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

Xie Ning’s job was debt collection. From eighty-year-old old women to children who had just started school, all of them had once been cornered by her on the street and threatened into handing over money.

Most of her employers were nouveau riche types. In their early years, they had bought a few buildings and now had dozens of apartments to rent out, or else they were loan sharks. Whenever they ran into people who delayed paying rent or loans, they would hire Xie Ning to collect the debt.

Xie Ning was vicious in the way she handled things. To earn money, there was nothing she would not do. Most importantly, she could fight. She could beat a one-meter-ninety male Alpha flat on the ground. If it was just fists and kicks, even taking on five people at once was no problem for her.

Some companies and banks had also come looking for Xie Ning. Once, even a government employee came, dressed in bright, respectable clothes, speaking in a grand and dignified manner, offering a high price to hire her to kill someone.

“My work doesn’t include murder. You’ve got the wrong person.” Xie Ning refused without even thinking.

“But I heard you could even kill your own wife,” the man said with extreme confidence. “Is the price I offered not enough? I can add another eight hundred thousand on top of what I just offered.”

The moment Su Wan was mentioned, Xie Ning exploded. She sent the client away with her fists and landed herself in prison, but two months later, she was released again.

She continued working as hired muscle. Before doing this job, Xie Ning had changed jobs eight times. The money she earned had never been enough to repay the interest she owed, much less pay for her old man’s medical treatment.

Someone had once suggested she use her face to earn money and find a rich woman to support her, but the only wealthy Omega woman who liked her ended up being completely shut down after Xie Ning cursed her out a couple of times.

These past few years, Xie Ning had been hated by people and dogs alike. Even the half-paralyzed old man at home would throw a temper at Xie Ning whenever he had nothing better to do.

Back then, when the old man arranged Xie Ning’s wedding, he had waved his hand and given Su Wan’s maternal family twenty million as betrothal gifts. In those years, the Xie family’s doors had been crowded with visitors, their influence at its peak. Who could have imagined that many years later, the Xie family would owe several hundred million instead, and the precious daughter of the Xie family would fall so low she became a dog for loan sharks?

Xie Ning never thought about exactly how things had reached this point. Most of the time, she chose to run away from it.

Making money was already exhausting enough. She simply had no energy to investigate the past, to figure out who had been right or wrong. Did any of that have an effect on her present life?

She lived like a walking corpse, looking at the bank’s collection notices every day, then climbing up to find people who, like her, could not repay their debts, using every method possible to force them to cough up money.

By the time she finished working, it was already one in the morning. Xie Ning returned to her car and looked at the full moon on the horizon, feeling as if none of this was real.

She had run into Su Wan that afternoon?

No… that was impossible, right? How could Su Wan have appeared there?

She must have remembered wrong.

All along, Xie Ning had often suspected that she had schizophrenia. Sometimes, she would do things even she herself could not understand. That feeling was as if she were being controlled by someone.

The worst time was in the second year after she and Su Wan got married. Xie Ning suddenly seemed to go mad and beat Su Wan. Only after sending her to the hospital afterward did she learn that Su Wan had miscarried, and that she might never be able to have children again.

Xie Ning did not know why she had done that. She went to the hospital to see a psychiatrist, but the doctor did not believe she had schizophrenia. The doctor said Xie Ning was only imagining that she had schizophrenia in order to “escape” and “reduce her guilt,” and believed that Xie Ning had a relatively serious tendency toward violence.

Later, many similar things happened again. Xie Ning hurt Su Wan more than once, and because of that, their marriage reached a point where there was no saving it.

Xie Ning loved Su Wan very much, and every time she hurt Su Wan, it also left her in unbearable agony.

If she had not caused her miscarriage, Xie Ning and Su Wan’s child would already be twelve now.

But the current Xie Ning simply could not imagine building a family with anyone. She might not be able to pay off her enormous debt even by the time she died. She would probably remain alone forever, and even when she died, no one would be willing to look at her twice.

Xie Ning started the car. Her left hand gripped the steering wheel. As she moved her hand away from the gearshift, the corner of her eye caught sight of something round and glowing.

Among a pile of junk, that thing looked especially conspicuous.

Xie Ning picked it up and looked at it, then realized—

It was the watch Xiang Tao had been wearing. The body of the watch glowed in the dark.

Xiang Tao?

Xie Ning paused. Then she finally remembered how, that afternoon, she had broken Xiang Tao’s finger and, at the same time, smoothly stolen this watch.

The Xiang family really was extravagant. Even a child could casually wear a watch worth over a hundred thousand, unlike her, whose entire outfit added together cost less than a hundred yuan.

She thought about it in place for a while, then suddenly felt cheerful.

That was right. She had run into Su Wan that afternoon and even snatched her stepson’s watch. So what?

She had done plenty of things worse than this, things even less human than this. She had been to jail too, and had long since been cursed until she no longer knew whether she was alive or dead. Why would she care about such a small matter?

At least she had seen Su Wan.

This was probably the happiest thing that had happened in three years.

Xie Ning laughed heartlessly and played rock music in her shabby little car, turning the volume up so loudly that even the residential buildings by the roadside could hear it. People opened their windows and shouted curses at her.

When she was young, she had liked songs by The Beatles, The Kinks, and Blur. Later, she stopped even listening to bands like The Beatles and Queen. Her tastes became stranger and stranger. When she heard Beck’s sickly voice singing “Loser,” Xie Ning would burst out laughing, then sing along—

“Soy un perdedor, I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?”
(I’m a loser. Baby, why don’t you kill me?)

The shabby little car sped all the way forward, plunging through the heat wave of the summer night into a rundown residential compound.

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

Before long, she had already listed Xiang Tao’s watch on a secondhand website. The selling price was one hundred eighty thousand.

At that price, probably only an idiot would buy it.

She would leave it up for now. If someone came to negotiate the price, they could talk then. Xie Ning estimated that if she could sell it for one hundred thousand, she would have made a profit.

She could earn about that much in a month. Ninety percent of it went toward repaying debts, and the rest was barely enough to cover her old man’s monthly medical fees, as well as scattered living expenses.

If the watch sold, she could hire a caretaker to look after her father for the next few months. If the old man croaked during that time, that would be even better. In any case, she had had enough.

At exactly two o’clock, Xie Ning finished everything and climbed into bed, preparing to sleep with the electric fan blowing.

Just as she was about to fall asleep, she heard a series of clattering sounds from the room next door, mixed with the old man’s curses. From the looks of it, the old man had gotten up in the night and fallen to the floor.

Xie Ning struggled for two seconds, then endured her sleepiness and crawled up.

The bathroom light was on. Xie Ning walked over and pushed open the door. The old man had fallen sideways on the floor, his shorts not pulled up. He had diarrhea. It was all over his shorts and the floor, and he had even knocked down the towel rack. His cane, the soap box, the laundry powder, and the towels had all fallen to the floor.

Xie Ning’s eyelid twitched violently. Enduring the discomfort, she went to pull him up.

The stench was overwhelming. Xie Ning retched, and the taste of the leftovers from dinner surged to her mouth. She spat it out.

“I don’t need you to come over,” the old man snapped, shaking off her hand, his temper fierce as he cursed, “You’re outside all day and all night. Even if I died, you wouldn’t care!”

Xie Ning had no choice but to stand back. She turned on the exhaust fan and silently watched him.

The old man picked up the cane from the floor and used it to support himself as he got up. After falling twice in a row, he cursed at Xie Ning, “Are you a block of wood? What are you standing there for?”

Xie Ning helped him up, rinsed him clean, carried him onto the bed, then carefully cleaned up the bathroom. By the time she finished all this, she was already drenched in sweat.

She took a cold shower. Water poured down from the top of her head. Her hair covered her face, and she closed her eyes. That scene appeared in her mind again.

Su Wan wearing a white dress, holding a green umbrella, walking gracefully toward her. She had a smile on her lips, hooked both hands around Xie Ning’s neck, held the umbrella as she embraced her, and called her “Ningning.”

Her gland swelled faintly. She touched her neck, then suddenly realized… she had not had a sexual fantasy in a very long time.

She did not even know which corner she had thrown her suppressants into.

This really was not what an Alpha should be like. A top-tier Alpha like her should have endless energy and go into rut every so often. No matter how terrible things were, it should not have reached the point where she did not even have a partner by her side.

The old man shouted a few times outside, but Xie Ning acted as though she had not heard. She stayed in the bathroom for a while, and only after that impulse inside her was completely suppressed did she dry herself, change clothes, and come out.

The old man’s bedroom door was open. He had fallen from the bed, his eyes wide open, looking as if he were dead.

Xie Ning stared at him blankly for a moment. When she discovered that his lips were still moving, she finally ran over, pressed him to the floor, and performed CPR while calling 120, waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

All the way there, Xie Ning’s face was expressionless. Following the doctor’s instructions, she paid the fees and waited outside the emergency ward.

When the emergency doctor came out and told her the patient had been resuscitated, Xie Ning did not feel relieved.

The old man had tubes inserted into his body, his aged face bloodless. Xie Ning was grateful that he was unconscious. She did not want to have any conversation with him at a time like this. After staying in the ward for a short while, Xie Ning called a car through an app and prepared to go home.

At the entrance of the hospital at four in the morning, there was not a single passing car on the street. Everything was lifeless. Only the traffic lights blinked, illuminating people in a dispirited and eerie way.

The high temperature still had not faded. A gust of wind blew over, and another layer of sweat rose across her back.

Wearing a pair of soft, cool slippers, Xie Ning stepped on a cicada. The creature let out a “zzzt,” giving its final song in this night.

When the light turned green, a shabby old taxi stopped in front of Xie Ning.

The window rolled down. The driver was someone Xie Ning knew. She was too lazy to greet him, so she pulled open the back door and collapsed onto the seat covered with a bamboo cooling mat.

“Still busy with work this late?” The man looked at her through the rearview mirror inside the car, smiling nervously. “Don’t tell me you even have debtors in the hospital?”

“Drive properly, top student.” Xie Ning glared at him.

The “top student” was named Chen Shi Er. He was Xie Ning’s high school classmate. After graduation, he had tested into a prestigious university and gone to a famous company. But after only a few glorious years, he encountered layoffs. After struggling for many years and ending up deep in debt, he finally returned to Rongcheng with the support of his creditors and started driving a taxi.

A few days ago, Xie Ning had gone to his house and smashed up his pile of worthless furniture, but even that had not made him cough up a single coin.

“My salary comes on the tenth. I’ll come find you then.” Chen Shi Er gripped the steering wheel, his eyes drifting about as he said with a bitter smile, “That way, you won’t have to come to my door to collect. There’s not much furniture left in my house for you to destroy.”

The air conditioner was not on in the car. Wind poured in through the front window, blowing the stray hair across Xie Ning’s forehead into disarray. Her eyelids drooped as she said dully, “Don’t talk about work.”

Seeing how exhausted she looked, Chen Shi Er paused, then said, “Is someone at home sick?”

“Mm.”

“You have it pretty hard too.” Chen Shi Er sighed. “If you’d chosen to go abroad back then, your life definitely wouldn’t be like this.”

Xie Ning closed her eyes. The events of the past twenty years were vivid before her, and the only thing she did not regret was staying in the country back then and marrying Su Wan.

Xie Ning was woken by a phone call.

She answered the call but did not make a sound.

“Xie Ning?”

“Who is this?”

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

This was the son Jiang Qin, her stepmother, had given birth to for the old man. Xie Ning had called him her younger brother for more than twenty years. After something happened to the Xie family, Jiang Qin took her son and ran, never once caring whether the old man lived or died.

Xie Ning had not heard any news of him in years.

“Did you change your surname to Jiang?” Xie Ning turned over, looked at the ceiling, and said coldly, “How do you remember my birthday? What business do you have?”

“I have a gift for you,” Jiang Qingliu said with a laugh. “Rongcheng. It’s a book. You definitely can’t imagine what this book is about.”

“Idiot,” Xie Ning said impatiently. “Do you think I read books?”

“Aiya, don’t be in such a hurry to curse me. This book was secretly found by my mom in your room back then. The protagonist is called ‘Su Xingheng’—Su Wan’s older brother. Have you forgotten all of it?”

Xie Ning’s breathing paused. “What?”

“‘To twelve-year-old Xie Ning, never lose this book!’ Hahaha, the very first line on the title page already made me laugh.” Jiang Qingliu flipped through the book and read it word by word. “‘One third of your life has already passed. The remaining time will be controlled by you. Protect the people who love you!’”

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

“Xie Ning, say something.”

“Can you really not remember anything? Xie Ning, the world described in this book is our world. Every single thing written in the book has pretty much come true…”

“Actually, I’ve known about this all along. I know that we’re living inside a book, so I left the Xie family and avoided getting involved with unlucky bastards like all of you. You must want to know what’s written in the book, right?”

“That bitch Su Wan is rotten to the core. She’s been pretending all along…”

Xie Ning held the phone and could not speak for a long time.

Even when she heard Jiang Qingliu curse Su Wan, she could not summon any strength. Her fingers trembled faintly.

She had once experienced something like this before. When she was young, she had lost something extremely important, but no matter what, she could not remember it.

She felt that the world she lived in was very fantastical. Sometimes, many coincidences seemed as though they had been set in advance. Just like The Truman Show, she was living in a fabricated world.

So it really was like that?

Jiang Qingliu was still smug with delight. He flipped through the book and commented with great relish, “I don’t think the most exciting part of this book is Su Xingheng’s story. Su Wan’s part is what’s most interesting. Do you know why she agreed to marry you back then?”

“Xie Ning, you really should take a good look at this book. I’ve already called a courier. It’ll be delivered to you soon.”

“Happy birthday.”

“No need to thank me, Xie Ning. You’re going to die tomorrow.”

After a long silence, Xie Ning spat out one word. Jiang Qingliu’s smile stiffened, and a chill ran down his spine.