After Backstabbing The Villain, The System Allowed Me To Enter The Book Again - Chapter 39

Su Zihan looked at the visitor’s badge—it read Lin Muxiu. Taking a closer look, she saw a man who appeared to be under 30, dressed in a white coat, casually leaning against the wall in a lazy posture. His hair was thick and soft, with fine strands nearly brushing his eyelashes—not exactly the look of a serious doctor.

“Hello, you two little ones,” Lin Muxiu greeted them warmly. “May I know your names?”

After they introduced themselves, Lin Muxiu’s gaze turned to Shen Chumo, his smile fading slightly. “Shen, do you know about supernatural abilities?”

Shen Chumo nodded, thinking he would ask about her powers or how he knew about Su Zihan’s abilities. Instead, he said,

“If what you say is true, that Su Zihan’s ability is ‘saving people,’ then… she’s really extraordinary.”

Shen Chumo hadn’t expected him to grasp the essence immediately, looking at him without further comment. Su Zihan’s ability was indeed special—capable of saving people from corruption—it could even determine the fate of humanity.

Seeing Su Zihan instinctively tense up, Lin Muxiu smiled: “Don’t be nervous. As long as you have potential, I can help you activate your abilities. News of supernatural powers is still classified; ordinary people wouldn’t understand.”

Su Zihan exhaled, “Thank you both in advance.”

Two days later.

Shen Huaixin watched as Shen Chumo entered, followed by Qi Yi, Su Zihan, and a young man in a white coat. She quickly recognized him as one of the male leads from the book—Lin Muxiu.

He was portrayed as a genius doctor, extremely precise with surgical tools. Midway through the story, he lost his ring and little fingers on his left hand, replaced with titanium prosthetics. He appeared polite and refined, but was used to life and death, more cold and ruthless than the other male leads, initially even considering dissecting the female lead to study the secrets of her purifying ability.

Lin Muxiu appeared much earlier than expected. Weren’t they supposed to meet him in the capital?

Su Zihan stepped back uncertainly. “This… corruption source… is Shen Huaixin?”

The Shen residence had already become a black-and-white world, occasionally flickering like a broken old TV with static and crackling noises. Shen Chumo’s gaze was gentle as he touched the intersection of the corrupted world and reality.

“Yeah, this is her world.”

Qi Yi was silent. After two days of direct exposure to the corrupted site, he had gone from disbelief to quiet acceptance, his heart growing cold and empty.

Su Zihan pursed her lips. “She might have already—”

She stopped mid-sentence as Shen Chumo’s gaze met hers, swallowing the words “beyond saving.” Lin Muxiu, however, didn’t hold back:

“Unfortunately, Su Zihan’s ability only works on people who haven’t yet turned into corruption sources. You should know this; we’ve experimented many times in the hospital, never successfully.”

The atmosphere grew cold. Su Zihan quickly intervened: “Regardless, I’ll try. Maybe a miracle will happen.”

Shen Huaixin finally understood—Shen Chumo had waited three days to bring Su Zihan to purify her. But how did he know about Su Zihan’s ability? The corruption outbreak had only lasted three days, and according to the book, Su Zihan hadn’t even manifested her powers yet.

Still, since Lin Muxiu appeared early, slight deviations in the plot could be explained.

Yet… she would eventually have to leave. Why make all this effort?

Lin Muxiu disagreed: “The risk is too high. To purify a corruption source, you must first find its ‘nucleus.’ Once inside, you’ll be exposed to the corruption’s erosion, especially you—you can’t afford a mistake. This isn’t a harmless lab specimen; it’s an active, real corrupted entity.”

Shen Huaixin remembered that those with supernatural abilities could resist minor corruption. Her low-level corruption source posed little threat to them, though no one had noticed this during the early outbreak. She silently prayed that they wouldn’t come—otherwise, all that effort would reveal her as an empty shell, which would be awkward.

“I’ll go,” Shen Chumo said, his gaze sweeping over the three. “I’ll find the nucleus today. If you can’t wait for me, don’t wait.”

“You’re walking to your death,” Qi Yi frowned. “I know Shen Huaixin’s death pains you, but people must move forward.”

“Yeah, I agree. You’re taking too big a risk,” Su Zihan chimed in, trying to intervene.

Shen Chumo was determined, stepping into the corruption source. Qi Yi reached to stop him, but an invisible force pushed him back, trapping him. His heart skipped: “You awakened powers too?”

Shen Chumo paused, saying nothing.

[System: Host, you’ve reached Shen Chumo. Return now?]

[Shen Huaixin: Can he find the ‘nucleus’?]

[System: Of course not. Your soul is the ‘nucleus.’ No matter how hard he looks, he won’t find it.]

It was time to leave. Shen Huaixin knew that even if Shen Chumo didn’t realize it, she had kept her promise, waited three days, and remaining any longer would put her at risk.

Yet… she glanced at Shen Chumo inside the corrupted world, ashes drifting onto him as he wandered through the black-and-white realm, searching endlessly as if the nucleus would never be found, refusing to leave.

Shen Huaixin felt the corruption source’s growing pull, like a call from deep within her soul, telling her there was a place of eternal warmth.

[Shen Huaixin: …If the corruption source had its own nucleus, would it lure me so strongly?]

[System: Theoretically, no. Why?]

[Shen Huaixin: You said before you could use the original owner’s soul as the nucleus. Couldn’t you?]

[System: Possible, but meaningful?]

[Shen Huaixin: Maybe.]

She wanted to give the story a conclusion—letting Shen Chumo witness Su Zihan’s inability to purify her, severing his unrealistic hopes. This was the last thing Shen Huaixin could do for him.

Gentle, yet cruel.

Shen Chumo stopped, seeing floating before him the “nucleus.” True to its name, it was roughly spherical, jet black, and uneven with spiky protrusions.

He was momentarily stunned, forgetting to reach for it. It didn’t move, hovering silently before him.

His dreams often played ahead of reality, especially recently. Through deliberate meditation, he could see fragments of the future—including corruption sources, which often hid their nuclei in hard-to-find places, like the center of a magic array, requiring careful unraveling.

But Shen Huaixin’s was blatantly before him, as if afraid he wouldn’t see it, just within reach.

…A trap?

Yet he understood corruption—he had created it. Others struggled inside, but he sensed the varying strength of corruption easily. He concluded that this was indeed the nucleus.

“Xin… sister, you want to be saved too,” he murmured, his gaze full of attachment. “Don’t worry. I’ll save you, at any cost.”

Shen Huaixin remained silent, floating in front of him, patting his shoulder. He looked more haggard than before. Though he had a strong recovery ability, exhaustion and grief had carved deep lines into his young face, erasing the remnants of boyish innocence overnight.

Shen Chumo stepped out of the corruption source. Outside, the three were sitting, discussing next steps. Seeing him emerge so quickly, Su Zihan was incredulous—she expected it to take at least an hour. She blurted out:

“You gave up?”

Shen Chumo extended his hand, holding the nucleus, which radiated intense corruption. The three instinctively recoiled—it was like a hot potato, no one dared touch it.

Lin Muxiu eyed him suspiciously. “Holding it directly… aren’t you afraid?”

“Corruption level: F,” Shen Chumo said. “You can hold it too; short-term exposure won’t harm you.”

“Where did you get this information?”

Shen Chumo said nothing. In the past days, he had forced himself to search his subconscious for clues, but the more he saw, the more desperate he felt. He couldn’t find a way to purify Shen Huaixin. At the outbreak, she had…

Yet unlike in the visions—where she betrayed him and became a corruption source through his instinctive defense—in reality, she withstood the high-level corruption affecting him and his mother, whispering her heart to him, never stopping even while coughing bl00d.

They were entirely different people.

Su Zihan was about to reach out when Qi Yi stopped her: “Careful. Put something under it first.”

“It’s fine. My ability… requires contact to take effect.”

Su Zihan took a deep breath, held the nucleus to her chest, and activated her powers. A soft, holy white light emanated from her hands.

After a moment, she sighed, returning the nucleus to Shen Chumo. “Sorry… I can’t do it. Continuing would destroy its structure, completely ruining it.”

“That’s not destruction—it’s transcendence,” Lin Muxiu reflected. “You’re helping a friend pass on; that’s a good deed.”

“She’s still here. She’s conscious, inside,” Shen Chumo asserted.

Qi Yi couldn’t help but speak: “Shen Chumo, I know your grief over Shen Huaixin’s death is immense, but she wouldn’t want others to suffer for her.”

Shen Huaixin nodded silently at these words, but seeing Shen Chumo’s bloodshot eyes still made her heart ache.

“Chumo, let go,” she gently comforted him, though he couldn’t see her. “Like Qi Yi said, your world is vast. I’m just a passing part of your life.”

Hearing her words, Shen Chumo’s gaze grew even more desolate, a still pond with no ripples, utterly silent.