Saving the Pitiful Villain (GL) - Chapter 1

Sunlight streamed in from the floor-to-ceiling windows, reflecting a bright arc along the smooth edges of the furniture.

Jiang Shangxue stood in front of the mirror, using a handkerchief to wipe the dampness from her palm before meticulously fastening the cloth buttons up to the very top. For several nights in a row, she had been woken up by the same nightmare.

After washing up, Jiang Shangxue, as usual, went downstairs to eat breakfast while reading the business section of the newspaper.

She appeared at the company entrance exactly at nine o’clock. New employees on the road looked at her with awe. Jiang Shangxue’s hair was elegantly pinned up, revealing a mature and intellectual face. She wore a perfectly applied light make-up, looking clean and graceful. A few wisps of hair rested on her neck, and her every movement had a gentle fluidity, like softly rippling water.

Yet, her eyes, dark and dense as ink, seemed intensely cold in passing glances, instantly eliminating any inappropriate thoughts one might have.

Gentle yet resolute.

Absolutely stunning!

A staff member secretly took a photo of Jiang Shangxue’s back in her qipao and posted it on Rongcheng’s anonymous business forum.

The caption read: “I ask you, among the business giants in Rongcheng, who can be more beautiful and gentle than CEO Jiang?”

The eye-catching logo of the Mingchuang Group was visible on the right side of the photo. A few seconds later, someone replied.

【She’s really beautiful. She’s a woman whose background and looks I can’t even dream of matching.】

【Give me a break. I’ll admit she’s beautiful, but gentle? No way. The title of “Fake Gentle, Real Vicious Beauty” belongs to CEO Jiang.】

【I agree with the person above. The Greenland project fully demonstrated CEO Jiang’s methods. This beautiful female businesswoman’s behind-the-scenes tactics are in no way inferior to ours men’s.】

【Greenland? The Greenland project jointly developed by Hongyuan and Mingchuang?】

It was originally just a casual post expressing admiration, but when Greenland was mentioned, the atmosphere in the thread immediately became subtle.

Everyone in Rongcheng’s business community knew that the Greenland project was personally spearheaded by the CEOs of both Hongyuan and Mingchuang. When it came to the hidden methods within the project, only the executives had the right to speak.

A few replies quickly popped up in the thread.

【Dare I ask if the gentleman above is CEO Lin Yuan from Hongyuan?】

【Shock! Dog head emoji. A big shot is appearing in the same thread as me to watch the drama unfold!】

【It’s so sudden. Turns out the overbearing CEO is also on the front line of gossip.】

Lin Yuan smiled silently as he looked at the screen, then clicked the ‘X’ in the top right corner and exited the forum.

Even now, thinking back to the Greenland project collaboration with Jiang Shangxue still gave Lin Yuan palpitations. This woman looked beautiful and gentle on the surface, easy to manipulate, but he was completely fooled by the appearance. The moment he tried to pull a few strings to grab more profit for Hongyuan, he was severely taught a lesson.

A single deep collaboration was all it took for Lin Yuan to fully grasp Jiang Shangxue’s style. If you played by the rules, she would naturally play by the rules and achieve mutual success. But if you entertained any petty thoughts, she would openly steal people, snatch resources, trip you up, and engage in corporate warfare, stopping at nothing. In her own words, as long as it wasn’t illegal or didn’t provoke public outrage, anything was fair game.

She meets good with good, and evil with evil.

All in all, she was a cunning and experienced “werewolf” [a term for a ruthless person].

Within a single morning, the casual post was pushed to the “hot” section. Meanwhile, Jiang Shangxue, the center of the discussion, was in her office flipping through the script for the movie I Just Prefer You.

I Just Prefer You was a major, highly anticipated IP that the Mingchuang Group had invested in this year, and filming was set to begin at the end of the month. The villainous stepmother in the story happened to share Jiang Shangxue’s name.

Normally, such a small matter wouldn’t require a special consultation with Jiang Shangxue, but Su Yue wanted a vacation and a bonus, so she deliberately used the script as an excuse to find Jiang Shangxue, hinting in various ways.

Jiang Shangxue glanced at the plot, which was when her nightmares began that very night, continuing for several nights.

A girl in a long red dress was crying as she jumped from the top floor. Her limbs were shattered, and blood splattered everywhere. Jiang Shangxue stood right beside her, and no matter how much she yelled or tried to stop her, it was all useless. She could only watch the girl jump.

In the dream, someone called out the girl’s name—Yun Wu, who was the name of the main villain in I Just Prefer You.

Su Yue, who was lazily slumped on the sofa, tensed up as she watched Jiang Shangxue’s expression become increasingly serious. She sat up straight, but still joked:

“No way, CEO Jiang, you’re not seriously bothered that a minor character in the script shares your name, are you? I’ll have them change it right away.”

Jiang Shangxue didn’t look up and continued flipping through the script in her hand. She said,

“Minister Su, you have so much time to chat idly in my office. It seems you haven’t been working enough overtime.”

“No, please don’t! I’ll leave right now.”

Su Yue’s expression was momentarily contorted with fear. Her body reacted faster than her brain, and the moment her words finished, she swiftly closed the door to Jiang Shangxue’s office.

Not enough overtime—a phrase that would make even capitalists weep.

Jiang Shangxue continued reading the remaining plot, her brow furrowing deeper the more she read.

The movie was positioned as a sweet romance, and the standard villain setting was usually either stupid and irritating or simply evil and wicked.

But Yun Wu didn’t fit the definition of a standard villain at all. She was simply a miserable little victim, a pitiful soul.

She was an orphan, abandoned by her biological mother at five months old, and was raised by a crazy old man who maintained his life by scavenging garbage.

The cramped little room that saw no sunlight, the perpetual stench of garbage clinging to her, and the old staircase plastered with small ads and saliva marks—these were the elements of her distorted childhood.

When Yun Wu grew to four or five years old, her delicate facial features gradually began to take shape. Although she was overly thin due to chronic malnutrition, she still attracted the attention of certain scoundrels in the building.

These scoundrels tried to lure Yun Wu with a few pieces of cheap candy to do certain disgusting and vile things. Perhaps the difficult life had made Yun Wu wise for her age; she escaped by crying and vague accusations.

But from that time on, the gossiping women in the building began to speculate about Yun Wu’s background with the utmost malice.

The gossips spoke terrible and malicious curses in front of Yun Wu. They said her mother must have been a prostitute to have abandoned her, and that Yun Wu was also a cheap little vixen from childhood, perhaps having inherited her mother’s “dirty disease.”

Rumors filled with ill will and an extremely poor and meager living environment made Yun Wu excessively sensitive and insecure from a young age.

She lived in this world with the utmost caution.

But even so, it didn’t extinguish Yun Wu’s kind nature. She would wipe or wash the trash she collected before bringing it home to lessen the stench in the stairwell. When the community street office came to find her and tried to take her away, she refused, insisting on staying to take care of the crazy old man.

Fortunately, the community street office eventually decided to subsidize her education and give her a small monthly living allowance.

Although it was only 200 yuan, for Yun Wu at that time, being able to go to school and eat enough was an immense luxury.

Yun Wu’s first turning point in life happened at this time.

Jiang Shangxue’s slender, pale finger paused at the end of the page. She picked up the cup next to her, took a sip of water, and then another before continuing to flip through.

Yun Wu was very intelligent, an advantage that became apparent after she started school. Her grades were always among the highest. Although she still had no playmates and people would still point and say behind her back,

“Look, that’s her. Her grandpa is a crazy old man who collects garbage.”

“No wonder she smells so bad.”

She was always a solitary figure, rarely speaking more than one sentence per semester, making her an isolated, strange student in the eyes of her teachers and peers. Yet, she was always found in the top three positions in every exam.

Yun Wu seemed to be close to grasping the light, but how could a villain’s life truly improve? In the year she turned seventeen, her biological father found her and took her back.

The luxurious villa, the meticulously arranged details everywhere—she was overwhelmed by everything.

Her stepmother would frequently command the servants to slap her, and forced kneeling was considered light punishment. When the stepmother was in a bad mood, she would even make her kneel and eat like a dog.

Her so-called nominal biological father sat by and did nothing.

The girl’s already meager self-esteem and sense of shame were completely shattered by the daily torment.

When she read the part where Yun Wu was forced to crouch and eat like a dog, Jiang Shangxue’s beautiful fingers suddenly creased the paper. She tugged at her collar, a hint of irritation showing in her expression.

She endured the unpleasantness and continued reading.

Yun Wu, after being taken back by her father, was sent to a noble high school. This was the start of her new nightmare. Here, she met the male and female leads.

The book described Yun Wu as having an outstanding appearance, with pure, dark eyes that naturally curved upward at the outer corners, giving her an inherently cold and detached aura. The stubbornness radiating from her was quite captivating.

As soon as Yun Wu enrolled, she caught the male lead’s attention. The female lead, feeling threatened, would always innocently make a few subtle provocations, and a group of her supporters would rush to fight her battles.

The bullying and discrimination from her peers intensified, making Yun Wu even more insecure and fragile. Even when she was forced to kneel and drink toilet water in the restroom, the school’s teachers simply brushed it off lightly.

The male lead, who witnessed everything from beginning to end, would appear after Yun Wu was bullied, offering fake comfort and reassurance.

Yun Wu, who had never felt kindness from her peers, fell for it. She willingly let the male lead mentally manipulate her. Later, with the male lead’s help, Yun Wu continuously grew, and just two years after graduating from university, she became the undisputed, fully controlling shareholder of the Yun Group.

At this point, the male lead revealed his true intentions. Relying on Yun Wu’s trust, he effortlessly merged and acquired the Yun Group.

Throughout the entire story, the only reason Yun Wu was called a villain was because she liked the male lead and served as a tool for flirting between the male and female leads whenever they argued.

Finally, Yun Wu, consumed by resentment, sought revenge. She tried to burn the male and female leads alive but, through a twist of fate, ended up killing others. At that point, pushed to a dead end, she jumped from a building in a red dress.

Jiang Shangxue: …???

This was the very scene that repeatedly appeared in Jiang Shangxue’s dreams. Her face hardened.

Crinkle. A page of the script in her hand was ripped. Jiang Shangxue tore off the last page, crumpled it, and threw it into the trash can. After a moment, she threw the entire script into the trash can.

This script definitely had problems. The male and female leads had corrupt morals. How was she supposed to film this?!

Just then, Su Yue sent a message.

【Su Yue: CEO Jiang, the name has been changed. Asking for credit, dog head/dog head/dog head】

【Jiang Shangxue: Starting tomorrow, the entire planning department gets a week off, and their year-end bonus will be doubled. Minister Su is excluded.】

Seeing the message in the work group chat, Su Yue didn’t even have time to cheer before she saw the second half of the sentence. She immediately sent a private message to Jiang Shangxue.

【Su Yue: CEO Jiang, pitiful look emoji. I know you are always fair to your subordinates and would never discriminate.】

Jiang Shangxue gently raised an eyebrow, ignoring Su Yue, and continued posting in the work group.

【Jiang Shangxue: Minister Su, stay behind and discuss modifying the plot with the screenwriter of I Just Prefer You.】

【Su Yue: No desire to live emoji. The joke is on me. Black man questioning emoji.】

【Su Yue: I’m not working hard, I just have a hard life.】

Su Yue looked up to the sky and wailed, completely out of sync with the joyous, celebratory atmosphere of the planning department.

That night before falling asleep, Jiang Shangxue inevitably thought of the same nightmare from the previous nights. She thought this whole incident was finally over.

To her complete surprise, when Jiang Shangxue woke up on the twentieth day, she found that she had transmigrated into the book, becoming the evil stepmother with the same name.

Author’s Note:

Warning: I rarely write modern novels; this is a new attempt. The writing style is chaotic, and I don’t focus on logic. The plot is purely fantasy. If anything I’ve written makes you unhappy while reading, I apologize in advance. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

Note: Some of the silly sentences in the comments are ones I came across while surfing the web and are not my original creation.