I Redeemed Him, But Who Will Redeem Me? - Chapter 10

Lin Xicai had no experience tailing people. Her guilty conscience was so strong that even she felt she was bound to get caught sooner or later.

Xie Shi, however, never once glanced back. Out of nowhere, he rolled out a mountain bike from some corner, and before she realized, he was already pedaling lazily down the street.

Lin Xicai hesitated a moment, then flagged down a taxi.

She climbed in, eyes glued to the window, staring intently at the distant, solitary figure.
“Please, follow that person, driver.”

“Sure,” the driver agreed readily. “Which car is it?”

Outside the window, the gray school uniform clashed with the red of the mountain bike, a strange mixture of coldness and fiery brightness. Lin Xicai tipped her chin toward Xie Shi.
“That one. The red one.”

“The red one?” The driver squinted, confused. “Miss, you wearing glasses? I don’t see any red car ahead.”

“The one by the roadside, with the student in uniform riding it.”

“A bicycle?” The driver’s face darkened. “So you want me to follow a bicycle? You think I can make a living like this? Waste gas crawling behind some bike for two kilometers—”

Before he could finish, a crisp bill of 100 yuan slid into view. Her voice was casual, almost arrogant:
“One hundred, half an hour.”

The driver pursed his lips, but his attitude softened immediately. He slowed the car and fell into the rhythm of a tail.

Casting her a sidelong glance, then peering through the window at the boy ahead, he saw they were of similar age, in the same uniform. Naturally, curiosity sparked.
“That’s your classmate, huh?”

Lin Xicai gave a perfunctory nod. “Mm, classmate.”

“So why follow him? He owe you money?”

“No,” she replied. “I’ve got a crush on him.”

The driver nodded knowingly, satisfied with this “answer,” and asked no more.

Just then, Xie Shi turned his head toward them. Lin Xicai’s reflexes were quick—she ducked instantly. She couldn’t be sure if he’d spotted her, but that fleeting glance was unreadable, sending a shiver prickling over her scalp.

The car continued to trail him, but Xie Shi’s pace slowed more and more—until finally, his bike moved no faster than a pedestrian strolling by.

The taxi had no choice but to crawl along. The driver glanced at the speedometer, grimacing.
“What’s with this guy you like? Crawling down the street like a snail? Look at the meter—it’s a joke. Feels like he’s messing with us on purpose…”

Mid-complaint, Xie Shi suddenly veered into a narrow alley.

The alley was old, the entrance so tight a car couldn’t possibly fit. Lin Xicai and the driver exchanged baffled looks.

“Miss, you’ve still got 21 minutes. Want me to drive you somewhere else for a stroll?”

“Can I cash in the remaining time for a refund?”

“…”

…

Lin Xicai got out, slinging her backpack, and headed into the alley on foot.

At first she was anxious to catch up, but within a few steps she regretted it. This neighborhood was an old residential maze of crisscrossing alleys. For someone without a strong sense of direction, trying to track one person here was like finding a needle in the ocean.

By the time she emerged, the sky was already darkening. Just like the last two times, rain soon began to fall.

She pulled a folding umbrella from her bag and trudged through the maze, wandering until she was nearly lost herself. Her shoes and calves were splattered with mud from puddles in the uneven alleys, and her expression turned sour with disgust.

At that point, all she wanted was to go home, take a shower, and sleep.

What was Xie Shi even doing here? Surely he doesn’t live in a place like this? He’s supposed to be the male lead—how could his treatment be this bad?

The sky darkened unnaturally fast. In the blink of an eye, the world was pitch black.

The alleys were damp and suffocating, wind whistling through. From far off came the occasional barking of dogs. A chill ran down Lin Xicai’s back, fear creeping in belatedly.

Holding her umbrella in one hand, she fished her phone out with the other to try and use GPS. But the screen was black—dead battery.

Frustration surged. Then, through the patter of rain, came the muffled sound of voices.

“…Still putting up a fight, huh?”
“Quit the crap, just hit him—”

The voices were low but carried clearly. Not far at all.

Lin Xicai hesitated, then crept closer, pressing herself to a corner wall. Peeking around, she saw several figures in school uniforms huddled in a knot. The scene spoke for itself.

Fights among high schoolers weren’t unusual. Lin Xicai had no interest in getting dragged in. She was about to leave when a familiar face flashed into her view.

That boy, in the same uniform as the others, stood half a meter away. His refined features were framed with a faint smile—gentle on the surface, but here, amid rain and shadows, warped into something disturbingly out of place.

Why is he here?

By instinct, Lin Xicai pegged him as the victim. But the next instant, she watched that smiling face shove through the circle with brutal force and slam his fist into the one being surrounded.

The others, shoved aside, didn’t bristle or resist. Instead, when they looked at him, their eyes showed only deference, submission, even reverence.

Lin Xicai went cold to the bone. In that instant, she understood—he was the one pulling the strings.

And the boy they had cornered, the one who had just taken that punch—

Was Xie Shi.

His back was to her. His aura was tightly reined in, simmering with barely contained violence. Numb. Detached. Indifferent. As if this whole fight was nothing more than a performance he had no choice but to act in.

Every detail was strange, wrong, twisted.

Shock piled upon shock. Lin Xicai’s perception of reality wavered.

She had been told Xie Shi was the one destined to embody “evil.” Yet here he was, the one being cornered.

And the boy she’d admired earlier for his polished demeanor—here he was, revealing a face just as vicious as anyone.

Stunned, she froze. That refined boy seemed to sense her gaze. His eyes lifted, finding hers with unsettling ease.

And just like the moment they first met, his lips curved. He tilted his head slightly, smiling at her—friendly, almost playful.

Rain splashed up from the ground, soaking her ankles, seeping cold into her bones. The fear that gripped her then was sharper than anything she’d felt even when facing Xie Shi.

…

She was right behind him.

Xie Shi didn’t turn, but he could feel her there. He could feel her eyes, and all the tangled emotions behind them.

Just like before—every ordeal, every humiliation that should befall him, he couldn’t escape.

If he refused to accept the suffering laid out for him, time itself would never move forward. The day would repeat endlessly.

She wanted to know the answer? This was the answer.

The previous loops existed only because he had dodged the punch he was “supposed” to take.

If he wanted time to move on, he had to be here, in this alley, at this exact moment, enduring the pain the world had scripted for him in advance.

And all that torment, all that isolation, existed solely to hand the “heroines” a chance to win his favor.

He was meant to suffer. To be abandoned. To be broken—driven to the edge of madness—so he could serve as a prize worth conquering. And they had succeeded. He had become exactly what they wanted: a lunatic.

His memories of being normal had grown faint, like remnants of a past life.

He vaguely recalled living an ordinary life until halfway through sophomore year. Then, upon transferring for junior year, everything fell apart. Some unseen force seized control of his life, twisting it into ruin.

From then on, “strategists” appeared. His world became their game.

They approached him with hidden agendas, wearing masks of kindness. Even when they feared or despised him, their mouths spun sugar-coated lies to reel him in.

Their affections were counterfeit. Their manipulations endless. They performed, schemed, all to steal something genuine from him.

He loathed them. He loathed the never-ending game.

The cycle began with junior year. It ended with junior year. At the end of each round, he was cast back to the beginning, reliving it again and again.

One endless loop of high school.

And through it all, Li Ci was there.

He was the executioner in every world.

They fought, over and over, world after world. Neither could die. Their war was eternal.

Even when Xie Shi killed him in one loop, he’d always return in the next. Relentless.

From rage, to revulsion, to weary disgust—eventually, Xie Shi lost even the desire to fight him. The outcome never changed.

In this world, no one was ever truly sincere with him.

The so-called “heroines” only ever appeared at his lowest points. They chose his suffering as the stage on which to perform their loyalty, racking up his favor like points in a game.

…

Xie Shi felt her eyes on him.

This girl had no feelings for him. Indifferent. Maybe even afraid.

He wasn’t her mission. He wasn’t worth anything to her.

Standing there in the rain, his back to her, he suddenly wondered—

Without any outside force compelling her, what choice would she make when faced with him, filthy and cornered like this?

Would she turn and walk away?

Or—

A strange, secretive emotion unfurled in the rain, known only to him.