Become the Sickly Villain in the Novel - Chapter 88

The saying “the human heart is fickle” was perfectly exemplified by Li Yuzhi.

Not to mention Li Yan. Even his own biological son, Li Nuo, could be abandoned without hesitation. But if one were to talk about being unfit to be a father, Qin Xu’s father was even worse.

Tch, they’re all scum. What am I even comparing here?

Mo Chuan shook his head silently and walked up to Li Yuzhi, meeting his gaze. He personally tore off the tape from his mouth. “Ever since I found out about your situation, I’ve been curious. Why adopt Li Yan? You don’t seem like the charitable type.”

“Heh heh…”

Li Yuzhi let out a mocking laugh. “People like you, rich folks, would never understand. That kid’s father left behind a life insurance payout. To you, it might be pocket change…”

“So, it was for the insurance money, not because he was your friend’s child.”

Mo Chuan let out a cold laugh. “I should have guessed.”

Inside the car, Li Yan bit his lower lip tightly. Even though he had suspected as much before, hearing the admission straight from the source still sent a chill through his body. He clenched his fists, unaware that his nails were digging into his flesh.

Li Nuo held his hand, silently offering comfort.

Li Yan wiped his face. “I’m fine. I’d already guessed it. What matters now is your situation.”

The two brothers refocused on Mo Chuan’s next line of questioning.

……………

Li Yuzhi showed no sign of guilt and asked, “Where’s Li Nuo? Where did you take him? Give him back to me!”

His eyes were wide, pupils bulging. If not for this man’s appearance, he would have already taken Li Nuo away.

In a sinister tone, he shouted, “Do you know how much he’s worth? Give my son back to me!”

“…Are you insane?” Mo Chuan frowned. “What do you mean ‘worth’?”

“That kid is worth tens of millions! The plan was already in place from the start.”

Upon hearing this, Mo Chuan’s gaze instantly changed. He grabbed Li Yuzhi’s hair, forcing him to look at him, and asked through clenched teeth, filled with killing intent, “You were going to sell him?! To whom?”

The murderous aura in Mo Chuan’s deep voice was chilling. Staring into his eyes, full of hostility, made Li Yuzhi tremble all over.

His instincts told him that the man in front of him was dangerous. Just locking eyes with him felt like having a sharp blade pressed against his neck.

Seeing that he wasn’t answering, Mo Chuan grew increasingly irritable. He stood up and dragged him over to the bolt cutters stored in the warehouse. “I don’t have that much patience with you. How about we start by ruining one of your hands?”

“Ahhhhh—!”

Li Yuzhi’s scream echoed in the warehouse. “I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”

He said he had previously made contact with someone overseas. At the time, he was utterly desperate after gambling everything away. Just when he was about to get his hands chopped off, that contact said he could offer a person as collateral instead.

Compared to the rebellious Li Yan, the more trusting Li Nuo was easier to deceive.

However, Li Nuo happened to be hospitalized at the time. After being discharged, he never contacted him again.

Back then, he was still being held captive. He’d tried to flee too many times, so no one trusted him anymore. In the end, he handed over a photo and let the people holding him go find Li Nuo, who was working part-time handing out flyers at the time.

Unfortunately, that MLM company was already under investigation, and the operation failed. Li Nuo wasn’t tricked.

Li Yuzhi then tried to persuade the overseas party, claiming that his son’s health was poor and he needed another surgery to survive longer.

So they only planned to act after the surgery, which was just a few months ago. Because of Li Nuo’s face, the other side agreed. But Li Nuo ended up being sent to Mo Chuan’s villa, causing delays until now.

Inside the car, the moment Li Yan heard he was trying to sell Li Nuo, he immediately turned to his brother. “Brother…”

Li Nuo, meanwhile, was completely stunned, his face blank, his mind a haze.

What had he just heard?

His own “father” had planned to sell him overseas and had already tried twice?

Human trafficking was bad enough. But selling your own son?

He heard a wail rise up from deep within himself.

Li Nuo felt something was wrong with his body. His vision began to spin, his mind grew fuzzy, his breathing rapid, and his heart rate spiked. His smartwatch sounded an alert at just the right moment.

Li Yan also saw it. “Brother! Calm down!”

Li Nuo tried to take deep breaths to calm himself, but the sorrow and emotional breakdown from deep within made it impossible to compose himself.

“I… I feel strange.”

Qin Xu, sitting in the front seat, immediately ordered the driver, “To the hospital, quickly!”

Strange. He only felt disgust toward this kind of “father.” So where was this sadness coming from?

In the very second before he lost consciousness, he understood.

It was the “heart” of the original owner crying out in pain.

Inside the warehouse, Mo Chuan pressed his earpiece and, upon hearing the report from outside, his expression changed. He stood up, said to Fang Che, “You handle this,” and then turned and left.

Before leaving, he didn’t forget to discard and burn his gloves.

After that day, those people disappeared without a trace.

Li Nuo, who had been rushed to the hospital, received emergency treatment in time, but for some unknown reason, he remained unconscious.

Although he was worried, He Yan said there was no physical issue. It was likely a psychological cause.

They had no choice but to wait.

“Ah-ha, so it was hearing what Li Yuzhi said that caused the psychological shock?” Mo Chuan frowned.

But judging from Li Nuo’s earlier attitude, he didn’t seem like someone who would be heartbroken over this.

Sure, a father selling his own son was outrageous. This wasn’t wartime, after all.

“Maybe he’s dreaming,” He Yan said as he gently patted Li Nuo on the head. The scans showed no abnormalities. He didn’t need to stay in the ICU either. He was already much better than before.

……………

Li Nuo was indeed dreaming. More accurately, he had gained full access to the original owner’s memories.

They were being presented to him in the form of a dream.

“Hmm, he was really cute as a kid,” Li Nuo’s consciousness floated mid-air, watching the fair and adorable child below. “But he grew up and his thoughts changed. What a pity.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a kick to his back. “You’re using my body and you have the nerve to say that?!”

It was an indignant, yet very familiar voice.

Li Nuo turned around and saw—(ノ⊙ω⊙)ノ Whoa!

It really was familiar. How could he not recognize the face he had been seeing ever since he transmigrated?

Floating beside him in mid-air, just like him, was the original owner.

The two of them stared at each other as if looking into a mirror.

“So you’re still here?! I thought you had already reincarnated.”

The original owner, his face exactly the same but full of arrogance, wore a furious expression. “What are you talking about?! You, an outsider, have the nerve to speak like that?!”

Li Nuo covered his ears. This guy basically yelled every time he spoke. No wonder people said he was neurotic.

“Okay, okay. So what are you trying to do now? Want me to return your body?”

“……”

The original owner didn’t answer.

After a while, he waved his hand, and the memory display below shifted to a new scene.

It turned into a live broadcast.

Watching himself lying in a hospital bed, with three people by the side full of concern, Li Nuo raised his brows. Seeing his body like this was an oddly surreal sight.

“They’re waiting for you to wake up.”

“Hm?”

The original owner’s expression dimmed slightly. “Compared to me, they like you more.”

Li Nuo was silent, unsure what to say. Should he tell him it was because his previous behavior wasn’t exactly likable?

Forget it. He wasn’t one to poke at others’ wounds.

“You know this world is a novel, right?”

“Yeah, I was reading it before I transmigrated.”

The original owner’s beautiful face showed a trace of numbness. “Every time someone reads it, the story replays itself. Because the novel isn’t finished yet, it always ends at my death.”

“Huh?!”

Li Nuo realized something was off. “You knew?!”

He wasn’t asking whether the original owner knew this was a novel. He was asking whether the original owner had already known while living inside the novel?!

“Yes, I knew,” he sighed faintly. “Maybe it was because I died too many times. At some point in one of the cycles, I awakened my own consciousness.”

Li Nuo drew a sharp breath, his scalp tingling.

To realize that you’re actually an NPC, what kind of feeling is that?

“But the mercy of the gods didn’t change anything. This world ran like a pre-set program, operating on its own. Even after awakening, it was meaningless,” he lowered his eyes. “I could only watch myself, just as described in the novel, make irreversible mistakes that ultimately led to my own destruction.”

Li Nuo was left speechless. So, the original owner knew he was going to die but couldn’t change anything. He could only watch himself die again and again.

And it repeated so many times!

“Until… One day, you appeared.” He looked at Li Nuo with a relaxed smile. “The falsehood of this world became reality. There was no longer any need to follow the plot of the novel, instead began developing along a completely different path. That’s when I realized that changing fate required the intervention of an external soul. I don’t know which god was so kind, but they helped you, and at the same time, they freed me.”

“…So, from the time I transmigrated and woke up in the hospital, everything had already diverged completely from the novel?” Li Nuo guessed it must have started from there.

“Mm. From that point on, the story was yours to write. No matter how it unfolds, it no longer has anything to do with the novel.”

“Then, after your death, didn’t the novel have an ending?”

The original owner fell silent for a moment and shook his head. “I can’t answer that. Because by then, the world would reset again.”

“You were always watching from inside the body?”

“Yes,” the original owner’s face lit up with a mischievous smile. “I saw everything from your point of view, including those two times you kissed Mo Chuan.”

“Ahem,” Li Nuo felt a little embarrassed.

“No need to worry. According to the gods, you and I were originally one. Something like a parallel-world version? Otherwise, the soul fusion wouldn’t have gone so smoothly.”

Li Nuo was amazed. So there really were “gods” in this world.

As he thought about it, the original owner suddenly looked very angry. “You must have called me an idiot in your heart.”

Li Nuo awkwardly turned away. He had, in fact. More than once.

He didn’t try to defend himself. “Ahem… Sorry.”

He had really misunderstood him for so long.

“Forget it. Even I’ve cursed myself for being an idiot over the things I did.” He slumped again. “Anyway, it’s all in the past.”

NPCs have no human rights.

“I’ve been watching you this whole time. Watching you grow closer to Li Yan, develop deeper bonds with Mo Chuan and Qin Xu… And only then did I realize, so that’s what ‘father’ was planning,” his expression darkened, then he cursed loudly, “&%$#(^%#%&*&￥#.”

After letting it all out, he finally exhaled deeply. “Hmph. Serves him right.”

Then he glanced at Li Nuo, who was standing there sheepishly. “Sorry, the character setting stuck too deep. I can’t shake this brash personality just yet.”

Li Nuo chuckled. “He deserved to be cursed.”

Otherwise, after so many restarts, he’d have gone insane by now.

“Alright, it’s time for me to go,” he said calmly. His consciousness emitted a soft light. “This body has long been yours. Be sure to live an extraordinary life, okay? Oh right, help me apologize to Li Yan and Qin Xu. Though it wasn’t entirely my intention, I still made mistakes.”

“Where are you going?” Li Nuo asked urgently.

“Heh…” On that face—bright as moonlight—bloomed a genuine smile that belonged only to him. “A god has promised me another life. I’m going to be reincarnated. I’ll live a happy life this time, and I wish happiness for you and Mo Chuan too.”

A life no longer shackled by fate.

A life as radiant as the sun.

A life that truly belonged to him was finally waiting just ahead!

Bathed in a pure white light, his figure gradually faded.

“May you be happy and free in your next life.”