Blame the Villain – Chapter 44
by Little PandaThe Villainous Poor Student (9)
Determined True Daughter Self-Made Entrepreneur x Black-Hearted Lotus Villain Poor Student
On Monday, the midterm exam results were also about to come out.
Father Song was a model worker who arrived at his office bright and early every morning, but today he couldn’t keep his mind on his work. He glanced at his watch several times, and only when it was nearly lunchtime did he quietly use his newly purchased mobile phone to call the teacher. “Teacher, about Xuyi’s exam this time…”
Father Song had a belly full of apologies ready, but the teacher’s voice on the other end sounded a bit uncertain too.
“She did very well this time.”
Father Song let out a breath of relief. Since the teacher said that, at least Song Xuyi hadn’t regressed from last time. He said modestly, “It’s all thanks to the teachers’ guidance. I know my own child — those tutors we hired before kept blindly praising Xuyi for being clever, so she got a bit full of herself…”
“She is indeed clever,” the teacher sighed faintly. “She ranked third in the class this time…”
“Th—third…?” Father Song suspected he had misheard. The rest of his words stuck in his throat as he stared wide-eyed.
He and the teacher fell into a long silence. After a while, he spoke softly to break the quiet: “Then what do you think—”
“We’re adults. We have to lead by example and teach the children that a promise must be kept,” the teacher sighed gently. “Since you made a promise to the child, you have to follow through. As for the rest—well, we’ll just have to wait until she doesn’t make the top five next time.”
Father Song hung up the phone in a daze.
He then called to ask about Song Han’s grades. Hearing that Song Han had ranked first, Father Song finally came back to his senses. As always, he instructed his secretary to prepare gifts for his daughters. He knew Song Han’s preferences well, so hers was a newly released set of fairy tale books. But when it came to Song Xuyi, Father Song found himself stumped…
“Get Xuyi a God of Wealth!”
After deliberating at length, Father Song, meeting his secretary’s bewildered gaze, decided to give Song Xuyi a large God of Wealth statue.
Wasn’t she starting a business?
A businessperson should believe in a little feng shui…
Song Xuyi also drew some unusual looks from her classmates that day.
The students in Class F6 weren’t particularly strong academically to begin with, and everyone had assumed Song Xuyi would be dead last. They’d all been in the same exam room, and Song Xuyi had been the first to hand in her paper and leave the classroom for every single subject. Some classmates sitting nearby had watched her fill in the answers — she would glance at each question and then scribble down her responses. Everyone assumed she was just guessing.
Nobody expected Song Xuyi to rank third in the class.
The transition from elementary to middle school was a watershed moment. Many students who excelled in elementary school might not stand out in middle school. In ninth grade, the whole school would reshuffle classes again, and the top five students in each class had a strong chance of making it into the A class.
Facing the measuring looks of her classmates, Song Xuyi actually felt a bit awkward. After all, these children were just kids in her eyes, and she had no intention of competing with them over grades. The girl who ranked fourth in the class burst into tears the moment she heard her placement, which made Song Xuyi feel an inexplicable twinge of guilt.
During the break, she specially bought the girl an ice cream to cheer her up. But to her surprise, the sight of Song Xuyi walking over with ice cream only made the girl cry harder. She even swept Song Xuyi’s ice cream onto the ground!
“You did that on purpose to provoke me…”
The girl wept her heart out. Song Xuyi shrugged, suddenly realizing that not all little girls were as endearing as He Siyu. She didn’t want to keep pushing friendliness where it clearly wasn’t wanted, so she let it go.
Before long, the school day ended.
Song Xuyi returned home with her report card, beaming with joy, and was about to find Father Song to cash in on their deal when she spotted him sitting in the living room — he had come home from work early, which was rare. She called out “Dad” along with Song Han behind her, and then saw Father Song smile and point to two heavy-looking gift boxes on the floor.
“You both did well. These are your gifts.”
Song Han opened her box first, and her eyes lit up at the sight of a complete set of books inside. Song Xuyi assumed Father Song had given her books too, thinking she could pass them on to He Siyu, and opened hers casually — only to find a smiling, solid ceramic God of Wealth inside!
Song Xuyi carried the heavy God of Wealth and followed Father Song into the study.
His young daughter, slender and fair-skinned, hugging a God of Wealth bigger than her entire face, toddling into the study in quick little steps, looked comical and adorable.
Father Song looked at his daughter like this and felt a sudden urge to laugh and cry at the same time, baffled at how things had come to this:
She was just a child, yet she was dead set on starting a business. What was even more absurd was that he had actually agreed to it…
“This time, I’ll admit I lost!” Father Song studied Song Xuyi for a moment, then spoke first. Meeting Song Xuyi’s smiling, crinkled eyes, he deliberately put on a stern face. “But if your final exam grades drop…”
Song Xuyi quickly raised her hand and swore an oath: “I will absolutely not let my grades drop!”
Father Song rubbed his brow.
He thought of what Mr. Zhao had said when he called — praising Song Xuyi as having “limitless prospects” — and then of the solemn, determined expression Song Xuyi had worn when she said she wanted to help the girls in the mountain villages…
He really must be getting old!
Father Song sighed ruefully and patted Song Xuyi on the head, signaling his agreement.
With Father Song helping to excuse her from school, Song Xuyi’s life became much easier, and her spirits visibly recovered.
Meanwhile, He Siyu had been exercising with Officer He over the past year, and even though she also sneaked out at night with Song Xuyi, her physical condition was much better than Song Xuyi’s. Her height had shot up rapidly — she was already nearly a full head taller than Song Xuyi.
He Siyu had also ranked fifth in the entire school this time. Song Xuyi knew how hard-won that result was for her, so as a reward, Song Xuyi followed Father Song’s example and gave He Siyu a set of fairy tale books.
Song Xuyi hadn’t had time to go to a bookstore to pick out books. This set was purchased from her own platform. The merchant charged a high price, and the ad copy was enticing — “The most extraordinary and beautiful fairy tale adaptations, irresistible outstanding fairy tales.” Song Xuyi glanced at the table of contents, which included the most famous 《Andersen’s Fairy Tales》 and 《Grimm’s Fairy Tales》. When the package arrived, she didn’t even look inside and just handed the books straight to He Siyu.
He Siyu trusted Song Xuyi completely and immediately opened a book to read. She read quickly, but something about the stories felt off. When she reached a certain passage, her face immediately flushed red. She slammed the book shut as if burned, bit her lip, and started on her homework — but her gaze kept drifting back to those books…
Song Xuyi didn’t notice her expression at all. It wasn’t until the next night, when the two of them sneaked out again and were riding the bus, that Song Xuyi realized He Siyu was lost in thought.
“Siyu, what’s wrong?”
He Siyu was usually calm and composed. This was the first time Song Xuyi had seen her looking so distracted.
He Siyu bit her lip, her pretty eyes stealing a glance at Song Xuyi. She hesitated before speaking, her voice very soft: “…Xuyi, why did you buy me books like that?”
Song Xuyi was taken aback, then remembered He Siyu was talking about the fairy tale set. Figuring He Siyu was confused because she hadn’t read many leisure books before, she explained, “These kinds of books are generally for passing time, but you can also learn things from them — cultivate good virtues and a love for life…”
“They can cultivate good virtues?” He Siyu frowned, still not quite understanding.
“Of course they can. Fairy tales are actually full of wisdom,” Song Xuyi said. Figuring they had nothing better to do for now, she explained to He Siyu in detail: “You’ve read Snow White, right? The stepmother was jealous of her, so she fed her a poisoned apple… This story tells us to always keep a kind heart and bravely pursue happiness, and only then can we win a beautiful life…”
He Siyu pressed her lips together tightly.
She realized that the story Song Xuyi was describing was completely different from the one she had read.
In the version she read, the stepmother fell in love with Snow White at first sight. To possess Snow White, she poisoned the king, then captured Snow White and spent day and night in the palace’s lavish bedchamber doing all kinds of exercises…
Recalling the endlessly varied descriptions in the book, He Siyu’s face flushed involuntarily.
She realized it was her version of the book that had a problem, but she didn’t want Song Xuyi to know she had read such things. She could only bite her lip and lower her head.
Song Xuyi was still talking: “You’ve read The Little Mermaid, right? The little mermaid traded her voice to the sea witch for a potion…” Thinking of how the little mermaid eventually turned into sea foam, Song Xuyi sighed. “That story tells us not to be like the mermaid — don’t give up everything for love. Life is more important—”
The version He Siyu read was not what Song Xuyi described either.
In He Siyu’s version, the sea witch had long coveted the beautiful mermaid. When the mermaid came begging for a potion, the witch demanded the mermaid spend a year with her. The poor mermaid fell into the witch’s clutches, locked in a cave all day doing this and that… After the year passed, the mermaid had completely forgotten the prince’s existence and lived happily ever after with the witch at the bottom of the sea…
“See?” Song Xuyi summed up at the end. “Anyway, it’s fine to read these books. They can inspire thinking and develop writing skills. Just don’t believe everything in them…”
“Understood!”
“Xuyi, what was your class’s homework today? I’ll help you with it later…”
He Siyu nodded earnestly and changed the subject stiffly.
But in her heart, she made a firm resolution: tonight when she got home, she would immediately shove these shameful books under the bed and never look at them again!
Time flew by, and another two months passed.
The final exams were approaching.
Song Xuyi never expected bullying to happen to her.
A few days before the exams, He Siyu was kept after school by a teacher for a physics competition. Song Xuyi waited for her, and by the time they headed home, the sky had already darkened. In a certain alley, the two of them were blocked by five girls.
Song Xuyi noticed that four of the taller girls wore vocational school uniforms.
“Get lost!” A girl with bleached yellow hair who seemed to be the ringleader shoved He Siyu aside and glared fiercely at Song Xuyi. “I heard you deliberately humiliated my little sister Li Qing!”
“Let me tell you — you’d better wise up. If you dare upset my sister again, you’ll regret it!”
Upset her sister?
Thanks to Father Song’s frequent absence requests, Song Xuyi wasn’t close with her classmates. Looking at the smaller girl in her own school’s uniform standing next to the ringleader, it took Song Xuyi a good while to recognize her as the fourth-place girl who had cried…
“Oh, so your name is Li Qing!” Song Xuyi had a sudden realization and remarked to the System inwardly once more: Sure enough, not all girls are like He Siyu! Her Siyu, when she couldn’t beat someone’s grades, would just work harder in secret — unlike this girl, who actually recruited people to threaten her rival…
Song Xuyi hadn’t expected her simple words to stir up another hornets’ nest. Hearing that the rival she’d been brooding over for ages didn’t even know her name, Li Qing’s mouth quivered and her eyes immediately welled up.
“So you’re the one who bullied my sister!” the yellow-haired girl exploded. “You don’t know what’s good for you…”
The yellow-haired girl raised her hand—
Song Xuyi frowned.
She certainly wasn’t going to stand there and wait for the yellow-haired girl’s slap to land. In her last world, she had been an Alpha who had fought on battlefields and killed Zerg. Combat skills were etched into her memory. When Song Xuyi got serious, the aura in her eyes — something forged in seas of blood and mountains of corpses — was enough to make anyone’s heart turn cold…
The yellow-haired girl froze for an instant under Song Xuyi’s gaze, but then a hand shot in from the side. He Siyu seized the yellow-haired girl’s arm, wrenched it behind her back, and drove her knee hard into her stomach—
“Scratch up her face!”
The yellow-haired girl doubled over in pain. She had always thrown her weight around this area and never imagined anyone would fight back. Forgetting about Song Xuyi entirely, she called on the other three girls to swarm He Siyu—
Song Xuyi hadn’t expected it to turn into a four-on-one assault on He Siyu!
“Stop fighting!”
Song Xuyi and Li Qing kept trying to break it up, but nobody listened. The five of them brawled as if their lives depended on it—
If He Siyu hadn’t been there, Song Xuyi alone could have handled all four of them. But He Siyu knew the original body’s background, and since Song Xuyi had to maintain her cover and couldn’t reveal her combat skills, she could only pretend to break up the fight while discreetly landing underhanded strikes…
But with four opponents, He Siyu was still at a disadvantage.
Nobody expected that the cool, reserved-looking He Siyu would have such explosive power in a fight. Though slightly outmatched against four, she fought with a fearless ferocity. Even when her forehead struck the wall and started bleeding, she didn’t back down. In fact, she used that opening to pull a small knife from her backpack and brandished it—
He Siyu’s breathing came fast, blood trailing down her beautiful face, but her expression remained cold and clear, her pretty eyes like ice and snow.
It had to be acknowledged — in that moment, He Siyu carried a dangerous beauty. Dark, beautiful, compelling enough to drag someone under.
Li Qing beside Song Xuyi seemed to freeze for an instant.
Seeing the knife in He Siyu’s hand, the girls, still burning with rage, belatedly felt fear: this beautiful girl didn’t care about her face or her life!
With that realization, all four girls’ bravado evaporated.
He Siyu fought like she had nothing to lose, but these four girls had their lives to think about. There was no need to let a grudge over a test spiral into something irreparable.
Whoever started it, the four girls grabbed Li Qing and began retreating toward the mouth of the alley. Only then did they notice that certain joints in their bodies hurt at the slightest touch — far more painfully than the usual bruises from being hit. They didn’t know it was Song Xuyi’s underhanded strikes, which would ache for at least another two weeks. They assumed it was just ordinary bumping and brushed it off. It wasn’t until a week later, when the pain still hadn’t faded, that they made inquiries and learned He Siyu’s father was a police officer. They attributed all their injuries to He Siyu and gained a healthy dose of fear, never daring to swagger through this area again…
But all of that came later.
Right now, Song Xuyi hurriedly pulled He Siyu to a street-side clinic to treat their injuries. Looking at the battered He Siyu, Song Xuyi’s heart ached terribly: “Don’t be so impulsive anymore. They were really just trying to scare me…”
But the normally obedient He Siyu didn’t listen to Song Xuyi this time.
She lifted her beautiful eyes and gazed at Song Xuyi earnestly: “Even if it happened again, I would still do the same…”
“They wanted to hurt you, Xuyi!”
I would rather die than watch you be harmed…
The author has something to say:
Writing this chapter, I have to bring up those old street-stall paperbacks from ages ago that were completely different from what they claimed to be:
In ninth grade, my dad bought me a book called 《Happy Campus》 from a street stall.
The cover was pure, and the first chapter was pure too. I thought it was an innocent fairy tale, something like 《Pipilu》1.
Only later did I realize it was a “pure” love story between a male high school student and five beautiful women — the kind of pure story that Jinjiang2 absolutely couldn’t publish today…
Back then, innocent little me, upon discovering the truth, steadfastly turned the book in to my grandmother — earning her a scolding of my dad plus 5 yuan in pocket money for me. My innocent grandmother, even now when she sees my little cousin playing games, still drags me into the comparison: “Why don’t you learn from your cousin? She’s been sensible since she was little, loves reading, and never reads bad books…”
Yep, I don’t know how I knew it was a love story about a male high school student and five beautiful women either… I guess… I must have dreamed it—
Thanks for the chapter Translator-sama~<3
Thanks for the chapter Translator-sama~<3