NOVEL NEXT Chapter 22 - The vicious female supporting role
“Come back,” Wen Zhao didn’t look up. Her voice was lazy, without a hint of threat.
“Master,” Su Mengyao tried to suppress her fear, but her voice trembled uncontrollably.
How did Wen Zhao get here? Had she discovered something?
No, impossible. With the system’s assistance, not even the surveillance cameras could track her movements. How could Wen Zhao possibly know what she had been doing…
“Did everything go smoothly?” Wen Zhao looked at her with a half-smile.
Her heart skipped a beat. She forced a smile, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just… couldn’t sleep and went out for some fresh air.”
“Really?” Wen Zhao withdrew her gaze from her and returned it to her phone.
Since obtaining Gu Xianting’s phone, she hadn’t bothered to look through it for a long time. After all, with both the main characters right in front of her, wasn’t it more entertaining to mess with them than to look at a phone?
“Y-yes,” Su Mengyao clasped her hands tightly together, trying to calm herself.
“You know, back in school, during every exam, there were always some people who thought they were being sneaky with their little tricks, thinking the teacher on the podium wouldn’t see them.” Wen Zhao’s voice remained calm, without any fluctuation. “But actually, the teacher could see everything clearly.”
Su Mengyao felt her teeth chattering.
What did she mean by that? Was she implying that everything she did on this island, within Wen Zhao’s territory, was under her control?
“System, didn’t you say there’s no way she could find out?” Su Mengyao desperately called out to the system in her mind.
The system was also flustered. It was sure that each time it helped her avoid surveillance, there had been no mistakes.
【Host, don’t panic. She might just be bluffing!】
“What are you thinking about?” Wen Zhao stood up and slowly walked over to her.
She was much taller than Su Mengyao. She reached out and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up and meet her eyes.
Su Mengyao’s eyes darted around, unable to look her in the eye. Her palms were sweating profusely.
“Are you communicating with your system?” Wen Zhao’s lips curled into an innocent smile. “I’m a bit curious, what exactly is your system?”
Su Mengyao’s heart leaped to her throat. She wanted to turn her head, but Wen Zhao’s hand held her chin tightly!
“I don’t have a system. How could such a thing exist in this world?” She tried to smile, but her expression was worse than crying.
“Su Mengyao,” Wen Zhao suddenly called her name.
Her heart tightened. Wen Zhao rarely called her by her name.
“Why do you always like to take people for fools?” She released her chin. Su Mengyao staggered back several steps until she was pressed against the wall.
“How did you find this island? Besides me, very few people know about it.” Wen Zhao continued to approach her, who wanted to run but didn’t dare. She stood rigidly, watching Wen Zhao get closer.
Wen Zhao’s hand reached for her neck.
“Wen Zhao! What are you doing!” Gu Xianting, pushing his wheelchair, rushed over just in time to see this scene.
He had woken up in the middle of the night to find Wen Zhao missing. Initially unconcerned, he began to worry after she didn’t return for half an hour.
In the past half month, his legs had partially recovered, allowing him to move to his wheelchair without assistance.
He took the elevator downstairs and saw the light on in the servants’ quarters from a distance, feeling a sense of foreboding. He hurried over.
Wen Zhao glanced indifferently at him at the door. “What did you just call me?”
“Wife… I was wrong. I just woke up and didn’t see you.” He didn’t want to anger her at this moment. “It’s late, let’s go back and rest.”
“I don’t want to rest now.” She turned her attention back to Su Mengyao.
“I just want my little maid to play with me.” Her hand rested on Su Mengyao’s neck.
At the touch of her fingers, Su Mengyao’s body broke out in goosebumps. She had no idea what Wen Zhao intended to do, knowing her capricious nature over the past half month!
“Afraid I’ll strangle you?” Her tone was light, as if unaware of the tense atmosphere.
“Of course not…” Su Mengyao’s voice carried a sob.
Gu Xianting gripped the wheelchair’s arms tightly, his body taut, as if ready to leap up and fight for his loved one.
However, Wen Zhao’s hand did not strangle Su Mengyao. Instead, her elegant fingers pulled something from her collar.
It was the necklace Gu Ruoxian had given her before she arrived on the island, which could act as a miniature phone when a small switch was pressed.
Seeing this, Su Mengyao’s face went pale. She instinctively tried to snatch it back!
Wen Zhao yanked it, breaking the necklace, and held it up in front of her.
Su Mengyao swallowed hard, her mind in chaos, unsure what to do.
She remembered Amy mentioning a signal jammer on the island half a month ago. She hadn’t thought much of it then but now realized it was because Wen Zhao knew about her contact with Gu Ruoxian and had blocked the signal!
Why hadn’t she thought it through!
“Wife, do you like this necklace? If you do, I’ll buy you a better one, okay?” Gu Xianting, seeing Su Mengyao on the verge of collapse, racked his brain to break the eerie tension.
“Do you know what this is?” Wen Zhao dangled the necklace in the air. “Come on, tell your master what this is.”
Su Mengyao didn’t want to speak. She wished she could faint, but knowing Wen Zhao’s methods, if she did, she might end up in the sea to wake up.
“It’s… it’s a miniature phone.” She stuttered, knowing she couldn’t escape today.
Wen Zhao turned to Gu Xianting, a mocking smile in her eyes. “Now, do you still want to buy me one?”
His body stiffened! He wheeled himself over to her, gently taking her hand. “Wife, can we talk about this tomorrow?”
“Enough!” She flung his hand away. “Don’t touch me with your filthy hands!”
He was knocked over with his wheelchair.
“Ah—!” Su Mengyao screamed in fright. “Sir!”
“I’ve told you, I hate being lied to and taken for a fool!” Wen Zhao smashed the necklace on the ground, shattering it to reveal the black chip inside.
“Housekeeper!” Wen Zhao called.
The butler appeared at the door, his expression always calm, his posture upright, and his demeanor respectful. “Boss.”
“Take them out to cool off.” She ordered indifferently.
“Yes,” the butler replied.
Su Mengyao’s face changed, “Master, I’ll tell you anything you want to know. His legs are still injured, he can’t…”
Wen Zhao: “Gag her.”
The bodyguards, efficient as always, covered Su Mengyao’s mouth and dragged her out like a chick.
Gu Xianting, still struggling on the ground, became anxious seeing Su Mengyao taken away. “What are you going to do to her? Wen Zhao, I’ve done everything you asked. What more do you want?”
“Isn’t that your duty?” She sneered. “Instead of worrying about others, you should worry about yourself.”
He was stunned! Before he could ask why, bodyguards came and dragged him out too.
The butler handed a clean towel to her, who carefully wiped her hands.
“Boss, it’s a bit chilly outside at night.” The butler draped a coat over her.
She handed him the towel and pulled the coat closer, walking out slowly.
It was past three in the morning, the darkest time with no stars or moon.
Since confirming Su Mengyao had a system, she hadn’t paid much attention to it.
But that was only if it didn’t cause her trouble.
She was confident but not arrogant.
She walked to the seaside. The developed beach was adorned with many colorful lights, dispelling the pre-dawn darkness.
Su Mengyao crouched beside Gu Xianting, who sat on the sand. The black-clad bodyguards around them made it look like a bullying scene.
“Two years ago, I bought this island.” Wen Zhao’s voice drifted over slowly. “I spent a lot of effort and energy to develop it into what it is now.”
“Can any of you guess why I bought this island?” She sat on a chair prepared by the Filipino servants.
“Su Mengyao, you guess.” She looked at her.
Su Mengyao was much clearer now, not as afraid as before. She had handed over the crucial item. She just needed to stay calm and wait for Gu Ruoxian’s rescue.
“Vacation?” She shivered as she answered.
“Two years ago, at an auction, I had agreed to go with Xianting.” She continued her story. “But before we went, he told me he had something important to deal with and asked me to go alone.”
Su Mengyao glanced at Gu Xianting, who, with a face full of pain, began to suspect that this auction might have been significant to her.
“I believed him,” Wen Zhao said, “At the auction party that day, everyone had a companion except me.”
Hearing this, Su Mengyao’s face turned slightly unnatural. She suddenly realized which occasion she was talking about.
“I didn’t necessarily need someone to accompany me, but when this island came up for auction, I spent billions to buy it. I thought it was a great place, and I planned to develop it so that Xianting and I could honeymoon here after we got married,” Wen Zhao said, glancing lightly at Gu Xianting.
He was stunned. He hadn’t expected that this island existed for such a reason.
“I couldn’t let my efforts go to waste, so after we got married, I brought you here,” she said, then suddenly laughed. As she laughed, she propped her forehead with her hand, hiding her face in the shadow.
“No matter what, my efforts must not be in vain. I will not allow it!” She declared with pride, refusing to compromise or let her sacrifices go unnoticed.
“I looked at your phone today,” she said, raising her head. In that moment, Gu Xianting thought he saw a glimmer of tears in her eyes.
“Two years ago, at that auction, I was building our future. And you…” She sneered, “Your so-called important matter was celebrating Su Mengyao’s birthday.”
Su Mengyao lowered her head uncomfortably, and Gu Xianting froze. For some reason, his usually cold heart felt a slight pang of sourness.
“Did you ever consider my humiliation while you were with her?” Wen Zhao asked, then laughed at herself, “How foolish of me to ask such a question. To you two, it was a romantic date and a sweet memory.”
In those clichéd old Mary Sue love stories, the male lead always appeared romantically when the female lead needed him, never missing any important occasion for her.
The audience only saw their sweetness, even applauding. Some might even mock the evil supporting actress for her overreaching and being an obstacle, wishing she would disappear sooner.
“I’m sorry…” Gu Xianting murmured.
Wen Zhao, now giving him a strange feeling, had always been strong in his memory. She seemed like a proud queen who never knew the taste of failure. She always got what she wanted and accomplished what she set out to do.
“I’m curious, when did you start deceiving me?” Wen Zhao ignored his apology, continuing quietly, “I discovered that you and Su Mengyao exchanged contact information the first day you met. You’ve been lying to me for five years.”
Both Gu Xianting and Su Mengyao felt a growing sense of unease. Sometimes, the calmer someone is, the more terrifying they become. If Wen Zhao had shown anger, they could have let her vent and move on.
“This is strange,” she said, “Because the day before, you were still talking to me about secretly getting a marriage license once we were old enough.”
Gu Xianting, hearing this, immediately denied it, “Impossible! I could never have said such a thing! Wen Zhao, I admit I was a jerk, I lied to you, and I’ve been deceiving you all along. But I would never have said something like that!”
“Gu Xianting, don’t you find it odd?” She looked at him with dark, quiet eyes, “Am I the type to cling to someone because of an engagement?”
No.
Wen Zhao had her pride.
His mind was in turmoil, recalling fragments of memories he saw near death.
In those fragments, a young Wen Zhao had a bright and charming smile on her face. Even in such fragmented images, it was clear she was genuinely happy.
“When did he become like this?” Wen Zhao’s question wasn’t directed at Gu Xianting but at Su Mengyao.
Feeling humiliated and wronged by the past Wen Zhao dug up, Su Mengyao was still puzzled by the sudden question.
“Su Mengyao, can you explain it to me?” Wen Zhao’s gaze grew colder, “He changed after meeting you. He started lying to me, treating me perfunctorily. He fell in love with you.”
Su Mengyao found it absurd, “What do you think I did? I’m just an ordinary person. How could I control someone?”
“That’s not the point. It’s my question now,” Wen Zhao sneered.
“Such things, you should be asking me!” Gu Xianting instinctively protected Su Mengyao, “I’m the one who wronged you, lied to you, hurt you. I did all of it. Asking her, she knows nothing!”
“Sir seems a bit confused. Go, wake him up,” Wen Zhao ordered calmly.
The butler, who had been standing beside her, leisurely rolled up his sleeves. Under Gu Xianting’s wary gaze, he bent down, grabbed his hair, and slapped him hard twice.
The butler’s strength was different from Wen Zhao’s. Without hearing her command to stop, he continued after two slaps.
Su Mengyao was stunned, then screamed, rushing forward to pull the butler away, “What are you doing, Wen Zhao? He’s already injured! Stop it, stop it!”
“True, hitting the face is not good-looking,” she said nonchalantly.
The butler instantly understood her meaning. He grabbed Gu Xianting by the collar and punched him hard in the stomach.
“Ugh—” Gu Xianting spat out a mouthful of blood, his whole body convulsing in pain. He tried to fight back, but the butler’s strength was not something a cripple with broken legs could match.
“Stop! Please, Wen Zhao, I beg you, stop hitting him!” Su Mengyao cried, kneeling before her. She hadn’t understood why she suddenly started talking about the past. Now she realized it was all for this moment.
“Why should it matter to you if I hit my husband?” Wen Zhao listened to the sound of the butler’s punches landing on Gu Xianting, feeling a sense of satisfaction, “Tell me, what position or identity do you have to beg me?”
“I… I was wrong… I’m sorry, I’m sorry, hit me instead!” Su Mengyao cried, tears streaming down her face as she listened to Gu Xianting’s muffled groans, her heart breaking.
“Shouldn’t he be hit? Isn’t it reasonable for me to beat a heartless, faithless man who cheated on me?” Wen Zhao was unmoved. She even picked up a cup of tea beside her and took a sip, feeling quite good.
“This tea doesn’t taste as good as last time,” she frowned slightly.
“I understand. I’ll change it next time,” the butler replied while continuing to beat Gu Xianting.
“Good,” she was satisfied, “Next month, your salary will double.”
“Thank you, boss. This is my duty,” the butler said, kicking Gu Xianting in the back of the neck, knocking him out.
“Stop! He’ll die, he’ll really die!” Su Mengyao screamed, throwing herself over him to shield him from the butler’s blows.
“Take her away,” Wen Zhao ordered calmly.
A bodyguard approached. Su Mengyao struggled fiercely, screaming and scratching at the bodyguard, but it was useless. She was still dragged away.
“I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!” She relented. She knew Wen Zhao was doing this on purpose, but she had no choice. She couldn’t watch Gu Xianting die.
The system sighed. At this point, it wasn’t about whether Su Mengyao could hold on. Gu Xianting’s life force had dropped drastically, as it had the last time when he was thrown into the sea and nearly drowned by Wen Zhao.
【Host, just tell her.】
This villainous female supporting character was truly ruthless. She disregarded all life and had no bottom line.
In her last life, she was indeed too miserable, so in this second chance, she discarded all useless things.
“I do have a system, but it appeared the day you tied me up in the basement!” She dared not hide anything now. She only hoped Wen Zhao would stop beating Gu Xianting.
“Are you sure?” Wen Zhao looked skeptical, “Everything between you and Gu Xianting five years ago was too coincidental.”
“I’m not lying. I’m really not!” She explained urgently, “Five years ago, I investigated Xianting.
“That is to say, back then, you knew he and I were engaged, and that we were even dating?” Wen Zhao asked.
Su Mengyao bit her lip but still answered, “Yes, I knew all of that, but I couldn’t help it. I needed money desperately at the time. Initially, I just wanted some money.”
She saw the mocking expression on Wen Zhao’s face, an expression that seemed to see through everything, and her voice weakened, “Yes, my intentions were impure from the start. But with a man like Xianting, who wouldn’t love him? I just liked him. You two weren’t married yet, so why couldn’t I fight for him?”
“Besides, if he truly loved you, no matter what I did, he wouldn’t have been moved. The fact is he didn’t love you. He was just used to you, mistaking it for love.”
“He only saw you as a little sister from the neighborhood!” Her confidence grew as she spoke. “Even if we were wrong, isn’t it natural for humans to have emotions? Feelings can’t be controlled.”
Hearing this, Wen Zhao remembered the last life on the cruise ship when she brought a knife to kill her. She had also said confidently that emotions couldn’t be controlled.
“You should have let us be. Why couldn’t you leave us alone? You’re so young and beautiful. Without Gu Xianting, you still have a privileged family background. Any man you meet would be beyond my reach in this lifetime,” she said. “You clearly don’t love Xianting anymore. I can see that you hate him, that he disgusts you. You could easily get rid of him, couldn’t you?”
“You could find a man better than him. Why do you have to hold onto him?” Su Mengyao truly didn’t understand. She hadn’t dared to ask Wen Zhao these questions before, but now, everything had been laid bare, and she had nothing to lose.
“Do you even hear yourself? Is that something a human would say?” Wen Zhao couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Just because you want something, I have to give it to you.”
“If something belongs to me, I can choose to discard it, but if someone tries to take it from me, I’ll chop off their hand!” She said fiercely, her eyes revealing a chilling ruthlessness. “I can believe you used those means to get to know Gu Xianting five years ago.”
“Now, let’s talk about the system that bound you when you were in the basement,” she pondered. This day was when she used Gu Xianting’s life to threaten the so-called Villainess Redemption System to unbind.
How coincidental that while she was unbinding one system here, Su Mengyao was bound by another.
“That system called itself the Hero Rescue System,” Su Mengyao said. “It told me I am the heroine of this world and that Xianting is the hero, and he belongs to me!”
“Hero Rescue System,” Wen Zhao repeated. “Villainess Redemption… Hero Rescue…”
Ha, what a Hero Rescue System.
“It helped you avoid surveillance, open the hotel suite door, and even teleport from one place to another,” she stated, as these were feats beyond human capability.
“Yes,” Su Mengyao admitted. By now, there was no point in hiding anything.
“I see,” Wen Zhao’s smile turned malicious. “Hero Rescue System, won’t you come out and meet me?”
Su Mengyao’s expression instantly changed from a stubborn little flower swaying in the wind to a blank, emotionless mask.
Wen Zhao waved her hand, “You guys can leave now. Don’t come over unless I call for you.”
“Yes, Boss,” the butler led the bodyguards away until they were far enough not to hear Wen Zhao’s conversation.
“Should I call you the Hero Rescue System or the Villainess Redemption System?” Wen Zhao asked.
“Su Mengyao” silently looked at her. Indeed, she was as expected.
This girl, who had been proud and willful since childhood, was smart, strong-willed, possessive, and opinionated—traits that were quite unpopular in older stories.
Back then, tales of grassroots girls overturning wealthy beauties to win over handsome men were the norm.
“When you first bound to me, you said it was because I had performed well as a villainess, so I was rewarded with a second chance. But it was all to ensure Gu Xianting and Su Mengyao ended up together, wasn’t it?” Wen Zhao hadn’t considered this aspect at first.
Perhaps another person, having experienced such a past life, would try to be a good person upon being given another chance, staying away from these so-called protagonists and maybe even finding a man a hundred times better than the male lead. It might seem like a victory, as if the real past harms could be erased.
But for her, it wasn’t like that. Her happiness, her well-being, her success in life didn’t depend on whether she could find a better man than the heroine’s man.
“Because I didn’t cooperate and forcibly took your male lead away, you turned to your heroine, letting her save the male lead from me, the villainess. Is that right?” Wen Zhao asked.
The system looked at her with an indescribable feeling. Sometimes, being too smart isn’t good. Excessive wisdom can be harmful. Living life, if one is always so clear-headed, it can be very tiring.
“Yes,” the system didn’t deny it because there was no point in denying it.
“What are we in your eyes?” Wen Zhao suddenly asked. “Are we puppets to be arranged at will?”
“In my eyes, you are characters in a predetermined story. Your lives were written in a script from the start—who you meet, what setbacks you face, even the decisions you make after much deliberation are all set from the beginning,” the system said. “It’s like the organs in our bodies, determined from the start what functions they serve. If the liver stops producing blood, if the stomach stops digesting, if the heart stops beating, a person dies.”
“This world is the same. Each of you must follow your trajectories. If you deviate, the world ceases to exist,” the system explained.
“That’s not true,” Wen Zhao said. “If it were as you say, why didn’t you let me die in the sea? According to this world’s trajectory, my future should have ended with me dying in the sea on the day Gu Xianting and Su Mengyao got married, right?”
“If that’s the case, why give me a second chance?” She asked. “If we are predetermined characters in a script, then what are you?”
The system shrugged, “Who knows? Maybe I too am a being set by another dimension. My task is to bring the hero and heroine together. You became the variable in this.”
“I see. Well, I’m sorry,” she flashed a bright and bold smile. “Whoever set me up made me this way. I don’t accept this kind of script!”
The system now felt extremely dejected, even a sense of hopelessness, wanting to give up. If it were powerful enough, it could forcibly reset everything, erase Wen Zhao’s character traits, and rewrite her. But it couldn’t do that now.
“Now, unbind from Su Mengyao,” Wen Zhao waved her phone. “Come here, or I’ll throw your hero and heroine into the sea to feed the fish.”
The system: …
This familiar tactic!
Itstruggled in vain. It knew this woman would really do it. It immediately detached itself from Su Mengyao’s body.
She collapsed onto the beach without support.
Wen Zhao called out to the phone, “System?”
The phone played dead, no response.
“Looks like it’s useless. Might as well smash it,” she said.
The phone screen lit up.
【Don’t push it!】
She smiled and pocketed the phone. Her expression gradually became solemn as she quietly looked at the two people lying on the beach.
The dark sky began to reveal a sliver of white.
The darkness was shattered like a curtain, gradually dispersed by the light.
The first ray of sunlight broke through the water, casting a layer of golden light across the vast sea. This magnificent sunrise, this gentle breeze.
Wen Zhao reached out to catch the first ray of sunlight, feeling the warmth of the sun from her palm to her heart.
This was clearly such a real world, so beautiful, so charming.
How could it be a hastily sketched, false world with a few words?
She didn’t acknowledge it. Wherever she existed, was real!
Look, the sky is brightening.
When Su Mengyao woke up again, she found herself tied to a chair. She recalled the moments before she lost consciousness.
“System, system?” She called out in her mind, but no matter how she called, the system did not appear.
She panicked. Although the system wasn’t very useful and often caused her trouble, without it, she seemed to have lost her leverage to save Gu Xianting!
Thinking of him, she became anxious, looking around and soon seeing him tied up beside her.
His face was bruised, and his lips had dried blood. His clothes were dirty and disheveled. Her tears fell immediately, “Xianting, Xianting, wake up!”
But he remained unconscious.
She struggled to get to his side, but her violent movements caused her to fall over with the chair.
“Wen Zhao! Wen Zhao, come out! I told you everything, why are you still doing this to me?” She broke down. Why did it have to be this way?
Even if she was at fault, it didn’t warrant such treatment, did it?
“Do you remember what you did yourself?” Wen Zhao came down holding a tablet, walking up to her and looking down at her condescendingly. “Do you want me to help you remember?”
Su Mengyao looked at her blankly.
Wen Zhao turned the tablet around, showing a video playing on it.
In the video, she was towering over Gu Xianting, fiercely slapping him across the face. Not only that, she also made Su Mengyao kneel down before her.
The video was secretly recorded by Su Mengyao, so the perspective naturally followed hers. From this angle, Wen Zhao’s face appeared even more arrogant and domineering.
“You, clean up the porridge on the floor for me!” The voice of the woman in the video was sharp and malicious.
The screen was filled with a flood of comments, all cursing her as vicious and insane.
As the video ended, a commentator started explaining: “This video was leaked in secret. It shows Wen Zhao and Gu Xianting, the CEO couple! Both of you were deceived by Wen Zhao. She is clearly the third party. In the video, the one forced to kneel and lick porridge is Gu Xianting’s true love!”
Su Mengyao’s face turned pale, feeling like she was plunged into an icy abyss.
This wasn’t what they had agreed upon earlier. What exactly did Gu Ruoxian want to achieve? Why did she make such a video, and why did she explain it like this?