Blame the Villain – Chapter 10
by Little PandaThe Villainous Film Empress (10)
A little rich girl bent on saving the world X A paranoid, dark, and vengeful Film Empress
Song Xuyi bit her lower lip, feeling a bit bewildered.
She didn’t think being compared to a cute kitten was an insult, but coming from Zhao Qingyu’s mouth, it just felt wrong no matter how she thought about it. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the detestable female villain was secretly plotting something.
But Song Xuyi didn’t dare ask Zhao Qingyu why she had given her this gift.
After all, the bloody lesson was still fresh in her mind: she had merely cut off WeChat contact for a few days, and the female villain had run over to her university without a word. Song Xuyi genuinely did not want to experience that a second time.
Remembering the way Zhao Qingyu had smiled at her in the dorm room earlier that day—overflowing with charm—Song Xuyi’s cheeks still burned involuntarily.
She covered her face, took the cat plushie out, and placed it on her desk cabinet. Snapping a quick, haphazard photo, she sent it to Zhao Qingyu with the message: “It’s quite cute.” That would have to do as a response.
Zhao Qingyu didn’t reply, likely busy. Song Xuyi was more than happy with this. She breathed a sigh of relief, figuring she had bluffed her way past this hurdle, and returned to the library to continue reading the medical books she hadn’t finished.
However, Song Xuyi had forgotten one thing—she might have passed Zhao Qingyu’s hurdle, but getting past everyone else wouldn’t be so easy.
Upon returning from the library, Song Xuyi was met with a joint interrogation led by Huang Juanjuan. The roommates surrounded her, their smiles incredibly suggestive. “Xuyi, you’re holding out on us. Did you secretly get a boyfriend?”
The kitten on her desk was so exquisitely cute that it naturally caught the roommates’ attention. The ‘like you’ tag around its neck had been interpreted in an entirely different light; they all firmly believed it was a confession of love directed at Song Xuyi.
“This… was given to me by a friend.”
Bitterly regretting her own carelessness, Song Xuyi hurriedly took off the card hanging around the kitten’s neck. Her roommates didn’t buy her explanation for a second. In fact, her flushed, embarrassed expression accidentally convinced them that their guess was spot on: Song Xuyi definitely had a crush on someone!
Over the next few days, no matter how much the roommates pestered her, Song Xuyi refused to say who her romantic interest was. This only made the girls in the dorm increasingly curious.
Soon, Song Xuyi’s birthday was approaching.
Father Song and Mother Song placed immense importance on her birthday every year, so naturally, they wouldn’t let her spend it at the university.
But Song Xuyi’s dorm had a rule: whenever someone had a birthday, they would treat the whole room to a meal. Not wanting to break the tradition, Song Xuyi invited the girls out for dinner and a movie a day early.
Previously, a rumor had circulated around the school that Song Xuyi studied so hard because she desperately needed a scholarship. But she shattered that rumor with her actions: despite consistently ranking first, she never applied for any scholarships or financial aid. Furthermore, after Father Song and Mother Song caught wind of the gossip, they deliberately had the old butler pick her up from campus a few times in mid-range cars. The rumor that Song Xuyi was destitute quickly collapsed on its own, allowing her roommates to accept her treat without feeling guilty.
Whether by coincidence or some other reason, Zhao Qingyu’s second film had already begun its advanced screenings1 around this time.
It was a low-budget movie with a fast production cycle, taking less than half a year to shoot in total. The leaked trailers revealed that Zhao Qingyu played an assassin.
In the trailer, Zhao Qingyu sometimes appeared as an endlessly alluring woman at a cocktail party, sometimes as a gentle and demure jiejie akin to the girl next door, and sometimes as a figure stalking through the darkness in black clothes with flowing long hair and a sharp, deadly gaze…
Several trending topics had already exploded on Weibo because of it: “Zhao Qingyu’s wardrobe show,” “Jiejie, kill me2,” and “Dreaming of Zhao Qingyu seducing me”…
Song Xuyi knew that in a few years, a saying would circulate in the entertainment circle: “If Zhao Qingyu acts in it, it’s never a bad movie.” This film would further solidify Zhao Qingyu’s status in the cinematic world. Yet, even knowing it wasn’t a bad movie, Song Xuyi still felt a bit reluctant to go see it.
—She was afraid that after watching this movie, she would completely lose her resistance to Zhao Qingyu’s beauty.
Her roommates, however, did not understand Song Xuyi’s painful inner turmoil. Whether it was a cruel twist of fate or something else entirely, there happened to be an advanced screening of the film on the exact day Song Xuyi was treating them. Overjoyed, the roommates all egged her on to buy tickets for it.
Not wanting to ruin everyone’s fun, Song Xuyi had no choice but to buy the tickets. At the same time, she downloaded a chanted version of the 《Heart Sutra3》 on her phone. Listening to the monks reciting amidst the sounds of ancient temple bells and wooden fish4, Song Xuyi felt her entire being ascend to a higher spiritual plane. She was confident she would have enough willpower to resist the assault of Zhao Qingyu’s beauty on the big screen.
Because they were preoccupied with the upcoming screening, the roommates were distracted throughout the meal. They had all applied beautiful makeup before heading out, dressing up as solemnly as if they were going on a date. This was another thing Song Xuyi didn’t quite understand: Zhao Qingyu’s female fans seemed even more fanatic than her male ones.
The movie was exactly as Song Xuyi had anticipated: packed with climaxes and tightly paced. Gasps constantly rang out across the theater. Meanwhile, Song Xuyi’s plan to listen to the 《Heart Sutra》 died before it even began. When Huang Juanjuan saw her actually wearing earphones, she completely blew up on the spot and immediately yanked them out. “My wife5 is so beautiful, everyone came here just for her! You’re already in the theater, and you’re actually listening to music?!”
Song Xuyi didn’t dare let Huang Juanjuan know she was listening to the 《Heart Sutra》. She could only watch the movie along with them, and soon enough, she was thoroughly drawn into the plot:
The brilliant female assassin completed several missions in a row, narrowly escaping danger and turning disaster into safety at every turn. Some people couldn’t hire her even for astronomical sums, yet a little girl seeking to avenge her parents managed to hire her with nothing but a single lollipop. The wealthy, unfeeling elites who committed every imaginable evil were merely prey in the palm of her hand. She drifted through blood and darkness, the most mysterious legend in the city.
In the end, the boss of the assassin syndicate laughed and wrapped an arm around her waist, promising her the position of his fiancée. But the woman only smiled. A split second later, a sniper shot from a distance shattered the boss’s chest…
The film was two hours long in total. Toward the latter half, it seemed people kept walking in from outside, gradually filling up the surrounding aisles until people were standing. However, in the dim lighting, none of the captivated audience members paid any mind to the latecomers.
“No one can command me!”
Looking at the screen—at the black-clad Zhao Qingyu whose eyes were ice-cold and whose lips were curled into a chilling sneer after killing the syndicate boss—Song Xuyi almost couldn’t stop herself from joining the other girls in the theater in screaming “Wife”!
Awoo, why does the villain have to have a face capable of turning the world upside down?
…
The movie ended, and the overhead lights came on. Huang Juanjuan turned her head, just about to discuss the plot with Song Xuyi, when she suddenly let out a piercing shriek!
Following Huang Juanjuan’s gaze, Song Xuyi saw Zhao Qingyu walking down the adjacent aisle.
Wearing a sharply tailored commuter suit skirt, Zhao Qingyu was walking down the side aisle toward the front of the screen, accompanied by the director and several leading actors.
The moment they saw the group, the live audience went practically insane. Cries of “Wife Qingyu” erupted from all sides, and the screams of Song Xuyi’s roommates nearly deafened her!
In that instant, Song Xuyi was incredibly thankful there were so many people present. This meant Zhao Qingyu wouldn’t necessarily spot her hiding in the crowd, and shielded by the masses, Song Xuyi could boldly observe her.
Today, Zhao Qingyu seemed to have deliberately dressed a bit more maturely. She had her hair pinned up, exposing her bright, smooth forehead and slender neck. Wearing a simple pair of pearl earrings, she looked both radiant and highly capable—a different style from her usual look.
The host, Jian Shao, explained that the celebrity meet-and-greet had originally been scheduled for another theater, but their equipment had suffered a mishap, so the event was moved to this cinema instead.
Generally speaking, these kinds of meet-and-greets didn’t last very long.
The director and the lead actors greeted everyone, the media went through the routine of asking a few questions, and then it was time for the final game segment. By that point, the meet-and-greet was mostly wrapped up.
Time passed, and soon enough, the game segment arrived.
When the host announced they would randomly select a fan from the audience to get a hug from Zhao Qingyu, the entire auditorium boiled over.
“Wife, pick me, I’m super sweet…”
“Wife…”
“Qingyu, pick me!”
Various voices rose and fell, the screams nearly lifting the roof off the building.
Song Xuyi kept her lips pressed tightly together, figuring that with so many people, Zhao Qingyu definitely wouldn’t pick her. But she had forgotten about the roommates who had come with her.
Without knowing who started it, her roommates began chanting in unison: “Pick Xuyi! Tomorrow is Xuyi’s birthday!”
“Pick Xuyi!”
…
The combined voices of those few girls completely overpowered the surrounding crowd.
Song Xuyi instantly felt her chest run cold. She froze in her seat, only able to watch helplessly as Zhao Qingyu cast a half-smile in her direction, then turned and said something to the host with a laugh.
“Alright, then let’s invite our lucky fan, Miss Xuyi, to the stage!”
The moment the host finished his sentence, Song Xuyi’s roommates went wild with joy. The group of them practically shoved Song Xuyi all the way up to Zhao Qingyu. Even if they couldn’t go on stage to hug Zhao Qingyu themselves, being exposed to their idol’s line of sight alongside Xuyi was its own kind of bliss!
Before she could even process it, she was standing on the stage. Looking at her ecstatic roommates beside her, Song Xuyi’s face flushed bright red, completely unsure of what expression to make. If given the choice, all she wanted in that second was to find a hole in the ground to crawl into.
Song Xuyi genuinely couldn’t understand: why was it that every time she ran into Zhao Qingyu, so many things happened to catch her completely off guard?
Especially when the female villain standing before her was smiling so earnestly, taking the initiative to open her arms. “Xuyi, happy early birthday!”
The screaming erupted once again.
Some of the media present at the meet-and-greet couldn’t help but raise their cameras:
In the hazy lighting, the shy, adorable young girl and the bright, magnanimous female star painted an exceptionally harmonious picture.
And Song Xuyi didn’t know why, but for a long time afterward, she would frequently recall this very moment: the woman’s smiling eyes, the pleasant scent of her perfume, and the soft chuckle she breathed into her ear—
“Little kid, why do you always blush when you see me?”
…
The author has something to say:
Song Xuyi: Because the female villain teasing a little girl is too shameless!
Footnotes
- Advanced screenings (diǎnyìng) are limited theatrical previews held before a movie's official release date, often used to build word-of-mouth marketing and gauge audience reactions.
- 'Jiejie, kill me' (jiějiě shā wǒ) is fan slang used to express being overwhelmingly struck by a celebrity's beauty or charisma, essentially meaning 'her beauty is killing me.'
- The 'Heart Sutra' (Xīnjīng) is a famous Mahāyāna Buddhist text. Chanting or listening to it is traditionally believed to clear the mind of worldly desires and calm the spirit.
- A 'wooden fish' (mùyú) is a wooden percussion instrument, often known as a temple block, used by Mahayana Buddhist monks to maintain rhythm during the chanting of sutras.
- In Chinese internet and fan culture, it is very common for passionate female fans to refer to their favorite female (or male) celebrities as 'wife' (lǎopo) as an expression of intense admiration and affection.
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