I Redeemed Him, But Who Will Redeem Me? - Chapter 3

Her mind froze for a moment—buzzing, trembling.

Lin Xicai stared blankly as a light-blue, semi-transparent little system, looking like a fairy with wings, fluttered in front of her. “Hello, Host.”

That thing spoke, yet nobody around seemed to notice anything unusual.

Her heart pounded violently, breath quickening. In that instant, it was like she had grabbed onto a life-saving straw. Without being taught, she instinctively spoke to it in her heart:
“You finally showed up! Quickly tell me—why am I here? What do I have to do to return?”

“You’ve already gotten a rough grasp of this world, and you should have adapted to your new identity by now. Next, you can begin your strategy mission!”

Lin Xicai’s heart gave a jolt—surprised, yet not that surprised.

The childish voice continued cheerfully:
“The male lead of this world is called Xie Shi. He grew up in poverty, endured constant misfortune, and already shows clear signs of antisocial tendencies. At this rate, he’ll become very dangerous in the future. Your mission is to conquer him with your current identity—redeem him with love, heal him with sincerity. A successful capture will extend your lifespan by fifty years.”

“Wait,” Lin Xicai frowned. “Extend my life?”

“Host, surely you haven’t forgotten how you ended up here?”

“I was undergoing heart surgery… are you saying my operation failed?”

The system shook its head, correcting her:
“It’s too early to say. What happens here determines the outcome of your surgery.”

Her chest thumped twice. “What do you mean? If I succeed here, then in reality the surgery succeeds, and I live fifty more years. But if I fail here, then my surgery fails in reality, and I die instantly. Is that it?”

“You can understand it that way.”

Lin Xicai fell silent, suddenly speechless.

Too much had happened in the past two days. She’d been randomly thrown into this place, forced to face this trash plot with no explanation.

Now, the system finally showed up—only to order her to redeem a future convict with antisocial personality disorder.

Lin Xicai sneered, bitter, then laughed outright. “Why not just let me die on the operating table?”

“Uh…” sensing her emotions, the system weakly added, “Please mind your expression. I can see it, you know.”

“Why is it about conquering a man?” Lin Xicai asked the soul-deep question.

She’d read too many novels like this.

One word—vulgar.
Two words—downright vulgar.

What low-brow trash. Who came up with this garbage task?

“Forcing random men and women from different worlds together, coercing an innocent girl to revolve around some guy—what kind of perversion is that?!”

“Redeem him? I redeem him, but who redeems me? If he’s a criminal, throw him in jail—what are the police for? If he needs education, let teachers handle it. You think me coaxing him into a romance will fix him? Who is it that’s so obsessed with watching girls slap a warm face against some stinky man’s cold butt?”

“I’m only eighteen! I could be doing literally anything else at this age, but no—you want me to conquer some man?”

She was on the verge of a breakdown. The more she ranted, the angrier she became.
“The person who set this up must have a chronic romance-brain fetish! Such a narrow, monotonous task. If you changed it into studying hard—even told me to get first place in the grade—I wouldn’t feel this speechless. This is just…”

Ding Dong—

“Your strategy task has successfully been changed to: Get first place in the grade. The number of changes has been used up. Please work hard on your new mission. Wishing you success.”

A metallic, cold, hard voice rang crisply in her ears.

Lin Xicai’s tirade cut off instantly.

Her almond eyes widened, dazed—“?”

In the hallway, a tall figure suddenly froze.
The red bouncy ball slipped from his long, jointed fingers, bouncing farther and farther away as he forgot to catch it.

He stood there watching it roll, briefly lost in thought.

The long-standing gloom in his deep, narrow eyes, usually stagnant like dead water, wavered for a split second—showing a rare trace of confusion.

The noise in her head went quiet for a moment. Then, timid and cautious, her voice sounded again:
“…Actually, I was just being arrogant. Can it be changed back?”

He bent down, picked up the ball, face calm again—yet somehow, he too seemed to be waiting for an answer.

The childish voice replied:
“Sorry, Host, it can’t. As you wished, you no longer need to conquer a man. Now, go conquer first place in the grade. Achieving first place in the college entrance exam will be considered a successful mission.”

The words had barely fallen when an angry shriek blasted in her mind:
“How can you arbitrarily change my mission! Who gave you the authority?!”

“Well, Host,” the system said in a refined tone, “the problem you raised earlier… we’ve actually been upgrading and optimizing internally. Recently, we added some new mission types. This one is new, still being tested. Congratulations—you’re our first challenger.”

“You’re using me as a guinea pig?”

“You agreed yourself. The contract is sealed, irreversible.”

“Giving the last-place student such a task—doesn’t that feel like murder to you?! This is basically sentencing me to death!”

Her noisy complaints came one after another, each vibration tugging at sensitive nerves. A familiar headache returned. The red ball was clenched so tightly in his hand that his knuckles turned white.

Xie Shi pushed the door open. His gaze followed the voice straight toward its source—cold, detached, with only the faintest flicker of irritation.

At that moment, Lin Xicai sat slumped at her desk, crumbling in despair.

The noisy classroom abruptly went silent—no warning, no transition, just a cliff-drop hush, as though someone had pressed a pause button.

She lifted her head dazedly—and locked eyes with a tall figure at the doorway.

Outside, the wind rustled the leaves. He simply stared at her, gaze unbroken, for who knew how long.

She stared back. She disliked his look, yet was struck by the depth of his dark, heavy eyes.

He wore the same school uniform as everyone else, but it sat wrong on him—his aura completely at odds with the outfit.

Those eyes, steeped in gloom and pity like stagnant water, rippled dangerously the moment their gazes collided.

His hair was long and messy, unkempt, his bangs uneven, almost covering his eyes. Shorter near the ears, longer at the nape like a wolf’s tail, paired with sharp, cold features. He looked like—
a wild beast walking among humans.

Lin Xicai met the beast’s gaze. His eyes were faint, yet his presence overwhelming. Instantly, the suffocating sensation she’d felt from day one—the sense of constantly being watched—came crashing back.

The system’s cold voice cut in: “Stop looking. He’s no longer relevant to you.”

Her heart thudded—she had a guess, but still asked: “He is…?”

“Your former strategy target,” the system paused, “and your current deskmate.”

She glanced at the name “Xie Shi” on the textbook’s front page. Her breath caught.

That tall, cold figure walked straight toward her. The homeroom teacher said mildly:
“There’s no other seat in our class right now. Zhong Fei, sit here.”

Their desks were by the window, second from the back. His seat was inside.

Snapping out of it, Lin Xicai stood stiffly to let him through. She even managed polite formality:
“Hello, please take care of me.”

He seemed to glance at her again, but said nothing.

Once he sat down, Lin Xicai quietly resumed her seat. Her face looked calm, but inside she was crumbling—

I’m not even supposed to be conquering him anymore, so why stick him next to me? Wasn’t he supposed to have antisocial personality disorder? Sitting this close to a pure prison-type delinquent—am I really going to be safe?

Why treat me like this? I’m just an eighteen-year-old girl. I can be scared too, okay?!

She bowed her head over her textbook. Compared to the calamity at her side, even math problems suddenly looked pleasingly elegant.

The classroom was unusually quiet—eerily so.

It wasn’t like when she first came in.

She knew perfectly well: they hadn’t turned into angels. They were simply avoiding making noise.
Chatters had turned into passing notes. Video-watchers wore earphones. Even the boys eating instant noodles behind her chewed with suspicious grace, stifling their slurps.

All this strangeness began the moment her crazy new deskmate entered the room.

The homeroom teacher couldn’t control the chaos, but this person didn’t need to speak a word—his presence alone suppressed them.

He really was dangerous. What had he done before to make them fear him like this?

To her, he felt like a ticking time bomb. To avoid accidentally stepping on a mine later, she needed intel.

Lin Xicai blinked and summoned the system in her mind:
“I’m the strategy player. I should have this world’s script, right?”

The system fluttered back with blue wings.
“There should’ve been one. It records the target’s preferences and history.”

Her eyes lit up. “Great, I—”

“But,” the system cut her off, “your mission is now to get first place in the grade. That perk doesn’t apply anymore, so it’s been cancelled.”

“Cancelled? Fine,” she cleared her throat. “If that perk doesn’t suit me, then compensate me with another that fits my mission.”

“…Such as?” the system asked warily.

“Such as intelligence. Studying doesn’t need a script—but it needs IQ. You provide scripts for conquering men. Why not boost my brainpower for conquering academics? What, is conquering academics somehow less noble than conquering men?”

The system: “……”

Quick-witted, aren’t you.

It tried to play dead, but sensing her slight dip in mood, it finally muttered:
“…Fine. Here, have a space to play with.”

The next second, her fingertip grew warm. A metallic ring appeared on her pinky.

With it came a mysterious inner world—a vast, boundless space.

Lin Xicai marveled at it. “What can I do with this?”

“Storage,” the system replied. “When no one’s around, you can rest inside. You can also—”

“Ah, I get it,” she nodded knowingly. “You mean I can stash textbooks and review guides in there, sneak peeks during exams, and then—”

“I never said that!” the system exploded. “That’s cheating! If you do that, you’ll immediately fail the mission!”

Spooked by her train of thought, it suddenly panicked. “You’re too dangerous. Forget it, I’m taking it back.”

But the moment it tried to retract the ring, a sharp alert sounded:

“Permissions have been changed. Without the owner’s consent, you no longer have access.”

The system froze. “This is…”

Lin Xicai smiled sweetly. “Oops, I was a little fast.”

The system stared at her innocent-looking face, a strange unease creeping up.

She had obtained the space just seconds ago, yet already reconfigured its permissions instinctively. Was it sheer luck—or was she too clever for comfort?

Nothing had happened yet, but it felt as though it had personally planted a landmine.

Lin Xicai rested her head on her desk, eyes closed, playing with the new space in her mind like a toy.

It wasn’t simple. If not for being in class, she would’ve jumped in immediately to explore. She could feel its surging energy, enough to make her shiver.

At least she had one cheat on her side now. Worst case scenario, if the “pure prison type” next to her went berserk, she could hide inside…

…

Xie Shi sat with eyes closed, silent.

The two-faced whispers around him crawled into his ears like maggots, disgusting yet inescapable.

Just like every other “strategy player” who had appeared and disappeared in his life.

This time was different—her mission wasn’t him. Yet nothing had changed: he could still hear those voices.

And just like the others, she seemed fake, pretentious, smug.

He didn’t care if she lived or died.
But he was curious—how would she play out this act?