After Unbinding the Simp System, I'm Targeted by the Villain - Chapter 27

“How can you speak like that!” the woman shrieked, her face reddening with anger.

Yu Chucheng stood up, shielding the little girl behind him. “At least listen to what the child has to say. You keep interrupting—is it because you have a guilty conscience and don’t want her to tell the truth?”

There were many people passing by, and several elderly residents stopped to watch, holding their grandchildren’s hands.

Most people in this neighborhood recognized each other. Someone identified the girl: “Isn’t that the old cripple’s granddaughter? How did she end up down here alone?”

Seeing the growing crowd of onlookers, the woman steeled herself. “Fine! Then let her speak!”

The girl gripped the hem of Yu Chucheng’s shirt tightly, her face flushing crimson. With great effort, she managed to squeeze out a few broken words: “He… he spat… on my clothes… threw stones… Grandpa, bought… new…”

Yu Chucheng looked down carefully at the girl’s floral dress. Indeed, there were dirty marks near the hem—looking like spit stains mixed with some stone dust.

The woman let out a disdainful snort. “So what if he spat? It’s not like it’ll take a chunk out of her. She wears the same few pieces of junk all year round anyway; they’re bound to get ruined. Look at her, she smells of poverty. Besides, who knows if she’s just making it up? My son isn’t the type to be uneducated.”

The woman’s voice was high-pitched and grating, giving Yu Chucheng a headache.

He stared at her, his voice turning cold and hard. “She’ll have ten thousand dresses like this in the future. Who are you calling ‘poor’?”

The woman rolled her eyes. “Hmph, anyone can talk big. Her parents didn’t even want her; does that old cripple have the money to buy her anything?”

The girl immediately understood the words “parents didn’t want her.” She bit her lip hard, and large tears rolled down her face silently.

“I’ll buy them for her,” Yu Chucheng said without hesitation. He squeezed the girl’s hand comfortingly and looked at the boy hiding behind the woman—a boy as sturdy as a young bull. Yu Chucheng smirked. “Not only that, I’m going to treat her to KFC and McDonald’s every single day.”

Upon hearing this, the boy immediately grabbed the woman’s hand and shook it. “Mom, I want some too!”

The woman shot Yu Chucheng a vicious glare, then looked down and coaxed softly, “Be good, son. We have food at home. That’s all junk food; it’s unhealthy.”

“No! No! I want it! Why does she get to eat it and I don’t!” The boy scrunched his face and started jumping up and down, the fat on his face trembling.

“I said no, and I mean no! Listen to me!” the woman barked. She grabbed her son as he tried to throw himself onto the ground, completely losing interest in the argument. “Let’s go! Home, now!”

The boy began to wail loudly, sitting back with all his weight. Because he was quite heavy, the woman failed to hold him; he landed hard on his backside. Whether he hit his tailbone or not, his wailing grew even louder.

“This child is really something… so spoiled.”

“Tsk tsk, I’d say the parents have indulged him too much.”

The elderly onlookers began to chime in, offering their critiques one after another.

Sensing things were turning against her, the woman didn’t even check to see where her son was hurt; she just wanted to leave as fast as possible. These retirees had nothing to do all day but gossip about neighborhood drama. She didn’t want to be the center of attention and lose her reputation, forever known as “that woman who spoils her kid.”

Yu Chucheng only intended to provoke the boy; he didn’t expect such a massive reaction, let alone a full-blown tantrum on the ground. Truly a brat, he thought.

“Did I say you could leave? We haven’t checked the security cameras yet,” Yu Chucheng said, hands on his hips. “When your son bullies someone, you turn a blind eye. But the moment someone pushes him, you get physical. With double standards like that, what child is going to want to play with yours?”

The elderly residents with their grandchildren heard this and realized he was right. They immediately pulled their precious grandkids closer behind them, as if fearing they might be framed next.

The woman was left speechless. With a livid face, she yanked her son up and marched home in a fit of rage.

Yu Chucheng watched her embarrassed retreat, feeling like he had won a grand victory. He happily took the girl’s hand. “Come on. I keep my word—I’m taking you to McDonald’s.”

The girl didn’t know what McDonald’s was until the burgers and fries were placed in front of her. Then she realized it meant “delicious things.”

They sat by the window. Yu Chucheng rested his chin on his hand, watching her eat like a starving wolf. For some reason, he felt a circle of “maternal” grace radiating from himself. “Eat slowly. I’ll order more if it’s not enough.”

The girl nodded vigorously like a chick pecking at grain.

“So this is where you are.”

A familiar voice he hadn’t heard in days sounded from behind him.

Yu Chucheng’s eyes widened slightly—it was Duan Huaijin’s voice.

He stood up so abruptly he nearly knocked over the Coke on the table. “Where have you been?”

After several days of silence—perhaps it was just Yu Chucheng’s imagination—he felt Duan Huaijin looked a bit more mature than before. Especially that slightly open collar; it made one want to steal a few extra glances.

Duan Huaijin looked slightly dazed. “I went back to my hometown. My phone broke halfway through.”

Duan Haixiang had stubbornly refused to sell the old house, and Lin Mei couldn’t get enough money from Zhang Hanzhou. So, she had spilled the beans about the gambling debt to the old grandmother. The grandmother had fainted on the spot from anger and had been in the hospital for emergency treatment all night.

Yu Chucheng habitually touched his neck. “I see…”

Duan Huaijin looked down at him. “Were you worried?”

Yu Chucheng choked, instinctively making an excuse. “No, I was just asking.”

But a person “just asking” doesn’t usually travel all the way here.

Duan Huaijin didn’t expose him. Instead, he turned his gaze to the girl, who was happily eating. “Yuanyuan, next time you go somewhere, tell your Grandpa, okay? He’s looking for you.”

“She was being bullied just now,” Yu Chucheng said, as if seeking credit, his tone carrying a hint of unconscious pride. “I settled it for her.”

Duan Huaijin helped pack the girl’s leftovers. “Her Grandpa couldn’t find her. The people downstairs were saying she’d been snatched by human traffickers.”

“Human trafficker” Yu Chucheng: “…”

That group of retirees really loves to add spice to their stories. I’m a person of integrity; how could I be a kidnapper!

Hearing that her Grandpa was looking for her, the girl grew anxious to return.

Duan Huaijin and Yu Chucheng walked her downstairs. A white-haired old man with a slight limp hugged her tight like a lost treasure, his thin, sallow hand stroking her hair. “Yuanyuan, my Yuanyuan is back.”

Yu Chucheng scratched his nose awkwardly. “Actually, it was just a misunderstanding.”

The girl wrapped her arms around her Grandpa’s neck and nodded hard. “Big brother… is a good person…”

Relieved to be given a “good person card,” Yu Chucheng offered the girl a gratified smile.

Very good. That McDonald’s meal wasn’t in vain.

Yu Chucheng’s eyes were bright, and he even showed a tiny canine tooth when he smiled.

As he watched the old man lead the girl upstairs, he finally realized there was someone else still standing beside him.

Ah…

The stairwell wasn’t wide, and with several bicycles parked on either side, the two had to stand very close, their shoulders almost brushing.

At this distance, Yu Chucheng could smell the faint scent of fresh bamboo on Duan Huaijin. It inevitably reminded him of the scene in the study when he had pulled his own collar open to let Duan Huaijin mark him. A sudden wave of delayed shame washed over him.

I actually asked for a bite. This godforsaken compatibility is terrifying.

Duan Huaijin broke the silence first. “Was the person you saved in the pool named Hao Jia?”

Huh? Yu Chucheng didn’t know why he’d suddenly asked that, or how he knew Hao Jia’s name. “Yeah, why?”

“Do you like him?”

“I don’t!”

Perhaps because the answer was blurted out without a second thought, both of them froze for a moment.

Then, Duan Huaijin’s voice turned slightly deep. “Then, can you… not like him in the future either?”

Duan Huaijin remembered that in his past life, Yu Chucheng remained a pursuer of Hao Jia until university graduation. He didn’t believe such a deep affection could just vanish instantly.

But he didn’t want the current Yu Chucheng to be like that—wasting his best years on someone who was just leading him on. Especially seeing Yu Chucheng smile like that at Yuanyuan today; the thought of him smiling at Hao Jia like that made Duan Huaijin feel… unpleasant.

However, Yu Chucheng completely misinterpreted the intent. A stampede of ten thousand “grass mud horses” (an internet slang for frustration) galloped through his heart.

Heaven and Earth! Although Duan Huaijin hadn’t started his revenge yet, it seemed Yu Chucheng had underestimated the bond between the villain and the “protagonist受.”

Duan Huaijin couldn’t possibly be seeing him as a potential rival, could he?!

Yu Chucheng immediately raised his hand to swear—a truly “poisonous” oath this time, the kind he considered the most lethal: “I, Yu Chucheng, will never pursue Hao Jia again from this day forward, much less like him. Otherwise, I’ll be hit by a car while walking down the—mph!”

A round, sweet object was shoved into his mouth, blocking the rest of his words.

Yu Chucheng instinctively looked down.

A lollipop?