It Takes a Madwoman to Handle a Villain

Julian Hart had me move into his basement so he could trample on my dignity whenever he pleased. What he didn’t know was that I had transmigrated from the real world into the novel. When Julian insulted me, I endured it without talking back. When he slapped me, I licked his palm. When his first love stepped on me with her high heel to assert her dominance, I told her that the scent of her perfume reached me before the pain did. A year later, Julian was so disgusted by me that he almost knelt down and begged me to keep my distance from them. But there was no way I was leaving. I hadn’t come to tear them apart. I had come to join them. Chapter 1 “Get down on your knees.” Before I could react, a man in a suit and sunglasses twisted my arm behind my back and forced me to the ground. What was going on? Had I accidentally gotten involved with criminals? I couldn’t think of any reason the mob would come after me. I was just an ordinary office worker who had been unlucky enough to get hit while traveling for work. I was literally hit by a car. I thought I would be smashed into pieces, but when I opened my eyes, I found myself completely unharmed. Instead, I was surrounded by a group of men in black in a narrow alley, with no way to escape. Every worst-case scenario flashed through my mind. In the end, I begged them to leave my body intact. To my surprise, they only tied me up and drove me to this place. I narrowed my eyes and secretly studied the man before me. The moment our eyes met, a flood of memories that didn’t belong to me filled my mind. I gradually understood my situation. I had somehow entered a melodramatic angst novel. The man before me was Julian Hart, a famously distant man from one of the city’s most powerful families. He had withdrawn from society for over a decade, only coming back for the woman who held his heart. Their feelings were mutual, and they were only one step away from making their relationship official. But on the day he confessed, she received an offer from an overseas university and rejected him in front of all their relatives, friends, and business partners. His love turned to hatred. He wanted to imprison her, but he couldn’t bring himself to truly hurt her. While he had nowhere to vent his resentment, he discovered the female lead, who looked almost identical to his first love. Julian hid the female lead in the basement and cut her off from the outside world. He hurled cruel insults at her, yet his gaze softened whenever he looked at her. He treated her brutally, then secretly applied medicine to her wounds late at night. But the female lead knew nothing about his hidden acts of tenderness. Unable to endure Julian’s humiliation and abuse, she only wanted to escape the prison locked by his hatred. She kept trying to escape, but Julian always found her. After reviewing the plot, I summed it up in one sentence: the male lead completely unhinged, while the female lead was a master of escape. The story had reached the part where the female lead was captured yet again. Next, Julian would subject her to another round of cruel humiliation. Correction. This time, I was the one about to be humiliated. A polished shoe moved in front of me, its toe lifting my chin. “Do you know what you did wrong?” “No. I didn’t do anything wrong.” Perhaps I had only just entered this body, and the female lead’s stubborn, pure-hearted personality still lingered in my bones. The words slipped out before I could think, and I frantically slapped my own mouth. “Stupid mouth. Watch what you say.” Julian’s face darkened to an extreme degree. He grabbed me by the hair, making me grimace in pain. When he saw my expression, his mood grew even darker. “She would never make that face.” That was because no one had ever yanked her around by the hair like this! “My shoes got dirty while I was looking for you. Tell me, what are you going to do about it?” Though he seemed to be asking for my opinion, his shoe came straight toward my mouth. “Wait!” My voice was so loud that even the bodyguard pinning me down flinched. Chapter 2 “Did you shower?” I noticed earlier that Julian was wearing a bathrobe. He had even taken the trouble to put on a pair of dress shoes for me. “What’s going on here? You’re trying to humiliate me, right? Do feet that smell this nice after a shower count as humiliation? That’s clearly a reward! “You’re trying to humiliate me, yet I have to teach you how to do it. Julian, are you even capable of this?” Julian’s lips parted slightly. The eyes of that aloof man, who had always seemed above the world’s petty concerns, were now filled with shock. It wasn’t that I wanted to run my mouth. I just had to resist the female lead’s inevitable tendency to submit to the male lead while being humiliated. I was afraid that if I didn’t act crazy soon, I would end up licking his shoe. Ten minutes later, Julian was fully dressed and appeared with me in the garden of the villa. “Who runs in dress shoes and a suit?” “You don’t understand. A pure cotton T-shirt absorbs sweat, and sneakers let your feet breathe. If you want to humiliate someone, you have to make it as unpleasant as possible. “A dress shirt doesn’t breathe, and dress shoes trap sweat. Run a few laps in those, and you’ll stink. That’s the only way to make the humiliation barely passable.” At the end, I added, “You won’t be able to run dressed like that. Julian, are you perhaps not man enough?” My words worked on Julian like the command “Ready, set, go!” The moment I finished speaking, he charged off in his dress shoes. Unfortunately, the full-scale obedience test never reached its conclusion. Julian twisted his ankle after running only one lap. He sat on the ground with a livid expression, waiting for me to help him up. I reached out my hand, but he shot me a glance and pushed himself up with one hand. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Everyone saw it, but you’re the boss. Your employees won’t make fun of you.” I comforted Julian, then leaned over and sniffed beside him. “You smell nice and ripe now.” Julian’s expression turned even colder. He was a neat freak to begin with, and my words dealt him another devastating blow. He no longer cared about making me lick his shoes. All he wanted was to get back to his room. He pressed one hand firmly on top of my head and rested his entire weight on me. “Help me back. I need a shower.” The female lead of these angsty romance novels really had it rough. She not only had to be a billionaire’s kept woman but also serve as his human crutch. … After I helped Julian back to his room, I was only allowed to leave once the sound of rushing water came from the bathroom. I followed the female lead’s memories and found the basement entrance. Was this really a basement? It was practically an entire villa built beneath another villa! The bed was softer than my stomach. The crystal chandelier sparkled brighter than my life. The jewelry box alone was worth more than everything I owned combined. I already resigned myself to being locked up by Julian for the rest of my life. When Julian finished showering, he found me waiting outside his bathroom. My gaze traveled up and down his body before finally stopping at his abdomen. He wore nothing but a towel around his waist, and my unabashed female gaze made him visibly uncomfortable. I unconsciously let out a wolf whistle. He cleared his throat, trying to hide that brief moment of awkwardness behind a look of disdain. “You’re nothing more than a pet I keep. How dare you think you can seduce your owner?” I ignored Julian’s mocking sarcasm. There was something more important to discuss. “Do you have an iron chain?” Julian froze again. I thought he hadn’t heard me, so I explained with hand gestures. “An iron chain—the thick, sturdy kind with a padlock. You fasten it around my ankle, and it limits how far I can move.” Julian’s expression grew complicated. He clearly misunderstood me. He opened his mouth several times before finally saying, “Don’t waste your time thinking about that. I have no interest in that sort of thing.” As he spoke, he hurriedly crossed himself and muttered, “Dear God.” Chapter 3 “But I do!” Apparently, staying in the basement for over a minute was enough to awaken the female lead’s irrepressible urge to escape. The moment I saw a window, I wanted to jump through it. The moment I saw a locked door, I wanted to pick it. When I passed through the main entrance earlier, it took every ounce of self-control I had not to walk straight out. I genuinely needed an iron chain to keep myself trapped in the basement. I hadn’t even slept on that huge bed yet. The cosmetics on the vanity were all brand-new and unopened. The red-wine-braised foie gras the butler had just delivered was delicious! I hadn’t even finished eating it! Since I would only get caught and dragged back if I escaped, why not lie back and enjoy all of this? “Do you even know how to keep someone imprisoned? I manage to escape every time. Have you ever considered looking for the problem in yourself? “You love searching everywhere for me. What if you find another girl who looks like your first love? How am I supposed to come back and enjoy this place then…? “No, that’s not what I mean. I simply can’t bear to see another young woman suffer the same fate. One person should bear this pain, and that person can be me!” I fired off one sentence after another at Julian like a machine gun. That was close. I almost revealed what I really thought. Half an hour later, I got my iron chain as I wished. The only downside was that Julian also gave me the key. I hurried back to Julian’s room and, under his astonished gaze, tossed the key onto his bed. Now there really was no way for me to escape. Soft, comfortable bed, here I came! … I woke up naturally to a sumptuous breakfast. After eating my fill, I went back to sleep and waited for the butler, Arnold, to bring me lunch. This wasn’t a prison. It was heaven! But when I opened my eyes again, dinner still hadn’t arrived. I checked the time and realized that only half an hour had passed since I started my nap. At that moment, I seemed to understand the female lead on a much deeper level. The basement had everything I could want, except something to do. There were plenty of books, but most of them were foreign classics. I couldn’t focus on a single word. No wonder the female lead wanted to escape. But I wasn’t going to run. I was going to live here. Problems had to be solved at the source. Thanks to the female lead’s extensive escape experience, I could pick the lock myself even with the key in Julian’s possession. I sat on Julian’s bed and waited for him. The moment he switched on the light, the usually deep-voiced, aloof man let out a shrill scream. I glanced at the mirror and immediately understood why I had frightened him. I had slept all day, so my hair was a tangled mess, and I was wearing a white nightgown. Seeing someone who was supposed to be locked up suddenly appear in his room was admittedly a little terrifying. Once Julian recovered, he frowned at me as if I were some kind of bad omen. “Who allowed you to sit on my bed? You’re filthy. Arnold, throw out these sheets.” Everything was going according to plan. Julian had severe germophobia and never used anything again once someone else had touched it. I quietly pulled Arnold aside. “What a waste. They’re still perfectly usable. Arnold, send these sheets to my room.” I touched his silk pillow, and just like that, it became mine. After I had touched almost everything in his room, I finally went after my real target. Hide a person in a crowd and a tree in a forest. That was my strategy. I quickly touched the monitor, computer tower, mouse, and keyboard. To my surprise, Julian didn’t threaten to throw those things away. “Shuri Shaw, so that was your little scheme. How come you’re not lecturing me about how to imprison someone now? If I let you have communication devices, this hardly qualifies as imprisonment.” Julian’s voice rose, and he seemed to relish finally winning a round. I hugged the computer tightly and refused to let go. “That only shows how limited your imagination is. You dragged me here to humiliate me, didn’t you? Seeing me reduced to nothing must give you a satisfying sense of revenge, right?” Chapter 4 Julian remained noncommittal. “So give me the computer, and I’ll play esports. I’m terrible at the game, so my teammates will tear me apart. Watching me get ridiculed counts as humiliation too, right? “From now on, you won’t be the only one humiliating me. Thousands of people will be on your side!” I delivered my speech with great passion. One look at Julian’s expression told me that he had fallen for it. I got the computer I had been dreaming of. In exchange, I had to send Julian screenshots of my teammates insulting me every day. Perfect. This was the best life imaginable. What bliss! … Perhaps I had completely merged with this body, because I no longer felt any of the female lead’s resistance toward this place. That was because this place was basically heaven! Who wouldn’t want to live here? I was even afraid Julian’s first love would come back and try to take the place from me. Life in the basement was wonderfully comfortable. There was only one thing I regretted. I should never have chosen such a notoriously toxic server. My teammates cursed so viciously that I had to censor their messages before sending the screenshots to Julian. Otherwise, the screenshots would get flagged. Just as I logged into the game again and prepared to start a match when the basement door suddenly swung open. I had always been the one to seek Julian out. This was the first time he had come to the basement since I transmigrated into this world. He reeked of alcohol. His eyes were bloodshot, and after staring at me for a long moment, he said only one word. “Whitney.” I understood immediately. He was drunk and mistaking me for his first love. “You’ve got the wrong person.” “How could I mistake you for someone else? You lied to me! You’re Whitney Hart! Why? We clearly loved each other, so why did you walk away when I proposed to you?” Before I could respond, the look in Julian’s eyes shifted again. “No… You’re not her. Whitney Hart is gone. She isn’t coming back.” I understood. My wealthy captor was having another episode. “I told you, you’ve mistaken me for someone else. What good are those ears if they refuse to listen? You might as well donate them. “And she only went abroad for school. She isn’t dead. Naturally, she’ll come back when her studies are over…” My voice cut off abruptly. I was doomed. Before, I had been fighting the female lead’s instincts. Now, my toxic-gamer habit of talking back had taken over. “What do you know? I love her so much!” Luckily, Julian was drunk too. He could do nothing but keep insisting that she loved him. “I know you love her. But is imprisoning me here really an expression of that love? Do you want to keep her captive because you can’t have her, or because she rejected your confession in front of your friends and wounded your pride? “Refusing to hurt her and choosing to imprison me instead doesn’t prove your devotion to her. It only shows that you have no respect for either of us!” “That’s not true! You’re talking nonsense!” Perhaps I had struck a nerve, because Julian grew agitated. He hadn’t tormented me lately, probably because he was afraid of being humiliated by me again. But today, he was drunk, and he seemed eager to try again. To intimidate me into shutting up, he raised his arm and swung at me. Just before it struck me, however, he eased the force behind the blow. He didn’t seem to truly want to hit me, but it was too late for me to pull my tongue back. Julian clutched his wrist, his expression troubled. When he had tried to slap me just now, I licked his palm.