Blame the Villain – Chapter 238

Villainous Singer (10)

After saying those words, Song Xuyi experienced a moment of confusion, as if remembering that she had once said similar words to someone before.

But Song Xuyi couldn’t remember if she had followed through with it later.

When she tried to think carefully about it, a faint pain crept up from deep within her heart, as if it was a memory that her subconscious completely refused to touch.

Lin Ruyu also seemed somewhat stunned.

She gazed deeply at Song Xuyi and curved her lips into a smile. For a moment, it seemed she wanted to say something, but ultimately said nothing—her agent was walking in from the distant entrance.

“You need to study well and maintain your body to the best extent possible, otherwise you might not grow taller in the future.”

Lin Ruyu curved her lips into a smile, stood up, and gently pinched Song Xuyi’s cheeks.

The wind lifted her black hair, her slender figure in a flowing white dress, the smile in her eyes appeared more genuine than ever before, her spine straight as a sharp sword.

In this moment, Lin Ruyu radiated a brilliance that even outshone the various blooming flowers behind her.

This vitality wasn’t just because of Lin Ruyu herself, but because of the millions of ordinary yet extraordinary citizens of Ruoshui Star standing behind her.

Like flowers growing in cracks, even with tremendous burdens above, their vigorous and tenacious bearing suddenly gave Song Xuyi confidence: one day they would break through the obstacles and reach the shore of victory.

Though the process would be difficult and long, it would surely come.

Just as Lin Ruyu released her hand from Song Xuyi’s cheek, her agent approached, seemingly holding back great anger: “Ruyu, how many times has this been this month? Why do you keep disappearing without saying a word? What’s wrong with this life? Even many people from Bilin Star can’t get such opportunities…”

Song Xuyi was stunned and instinctively looked at Lin Ruyu: she had always thought Lin Ruyu was dutifully following her agent’s arrangements each day, but was Lin Ruyu actually frequently disappearing from her agent’s sight?

What was Lin Ruyu doing when she escaped?

Seeing Lin Ruyu’s silence, the agent’s emotions seemed to become even more uncontrolled, her face reddening as she berated Lin Ruyu:

“Lin Ruyu, if we hadn’t given you this opportunity, you’d still be mining on your home planet. How could you have such a comfortable life now? How can you be so ungrateful…”

“So, should I thank you?”

Lin Ruyu, who had been keeping her head down without speaking, raised it and quietly gazed at her agent upon hearing these words.

Song Xuyi didn’t know how to describe this feeling: Lin Ruyu seemed to transform into a different person in that instant. Her gaze was ice-cold, and although she clearly looked much younger than her agent, perhaps because she was taller, she suddenly emanated a strange aura that made people want to avoid her…

The agent’s gaze flickered. Under Lin Ruyu’s stare, she seemed to calm down and softened her voice: “I know you’re under a lot of pressure from performances every day, and I’m trying my best to fight for your rest time, but you can talk to me if something’s wrong. There’s no need to disappear without a word…”

“I understand,” Lin Ruyu curved her lips, though the smile clearly didn’t reach her eyes. “I won’t delay anything. After all, I want to earn more money too, and as you say, you’ve indeed been good to me, fighting for various opportunities for me.”

“It’s just that the princess [wáng fēi – royal title for a prince’s wife] of their country suddenly fell ill, so the scheduled performance has been pushed to tonight. We still have enough time to get there…”

“Is that so?” The agent immediately pulled out her light brain, seemingly verifying what Lin Ruyu said. Her eyes flickered, and when she looked at Lin Ruyu again, her face was full of smiles: “You silly child, why didn’t you tell me about this news? You made me worry for nothing.”

“You should tell me these things properly, I wouldn’t prevent you from resting…”

“Really?” Lin Ruyu’s lips curved in mockery: “I thought if I told you, you would take advantage of the free time to arrange military performances for me. You know, as a person from Ruoshui Star, I hate doing these military jobs.”

“How could I do such a thing!” The agent’s smile froze, clearly struck by Lin Ruyu’s words, but she denied it: “You’re too young to be thinking such things. I didn’t intentionally trick you before, it was just impossible to refuse, and you never told me you disliked going to the military, so I didn’t know…”

“Well, I’m telling you now.” Lin Ruyu maintained that ambiguous smile on her face, an expression that shouldn’t appear on a girl her age, yet somehow didn’t seem out of place.

“Yes, yes—” The agent responded dismissively, changing the subject: “Let’s hurry! The car is here. Although we have plenty of time to get there, considering traffic conditions, we should leave early. We might even make it to the banquet, especially since I heard the princess’s two children really like you…”

Lin Ruyu said nothing more.

She lowered her head, listening to her agent’s arrangements, turned to wave goodbye to Song Xuyi, and followed behind her agent. From Song Xuyi’s perspective, the sunlight compressed her shadow into something very short, and in that moment, it seemed as if her thin, delicate shoulders carried the weight of a thousand jun…

Song Xuyi pressed her lips together.

After spending this time with Lin Ruyu, Song Xuyi had thought she understood her well enough, but now she realized that Lin Ruyu showed different faces to her and to others. Today’s Lin Ruyu was someone Song Xuyi had never seen before.

What was Lin Ruyu like when she wasn’t around? What were her dreams, where was her family, what kind of people had she encountered… Song Xuyi knew nothing about these aspects.

But should she investigate?

Song Xuyi suddenly felt afraid: since coming to this world, despite carrying a heavy mission on her shoulders, she had maintained a detached, polite distance. Fortunately, her original self had been naturally quiet and aloof due to personal circumstances, so no one had noticed anything amiss about Song Xuyi. But if she delved too deeply into Lin Ruyu’s background, she would inevitably become entangled in this world’s bonds, and her relationship with Lin Ruyu would only grow closer…

Song Xuyi hadn’t forgotten that Lin Ruyu was the villain, but the Lin Ruyu she knew now didn’t seem like someone who would blow up the Guardian’s Mansion over personal grudges. If her investigations revealed something unexpected, would she still be able to complete her mission?

…

Song Xuyi bit her lower lip.

But after a moment, she made her decision: while the mission was important, everything must be based on not violating principles.

If she lost her principles and became unrecognizable, even completing the mission wouldn’t bring peace to her future self.

Yet Song Xuyi had a persistent feeling: Song Yi wasn’t a bad person.

Most importantly, she needed to understand what happened on the protagonists’ wedding day in the plot summary, and why Lin Ruyu had blown up the entire Guardian’s Mansion…

Future events couldn’t be predicted now, but like a snake in the grass leaving traces [cǎo shé huī xiàn, fú mài qiān lǐ – Chinese idiom meaning subtle clues leading to significant developments], if she looked carefully, she could still glimpse some traces.

While Song Xuyi now had a basic understanding of Lin Ruyu, regarding Song Yi on the other end of events, she was still stuck with impressions from when he adopted her. Soon Song Yi would become a Guardian, and power and status were the most corrupting influences on people’s hearts. When that time came, would Song Yi still maintain his original intentions from when he sent her to Bilin Star?

Thinking this way, Song Xuyi began actively sharing her life experiences and learned knowledge during calls with Song Yi, trying to discover clues about his character through their conversations—

“Father, I recently got second place again in the robot competition, and three more classmates were eliminated. There are fewer and fewer students in class now, but the teachers and classmates don’t believe in me. There are private rumors around school, they think I’m cheating to get these results, even though there are surveillance cameras everywhere…”

After laying groundwork for two months, gradually explaining her experiences on Bilin Star, Song Xuyi began sharing her feelings with Song Yi.

When first sharing her experiences, Song Xuyi had been worried, since Song Yi was busy with countless affairs and might be impatient with her words. But she soon set aside these concerns: Song Yi seemed extremely interested in everything about Bilin Star, even taking notes on the details of what Song Xuyi said during their communications.

The previously brief conversations between father and daughter, due to Song Xuyi’s initiative, now regularly exceeded Bilin Star’s regulated communication time. Fortunately, since Song Yi held a high position on Ruoshui Star and showed great friendliness toward Bilin Star people, their slightly extended call times didn’t raise any suspicions.

Later, Song Xuyi learned why Song Yi had been taking notes about these experiences. Just as in the original plot summary, he began proposing that Bilin Star’s stationed military invest in building a Guardian’s Mansion that would blend the styles of both planets. While publicly claimed to be the Guardian’s residence, it was actually meant for Bilin Star’s military leaders to live in, so they could maintain a lifestyle similar to their homeland…

The Bilin Star people, accustomed to their high-tech lifestyle, had long grown weary of Ruoshui Star’s poverty and backwardness. Upon hearing Song Yi’s idea, they naturally gave strong support, and countless advanced materials were transported from Bilin Star to Ruoshui Star, laying the foundation for Song Yi’s later appointment as Guardian. However, this also earned him infamy as the most notorious Guardian: after all, the Mansion’s construction was massive, and such work couldn’t be done by the physically degraded Bilin Star people—the labor fell to the unfortunate people of Ruoshui Star.

Song Yi gathered many people to build the Guardian’s Mansion, and everyone was filled with complaints. During that period, even Luo Xi began to subtly distance herself from Song Xuyi…

But things hadn’t developed to that point yet. After hearing Song Xuyi’s complaints about school, there was a moment of silence on Song Yi’s end.

But he quickly responded, and this man who usually spoke with a cold tone now had a hint of gentleness in his voice: “The people of Bilin Star are especially friendly people. They’ve spent so much effort supporting your education, they must be happy about your progress. You’re overthinking things…”

Although aware that the call might be monitored, Song Yi’s words still made Song Xuyi feel a sense of disappointment—had Song Yi truly become a complete running dog [zǒu gǒu – meaning someone who serves a foreign power] to Bilin Star?

But Song Yi’s next words caught Song Xuyi’s attention—

“Do you remember the 《Grand Aspiration Sutra》 I gave you? There are methods in there to adjust your mood, you might want to take a look…”

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LP: Re-translated on January 22, 2025

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