When the Villain Falls Madly in Love with Me - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Car Accident

The days Le Le spent being adopted by the woman were among the few times she lived in relative ease and comfort.

Unfortunately, this false peace is always short-lived.

“This card has three hundred thousand [Yuan] on it. The password is six ones.” The woman slid a thin bank card across the table to her, her voice carrying the relief of impending freedom.

Le Le nodded expressionlessly and meticulously tucked the card into the innermost lining pocket of her backpack.

“I’m leaving. Do you… have to go back to the welfare institution?” The woman rarely showed a flicker of genuine reluctance. “I can give you more money and find someone to care for you until you grow up. You don’t have to go back to suffer.”

“No need.” Le Le’s reply was concise, just two words.

She was certain that if this were a game, the welfare institution was definitely a mission trigger point. There must be other opportunities there, and she couldn’t leave rashly.

However, being abandoned again, her treatment at the welfare institution was predictable.

Sure enough.

“Oh, look who’s back. It’s the little madam.” The skinny woman leaned against the doorframe, her lips curled, her sharp voice grating on Le Le’s eardrums like a rusty saw.

Le Le was older now and could speak, so the woman couldn’t be as overtly abusive as before, but secretly causing trouble was still frequent.

Le Le had lost count of how many stones, insects, or unidentified objects she had found in her food. She had long mastered the skill of expressionlessly scooping them out, tossing them away, and continuing to swallow. It was as if she wasn’t eating food, but fuel to keep her alive.

Not long after, the old woman was dismissed by the director because her legs were becoming unreliable. On the day she left, the old woman hugged her, weeping uncontrollably. Her rough hands repeatedly stroked Le Le’s hair, and her murky tears fell onto Le Le’s shoulder.

“You were so small when I picked you up. My poor darling. I can’t bear to leave you, I can’t bear it.” The old woman cried a snotty, tearful mess.

Le Le felt a pang in her heart, but mostly a sense of helplessness. She was starting to care about her appearance. Her uniform short haircut was already hard to manage, and now the old woman had thoroughly messed it up. She silently, and with a touch of stubbornness, smoothed down the sticking-up wisps of hair.

After returning, she was of school age. The welfare institution sent them to a school specifically provided by the government for people like them, mostly special needs individuals or orphans.

It was a closed-management school. They stayed there five out of seven days a week, with standardized meals and living arrangements.

Le Le’s exceptionally striking face made her a focal point in any environment.

“Le Le, shall we go wash clothes together in a bit?” a little girl asked with a giggle.

“No way! Le Le is going jump-roping with me in a bit!”

The argument instantly escalated. Shoving and pushing, teeth cups and washbasins clattered, and the dormitory became a chaotic mess.

Le Le found it extremely annoying. There was no helping it; being too popular was this bothersome.

She slipped away in the chaos and leaned against the hallway, zoning out.

A small girl carrying a basin full of water walked toward her. Le Le moved further out of the way. But the girl still bumped into her. The basin hit the ground with a loud smash, and the girl was drenched with water.

“Are you okay?” Le Le helped her up, thinking curiously, I was standing quite far to the side just now.

Puzzled, she suddenly heard the girl conversing with the System: “…”

【Will she notice me this way?】

【Absolutely. The novels all say so.】

【Good point.】

“I’m… I’m sorry, classmate! I didn’t mean to! I’m really sorry!” The girl raised her wet face, her eyes instantly reddening. She pursed her lips, looking distraught and pitiful.

Before Le Le had encountered the term “Green Tea,” she had already felt the power of one, and she was nearly amused to laughter.

People from the surrounding dorms poked their heads out to look at them. After a few glances, which Le Le caught, they excitedly ducked back in.

“It’s fine,” Le Le’s mouth twitched. “You should hurry and take a bath and change your clothes.”

【She definitely remembers me now, right?】

【Definitely. Judging by her look just now, she definitely remembers you well.】

“…” Le Le did indeed remember her well. Not many people could leave her speechless so many times in just a few minutes.

She propped her hand up, staring sinisterly at the back of the girl’s head. Perhaps they were right; she was an inherently bad seed. For a split second, she truly wanted to cut open that head and see what kind of sludge was inside besides the System.

The girl walking ahead suddenly shivered: 【System, why do I feel a chill on my back…?】

Looking at the monitoring panel where Le Le’s Blackening Value suddenly spiked and slowly dropped back down, the System silently wiped a ‘cold sweat’ and feigned calm: 【…Just your imagination. The water was too cold.】

The girl looked up at the scorching sun overhead: “…” Fine.

Le Le fell into contemplation. No one questioned their sudden appearance, and no one questioned their departure. So, what identities were they using?

The last person was willing to spend 10,000 points to escape from her, meaning they couldn’t die here. If they died, what would happen? Would their soul be scattered? Just like in the TV dramas.

No one knew how many innocent yet shocking thoughts resided beneath Le Le’s beautiful, harmless face.

Three years quickly passed. Le Le had lost count of how many people had tried to make an impression on her, only to disappear in disappointment.

If someone offered to adopt her, she agreed, living a comfortable life for a while, then repeating the process of using Favorability Points to trick them out of some money to deposit in her card.

Later, her Favorability Points became less valuable, and she couldn’t fool those people anymore, so she reluctantly gave up that idea.

“Hey! Le Le, guess what? A big boss donated a lot of money to us recently, and he said he’s treating us to a day trip to the city this Saturday!”

Approaching the end of the day on Friday, Le Le’s deskmate excitedly slapped her desk. Le Le shot her a glare, so the deskmate could only pout and cautiously take a tissue to wipe her desk.

Forget it, forget it. Having a little straight-A student copy her homework and cover for her, what did a little mysophobia matter!

She subtly glanced at her deskmate, then looked at herself, secretly mumbling. Even though everyone wore the same light-blue uniform, somehow she managed to look different from everyone else.

What kind of difference? The same feeling as the heroines on the novel covers they secretly read—just two words: “good-looking.”

Le Le looked at her deskmate, whose movements had suddenly become violent. She tapped the desk with the tip of her pen in confusion, signaling her to be gentler. Then, she pushed back her ever-slipping short hair and continued doing her homework.

Le Le complained silently that this standardized short haircut was supposed to be convenient, but it only caused her trouble—it constantly slipped and couldn’t be tied up.

She thought pensively, The city on Saturday. Will I encounter new players?

“Ding—”

The end-of-class bell was like a floodgate opening, instantly washing away the quiet in the classroom. Whistles, the scraping of chairs, and the slapping of books merged into a chaotic uproar.

Le Le listlessly packed her things.

“Le Le, hurry up, hurry up! We’ll miss the bus!” Seeing her slow movements, her deskmate wished she could pack for her, but afraid of her getting angry, she could only urge her.

Fortunately, thanks to her urging, Le Le always managed to catch the bus back to the welfare institution, otherwise, she’d have to stay at school for two more days.

Although they weren’t from the same welfare institution, they took the same bus. The driver didn’t wait; if you missed the bus, it was assumed you’d stay at school.

It wasn’t that they liked returning to the welfare institution, but their meal cards were topped up with a fixed amount each week. If they stayed at school over the weekend, they’d have to pay for meals, which was very uneconomical.

For these children, if they weren’t frugal, they could eat enough, but eating well was out of the question.

Moreover, this time was different. They were gathering at the welfare institution on Saturday to go to the city. If they missed it, they didn’t know when the next opportunity would be.

Back at the welfare institution, the air was filled with an unusual excitement.

The children gathered in groups of three or five, excitedly discussing what their “best” clothes to wear tomorrow were and what “treasured” snacks to bring.

Among those faces, many with physical disabilities or intellectual slowness, the healthy, beautiful, and high-achieving Le Le was always an incongruous anomaly.

And most people, regardless of age, seemed particularly sensitive to academic performance, both respecting and resenting it.

They would have tripped her up long ago, but since starting school, Le Le had gradually distinguished herself among the students and was deeply loved by the teachers, so they had begun to restrain themselves.

They transitioned from physical bullying to verbal sarcasm. They whispered to each other, glanced at her, and then turned back to chuckle, aiming to nettle Le Le.

Le Le frowned, unable to understand what was so exciting about a trip to the city. Since they were already in the welfare institution, couldn’t they just focus on their studies?

However, Le Le, with her naturally poor hearing and sight, could only sense the malice in their actions. As for those fragmented whispers and sarcastic expressions, in her blurred sensory world, they were nothing more than distorted background noise.

She simply felt she couldn’t stay in the same space as these fools, otherwise, she would easily be assimilated by them, and that was unacceptable.

After enduring a night coexisting with these idiots, they were woken up by the director early the next morning.

Some children were so excited they hadn’t slept all night. Hearing the loudspeaker, they immediately climbed out of bed, put on the clothes they had laid out under their pillows the day before—their few good outfits.

Le Le woke up with dark circles under her eyes, having been kept awake all night by their mental chatter. She put on a white jacket over a pair of slightly tight jeans.

She smoothed her hair, checked herself out in the mirror, and was satisfied.

However, she frowned again. She was growing faster recently, and many of her clothes were getting too small. She sighed regretfully.

Following the director, she boarded a large bus. Le Le sat in the very front. She looked at the somewhat stained seat, placed a plastic bag underneath, and leaned against the window with her backpack, trying to catch up on sleep.

“Clang, clang, clang…”

“…” It was due to never having been on a large bus before.

She silently pulled back her numb head and reluctantly leaned against the slightly mildewed backrest.

After a long journey, Le Le managed to suppress the urge to vomit several times and finally arrived at the destination.

“Wow! This is the big city! It really is different from our place! So beautiful!” A chorus of cheers erupted from behind.

Le Le opened her eyes, feeling a bit tired, and was genuinely impressed by the sight before her. Towering buildings stood tall, giant billboards were colorful and dazzling, and the pedestrians on the street wore bright, fashionable clothes she’d never seen in their small town.

A group of country bumpkins who had never seen the world got off the bus, both excited and awkward, looking around with curiosity and inferiority.

A little girl walking by, holding her mother’s hand and eating a huge, colorful ice cream, curiously glanced at them.

The children from the welfare institution instinctively lowered their heads, tugging at the frayed edges of their humble clothes.

Le Le frowned slightly. There were too many people, and the noisy mental chatter buzzed in her ears like countless flies. Luckily, her hearing was naturally dull, or she would have been driven mad by this mental noise right now.

“Alright! Line up! Hold hands in twos! Stay close to me! No running around! Do you hear me?!” The director held up a small red flag and yelled at the top of her lungs.

“We heard you!” The children responded in unison, their voices trembling with excitement.

There weren’t many of them, so they quickly formed two lines. When it came to Le Le, she was unsurprisingly left alone. The director was quite confident in her, signaling her to follow at the very end of the line by herself.

The street had little pedestrian or vehicle traffic. After the traffic light turned green, the director raised the flag and led the children across.

The pedestrians on the road turned to look, many couldn’t help but take pictures of the adorable scene with their phones, and the drivers behind the crosswalk watched them pass with amusement.

“Ah!” Suddenly, a scream shattered the warm and lovely scene.

An out-of-control heavy truck, like an untamed steel beast, rushed wildly toward the tail end of the line, toward Le Le, with screeching tire friction and a deafening horn.

Le Le slowly turned her head. Her heart was fiercely gripped by an invisible giant hand at that moment! Her blood seemed to instantly reverse and freeze. Her limbs were stiff and cold, as if she were nailed to the spot.

The surrounding sights and sounds faded and paused. She felt as though she had entered a long century.

The pedestrians’ gasps, the piercing horn, the director’s terrified turn—all seemed to have been muted, becoming a blurred, distorted backdrop. Time was infinitely stretched, slow to the point of suffocation.

Was she going to die?

This thought strangely brought a hint of boredom and relief. She was even too lazy to struggle. Le Le closed her eyes with a sense of weariness and resignation, giving up and awaiting death.

The expected sharp pain and darkness did not arrive.

A surge of force violently yanked her away from the spot! She stumbled into an embrace, a thin, bony, uncomfortable, yet astonishingly warm embrace.

That warmth was like a rushing torrent of heat, instantly shattering the frozen state of her limbs and melting the ice solidified around her heart.

Her heart, belatedly, began to beat frantically again.

Thump-thump—thump-thump—

It sounded like it would break her ribs.

She opened her eyes, shaken but unharmed.

Her gaze met a pair of eyes.

Those eyes were filled with a gentleness she had never seen, enough to drown a person. Beneath that tenderness, however, lay a bottomless, thick, and palpable sorrow.

Bang, bang, bang—

The deafening sound of a heartbeat dominated all her senses. She couldn’t tell if the wild drumbeat was coming from her own heart, which felt like it was leaping out of her chest, or from the depths of the thin chest that was tightly holding her.

Their heartbeats were out of sync, rising and falling, yet equally violent.