The Downtrodden Villain In A Redemption Romance Novel Chapter 14

Chapter 14 The Phone Call

By the time Xu Wen finished fussing over Lu Qingrang’s meal, more than an hour had quietly slipped away. Watching the other man finally manage to eat a little less than half a bowl of soft rice, Xu Wen felt much more settled, despite the difficult process.

Only then did he attend to himself. He picked up the bowl of food that had long gone cold, sat on the small stool, and devoured it ravenously. He didn’t even waste the small amount left in Lu Qingrang’s bowl, cleaning it up as well. Just as he quickly washed and put away the dishes, a sudden, urgent, and persistent phone vibration, like an uninvited guest, abruptly shattered the brief tranquility of the small room.

Xu Wen looked over at the sound, suddenly remembering the phone he had forgotten on the bedside table. For the past few days, all his attention had been focused on Lu Qingrang, and his phone had automatically shut down due to a dead battery. He had only plugged it in to charge before going to sleep last night.

It seemed to have fully charged and turned itself on.

He wiped the water from his hands, walked over, and picked up the phone. The screen was glaringly bright, clearly displaying the name of his current adoptive mother, Zhang Cui.

Xu Wen’s slightly relaxed mood, which had lifted due to Lu Qingrang’s small improvement, instantly plummeted. A wave of mixed annoyance and resistance surged up. The unpleasant memory fragments about these adoptive parents made him instinctively frown.

He held the phone, his fingertips feeling cold, hesitating whether to answer. In the few seconds of his delay, the call automatically disconnected because it went unanswered.

However, less than two seconds after the screen dimmed, that name stubbornly lit up again, accompanied by a jarring ringtone, clearly determined not to give up until the call was answered.

Xu Wen subconsciously looked up, meeting Lu Qingrang’s gaze from the bed. At some point, the man had turned his head and was quietly watching him, a faint hint of scrutiny in those peach blossom eyes.

Under that gaze, Xu Wen suddenly stopped agonizing and swiped the answer button.

“Xu Wen! What is wrong with you?!” The moment the call connected, the sharp voice of his adoptive mother, Zhang Cui, filled with obvious resentment and displeasure, rushed out. “We @-ed you so many times in the family group chat, are you blind or something? And the phone! It took this many calls for you to finally answer?! Think you’re all grown up, huh!”

“Uh, no, Mom, I…” Xu Wen reflexively tried to fabricate an excuse, such as his phone being broken or being too busy with work.

But Zhang Cui didn’t give him a chance to explain. As if she suddenly remembered something, her tone abruptly shifted, the sharp questioning twisting into a forced, yet uncomfortable, gentleness:

“Xiao Wen,” she drew out the name, “how is the job search going lately? Is it smooth?”

Without waiting for Xu Wen’s reply, she immediately revealed her true intentions: “Your younger brother is starting school soon, isn’t he? His teacher said that for studying, he needs the newest kind of tablet computer; it helps a lot with learning! You see…”

“…” Xu Wen listened to the false concern on the other end of the line, which couldn’t even be maintained for half a minute, and felt a wave of helplessness, even a slight urge to laugh.

In his previous life, he was an orphan and had no real concept of kinship. After transmigrating and inheriting the original host’s memories, the faint expectation of a family he held in his heart now seemed particularly naive and ridiculous in the face of Zhang Cui’s undisguised demands.

He pulled at the corner of his mouth, replying with a tone of defiant recklessness: “Mom, I haven’t found a job yet. How hard is it to find work these days! I’m barely scraping by here, and the rent is almost due. Why don’t you send me some money first to tide me over?”

A strange silence fell over the phone line for a moment. Then, Zhang Cui’s voice suddenly rose, carrying the anger of being offended and a string of practiced gaslighting tactics:

“Xu Wen! How can you say such a thing?! How much did we sacrifice raising you? We provided you with food, clothing, and schooling. Now that you’re grown up, instead of repaying the family, you’re asking us for money? Where is your conscience?!”

“We took you out of the orphanage, gave you a home, and made sure you weren’t a parentless stray anymore! This kindness is something you can never repay in your lifetime! Now the family is struggling, and your brother is at a crucial stage. Shouldn’t you, as the older brother, help out? How much does a tablet cost? Go find a part-time job, even if it’s delivering takeout—you can earn that much, can’t you? Don’t be so ambitious; just take any work you can get, and solve your brother’s problem first!”

“…”

Listening to this rapid-fire barrage of accusations mixed with moral coercion and emotional blackmail, Xu Wen lost the desire to even argue.

“Beep—”

He didn’t say anything more. The person on the other end seemed to find it boring, or perhaps was enraged by his silence, and abruptly hung up the phone.

Xu Wen held the phone, listening to the dial tone, momentarily stunned. He subconsciously opened WeChat and found the group chat pinned to the top: “Loving Family.”

In the group, the adoptive parents and the younger brother used matching family avatars. Their smiles in the photo were bright, making them look incredibly harmonious. The chat history contained the younger brother’s message @-ing him to demand the latest tablet, and the adoptive parents’ clumsy explanations chiming in, saying, “Your brother has a job and money now, he’ll definitely buy it for you.”

Scrolling down, there were long strings of text converted from the voice messages Zhang Cui had just sent him, filling the screen with high-sounding principles about needing to be grateful, knowing how to repay, and how family members must sacrifice for each other.

Xu Wen watched silently, a wave of exhaustion and inexplicable grievance washing over him—this was probably the original host’s last lingering attachment in his body.

He didn’t know.

But he clearly felt that the faint, unrealistic expectation of blood kinship in his heart had completely vanished with this phone call and these stinging words.

He swiped his finger, unpinning the group, and then unhesitatingly set it to Do Not Disturb.

Having done all this, he looked up, his gaze returning to Lu Qingrang, who was quietly watching him on the bed.

These people were truly less genuine and less endearing than the little villain right in front of him who was determined to die.

The call ended, and before Xu Wen could pull himself out of the suffocating emotion, he looked up and met Lu Qingrang’s eyes.

That gaze was no longer completely vacant; it held an… indescribable focus.

Lu Qingrang leaned quietly against the headboard. Xu Wen’s cheap phone had a loud earpiece, and Zhang Cui’s sharp words had inevitably reached his ears.

Listening to the family’s harsh criticism and Xu Wen’s barbed response, a cold thought surfaced—

So… he was like himself, completely alone?

Immediately following, the subtle sense of resonance born from discovering a kindred spirit was quickly twisted and warped by his deeply ingrained way of thinking.

A dark realization enveloped him.

So… this is the reason?

Is it because he discovered this pathetic similarity between us, both like abandoned objects, that he pities me, that he stays by my side, using his seemingly inexhaustible sympathy to save me?

This realization was like a double-edged sword. On one side, it gave him a stinging sense of finally finding a reasonable explanation. On the other, it caused a deeper emptiness in his heart.

He attributed all of Xu Wen’s kindness and persistence to excessive sympathy. Because compared to the idea that someone in this world is good to me for no reason, the reason that he is good to me because he pities me better fit his understanding of the world, and it also… gave him a twisted sense of security.

At least, kindness that had a reason might last a little longer?

Xu Wen was completely unaware of the dark storm Lu Qingrang’s heart was undergoing during that moment of silence. He only saw the other man staring at him, the look complex and hard to decipher, which somehow brought a trace of warmth back to his heart, chilled by the family phone call.

He forced a slightly strained smile and shook his phone: “It’s nothing, just a nuisance call.”

And Lu Qingrang, after his words fell, gently blinked his eyes.