I Am More Paranoid Than the Villain – Chapter 57

She Bowed Her Head First

Even if you apologize, I will not forgive you.

The gentle night breeze drifted by, stirring their hair.

A layer of frost-like coldness covered Shen Man’s face, and her pitch-black eyes were frighteningly deep.

Lin Shu tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her eyes red as she turned her head away.

She looked up, gazing at the leaves on the tree beside her, her slender figure as if frozen in place.

She held the same posture, completely motionless.

Shen Man swallowed, suppressing the fire of anger surging in her heart.

She glanced at Lin Shu, a cruel smile touching her lips.

Lin Shu immediately felt a pressure emanating from beside her.

She turned her head, but before she could get a clear look at the expression on that face, her wrist was seized.

The force was so great that it caused her a flash of pain.

“Shen Man, what are you doing?” Lin Shu roared in anger.

Shen Man turned back, a sneer in her cold eyes.

Lin Shu’s heart tightened. She struggled fiercely, “Let go of me! I’m not going to a hotel!”

Shen Man let out a cold laugh and forcibly dragged Lin Shu toward a small alley nearby.

“Let go of me…” Lin Shu struggled, stumbling along behind her.

The alley was narrow and deep, with no cars coming or going, and no streetlights to illuminate it.

Only the headlights from the cars on the main road would occasionally sweep over, casting a sliver of light that would quickly vanish.

It was pitch-black all around.

Shen Man pinned Lin Shu against the wall.

With one hand, she grabbed the girl’s two wrists, crossed them, and pressed them above her head.

Lin Shu was forced with her back against the hard, cold wall.

A biting chill passed through her thin clothes, reaching straight to the bottom of her heart.

The lively sound of traffic could be heard from outside from time to time, but here it was as quiet as a forgotten place.

Her vision gradually cleared.

Those eyes, usually gentle and calm, were now as cold as a stranger’s. Her rough movements were like those of the most dangerous beast stalking the night.

Lin Shu’s heart trembled.

An icy chill spread out from her heart, seeping into every cell of her body.

“What are you trying to do?” she heard her own voice, trembling and full of fear.

“Do?” Shen Man’s lips curved into a mocking arc as she pressed closer.

The rage erupting from her chest burned her throat, its heat washing entirely over the girl’s delicate face.

Lin Shu felt the skin on her face become frighteningly hot.

She turned her head, wanting to escape.

The next second, her small chin was pinched by two slender fingers.

“Shushu, look at me!” Shen Man said in a low voice, increasing the pressure of her fingers.

“Mmph…” Lin Shu cried out in pain, tears quickly welling up in her eyes.

Her red lips were slightly parted, and her beautiful almond eyes shimmered with tears, seemingly holding infinite grievance.

Shen Man’s pupils contracted.

The cold wind in the alley blew past, a bone-chilling coldness that felt like a basin of cold water had been poured over her head.

Her rationality gradually returned. She fell silent for a moment, her lips twitching slightly. “Do you really know what you’re doing?”

Lin Shu pressed her lips together, stubbornly refusing to answer.

Tears fell silently, dripping onto that slender finger.

Shen Man’s finger twitched unconsciously.

She looked earnestly at the girl’s reddened eyes, at the clear, clean tear tracks on her small, fair face.

Her fingers loosened involuntarily.

Lin Shu instantly breathed a sigh of relief.

She sniffled twice, her whimpering sobs tightly suppressed between her pearly white teeth.

Her body lost all its strength in an instant, and she slid down the cold wall to the ground.

Shen Man reached out, wanting to catch the girl’s soft body.

Her fingertips hesitated in the air for a moment before clenching into a fist.

“This isn’t a place you should be,” she said, her voice low and her gaze frigid.

“I’ll come if I want to!” Lin Shu retorted, her voice thick with tears.

Even sitting on the ground, she was not willing to show weakness. “If you can come, so can I!”

“I like women. Do you?” Shen Man questioned in a low voice.

Lin Shu was rendered speechless.

She turned her head away, staring into the pitch-blackness ahead.

Watching the girl’s hard-mouthed appearance, that familiar anger surged in her heart again.

She took a deep breath, restraining the frustration in her heart.

In her plan, she was supposed to make Lin Shu jealous and use the opportunity to properly cure this Eldest Miss’s nature of her mouth being one thing and her heart another¹.

But the actual development was something she had not expected from the start.

She never knew that she, too, could become so angry as to lose her reason, turning into the very type of person she detested most—one who solves problems with violence and anger.

When it came to Lin Shu, her rationality and elegance were crumbling bit by bit.

“Shen Man, I’m going to tell my dad you bullied me…” Lin Shu looked up, her tear-filled eyes blurry as she sobbed.

An unbidden softness bloomed in Shen Man’s heart, but her expression remained mocking. “Why don’t you tell your dad that I like women, and have him take his precious daughter away?”

Lin Shu’s crying hitched.

She raised her fingers and wiped her tears away aggrievedly.

The girl’s figure was small and thin, curled up on the ground like a little hamster.

She spoke harsh words in a soft, sticky tone, and would cry when she realized she couldn’t win the argument. Her aggrieved appearance was pitiable and endearing.

Shen Man’s anger almost completely vanished, and a sense of helplessness welled up in her heart.

Her usual calmness returned to her face. She extended a hand and said, “The ground is cold. We should go back.”

“I don’t need you to pretend to be a good person!” Lin Shu forcefully slapped her hand away and used the wall to pull herself up. “It’s all your fault I ended up like this…”

“I’m not your person!” she yelled, running out on her own with large strides.

Shen Man stood rooted to the spot, unsure for a moment whether to laugh or be angry.

One thing was certain: today was a failure.

---

A crescent moon hung high in the sky.

Its faint, cold light vanished into the neon lights of five and six colors² before it could even reach the ground.

Shen Man straightened her hair and clothes, walking out at a slow, leisurely pace.

A faint smile played on her lips, her expression serene and gentle, as if she were judged to be two different people³ from the furious and cold person she was just moments ago.

Noisy sounds drifted over, and her surroundings suddenly became lively.

It was as if Shen Man had emerged from a cold, dark world and merged into this warm and colorful mortal realm.

She raised her eyes, looked at the angry back in front of her, quickened her pace to catch up, and said with a smile, “Shushu, I was wrong just now. I shouldn’t have been so impulsive.”

Hearing this, Lin Shu stopped in her tracks.

She turned around and glared fiercely at Shen Man. “Even if you apologize, I won’t forgive you.”

The corners of her eyes were red and she looked disheveled with her messy hair, but her delicate features were as proud as ever.

It was as if the person who had been bullied to the point of a crying nose⁴ just a moment ago wasn’t her.

Shen Man couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“What are you laughing at?” Lin Shu demanded angrily.

Shen Man reached out, her fingertips landing gently on the girl’s head.

Lin Shu froze, her eyes wide, watching as that slender hand brushed past her cheek to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“I don’t need you to do that…⁵” Lin Shu’s face flushed a faint red. She turned around quickly and walked forward.

Shen Man followed behind, smiling.

As for that ‘my Shushu’ that had slipped from her mouth, even she herself couldn’t tell how much of it was true and how much was false.

---

---