weren’t for your grades and your family’s influence, who would hang out with you? You’re as thin as a needle.”

These words were even more damaging than Wang Qiang’s. The tall boy’s face darkened completely. He clenched his fist and grabbed the girl’s hair, much like she had grabbed Lu Ning’s tail.

“Wang Xiaodi! Who the f*ck do you think you are? You didn’t think… that what we had was real, did you?”

The tall boy had also been hit by Lu Ning’s Truth Serum. Driven by fury, he began telling the truth.

“You’re just a tool to me, worse than this stupid cat, understand?”

His eyes were filled with contempt for Wang Xiaodi. Although he was surprised by his own words, he was clearly more unashamed than the other two. He looked down at the girl, not feeling his words were wrong at all. But Wang Xiaodi had never heard such things; she was shaking with rage.

She suddenly went mad, throwing whatever was in her hands at the boy. Lu Ning, unprepared, was tossed into the air.

“Meow!”

“AHHH!!!”

Amidst the cat’s shrill cry, Lu Ning took the chance to claw the tall boy’s face. He clutched his face and screamed in pain, and Wang Xiaodi began pummeling him even more wildly.

“What are you doing, you pig! Come help me!” The boy, unable to fight back, shouted at Wang Qiang, who was watching the show.

Wang Qiang was a coward, but he actually listened and tried to pull Wang Xiaodi away. “Let’s talk this out. Bastard Cen is a piece of work, and you should keep your business with Gao Yuan on the down-low.”

At these words, the hallway became deathly silent. Wang Xiaodi looked at Wang Qiang in disbelief, and the tall boy stood up in a fury. In the narrow hallway, the three began tearing at each other; the situation had turned into a chaotic mess.

Lu Ning was kicked by someone in the fray and rolled quite a distance. She watched the successful infighting and didn’t join in, turning to run back along the wall to the room where they had been locked up.

The kitten was fast and returned to the abandoned room with ease. Wang Qiang hadn’t locked the cage. Lu Ning skillfully opened it with her paw and told the kitten, “Quick, they’re fighting, let’s go.”

“Cat Deity, you did it!” The kitten looked at the unharmed Lu Ning and tried to stand up excitedly, but she collapsed a second later. She looked dejected, staring at her bleeding leg. “I can’t go. My leg is broken.”

“It’s okay. Get on my back; I’ll carry you.” Lu Ning moved close to the kitten, gesturing for her to climb on. “Hurry, time is—”

“Oh, quite the team spirit you have here?”

Just as Lu Ning was about to lift her, she heard a mocking voice from behind. She spun around, and a terrifying scene appeared before her. A teenage face that looked full of righteousness was smiling just outside the cage.

Lu Ning would never forget that sinister face of Gao Yuan she had seen through the crowd when Shi Jin was causing trouble for Mu Qiuyu. She had thought the voice in the bag sounded familiar; it really was Gao Yuan.

Shouldn’t he be representing the shooting team at the city’s youth cup qualifiers today? Lu Ning was filled with confusion. But this wasn’t the time to investigate. Escaping this predicament was the priority. Lu Ning, fueled by old and new grudges, lunged at him with her claws out. “Meow! (Die!)”

Gao Yuan hadn’t expected Lu Ning to attack suddenly. He couldn’t react in time, and Lu Ning left five deep claw marks on his arm. He proved why he was a shooting medalist; his mindset was incredibly stable. Despite the intense pain, he reached out and grabbed Lu Ning by the tail. “F*ck, you dead cat! Dead cat!”

Lu Ning tried to attack again, but he swung her by the tail against the cage multiple times. She saw stars. The kitten huddled in the corner, her fur standing on end, hissing at Gao Yuan. “Meow meow!! (Let the Cat Deity go! Let her go!!)”

Gao Yuan’s strength was even greater than the man who drove the car at the old factory. Lu Ning was nearly dazed from the impact. She barely maintained enough consciousness to use the Truth Serum on Gao Yuan, but she was one point short. And she realized blankly that with him being alone, the serum wouldn’t even be useful.

“D*mn it,” Lu Ning cursed in her heart. The pain throughout her body lessened slightly.

Lu Ning was tossed onto the floor by Gao Yuan like a broken rag. Her breathing was weak and shallow. She watched him walk away and thought she could finally catch her breath. However, before the system’s body check report could even appear, a bucket of cold water was poured over her.

Lu Ning was caught off guard, the cold water making her fur stand on end. She saw Gao Yuan reaching for her again. She tried her best to attack him, but he grabbed her by the tail, held her upside down, and dropped her into a bucket.

Water colder than before surrounded Lu Ning from all sides, draining her body heat like a predator. Gao Yuan then plunged his hand into the bucket, tightly squeezing the kitten’s neck and drowning her in the water. No matter how she struggled, it was useless.

“Glub, glub.”

Oxygen couldn’t last through the struggle. Once exhausted, her body instinctively forced her mouth open. Water seized the opportunity to rush into the kitten’s nasal passages. The stinging sensation expanded, violently filling Lu Ning’s brain. Lu Ning clawed at the water, her mind filled with red warnings.

Warnings about severe water ingestion. Warnings that she was about to disappear.

She was a cat that couldn’t swim. Lu Ning watched the water submerge her, regretting that she hadn’t learned this skill after Mu Qiuyu accidentally dunked her that day.

…Host.

Would her Host come to save her?

In her delirium, Lu Ning’s mind began to grasp at straws. She was supposed to be Mu Qiuyu’s strong support, to save her, yet in this moment, she was hoping Mu Qiuyu would save her.

Bang!

A loud noise echoed in the silence. Lu Ning couldn’t hear it clearly through the water. But she clearly felt the weight pressing down on her disappear. Her body’s will to live made her claw wildly at the surface, weakly but desperately trying to swim out.

Just as Lu Ning was lost and helpless, she suddenly felt an incredibly warm hand scoop her up from behind. The shimmering water light rapidly receded from her vision. Through the water droplets blurring her sight, she seemed to see Mu Qiuyu’s face.

“Host… is this a hallucination before death?” Lu Ning asked weakly, looking at the person who had saved her.

The person spoke in a cold voice, giving her a harsh command: “Lu Ling, try dying in front of me again if you dare.”

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