Blame the Villain – Chapter 244

Villainous Singer (16)

As a titan-like figure of Bilin Star, Professor Xu’s death naturally drew people’s attention. After the discovery of Professor Xu’s death, various forces mobilized in full force and rushed to the location of his death: media, military, police…

Some unknown media outlet leaked the video of Professor Xu’s death scene: Professor Xu, who had been laughing and chatting in the graduation test livestream room, had become a mere corpse. His eyes appeared incredibly terrified as if he had seen something unbelievable. At his temple was an obvious wound, which looked as if Professor Xu’s skin had been forcefully torn open, and along with the blood on his cheeks, it appeared extraordinarily eerie.

However, the authorities acted with extreme swiftness, and the video of Professor Xu’s death scene quickly vanished from all light brains.

It wasn’t as if there hadn’t been videos circulated before of high-ranking individuals who died accidentally, some even appearing more tragic than Professor Xu, but back then the authorities had merely expressed condemnation. This was the first time they had acted so decisively to take down videos.

Could there be something suspicious about Professor Xu’s death?

When the video spread, Song Xuyi felt something incredibly discordant about Professor Xu’s death state, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what exactly felt wrong.

As time gradually passed, that afternoon news about Professor Xu increasingly multiplied. Professor Xu had gradually receded from public view in recent years, but according to media reports, he had been secretly researching a cross-century project that had already begun entering the implementation phase.

The authorities even directly pressured the police, ordering them to quickly find Professor Xu’s killer.

Professor Xu’s death had captured almost everyone’s attention, with few people still paying attention to Lin Ruyu, who was terminating her contract with her agency, and Song Xuyi, who had just achieved first place in the graduation test.

After failing to find any useful information, Song Xuyi forced herself to shift her attention, leaving a message for Lin Ruyu saying she hoped she could come back when free, then returned her focus to her unfinished robot.

This was Song Xuyi’s first time making a humanoid-type robot. Previously, Song Xuyi had never ventured into this field. Compared to her previous focus on logic and programming, humanoid robots emphasized human-likeness more, requiring not only professional knowledge but also aesthetic discrimination ability, thorough familiarity with the human body, understanding of robot skin materials and hair coloring… all to achieve an effect where the humanoid robot could pass for real.

Song Xuyi had once been a manga artist in a certain small world, and the most basic requirement of drawing was familiarity with the human body. With that small world’s foundation, though stumbling along, after three days of attempts, Song Xuyi created her first satisfactory humanoid robot.

Thinking carefully about it, Song Xuyi felt inexplicably excited yet somewhat shy, wondering if Lin Ruyu had noticed: her first functional robot had been given to her, and now her first humanoid robot was also being dedicated to her… mysteriously, their connection grew deeper and deeper.

But on the fourth day, Song Xuyi’s excitement gradually faded, and she couldn’t help but feel a trace of worry—

For these four days, Lin Ruyu hadn’t replied to her messages. Though Lin Ruyu had always been busy before, she would make time to reply to Song Xuyi’s messages; this situation had never occurred before.

What had happened?

Actually, after hearing Luo Xi’s words, Song Xuyi had always suspected Professor Xu’s death was connected to Lin Ruyu, and now as time passed, Song Xuyi’s suspicions grew deeper…

Because the police hadn’t found Professor Xu’s killer for so long, the outside world grew increasingly tense, with mounting pressure from public opinion and higher-ups. The police had even questioned Song Xuyi, after all, Professor Xu had arranged to meet her the next day.

But Song Xuyi’s alibi was very solid, and she was quickly cleared of suspicion.

Song Xuyi felt extremely worried, after all, she had mentioned Lin Ruyu in her communication with Song Yi, and when the communication was cut off, it seemed someone had been monitoring it. Song Xuyi worried that person would report Lin Ruyu.

However, somehow, the police never cast suspicion on Lin Ruyu.

As Professor Xu was a titan in the robotics research field, his death was an enormous loss for the entire industry. Therefore, to commemorate Professor Xu, the registration for this year’s graduates at the Advanced Institute of Robotics was postponed until a week later.

In a week, Song Xuyi would enter the Advanced Institute to continue her robotics studies. That place had the strictest attendance system and extremely rigid personal supervision. To prevent confidential information leaks, students weren’t allowed to bring their own light brains, and could only take one vacation per month.

Song Xuyi had originally thought she would have enough time to celebrate with Lin Ruyu before entering the Advanced Institute, yet by the sixth day, Song Xuyi still hadn’t seen Lin Ruyu.

On the seventh day, heavy rain started falling early in the morning. Though Bilin Star possessed the most advanced drainage system and heavy rain couldn’t constitute a natural disaster, the ‘pili pala’ sound of raindrops hitting the windowsill was still annoyingly noisy.

Song Xuyi didn’t know what was wrong with her. Her sleep quality had always been good, but this day she woke up very early before dawn, and afterwards couldn’t fall back asleep at all.

Lying in bed, Song Xuyi suddenly thought of the newly made humanoid robot. Because the humanoid robot’s skin needed sufficient sunlight exposure to appear more natural, and to make the robot’s position more prominent, Song Xuyi had carried it to the windowsill.

But now it was raining heavily, and if the windows weren’t tightly closed, the rain would cause severe damage to the robot’s skin.

After some thought, Song Xuyi still got up, went upstairs, and entered Lin Ruyu’s room.

Song Xuyi frowned as soon as she entered.

Lin Ruyu’s room originally had an automatic lighting system, but now, for some unknown reason, when Song Xuyi entered, the lights in Lin Ruyu’s room didn’t turn on.

Were the lights broken?

There seemed to be a sound from within the room, but by the time Song Xuyi had grown accustomed to the dark environment with only slight neon light filtering in from outside, she didn’t notice anything unusual.

Dawn hadn’t broken yet, and in this pitch-dark environment, Song Xuyi didn’t plan to fix the broken lighting system now. She first felt her way to the window to check, discovering that this room’s windows used the most advanced automatic sealing system—not even a single drop of water could possibly seep in through the window.

Song Xuyi sighed and sat down by the windowsill, hugging her knees—

Thinking carefully, she knew she was worrying needlessly, as Lin Ruyu was a big star at Kelin Academy, they wouldn’t give her a substandard house…

But while countless Bilin Star residents claimed to love Lin Ruyu, did they know the pain she had experienced?

For instance, everyone now thought Lin Ruyu was hiding away to recuperate because of her lawsuit with the agency, only Song Xuyi knew that Lin Ruyu had truly disappeared…

Where could she be now?

The pre-dawn temperature was a bit cold, and outside the rain continued to fall ‘hua la la’, seemingly getting heavier. Song Xuyi felt cold after sitting for so long and planned to move to sit on the carpet, when suddenly her hand touched a puddle of water—

Song Xuyi froze for a moment, her eyes widening—

The windows couldn’t be leaking, so where did this water come from?

As a possibility flashed through her mind, Song Xuyi’s heartbeat accelerated, though she pretended not to notice, slowly stood up, her gaze quickly sweeping across the entire room as she called out to the system—

Perhaps because it knew Song Xuyi would soon complete her mission and return home, the system had been increasingly slack and negligent lately. When Song Xuyi called it, it seemed to be in sleep mode, and after being awakened, it even pretentiously yawned before finally speaking: “Someone’s hiding behind the curtain—”

“Eh!” The system’s voice suddenly became extremely startled: “She… how did she become like this?”

What happened?

Song Xuyi’s heart sank, and without time to question the system, her hands moved faster than her thoughts. When Song Xuyi came to her senses, she had already reached out and pulled open the curtain—

Sure enough, a dark figure stood behind the window. In the dim light, Song Xuyi immediately recognized it was Lin Ruyu.

“Ruyu, what happened?” Song Xuyi frowned: “Why are you hiding from me after coming back?”

Song Xuyi instinctively grabbed Lin Ruyu’s hand, only then discovering that Lin Ruyu looked like she had just been pulled from water, completely soaked, her hand as cold as a block of ice.

Lin Ruyu’s hand moved slightly, but she didn’t speak.

She kept her head down, long black hair covering her cheeks. In the darkness, Song Xuyi could barely make out her expression.

Since knowing her, Song Xuyi had always seen Lin Ruyu full of vitality regardless of the situation. Even just after waking up, she was like a vibrant yet lazy flower, bright and beautiful. Song Xuyi had never seen Lin Ruyu in such a dejected and downcast state.

Song Xuyi inexplicably had a feeling: the Lin Ruyu before her was like a flower about to fall from its branch, if she didn’t catch her, she would likely completely crumble to dust.

This feeling filled Song Xuyi with indescribable panic.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk,” Song Xuyi took a deep breath, softening her voice to comfort Lin Ruyu: “Your room’s lights are broken, we can come back to fix them when it’s light. For now, come downstairs with me, have some hot water in my room to warm up, then take a bath…”

Song Xuyi tried to pull Lin Ruyu to take her downstairs, but she couldn’t move Lin Ruyu at all. Lin Ruyu stood motionless in place, her body instead shrinking further inward.

“Don’t look at me,” Lin Ruyu finally spoke, shrinking into the shadows, lowering her head: “You go out first, I’ll come see you later.”

Her voice sounded extremely hoarse, as if she hadn’t spoken for days, and the hand held by Song Xuyi was trembling slightly…

“Since she’s said this much, why don’t you just listen to her?”

The system in Song Xuyi’s mind fell silent for a moment, then sighed and spoke: “She’s pitiful too, it’s really inconvenient right now…”

But Song Xuyi furrowed her brows tightly.

Fragments of images flashed through her mind, seeming to recall another person who liked to hide in darkness, Song Xuyi had wanted to go keep her company, but had always timidly stopped her steps…

She had always wanted to tell her: no matter what, she would always stay by her side.

A sudden surge of bitterness welled up in her heart.

The images in her mind receded like the tide.

When Song Xuyi realized it, she had already reached out and held Lin Ruyu tightly. She didn’t know what came over her, tears suddenly streaming down: “We’ve depended on each other for so long, you’ve helped me so much, how could I abandon you when you’re facing difficulties?”

Lin Ruyu’s body stiffened.

She seemed not to have expected Song Xuyi to say this. The usually clever and quick-witted person was momentarily lost for words, and after a long while finally spoke softly: “I look terrible right now, not presentable!”

“You’ll look just as unpresentable when you’re old!” Song Xuyi hadn’t expected such a ridiculous reason from Lin Ruyu for asking her to leave, and felt indignant: “If you care so much about appearances, then when you’re old, you might as well end our friendship—”

Lin Ruyu’s grip on Song Xuyi’s hand tightened, seemingly at a loss for words, and fell silent.

But Song Xuyi’s anger burned even fiercer. In her exasperation, she pulled Lin Ruyu forward recklessly, actually managing to drag her a small step—

“Xuyi, you said it yourself.”

Lin Ruyu met Song Xuyi’s gaze in the darkness. She smiled: “You said you’d stay with me until we’re old, don’t think about going back on your word…”

Lin Ruyu seemed to return to her usual childish manner around Song Xuyi, applying slight force, turning from guest to host as she wrapped her arm around Song Xuyi’s waist—

“It’s too late to take it back now!”

As Lin Ruyu’s words fell, the room’s lights suddenly came on—

“—You!”

After adjusting to the sudden bright light, Song Xuyi blinked, instinctively looking at Lin Ruyu before her:

Under the bright lights, Lin Ruyu looked extremely disheveled, her hair scattered over her shoulders, still dripping water, but what shocked Song Xuyi more was Lin Ruyu’s face—half of Lin Ruyu’s face, where the red birthmark was at the corner of her eye, seemed to have been slashed by something, bleeding profusely, a horrifying sight…

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The author has something to say:

Whew, without realizing it, this book has reached a million words~

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LP: Re-translated on January 29, 2025

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