Blame the Villain – Chapter 9
by Little PandaThe Villainous Film Empress (9)
A little rich girl bent on saving the world X A paranoid, dark, and vengeful Film Empress
After the three-day holiday, Zhao Qingyu returned to the production crew.
Everyone knew that Zhao Qingyu had caught fire. Her name topped the Weibo trending search topics dozens of times, countless people had begun praising her acting skills, and her fans were visibly increasing by hundreds of thousands a day.
Zhao Qingyu’s looks possessed a highly recognizable kind of beauty. With such acting skills before she was even twenty-two, as long as she walked this path firmly, one could easily imagine the brilliant future ahead of her.
And Zhao Qingyu herself was exceptionally low-key and pragmatic. Apart from the promotional work she had to cooperate with the crew on, she spent all her remaining time stationed on set.
As for Song Xuyi’s side of things, her life was equally busy. After the first day of the Lunar New Year, she buried herself in the old master’s pharmacy, and then came the heavy coursework after the semester began…
Over the following months, right up until Song Xuyi faced her midterm exams, the two of them didn’t see each other again. Song Xuyi only saw Zhao Qingyu in the trending searches and Super Topics.
Every time she saw Zhao Qingyu on the screen, Song Xuyi would feel a sense of surrealness, because they were in contact almost every day.
Unlike Song Xuyi’s unilateral clocking in before, after New Year’s Eve, Zhao Qingyu would occasionally reply to her. It was just that their timelines didn’t match up. Often, Song Xuyi would send a message in the morning, and Zhao Qingyu would wait until the middle of the night to reply. Sometimes she would even delay it until the next day. What made Song Xuyi feel even stranger was that she and Zhao Qingyu had actually managed to keep chatting on and off like this…
Zhao Qingyu’s replies gave Song Xuyi a sort of hollow confidence, making her feel that there might still be a chance to untangle the knots in Zhao Qingyu’s heart. Thus, Song Xuyi began racking her brains to send Zhao Qingyu chicken soup for the soul1 or various little philosophical anecdotes to enlighten her.
Whenever this happened, Zhao Qingyu’s replies would become exceptionally brief.
But the moment Song Xuyi felt that ‘Zhao Qingyu’s heart was like a needle in the deep sea2‘ and tried to find an excuse to give up clocking in, Zhao Qingyu would suddenly say things like, “Kindness is a beautiful virtue,” or show Song Xuyi her donation records. It fueled Song Xuyi’s vain, lingering hope: The villain isn’t completely beyond salvation; perhaps I should try a little harder.
After going through this several times, Song Xuyi finally realized in hindsight: this detestable villain Zhao Qingyu was seemingly stringing her along for fun!
It wasn’t quite to the point of being sad, since she had already braced herself for failure in her heart, but Song Xuyi still felt a sense of defeat. Zhao Qingyu was truly too difficult to approach. She had probably sensed Song Xuyi’s desire to make her give up her hatred early on, which was exactly why she was teasing her like this.
Feeling defeated, and with midterm exams approaching, Song Xuyi simply stopped clocking in unilaterally and threw herself wholeheartedly into her midterm review.
By May, the temperature had already begun to rise. Song Xuyi was in a coastal city, and in May, one could already wear short sleeves.
Song Xuyi would turn nineteen in a few days. Mother Song truly couldn’t stand her daughter’s habit of neglecting her appearance and forcibly stuffed a bunch of clothes onto her. Today, she wore a long white dress. With her black hair falling to her waist and her pretty features, she drew countless stares as she walked across the campus.
This particular exam wasn’t difficult. Song Xuyi and Huang Juanjuan were the first to leave the examination room. Huang Juanjuan needed to use the restroom and whined playfully3, begging Song Xuyi to hold her books. Song Xuyi smiled as she watched Huang Juanjuan run frantically into the restroom. Suddenly, someone tapped her on the shoulder—
“Xuyi.”
The person was wearing a loose, oversized T-shirt that obscured her figure, paired with a baseball cap and a mask. She was holding a shopping bag. Song Xuyi could only see a pair of smiling eyes peeking out from beneath the brim of her hat.
However, from the red mole at the corner of her eye and her voice, Song Xuyi had already recognized her—
Zhao Qingyu… Was she crazy?
She was incredibly popular right now, boasting countless fans. Even Song Xuyi’s own roommates were die-hard fangirls of hers. And yet, she actually dared to swagger into a university campus like this?!
Song Xuyi jumped in fright. She quickly grabbed Zhao Qingyu, intending to drag her straight out of the campus—
Yet, despite how thin Zhao Qingyu looked, Song Xuyi couldn’t budge her at all…
“I want to eat your school’s lemon chicken feet.” Zhao Qingyu’s slightly muffled voice came from beneath the mask. Her gaze fell on their clasped hands, and her eyes curved into crescents again. “Ever since you mentioned them to me a few times, I’ve always wanted to come and try them…”
Song Xuyi stared blankly. She never expected that Zhao Qingyu had risked coming to the school for this reason.
But what she expected even less was that Zhao Qingyu, seemingly afraid that she wouldn’t agree, immediately grabbed her arm, shook it, and called out like a spoiled child, “Xuyi…”
Meeting Zhao Qingyu’s feigned pitiful gaze, Song Xuyi’s heart melted, and she was utterly defeated.
She knew Zhao Qingyu had probably just seen Huang Juanjuan acting spoiled with her and was now applying what she’d learned on the spot. And yet… probably no one in the world could resist Zhao Qingyu’s whining…
Song Xuyi gritted her teeth. Seeing her classmates beginning to emerge from the exam room in twos and threes, she shoved Huang Juanjuan’s books into another classmate’s hands. Making a prompt decision, she grabbed Zhao Qingyu’s hand and practically flew into the dormitory building.
It wasn’t until she had double-locked the dorm room door that Song Xuyi finally breathed a sigh of relief. Through gritted teeth, she called the campus errand service to order a portion of lemon chicken feet and some other snacks, before glaring fiercely at Zhao Qingyu. “Qingyu-jie, you…”
“I was wrong, I shouldn’t have lied to you!”
However, before Song Xuyi could finish her sentence, the female villain opposite her had already smoothly apologized. “I actually just really wanted to come see you…”
“You haven’t been talking to me lately, making me feel like you wanted to climb the wall4.” Zhao Qingyu pulled off her mask. Her voice sounded completely serious, assuming one could ignore the laughter dancing in her eyes. “I figured it was time for me to consolidate my fans5, so after I wrapped up filming6 last night, I rushed over overnight…”
“Xuyi, aren’t you happy to see me?”
…
Happy?
Song Xuyi stiffly twitched the corners of her mouth: she had never seen anyone as shameless as Zhao Qingyu!
What kind of stunt7 was she trying to pull now?
Song Xuyi stared warily at Zhao Qingyu, but Zhao Qingyu only smiled back at her. Song Xuyi couldn’t fathom why she was smiling at her so happily, but her own face flushed red in spite of herself.
In this split second, Song Xuyi truly hated her own face dog nature8.
“I didn’t climb the wall.” Song Xuyi was the first to give in and soften her tone, attempting to get the cunning female villain across from her to let her off the hook. Yet Zhao Qingyu didn’t seem satisfied. She continued to stare at her with a beaming smile and ‘kindly’ reminded her: “Your roommates should be back soon, right?”
Song Xuyi closed her eyes, her face burning red.
“I promise I didn’t climb the wall. I will definitely send you WeChats on time from now on.”
Song Xuyi surrendered completely9. Uttering those few words felt as if she had exhausted a lifetime’s worth of strength.
“Then I’ll be counting on you, Xuyi!” Having received a satisfactory answer, Zhao Qingyu’s smiling voice finally rang out. “I’m so happy.”
Song Xuyi let out a bitter laugh and a sigh of relief, cursing her alcohol-impaired past self a hundred times over in her heart once again.
She and the System in her mind were in full agreement that Zhao Qingyu’s visit had an ulterior motive, and they remained on high alert. However, after waiting for more than ten minutes until the errand boy delivered the food, Zhao Qingyu made no further moves.
She merely sat quietly on the stool in Song Xuyi’s dorm room, looking around curiously. Occasionally, she would meet Song Xuyi’s gaze, and her eyes would curve into crescents, making her look incredibly delighted. This kind of smile was different from her usual gentle, fake smile. Song Xuyi couldn’t quite describe the feeling, but in short, the moment she met Zhao Qingyu’s gaze, her chest would go numb with a tingling sensation…
It was the System who finally pointed out the truth: “How come this Zhao Qingyu has only gotten prettier since joining the entertainment circle? She looks just like the seductive fox spirits10 in the books…”
Song Xuyi deeply agreed.
The fox spirit Zhao Qingyu stayed for a total of less than half an hour.
After the errand boy arrived, Zhao Qingyu didn’t pull any tricks like Song Xuyi had imagined. She patted Song Xuyi’s head, withdrew her hand before Song Xuyi could react, and carried her lemon chicken feet downstairs with a smile. Surprisingly, she actually walked right out of the campus gates…
Song Xuyi and the System exchanged blank stares. “Could it be that she made this special trip… really just to consolidate her fans?”
Song Xuyi had always been fairly open-minded. If she couldn’t figure something out, she stopped thinking about it. She devoted herself entirely to reviewing for her afternoon exam. It wasn’t until after she finished the exam in the afternoon that she noticed the WeChat message Zhao Qingyu had sent her.
“Do you like the gift?”
Gift?
…Zhao Qingyu seemed to have left a bag on her dormitory desk.
It was only then that Song Xuyi remembered her birthday was apparently coming up in a few days.
Could it be that Zhao Qingyu made this trip just to bring her a gift?
Song Xuyi subconsciously denied this guess, but her heartbeat inevitably sped up by two beats regardless…
She returned to the dorm, found the bag, and opened the packaging. Inside the box was an exquisite little cat plushie: amber eyes, pointy ears, a fluffy tail, and a vividly expressive little face.
Song Xuyi had to admit that this little cat plushie looked incredibly cute. Just as she was about to reply “I like it” to Zhao Qingyu, she suddenly caught sight of a specific spot and couldn’t help but widen her eyes.
Hanging from the little cat’s neck was a delicate little card. Written on the card in an elegant, flowing script were two words:
——”like you~”
?!
Like you?
The author has something to say:
Everyone knows the other meaning of “like you”, hehe.
Footnotes
- A popular internet slang term in China (xīnlíng jītāng), directly translated from the American book series 'Chicken Soup for the Soul.' It refers to inspirational, comforting, or motivational stories and quotes, sometimes used pejoratively for platitudes.
- A play on the Chinese proverb 'a woman's heart is a needle at the bottom of the ocean' (nǚrén xīn, hǎidǐ zhēn), meaning her thoughts are entirely unfathomable.
- Sājiāo (sājiāo) is a Chinese cultural concept where a person acts deliberately cute, whiny, or childishly spoiled to coax someone into doing what they want.
- 'Climb the wall' (páqiáng) is fan slang for abandoning one's current idol to support someone else.
- 'Consolidating fans' (gùfěn) is Chinese idol slang for taking actions—such as interacting, posting selfies, or hosting events—to strengthen fan loyalty and prevent them from losing interest.
- 'Killing the green' (shāqīng) is an industry term for wrapping up a film or television shoot. It originally referred to the ancient process of drying green bamboo strips to use as writing material.
- 'Playing moths' (wán yāoézi) is a Northern Chinese colloquialism meaning to pull a stunt, cause unexpected trouble, or hatch a wicked plot.
- 'Face dog' (yángǒu) is a self-deprecating internet slang term for someone who is easily swayed by good looks and prioritizes a person's physical appearance above all else.
- The original phrase is 'ceding territory and paying indemnities' (gēdì péikuǎn), historically associated with unequal treaties signed after a defeat. Here, it is used humorously to describe her total surrender.
- In Chinese mythology, a húlijīng is a fox spirit that can shape-shift into a beautiful woman to seduce men. In modern slang, it refers to a homewrecker or an irresistibly seductive woman.
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