The Downtrodden Villain In A Redemption Romance Novel Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Returning Home

Xu Wen half-carried, half-hugged Lu Qingrang, struggling to turn the key in the lock with one hand, fine sweat beading on his forehead. This was more exhausting than climbing six flights of stairs. Fortunately, this rental was only on the third floor; if it had been on the sixth floor like Lu Qingrang’s place, he probably would have collapsed right at the stairwell.

“Creak—”

The old iron door finally opened, and a thick, stale odor, a mix of spoiled food and stagnant air, assaulted them. The instant noodle container he had hastily left on the table before rushing out had already grown mold. Being the height of summer, the stuffy room felt like a fermentation tank, amplifying all the unpleasant smells manifold.

Xu Wen looked at his room, which was comparable to the Urban Village rental Lu Qingrang had lived in, noting the thin layer of dust covering everything. He felt a little embarrassed and subconsciously stole a glance at the person whose waist he was tightly holding.

Well, he had overthought it again. The other man’s face was expressionless, his eyes vacant.

He used a bit of force, practically half-hugging, half-shoving the man onto the only usable bed in the room.

“Mr. Lu, um… I rushed out to deliver food the other day and didn’t have time to clean up,”

Xu Wen gave a dry laugh, his voice sounding particularly jarring in the silent room. “The place is… a bit messy, haha.”

Lu Qingrang didn’t even lift an eyelid, completely ignoring him.

Xu Wen rubbed his nose but quickly felt relieved. So what if it was the silent treatment? He had been fending for himself for so many years in his past life that he had long developed the skill of entertaining himself.

Xu Wen lightly supported Lu Qingrang’s shoulder, his mind a chaotic mess. What should he do next? Both of them smelled terrible and needed a shower, this pigsty of a room needed cleaning, and his own stomach was unsuitably rumbling. Ugh, what a headache.

“Mr. Lu, please sit and rest for a bit. I’ll hurry up and clean.” Xu Wen gently cupped Lu Qingrang’s face and turned his head, which had been staring blankly at the white wall.

Their eyes met abruptly.

In those beautiful, peach-blossom eyes, Xu Wen saw only dead blackness. No light, no focus. After only two or three seconds, Xu Wen couldn’t stand it anymore and hastily looked away, his eyes feeling dry and gritty.

“Cough… my eyes are a bit dry.” He mumbled in a masking tone, slightly petulantly, then held Lu Qingrang’s chin, manually helping him complete a stiff nodding motion.

“See, you nodded,” Xu Wen released his hands, his tone cheeky. “I’ll take that as your permission to clean up.”

Unexpectedly, Lu Qingrang’s gaze did not immediately scatter this time.

His thick eyelashes trembled slightly, and his vision briefly, fleetingly focused on Xu Wen’s face, as if trying to discern something. Finally, his jawline tightened and relaxed almost imperceptibly, and his head nodded gently, an arc so small it was barely noticeable.

Success!

Xu Wen’s heart leaped, and a warm current mixed with a sense of accomplishment and hope surged through him. He almost wanted to cheer internally to the System: “System! Did you see that! He nodded on his own just now! Quick, check! Is he… is he not so intent on dying anymore?!”

Target character consciousness feedback detected. Analyzing…

The cold mechanical voice arrived as expected.

Query result: Redemption Value: 0%

That unwavering “0” instantly popped the bubble of his excitement. This wretched System’s data report felt like silent mockery and provocation.

“Sigh, the revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades must still work hard,” Xu Wen laughed self-deprecatingly in his mind.

He silently picked up his phone and ordered two servings of congee, then squeezed into the tiny bathroom to start working.

The sound of rushing water and cleaning echoed in the room. As he tidied up, he occasionally looked up, vigilantly checking the still figure sitting on the edge of the bed, ensuring he was still there and hadn’t made any dangerous moves.

“Hello, your delivery is here!” A delivery driver’s robust shout came from outside the rental unit, which had virtually no soundproofing.

Xu Wen straightened up, wiping the fine sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. The cleaning had just reached a temporary pause, and the food arrived at the perfect time. He quickly walked over, opened the door, and took the two warm bowls of white congee.

“Mr. Lu, time to eat.” He turned around, keeping his voice as gentle as possible.

The man still showed no reaction.

Xu Wen’s gaze swept over Lu Qingrang. It had only been a few months since the company went bankrupt, yet the man was shockingly emaciated. Nearly six feet tall, his cheeks were now deeply sunken, his cheekbones frighteningly prominent. Sitting there quietly, his profile was the spitting image of a skeleton draped in human skin.

“Tsk, what kind of spell did that female lead cast on him, or what kind of ritual did she perform?” Xu Wen couldn’t help but rant internally. “A perfectly good Overbearing CEO, reduced to a ghost CEO. This is too ridiculous.”

When he first read the novel, he only felt that Lu Qingrang was a vague character, a Pawn serving the main couple’s romance, a paper cutout who could be sacrificed at will in the story.

But when the words turned into reality, when this paper cutout sat silently and lifelessly before him, the impact was far beyond what cold words on paper could convey.

The novel never elaborated on what Lu Qingrang truly experienced. The original text only briefly mentioned that the female lead accidentally saved him from falling into the water during childhood, and from then on, he blindly, almost atoningly, gave her everything.

Later, when the criminal male lead’s past came to light, the female lead was forced to leave the country, and the so-called Running Away with the Baby was merely Lu Qingrang secretly doing his utmost to protect her. Even later, the love-struck female lead, in order to save the male lead, returned and demanded Lu Qingrang help him at all costs.

Right up until the end of the story, he gave everything, only to be completely shattered by the female lead’s final phone call.

This was not a flat character; this was a living, breathing person, a person enduring immense suffering.

This realization weighed heavily on his heart, involuntarily mixing a thread of genuine concern into the anxiety that was purely born from the desire for the bonus money.

He shook his head, throwing those speculative thoughts out of his mind. The most practical thing now wasn’t to investigate that melodramatic past, but to first put some flesh back on this skeletal frame.

“Alright,” Xu Wen looked at the figure that looked like it could be blown over by a gust of wind, secretly clenched his fist, and set his first modest goal.

“Step one of raising a pig… ah, no, raising a person: feed this ancestor until he’s strong!”