The Anti-Villain Redemption Mission - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The System let out a piercing screech inside my head.

Irritated, I demanded, “Didn’t you tell me to redeem him? How am I supposed to redeem him if I don’t tie him up? And what’s his family going to pay for the ransom?”

The System was fuming. “Are you a college student or a kidnapper?! I’m seriously going to call the police on you. Qiao Lan, haven’t you ever read a novel? ‘Redemption’ means saving him! It means filling his heart with love and sunshine!”

I fell silent for a moment. “You’re telling me, a broke college student, to save a Young Master with billions in assets? And fill his heart with love?”

Goddammit.

From the moment I open my eyes every day, I’m grinding. I’m worked to the bone just to stay alive. Why isn’t anyone coming to redeem *me*?

Whatever. I’m going to destroy the world too.

Xie Zheng was already awake. A pair of dark eyes were staring at me coldly.

“How much do you want?” he asked calmly.

Wait, there are perks like this?

“Twenty thousand!” I blurted out.

At those words, both the System and Xie Zheng fell silent.

The System was the first to have a breakdown. “Oh my god, why did I pick such a loser?! Kidnapping is one thing, but who the hell asks for twenty thousand in a kidnapping?”

I really wanted to smack this foul-mouthed System. “If I ask for more, it’ll actually count as kidnapping! Don’t you have any common sense?!”

“I’ll give you two hundred thousand. Untie me.”

After a long pause, Xie Zheng seemed to sigh as he spoke softly.

My rental was very sparse. The Young Master had been tossed onto my bed, lying across it on his stomach with his hands and feet tied behind his back. It was an undignified position, but his expression remained calm as he asked unhurriedly, “Did you kidnap me just for twenty thousand?”

The System wouldn’t stop barking in my ear. “You aren’t allowed to say it’s for money! You have to make him feel your love! Love! Do you understand?”

Under the System’s coercion, I stiffly changed my tune. “It’s for love.”

The Young Master finally lost some of his composure. His handsome face was a mask of complicated emotions as he blanked for a moment. “How about I give you three hundred thousand?”

Three hundred thousand… that’s three hundred thousand!

With tears in my eyes, I gritted my teeth and shook my head. “I don’t want money. I just want you to be happy.”

The Young Master stayed silent for even longer this time.

He thought I was crazy.

I thought I was crazy too.

He struggled to lift his head and stare at me, trying to discern my motive. “You know my family will find this place, right? They’ll find you soon, and then they’ll send you to the police station. It’s not too late to let me go now.”

Xie Zheng negotiated patiently. “Don’t worry. As long as you let me go, I won’t let them send you to the police. I’ll even give you a large sum of money. Is five hundred thousand enough?”

Five hundred thousand!

Dear God, five hundred thousand… how many Pin-Good-Meals could I buy with that?

While I was calculating the glorious life I could lead with five hundred thousand, Xie Zheng raised the stakes. “One million. Let me go, and I’ll transfer it to you right now.”

Young Master, stop talking. I really can’t hold out much longer.

I spoke almost through gritted teeth. “I don’t want anything!”

The Young Master was lying face down while I sat half-perched on him. My eyes were tearing up as I untied the ropes on his hands. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. He’s already so rich, why the hell does he want to destroy the world?

My life is already this hard, so why do I have to be the one to save him?

He should just live my life for a while, where I can’t even afford a single meat dish a day. I guarantee he wouldn’t have the time to destroy the world then!

He’s just got too much money and nothing better to do.

My teeth itched with resentment. I couldn’t resist giving him a hard smack on the back of his head. “I’m telling you, once you go back, live a good life! I want you to be positive, love life, and do plenty of charity! And if you’re bored, you can start by sponsoring a poor student like me!”

Xie Zheng had been struck. He buried his face in my mattress and didn’t speak for a long time.

The room was silent. The System’s voice drifted through my mind again. “The Villain definitely holds a grudge now. It’s going to be even harder for you to redeem him.”

Hearing this, my hands stopped working at the ropes. “What do you mean? Is he actually going to retaliate?”

“Hard to say. All the info I have is that this man is extremely petty, vengeful, and ruthless.”

I slowly lowered my head.

Eldest Young Master Xie’s wrists were already rubbed raw and red. I was currently sitting on the Young Master’s noble backside, and I had even been suicidal enough to smack him on the back of the head.

I scrambled off him and used every ounce of strength I had to pull Xie Zheng up. Blinking my large eyes with utmost sincerity, I said, “I don’t mean you any harm, and I don’t want your money. But to prevent you from taking revenge on me in the future, I have to do one thing to you.”

The Young Master immediately grew wary. “What are you doing?”

My hands trembled as I reached out, wanting to unbutton his shirt.

“You wouldn’t dare!” Xie Zheng’s face flushed red as he began to struggle wildly.

The buttons on his white shirt were hard to undo. I was already nervous, and his violent struggling didn’t help. I could only try to coax him gently, “It’s okay, it’ll be over soon. I’ll be finished in just a second.”

Perhaps I had loosened the ropes a bit too much just now; they suddenly slipped off Xie Zheng’s hands. Before I could dodge, he pinned me down beneath him.

His face was cold and dark as he squeezed my throat hard. “Who exactly sent you?”

I confessed without a second thought. “The System! It was that Money-Losing System that made me do it!”

“Qiao Lan!” the System roared in fury. “You are such a coward!”

Xie Zheng frowned slightly. “What did ‘it’ make you do?”

“To make me… make me love you.” I thought about it, then shook my head. “No, wait. To make you love me.”

I spoke with such sincerity that Xie Zheng actually seemed to believe me. He nodded calmly. “Oh.”

Just as I breathed a sigh of relief, the hand on my neck suddenly tightened.

His dark eyes were freezing, devoid of any warmth, as if he were looking at a lifeless object.

My breathing faltered. The sensation of oxygen deprivation made my vision fade in and out of darkness.

“Relax, it will all be over soon,” Xie Zheng comforted me gently. His deep, pleasant voice sounded like the whisper of the Grim Reaper.

At the threshold of life and death, I finally reached his vital spot and squeezed it hard in my hand.

Bring it on!

Let’s go down together!

Xie Zheng’s expression shifted instantly. His eyes turned bloodshot, and he didn’t dare exert any more force.

I raised an eyebrow provocatively. Xie Zheng stared at me gloomily. As our eyes met, there was nothing but pure hatred between us.

As he eased his grip slightly, I loosened mine a fraction, but neither of us was willing to be the first to let go.

The System, which had been scared into a temporary crash earlier, was now teetering on the edge of a mental breakdown. It began to laugh hysterically. “Haha! How is this not a perfect match? Maybe you’ve pioneered a path of ‘pure-hate redemption.’ Haha… Just kill me now.”

After that, the System truly went silent.

In the midst of our standoff, the front door was violently kicked open, crashing to the floor.

I looked over in shock.

Immediately, a crowd of people swarmed in-police officers, reporters… Countless camera flashes went off, strobing over Xie Zheng and me.

Why were there even reporters here?

A beautiful woman, weeping, squeezed through the crowd. “Ah Zheng! Your death-”

Her wailing came to a screeching halt the moment she saw the two of us.

Xie Zheng suddenly lowered his head and planted a kiss on my cheek. “Babe, let go for a second. We’ll continue this in a bit.”