“Is everything taken care of?”
“All dead, Chief.”
“Let’s go.”
A group of people dressed in dark night garments quickly slipped away, leaving behind only a pile of fresh corpses under the cover of night.
Pain… it hurts so much…
Not long after the black-clad figures left, a small, bloodstained hand tremblingly pushed aside the body pressing down on top of her.
But this single act drained every last bit of her strength.
In the moonlight, a little girl of only about four years old breathed weakly.
Little Spirit Mushroom felt as though a huge gash had been torn open across her body; warm liquid flowed steadily from the wound, leaving her feeling icy cold.
It felt as if… she was about to die.
But she did not want to die.
Driven by this fierce, unyielding will, the moon in the sky seemed to glow even brighter. Drawn by some unseen force, the intangible moonlight poured down upon her.
Countless tiny spores, clearly visible in the glow, gathered together and surged toward the wound on her neck.
Had anyone been present, they would have been stunned to see the injury healing right before their eyes, the bleeding stopping completely in mere moments.
Yet her body remained terribly weakened from the great loss of blood. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Little Spirit Mushroom heard the sound of footsteps drawing near.
“Young Master, there’s someone here still alive.”
“Quite the tough little thing.”
A voice, cool and detached, rang out.
“Bring her back with us.”
The words drifted into her dazed mind, and then Little Spirit Mushroom slipped into deep unconsciousness.
…………
Was she a spirit mushroom that had cultivated into a being of awareness… or was she now Jiang Yunsui of the Jiang family?
In her previous world, a terrible natural disaster had struck. Many animals, plants, and even people living in the mountains had been injured.
To save her friends and neighbors in the woods, she had exhausted every ounce of her power, shrinking into a tiny, frail mushroom.
The Heavenly Order recognized her selfless merit and granted her a chance to be reborn.
But she had been reborn into an entirely different world.
Here, she was Jiang Yunsui, the daughter of a merchant.
She had become a human child.
Yet the memory etched most sharply in her mind was of that night: figures appearing like demons risen from hell, armed with weapons, slaughtering every member of the Jiang merchant caravan. Not even a four‑year‑old child like herself had been spared.
Amidst the echoes of screams and the struggle in a sea of blood, the little girl lying in bed, her face deathly pale, suddenly snapped her eyes wide open.
A flicker of vivid green the color of life flashed in those beautiful eyes, only to vanish quickly, sinking deep beneath the dark pupils.
“She’s awake! She’s awake!”
Hearing the voice, Jiang Yunsui slowly began to gather her senses.
“How are you feeling, little one?”
Her vision focused, and she turned her gaze toward the person sitting beside the bed.
Too stunned to speak, she only clutched the blanket tightly with both small hands.
The woman at her bedside looked on with great sympathy. “Don’t tell me she’s been scared out of her wits. What a cruel fate so young, and to have gone through something like that.”
Jiang Yunsui stared blankly at the ceiling, then looked down at her own hands, still struggling to understand what had happened.
It seemed… she really had become human.
The woman chattered on and on, but most of it made little sense to Jiang Yunsui.
Only when the woman brought over a bowl of porridge, its rich aroma filling the air, did Jiang Yunsui’s attention snap fully into focus.
“You’ve been asleep for twelve whole days. If you hadn’t still been breathing, we’d have thought you were beyond saving. Thank goodness you have such a strong will to live. From now on, you’ll get better and live a good life.”
“Here, you haven’t eaten in days look how thin your face has grown.”
Since she could not eat while unconscious, Jiang Yunsui’s once round, plump cheeks had grown gaunt, her chin now noticeably sharp.
Jiang Yunsui stared curiously at the bowl. Urged on by the woman, she leaned forward, took a tiny, cautious sip, and immediately her eyes lit up.
She lowered her head and began to eat, not pausing even once.
“Whoa, slow down eat slowly, now.”
When she finished, Jiang Yunsui fixed her big eyes directly on the empty bowl, clearly wanting more.
But this was her first time being human, and she had no idea how to ask for it.
She opened her mouth, and slowly, following what she could recall from her new memories, uttered two words.
“More… want.”
Her voice sounded clumsy and unsteady, still unused to forming human speech.
“You can’t eat too much all at once. Let’s take it slow and have more later, alright?”
Jiang Yunsui understood perfectly this meant she wasn’t getting any more.
Her bright, eager gaze dimmed instantly, and the change was so obvious it made the woman’s heart ache.
“Ah, I really can’t let you eat more right now. Your body won’t be able to handle it. Let’s take your medicine first, okay?”
Medicine?
Jiang Yunsui was confused until a bowl of thick, dark liquid was brought over. The mere smell was so bitter it made her fair little face scrunch up in distaste.
Jiang Yunsui: ……………
She showed her refusal right away. Throwing off the covers, she hopped out of bed and ran straight for the door without even stopping to put on her shoes.
But her limbs were still weak and uncoordinated; she only managed two steps before her legs gave out and she collapsed face‑first into the floor. The pain welled up tears in her eyes.
Still, the little spirit mushroom refused to give up. Instead of standing up, she dropped to her hands and knees and began crawling toward the exit.
Surprisingly, she moved much faster this way. In a flash, she scurried out of sight.
The woman holding the medicine bowl: ???!!!
Where did she go?!
Her mouth fell open in shock, completely stunned as she watched the child scramble away and vanish in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yunsui had already tucked herself into a tight ball, knees pulled up to her chest, and was now squatting beneath a tree, staring blankly at a line of ants marching across the ground.
Some time later, two women dressed in identical clothing came walking along the nearby path.
“What rotten luck. Why did we get assigned to keep an eye on Young Master Ji? We followed him all the way out to this godforsaken place will we even ever get to go back?”
“Our master said that as long as we stay here and spy on him, once Young Master Ji finally dies, his territory will fall under our master’s control. If we succeed, we’ll be rewarded handsomely and even taken as concubines to the Prince when we return.”
“Right now Young Master Ji is so frail and sickly; he could kick the bucket any day now.”
“But his temper’s gotten worse and more volatile too. I have no desire to go near him otherwise, forget about going back, we might not even know how we end up dead.”
The two women kept complaining as they walked past, seemingly not noticing Jiang Yunsui at all, brushing right past her without a second glance.
Jiang Yunsui tilted her head slightly, her eyes full of confusion.
What on earth was a “Young Master Ji”?
Never mind. She decided to sort through the jumble of thoughts and memories inside her head first.
Suddenly, Jiang Yunsui’s whole body stiffened, and her already round eyes grew even wider.
Just now, the Heavenly Order of this world had suddenly sent her a message.
She was now Jiang Yunsui. Since she had taken over this body, if she wanted to keep living as Jiang Yunsui, she had to settle all the karmic debts tied to this life. If she failed, she would die the moment she turned eighteen.
And to settle those debts, she had to find and bring to justice the enemies who had massacred the entire Jiang household.
Jiang Yunsui felt as though the sky had just fallen in!
She was just a clueless little mushroom how on earth was she supposed to find her enemies and avenge them? QAQ
Squatting there on the ground, Jiang Yunsui began thinking earnestly about how to carry out this revenge.
Two whole hours passed…
She was exhausted, and her “mushroom brain” remained completely blank.
She let out a big yawn. Not a single plan had come to mind, but now her head was nodding forward, heavy with sleep.
“Little one? Where did you run off to?”
A worried voice called out from not far away.
Jiang Yunsui’s reaction was slow; it took her a few seconds to place it. This was the same woman who had given her something delicious to eat and then tried to make her drink that dark, bitter stuff.
Was she calling for her?