The Downtrodden Villain In A Redemption Romance Novel Chapter 5
byChapter 5 Taking Him Away
Inside the hospital room, the familiar scent of disinfectant wafted into his nostrils.
Lu Qingrang slowly regained consciousness amidst the rhythmic “drip-drip” sounds. His eyelids felt heavy as mountains, and it took him some time to open them. What greeted his eyes was the familiar, blindingly white ceiling and a transparent IV bag, still half-full, hanging above his head.
He hadn’t died.
This realization brought Lu Qingrang no relief; instead, it felt like an even heavier boulder pressing down on his already empty heart. Why… had even a quiet departure become a luxury?
“Ah! You’re awake?!”
A slightly clear, surprised male voice sounded beside him.
Lu Qingrang tilted his head slightly, his vision blurring as it focused on the figure by the bedside. The person’s bright yellow delivery uniform sleeve was smudged with dirt, and his hair was too long, covering part of his profile. It was that… person who had broken in.
Fragmented images flooded his mind: the deafening sound of the door being rammed open, the blinding light, and this person rushing in in a panic, shouting something, then flailing like a headless fly toward the window, carrying away the one thing that could have taken him away.
He didn’t recognize this person.
Xu Wen stood up awkwardly from the visitor’s chair, his face displaying an overly eager and nervous expression.
He saw those empty, scrutinizing peach blossom eyes looking at him, and his heart skipped a beat. He quickly pulled out a smile he thought looked full of admiration, following the script he had prepared:
“Mr. Lu, Mr. Lu! How are you feeling? Is there anything else bothering you? My name is Xu Wen. Uh, I don’t know if you remember me, but I was a new Intern hired by your company’s CEO Office not long ago!”
He spoke a little quickly, trying to cover his guilt with enthusiasm. “We even went to the same school, Mr. Lu! I’ve always admired you greatly! You were a big deal back in school, a role model for so many of us! And my goal to strive for!”
As he spoke, he observed Lu Qingrang’s reaction. The other man just watched him silently, his face devoid of expression, neither believing nor questioning, as if watching a silent movie unrelated to himself.
A chill ran down Xu Wen’s spine. He could only grit his teeth and continue weaving the lie that even he couldn’t convince himself of: “Our… our company went bankrupt, right? I’ve been working part-time delivering food recently. I just happened to get an order for 601, right next door to your place. When I was delivering the meal, I smelled… I smelled a strange odor coming from the room next door. I knocked, but no one answered. I was worried something had happened, so… so I impulsively broke the door down! I never expected it to really be you, Mr. Lu! What a coincidence, right? Hehe, hehe…”
His laughter died a dry death under Lu Qingrang’s silent gaze. The entire explanation was full of holes, and even he felt it was terribly fake.
Just as Xu Wen was racking his brain, trying to add something to make the story sound more reasonable, Lu Qingrang slowly, and very slightly, shook his head.
He interrupted Xu Wen, his voice hoarse from weakness and prolonged silence, yet carrying a calmness that cut through all pretense:
“You don’t need to say anything.”
Lu Qingrang’s gaze swept over Xu Wen’s slightly dirty, bright yellow delivery uniform, finally settling back on his flickering, uneasy eyes. There was no ripple of emotion in those eyes, no expectation.
“Tell me,” he asked softly, his tone carrying the exhaustion of complete surrender, “What exactly do you want, going to all this trouble?”
He paused, as if needing to gather the strength required for this small amount of speech, before slowly uttering the one question whose answer he cared about:
“Is it money? Or something else?” The corner of his mouth twitched upward almost imperceptibly. “I probably only have this life left—the one you didn’t want me to take, and the one I don’t want—that’s worth anything.”
“Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. I only ask that… next time, you let me leave quietly, alright?”
All of Xu Wen’s prepared lines, all his acting, were shattered in that moment by Lu Qingrang’s light words, which carried a sense of utter rejection.
He looked at the man before him. He had been rescued and was lying in a clean hospital bed, yet his eyes were more despairing than when he was lying on the dusty floor of that rental room.
He wasn’t bargaining, nor was he testing the waters.
He truly was single-mindedly seeking death, with no other thoughts.
Xu Wen looked at Lu Qingrang’s stagnant eyes, his heart pounding with anxiety. He took a deep breath, deciding to struggle one last time.
“Mr. Lu, I truly… truly admire you,” he tried to make his voice sound sincere. “I attended your entrepreneurship lecture in college, and that’s when I decided I wanted to join your company. How could I just stand by and watch you… watch you give up on life?”
Lu Qingrang’s gaze remained hollowly fixed on the ceiling, as if he hadn’t heard anything.
“I know you might be going through something very difficult right now,” Xu Wen leaned closer, his tone growing more urgent. “But life is truly precious! You’re still so young and capable. As long as you’re alive, there will definitely be a turning point!”
Seeing no reaction from the other man, he began desperately painting a picture of a beautiful future: “Think about it, once you get through this period, maybe you’ll meet someone who truly understands you and build a warm family. Coming home after work every day, the lights are on, someone is waiting for you for dinner, and maybe you’ll have a cute child someday…”
As he spoke, Xu Wen unconsciously projected his own dreams, his tone becoming several degrees warmer. “Isn’t this kind of Domestic Bliss worth looking forward to? Let the past be the past. Out with the old, in with the new!”
Only the beeping of the monitor remained in the hospital room. Lu Qingrang didn’t even flutter an eyelash, as if every word Xu Wen spoke had fallen into a vacuum.
Xu Wen talked until his throat was dry, and fine sweat beaded on his forehead. He looked at the unyielding man in the hospital bed, and a deep sense of powerlessness washed over him. What should he do? If he let go now, and the man tried to kill himself again, wouldn’t his ten million be wasted?
In his desperation, a thought uncontrollably burst from his lips:
“When you’re discharged, come home with me!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Xu Wen himself was stunned. The suggestion was too abrupt, too absurd. But seeing Lu Qingrang finally turn his head slightly, those lifeless eyes focusing on him for the first time, he could only push on:
“Look, you don’t have anywhere to go when you’re discharged right now. My place is small, but it’s clean. You can stay with me for now, and once you’ve recovered, we can make further plans. How about it?”
He nervously gripped the corner of his clothes, almost able to imagine the disdainful scoff he would receive.
Asking a former high-value CEO to squeeze into a delivery driver’s shared rental room? It was a clumsy joke.
However, Lu Qingrang just looked at him quietly, his peach blossom eyes devoid of any emotion, as if evaluating a proposal unrelated to himself. After a long moment, he pulled the corners of his pale lips up ever so slightly and uttered two airy words:
“As you wish.”
These two light words left Xu Wen unsure whether to be happy or worried.
Taking advantage of the moment Lu Qingrang closed his eyes again to feign sleep, Xu Wen immediately called out to the System in his mind:
“System! System! Quick! He just spoke, and he agreed to come home with me! Was there any Soul Fluctuation? What about the redemption value? How much did it increase?”
[System detecting…]
The cold mechanical voice emotionlessly reported the result:
[Target’s Soul Fluctuation: None. Current Despair Index: 99.9%. Redemption Value: Zero.]
“Zero?! It didn’t increase at all?” Xu Wen couldn’t believe his ears. “He agreed to come home with me, isn’t that a good start?”
[Host, please note. The target’s agreement is closer to a complete surrender and apathy, rather than a new desire for life. Host, please do not be misled by appearances. True redemption is a long and arduous journey.]
The System’s assessment was like a bucket of cold water, thoroughly dousing the flicker of hope Xu Wen had just felt. He looked at the man on the hospital bed, who seemed indifferent to everything, and suddenly felt the burden on his shoulders increase by a thousand pounds.
Alright, a long and arduous journey it is.
At least, the person was temporarily tethered to his side.