In her previous life (or rather, the life before that), after Xue Ning decided to remain in the marquis’s estate, she never paid attention to any information about her birth family.
She only knew that her birth family were farmers from the village where one of the marquis’s estates outside the city was located.
Back then, when the marquis’s wife was ten months pregnant, she went to inspect the estate. Xue Ning’s birth father happened to be doing odd jobs there.
At noon, her birth mother cooked a meal and brought it to her birth father. Who would have thought that she would slip and fall at the estate?
That fall caused her birth mother to go into premature labor.
Since the woman had fallen at her estate, the marquis’s wife ordered the midwife who had accompanied her to help deliver the baby.
Halfway through the delivery, the marquis’s wife accidentally fell as well.
Because the marquis’s wife had brought only one midwife, she had no choice but to share the same delivery room with Xue Ning’s birth mother.
Although the two women did not go into labor at the same time, they still gave birth to daughters one after the other.
The delivery room was extremely chaotic at the time, and a servant bribed by the marquis’s favorite concubine took advantage of the confusion to switch the babies.
It seemed like an incredible coincidence, but it was later proven that everything had been deliberately arranged.
What Xue Ning was grateful for was that her birth parents were entirely innocent victims.
Her birth mother had merely caught the favorite concubine’s attention because her due date was close to that of the marquis’s wife.
Fortunately, that was all there was to it. Otherwise, Xue Ning would have been the daughter of a criminal.
Thinking all this over, Xue Ning made her way out of the city.
When she reached a small bridge, Xue Ning saw a white-haired old man sitting at the end of it and waving at her.
“Little girl, this old man’s legs aren’t very mobile. Could you help me up?”
Xue Ning was still willing to do a good deed when the opportunity arose.
Hearing the old man’s request, Xue Ning went over without hesitation and helped him to his feet.
With Xue Ning’s support, the old man shakily stood up.
“Thank you, little girl. You really are a good person.”
Xue Ning noticed that the old man’s hands looked very young. Looking at his face, she said without changing her expression, “It was nothing. Where are you headed, old man?”
The old man pointed toward the small alley beside them. “My home is in that alley. I’m going home.”
Seeing his legs trembling like he had Parkinson’s, Xue Ning smiled and said, “I’ll take you home~”
The old man looked at Xue Ning in surprise. “Is that all right? Won’t I delay you?”
Xue Ning shook her head. “No, I’m not in a hurry.”
“Your legs don’t seem very steady. You really shouldn’t come out alone in the future. What would happen if someone bumped into you and you fell?”
She wanted to see what this fellow pretending to be an old man was up to.
The old man smiled. “I don’t come out every day. I only come out occasionally when I’m bored at home, just to see what’s going on.”
“Don’t worry, little girl. This old man can take care of himself. How old are you this year, little girl? What’s your name?”
Xue Ning said, “My surname is Xue. You can just call me Little Xue…”
Although the old man moved slowly, he was quite talkative.
As Xue Ning chatted with him, they unknowingly reached the depths of the alley.
After looking around and confirming that no one was nearby, Xue Ning grabbed the old man’s hand and smiled.
“Old man, the wrinkles on your face are so deep they could catch flies. How is it that your hands are still so smooth?”
“Since you can take such good care of your hands, why don’t you take care of your face too~”
“Who only takes care of their hands and not their face?”
The “old man” looked at Xue Ning in surprise. “You’re young, but your powers of observation are quite good.”
“Since you noticed that my hands and face don’t match, didn’t you consider that I might be a bad person?”
After saying this, the “old man” leered and reached out to grab Xue Ning’s hand.
Xue Ning endured it for exactly 0.0001 seconds before grabbing the “old man’s” hand and throwing him over her shoulder.
“I thought you were a human trafficker. I didn’t expect you to be a disgusting pervert.”
“You prey on underage girls. You’re even more despicable than a human trafficker.”
“In my entire life, what I hate most are disgusting perverts who take advantage of other people’s kindness to do evil.”
“We’re all human beings for the first time. Can’t you damn well try being a good person?”
The angrier she became, the harder Xue Ning slammed the pervert against the wall.
Pervert: “…”
So many stars…
I can’t take it anymore~
I’m dizzy~
Xue Ning: “…”
Seriously?
I only slammed him a few times, and he’s already unconscious?
This pervert is way too weak!!
Xue Ning grabbed the pervert and shook him hard several times. After confirming that he was truly unconscious, she tossed him aside in disgust.
A quarter of an hour later, Xue Ning ran out of the alley and shouted, “There’s a pervert in the alley who isn’t wearing any clothes~”
Gossip was part of human nature.
The moment Xue Ning said this, the pedestrians nearby immediately rushed toward the alley.
“Ah, a pervert~”
…
Hearing the pedestrians scream excitedly about the gossip, Xue Ning nodded in satisfaction and turned to leave.
This way of dealing with a pervert was far more effective as a warning than taking him to the authorities.
After all, the pervert had only touched her hand. No matter what deeper intentions he might have had, until he actually carried them out, it could only be considered attempted misconduct.
If she really dragged him to the authorities, there was no telling whether he would be punished. She would also have to risk her reputation.
That was what happened in this era, where women were held to such strict standards.
And it wasn’t as if women were treated that way only in this era. Even in modern times, supposedly an era of gender equality, if a woman was assaulted by a man, there would still be some lunatics who thought she must have seduced him first~
Why had Xue Ning followed the pervert into the alley even though she had immediately noticed something was wrong with him?
Naturally, it was because Xue Ning had already discovered that the Ability she had awakened in the apocalypse had followed her here as well.
She possessed three types of Ability: Strength, Wood-type, and Space.
Ten years into the apocalypse, humanity had already found a way to awaken Abilities, and people with two or three types of Ability were not uncommon.
However, people like Xue Ning, who had spontaneously awakened three types of Ability, all of them above Level Eight, were extremely rare.
Without the slightest modesty, Xue Ning could say that among Ability users, she had ranked among the top ten in the base.
Even though her Abilities had now fallen back to Level One, her Strength Ability alone was enough to let her walk all over this world.
It was precisely because she had such confidence that she had left the marquis’s estate without taking anything.
Of course, she was no longer completely penniless.
When she stripped the pervert, Xue Ning had casually taken his money pouch as well.
Although it contained only a dozen or so taels of silver in small denominations, if used sparingly, that amount would be enough to feed a family of three for a year.
Now that she had money, Xue Ning changed direction and headed for a cloth shop.
What she didn’t know was that not long after she left the alley, a squad of soldiers appeared and carried away the still-unconscious pervert.
What she knew even less was that her heroic beating of the pervert and stripping him of his clothes had all been witnessed by someone else.
When Xue Ning left the cloth shop, she was carrying two bolts of cloth and some needles and thread.
These were the gifts she planned to bring to her birth family.
One bolt was a dirt-resistant dark blue, and the other was an attractive sky blue.
After finding an unoccupied corner and putting the items into her space, Xue Ning went to a general store and bought some seasonings and seeds.
Her Wood-type Ability would be very useful for growing things.
In this life, she didn’t have any great ambitions. As long as she had enough to eat and drink and could live a peaceful life to old age, that would be enough…
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