I Refuse To Be The Villain

Chapter:1.1

Chapter 1.1

In the alleys of Nancheng's shantytown, the biting winter wind whistled through the narrow walls.
(Shanty towns are slums on the outskirts of many cities)

Lu Yu'an moved his numb hand and added the final stroke to the painting.

This painting had been delayed for a long time. In the meticulous gongbi style, a woman in a white cheongsam embraced two children in her arms. With just a few strokes, the woman lowered her eyes, exuding a gentle warmth on the paper, while the children in her arms were innocent and adorable.

Since being diagnosed with terminal gastric cancer, he had apologized and withdrawn all his unfinished paintings.

The doctors had been clear with him: it had already metastasized, and there was no point in treatment.

Only this painting remained. He had started and stopped, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and repaired it.

This painting was different. It was the unfinished work of his mother.

It was also going to be the only and final piece they would create together.

To be honest, he didn't do a good job of completing it. He hadn't received proper training in painting. He had only learned sporadically from a peculiar neighbor during his childhood. Later, his right hand was injured, and even though he had struggled through rehabilitation with determination, its function never fully recovered. Painting was never an easy task for him, and especially now, after the diagnosis of gastric cancer, his condition was deteriorating.

And repairing a painting was far more difficult than starting a new one.

But he managed to do it.

The young man rarely showed a faint smile, his features naturally handsome with a touch of fierceness. There was a hideous scar about the width of a thumb between his eyebrows. He wasn't fond of smiling and always stood apart with an unruly disposition. His temperament exuded aggression, making people either find him difficult to approach and keep their distance or consider him wanton and violent, an irredeemable deviant.

However, with this smile, the hostility that clung to him seemed inexplicably diluted. Even on the excessively gaunt cheeks of the young man, there was a fragile hint of gentleness.

It was the coldest time of winter now.
The room was only slightly warmer than the outside.

The old wooden house didn't provide much insulation, and Lu Yu'an was wrapped in layers, making him look somewhat bulky. Yet, his fingertips still felt numb from the cold.

The outdated electrical wiring in the shantytown couldn't handle the power consumption of air conditioning or other heating devices. It was easy to trip the circuit and posed a safety hazard, so the landlord strictly prohibited their use.

The neighboring couple in the shared building often used high-power devices, almost causing a fire. The girl who lived with them got into an argument with the foul-mouthed couple, but she couldn't win against them. Instead, the man in the couple threatened her, leaving her sitting by the door, teary-eyed and aggrieved. At that time, Lu Yu'an's condition wasn't as severe as it is now. He found an opportunity to corner the man in the alley, and since then, that family treated the young girl with much more courtesy.

"Meow..." A tiny meow sounded from outside the weathered glass window, with its brown-red paint peeling off.

Through the glass, an orange cat was covered in a thin layer of snow, staring at the window with big almond-shaped eyes, foolishly rubbing against it.
"Click." Lu Yu'an had just opened a crack in the old wooden window when the orange cat couldn't wait and squeezed its way in. It shook off the snow from its body, crouched on the windowsill, and curled its front paws with its tail, affectionately rubbing against Lu Yu'an's palm.