The Villainess A Marked the Seductive Movie Queen - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Mad Dog

By the time Ding Qing returned with the physical examination report, Liu Yitong had already coaxed Liu Lin to sleep.

The therapist paused for a moment, struck by the similarity in the features of the mother and daughter resting there. However, Liu Yitong’s ice-cold aura had reshaped Liu Lin’s “petite lady” genes into something cold, glamorous, and arrogant. Though they looked alike, their temperaments were worlds apart.

“You’re here?” Ding Qing handed the report to Liu Yitong.

Liu Yitong took it and calmly flipped through the details. Indicators fluctuated slightly, but on the crucial CT scan, the dark area of the softening lesion in the temporal lobe showed no signs of lighting up.

Closing the report, Liu Yitong felt neither joy nor sorrow. She had known for a long time that Liu Lin wouldn’t get better.

Asphyxiation led to oxygen deprivation; the impact caused a counter-coup injury. A massive number of Liu Lin’s brain cells had died, and the damage to the hippocampus and cortical areas responsible for memory and logic was irreparable. Liu Lin’s heart had stopped at the time of the incident, missing the “golden four minutes” for resuscitation. The brain death was irreversible. Even the doctors who later saved her said it was a miracle she survived and regained consciousness at all.

If only that so-called father hadn’t pinned her down to beat her… if he had given her just a little time to perform CPR on Liu Lin…

Even just one minute. Just one minute.

Liu Lin wouldn’t have become like this.

Liu Yitong had made countless such “what-if” assumptions over the last four years—so many that when she thought of them today, she no longer felt emotional turbulence. No disappointment, no resentment, no hatred. Only numbness.

“Miss Liu, you come so often that Mrs. Liu’s new ‘friends’ all know: ‘Little Liu has a daughter who is both capable and loves her very much,'” Ding Qing said with a smile. In a few words, the mature professional praised her employer and updated her on Liu Lin’s status: her social skills were improving, and she had made new friends among the patients.

“Thank you for your hard work, Teacher Ding,” Liu Yitong replied calmly. “In a few days, I won’t be able to come as often.”

“Work getting busy?”

“Yes. I’ll be joining a film crew soon, so I won’t be able to visit regularly.”

“Oh~” Ding Qing realized and smiled again. “So Miss Liu is an artist? Not surprising; with a face like yours, not entering the entertainment industry would be a waste of God’s gift. Miss Liu is truly young and promising!”

After all, being able to afford a monthly fee of twenty to thirty thousand yuan to give Liu Lin the best care was no small feat.

Facing the flattery, Liu Yitong gave a faint, indifferent nod. She couldn’t tell the truth—that the nursing fees came from the fire sale of Liu Lin’s ancestral home and her own two-to-three-thousand-yuan monthly “internship allowance” as an underground idol.

“I’m curious to see Miss Liu’s previous work,” Ding Qing said.

“As far as acting goes, this drama will be my debut.”

“A new starting point for your career then!” Ding Qing smiled. “Can you share any inside info?”

“…”

Her first work would be a collaboration with Ruan Minxue.

Liu Yitong remained silent for a moment and decided not to speak. She was just a young woman; she understood the vanity of youth—how a little bragging or name-dropping could provide long-lasting satisfaction. For an unknown newcomer to be acting alongside the legendary Ruan Minxue on her first try… that news would shock even this experienced therapist.

But Liu Yitong could accept vanity from any other source or person—except Ruan Minxue. She only wished that when she recalled that name, the feeling inside her would be clean and without a guilty conscience.

After the chat, she bid farewell and drove back.

The Jingyi District was quiet and remote. The roads connecting it to the city center shifted in style, sometimes elegant, sometimes desolate.

One stretch of dirt road was bumpy and uneven, surrounded by wild grass and barren hills with no one in sight. As Liu Yitong drove through it, she hallucinated the road she took four years ago to visit her father in prison. It was just as desolate, like a road leading to hell.

That was the only time she had visited him.

Her father, always violent and manic, had unexpectedly pleaded with her with a fawning smile to sign a letter of forgiveness to reduce his sentence. He didn’t ask a single question about Liu Lin’s condition or show a shred of concern for his wife and daughter.

Seeing this, Liu Yitong nodded generously and agreed, giving her father hope. Then, she took Liu Lin far away from their hometown, cut off all contact, and left her father with the despair of an endless wait.

Forgiveness? That was the duty of saints and God. What did it have to do with Liu Yitong, an evil ghost who crawled out of hell?

During the time her father was detained for crippling her mother, the two of them were humiliated. So-called relatives closed their doors. Neighborhood brats threw mud at the demented Liu Lin. When she screamed in retaliation, the brats hid in their fathers’ arms and acted pathetic. Taking advantage of a widow and orphan with no protection, they made up rhymes calling them “stupid dog” and “little dog.”

The cheap sanatorium near the ancestral home was affordable, but the workers were negligent. When Liu Yitong sharply asked why no one cared that Liu Lin had soiled herself, they only gave her a contemptuous laugh.

A stupid dog couldn’t protect her daughter. A little dog couldn’t guard her mother.

But a mad dog could.

So, when a child threw mud at Liu Lin again, she pinned the brat’s head into the mire until the kid cried and apologized, teaching the lesson the parents had failed to provide. When unreasonable parents came looking for trouble, she fought with hands and teeth, supplemented by the pressure of her S-class Alpha pheromones, making the bystanders miserable and forcing the parents to apologize. When she found Liu Lin’s diaper unchanged again, she rubbed the filth onto the negligent worker’s head and complained until the sanatorium refunded the fees.

She was a mad dog, a genetically mutated beast covered in thorns and sharp teeth. Anyone who tried to take advantage of her would be left bloodied; anyone who tried to humiliate her would be bitten half to death. Finally, she sold the house and brought Liu Lin to Huchuan to start a brand new life.

Liu Yitong stepped on the gas, accelerating out of the desolate road. Like her younger self, using her tender canine teeth to grip the scruff of her mother’s neck, she fought with everything she had to escape the muddy kennel.

The next stretch of road was full of life. Young trees sprouted green leaves in the peak of spring. Farmers walked by with tools, laughing; the tips of their hoes were stained with damp soil, likely having just loosened the ground for planting. It was a scene of hidden hope.

It looked exactly like the period when they first settled in Huchuan.

Liu Yitong sent Liu Lin to the Jingyi Sanatorium, enrolled herself in a private high school, and worked part-time to slow the depletion of her savings. It was a hard time, but fulfilling. Occasionally hearing that Ruan Minxue was back in Huchuan and imagining they might brush past each other on a street gave Liu Yitong enough energy to keep her exhausted body going.

However, during her senior year, faced with high tuition fees and a nearly empty bank account, Liu Yitong sat on a park swing all night and made a decision. She took the college entrance exam and scored well, but when the acceptance letter arrived, she locked it away and chose to sign with an idol theater instead.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t afford the tuition; she couldn’t afford the loss of income while studying.

Liu Yitong had shown an interest in dance since she was a child. Liu Lin had worked extra jobs in secret to pay for her hip-hop dance classes. They had kept this secret from the gambler in the house for years; her dance tuition was paid for with “secretly” saved money.

With a foundation in dance, becoming an idol was natural, but she also had a personal motive. She had a dream: she wanted to see the glamorous world where that person lived. She wanted to use her own efforts to climb high enough to look at that person as an equal within the same circle. No longer looking up. Just looking at her, eye to eye.

The scenery changed again as she approached the city center. Skyscrapers rose, and traffic flowed—a bustling cityscape carrying the illusory yet pragmatic dreams of millions. Including the dreams of the young idols in the theater.

Unfortunately, capitalists aren’t always human. The theater’s promise of a “debut” never materialized. They simply exploited the girls for a year using a tiny “internship” stipend.

During those days of unrecognized talent, Liu Yitong, usually a silent observer, occasionally posted in Ruan Minxue’s fan group to vent. Her rare comments caught Shu Ran’s attention, leading to a friend request. Later, perhaps it was the way she described Ruan Minxue—“The world’s clear and bright snow”—that allowed Shu Ran to glimpse the girl’s poetic soul. After that, Shu Ran began inviting her to offline events.

She knew Shu Ran came from a wealthy family and enjoyed the life of an only daughter. While others their age were worried about their future, Shu Ran’s parents encouraged her to play and enjoy life. Thus, Liu Yitong refused every invitation. They were from two different worlds; she didn’t fit in.

The first time she accepted Shu Ran’s invitation was last month, only because the wax seal on the invitation was engraved with the character “Ruan.” It was a Ruan Minxue-themed tea party.

Liu Yitong didn’t remember much of that party except that the clamor reminded her of Renoir’s Bal du moulin de la Galette. The attendees were all Shu Ran’s friends—the glamorous elite. Many wealthy women brought “companions”—refined young men with flattering expressions. Liu Yitong recognized a few as 18th-tier colleagues from the idol world.

Liu Yitong kept to herself, standing tall in a corner wearing a simple silk shirt. The grayish-blue fabric shimmered in the light. The loose bow at her collar led the eye down to her slim waist and long legs in black trousers. She was an observer outside the oil painting, but because of her cold, transcendent temperament, she became a part of the scenery being watched by others.

A mature woman in an expensive suit approached her. Liu Yitong was confused at first, but after a few sentences, she realized the other was making romantic advances. It was her first time experiencing this. She looked calm, but her mind was blank. Fortunately, Shu Ran intervened, saying brightly, “She’s an enthusiast like us, not someone’s date,” raising Liu Yitong’s status and politely declining the “peach blossom.”

Taking that opportunity, the two girls opened up about their views on career and life. Liu Yitong learned that although Shu Ran was born wealthy, she was not extravagant or dissipated. Shu Ran loved following stars, but after seeing so much darkness behind the scenes over the years, she had remained loyal only to Ruan Minxue. Inspired by her idol, Shu Ran dreamed of molding a figure like Ruan Minxue, but her attempts had failed—either the candidates were ruined by temptation or lacked talent and perseverance.

Shu Ran also learned about the high and haughty ambition burning beneath Liu Yitong’s cold exterior. The girl respected the idols who chose to be playmates for the wealthy, but her goals were elsewhere. She saw their short-sightedness; the resources traded for submission were comfortable, but not long-term, and certainly not enough.

Liu Yitong was fiercely ambitious and sharp-eyed. She wanted to reach a position where she could stand beside Ruan Minxue, and she was prepared to sacrifice and fight for it.

“Want to collaborate?” Shu Ran asked with a smile.

Liu Yitong smiled back. “I take it I passed the test of your tea party?”

And so, an overt madman and a subtle madman reached an agreement. This was the catalyst for their partnership, born from different obsessions with the same woman. Perhaps because of their highly similar goals, their communication regarding career direction had always been smooth.

Soon after, Liu Yitong resigned from the theater. On the night of her final performance, she found Ruan Minxue and performed that first temporary mark.

The wound on her wrist from that night was healing. It had been itchy at first, but it scabbed over within a few days. Aside from being slightly unsightly, it had no effect.

But before the scab could fall off, Liu Yitong and Shu Ran had their first disagreement.

It was about the first internal referral Shu Ran had secured for her—the movie Counterkill, which Ruan Minxue was confirmed to star in.

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