Playing the Villainess, He Fell for Me

Just then, Charles Jennings suddenly offered to help it.

Since protagonist energy could be extracted once, it could be extracted a second time. A little bit of protagonist energy could help it return to its peak, and even allow it to upgrade into a Level 1 System.

The rules were already in chaos, anyway. No one would care about the protagonist anymore.

was tempted. For this, it violated the system’s fundamental principle—to steal protagonist energy for its own use.

It told Charles Jennings the method for extracting protagonist energy, and Charles Jennings helped it, just as he’d first promised. He even gave it a physical form.

But only today did it discover that Charles Jennings had an even bigger conspiracy in mind.

”Are you, are you trying to...” 014 didn’t finish, its tone laced with panic.

Charles Jennings chuckled. ”Are you going to stop me?”

He didn’t seem to care about being found out. Unhurried, he said, ”014, don’t forget how you upgraded. Don’t you think it’s a little late to be talking about this now?”

”...”

was choked up, unable to say a word.

Charles Jennings was right. It was the one that told him how to extract protagonist energy. It had long since lost any chance of escape. It could only watch as Charles Jennings did as he pleased.

Two knocks sounded at the windowsill, then silence. A glint flashed in Joanna Kennedy’s eyes. She coughed twice to make a noise and, sure enough, heard the familiar light-then-heavy tapping sound again.

A moment later, the curtain was pulled open a crack from the outside, and a figure leaped nimbly inside.

It was Owen Jennings.

’I was right.’ Joanna Kennedy’s tense nerves eased slightly.

From the moment she heard that distinctive tapping on the window, she’d had a suspicion.

In the original novel *Falling Osmanthus*, the male lead had a little habit of tapping on things—tables, windows, blackboards, and so on. The rhythm was always the same: one light tap, one heavy tap.

Owen Jennings’s eyes immediately fell on the girl tied up in the center of the rug. Her clothes were intact, and she didn’t look injured. He let out a heavy sigh of relief, hurried over to untie the ropes, and whispered, ”Are you okay?”

Joanna Kennedy’s hands were free. She immediately started working on the ropes around her ankles and shook her head. ”I’m fine.”

The ropes were tied intricately. Owen Jennings said, ”I’ll help you.”

He was halfway through when a rhythmic set of footsteps approached from outside the door. Owen Jennings and Joanna Kennedy froze, their eyes meeting.

The locked door clicked open. Charles Jennings’s gaze first fell on the girl sitting obediently on the rug, then shifted to the empty table. The sandwich had been eaten, leaving only a few crumbs.

Charles Jennings crouched down and, as if giving a reward, tapped the bridge of the girl’s pert nose. ”Such a good girl.”

Though he tried his best to appear calm, Joanna Kennedy could sense his unusually agitated mood. ’He just went out for a bit, how did his ’condition’ get worse?’

Joanna Kennedy, not understanding the reason, coolly turned her head away, her disgust and revulsion obvious.

Charles Jennings’s hand froze mid-air. He slowly stood up, and his peripheral vision suddenly caught something. The girl’s wrists were supposed to be tied behind her back. He had tied the knot himself; it was a very specific kind of knot.

But now, although the knot was neat, its form was completely different.

’Joanna Kennedy couldn’t have done that alone.’

Charles Jennings’s gaze swept impassively around the room, finally settling on the space behind the curtains.

Joanna Kennedy had been watching him out of the corner of her eye. Seeing him stare at the curtains, her heart skipped a beat. She immediately spoke up, ”When are you going to let me out of here?”

The girl’s impatient voice pulled Charles Jennings back from his thoughts. An unreadable glint flashed in his eyes as he looked away from the curtains, acting as if he hadn’t seen a thing. His tone softened. ”What’s the hurry? I have another wonderful gift for you.”

”Once I’ve given you this gift, I’ll let you go back.” As he spoke, Charles Jennings suddenly swept her up into his arms.

Caught completely off guard, Joanna Kennedy let out a cry of alarm. This cry was the last straw for the person behind the curtains.

The curtains were yanked open, letting sunlight stream in. Owen Jennings’s face was devoid of its usual sunny cheer, replaced by a dark and severe glower. ”Let her go.”

Seeing the man who had suddenly appeared before him, Charles Jennings showed no surprise. With a calmness that suggested he’d expected this, he said, ”Heh, so it really is you.”

”My dear cousin, why didn’t you use the front door when coming to visit? I was just thinking about how to thank you properly.” Charles Jennings’s words were designed to be devastating. ”After all, without you, I wouldn’t have been able to ’invite’ Joanna Kennedy over so easily...”

”...”

As his words fell, the air in the room froze. The only sound was the rustle of the curtains in the breeze.

Owen Jennings had frozen in his tracks the moment Charles called him ”cousin.” A strange panic he had never experienced before washed over him.

”No, Jojo, I didn’t...” He stammered, trying to explain, but couldn’t get the words out.

Didn’t what? Charles Jennings hadn’t said a single word that wasn’t true. He was the one who provided the time, who provided Joanna Kennedy’s address, all for the chance to be the male lead in director Conor Archer’s film.

Conor Archer was Charles Jennings’s maternal uncle.

But he never thought Charles Jennings would be audacious enough to actually kidnap Joanna Kennedy. He’d assumed Charles just had some perverted voyeuristic tendencies and wanted to pursue her.

It wasn’t until last night, when he saw that man appear at the hotel with a cold, grim, and malevolent expression, that he learned the truth—Joanna Kennedy was missing.

Almost immediately, he thought of Charles Jennings, his ”gentle and refined as jade” cousin.

”Cousin, let Joanna Kennedy go,” Owen Jennings said, as if deflated. ”Simon Lockwood is already in Marinus. I don’t need to tell you how powerful Southland is, and he has the Valentine Group helping him besides. It won’t be long before he finds this place.”

”When that happens, things won’t end well for you.”

Owen Jennings tried to appeal to reason and emotion, but Charles Jennings just looked at him as if he were an idiot. ”You think I’m afraid of Simon Lockwood?”

”Of course I’ll let Joanna Kennedy go. But not now.”

’Once the energy conversion experiment on Joanna Kennedy is a success, he would naturally let her go.’

With this thought, Charles Jennings’s mood improved greatly. He jostled the girl in his arms, deliberately teasing her.

With her hands and feet tied, Joanna Kennedy couldn’t balance herself. The jostle sent her falling against his chest by inertia. Her face flushed with anger. She had already been holding back until she felt her lungs would burst, and now she couldn’t take it anymore. ”Are you insane?!” she cursed.

”Yes, I am insane,” Charles Jennings replied with a smile.

Being cursed at only made him happier. The corners of his mouth curved up even more.

’This spoiled, bratty young lady who only knows how to make people angry... when she curses, it’s always the same line over and over. No creativity at all. It just makes you feel like she’s easy to bully.’

Joanna Kennedy: ”...”

Joanna Kennedy was completely speechless.

Owen Jennings, however, was so enraged by this scene that his eyes turned red. His attempts at persuasion instantly shifted to pure rage. ”Charles Jennings, let her go!”

”Can you just freaking punch him already?!” Joanna Kennedy couldn’t stand it any longer.

’What’s the use of just talking? Can’t you just use your fists? Stop dilly-dallying!’

Joanna Kennedy wasn’t worried about Owen Jennings getting hurt. As far as she was concerned, neither of them was a good person. If they fought, it would just be a case of dog-eat-dog!