Blame the Villain – Chapter 1
by Little PandaThe Villainous Film Empress (1)
A little rich girl bent on saving the world X A paranoid, dark, and vengeful Film Empress
【Sun Wan never thought she would die here.】
【As her life faded, she seemed to hear a sigh. In her final moments of vision, a graceful figure slowly approached…】
“The female lead died?”
Song Xuyi frowned as she read the last two paragraphs of the plot summary.
“Yes.”
The System’s furious voice echoed in her mind. “The female lead, Sun Wan, is dead. The villain, Zhao Qingyu, has won a total victory. The worldline has twisted drastically and has been judged a major failure by the Main God…”
“The Main God has initiated a rollback, returning us to a time before any of this happened.”
“We each have only one chance,” the System said, its tone grave. “If you fail to protect the male and female leads and change the world’s ending this time, the Main God will obliterate everyone in this world.”
“Including you, while you’re still in it…”
…
Song Xuyi pressed her lips together and opened her eyes.
She was in an examination hall. Everyone around her was writing furiously. The vast room was silent, filled only with the ‘shhh, rustle’ of pen tips scratching across paper.
Song Xuyi, who had been sleeping on her desk, was the sole anomaly in this race against time.
She glanced at the exam paper, then at the clock on the blackboard, and saw that half an hour had already passed.
The System’s voice promptly rang out again. “The glasses the Task-doer is wearing are the latest technology developed by the Song Corporation. They can bypass any signal jammer. Just tap the left frame three times, and the answers will be automatically projected onto your retina…”
Song Xuyi froze for a second, her hand pausing on its way to adjust her glasses.
She had woken up in this body half an hour ago to find her memories gone. Before she could even get her bearings, the System had captured her full attention.
The System told her that her name was Song Xuyi, that she was a Task-doer in a small world, and that she had lost her memory due to an unknown attack while entering this world.
The System’s authority was limited. It couldn’t say if she would ever recover her memories, much less her origins or identity. All it knew was that the Task-doer had to accept the Main God’s commission and, with the System’s help, save the small worlds that the Main God had judged to have ‘deviated from their worldline trajectory.’
The derailed worldline she was in now revolved around the female lead, Sun Wan, and the male lead, Song Jun.
Sun Wan and Song Jun were childhood sweethearts1 who grew up together. Sun Wan was infatuated with her neighbourhood gege, Song Jun, but he only had eyes for the villain, Zhao Qingyu. Only after his pursuit of Zhao Qingyu failed did Song Jun finally notice the neighbourhood meimei who had always been trailing behind him…
The two of them went through a series of melodramatic plot points, from “willingly being a substitute” to “running away heartbroken with a bun in the oven,” and then to the classic “chasing-wife-to-the-crematorium2” arc. Just as they were about to reach the happy ending set by the Main God, the villain Zhao Qingyu suddenly interfered, framing Song Jun’s company. Song Jun was so swamped trying to save his business that he was working himself to the bone. Sun Wan, already insecure in their relationship, suspected him of having an affair. While tailing him, she tragically fell from a cliff and died at the bottom…
Sun Wan’s death caused the worldline to collapse, and so the Main God sent Song Xuyi.
The Main God hadn’t treated her poorly. Although Song Xuyi’s body in this world was just a passerby3, her status was remarkably distinguished—she was the daughter of the main family of the Song Corporation, where Song Jun worked. A typical rich young lady born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
The Song family’s enterprises spanned film, real estate, and technology, making them the undisputed number one financial conglomerate. For such a wealthy family, developing a pair of glasses for cheating on an exam was no difficult feat.
Song Xuyi quickly came back to her senses.
She pursed her lips, took off the glasses and set them aside, then picked up her pen and began scribbling calculations on a piece of scratch paper.
Even though she had lost her past memories, a voice in her subconscious seemed to tell her: Be an honest person. Cheating is a breach of one’s moral bottom line.
The System went silent for a moment, apparently not expecting her to choose to do the problems herself.
But it soon spoke again. “To prevent deviation from your character profile, does the Task-doer choose to receive the host body’s memories now?”
“Let’s wait until tonight.”
Song Xuyi pursed her lips and lowered her head to continue her calculations.
She found that she really enjoyed the feeling of immersing herself in the problems. This exam was difficult for her, yet the moment she looked at the paper, it felt as if every cell in her body had been mobilized, focused on a single goal: to do well.
Is this related to my lost memories?
Soon, the bell signaling the end of the exam rang.
Along with the bell came the System’s anxious prompting. “Warning, warning! Song Jun has already returned to the country and is about to meet the villain, Zhao Qingyu!”
After turning in her paper, Song Xuyi froze at the System’s words. Just then, the Song family’s driver walked in and began packing her textbooks into her schoolbag. “Miss, where are we going now?”
Song Xuyi glanced at the bag. Something colourful seemed to be tucked among the books…
But now wasn’t the time to check.
Song Xuyi looked away. She mentally pulled up the plot summary again, and after a quick scan of the early events, she made a decision. “Let’s just head home early.”
The plot summary was brief, only a thousand or so words. It just said that Song Jun met Zhao Qingyu by accident and developed a fondness for her, which gradually deepened into love over successive encounters. But it never specified what kind of accident it was.
“How about we search around the city?” the System suggested.
“No need.” Song Xuyi shook her head and followed the driver to the car.
“Song Jun just got back. He’ll most likely choose to go home. The entire Song clan lives in South City, and there’s only one main road leading there…”
Compared to wandering aimlessly through the city, the probability of running into Song Jun on the way home was much higher.
The System said no more, clearly persuaded by her logic.
It was rush hour, and traffic was crawling. As they reached an intersection, it began to rain.
The light turned red. The car stopped before the crosswalk. Song Xuyi gazed at the crowd of people crossing the street, and her casual glance suddenly froze, locking onto an elderly woman among them.
The old woman was empty-handed, without an umbrella. Her clothes looked simple and clean, but her eyes were unfocused. She walked with a somewhat unsteady gait, a sign hanging around her neck, and she was muttering something under her breath.
She quickly fell a good distance behind the others, just as the red light turned green.
Horns blared with sharp, impatient honks. The old woman’s body trembled, her expression fearful and panicked. She stumbled and started running right into the middle of the traffic flow.
The System seemed to say something, but Song Xuyi could no longer hear it. A sharp pain shot through her mind, and the image of another frail, staggering figure flashed before her eyes. Almost subconsciously, she twisted the handle and threw the car door open to chase after her.
—But someone else was faster.
The back door of a small car up ahead opened, and a woman with a graceful figure stepped out. She wore a simple red slip dress, revealing slender, snow-white arms and calves. The thin high heels on her feet didn’t hinder her steps in the slightest. Holding a black umbrella, she moved with a hurried yet swaying grace. Her back alone was enough to inspire a thousand fantasies of her charm.
The woman quickly reached the old lady’s side. Song Xuyi, a step too slow, breathed a sigh of relief. She took the umbrella her driver handed her and was about to go help when she saw the old woman’s eyes widen in terror as she let out a piercing scream. “A ghost! Ghost…!”
Screaming, the old woman shoved the woman backwards—
Song Xuyi’s pupils contracted. She instinctively lunged forward and caught the staggering woman.
“Thank you, Xuyi.”
The woman steadied herself with Song Xuyi’s help and turned to look at her. Her voice was lovely, like an oriole emerging from a valley. When she said Song Xuyi’s name, it somehow took on a lingering, tender quality.
Song Xuyi’s face flushed red.
This feeling… it’s so strange!
Meeting the smile in the woman’s eyes, gazing at that flawless, moon-bright, beautiful face, Song Xuyi’s breath caught in her throat. It felt as if a little deer had suddenly been stuffed into her chest, its frantic thumping threatening to leap right out.
“It’s good that you’re alright.”
Song Xuyi heard her own voice come out dry and hoarse. Her gaze fell to the corner of the woman’s eye. There, just below the outer corner, was a tiny red mole, like a single petal fallen upon a field of snow. It added an indescribable, bewitching charm to her perfect face.
This must be the female lead, Sun Wan, right?
Song Xuyi took a deep breath, trying to calm her wildly beating heart.
The plot summary said the female lead had a red mole at the corner of her eye. And since Sun Wan was always following Song Jun around, she would naturally know Song Xuyi of the Song Corporation’s main family.
It was just that the summary only mentioned Sun Wan’s kind and righteous personality. Song Xuyi never expected her to be this beautiful.
“If you have something to do, you should go.”
Having not yet received this body’s memories, Song Xuyi didn’t dare interact with the woman any further. After steadying her, she let go, her gaze shifting to the old woman, who the driver had now led to the side of the road. “I’ll take her home…”
“I’ll leave it to you, then. Thank you for your trouble!”
The woman smiled at Song Xuyi, her gaze lingering on her face for a moment. A shadow passed through her eyes, and then she followed Song Xuyi’s line of sight to the old woman. Meeting the old woman’s fearful, evasive, and guilty eyes, the woman’s lips curved, and her smile grew even more brilliant and radiant.
The woman really did seem to be in a hurry. Without much more small talk, she quickly returned to her car.
Song Xuyi quietly let out a breath. She didn’t know why, but perhaps it was the woman’s overwhelming beauty; even though she seemed gentle and kind, standing next to her had made Song Xuyi inexplicably nervous…
“Don’t be alarmed, ma’am. Your family will be here soon…”
Song Xuyi collected herself and forced a smile to soothe the old woman, who clearly had symptoms of Alzheimer’s and had forgotten her past. At the same time, she listened as the driver called the contact on the sign around the woman’s neck. When she heard the cold, masculine voice on the other end say, “This is her grandson, Song Jun. Where are you now?” Song Xuyi’s smile gradually froze.
A thought suddenly flashed through her mind. Her body went rigid. She subconsciously glanced in the direction the woman’s car had driven off, and the System’s words in her head only served to confirm her suspicion…
“The Task-doer is amazing! You interrupted the first meeting between Song Jun and Zhao Qingyu right off the bat!”
The System’s voice was filled with admiration.
Song Xuyi was stunned for a moment, then gave a stiff twitch of her lips.
She suddenly had no idea what kind of expression she was supposed to be making.
Who could have guessed? This gentle, radiant, helpful beauty wasn’t the female lead, Sun Wan, but the story’s scheming villain, Zhao Qingyu—the one who secretly framed the male lead’s company and indirectly caused the female lead to fall off a cliff!
Only then did Song Xuyi belatedly recall that the plot summary said Song Jun suddenly noticed Sun Wan because she bore a thirty-percent resemblance to Zhao Qingyu.
And the character profile for the body Song Xuyi was currently inhabiting was that of a brain-dead fan4 of Zhao Qingyu, someone who had been crazily following her since she first debuted…
Remembering her own behavior in front of Zhao Qingyu, a chill went down Song Xuyi’s spine. Zhao Qingyu didn’t see through me, did she?
Footnotes
- 青梅竹马 (qīngméi-zhúmǎ), literally 'green plums and a bamboo horse,' a classic Chinese idiom for childhood sweethearts.
- 追妻火葬场 (zhuī qī huǒzàngchǎng), literally 'chasing one's wife to the crematorium,' is a popular webnovel trope where a character who has deeply wronged their love interest must go to extreme, groveling lengths to win them back, implying it's almost too late.
- 路人甲 (lùrén jiǎ), literally 'passerby A,' is a common term for a background character or an NPC (non-player character).
- 'Brain-dead fan' (nǎocán fěn) is a slang term for an obsessive, irrational, die-hard fan.
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