The Downtrodden Villain In A Redemption Romance Novel Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Rescue

Watching Lu Qingrang being swiftly pushed into the emergency room by medical staff through the trauma entrance, Xu Wen paced back and forth in the limited space outside the rescue room door like an ant on a hot pan. His footsteps echoed clearly and urgently in the empty corridor.

“Buddy, CEO Lu, my ancestor… you absolutely have to hold on,” he muttered uncontrollably, cold sweat almost breaking out on his forehead. “My life and that ten million can’t just end here with you!”

Although the cold, mechanical voice in his mind had clearly guaranteed that the rescue timing was precise and the target was not in life-threatening danger, based on his few brief but highly questionable interactions with this broken System, Xu Wen harbored deep skepticism.

He even pessimistically began to imagine how outrageously broad the System’s criteria might be.

For example, as long as there were electrical signals in the cerebral cortex, even if Lu Qingrang ended up paralyzed and a vegetable afterward, would the System’s cold logic still consider him “not in life-threatening danger”? Was he supposed to perform soul redemption on a vegetable?!

This extremely unreliable speculation made him even more restless, every minute and second an agony.

After an unknown amount of time, the glaring red light above the door suddenly clicked off.

The door was pushed open from the inside, and a tired-looking doctor in a white coat walked out, removing his mask.

Xu Wen’s heart gave a violent lurch, and he darted toward the doctor.

“Doctor, how is he…?”

The doctor glanced at him, his tone conveying a hint of relief: “He was brought in very promptly. Half an hour later, the consequences would have been unimaginable. He has been rescued, and his vital signs are stable.”

Just as Xu Wen was about to breathe half a sigh of relief, the doctor’s next words made his heart jump again:

“However, the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning on the brain require close monitoring. The next 24 to 48 hours are a critical observation period to prevent sequelae such as delayed encephalopathy. Only if his condition remains stable and his consciousness is fully clear during this time can he be transferred to a general ward for further recovery.”

He’ll wake up tomorrow? He didn’t inhale too much?

Hearing the doctor’s rigorous explanation, which aligned with medical common sense, Xu Wen slowly exhaled the breath he had been holding in his throat.

Fortunately, it sounded like his God of Wealth… no, his mission target, had a high probability of recovering to a normal state where he could communicate and complete the mission.

It wasn’t until Lu Qingrang was smoothly wheeled into the special care ward and hooked up to various monitoring instruments that the nerve Xu Wen had kept taut for several hours finally snapped loose.

As soon as it relaxed, a deep sense of exhaustion washed over him. From speeding on the scooter to rushing down six flights of stairs while carrying a person, and then pacing anxiously outside the rescue room, the intense mental strain had made him ignore all his body’s protests.

Now, Xu Wen felt a dull ache throughout his limbs, and the spot where his shoulder had hit the door throbbed faintly.

His bright yellow delivery uniform was soaked through with sweat, clinging tightly to his skin, mixing the smell of sweat from running, the dust from the stairwell, and the hospital disinfectant into a terrible odor.

“Ugh, that was truly terrifying, System…” Xu Wen leaned against the cold wall, complaining weakly in his mind.

He looked down at his disheveled appearance and decided to clean himself up first.

He quietly walked into the private bathroom attached to the special care ward. The moment his eyes met the mirror, Xu Wen froze.

Reflected in the mirror was a face that was unfamiliar yet carried a hint of familiarity. The young man looked to be in his early twenties, his skin a wheat color from constantly being outdoors. He had deep dark circles under his eyes, but a pair of round, almond-shaped eyes made his entire face look clean and gentle—the kind of non-aggressive appearance that was pleasant to look at.

Most striking was his hair. It clearly hadn’t been maintained for a long time; the length now hung below his chin, messy but unexpectedly forming a style similar to a wolf cut.

He subconsciously ran his fingers through the overly long strands. A strange sensation came through; in his previous life, he had always kept a neat short haircut. This length made him slightly uncomfortable, but it also gave him a direct sense of the previous owner’s impoverished life.

“I actually…” Xu Wen instinctively touched his face, and the person in the mirror did the same. “…look seventy to eighty percent like I did in my last life?”

Just as he was staring at the mirror in surprise and uncertainty, a more critical question suddenly surfaced: he still didn’t know the name of this body! The situation had been too urgent earlier, and he hadn’t had time to receive that part of the memory.

He tentatively, like confirming an identity password, whispered in his mind, “System, what is my name… in this world?”

Host, your identity in this world is Xu Wen.

Xu Wen?!

Hearing this answer, his pupils contracted, and a complex emotion welled up. Was it a coincidence, or…?

No need to be confused. The cold mechanical voice sounded promptly, answering his unasked question.

When your soul merged with this body, the world’s laws automatically corrected and assimilated. Your appearance will tend toward the essential form of your soul, and your name, as one of the core anchors of individual existence in this world, is bound to your soul. Essentially, you are the Xu Wen of this world.

So that was it.

The same name, and an appearance that resembled his original self… Xu Wen looked at himself in the mirror. A subtle sense of belonging quietly replaced the feeling of detachment he had felt upon Transmigration.

Alright, Xu Wen it is.

Xu Wen cupped cold water in his hands and splashed it on his face, trying to clear the confusion and fatigue from his mind.

The icy droplets slid down his defined jawline and dripped into the sink, cooling down his brain, which had been heated by the thought of the massive bonus.

He needed to pay the hospital fees first.

Xu Wen walked to the inpatient payment window. The nurse skillfully printed out the bill and calmly stated a number.

Xu Wen’s eyelid twitched. The ambulance, the emergency rescue, the medication, and the special care ward… over seven thousand yuan instantly vanished from Xu Wen’s account.

Xu Wen silently opened his mobile banking app. Watching his balance plummet from four digits to just a few hundred yuan, a familiar, pressing sense of financial embarrassment enveloped him.

This feeling was worse than after he paid the rent in his last life.

“Seriously…” Xu Wen muttered under his breath, his heart heavy.

The original owner of this body worked as an Intern in the CEO’s office at Lu Qingrang’s promising company. His salary was definitely not low among his peers. Logically, he shouldn’t have been reduced to having only a few thousand yuan left in his card, needing to rely on delivering takeout to survive.

The Xu Wen of this world was not an Orphan. He had adoptive parents, an ordinary couple who had adopted him from the orphanage after years of being childless.

For the first two months after his adoption, the original Xu Wen had briefly felt the warmth of a family. However, fate was cruel; soon after adopting Xu Wen, his adoptive mother became pregnant with her own child.

From then on, the original Xu Wen slowly transformed from a source of hope into a redundant presence who constantly needed to repay their kindness.

“Xiao Wen, your younger brother needs tutoring. Do you know how expensive tutoring fees are now?”

“You work in the big city and have a high salary. Send two thousand back first to cover an emergency; the family needs it.”

“You’re the older brother. You need to help your younger brother more in the future. It wasn’t easy for us to raise you…”

Starting in college, he had to earn his own living expenses through part-time jobs.

After starting work, his Intern salary was like a programmed transfer, flowing steadily every month to that so-called home, ostensibly to repay the kindness of his upbringing, but actually to support the spoiled biological son who was a few years younger than him.

He was like a blood bag whose value was constantly being extracted. No amount of money could withstand such a bottomless pit of demands. The company’s sudden bankruptcy was almost a disaster for him.

Losing his stable income, he had to work several jobs simultaneously to earn money quickly. The takeout delivery job was the most demanding, and ultimately… this body couldn’t handle it.

Thinking of this, Xu Wen subconsciously clutched his chest. The throbbing pain and intense resentment from the moment before the original owner’s sudden death seemed to linger there.

“Fortunately…” Xu Wen processed this heavy memory, his emotions mixed, even entertaining a thought that bordered on cold-blooded. “…Fortunately, this guy let me take over before his adoptive parents sent the next death warrant. Otherwise, with just over seven thousand yuan, we might have seen a double tragedy: him dying in the hospital for lack of money for treatment, and me being erased by the System for mission failure. Different ways to die, quite creative.”

He looked at the pitiful three-digit balance on his phone screen, then glanced back toward the special care ward. A huge pressure weighed down on him.

Saving Lu Qingrang was for survival, and for that ten million.

But now, forget about completing the long-term redemption mission; he could barely afford his own meals for the next few days, let alone Lu Qingrang’s subsequent hospitalization fees!