When the Villain Falls Madly in Love with Me - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Failed Escape

“Morning, Boss. Oh, you brought a little girl? Is she your daughter? Why is she crying like a little calico cat?” A young police officer stepped forward, taking the breakfast from his hands, and teased.

The man ignored the greenhorn, waving his hand. “Go, go, go. What nonsense are you talking about? Go get Xiao Li.”

“Got it.” The young officer followed the command and scurried away.

Xiao Li was a police officer recently assigned as an intern, and the only female officer in the small police station.

By the time she arrived, the child had stopped crying. She was sitting on the sofa, not looking around, just waiting blankly while clutching her small backpack.

She’s quite well-behaved, Xiao Li thought.

“Xiao Li, you talk to the child and find out what’s going on. I’ll go do some other work,” the man said, turning to give them space.

Xiao Li nodded, quickly adopting a gentle and empathetic demeanor, and sat down next to Le Le with a smile. “Little one, what’s your name?”

The soft voice calmed the child, who had been tense from the journey. She replied timidly, “My name is Le Le, the ‘joy’ Le.”

“Le Le, that’s a beautiful name,” Xiao Li nodded, then asked, “So, Le Le, tell big sister, why did you come looking for the police? Did you run into a bad person?”

Le Le looked at the policewoman beside her and shook her head vigorously. “No, I’m looking for my Mommy and Daddy. Big sister said the police will help me find Mommy and Daddy.”

Hearing this, Xiao Li’s heart sank. A missing child? She exchanged a meaningful glance with the male officer through the glass window.

Xiao Li subtly pulled up Le Le’s sleeve, revealing shocking injuries underneath.

Her heart ached. She changed her tone to be even softer and asked, “Oh, so Le Le is looking for Mommy and Daddy. Then tell big sister, what are your Mommy and Daddy’s names? And where do you live?”

Le Le was stumped by the question. She didn’t know her parents’ names or where they lived. Even her own name was something the old woman learned from her longevity lock.

She was like the Monkey King, who sprung from a stone, without parents, without origin.

The sad part was that she didn’t have the Monkey King’s ability to transform, but she had 81 types of hardship waiting for her.

Outside the door, the young officer yelled to the man, “Boss, we have a new report…” Before he could finish, he saw the man motion for silence.

The young officer glanced at the two people inside, immediately lowered his voice, and whispered in the man’s ear, “Boss, Sunshine Welfare Institution in the nearby countryside reported a missing child named Le Le, 5 years old.”

The situation was immediately clear. The man nodded, indicating he understood. The child didn’t want to stay at the welfare institution and ran away on her own.

He sighed, walked over, and opened the door a crack, calling out, “Xiao Li, come out for a moment.”

Xiao Li gently stroked the child’s head, whispering to her, “You eat the buns first so you don’t starve. Big sister will be out for a moment.”

Le Le nodded like a pecking chick. She happily rubbed the corner of her pants, thrilled that this sister had promised to help her find her parents.

She jumped off the sofa, picked up a bun, and took a large bite. The savory meat flavor exploded instantly in her mouth.

She held the bun away to examine it. No wonder it tasted so good; it had much more meat than what the skinny woman gave them!

“Delicious.” Though her face didn’t show much expression, Le Le happily swung her legs.

Outside, Old Chen lowered his voice and quickly relayed the welfare institution’s report to Xiao Li. Xiao Li’s face instantly went pale. Sunshine Welfare Institution—she had heard some unsavory rumors about it.

“She… she’s so small, and she has injuries…” Xiao Li’s voice trembled slightly.

Old Chen’s brows furrowed tighter. His tone carried an unquestionable professionalism mixed with a trace of imperceptible annoyance: “Procedure is procedure. The welfare institution is her legal guardian. All we can do is safely return her. The rest is not our business.”

He paused, seeing Xiao Li’s reddened eyes, and softened his voice slightly. “Xiao Li, you can’t be too soft-hearted in this line of work. Some things… we can’t control.”

When the two walked back into the reception room, Le Le had just finished the two buns. She looked up at them both, her face full of anticipation.

Xiao Li’s eyes were slightly red, and her smile looked much more strained than before. She took Le Le’s hand. “Le Le, big sister is going to take you to find Mommy and Daddy, okay?”

Le Le’s eyes instantly shone with astonishing brightness. She answered with a clear, sharp “Yes!”

The officers put the child in the car. Xiao Li sat with her in the back seat, rambling gentle reminders: “Le Le, don’t run around randomly anymore. Your family will worry about you. If you really do get lost by accident, remember to find someone with this badge, understood?” She pointed to her police badge.

Le Le watched the street outside the car window rapidly receding, completely immersed in the joy of soon finding her parents. She agreed to everything Xiao Li said. “Yes!”

Seeing her so cheerful, her small, unguarded face, Xiao Li felt a lump in her throat and turned her head away, unable to look at her anymore.

【So pitiful…】

Le Le was startled by the sudden, choked sound. Her eyes widened slightly. She turned her head and cautiously asked, “Big sister, what did you say?”

Xiao Li hadn’t managed to control her emotions. She just stroked the child’s head repeatedly and didn’t speak.

With no one speaking, the car suddenly fell into a deathly silence.

A child’s perceptive abilities are usually excellent. Le Le’s heart pounded, and she nervously gripped the straps of her backpack.

Until she saw the familiar surroundings outside the car window, her pupils contracted. She screamed hysterically: “No! Don’t send me back! I don’t want to go back! I want to find Mommy and Daddy! You are liars! Don’t send me back!”

Xiao Li held down the frantically squirming child. “Le Le, Le Le, listen to me…”

The child looked at her in disbelief, tears suddenly bursting out. Her eyes were filled with disappointment and despair. She sobbed, punching Xiao Li and struggling fiercely, trying to break free from the policewoman’s grip.

Powerless, the child could only cry, putting her hands together in a pleading gesture. “Please, please, big sister, don’t send me back. I don’t want to go back. I beg you.”

“Boss…” Xiao Li pleaded to the man in the front with a choked voice, but the male officer merely shook his head coldly at her.

【Such an annoying child…】 The voice was cold and tired, carrying a hint of barely concealed irritation.

【Pitiful, truly pitiful…】

Several inexplicable voices came into the child’s ears. She covered her ears, trying to shut them out, but the sounds ignored her will and forced their way in.

In despair, Le Le shoved Xiao Li away, opened her backpack, grabbed a pencil inside, and aimed to stab herself in the ear.

“Ah!” Xiao Li, ignoring the pain in her back, grabbed the child attempting self-harm, snatched the sharpened pencil, and scolded her, still shaken, “What are you doing!”

Le Le, with a few unshed tears hanging on her eyelashes, stared intensely at Xiao Li, like a caged beast, fiercely watching for an opportunity to retaliate.

She shouldn’t have trusted anyone. After enduring so much suffering, how could she not have learned? No one would genuinely be good to her, because to them, she was just an insignificant person.

When she was pitiable, they would gently comfort her and give her a small treat. When she became troublesome, they would rush to throw her away, afraid of attracting trouble.

Ultimately, the child, unable to fight against these adults, was still taken back to Sunshine Welfare Institution.

The director thanked the police officers profusely, saying things like: “You’ve really gone to so much trouble. Children are just like this, prone to tantrums. Thank you, thank you.”

After bowing and scraping to send off the police, the director grabbed the child’s arm with a ferocious expression, her face completely different from a moment ago, her voice like a venomous snake hissing. “Run! I told you to run! You little beast! You’ve gotten too gutsy! How dare you embarrass me like this!”

She dragged the child to the center of the courtyard, conveniently picked up the skinny woman’s broom on the way, and kicked the small Le Le to the ground.

“Still dare to run? I’ll teach you a lesson!” The director’s eyebrows were vertical. She violently swung the broom handle down onto the child’s body.

“Ah—” Le Le took the broom hit squarely on her back, a metallic taste rising in her throat.

The searing pain in her back spread throughout her body. The child groaned in agony, her eyes fixed on the perpetrator with sheer hatred.

“Did I give you too little to eat or too little to wear?” She delivered another fierce kick. “You little beast, you dare to glare at me!”

But how could she fight back? She could only rely on years of experience, hugging her head tightly and curling up to minimize fatal injury.

She couldn’t die.

“Ouch! That’s enough! Director, are you trying to kill her?” The old woman, who had just returned from town, saw the scene and dropped the basket in her hands, rushing to block the director’s broom.

The director took a sharp breath, gritted her teeth, and let go, allowing the old woman to snatch the broom away. She hadn’t actually intended to kill the child outright and felt that beating her this badly was enough.

“Did you see that? All of you, look clearly! This is what happens when you run away! Did you hear me!” she shouted at the children watching the spectacle.

The children nearby were terrified by the scene and dared not say anything else, murmuring, “We heard you.”

The director snorted and said to the old woman: “And you, if you truly pity this child, take her home and raise her yourself. I used to turn a blind eye to small things. From now on, one rule: if you don’t do your job right, don’t work here anymore! You’re nothing but trouble for me.”

“Yes, yes, Director, you are right. I will do my job well from now on, I will. Please don’t be angry, calm down.” The old woman didn’t dare provoke her further and immediately adopted a subservient tone.

“Fine, fine. See if she’s dead. If she’s not, lock her up in that room. Also, seal up that dog door at the entrance. Don’t let them run off whenever they feel like it.”

The old woman agreed a few more times. Only after the director left did she dare to look at the half-dead child lying on the ground.

“Oh, you poor thing.” She didn’t know where to start. The child was bruised all over, and she was afraid of hurting her no matter where she touched.

But before the old woman could reach out to pick her up, the child struggled to her feet on her own, coldly rejecting the old woman’s offer to hug her.

“Okay, okay, no hug. I’ll help you up,” the old woman said, pulling her up and picking up the discarded backpack.

The child was supported and limped upstairs.

“Careful, careful, slow down.”

Le Le was helped by the old woman to lie face down on the bed. Then the old woman lifted her shirt, revealing several shocking purple and green bruises on her back.

“Poor thing, this…” The curse words were at the tip of her tongue, but the old woman forcefully swallowed them. I can’t fight the system.

Since there was no medicine to apply, the old woman could only fetch some cold water to compress the wounds.

The old woman patted her pillow hard and said, half-scolding and half-pitying: “Look at you! Why did you run away? Now you’ve gotten this brutal beating. Learned your lesson, haven’t you?”

After another long stream of chatter, Le Le lay numbly on the pillow, barely reacting emotionally.

“Auntie, go attend to your own work,” she said, wanting the person to stop buzzing in her ear, urging her to leave.

“Oh? You can talk now?” The old woman exclaimed in surprise. “Did the beating bring you back to life? Did it make you able to speak?”

Le Le was too tired to argue with her. She had no energy left to care about the person next to her and simply gave a short “Mhm.”

Then, her vision went black. Her consciousness completely sank into a dreamless, heavy darkness.

The searing pain in her back also gradually numbed and faded away.

The world was finally, completely quiet.