Having Played the Villain for Ten Years, I Came Back - Chapter 10

The abandoned complex was cold and eerie. Wu Shuhao, having fainted from terror and lost a fragment of his soul, wasn’t discovered by a passing homeless man until the following day.

Another one was sent to the hospital.

In the three days since Wen Linyu’s return, he had already secured a “quadra-kill”—a truly remarkable achievement.

That morning, Wen Linyu sat leisurely at the head of the dining table, enjoying his breakfast. The only other person at the table was Wen Cheng.

After all, Wen Hongbo and his wife were currently lying in hospital beds.

The butler and the maids in the house no longer dared to speak. They performed their duties in silence, terrified of doing anything that might displease Wen Linyu. To them, he now looked exactly like a dark, brooding psychopath who would calmly stab someone without blinking.

If he dared to drag his own mother into a basement and lock her up, what wouldn’t he do?

However, once Linyu left the house, they would huddle together to gossip. Previously, they mocked the eldest son for being a “low-class” failure who couldn’t compare to Wen Cheng; now, they debated whether his mother’s claim that “Linyu loved the basement” was true, and wondered what on earth he had done to make his parents treat him so cruelly.

What had Wen Linyu done? He had done nothing. Like Gu Chi, he simply possessed a “special fate.”

This was something he had learned from the butler back in Gu Chi’s world, after taking his teacher’s advice to investigate. It turned out to be a bizarre coincidence: he and Gu Chi were born on the same month, same day, and at the same hour, just in different years.

Gu Chi’s parents had conceived him to refine him for evil arts, and Wen Linyu’s parents were no better.

They had abandoned him to be raised by others, but they hadn’t chosen those foster parents at random. They had hand-picked a family that would ensure Linyu lived every moment in misery; they intended to use his suffering as a stepping stone to rise in status and accumulate wealth.

Bringing him back later wasn’t out of guilt or a desire to make amends; they were simply unsatisfied and wanted to suck the very marrow from his bones.

These were the answers Wen Linyu had received from the bearded ghost the previous night, though he had already guessed most of it himself.

Evil people don’t commit acts of malice because of something you did; they do it because they are inherently evil.

There were no interruptions at school today, so Wen Linyu felt relatively relaxed. His greatest wish in the past had been a stable life—to be like a normal student, attend a full day of classes, and go home to a full meal and a good night’s sleep without beatings, scoldings, or cold indifference. He hadn’t dared to ask for more.

Now, he could finally achieve it.

After school, Wen Linyu went to redeem his lottery ticket.

The good news: he won. The bad news: he didn’t hit the jackpot, only the second prize.

The prize for a single ticket was 300,000, so a hundred-fold multiplier gave him 30 million. It was a far cry from his expected 500 million. He wondered if the bearded ghost was incompetent or if the combined lifespans of those three people simply weren’t worth that much. Had he known, he would have grabbed a handful of Wu Shujie’s hair at school as well.

Unsatisfied, Wen Linyu headed to a famous antique street in City A. He avoided the high-end shops, opting instead to buy a mountain of old trinkets from roadside stalls. He didn’t care about quality, only quantity; he wanted to see if he could squeeze a bit more profit out of those three people.

After wandering the antique street, he went to a nearby night market and began exploring the snack stalls. The night market was filled with the “smoke and fire” of life—lively, bustling, and full of experiences he had never known. He walked slowly, looking and eating, filling the holes of his past expectations and desires.

In the crowded night market where no one knew him, his “doe eyes” didn’t need to act cold. When he ate something delicious or saw something beautiful, his eyes would crinkle with satisfaction, shining like starlight.

Gu Chi watched the “Mirror Pool” with a face like a dark lake, staring at Wen Linyu happily wandering the streets alone. He ground his itchy fangs. “Fine. It seems you’re living quite a good life.”

998 sycophantically began massaging the Demon Lord’s legs with its wings again. “You’ve seen it now, Great One. The host isn’t being bullied by anyone. So, how about we…”

The answer was a heavy “Hmph” from Gu Chi, filled with intense dissatisfaction and a sense of “unwillingness.”

998 understood the dissatisfaction. When it had struck the deal with Wen Linyu to be a villain, they were in Linyu’s world, not Gu Chi’s. They had never mentioned the departure in front of Gu Chi, so the Great Demon Lord never knew Wen Linyu was going to leave.

The sudden departure was something the controlling Demon Lord hadn’t predicted; for someone like him, anger was a natural response.

But what was this “unwillingness”? 998 wasn’t human; it struggled with complex emotions and needed a strategist to analyze the situation. Unfortunately, it didn’t dare open the chatroom right now.

Annoyed or not, Gu Chi held the mirror and couldn’t take his eyes off the figure of Wen Linyu in the night market.

So this is what my little disciple looks like.

I taught him for ten years; how can he still have such an innocent expression? There wasn’t a hint of defense in those eyes; they were as clear as water. The boy himself looked like water soft and easy to trample. Did he forget everything I taught him the moment I wasn’t there?

He truly has a short memory!

It’s just a piece of seaweed rice cake. Why are his eyes so bright? Is that more interesting than learning how to eliminate enemies?

Gu Chi wished he could go there right now and give this disobedient disciple a thorough lesson.

But—

Gu Chi shot a murderous look at the chick.

998 immediately fell to its knees. “Big brother, I really have no money! Please, can we wait until the end of the month? When the budget settles, I’ll send you over immediately, okay?!”

The yellow chick, roughly the size of a pancake, knelt with its claws and bowed with its wings. Its feathered face looked like it was about to cry. The sight was absurdly comical.

But Gu Chi wasn’t laughing, and 998 certainly wasn’t. It originally had plenty of energy when it arrived in this world, but the sneak attack on Gu Chi had consumed some, and dragging Wen Linyu over from the neighboring world had taken more. After the ten-year mission was over and it sent Linyu back, it only had enough left for its own escape.

Stabilizing a world was a difficult task, but the reward was generous. Logically, it should have been rich. But the problem was the “processing time.” A working-class System’s life was truly miserable.

Gu Chi had tortured the protagonist until the man was half-dead, which terrified 998. It had been forced to cough up its last reserves—the energy meant for its own escape—just to give the Demon Lord a “livestream” of Wen Linyu.

There was still time before the monthly settlement. Even a stupid System knew it couldn’t spend all its energy at once. Otherwise, the frustrated Demon Lord might change the menu to “stewed chick with mushrooms.”

Sure enough, after watching for a while, Gu Chi grew unsatisfied. He fixed 998 with his “death stare.” “I want to see him.”

998 really wanted to curse: Are you deaf?! I told you I have no money, understand?

But its mouth remained timid and pitiful. “Dad! There really isn’t that much left…”

Gu Chi looked disgusted. “Disgusting. Hurry up!”

998: I freaking.

Wen Linyu returned home after he had his fill of fun. He took a shower, cultivated for three hours, and went to bed. He soon fell into a deep sleep.

Tonight’s dream was special. He was in a vast, white world. It wasn’t the white of snow, but a white with a metallic sheen. The space felt like it had a bad signal; the entire area flickered in and out, feeling unstable.

“Where is this?” Wen Linyu asked curiously.

As his voice fell, a figure appeared in the flickering white space.

Linyu couldn’t see the person clearly; the “resolution” of this world felt like it was set to the lowest possible setting. Everything was a blur.

“Heh. It’s only been a few days, and you already don’t recognize me?” As Gu Chi spoke, he was still grinding his teeth, thinking of how he was going to punish this runaway disciple.

“Teacher?!” The suspicious, guarded look in Wen Linyu’s eyes instantly transformed into a brilliance far brighter than the rice cake from earlier.

This look made Gu Chi’s anger fade slightly only by a tiny, fingernail-sized amount.

Then, he was suddenly hugged by the Wen Linyu who came running toward him. Linyu clung to his chest, eyes closed and a wide smile on his face. He leaned against Gu Chi and murmured, “Teacher, I missed you so much.”

He knew this had to be a dream. Therefore, he didn’t need to hold back.

Wen Linyu hugged him even tighter.

Gu Chi.

Gu Chi was stunned. His limbs went rigid. The dissatisfaction and unwillingness he felt before he arrived were wiped away by this sudden collision of a “little deer.”

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