When the Villain Falls Madly in Love with Me - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Monster

In Yuan City, winter had arrived with a sweeping, bone-chilling cold and heavy snow.

Just as the sky began to faintly lighten, a short, heavy figure emerged from the snow.

“Hah—” The old woman, wearing a floral, colorful headscarf, constantly breathed into her hands. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably, yet her mouth wouldn’t stop complaining: “Seriously, it’s freezing. Should have known better than to come to this awful place. No water or electricity in the middle of winter!”

Grumbling, she carried two buckets down to the riverbank. “Good thing this water hasn’t frozen yet, or there’d be nowhere to fetch water.”

Her chattering was endless, but her hands were quick, scooping a bucket of water.

The old woman was accustomed to rough labor; carrying two buckets of water was no problem. In a few moments, she had filled two large buckets. After finishing, she stamped her slightly frozen feet, ready to grumble her way back.

Before she could muster the strength to lift the buckets, a baby’s cry startled her, causing her to stagger.

“Ouch!” The old woman fell, her face contorted in pain.

It was still not fully light, and coming to fetch water alone made her nervous and afraid.

She slowly moved her heavy body to get up, rubbing her backside as she bravely walked toward the source of the sound.

Having worked at the welfare institution for decades, she knew that many heartless beasts who had faces but no money to raise children would abandon them at the gate. Driven by a shred of conscience, she decided to take a look.

Peeking behind a large rock, she saw, sure enough, an infant still in swaddling clothes lying on the ground. The exposed part of the small face was turning purple from the cold, and the baby was wailing, likely from hunger.

She picked up the child, opened the swaddle, and saw it was a girl. No wonder the heartless parents tossed her. She checked other parts of the child to see if there were any disabilities.

“Hey, it’s a good kid,” she muttered strangely. But she had seen this too many times to be surprised.

The old woman handled the baby roughly, causing the child pain. The baby waved her limbs and began to cry louder.

“Dong—” With the baby’s movement, a small, glittering golden object fell out, hitting the ground with a soft sound.

The old woman’s eyes immediately lit up. She tossed the child back to the original spot, quickly picked up the object, and stuffed it into her waistband.

With a guilty conscience, she furtively looked around, and after confirming no one was near, she hid behind the large rock and quietly pulled out the concealed object.

It looked like a golden longevity lock.

She quickly bit into it and then weighed it in her hand, estimating it was solid gold. She had truly struck gold. Serves that lazy bitch right for not coming with me to fetch water; otherwise, I wouldn’t get this treasure all to myself, she thought smugly.

She wasn’t educated but recognized one or two characters. After lovingly rubbing it thoroughly, she noticed the character “樂” (Lè, meaning joy or happiness) engraved on it.

“Lè, Le Le, oh, maybe that’s this girl’s name,” the old woman mumbled to herself. She then tucked the longevity lock into her innermost trouser pocket and, still feeling uneasy, tied a dead knot in her belt, tightening it until her stomach ached before she was satisfied.

After all that fuss, she finally looked at the child. There was only one welfare institution here. If she didn’t take the child back, the baby would probably freeze to death, but taking her back might displease the director.

In recent years, the director had always complained that the price of goods outside increased daily, yet the funding from above hadn’t increased, making it difficult to support all the children inside.

Hesitating, the baby’s cries grew weaker and weaker. The old woman couldn’t bear it. “Bad luck for me. If I didn’t pity you, I wouldn’t bother.”

She couldn’t worry about anything else. She hugged the baby tight and ran back to the welfare institution.

The welfare institution wasn’t large, consisting of only two small, shabby three-story buildings, about ten rooms in total, plus a small single-story house used as the director’s office.

A courtyard of moderate size was enclosed in the center, sparsely equipped with entertainment facilities like slides and swings. Near the shabby buildings stood an old bulletin board listing various rules and disciplinary actions.

Among the adults, besides the fifty-something director, there was the old woman, and another younger woman. The children were separated by gender and physical condition, amusing themselves in their respective rooms.

The entire institution was managed methodically; not a single sound of children playing could be heard.

The director was displeased when she saw the female infant she brought back. The old woman had to beg and plead for a long time before the director finally relented.

“Hmph. You think a person is as easy to raise as a kitten or a puppy? If you’re so kind-hearted, why don’t you take her home and raise her yourself? Such hypocrisy,” the woman sweeping the floor rolled her eyes to the heavens.

The woman was extremely thin, her cheekbones protruding sharply. She often spat out sarcastic remarks to needle the old woman.

A few years ago, there was an opening for a small team leader position in the logistics department, which came with a few dozen extra yuan. The old woman and the skinny woman had been feuding over it for half a year.

As luck would have it, the skinny woman broke her leg and couldn’t do heavy work. The director then gave the position to the old woman, citing her seniority.

That was the official reason, but the rivalry between the two was now permanently set in stone.

The old woman rolled her eyes at her in return, ignoring her, and turned to take the child into a room with fewer children.

Like Le Le, who seemed to have spontaneously emerged from a crack in a stone, she found her home in this shabby, small welfare institution.

Life was manageable when the old woman occasionally looked after the child. However, as the child grew a little older, she suddenly began to fall ill every day, constantly suffering from vomiting and diarrhea.

The hospital in town couldn’t diagnose anything and simply prescribed some cold medicine to send her away.

The old woman felt that since she had brought the child back, she should ask the director for some money to see a doctor in the city.

After pleading several times, the director became irritated and plainly told her: “Coming here means a cheap life, like a stray dog. Why bother seeing a doctor? There are dozens of mouths here waiting to be fed. Where would I find the spare money for her treatment? She should just take whatever medicine the hospital prescribes. All children go through this. Look at those others—they survived it.”

Afraid of being fired by the director, the old woman didn’t dare speak up again. Seeing the sickly child in her arms, she felt a pang of guilt.

“Oh, has she passed out or something?” The woman walked over with a limp and a gloating expression, craning her neck to look.

“Waaah—” The child began to cry loudly.

The woman had heartlessly pinched the child. Ignoring the old woman’s curses, she smiled and said, “See? She’s full of energy. She’s not sick at all. Children just need a good shake. Once they cry and scream, I guarantee they’re fine.”

The old woman cursed the woman for a long time and also pondered over the golden lock in her hand for a long time.

By the time Le Le was three and still couldn’t speak, the old woman would touch the treasure every night. Thinking of the child’s pitiful appearance, she couldn’t sleep.

Finally, her conscience got the better of her. She reluctantly sold the longevity lock, receiving over a thousand yuan. Feeling much more at ease, she happily took Le Le to a major hospital in the city for a check-up.

The check-up was shocking.

The doctor saw her distress, sighed, and tried to explain it in simple terms: “Auntie, your child has a tumor in her brain. Fortunately, it’s benign for now, and the location isn’t too dangerous. Surgery now has a high success rate, so you should do it sooner rather than later. If you delay, and the tumor grows or becomes malignant, the child will truly suffer, it will cost more money, and the child might…”

The old woman was speechless. She asked with a trembling voice, “H-how much, Doctor?”

“About 40,000 should cover it,” the doctor said, trying to use a slightly more encouraging tone.

The old woman felt a buzzing in her ears, her vision went black, and she nearly collapsed. She couldn’t even produce 4,000, let alone 40,000. She quickly waved her hand and said, “No, no surgery.”

As if afraid of someone stealing the little money she had, and perhaps afraid the child would hear the verdict, she fled with the child in her arms.

The doctor, accustomed to such people, sighed regretfully and returned to his work.

Back at the welfare institution, the old woman never mentioned taking the child to the doctor again.

“It’s a pity you ended up here, just a rotten life, a stray dog,” the old woman stroked the child’s thin, pale face.

Rubbed by her thick calluses, the child opened a pair of large, moist eyes, crawled up, blinked at the old woman, and then curiously turned her eyes to explore her surroundings.

She played happily by herself.

…

The skinny woman was in charge of the children’s meals and always shorted Le Le’s portion.

After the old woman also stopped paying much attention to her, the skinny woman’s actions worsened.

Le Le, the last one, held her bowl, looking eagerly at the woman, opening her mouth and making a few “ah-ah” sounds, trying to beg for food.

“Le Le, come here. You only get food if you come here,” the woman smiled maliciously, leading the child to the back kitchen.

Although Le Le couldn’t speak, she understood what the woman was saying and followed her into the back kitchen.

The kitchen had no windows. The only ventilation opening was completely sealed by grease. Once the door was closed, they plunged into suffocating darkness, with only a faint thread of light coming from under the door crack.

Le Le’s vision was poor. The intense darkness gripped her with tremendous fear, making her hug the bowl and chopsticks tightly, seeking some comfort from the cold metal bowl.

“Le Le, come here. I’m over here,” the woman stood in the corner, immensely pleased watching the terrified child.

Urged by gnawing hunger, Le Le searched for the sound, stumbling and falling several times along the way, crying out in pain.

Just as she was about to reach the woman, the woman snickered and turned away, causing Le Le to crash into the sharp corner of a table.

“Ah—” Le Le covered her forehead, tears welling up, and then spread her hands, making “ah-ah” sounds, begging the woman for a hug.

But how could the woman grant her wish? She grabbed the child’s collar, limped, and dragged her into the corner.

“Eat! Dead mute! Why aren’t you eating?” She firmly pressed the child’s head into the basin of rice, laughing wildly.

The child screamed as the freshly cooked hot rice scalded her, struggling and crying to get up. Since she couldn’t speak, she could only press her hands together, begging the woman to let her go.

After a long time, when the child stopped moving, the woman finally pulled her up. A large patch of the child’s face was burned red. She wiped her eyes, her face stained with tears.

“What are you crying for,” the woman grabbed a handful of her skin and twisted hard. “Cry again, and you won’t get any more food!”

The child quickly covered her mouth, shaking her head frantically, indicating she wouldn’t dare to cry again.

The woman nodded in satisfaction at this, tossed a handful of rice into her bowl, “Eat. Eat on your knees. I’m giving you food, aren’t you going to thank me properly?”

The child could only stay on the floor, frantically grabbing grains of rice and stuffing them into her mouth, driven by hunger.

Le Le emerged from the kitchen looking battered, and the other children saw her.

The children here were accustomed to reading people’s expressions and naturally knew how to play up to the woman, so they joined in bullying her.

They would make faces at her, snatch her food, or trip her with their feet…

Le Le couldn’t take it anymore. Her small body, like an enraged calf, knocked one of them over.

The boy was caught off guard, stumbled backward, and his head hit the sharp corner of a step with a “dong”. Immediately, blood flowed profusely!

“Ah—!! The little mute is a killer!!”

“Blood! So much blood!!” The screams shattered the dead silence of the welfare institution’s afternoon.

Subsequently, she was locked in the small dark room reserved for punishing bad children by the director.

“You’re getting too brave, aren’t you? Starting fights now.” The director kicked Le Le, then kicked the boy who was bleeding.

This was her usual practice: when two children had a conflict, she would punish both equally and consider the matter closed. After dealing with it, she returned to her office, not bothering with the troublesome children.

After the director left, a group of children quickly gathered outside the room.

Outside, a group of children rapidly gathered. They banged on the wooden door, chanting excited, rhythmic shouts.

“Bad kid! Bad mute!”

“Le Le is in solitary confinement! Serves her right!”

“Kill the little mute! Kill her!”

The childish voices were now filled with vicious curses and a carnival-like malice, like countless cold needles piercing the thin wooden door, fiercely stabbing into Le Le’s ears.

The director’s scolding, the woman’s piercing, harsh laughter, and the children’s mocking shouts all circled in her mind.

She hugged her knees, trying desperately to curl into a ball, attempting to shut them all out.

She was locked up for a day and a night. Except for the old woman bringing her some food, no one else checked on her.

When the heavy wooden door finally opened, blinding light flooded in. The old woman looked at the small figure huddled in the corner and tried to call out: “Le Le?”

Le Le lifted her head, her eyes vacant, her face still streaked with dried tears and grime. She watched the old woman’s mouth move, watched the children peeking through the doorway, and watched this cold world.

However, all the sounds were muffled, as if separated by a thick, untraversable layer of frosted glass.

From then on, Le Le became a mute monster in name and in fact.