Blame the Villain – Chapter 45
by Little PandaThe Villainous Poor Student (10)
Determined True Daughter Self-Made Entrepreneur x Black-Hearted Lotus Villain Poor Student
Song Xuyi froze for a moment, suddenly unable to meet the stubbornness in He Siyu’s eyes, and looked away.
Was she angry?
He Siyu watched Song Xuyi’s reaction, her body stiffening as she bit her lip.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to listen to Xuyi’s words, but this was truly what she believed in her heart: no one was allowed to hurt Xuyi.
“Don’t be angry,” He Siyu said softly. She didn’t think she was wrong, but she couldn’t bear Song Xuyi giving her the cold shoulder, forcing down the grievance in her heart as she spoke. “I can’t just stand by and watch you get hit. If you don’t like me fighting them, then I won’t fight anymore—I’ll just run with you…”
“Too cute!” Song Xuyi hadn’t said a word, but the System in her mind was already howling again. “Xuyi, you really raised a good cub1!”
Song Xuyi sighed, biting her lower lip.
It would be a lie to say she wasn’t moved.
He Siyu’s feelings were laid bare before her—sincere and straightforward. She probably considered Song Xuyi her best friend.
Yet Song Xuyi had approached her with an obvious ulterior motive.
Song Xuyi suddenly felt she was being unfair. The He Siyu of now was not the ruthless, vicious, scheming villain from the plot summary. He Siyu was generous, beautiful, fiercely loyal—willing to give everything to protect a good friend…
She shouldn’t keep approaching her with the goal of ‘reforming the villain.’ He Siyu treated her as a true friend; she should trust her more and do everything she could to be good to her.
Having made up her mind, Song Xuyi raised her eyes to look at He Siyu and didn’t miss the hint of grievance in her eyes. Song Xuyi felt even more guilty and said softly, “I’m sorry,” then threw her arms around He Siyu’s stiff body in a bear hug—
“I shouldn’t have said that. I was just too anxious. The truth is, I’m really grateful you fought for me,” Song Xuyi reached out and carefully hooked pinkies with He Siyu. “From now on, if you’re ever in danger, I’ll risk my life to protect you too…”
He Siyu tried hard to press her lips together, but the corners of her mouth curved upward on their own.
Xuyi was always so clever, able to quickly dissolve all her unhappy feelings.
He Siyu’s eyelashes fluttered, and after a long moment, she reached out and held Song Xuyi too.
“Okay. It’s a promise—”
…
As for the knife He Siyu had been carrying in her backpack, they tacitly never brought it up again.
They all understood that the scars left by a childhood of suffering wouldn’t fade so quickly, but Song Xuyi was confident: away from that demon-like village, growing up in a healthy environment, He Siyu would one day lay her nightmares to rest.
The matter didn’t simply end there.
The injuries on He Siyu’s face were impossible to hide from the adults. Song Xuyi told Father Song about being cornered in the alley, emphasizing how He Siyu had nearly been disfigured protecting her. She had only wanted Father Song and Mother Song to take better care of He Siyu, but she underestimated how much they doted on her. Ever since Song Xuyi had been kidnapped that one time, anything concerning her became a matter of utmost importance to Father Song and Mother Song. The moment they learned she had been cornered, Father Song immediately contacted the school’s education director…
Li Qing’s difficult personality had been shaped by her parents’ indulgence. Li Qing refused to apologize, and her parents enabled her. The two families remained at a stalemate until the end of the semester, when Li Qing’s family finally decided to transfer her to a different class the following term, and the matter was considered resolved.
After learning how He Siyu had risked her life to protect Song Xuyi, Father Song and Mother Song also began to treat He Siyu as half a daughter. With her excellent grades and good temperament, she was the model student. Father Song and Mother Song even secretly hoped He Siyu might pull Song Xuyi back onto the right track, having no idea that He Siyu was fiercer than anyone when it came to protecting Song Xuyi.
At the same time, Father Song and Mother Song decided the girls needed to build their ability to handle bad people, so they enrolled Song Han, Song Xuyi, and He Siyu in martial arts classes. Song Han would practice every now and then; Song Xuyi went once at the start of the semester and never returned; but He Siyu trained diligently, attending almost every session…
In this way, winter break quickly passed, and a new semester arrived.
The final exam results from last semester had been out for a while: Song Xuyi ranked third, while Li Qing, perhaps affected by the whole ordeal, dropped to outside the top ten in the class and transferred to Class F9.
This semester, Song Ge was about to take the Gaokao2, and Song Han was about to face the Zhongkao3. During this period, Father Song and Mother Song devoted more of their attention to those two children, and naturally paid less attention to Song Xuyi.
Song Xuyi was glad for the freedom. She pestered Father Song into helping her get excused from school and spent most of her time at her own company. Her platform had already expanded beyond Flower City, with many merchants applying to join. She had also begun planning to develop express delivery logistics to speed up shipping. However, growth always came with problems—the uneven quality of merchants led to a flood of counterfeit goods on the platform. There were even cases of merchants taking the money and running, leaving the platform to cover the losses.
“We have to crack down on counterfeit products, or these merchants will ruin the platform,” Mr. Zhao came to Song Xuyi with a furrowed brow. “The day before yesterday, I bought an essay-writing book for my son from a poorly rated shop. The price was higher than any essay book on the market. And guess what? After a dozen pages, it turned into some kind of comic…”
Song Xuyi hadn’t expected this development. She leaned in to look at the shop, and her eyes widened when she made out the name: this… seemed to be the same shop where she had bought the fairy tale books for He Siyu…
The fairy tale book listing had been taken down, and the shop was now selling essay books instead.
While drafting a plan to penalize counterfeit shops, Song Xuyi couldn’t settle her mind. Especially when she recalled He Siyu’s question on the bus that day—the more she thought about it, the more wrong it felt. She was afraid the fairy tale books He Siyu had received might also have been some kind of bait-and-switch product.
Because of this, Song Xuyi couldn’t focus all day. She finally decided to ask He Siyu directly and went upstairs to Class A1 to find her.
He Siyu’s grades had improved remarkably—by the end of the semester, she was ranked first in the entire school.
To Song Xuyi’s surprise, Li Qing was lingering outside the Class A1 door. When she saw Song Xuyi, Li Qing shot her a dirty look. Song Xuyi didn’t want to bicker with a young girl and ignored her, standing at the door calling for He Siyu.
The Class A1 teacher didn’t allow students from other classes to wander in, so Song Xuyi stood obediently at the door calling out. But He Siyu sat by the window on the far side of the classroom and couldn’t hear her over several attempts. A girl near the door glanced at Song Xuyi with a grin. “Don’t waste your energy. Lots of people want to get to know Siyu—flowers, chocolates, toys, you name it. Siyu never pays attention to any of them. You’re pretty cute, but Siyu is super aloof. You should just give up…”
“Lots of people want to know Siyu?” Song Xuyi’s eyes lit up, and she started chatting through the window with a grin. “So who’s Siyu closest to in your class?”
Song Xuyi just wanted to gossip about He Siyu’s social life, but her question seemed to put the girl in a difficult spot. The girl frowned and hemmed and hawed before finally saying, “Siyu is a really great person. Whenever anyone has a question they don’t understand, she’ll always answer… She’s friends with everyone—”
Which meant Siyu didn’t have a best friend in class.
Song Xuyi wrinkled her nose and pressed on. “So… are there any handsome boys who like to hang out with Siyu?”
The girl perked right up. “Oh, you have no idea—not even counting us first-years, even the third-years…”
“Xuyi—”
But before the girl could finish, a voice cut in. He Siyu had come over at some point. She stood before Song Xuyi, her face beautiful and cold. “What are you two talking about?”
He Siyu didn’t know what was wrong with herself either—seeing Song Xuyi chatting happily with that girl just felt inexplicably irritating.
“Talking about you!” Song Xuyi hadn’t noticed He Siyu’s mood. She thanked the girl cheerfully, then—to the girl’s astonished gaze—pulled He Siyu by the arm to the side and curved her lips into a smile. “I heard there are lots of little boys who want to hang out with you…”
He Siyu’s tightly pressed lips relaxed a little. She tucked a strand of Song Xuyi’s messy hair behind her ear and said softly, “They’re all irrelevant people.”
“Did you come find me for something?” This was the first time Song Xuyi had come upstairs to the fourth floor to find her. Knowing her personality, she wouldn’t come without a reason.
Song Xuyi, distracted by the gossip, only then remembered why she had come upstairs.
She felt a bit awkward, but with class about to start, she couldn’t afford to be shy, stumbling over her words. “It’s… it’s just those fairy tale books I gave you. I wanted to borrow them back to read myself—”
He Siyu’s brow twitched.
Fortunately, Song Xuyi was too nervous to observe her expression, and only heard He Siyu reply with a note of apology in her voice. “Auntie Wang and I did a big cleaning a while back, and a lot of books were sold as scrap. Which one do you want to read? I can go buy it for you…”
“No, no, that’s fine!” Hearing the books were gone, Song Xuyi felt relieved, but still a bit uneasy, and tested the waters. “I just wanted to know the ending of ‘Cinderella’…”
“Cinderella put on the glass slipper, married the prince, and they lived happily ever after…”
“Oh, okay!” Hearing that He Siyu knew the real ending of the story, Song Xuyi was completely reassured: the books He Siyu had read must not have been bait-and-switch knockoffs!
Just then the bell rang. Song Xuyi quickly waved to He Siyu and hurried back downstairs—
It wasn’t until Song Xuyi disappeared around the stairwell that He Siyu let out a long breath, her clenched fist finally unclenching: thank goodness—after realizing those fairy tales were off, she had tracked down the original versions and read them…
The fairy tale book matter was quickly forgotten by Song Xuyi.
Busy times flew by, and soon it was July.
Song Ge was admitted to a key university, and Song Han was admitted to City No. 1 High School. Father Song happily threw a joint celebration banquet for the two of them, and He Siyu, who was on summer break, was invited too.
At the dinner table, Father Song never missed a chance to persuade Song Xuyi to give up her business. He sighed as he looked at her. “Xuyi! Don’t you want to get into City No. 1 High School? Siyu is a sure bet for admission. If you put in some effort, you could definitely get in too…”
He Siyu, who was in the middle of picking up food, heard Father Song’s words and felt a bad premonition rise in her heart. She looked at Song Xuyi instinctively—
Sure enough, Song Xuyi casually bit into a shrimp ball. “I never wanted to go to City No. 1 High School.”
“I want to go to Yuhua International High School.”
Yuhua International High School was a private school with annual tuition exceeding 100,000 yuan. The educational resources were decent, but the school rules were far less strict than City No. 1 High School’s.
At Yuhua International High School, as long as Song Xuyi showed up for exams on time, the teachers wouldn’t care whether she was in the classroom or not.
He Siyu knew Song Xuyi was doing this to make it easier to skip class and handle company business. But knowing was one thing—after hearing Song Xuyi say it out loud, a powerful sense of helplessness still welled up inside He Siyu…
Father Song smiled helplessly, clearly understanding what Song Xuyi meant. He sighed, patted Song Xuyi on the head, and tacitly agreed.
Colorful confetti drifted down from above the hotel, and a massive multi-tiered cake bearing the words “Exam Success” was wheeled out from the back. The crowd presented Song Ge with the latest keypad phone and an MP3 player…
Amid the festive decorations and raucous celebration, He Siyu bit her lower lip.
She had never noticed before, but now, for the first time, He Siyu felt the weight of money’s importance.
Her grades were good enough for Yuhua International High School, but she couldn’t possibly afford the steep tuition…
Even if they went to different high schools, she could still visit Xuyi at the company from time to time…
But what about later?
When Xuyi became richer and richer, would she still be able to keep up with her?
He Siyu was certain Song Xuyi’s business would succeed. Xuyi would definitely earn a great deal of money. She would have many friends just as wealthy as she was, while He Siyu would be just her most ordinary friend among them…
Just thinking about growing distant from Xuyi made He Siyu feel as though something were gripping her heart tightly, leaving her unable to breathe…
She bit her lip and lowered her head. In her peripheral vision, she saw Song Han smiling and cutting cake beside her, and suddenly recalled what her mother had told her before she died:
“Your father is a very rich man from the city. He said he would come back and marry me. I married He Biao, so I probably won’t be able to marry him when he returns, but you are his daughter—he won’t abandon you. When he comes to take you back, you’ll be a young lady of the city…”
Her biological father hadn’t returned to the village in all these years. What had happened to him?
He Siyu had deeply hated her biological father. Because he never came back, she and her mother had suffered so much in that village.
When she first left the village, she had planned to find her biological father and demand answers. But He Siyu was extremely satisfied with her current life, and Auntie Wang often guided her to be kind-hearted. He Siyu hadn’t thought about seeking out her father for a long time…
He Siyu wasn’t thinking about reclaiming her father at this point either.
But he hadn’t come back in all these years—what if he was dead?
She was his legal heir. If he really was as wealthy as her mother had said, he would have left behind an estate…
If she inherited it, she could live a better life with Officer He and Auntie Wang—and have the means to keep pace with Xuyi!
He Siyu drew a deep breath. With her photographic memory, she recalled the photograph of a man with the name “Xu Hongjiang” that her mother had once hidden away, only for He Biao to burn it. She pressed her lips together.
The author has something to say:
End of the month, fluid—get it?
Don’t make me get down on my knees and beg you T_T~~~
Changed He Siyu’s biological father’s name.
Footnotes
- 'Cub' (zaizai) is an affectionate term of endearment for someone young and beloved, often used by 'mom fans' or elders.
- The Gaokao is China's National College Entrance Examination, the single most important test determining university admission.
- The Zhongkao is China's High School Entrance Examination, typically taken at the end of junior high school.
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