Did I Succeed in Redeeming the Villain Today? - Chapter 50

Chapter 50: “Mu Qiuyu, Do You Want To Come And Pet Me…”

Under the light, the veins on the back of Mu Qiuyu’s hand were pulled taut and prominent.

Her cold, pale skin was coated with a layer of chilling air as she gripped the other person’s neck directly—an act of extreme brutality.

Lu Ning was being strangled by Mu Qiuyu to the point where she could barely breathe. Her deep red lips were slightly parted, and the light falling upon them trembled in fragments. She looked as if she wanted to cry out, but her vocal cords were held in Mu Qiuyu’s grasp. Her struggling hands had no strength at all, hanging limply against the girl’s tensed wrists, frail and weak.

Mu Qiuyu suddenly snapped back to her senses, her look of surprise instantly replaced by another emotion.

The person before her had eyes brimming with physiological tears; the deep red flush made it look as though her entire being was soaked in water. At a single glance, she looked pitiful to the extreme.

Mu Qiuyu remained silent, her throat bobbing as she forced herself to show restraint. Deep down, she felt that this version of Lu Ning was almost excessively beautiful—like a peach she had peeled herself, fragile and enticing. This body, crafted by her own hands, had been granted a soul by her system.

Unable to bear letting Lu Ning suffer any longer, Mu Qiuyu finally, slowly, let go of her hand.

She looked at the kitten who had suddenly turned into a human and asked in confusion: “How did you become a human?”

“To protect you.” Lu Ning’s voice was hoarse as she uncomfortably covered her neck. “I told you I would protect you well.”

At this point, Lu Ning shifted her gaze from herself to Mu Qiuyu. “Do you have any idea how much you scared me just now? Before I could even finish my sentence, you just collapsed.”

The kitten had been completely unprepared for the heavy, dark shadow that crashed toward the top of her head. One second Mu Qiuyu was saying she was fine, and the next she had keeled over.

Everyone had been terrified; the police were even preparing to rush Mu Qiuyu to the hospital. But Mu Qiuyu’s situation wasn’t something a hospital could solve. While Lu Ning was frantically trying to find a solution, her prompt box popped up. The screen quickly displayed text, instructing Lu Ning to check the “Recycle Bin.”

Lu Ning hadn’t known the system had such a place. Half-believing, she clicked the button. After a dizzying flash of blue light, she saw the body Mu Qiuyu had previously modeled for her amidst a pile of slowly dissolving data.

“You have no idea, redeeming a body from the system is super expensive. I used up all my points just now, so I had to go ‘scavenging.'” Lu Ning denounced the black-hearted nature of the System Store with quite a bit of emotion. “Fortunately, human body data is so massive that it dissolves slowly.”

“You should have a financial plan,” Mu Qiuyu remarked indifferently after listening to Lu Ning’s protest.

“I know, I’ll definitely keep good accounts from now on!” Lu Ning promised. As she spoke, she showed Mu Qiuyu her leg hidden under her trouser leg. “And look, it’s like this, it doesn’t affect my walking at all.”

The skin on Lu Ning’s calf looked like peeling wallpaper, joined together inconsistently. The exposed data flickered with a faint blue light; it seemed that any wound not woven from red blood didn’t count as gruesome. Lu Ning’s eyes were sparkling, as if she had just scored a huge bargain.

Looking at the color returning to the girl’s face, the unreleased fatigue in Mu Qiuyu’s eyes lightened a bit. “So, after you became human, you brought the unconscious me to a hotel?”

Lu Ning nodded. “I told them you didn’t just call the police, but notified me as well. I said this reaction happens because you’ve been under mental strain since childhood. Then I pretended to give you some medicine.” At this point, Lu Ning shielded her mouth with her hand and whispered with a smile, “It was actually Vitamin C.”

Hearing this, Mu Qiuyu subconsciously licked her teeth. She had felt a sour, astringent taste in her mouth since waking up; now she finally understood why.

“Afterward, the police drove us here. I also got rooms for Li Xiang and Shi Jin, since everyone was covered in filth.” Lu Ning continued to fill Mu Qiuyu in on what happened while she was out, and then started laughing unkindly. “Hahaha, you have no idea, Shi Jin stepped in dog poop on her way out…”

Although Lu Ning felt Shi Jin had done well this time—even using her expensive wool sweater to wrap the kitten—they hadn’t reached the level of “laughing away old grudges.” Seeing Shi Jin encounter such bad luck, neither she nor Li Xiang could hold back. They laughed loudly while helping her clean up.

Shi Jin had held the kitten, her entire face flushed red with a mix of anxiety and anger as she tried to get rid of the mess. Li Xiang was caught in the crossfire while trying to dodge, and the scene had been quite chaotic.

Mu Qiuyu sat on the bed, quietly watching Lu Ning recount these events with high spirits. Her eyes followed the girl; when Lu Ning laughed, she smiled; when Lu Ning relaxed, she too felt the tension leave her. Gradually, Mu Qiuyu felt she had recovered from the nightmare. Her dry throat reminded her to hydrate.

When Lu Ning paused again, Mu Qiuyu interjected: “Could you pour me a glass of water?”

“Of course I can.” Lu Ning dropped the unfinished story of Shi Jin’s embarrassment and immediately got up to pour the water.

The warm water created a layer of vapor on the glass, floating like a white mist under the lamp. Lu Ning tested the temperature with her hand before bringing it to Mu Qiuyu. “Here.”

“Thank you.” Mu Qiuyu took it. The real warmth pressing against her palm made her breathe a long sigh of relief at being back in the real world.

Accustomed to being a cat, Lu Ning didn’t bother moving a chair and simply sat on the floor. She watched quietly as Mu Qiuyu took a sip. The girl’s thin profile still had strands of hair clinging to it, dampened by cold sweat.

Lu Ning looked at Mu Qiuyu seriously and asked: “Mu Qiuyu, what was the system’s punishment? Was it scary? I couldn’t contact you at all just now; I thought you were going to die.”

Hearing this, Mu Qiuyu chuckled softly. The warm water moistened her throat, making her voice sound gentler than before. “So now you know how I felt when I couldn’t contact you?”

“I know.” Lu Ning leaned against the edge of the bed like a kitten, seriously extending three fingers by her head. “I promise I’ll definitely come back on time in the future!”

“You’d better mean what you say.” Mu Qiuyu looked at Lu Ning’s solemn vow, her peripheral vision catching the red marks left on Lu Ning’s neck from her own strangling.

The shoulder-length hair swayed under the light, revealing the lingering imprints. Logically, those marks should have faded naturally by now. Mu Qiuyu, surprised by her own concern, asked: “Does squeezing into this body make you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”

“No.” Lu Ning checked her sensations and slowly shook her head. “Oh, right!”

Then, as if remembering something, her eyes lit up. With a swift motion, she yanked off the beanies she was wearing. Pointing to her head, she showed Mu Qiuyu with great excitement: “This!”

The data for human ears had been erased by the Recycle Bin, but Lu Ning unexpectedly found that her cat ears could take their place. Thus, before Mu Qiuyu’s eyes, a pair of fluffy black animal ears popped up from Lu Ning’s smooth hair. They were upright and soft, springing into the air after the hat was removed.

“Mu Qiuyu, do you want to come and pet me?” Lu Ning excitedly touched her own interesting ears and invited Mu Qiuyu warmly. “I’m very soft to pet! You’ll definitely like it!”

Li Xiang had shared “beast-girl” videos with Mu Qiuyu before, and she had always felt that human heads with fake animal ears were a violation of evolutionary theory. But looking at the ears on Lu Ning’s head now—this perfectly natural appearance was a thousand times more vivid than any expensive simulation ears on the market.

What did a scaled-up version of kitten ears feel like? Would they be softer? Or would they feel more like human ears?

“Why aren’t you going in?”

“No, well, I just got here too.”

Mu Qiuyu’s hand under the quilt was itching to move, but voices came from the door at an inopportune time. The woman’s relaxed voice made Li Xiang’s reply sound a bit awkward. Mu Qiuyu quickly replayed her conversation with Lu Ning in her head.

Lu Ning moved even faster, pulling her hat back over her head in a flash.

“Is Miss Mu awake?” a woman knocked and asked politely.

Lu Ning cleared her throat and replied: “She’s awake, you may come in.”

The door was pushed open. Before Li Xiang entered, she was accompanied by a woman dressed as a police officer. Two more people entered the small hotel room. Li Xiang looked awkward, even walking a bit stiffly.

It was the policewoman who walked to Mu Qiuyu’s side first. She seemed somewhat familiar with Mu Qiuyu and greeted her immediately: “Little girl, we meet again.”

Mu Qiuyu recalled briefly and remembered that this was the officer who handled her kidnapping case last time. Her impression of this person was quite good—responsible and considerate of her emotions. So, Mu Qiuyu nodded politely. “I have to trouble you again.”

“It’s our duty,” the officer said, patting Mu Qiuyu’s shoulder in approval. “You did very well just now. You preserved evidence and controlled the suspects. I want to say, ‘hard work’ to you.”

“You’re too kind, it’s what I should have done,” Mu Qiuyu replied, her composed manner unlike most children her age. The policewoman had noticed this during their last talk. She then promised: “Rest assured, we will strictly punish such disregard for life.”

But there was no joy in Mu Qiuyu’s eyes regarding the villains’ upcoming punishment. She looked up and stated bluntly: “But because they are minors, even with ‘strict punishment,’ it can only be done to the maximum extent within a limited space, right?”

“Yes.” The officer nodded, thinking that indeed, nothing could be hidden from Mu Qiuyu.

“How can it be like this!” Li Xiang was indignant. Heaven knew how many corpses of kittens, birds, and puppies she had seen today in the room where Cen Qin and the others kept the animals.

The atmosphere in the room turned somber. Mu Qiuyu lowered her eyes, her expression calm as if she had expected this. Lu Ning hadn’t expected the world to be the same even after crossing over; she was fuming. But noticing that Mu Qiuyu didn’t look well—the system punishment had clearly affected her—she couldn’t let the mood stay so low.

So, Lu Ning looked at Li Xiang and asked about the kitten: “Li Xiang, how is the kitten?”

“Great!” Li Xiang caught the signal and immediately replied. “I came to tell you and Qiuyu that Shi Jin sent the kitten we found to the pet hospital. The doctor said she hasn’t been abused too much and will recover quickly.”

“That’s wonderful.” The policewoman smiled with relief.

“And I heard from Yin Yue that this matter has reached the Principal’s office.” Li Xiang struck while the iron was hot. “Gao Yuan brought a gun to school against regulations; they say he’s going to be expelled.”

Hearing this, Mu Qiuyu’s lips curled into a slight smile. “He deserves it.”

“Doesn’t he! Who told him to break the rules knowingly.” Li Xiang cursed, feeling immense satisfaction.

“Alright, you all should rest well. I expect a tough battle tomorrow.” Seeing the atmosphere had improved, the policewoman tucked in Mu Qiuyu’s quilt, hinting at what was to come.

Lu Ning and Mu Qiuyu glanced at each other, knowing exactly who she was referring to—Cen Qin.

“We understand, thank you.” Lu Ning rose to see the officer and Li Xiang out.

The carpeted corridor was silent; the door closed with a click. Watching them leave, Lu Ning sighed heavily. “I looked it up, and Cen Qin’s family really does have some influence in Wucheng.”

Mu Qiuyu was calm. “I know.”

Lu Ning paused. She walked to Mu Qiuyu’s bed, crouched down, and tilted her head. “Then what do you plan to do?”

The soft mattress dipped at the corner, supporting Lu Ning’s slightly plump human face. She still kept her cat-like habits, but a person dozens of times larger than a cat staying by the bed gave off a very different feeling.

Mu Qiuyu looked at Lu Ning leaning by her hand. She reached out and yanked off the girl’s hat. “I have the system.”

Language is a strange thing. Lu Ning knew Mu Qiuyu was referring to the all-powerful “system” in the abstract. But looking into those eyes, she couldn’t help but project herself into the role of the “system.”

Then, her heart rate accelerated.

The light cast a gentle glow as Lu Ning and Mu Qiuyu locked eyes. Human pupils can hide many things, and the dark color concealed a multitude of emotions. Lu Ning looked into Mu Qiuyu’s calm eyes and couldn’t help but wonder: What is she thinking?

Suddenly, a tickle brushed against Lu Ning’s ear, breaking her train of thought. In her peripheral vision, she saw Mu Qiuyu reach out, brush back her hair, and begin to pet her ears with a lazy, casual touch.

“Lu Ling, have you ever seen someone who looks exactly like me?”

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