Did I Succeed in Redeeming the Villain Today? - Chapter 88

Chapter 88: Her Main Mission Was Permanently Frozen At…

The moment she saw the information displayed on the prompt box, Mu Qiuyu froze.

The fact she had desperately spent the entire night avoiding was thus forced right in front of her. The wind blew past, and Mu Qiuyu’s very breath felt congealed. She felt as if a knife were being drawn down from the crown of her head; a blunt, unsharpened blade grinding against her skin, leaving her bloody and mangled with every stroke.

Mu Qiuyu felt she had never been in this much pain. The person who could share this agony with her was no longer by her side. Her heart felt as though it had been gouged out along with her.

[Host, protecting the Host is the duty of every system. System No. 60 died a worthy death.]

If the prompt box was an emotionless machine, it at least knew how to comfort her. But if it had feelings, these words of “comfort” were blindingly painful to look at.

“Shut up.” Mu Qiuyu stared deathly at the prompt box that had been forced upon her, her fists clenched tight.

The newly appointed prompt box immediately shut up. Its obedient manner made it seem as though it were intimately familiar with Mu Qiuyu. But such obedience clearly could not soothe her emotions. Looking at the sea of flowers before her, the orange and red petals intermingled, swallowing the pale-colored poppies; under the reflection of the sunset, the world was a fiery red.

A cold wind clung to the ground, blowing in from afar. The rustling of leaves rubbing against each other made the undulating sea of flowers look like a raging fire. Wutong watched from a distance, seemingly sensing something.

Before she could take any countermeasures, the weather in Mu Qiuyu’s inner world changed drastically. The half-moon became menacing again, looking down coldly upon the world. The cold wind suddenly went mad, swirling through the ravaged poppies, determined to tear this paradise to pieces.

Wutong didn’t have time to react before being knocked to the ground by the wind. The chain on her ankle clanked—a mourning cry from her heart. And a mourning cry from Mu Qiuyu.

With great effort, Wutong stood up. Ignoring her disheveled state, she grabbed Mu Qiuyu at the center of the storm and shouted into the gale: “Mu Qiuyu! I beg of you, calm down!”

Wutong’s voice was loud enough; she was certain Mu Qiuyu could hear her. But Mu Qiuyu gave no reaction. She stared at the world being savaged by the storm. It was as if she wanted to die here too.

Indistinguishable from the sunset or the poppies swept into the air, the world collapsed into a sea of red. Wutong felt her heart ache: “A-Ning took such care of these flowers! Do you know how much effort she put into making this place look like this? Are you going to let her hard work be destroyed in an instant?”

These words finally had an effect. Mu Qiuyu turned abruptly to look at Wutong, her pupils dull and staring straight at her.

Lu Ning. These were the flowers Lu Ning planted.

No one knew how Mu Qiuyu managed to regain control of her heart, but she suppressed the gale from the brink of an uncontrollable breakdown. Wutong looked into Mu Qiuyu’s eyes; she had never seen her look so fragile. Sadness also clogged Wutong’s chest; she had no other thought but to preserve what Lu Ning had left behind: “A-Ning told me she really wanted to bring you to see this sea of flowers, to see with your own eyes how beautiful this scenery is.”

The sea of flowers, more than half destroyed, found a moment to breathe and began to grow desperately, grasping for life. That red was like a burning flame that could swallow everything, yet was full of vitality, always holding its head high.

Mu Qiuyu gazed at the flowers, her pupils trembling. She suddenly recalled a past conversation with Lu Ning—an inauspicious topic she herself had raised.

—“What is the flower language of the poppy?”

—“Parting in life and death.”

Mu Qiuyu still remembered her mood when she said those words to Lu Ning. Indifferent, detached, and utterly apathetic toward the world. But at that time, Mu Qiuyu thought the one who would leave would be herself. She never imagined the person “parted by death” would be Lu Ning.

The air brushed past the girl’s lips, causing a slight tremor. Mu Qiuyu looked at the poppies beneath her feet, ravaged by her loss of control, and forcibly suppressed her emotions. She didn’t dare allow herself any more emotional fluctuations. She didn’t want to destroy the few things Lu Ning had left her. This was all she had left.

With this thought, Mu Qiuyu silently opened the System Mall. She slowly scrolled through the list. The mimicry items she had saved specifically for Lu Ning were now greyed out and unselectable due to the disconnection of the operator.

The black kitten occupied the corner, its fluffy body covered in dust. It was the last body Lu Ning had used; to protect Wutong and the surrounding students, it had exhausted its energy and was left broken.

Would such a person really say “Avenge me”? Was she also harboring hate?

Drip, drip.

Whether to revive the poppies or for some other reason, rain began to fall from the sky. It started raining in Mu Qiuyu’s world. Wutong looked at the slightly stabilized environment and wanted to say something. But as she raised her hand, she saw that her own hand was shaking.

After stabilizing herself for a long while, Wutong looked at Mu Qiuyu and said: “Didn’t you say you saw A-Ning’s future?”

“Since her future includes you, she will definitely be there.”

Mu Qiuyu remained silent for a moment, then turned to look at Wutong, who was gently patting her shoulder. It seemed that while she chose to recognize the truth, her other self was like her previous self, creating a hollow hope.

“We met in the past, we meet now, and we will surely meet again in the future,” Wutong told Mu Qiuyu.

But Mu Qiuyu didn’t gain any forward momentum from this. Her eyes looking at Wutong were dark and empty, as if all her hope for the future had been transferred to this person. This person held too many things she had once discarded, just as she now saw positive emotions within Wutong.

The girl lightly raised her hand and pressed it against her heart. Her heart was very empty. The wind blew through, making a hollow sound inside. In an instant, Mu Qiuyu was filled with desires. She wanted to understand Wutong’s thoughts, and she wanted the courage to live until she reached the future where she would reunite with Lu Ning.

The cold wind made her eyes dry, and Mu Qiuyu blinked several times. Until tears uncontrollably seeped out, and she made a certain resolution: “Can you… give me back my past memories?”

She no longer had Lu Ning. She wanted to have a little more of what remained.

The breeze billowed the girl’s skirt, casting her thin shadow over the sea of flowers. Though they were the same body, as Mu Qiuyu stood opposite Wutong, it looked as if she might be scattered by the wind in the next second. All the grief of losing a lover pressed down on her alone.

Wutong looked at Mu Qiuyu, her slowly beating heart feeling a sense of being accepted and enveloped. For the first time, Mu Qiuyu had made a request for the emotions she had once abandoned.

“I won’t ‘give them back.’ I will ‘give them to you’.” Wutong embraced Mu Qiuyu, pulling the girl trapped in pain into her gentle arms. Facing this contact, Mu Qiuyu didn’t resist. She desperately needed someone to hold her.

As her head rested on Wutong’s shoulder, she felt an unprecedented sense of peace. It was like when she was a child, leaning on her mother’s shoulder, being slowly patted to sleep. The peace of childhood surged up along with the deliberately forgotten emotions, merging bit by bit into her body.

Mu Qiuyu saw Wutong’s fingers interlaced with hers slowly merging into her palm, and Wutong’s voice echoed in her ear.

“The past memories are fragmented; I don’t know why you chose to forget. But A-Ning said these weren’t memories you wanted to forget, and told me not to resent you.”

Saying this, Wutong cupped Mu Qiuyu’s face. Her eyes, identical to Mu Qiuyu’s, were filled with tenderness. She slowly pressed her forehead against Mu Qiuyu’s: “A-Ning is a truly good person. I love her so much.”

Mu Qiuyu parted her dry lips and responded: “I love her so much too.”

“After all, we are one person,” Wutong smiled. She looked at her own disappearing body, seizing the last bit of time: “I remember a person named Lu Ning brought me a period of great happiness. That is my greatest joy. Mu Qiuyu, you must have your happiness too.”

There was too much to say. Wutong looked at the world that had imprisoned her and actually felt a sense of attachment. But soon, that attachment turned into liberation. There was nothing to miss. She was Wutong, and she was Mu Qiuyu.

With this thought, Wutong put a smile back on her face and said: “Mu Qiuyu, don’t suppress your true emotions anymore. I don’t want to reappear in your inner world.”

“Love yourself well.”

The girl’s voice grew softer and softer, finally sounding like a passing breeze. Crystal-blue light particles drifted away from the silhouette of Wutong’s body, vanishing from Mu Qiuyu’s sight in an instant. Or perhaps, they merged into her body.

Thump, thump, thump.

Mu Qiuyu slowly placed her hand on her heart. The heartbeat struck her palm, and Wutong’s part was in there too. In an instant, the memories of Wutong’s time with Lu Ning rushed into Mu Qiuyu. Their first meeting in the inner world, coaxing Lu Ning to visit more often, sneaking into the real world and almost kissing her…

Mu Qiuyu was jealous, yet happy. she gained so many new images of Lu Ning; every frown and smile was etched into Wutong’s memory.

But following this, an irremediable sense of loneliness surged forward. Mu Qiuyu finally felt it—the feeling of Wutong alone, carrying unclear memories of the past, waiting hopelessly in this world for Lu Ning to arrive.

Mu Qiuyu looked up. The world was bustling, and the poppies bloomed endlessly. But the world was also empty; she was the only one left walking alone in the sea of flowers.

Rich emotions intertwined in Mu Qiuyu’s heart. She clutched her chest, her broken pupils filled with bewilderment. Her lover was gone. How was she supposed to “love herself well”?

At that moment, the prompt box that had been quiet for a while jumped out. It enthusiastically crowded into Mu Qiuyu’s sight and told her: “Host, you still have me. I can be your support.” It was as if it now enjoyed Mu Qiuyu all to itself.

In a quiet room, the orderly beep of electronic monitoring equipment sounded, symbolizing the good condition of the patient. Moonlight filtered through the curtains, falling quietly on the patient’s face. She appeared to be lying peacefully, but her brows were tightly knit.

Lu Ning was having a dream.

The sky was filled with red, and the already lush poppies were blooming even more brilliantly. A familiar breeze brushed her cheek, and Lu Ning immediately felt as if she had returned to the inner world. She suddenly became happy and strode forward, wanting to go to the white area to meet Wutong, wanting to complain to her about the hallucinations she had after being hit by the car.

But as Lu Ning reached Wutong’s white area with practiced ease, she found that the area had mysteriously shrunk. The bushes were still thick and lush, but they were more than a circle’s distance away from the white area. Lu Ning stared blankly at the shrinking white area, suddenly realizing that her previous belief that Wutong’s area was expanding was an illusion. It hadn’t gotten bigger; it had gotten smaller.

The bushes weren’t the boundary to measure her area; they had just happened to grow at the edge of the white light area at the beginning. As Mu Qiuyu accepted herself, Wutong’s space would slowly shrink. The white tree that Lu Ning couldn’t name reverted to its form as a Parasol tree (Wutong tree) once the light receded.

“A-Ning.”

Just as Lu Ning received this answer, Wutong’s voice came from beside her. Now, her domain was only the single patch of white ground she stood on. She greeted Lu Ning from a distance, her face still wearing that gentle expression.

“Tongtong!” Lu Ning hurried over.

But the closer she got, the more details she saw. She saw that the chain on Wutong’s ankle was broken. The dried blood was like a baby’s withered umbilical cord, hanging uselessly on the ground. Lu Ning watched with surprise, yet felt a premonition.

Sure enough, Wutong smiled and said to her: “I’m going.”

“Where are you going?” Lu Ning asked anxiously.

“I’m going back to Mother,” Wutong said in her gentlest voice.

A breeze brushed their faces, billowing Wutong’s skirt. The moment she finished speaking, she began to dissipate in Lu Ning’s sight. This development was completely outside Lu Ning’s expectations. Watching Wutong disappear, she instinctively knew Mu Qiuyu had accepted her, but she couldn’t help but reach out to chase her.

Had Wutong delayed leaving just to see her one last time? Lu Ning didn’t understand, and felt that if she didn’t chase after her, she would miss her meeting with Mu Qiuyu. So, Lu Ning ran desperately toward that white area before it vanished.

But unexpectedly, the white area wasn’t the ground she was familiar with. The second Lu Ning stepped in, she fell into a white hole.

“!”

Lu Ning didn’t know how long she fell. After a period of chaotic dizziness, she tumbled into an even larger white area. The world felt vacuum-sealed; it was so quiet she couldn’t even hear the sound of breathing. Yet even so, Lu Ning sensed a familiar feeling.

“Main System?” Lu Ning tested, speaking those two words.

Then she heard a satisfied laugh. The Main System was ethereal, its voice coming from all directions: “It is I.”

“What did you do? Why did Wutong say she was leaving?” Lu Ning went straight to the point.

The Main System didn’t hide it: “It wasn’t something I did; it was your Host choosing to accept her true emotions.”

So that was it. Lu Ning thought to herself, feeling a bit proud of Mu Qiuyu.

But before she could be happy for Mu Qiuyu’s choice for long, the Main System’s voice came again: “You have done well. You can return to your world.”

Lu Ning’s heart dropped instantly. She realized the image of her original world she saw before losing consciousness wasn’t fake: “Didn’t you say I could only return after completing the mission? I haven’t finished the mission yet!”

Lu Ning’s voice was panicked. She looked around, her gaze not knowing where to land: “Shouldn’t you follow through from beginning to end?”

“We are following through from beginning to end,” the Main System replied enigmatically.

“You’re clearly slacking off!” Lu Ning was dissatisfied. She urgently wanted to go back, taking the stance she used when asking the Main System for Mu Qiuyu’s compensation to argue: “I exhausted my energy, can’t you help me repair it? Shouldn’t the system be responsible for the Host? Mu Qiuyu still has one task left!”

But this time, the Main System’s response wasn’t one of agreement. She told Lu Ning: “She will complete that task.”

That gentle voice sounded exceptionally harsh at this moment. Lu Ning frowned and shot back: “How can she complete it without me?”

The Main System asked: “Are you that certain she loves you?”

At this question, Lu Ning froze. Her naturally insecure heart felt as if it had been hoisted into the air. If…

There was no “if”! The moment the hypothesis appeared in Lu Ning’s head, she strangled it in the cradle. This time, Lu Ning had found a rock to stand on. So even though she was hoisted by the question, she could remain firm: “Yes. She loves me, and I love her.”

Watching Lu Ning’s determined expression, the Main System gave a satisfied laugh: “Then nothing can stand in your way.”

“Lu Ning, you will surely meet again.”

The voice was ethereal and hollow, as if hiding a mother’s love for a child. Lu Ning’s brow was furrowed; she felt the Main System was talking in riddles. She didn’t like these enigmas and followed up: “How will we meet?!”

But there was no response. Lu Ning wanted to argue further with the Main System, but was suddenly enveloped by a blinding light.

“Hey!”

Lu Ning’s voice came through her throat, a dry and anxious shout. Ji Xiao, who was slumped by her bedside, was startled awake. She blinked groatily, then saw the awakened Lu Ning and looked ecstatic: “Xiao Ning! You’re awake!”

It was the voice Lu Ning was most familiar and intimate with, yet she desperately wished not to hear it. She looked around at the surroundings and at Ji Xiao sitting by her hospital bed, her whole being filled with refusal.

She really was back. How could she be back!

With this thought, Lu Ning struggled to get out of bed. Ji Xiao, noticing her movements, immediately held her down: “Xiao Ning, what are you doing! You’re still on an IV!”

“I need to find someone!” Lu Ning was frantic.

“The driver who hit you has already compensated you; you’re the one who suddenly ran out, there’s no use finding him,” Ji Xiao said, still out of the loop.

“I don’t want to find him.” Lu Ning was desperate to get out of bed, reaching out to pull the needle from the back of her hand. Ji Xiao was nearly frightened out of her wits, holding her hand down and asking: “Then who are you looking for?”

“Mu Qiuyu!” Lu Ning said like someone refusing to wake from a dream, looking anxiously at Ji Xiao. “Do you know where she is?”

“Mu what?” Ji Xiao didn’t hear her clearly.

At that moment, the door to the ward was pushed open. Wei Qingyu walked in carrying a food container: “Ji Xiao, I had the auntie make some porridge, you…”

Before Wei Qingyu could finish, Ji Xiao pointed her out to Lu Ning: “You’re looking for her?”

The pain of the needle shifting pierced the back of Lu Ning’s hand, pulling her back to reality. She looked at the familiar friend and the familiar environment before her, and seemed to understand something.

Tears fell from her eyes. Like the drop of blood blooming at the needle site on her hand.

Splatter.

A drop of water fell from somewhere onto the back of Mu Qiuyu’s hand. She stood before the mirror, looking at the clothes she was wearing. These were the ones she had prepared for Lu Ning. Unfortunately, there hadn’t been time to wear them.

Knock, knock.

Two knocks sounded in the night, and Mu Jingqin pushed open the door. She looked at Mu Qiuyu, who was already dressed, and asked: “You… are coming along?”

Originally, Mu Jingqin wanted to ask if Mu Qiuyu wanted to go with her. But seeing her like this, the question was clearly redundant. Mu Qiuyu zipped up her jacket without hesitation: “Of course.”

Bright lights illuminated the villa area. A red car drove out into the night, like the only color in the darkness. Mu Jingqin drove, glancing at the expressionless Mu Qiuyu in the passenger seat, taking the initiative to talk: “Have you been pushing yourself too hard lately? You have dark circles. You’re only eighteen and you’re already so somber, what will you do later?”

“It doesn’t matter. It will be over soon,” Mu Qiuyu said softly, her calm tone cold.

Mu Jingqin was clearly dissatisfied with this answer and pursed her lips. Then she thought that Mu Qiuyu had a reason to be this way; after all, a month ago, her father had sent someone to kill her. Although that person had somehow crashed into a tree. But the fact couldn’t be changed. Su Qinghang was too cruel. You couldn’t blame others.

Thinking this, Mu Jingqin comforted Mu Qiuyu: “True, it ends today. After it’s over, take a good rest. You’re young; you’ll recover with some rest.”

“Mm,” Mu Qiuyu responded without much emotion, turning to look out the window. The night swallowed her eyes, chaotic and silent.

She didn’t know how she was supposed to “take a good rest.”

Her main mission was permanently frozen at 50%.

Just then, Mu Qiuyu’s prompt box jumped out again. This fellow presented a series of lists for relaxing vacations—two sets of plans, domestic and international, quite thoughtful and attentive. But Mu Qiuyu was unappreciative as always. She frowned and closed the eager prompt box.

Looking up, Mu Jingqin had already driven through the suburbs. Familiar streetlights shone on the dry branches on both sides; without the cover of leaves, the red-painted sign soon appeared before Mu Qiuyu’s eyes.

She and Mu Jingqin had returned to that abandoned factory. But this time, someone else was the prey.

After the car came to a halt, Mu Qiuyu couldn’t wait to get out. She stepped through the dust into the factory building and saw Su Qinghang tied up, just as she had been when she was kidnapped. He looked like he had tried to flee, so he looked even more pathetic than she had when he was caught.

“Father, there are some things we need to settle.”

Mu Qiuyu stood before Su Qinghang, her obedient appearance the same as before, yet filled with malice and disdain. She looked down at him, unhurriedly watching him, her hand in her pocket clutching a small golden lock.

This was something she gave to Lu Ning. This was something Lu Ning had left for her.

“Qiuyu, you’re standing there just fine… nothing happened, right? Father didn’t mean it, we’re a family… you’ll forgive Father, won’t you?” Su Qinghang looked at his daughter who had survived, his voice trembling.

Mu Qiuyu’s eyes grew colder as she listened to his words.

Yes, everyone said that accident was a miracle. There were no casualties; only an “insignificant” little black cat died.

How can a cat be as important as a human? How can a cat not be as important as a human?

Everyone said Mu Qiuyu was blessed by heaven and that her future would be infinitely promising after this. But no one knew that one person on that night had lost their beloved forever.

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