Turns Out I’m the Villain They’re Supposed to Redeem? [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 43.2

Huo Yuwan wandered around the village and finally pieced together the three stories circulating about her. She had unwittingly become the public enemy of many single young women in the village, who regarded her with a mix of envy and jealousy.

On her way home, Huo Yuwan even ran into Liu Xing, who insisted he was no worse than Yang Nanjun and asked her to give him a chance. Terrified, Huo Yuwan turned and fled.

Suddenly finding herself the center of gossip, Huo Yuwan had no choice but to return home again. Lying on her bed, she felt nothing but indignation. Yang Nanjun had caused all this trouble, yet she was the one being talked about. It was utterly unfair.

And how could so many women possibly like someone as erratic as him?

“Morals really are declining,” she grumbled, rubbing her throbbing temples in frustration.

A knock sounded at her door. Huo Yuwan turned her head to look, then got up to answer it.

“What happened?” Li Xuzhi stood at her doorway, his gaze calm.

Noticing Huo Yuwan’s disheveled hair and the frustration she hadn’t managed to hide, the fingers at his side curled slightly. “Still not willing to tell me?”

Huo Yuwan’s expression turned somewhat awkward. She had thought it was just a fight, but now rumors were spreading everywhere.

Yet, as she looked into Li Xuzhi’s gentle eyes, which seemed capable of embracing all her troubles, her heart inexplicably felt lighter.

The innocent need not fear false accusations. She hadn’t done anything wrong from start to finish, why should she torment herself over it?

Besides, the only person she had ever cared about was Li Xuzhi.

“Actually, it’s nothing much…”

After explaining the whole story from beginning to end, Huo Yuwan sat at the table and let out a long sigh.

“It’s just ridiculous how such an absurd story could be taken as truth by so many.”

Resting her head on the table, she gazed at the gradually darkening sky and blinked.

“Now that I’ve said it out loud, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal anymore. It’s just a shame to have wasted a perfectly good day.”

“Don’t pay attention to the opinions of people who don’t matter.”

Li Xuzhi followed her gaze out the window and spoke softly.

“People often only believe what they want to believe.” Memories flickered in his mind, and his eyelashes trembled slightly.

At some point, her gaze shifted to Li Xuzhi’s profile. Huo Yuwan looked at her fair and delicate cheek and spoke softly, as if talking about herself, or perhaps something else entirely.

“With time, the truth will naturally come to light.”

Snowflakes began to drift down from the sky once again. Zhou Xia and Feng Shanshan were playing in the yard with the little white dog, throwing snowballs and running around in the snow. Their joyful laughter filled the entire courtyard.

Following their enthusiastic calls, the two also stepped outside. Li Xuzhi casually picked up a twig and began sketching lightly on the pristine snow.

Falling snowflakes settled on her hair and eyelashes.

Huo Yuwan kept watching her from the corner of her eye, a long-concealed affection hidden deep in her gaze.

With just a few simple strokes, a playful snow scene emerged on the snowy ground. Huo Yuwan crouched down, studying it intently. Before she could offer more praise, a line of paw prints cut straight through the drawing.

“…”

Staring at the little white dog’s oblivious back, Huo Yuwan couldn’t resist forming a small snowball and tossing it at the dog.

“Naughty dog.”

Unexpectedly, the little white dog seemed to understand. It stopped, glanced back at Huo Yuwan, wagged its tail, and then ran off again.

It seemed everyone was starting to rebel…

Huo Yuwan put her hands on her hips, glaring at the dog with little effect.

Li Xuzhi lowered her eyes and smiled faintly. When her gaze met Huo Yuwan’s, her smile faltered for a moment before she casually looked away.

Only the fingers still holding the twig tightened and relaxed unconsciously, betraying her inner turmoil.

…

In the blink of an eye, it was early summer again.

The school had closed for the farming season break, and Li Xuzhi was helping Huo Yuwan with plowing and sowing in the fields.

After a long day of work, she returned to her room after dinner and took a letter from her pocket.

The letter had been delivered by the village secretary during the day. It was from Li Qizhi, her half-brother.

She hadn’t opened the envelope during the day, waiting until the deep quiet of night to muster the courage.

The letter contained only a few short lines, but the message was heavy.

Her father’s case had been overturned, but he was now critically ill, and the hospital had issued a critical condition notice.

In the letter, Li Qizhi mentioned that their father was conscious for shorter periods each day. The doctors said he could pass away at any moment in his sleep. The last time he was awake, he repeatedly expressed his wish to speak with his daughter. So, Li Qizhi wrote, asking Li Xuzhi to call home if possible, it might be her last conversation with their father.

The letter fell carelessly onto the table. Li Xuzhi stood there in a daze, unsure whether to feel joy at the news of her father’s vindication or sorrow over his critical condition.

Li Xuzhi’s mother had passed away from illness when she was young. Later, her father remarried and had Li Qizhi with his new wife, who was three years younger than Li Xuzhi. From a young age, she noticed her stepmother’s favoritism toward her brother. At the time, she was too young to understand why, but she tried her best to win her stepmother’s attention, just like her brother did, yet she never succeeded.

As she grew older, she came to understand she was the outsider in this family. So, she stopped those childish and futile efforts, becoming quiet and reserved, spending her days with books as her only companions.

Father Li, preoccupied with work, failed to notice the changes in Li Xuzhi, yet he barely fulfilled his paternal duties by striving to meet most of her academic requests.

Later, when misfortune struck the family and Father Li fell ill due to the upheaval, the entire household lived in constant fear and uncertainty. Soon after, the policy of sending educated youth to the countryside was implemented, and Li Xuzhi finally received her mother’s attention.

Using the excuse that Li Qi was too young to endure hardship, her mother pleaded desperately for Li Xuzhi to take her place in the assignment.

She was fully aware that Li Xuzhi suffered from asthma and, given the scarcity of medication at the time, even a minor mishap could trigger a fatal attack.

Father Li was unwilling to agree, but faced with his wife’s accusations and tears, he found himself at a loss for how to decide.

In the end, Li Xuzhi consented. Perhaps, compared to staying at home, life in the countryside might offer a fresh start.

She stood there in a daze for who knows how long, then slowly lowered her gaze. It was impossible to tell whether the emotion in her eyes was mockery or desolation, only an unending bitterness in her heart made it increasingly hard to breathe.

Gulu gulu…
Woof woof woof!

Outside the window, the sound of a dog barking mingled with the rumble of wheels, disrupting Li Xuzhi’s thoughts.

Flustered, she retrieved medicine from the drawer and swallowed two pills. Only when her breathing gradually steadied did she realize it was Huo Yuwan outside, busily working on a toy car.

Interrupted from her sorrowful reverie, Li Xuzhi listened to the ongoing noises outside and couldn’t help but feel a genuine envy for Huo Yuwan’s ability to live so positively and brightly, like the sun, warm and radiant.

Just then, as the little white dog once again took advantage of Huo Yuwan’s inattention to slip its paw into the driver’s seat of the toy car and send it rolling away, it finally provoked Huo Yuwan’s exasperated roar.

“Are you doing this on purpose? I haven’t finished assembling it yet! One more stunt like that and I’ll tie you to the door!”

Woof woof woof woof!

Listening to this cross-species exchange between human and dog, Li Xuzhi shook her head helplessly.

…

The next morning, when Huo Yuwan woke up, she saw Li Xuzhi in the yard holding a simple remote control, maneuvering a toy airplane on the ground.

Bathed in the morning light, her jade-like cheeks looked especially captivating. Her gaze was focused and serene, her fair fingers moving gently as the tinplate airplane wobbled and slowly lifted off the ground.

A look of amazement flashed across Huo Yuwan’s face, and she instinctively paused her steps, afraid of disturbing Li Xuzhi. However, the person in the yard had already noticed her. With a slight shift of her finger on the control lever, the airborne tinplane descended gently to the ground.

“That’s amazing! When did you make this?”

Huo Yuwan hurried over, picked up the airplane, and examined it curiously.

It was a defective item she had scavenged from the toy factory, along with some small tanks and cars. Though flawed, it had still cost a few hundred yuan. Originally, it could only spin in place, but after Li Xuzhi’s modifications, it could fly.

Washing her hands in the basin, Li Xuzhi replied softly, “I had trouble sleeping last night, so I tried assembling it with parts from the lab. But the rotor’s design isn’t streamlined enough, and the power is insufficient, it can only fly half a meter high.”

By now, both Zhou Xia and Feng Shanshan had moved into the homes assigned to them by the villagers. Huo Yuwan had repurposed the two vacant rooms: one was filled with books as a study, and the other was stocked with instruments and materials, serving as a laboratory.

After a moment of surprise, Huo Yuwan only focused on the first part of her words, “You didn’t sleep at all last night?”

“Mm, I wasn’t very tired. Once you’ve freshened up, come and eat. I’ve recorded the assembly process of the aircraft in the lab notebook, feel free to take a look if you’re interested.” Without saying more, Li Xuzhi dried her hands and turned to walk toward the kitchen.

As if remembering something, she paused mid-step, her voice low and tinged with hesitation.

“I’d like to go into the city this afternoon. The family’s situation has been cleared, but my father is seriously ill and hospitalized. I want to make a call home.”

She rarely took the initiative to say such things, so Huo Yuwan obediently nodded, “Alright, I’ll wait for you to come back.”

After a moment’s thought, she pulled a stack of bills from her pocket and pressed them into Li Xuzhi’s hand.

“If you’re staying at the hospital, one phone call might not be enough to reach you in time. Find a hotel in the city to stay at and call several times each day. Eventually, one of the calls will coincide with your father waking up.”

Huo Yuwan remembered from the original storyline that Li Xuzhi had waited in the city all afternoon without catching her father awake. Widow Sun had used the excuses of busy farming season and needing someone to care for Sun Xuedong to forcibly bring her back home, causing Li Xuzhi to miss her final phone call with her father, a regret that had lingered in her heart ever since.

Seeing the redness at the corners of her eyes, Huo Yuwan felt both heartache and pity, but she simply curved her lips into a gentle smile to comfort her. “You remember the rule about not saying thank you, right? You can’t go back on your own word…”

Before she could finish speaking, she found herself enveloped in a soft, fragrant embrace.