Every Day the Villain Continues to Fail
[Quick Transmigration]
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The metallic iron door was even covered with a thin layer of dust, indicating that its owner had not opened it for a long time.
Ruan Yao was momentarily stunned, feeling that the plot was shifting too quickly "A secret chamber?"
Song Yu nodded and forcefully pulled open the long-sealed iron door. With a loud rumble, a lengthy, pitch-black corridor was revealed behind it.
Both walls were painted in a deep, eerie red, adorned with twisted, gnarled vines that stretched along the long staircase, vanishing into an abyss of impenetrable darkness.
Ruan Yao was still preoccupied with that strange and vivid oil painting. Even as he followed behind Song Yu, his mind was elsewhere.
"System, that painting by Gu Rongzhang… where did it come from?" Ruan Yao asked dryly. According to the story’s setting, before he deliberately seduced Gu Rongzhang, the man should have never seen him.
That painting, with its intense brushstrokes and almost sensual undertones, should not exist in this world. As a foolish and toxic cannon fodder soon to be kicked out of his home, he wasn’t supposed to have such a significant presence.
The entire timeline had been disrupted by the appearance of that painting. Suddenly, instead of being perceived as a deceitful crossdresser, Ruan Yao was now seen as a weak lamb willingly offering itself up.
It was strange, so strange that it felt like someone was manipulating everything from behind the scenes.
The system hesitated, its voice uncertain. "According to the background settings, this painting shouldn’t exist. I don’t know why either… M-Maybe it’s a hidden setting?"
It clumsily tried to comfort Ruan Yao, "It’s fine! Gu Rongzhang is already dead anyway. As long as we find the cause of his death and complete the storyline, we can leave."
"Maybe you did such a great job with your mission that you unlocked a hidden level!"
Ruan Yao was easily coaxed. After thinking about it, what the system said made sense. He quickly relaxed his furrowed brows and cheerfully said, "That’s true!"
As long as he uncovered the truth and completed the mission, everything would be fine.
He forced himself to believe that, pushing down the unsettling feeling that had been gnawing at him.
The moment he saw that painting, an inexplicable sense of anxiety had surged within him. The sheer madness and obsessive love poured into the artist’s brushstrokes made his skin crawl.
Who exactly painted it?
"Ugh!"
Ruan Yao had been too engrossed in his conversation with the system and didn’t notice that Song Yu had suddenly stopped. He crashed face-first into the man’s solid back.
Dazed, Ruan Yao felt as though his nose was about to start bleeding.
Song Yu turned around and sighed helplessly. He grabbed Ruan Yao’s slender wrist and said softly, "Be careful."
In the dim corridor, there was even a trace of gentleness in his tone.
…An illusion.
Ruan Yao steadied himself and awkwardly apologized, "Sorry"
Curious about why Song Yu had stopped, he poked the man’s back and asked, "Are we there already?"
Song Yu’s expression looked a bit strange. The flashlight in his hand shone brightly, illuminating half of his face. One side was smiling, while the other half, hidden in the shadows, carried a terrifying fervor. A chilling glint flickered deep within his pupils.
"Yaoyao, don’t be afraid, okay?"
Bro! saying that only makes me more scared.
Ruan Yao resisted the urge to take a step back, forcing himself to maintain a calm expression. "What’s there to be afraid of? At worst, it’s just Gu Rongzhang having some perverted hobby."
Since Song Yu hated Gu Rongzhang so much, Ruan Yao saw no reason to keep up the pretense of calling him "husband" anymore.
After all, he's a serious male spirit, calling him 'husband' feels strangely shameful.
Speaking of perversion and secret chambers, Ruan Yao couldn’t help but recall the story of Bluebeard, a seemingly elegant and wealthy gentleman who hid the bloodied corpses of his former wives in his basement.
Ruan Yao frantically reassured himself, hoping he wouldn’t witness anything grotesque or gory.
Meanwhile, the system had already prepared the most powerful and effective exorcism chant of the modern era.
If anything unsuitable for children appeared, he would put an end to it. No monsters or demons would dare approach.
"Host, don’t panic! You can do it!" The system cheered enthusiastically, waving tiny flags in the air.
Slightly comforted by the system’s ridiculous antics, Ruan Yao mustered up a bit of courage.
Song Yu reached out to hold Ruan Yao’s hand, but Ruan Yao instinctively hid his hands behind his back.
The man’s eyes darkened.
Feeling uneasy, Ruan Yao averted his gaze and muttered softly, "I’m not that much of a coward."
It doesn’t look that way.
Song Yu let out a low chuckle, his lips curving into a strange, eerie smile. "Alright then, but don’t say I didn’t warn you, Yao Yao"
You’re the one who brought me here, and now you’re acting all cryptic and weird.
Song Yu stepped into the dimly lit room first.
The room was pitch black at first glance, making it impossible to see anything.
But when Song Yu switched on the hidden wall lights, Ruan Yao's breath caught in his throat.
The entire room was lined with jars filled with formalin, tightly packed along the walls. Upon closer inspection, the glass containers held severed limbs.
In the dim lighting, the sight was suffocating and overwhelming.
A chilling sense of horror gripped Ruan Yao’s throat, making it impossible to breathe.
A bead of cold sweat rolled down his smooth forehead. The moment he took in the full view of the room, the system's carefully prepared exorcism chant echoed in his mind.
"Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity, friendliness…"
Even in his fear, Ruan Yao had the presence of mind to complain "Why does this chant sound so familiar?"
System: "Every high school student should know it by heart. No ghosts or monsters can stand against the glow of socialism!"
As a former high school student, Ruan Yao felt personally attacked.
The room was enormous. Aside from the rows of glass jars filled with body parts, the center of the room had an eerily romantic setup.
A raised platform was covered in withered roses, their darkened petals spreading across the entire space like creeping vines.
At the center of the flower pile rested a crystal coffin, lined with the finest, softest swan velvet. Heavy iron chains hung from the ceiling, tightly binding the coffin.
It was an uncanny mirror of the oil painting outside.
The cold gleam of the crystal coffin overlapped strangely with the pale, delicate bones of the beauty in the painting.
Despite the sheer horror of the scene, Ruan Yao felt a fleeting moment of relief, there was no body inside the coffin.
"Sometimes, he struck deals with the owners of these body parts. He gave them wealth and status in exchange for a piece of themselves. He used money to numb his prey, to fuel their insatiable greed, and in the end, they paid for their desires with a hand, a foot… or their lives."
A pair of arms wrapped around Ruan Yao’s thin frame from behind.
The man buried his face against the soft, white nape of Ruan Yao’s neck, taking a deep breath. A feverish blush of twisted pleasure colored his face as he leaned in to whisper, his voice laced with dark amusement
"Of course, some of them refused. So he killed them. In Yun City, he controls everything, his slightest move could make people tremble. Erasing someone completely? Child’s play."
"Tell me, do you think someone like that deserves to die?"
"Yao Yao, can you guess who this coffin was meant for?"
The finest, most luxurious materials. A size tailored perfectly. Even the placement of the arms and feet had been meticulously calculated to form the most fitting indentations.
Just right for a complete, silent beauty.
"If it weren’t for you, the one lying here would have been a patchwork version of you."
Ruan Yao’s pupils dilated. "Song Yu, stop scaring me. I don’t like this joke."
His voice was pitiful, soft enough to make anyone’s heart ache. The starlit shimmer in his tear-brimmed eyes could make a man willing to give up everything for him.
Song Yu tightened his hold on the little lamb trapped in the tiger’s den. The intoxicating scent made it impossible for him to restrain the fangs he had hidden for so long.
"The man married my mother for wealth. Then, when he wanted more power, he had no qualms about getting rid of her, even when she was pregnant. If it weren’t for sheer luck, Gu Jin and I would have died in the womb with her."
On Song Yu’s face so eerily identical to Gu Jin’s, was an expression completely opposite to his twin’s gentle demeanor: pure darkness.
"When Gu Jin was born, he cried louder, so they took him back to the Gu family as the heir. I was born weaker, so Gu Rongzhang abandoned me in the hospital. The caretakers who raised me were the ones who told me all of this."
"So tell me, why shouldn’t I hate him?"
He bit down on the small, round vertebra at the nape of Ruan Yao’s neck, his tongue slowly tracing the delicate bone. Then he released his bite and narrowed his eyes.
"Yao Yao, even your bones smell sweet."
System, he's going to eat me!
Even if dying meant he could escape this world, this kind of death sounded incredibly painful!
Ruan Yao was so terrified that tears welled up in his eyes, but he dared not let them fall. His soft lips were nearly bleeding from how hard he bit them before he finally forced out a panicked question:
"Why… why are you telling me all this?"
Song Yu pinched Ruan Yao’s fair chin with one hand, forcing him to raise his eyes and look at the crystal coffin that was just the right size to fit him.
"Yao Yao, the vampire duke gained eternal companionship by exchanging his deepest secret with Madame Marlena. Now, I’ve told you my secret."
Lowering his gaze with a smirk, he glanced at Ruan Yao’s flat chest. "And I also know your secret. Now, you have only two choices, will little Marlena choose eternal slumber, or will he elope with his duke?"
Damn.
Ruan Yao almost cursed out loud, but with his life hanging in this man's hands, he had no choice but to keep his emotions in check. Even his breathing instinctively slowed.
His soft, pale fingers gently rested on the man’s arm, the faint pink fingertips pressing lightly against the scabbed wound. A tingling, numbing sensation spread from his arm, all the way to the frenziedly pounding heart beneath.
Ruan Yao’s black hair, which had been casually tied up with a simple rubber band, had already come loose due to Song Yu’s actions.
Strands of hair cascaded down the back of his snow-white neck, making him look, under the dim light, like a piece of exquisite white jade meticulously carved, breathtakingly beautiful.
"Is this all your love amounts to?" Ruan Yao grasped the arm that was restraining him, his fingertips idly tracing over the deep pink new skin, eliciting the man’s increasingly heavy breaths and uncontrollable tremors.
A shattered gleam flickered beneath his lowered dark lashes, and a dazzling light swept through his clear eyes. Ruan Yao curved his lips into a smile.
"At most, Gu Rongming will come looking for me in less than half an hour. You couldn’t even steal the duke away, what makes you think you have the right to talk about spending eternity with me?"
The man’s embrace froze, his voice turning dangerously low. "Are you saying I would lose to that cripple, Gu Rongming?"
Since the truth behind Gu Rongzhang’s death had already been uncovered, all that was left was to complete the part of the story where his true identity was exposed.
Ruan Yao braced himself, when the man flew into a rage and tried to kill him, he just needed to pull out his consciousness in time.
"System" Ruan Yao sighed deeply, "Men really are dangerous creatures"
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