The Villainess's RedemptionChapter 1

After the Male Lead went bankrupt, I followed him into a damp basement.

Money was tight, and life was hard.

Yet, he still tried to provide for me, his "spoiled and vicious" wife.

The System ordered me to maintain my character persona.

But my conscience was too heavy. Every time I did something "bad," I was consumed by guilt.

So, after bullying him, I would secretly cry.

Late at night, I snuck into his makeshift room and lifted his sleeve.

A four-inch gash, angry and terrifying.

That was the price of the winter coat I had forced him to buy. He had worked himself to the bone for it.

Applying ointment to the wound, I wept silently.

"System, when will he finally ask for a divorce?"

I didn't want to be the villain anymore. I didn't want him to get hurt because of me.

The System looked at his arm, wet with my tears.

Then it looked at his eyelashes, which were trembling slightly. It sighed.

[Divorce?]

[He's going to love you for the rest of his life.]

* * *

"Thank goodness no one picked it up. See? I told you it was pretty. Even the ribbon is tied perfectly."

It was 10 PM.

I stood under a streetlamp, holding the bouquet I had just retrieved from the trash, my voice full of delight.

The System responded with a cold sneer.

[Five-dollar roses, eight-dollar jasmine, and ten dollars for the wrapping.]

[A cheap gift worth less than twenty-five bucks, and you sneak out in the middle of the night to dig through garbage for it? You might as well just live in the dumpster.]

I fell silent for a moment before whispering, "System, you're mean."

The System scoffed again.

But honestly, I didn't have much ground to stand on.

After all, not long ago, I had said equally terrible things to Ethan.

I had smashed the flowers onto the floor right in front of him.

When he bent down to pick them up, I screamed at him:

"Other women get 999 roses! And you? If you're broke, don't embarrass yourself by giving gifts. It's ugly and takes up space. It's humiliating!"

"Can't you make more money? Being married to a pauper like you is the worst luck of my life."

It wasn't just flowers. There was also a box of fresh strawberries.

His boss had given them to him after a site visit.

Ethan didn't eat a single one. He brought them all home for me.

The System rolled its eyes, clearly disdainful of my attachment to the trash-picked flowers.

[Can you stop caring about meaningless things? Stick to the script! You are a vicious, unreasonable supporting character. Your only purpose is to humiliate the Male Lead. I've had enough of your stupidity!]

Its tone was irritable, urging me to go back.

I pretended not to hear. I squatted down, carefully pressing the jasmine flowers into a bookmark before slowly walking back.

The strawberries he saved for me. The flowers he went out of his way to buy.

If these things, despised by the System, were meaningless...

Then what in this world had meaning?