Chapter 1

The first of Qi Rui’s senses to return was her sense of smell.

The faint, gentle fragrance of chamomile lingered beneath her nose. It was not overpowering, yet it possessed the expensive quality of something refined countless times and perfected through sheer amounts of money.

Her sense of touch returned next. The mattress beneath her was unimaginably soft, as though her entire body had sunk into a boneless cloud. A premium silk duvet cocooned her snugly, keeping her so warm that she could not feel the slightest trace of the winter chill.

Qi Rui frowned groggily.

She clearly remembered returning to her rented studio apartment after working overtime and collapsing into bed. The apartment had terrible soundproofing, and her mattress was so hard that it dug into her back. It definitely had not felt anything like this.

Her eyes flew open.

Instead of the plain ceiling she was accustomed to, she saw an exceptionally high vaulted ceiling. Intricate French-style plaster moldings extended across it, while an enormous crystal chandelier hung overhead. Layer upon layer of lace curtains surrounded the bed.

An entire row of pink rabbit plushies hung neatly from the curtains.

Qi Rui’s mind went completely blank for three full seconds.

“What’s going on… Have I been kidnapped?”

She instinctively tried to sit up, only to realize that her line of sight was at a very strange height.

She threw back the covers and attempted to get out of bed, but her legs were too short. After kicking helplessly in midair twice without reaching the carpet, she lost her balance and landed on her bottom with a soft thump.

It did not hurt because the floor was covered by an incredibly thick pure-wool carpet.

Even so, Qi Rui broke out in a cold sweat. Scrambling to her feet on all fours, she stumbled toward the enormous full-length mirror in the corner of the room.

The reflection did not show an adult corporate slave with heavy dark circles from years of staying up late.

Instead, it showed a tiny six-year-old girl wearing a silk nightgown. [read the original at bailiantales.com]Her skin was as white and smooth as a peeled egg, her cheeks still carried obvious baby fat, and her eyes were large and round.

Qi Rui blankly raised a hand and pinched her plump cheek.

“Hiss—”

The pain was real.

What the hell was going on? Had she shrunk?!

Just as her thoughts descended into chaos and she began wondering whether this was some new kind of prank show, an earsplitting chime abruptly rang out in the depths of her mind.

[Beep—Host consciousness detected. Host is now fully awake.]

[Loading world setting… The Vicious Female Supporting Character System has been forcibly bound.]

The cold, mechanical voice exploded directly inside Qi Rui’s head, giving her no time to react.

[Welcome to the world of The July Wind—I Want to Say Goodbye to You. Host identity: Qi Rui, eldest daughter of the Qi family and the most vicious villain encountered by the white-moonlight female lead during her childhood.]

[Primary mission: During the three stages of elementary school, high school, and university, the host must strictly adhere to her villainous characterization and continuously subject the original novel’s female lead, Jiang Wanxing, to psychological and physical abuse.]

[Warning: Failure to complete a mission or deviation from your assigned character will result in the deduction of life points. If your life points reach zero, you will be immediately terminated and permanently lose the ability to return to your original world.]

[Friendly reminder: At the end of every mission, the system will arrange for your current body to fake its death. Please make all necessary preparations in advance.]

Qi Rui sat on the thick carpet and spent half a minute processing everything it had said.

After a long silence, she finally seemed to come back to her senses. She laughed out of sheer anger, rendered utterly speechless by the system’s demands.

She was already an adult. Yet now, trapped inside this body, she was expected to bully another child—an orphan, no less.

That would make her an absolute monster!

“I’m not doing it. If you want it done, do it yourself!”

Qi Rui was beyond exasperated. She was an adult, yet she was expected to follow the plot and bully a little girl. Never mind that this novel had been written who knew how many years ago—if the system possessed the power to drag a soul from another world into this unfamiliar place, why could it not simply change the world’s predetermined course and allow the female lead to live her own life?

[Warning: Refusal to perform your assigned duties will result in immediate termination!]

The system’s threatening alarm exploded inside her mind. The deafening sound was like a speaker being shoved directly against her eardrums, making even her ears ache.

Qi Rui did not care.

Since the system had expended so much effort dragging her into this world, did that not mean it was desperate for someone to do the job?

And if it was desperate, then she had the right to refuse!

She had no intention of inexplicably bullying a minor, committing acts that no decent human being [read the original at bailiantales.com]would do, and ruining a girl’s entire life.

[Beep—Host’s refusal to perform assigned duties detected. Initiating Level One Punishment.]

As soon as the words fell, a terrifying electrical current shot up Qi Rui’s spine.

It was not the mild tingling of a static shock. It felt as though a red-hot steel needle had been driven deep into her marrow and was being violently twisted around. Her nerves, flesh, and bones seemed to be churned together as the pain surged over her like an overwhelming tide, threatening to drown her.

“Urgh—!”

Qi Rui’s pupils abruptly contracted. Her tiny body curled up on the carpet, and cold sweat instantly soaked her back. She bit down hard on her lip to stop herself from screaming, but the excruciating pain made her muscles spasm uncontrollably.

The punishment lasted only five seconds, yet it felt as long as an entire century.

[Does the host agree to complete the villain missions?]

Qi Rui’s throat was so hoarse that she could barely speak.

The electrocution had not left a single visible mark on her body, yet the slightest movement made the muscles beneath her skin feel as though they were being torn apart. Cold sweat trickled down from her temples.

“I… accept.”

A young girl’s weak, faint voice sounded inside the room.

The girl remained kneeling on the carpet, looking completely unresponsive. Only the slight rise and fall of her body showed that she was still alive.

[Host must proceed to the school immediately to carry out the mission. Bully the orphaned female lead and trample her clothes into the dirt.]

It was already late October, the heart of golden autumn. Yet in Beicheng, situated in the far north, the end of October was already as cold as midwinter in other northern cities.

Violent winds were the norm there. During winter, there were only a handful of windless days. The gusts resembled countless thin, sharpened blades slicing deep into one’s bones.

Qi Rui sat in the back seat of the car, staring at the group gathered beside a sandbox not far away.

The children watching the commotion wore thick winter boots, their toes carefully protected by fluffy socks from the bitter cold. Yet isolated in front of that dense cluster of shoes was a pair of worn-out shoes faded from countless washings.

They were a pair of black canvas shoes that had been fashionable several years ago. The fabric had been washed so many times that it had faded into a strange shade of gray, and even the tread on the soles had been worn smooth. Because they were troublesome to lace up and offered little warmth, they had long since disappeared from the market.

Through the crowd, Qi Rui could see only that the owner of those shoes was sitting on the ground. The other children had surrounded her so completely that not even the slightest glimpse of her face was visible.

Yet from those shoes alone, Qi Rui was certain that the girl was Jiang Wanxing, the female lead of this novel.

In the original story, Jiang Wanxing’s fate was unreasonably tragic.

Take the present situation, for example. Despite having been surrounded in Beicheng’s lethally cold wind for what seemed like half a day, her entire body trembling from the cold, this miserable part of her story was still far from over.

Only when a soft ding finally sounded inside Qi Rui’s mind did she reach out and push open the car door.

This tiny body still felt restrictive and unfamiliar, making her movements rather clumsy as she climbed ​read the original at bailiantales.com​out. Wearing spotless white snow boots, she stepped onto the yellowed, frozen ground, looking so clean that she seemed completely out of place amid her surroundings.

The moment the door opened, the fierce wind swept away every trace of warmth from inside the car.

A freezing gust struck Qi Rui in the face. She shuddered violently, and the cheeks exposed above her scarf instantly turned pale.

Only then did she truly understand how brutal winter in Beicheng could be.

Through a gap in the crowd, Qi Rui once again saw those faded canvas shoes.

In weather this cold, Jiang Wanxing was dressed in clothes as thin as paper while sitting on the hard, frozen earth. No matter how she thought about it, the girl could not possibly be comfortable.

Qi Rui hurried forward, taking two steps at a time. She only wanted to finish this wretched mission as quickly as possible. The sooner it was over, the sooner Jiang Wanxing could return to the classroom. The school’s heating was more than sufficient, so once she went back inside, she should at least be safe from anything serious.

Qi Rui did not think she had made much noise as she approached. However, before she could even reach them, the cannon-fodder characters standing in a circle turned their heads in perfect unison, as though some NPC instinct had been triggered.

Bright, innocent smiles covered their faces as they shouted at her.

“Qi Rui! Come look! We caught this bitch!”

Qi Rui’s footsteps faltered.

She had already read this scene in the original novel, but hearing such a filthy word coming from those childish, babyish voices in person still made her feel nauseated.

At an age when they should have been at their most innocent, their mouths were already spewing the most vicious and cutting malice.

Qi Rui closed her eyes briefly, unable to suppress the instinctive disgust rising from the depths of her heart.

[Warning: Host must complete the mission immediately.]

The system’s voice remained completely emotionless, like a death warrant that tolerated no refusal.

Qi Rui swallowed against her dry throat and forced herself to continue forward.

The violent wind raged behind her, like an enormous invisible hand pushing her onward. Every step felt as though this entire world were helping to drive her forward, forcing her to confront the girl whose tragic fate had already been predetermined.

Sensing her approach, the surrounding children parted like a cleaved tide, finally exposing the person in the middle completely to the freezing wind.

Qi Rui lowered her eyes, her gaze locking firmly onto the girl.

First, she saw the black shoes planted in the mud. Then came the oversized, thick pair of old padded trousers covering the girl’s legs. Orphanages were always overflowing with ill-fitting clothes donated by well-meaning people.

Yet the wide trouser legs offered her little warmth. They were too short, leaving part of her legs exposed between the hems and the tops of her shoes.

Against the bulky padded trousers, the small section of the girl’s uncovered ankles appeared especially thin and frail.

The cutting wind swept across them like a blade. The exposed skin had long since lost its normal color. It was red, swollen, and even beginning to blacken from the cold. Just looking at it was enough to imagine the piercing, relentless itch.

The scene before Qi Rui resembled an absurd silent film. Everything felt profoundly unreal.

But as she moved closer, the girl on the ground seemed to slowly break free from her rigid shell and gradually raised her face.

Their gazes collided without warning.

The girl’s irises were an exceptionally rare shade of deep green, giving her an innately exotic appearance. Against the bleak grayness and mud of Beicheng in late autumn, that deep green looked unnaturally cold and piercing as it struck Qi Rui’s eyes without warning.

The next moment, the freezing wind swept past them like a knife.

There was none of the expected fear or pleading in the girl’s eyes.

She merely watched Qi Rui approach in silence.

Then, ever so faintly, she smiled.