Seeing the “little cannonball” flying toward her, Ruan Qiao nimbly spun around. The little thing crashed into her back with a thump and then fell to the ground.
Ruan Qiao glanced at the flowerpot in her hands, made sure the seedlings inside were unharmed, and without turning her head, gave a quick compliment: “Good job! You ran a bit faster than yesterday.”
The praise was clearly a bit perfunctory, but Xiao Jin Ge didn’t notice.
Knowing he had been praised again, he proudly got up from the ground.
He shook his body vigorously, scattering a shower of yellow dust all over the floor.
Then he wiggled his little backside over to Ruan Qiao, squawking loudly and flapping his big wings so hard they made a crashing sound.
While flapping, he even stuck his rump up toward the director he trusted most, showing her the red marks from where he had fallen.
Ruan Qiao’s lips twitched, and she silently stepped back, putting a little more distance between herself and the filthy little behind that was almost smacking her face.
Xiao Jin Ge didn’t notice at all that he had been mildly “shunned.”
After showing off his tender little rear, he turned, grabbed Ruan Qiao’s clothes with his sharp little beak, and tried to drag her outside.
It was the perfect picture of a child who’s been wronged, going to the parent to complain and ask for help.
Only now, Ruan Qiao was extremely familiar with this routine, it happened every single day.
So facing the little one’s complaints no longer stirred any reaction in her.
Naturally, there was no chance she would step in to “defend” him.
Ruan Qiao knew that recently, Jin Ge had indeed been pushed hard by Ah Qi during training.
At first, when Ah Qi started training him, Ruan Qiao had followed along a few times out of curiosity.
She had seen the poor little thing treated like a mere bundle, thrown again and again onto tree branches, rocks, rooftops… without a hint of mercy.
She had seen him scream and struggle as he was forced to jump down.
She even witnessed Ah Qi personally kick him down when Jin Ge tried to cheat, all while showing no hesitation.
It made Ruan Qiao, who was terrified of heights, wince in her heart and legs go weak.
After that, she never went along again!
But Ah Qi’s teaching method was clearly very suitable for Xiao Jin Ge.
Under his “strict” supervision combined with daily, continuous massage and rehabilitation, the little one’s wings, wings that had never moved before, became noticeably stronger, flapping higher and higher each day.
Several times, when he got overly excited, both of his feet even lifted off the ground while running!
Seeing the child make such progress, Ruan Qiao was too happy to even think about “getting back at” him.
She let Jin Ge accompany Ah Qi out of the seedling room, first placing the flowerpot on the windowsill in the morning sun.
Then Ah Qi walked over.
Ruan Qiao smiled at him and gave the still-grumpy Jin Ge a little nudge with her lips, signaling him to at least appease the little one a bit.
Ah Qi casually reached out, ruffled the little one’s fluffy face, and then gestured for him to go play with the other kids.
He then asked Ruan Qiao, “Who was the woman this morning?”
Ruan Qiao was a bit surprised. “You saw her?”
“Mm,” Ah Qi nodded. “She went into the mountain this morning, and we happened to run into each other.”
He then continued, pressing, “Who is she?”
“Someone from a charity organization… called Daisy. She came to talk to me about buying the back mountain.”
Ah Qi’s brows immediately furrowed. “You were going to sell the back mountain?”
“No!” Ruan Qiao answered without hesitation.
She then didn’t hide anything and told Ah Qi everything that had happened.
After spending some time together, Ruan Qiao now trusted this boy a great deal. She was willing to discuss matters with him.
After all, he was probably the person who had become the most familiar with her and helped her the most since she arrived on this planet.
After recounting the events, Ruan Qiao snorted coldly: “Even though this mountain was left to me by Ella, it also belongs to the children.
If there’s any way to keep it, I won’t sell it, no amount of money could make me.
And especially not to a place that pretends to be charitable but is really just a wolf in sheep’s clothing!”
Ah Qi didn’t understand the meaning of the slang [1]“To hang a sheep’s head but sell dog meat” is a Chinese idiom that means pretending to offer something good or respectable while actually selling something inferior, deceptive, or completely … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1816239_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1816239_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });”to hang a sheep’s head but sell dog meat”, and he didn’t really care.
His attention was focused more on the charity organization itself.
After Ruan Qiao finished speaking, his brows furrowed even tighter. “What’s the name of that charity?”
“The Aixīn Charity Association.”
Ruan Qiao snorted sarcastically. “Funny, isn’t it? Such a black-hearted place has the nerve to call itself ‘Aixin’—’loving heart’?”
Ah Qi’s face gradually began to pale.
A strange dizziness swept through him.
Suddenly, it was as if a red flame appeared right in front of his eyes.
The flames rose higher and burned more fiercely, making him feel as if he were trapped in a raging fire.
His body shook uncontrollably, and he forcefully shut his eyes.
The crackling of burning wood echoed in his ears, and faint sobbing seemed to come from somewhere nearby…
His head throbbed unbearably, and he finally couldn’t resist clutching it with both hands, crouching down.
“Ah Qi, what’s wrong?”
Seeing him like this, Ruan Qiao was terrified.
She quickly crouched in front of him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Is your head hurting? What’s going on? Is it the spot you hit before?”
She anxiously lowered her head to look at his face, asking repeatedly.
The intense, brain-scrambling pain made Ah Qi’s body shudder; in an instant, cold sweat soaked his clothes and drenched his entire forehead.
But the pain came and went quickly.
Ah Qi didn’t even get a clear view of the fiery scene, nor hear the whispers around him; the spasms just vanished.
The flames receded from his mind.
He opened his eyes in a daze, looking blankly at Ruan Qiao.
“Feeling better? Does it still hurt? We’ll go to the hospital now! Don’t move, just sit, I’ll have 001 book a car…”
Seeing that Ah Qi seemed a little better, Ruan Qiao finally exhaled in relief.
She hurriedly tried to stand, but Ah Qi blocked her with a firm hand.
He clearly hadn’t fully recovered, and his head drooped heavily onto her shoulder like he had no strength, whispering, “No need to call a car… and no need to go to the hospital.”
Seeing him act just like the other little ones, pouting and clinging, Ruan Qiao felt a pang of heartache.
She hugged him, her hands gently stroking his back, but her voice left no room for argument: “No, we have to go.”
This time, Ruan Qiao was adamant.
Looking at the boy’s pale face, a wave of guilt washed over her.
She knew she should have taken him to the hospital the day he woke up, and even to the police station.
But he had lost his memory, and with it the light-brain that could verify his identity.
In this star system, a person’s identity chip is linked to their light-brain. Without it, you’re practically immobilized.
For example, medical treatment becomes extremely expensive without state-provided insurance, far beyond the means of an ordinary household.
For this reason, after Doctor Aisen confirmed that the wound on Ah Qi’s head posed no major physical threat, Ruan Qiao had chosen to selectively ignore the memory lapse and never mentioned taking him for a check-up.
But now, seeing him suffer so much from a headache, Ruan Qiao was filled with regret.
She felt she had been unbearably cold-hearted before, willing to risk a teenager’s health just to save money!
A moment ago she had been scolding the Aixīn Charity Association, but now… how was her own behavior any different from that place?
Ignoring Ah Qi’s protests, Ruan Qiao went ahead and booked a self-driving car.
Cars here were all driverless, so one arrived quickly, but they still couldn’t reach the mountain directly. They had to walk the difficult mountain path to reach the main road.
Seeing Ah Qi slumped there, refusing to move no matter what, Ruan Qiao felt both anxious and frustrated, yet she could do nothing to force him.
She softened her tone and coaxed gently: “Ah Qi, you’re the best, always so obedient. Just go get checked, alright? Just to put my mind at ease, okay?”
Ah Qi lifted his head, his eyes fixed on Ruan Qiao with an expression impossible to read.
He gave a quiet, faint smile and said, “You don’t have to coax me like you do with Jin Ge. I’m not a child, and I’m not afraid of the doctor. I’m just…”
He paused, rubbing his temple lightly with his fingers, seeming a little not sure of how to explain.
After a moment of silence, he said, “I might have known this Aixīn Charity Association before, had some impression of it. It was only after I heard the name that my head started hurting.”
Ruan Qiao was shocked.
She quickly recalled the timeline and realized that indeed, it was after she mentioned that name that Ah Qi’s condition became abnormal.
So—
“You remembered something? Is there something wrong with that charity?”
Ah Qi thought again of the fire, of that inferno.
But the memories were so fragmented that he couldn’t piece them together or explain them, not even knowing how to put it into words.
He shook his head. “No… I didn’t remember anything. I just feel that place is bad. Just thinking about it makes me extremely uncomfortable.”
Then he lifted his head, looking at Ruan Qiao with an unprecedented seriousness and intensity. “You won’t sell the orphanage to them, right?”
“I won’t,” Ruan Qiao replied just as solemnly. “Don’t worry. Under no circumstances will I sell the orphanage or the back mountain to them. I won’t leave you or the little ones without a home. You have my word.”
“Mm, I believe you,” Ah Qi said, smiling again.
This smile was completely different from the faint one earlier, it relaxed his entire brow, bright and radiant.
No matter how reluctant he was, in the end Ah Qi was still coaxed into the self-driving car by Ruan Qiao.
Even if he said his headache had a reason, Ruan Qiao felt they still had to trust science; a full check-up was necessary to put her mind at ease.
Joining them in the self-driving car was Jin Ge, as Ruan Qiao planned to take him into town as well and have Doctor Aisen check him.
Since she wasn’t familiar with the hospitals there, Ruan Qiao decided it was better to contact Doctor Aisen first rather than three of them wandering blindly. She reached him while still in the car.
After hearing about Ah Qi’s condition, Doctor Aisen supported her decision, agreeing that he needed a comprehensive hospital examination.
Although Doctor Aisen was a veterinarian, he had connections in the hospital.
He immediately introduced them to his best friend so they could go to the hospital his friend ran.
Out of respect for Doctor Aisen, the hospital staff gave Ah Qi a very thorough examination.
The results were largely as Doctor Aisen had predicted, the bump hadn’t caused any substantive damage to Ah Qi’s head.
Nor had it triggered any pathological changes.
As for why he has amnesia, the doctor’s exact words were: “It probably doesn’t have much to do with the impact injury. We currently lean toward it being related to mental exhaustion.”
According to the doctor, Ah Qi must have gone through some unknown events that caused him to overuse his mental energy, leading to total mental exhaustion and an inability to regenerate it.
Whether this condition would result in amnesia, the hospital cannot determine.
After all, there are very few A class individuals with mental energy on Planet 0813, and the doctors had never encountered one before, let alone a case similar to Ah Qi’s.
As for treatment, there are two options—
One, patiently wait for the patient’s body to gradually recover on its own. How long this would take is unknown.
Two, seek treatment at a major hospital on the capital star or another advanced planet, as they should have methods to help restore mental energy.
After listening to all the doctor’s explanation, Ruan Qiao summed it up in two points:
One, the case is solved, Ah Qi’s amnesia has nothing to do with the rock that supposedly fell on him on the mountain.
His fall at the door was purely accidental.
Two, besides making money to support the little ones, she also needs to save up to pay for his treatment!
Thinking of this, Ruan Qiao groaned painfully in her heart.
She just felt—
The road to making money is long and growing ever more difficult.
References[+]