The Downtrodden Villain In A Redemption Romance Novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11 Nightmare

Xu Wen rummaged through the room for a long time before finally dragging out the laptop the original owner had used in college from under the bed.

Although the machine was old, it still booted up normally. In his previous life, he had struggled on his own, and while he didn’t have many other skills, taking on online translation gigs using foreign languages was easy work. At least it could solve the immediate problem of food and shelter.

He held the laptop and quietly sat back down beside Lu Qingrang. After the heart-stopping events of the day, he dared not let the man out of his sight, terrified that if he wasn’t careful, the other party would either hang himself on the wardrobe to cosplay a sunshine doll or stage an extreme bungee jump.

If that happened again today, his little heart might truly give up.

The mattress beside him dipped slightly, and a body temperature carrying the same clean soap scent as his own quietly drew near. He could feel Xu Wen’s slender shoulder vaguely brushing against him. The touch was light, yet it brought a strange sense of stability.

“Clack, clack…”

The young man’s long fingers danced lightly on the keyboard, the crisp sound echoing rhythmically in the quiet room. Unexpectedly, this continuous noise did not irritate him.

Lu Qingrang himself didn’t realize that his nerves, which had been constantly taut and always planning how to end everything, were slowly, little by little, relaxing amidst the shallow scent of soap and the steady sound of the keyboard.

A few thoughts, which had never occurred to Lu Qingrang in months, quietly surfaced in his mind.

“Maybe… I’ll die in a few days.”

“Why exactly… won’t he let me die?”

“I really want to know…”

“I want to find that answer…”

“I’m tired…”

These unfamiliar thoughts uncontrollably bubbled up, carrying a sense of bewildered confusion.

Lu Qingrang thought drowsily, unaware that beneath that thick layer of despair, a faint, almost non-existent desire to live a few more days had quietly sprouted.

In his chaotic mind, the sharp accusations and countless twisted, hideous faces that clamored day and night seemed to be temporarily separated by something. In their place was an unprecedented exhaustion.

Suddenly, a weight settled on his shoulder, accompanied by warm breath.

Xu Wen stiffened and turned his head slightly, seeing a fuzzy head resting on his shoulder. Lu Qingrang had fallen asleep at some point.

Asleep, he shed the layer of desireless dead silence he carried when awake. Although his thin cheeks were slightly sunken, it still couldn’t conceal the refinement of his features.

Those peach blossom eyes, which were always staring blankly into the distance, were gently closed. Long, thick eyelashes cast a small, quiet shadow beneath his eyelids, trembling slightly with his breathing.

He slept deeply, his lips pale, his face serene, like a white jade porcelain artifact that had been meticulously carved and then carefully treasured—fragile, yet breathtakingly beautiful.

“He really is like Sleeping Beauty…”

Xu Wen sighed softly in his heart. He carefully shifted his body, gently closed the laptop and placed it aside. Then, supporting the back of Lu Qingrang’s neck with one hand and his shoulder with the other, he very gently and slowly laid him flat on the bed so he could sleep more comfortably.

Xu Wen quietly slid off the bed and turned off the bright overhead light, leaving only the sporadic moonlight filtering in through the window.

His nerves, which had been tense all day, finally relaxed after confirming that Lu Qingrang’s breathing was steady and he was sound asleep. A heavy wave of drowsiness immediately surged over him, making him feel dizzy. He forced himself to hold onto the last bit of clarity, his gaze sweeping across the room, finally landing on the shirt jacket draped over the chair back.

A somewhat clumsy but effective idea popped into his head.

He picked up the shirt, his movements slow with fatigue. First, he tightly wrapped one sleeve twice around his own wrist and tied a knot. Then, he leaned over and carefully wrapped the other sleeve around Lu Qingrang’s wrist, tying it securely as well.

Only after doing all this, as if completing the final safety procedure, did he side-lie next to Lu Qingrang, utterly exhausted. Even as his consciousness blurred, one of his hands instinctively gripped Lu Qingrang’s sleeve tightly.

Lu Qingrang sank into a viscous, endless darkness.

The first sound in his mind was Su Xia’s voice, tearful yet piercingly accusatory, echoing repeatedly in his ear like a curse:

“I hate you!”

“I shouldn’t have saved you back then!”

“How wonderful it would have been if you had died in that river!”

The sound sharply pierced his eardrums. Immediately following, the vague yet hideous faces from his childhood memories began to surface, accompanied by the malicious, sharp laughter of children, the cold indifference of his adoptive parents, and the phantom pain brought by the overlapping new and old scars on his body.

He felt as if he was locked in that dark storage room again—alone, cold, and unanswered.

His twenty-six years of life, like a book of misfortune forcibly opened, flipped wildly before his eyes. Every segment silently narrated the same truth: he was a superfluous chess piece, a pawn to be used and discarded at will, an existence… never truly accepted or loved by anyone.

Just as this torrent of despair was about to completely swallow him, he trembled violently and broke free from the nightmare.

“Hah—”

He gasped for air, his chest heaving violently. Cold sweat instantly dampened the hair on his forehead and temples, the icy touch bringing his chaotic consciousness back to reality slightly.

His beautiful peach blossom eyes were wide with terror in the darkness. The depths of his pupils still held lingering fear and pain, but his gaze was unfocused, staring blankly at nothingness.

“Just… die.”

This thought, like a maggot clinging to bone, once again crawled over his brain, almost an instinct.

He subconsciously tried to sit up, to find a way to end everything completely.

However, the moment he moved, a clear yet gentle resistance came from his wrist.

He turned his head in confusion, and in the cold moonlight, he saw an unfamiliar sight—

He stiffly and blankly lowered his head, following the sensation of being bound. By the moonlight, he saw that his wrist was tied with a soft shirt sleeve, the other end connected to the defenseless young man sleeping beside him.

Xu Wen’s breathing was even and long, clearly audible in the silent night, forming a stark contrast to his own yet-to-be-calmed, frantic heartbeat. The hand gripping his sleeve was even unconsciously tightening in his sleep, as if afraid he would disappear.

Lu Qingrang stared fixedly at the scene. The pain and despair on his face from the shock slowly faded, replaced by a kind of near-blank astonishment. His tightly pressed, bloodless lips moved slightly, but ultimately, it only resulted in a silent expression of endless exhaustion and… confusion.

Lu Qingrang slowly and silently lay back down on his side.

His heart was still pounding heavily in his chest, announcing the lingering fear from the nightmare, but he did nothing.

He didn’t try to undo the slightly childish restraint on his wrist, nor did he pay attention to the chaotic, clamoring voices in his mind. He simply lay on his side quietly, gazing at the sleeping face beside him in the dim light.

Xu Wen was sleeping soundly, his breathing shallow and even, his long lashes casting soft shadows beneath his eyes. The face that was usually full of lively expressions now only held complete relaxation and peace.

Lu Qingrang’s gaze traced the contours of the other’s features, settling on the hand that was still unconsciously gripping his sleeve.

The night was very quiet.

So quiet that he could clearly hear two distinct heartbeats: his own, slowly calming down from frantic chaos; and Xu Wen’s, steady and strong, faintly transmitted through the warmth of their touching bodies.

He did not close his eyes again, nor did he try to fall back asleep. He just watched quietly until the night outside the window began to seep in with the first, extremely thin ray of grayish-blue dawn.