Returning to the Villain Omega's High School Days - Chapter 2

Xie Ning’s job was to collect debts. From an eighty-year-old grandmother to a young child, she had cornered everyone in the street and threatened them to pay up.

Her employers were mostly upstarts who had bought a few buildings early on, had dozens of rental units, or were loan sharks. When they encountered people who were behind on rent or payments, they’d hire Xie Ning to collect.

Xie Ning was ruthless in her work and would do anything for money. Most importantly, she was a skilled fighter who could take down a male Alpha who was six-foot-three. She could easily fight five people at once with her bare hands.

Some businesses and banks had also sought out Xie Ning, and once, a well-dressed, dignified government official came and offered a high price for her to kill someone.

“My job doesn’t include killing. You’ve got the wrong person,” Xie Ning flat-out refused.

“But I heard you could even kill your wife,” the man said with extreme confidence. “Is the price not high enough? I can add another 800,000 to the offer.”

Mentioning Su Wan’s name instantly set Xie Ning off. She sent the man away with her fists and ended up in jail, but she was released two months later.

She continued her work as a debt collector. Before this, Xie Ning had worked eight different jobs, but the money she made was barely enough to cover the interest on her debt, let alone pay for her father’s medical bills.

Someone once suggested she use her looks to make money and find a rich woman to support her. But the one wealthy Omega who liked her was so traumatized by Xie Ning’s insults that she never came back.

In recent years, Xie Ning had become a social pariah, and even her semi-paralyzed father would lash out at her for no reason.

When the old man arranged Xie Ning’s wedding, he had grandly given Su Wan’s family a betrothal gift of twenty million yuan. Back then, the Xie family was in its prime, and their home was always bustling with visitors. Who would have thought that years later, the Xie family would be hundreds of millions in debt, and their daughter would be reduced to a dog on a leash?

Xie Ning never tried to understand how she got to this point; she chose to avoid the truth. Making money was exhausting enough. She didn’t have the energy to dwell on the past. Did it matter who was right or wrong? Would it change her present life?

She lived like a walking corpse, checking the bank’s debt notices every day, then getting up to find people who, like her, couldn’t pay their debts, and forcing them to cough up the money through various means.

It was one in the morning by the time she was done. Xie Ning got back into her car and looked at the full moon in the sky, a sense of unreality washing over her.

Did she really see Su Wan this afternoon?

No… That couldn’t be right. Why would Su Wan be there?

She must have remembered it wrong.

Xie Ning had always suspected she had a multiple personality disorder. Sometimes, she would do things she couldn’t understand herself, as if she were being controlled. The worst time was in the second year of her marriage to Su Wan. Xie Ning suddenly went crazy and physically attacked Su Wan. Only after she took her to the hospital did she realize that Su Wan had miscarried and might never be able to have children again.

Xie Ning didn’t know why she had done that. She went to a psychiatrist, but the doctor didn’t think she had a disorder. They said Xie Ning was only fantasizing about it to “avoid” and “reduce her guilt,” and that she had a serious tendency toward violence.

Later, many similar incidents happened, and Xie Ning hurt Su Wan more than once, leading their marriage to an irreversible end.

Xie Ning loved Su Wan deeply, and every time she hurt her, it caused her immense pain.

If she hadn’t caused the miscarriage, Xie Ning and Su Wan’s child would be twelve years old now.

But the current Xie Ning couldn’t imagine building a family with anyone. She would probably die before she could pay off her massive debt, alone forever, with no one willing to give her a second glance.

Xie Ning started the car, her left hand on the steering wheel, and her right hand on the gear shift. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a round, glowing object. Among all the junk, it stood out.

She picked it up and realized what it was—the watch that Xiang Tao was wearing. The watch face glowed in the dark.

Xiang Tao?

Xie Ning’s expression froze as she finally remembered how she had bent Xiang Tao’s finger this afternoon and swiped the watch at the same time.

The Xiang family was so wealthy that a child could carry a watch worth over a hundred thousand yuan. Unlike her, whose entire outfit cost less than a hundred yuan.

She sat there for a while, then suddenly felt enlightened.

Yes, she saw Su Wan this afternoon and took her stepson’s watch. So what? She had done things far worse than this. She had been in jail before and was used to being called names, so why would she care about this small thing?

At least she saw Su Wan. This was probably the best thing that had happened in three years.

Xie Ning laughed heartlessly, blasting rock music in her beat-up car, the volume so loud that residents in the buildings on the side of the street opened their windows and cursed.

In her youth, she liked songs by The Beatles, The Kinks, and Blur. Later, she stopped listening to even bands like them or Queen, and her taste became more peculiar. When she heard the morbid voice of Beck singing “Loser,” Xie Ning would burst out laughing and sing along.

“Soy un perdedor, I am a loser baby so why don’t you kill me?”

The old car sped along and pulled into a dilapidated residential area on a hot summer night.

When she got home, she took a shower, heated some leftovers in the microwave, and sat at the dining table, eating and looking at her phone.

Soon, she had listed Xiang Tao’s watch on a second-hand website for 180,000 yuan.

Only a fool would buy it at that price.

She’d leave it up for now and negotiate the price later if anyone was interested. Xie Ning estimated she could get around 100,000 yuan for it, and that would be a score. That’s about how much she earned in a month, with ninety percent going toward debt repayment and the rest barely enough for her dad’s monthly medical expenses and other meager living costs.

If the watch sold, she could hire a caretaker for her father for a few months. It would be even better if the old man croaked during that time. She was so over it.

At 2 AM, Xie Ning finished up and climbed into bed, turning on the fan and getting ready to sleep.

Just as she was about to doze off, she heard a clattering sound from the next room, mixed with her father’s cursing. It sounded like the old man had fallen while trying to get up in the middle of the night.

Xie Ning hesitated for a second and then got up, despite her exhaustion.

The bathroom light was on. Xie Ning walked over and opened the door. The old man was on his side on the floor, his shorts pulled down. He had diarrhea, and there was poop on his shorts and the floor. He had also knocked over the towel rack, and his walking stick, a soap dish, laundry detergent, and towels were all on the floor.

Xie Ning’s eye twitched. She suppressed her discomfort and tried to help him up.

The foul stench made Xie Ning gag. The taste of the leftover food from dinner came to her mouth, and she spat it out.

“I don’t need you to come over,” the old man said angrily, shaking off her hand. “You’re always out. You won’t even care if I die!”

Xie Ning stepped back, turned on the exhaust fan, and just watched him.

The old man picked up his walking stick and propped himself up, falling twice. He cursed at Xie Ning, “Are you a block of wood? Why are you just standing there?”

Xie Ning helped him up, washed him off, carried him to bed, and then meticulously cleaned the bathroom. By the time she was done, she was drenched in sweat.

She took a cold shower. Water streamed over her head, her hair covering her face. She closed her eyes, and that scene replayed in her mind again.

Su Wan, in a white dress with a green parasol, walking gracefully toward her. She would smile, wrap her arms around her neck, and say, “Níngníng,” while holding the umbrella over them both.

Her gland felt slightly swollen. She touched her neck and suddenly realized… it had been a long time since she had had a sexual fantasy. She had no idea where she had even put her suppressants.

This was not what a top-tier Alpha should be like. Someone like her should have endless energy and go into heat every few days. At the very least, she shouldn’t have no partner at all.

The old man called out a few times from his room, but Xie Ning ignored him. She stayed in the bathroom for a while until the impulse inside her was completely suppressed. She dried herself, changed into clothes, and came out.

The old man’s door was open. He had fallen out of bed and was lying on the floor, his eyes wide open as if he were dead.

Xie Ning stared at him blankly for a moment, then realized his lips were still moving. She finally rushed over, pressed him to the floor, and performed CPR while calling 911 and waiting for the ambulance.

On the way to the hospital, Xie Ning’s face was expressionless. She paid as instructed by the doctors and waited outside the emergency room.

When the emergency room doctor came out and told her that the patient had been saved, Xie Ning didn’t feel relieved.

Tubes were sticking out of the old man’s body, and his aged face was bloodless. Xie Ning was grateful that he was unconscious; she didn’t want to talk to him right now. After staying in the room for a moment, Xie Ning hailed a car on an app, ready to go home.

At 4 AM, the streets outside the hospital were dead, with no cars passing by. Only the traffic light blinked, making everything look desolate and strange. The heat hadn’t dissipated, and a gust of wind blew, making her back sweat again.

Xie Ning, wearing soft flip-flops, stepped on a cicada. The creature let out a final, desperate chirp in the night.

When the light turned green, a worn-out taxi stopped in front of Xie Ning.

The window rolled down, and the driver was someone Xie Ning knew. She was too lazy to greet him, so she opened the back door and slumped into the seat, which was covered with a bamboo mat.

“Still busy with work so late?” The man looked at her through the rearview mirror and smiled nervously. “Don’t tell me you have a debtor at the hospital?”

“Just drive your car, nerd,” Xie Ning glared at him.

The “nerd” was Chen Shier, Xie Ning’s high school classmate. He went to a prestigious university and worked for a well-known company after graduation, but after a few years of success, he was laid off. After struggling for years, he ended up in massive debt and eventually returned to Rongcheng to drive a taxi, supported by his creditors.

Just a few days ago, Xie Ning had gone to his house and smashed his worthless furniture, but she couldn’t get a single cent out of him.

“I get paid on the 10th. I’ll come find you then,” Chen Shier said, his gaze shifting as he held the steering wheel. He gave a bitter smile. “So you don’t have to come knocking. There’s not much furniture left for you to break.”

The car’s air conditioner was off, and the wind from the front window messed up the stray hairs on Xie Ning’s forehead. She drooped her eyelids and said blandly, “Don’t talk about work.”

Seeing her exhausted state, Chen Shier paused and said, “Is someone in your family sick?”

“Yeah.”

“You have it pretty rough,” Chen Shier sighed. “If you had chosen to study abroad, your life would definitely be different.”

Xie Ning closed her eyes. The past twenty years flashed before her, and the only thing she didn’t regret was staying in China and marrying Su Wan.

Xie Ning was woken up by a phone call.

She answered without a word.

“Xie Ning?”

“Who is this?”

“Jiang Qingliu. I’m calling to wish you a happy birthday.” The man’s laugh carried a hint of malice.

This was her stepmother Jiang Qin’s son with the old man, the brother Xie Ning had called for over twenty years. After the Xie family fell on hard times, Jiang Qin ran away with her son and never cared about the old man again.

Xie Ning hadn’t heard from him in years.

“Did you change your surname to Jiang?” Xie Ning rolled over and looked at the ceiling. “How would you remember my birthday? What do you want?”

“I have a gift for you,” Jiang Qingliu said with a laugh. “‘Rongcheng.’ It’s a book. You would never guess what it’s about.”

“You’re an idiot,” Xie Ning said impatiently. “You think I read books?”

“Oh, don’t be so quick to curse. My mom secretly found this book in your room. The protagonist is ‘Su Xingheng,’ Su Wan’s brother. Did you forget all of that?”

Xie Ning’s breath hitched. “What?”

“‘To 12-year-old Xie Ning, never lose this book!’ Haha, that first line on the title page already cracked me up,” Jiang Qingliu said, flipping through the book and reading out each word. “‘A third of your life has passed. The rest of your time is yours to control. Protect those who love you!’?”

“‘Those who love you.’ Oh my gosh, my stomach hurts from laughing. Xie Ning, is there anyone in this world who loves you?”

“Xie Ning, why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Can’t you remember anything? Xie Ning, the world described in the book is our world. Everything written in it has come true…”

“Actually, I’ve always known about this. I knew that we were living in a book, which is why I left the Xie family to avoid getting tangled up with you unlucky people. You must want to know the contents of the book, right?”

“That bitch, Su Wan, is really bad. She’s been faking everything…”

Xie Ning held the phone, unable to speak for a long time. Even when she heard Jiang Qingliu insulting Su Wan, she couldn’t find the strength to react, and her fingers trembled slightly.

She had felt this way before, like when she lost something very important as a child and could never remember what it was. She felt her life was unreal, where many coincidences seemed to be pre-planned, like in “The Truman Show”—she was living in a fabricated world.

Was this true after all?

Jiang Qingliu was still lost in his arrogance. He flipped through the book and said with relish, “I think the most interesting part of this book isn’t Su Xingheng’s story. The part about Su Wan is the most fascinating. Do you know why she agreed to marry you in the first place?”

“Xie Ning, you really should read this book. I’ve already called a courier to send it to you.”

“Happy birthday.”

“You don’t have to thank me, Xie Ning. You’re going to die tomorrow.”

After a long pause, Xie Ning uttered a single word. Jiang Qingliu’s laughter froze, and a chill went down his spine.