2 – As Long as I’m Not Dissected for Research
Night.
A VIP room in a private hospital.
Elder Xie lay on the hospital bed as Li Ziyin removed the last silver needle from his body.
The old man’s once withered face now glowed with renewed vigor.
Li Ziyin said, “Does Elder Xie believe me now?”
Three days ago, late at night, Li Ziyin had sneaked into Elder Xie’s hospital room.
At that time, the old man had been on his last breath, liable to pass away at any moment.
With her skillful silver needles, Li Ziyin had successfully pulled him back from the brink.
Today was the third day of treatment. While it couldn’t restore Elder Xie’s youth, it could at least make him hale and hearty again—fit enough to run back and forth across a battlefield twice. Elder Xie had spent his life in the military; before retiring, he had been the chief of a military region, and he still commanded a measure of respect even from the nation’s highest leader.
Looking at the young woman standing before him, hands behind her back and smiling, Elder Xie laughed.
“This old man keeps his word. Go ahead—what do you want?”
Three days ago, Li Ziyin had made a bet with him.
If she could cure him, he would have to grant her one request.
At the time, Elder Xie had already had one foot in the grave. If he lost the bet, he would merely die a little sooner.
But if he won, he would live.
Never mind one request—a hundred requests would have been worth it!
Now that his wish had been fulfilled, as long as Li Ziyin’s request was within his power, he would certainly not shortchange her.
Li Ziyin’s eyes curved into crescents as she took out a palm-sized wooden box and placed it before Elder Xie.
“Elder Xie, take a look at this first.”
The old man owed his very life to her, so he trusted her completely. Without a second thought, he opened the wooden box.
The moment the lid cracked open, a blue light spilled out.
Elder Xie’s sharp eyes narrowed.
The box opened fully.
Inside lay a stone, pitch black all over, yet shimmering with a faint blue glow.
Even with all his experience and knowledge, Elder Xie couldn’t identify it at first.
But a soldier’s innate keenness told him this stone was extraordinary.
“What is this?”
Li Ziyin’s gaze was clear and limpid as she said slowly, “An Interstellar Energy Stone.”
Clatter!
Elder Xie’s hand trembled, knocking the cup off the bedside table.
“What did you say?”
…
Li Ziyin gave a concise account of the Quick-Transmigration System and declared that she was willing to hand the System over to the state.
The Interstellar Energy Stone was her pledge of loyalty.
Elder Xie’s eyes were wide the entire time, and at one point he couldn’t stay in bed—he got up and paced back and forth around the room.
After she finished, he paced two more rounds before stopping.
His gaze pierced her like lightning. “Are you certain that everything you’ve said is true?”
Elder Xie had many juniors in his family, and he knew what young people liked to read online these days.
Including stories about transmigration.
If Li Ziyin hadn’t genuinely saved his life and produced the Energy Stone, he would have written her off right then and there as a lunatic brainwashed by transmigration novels.
But…
But the old man had upheld materialism and scientific development his entire life. Asking him to believe something so inconceivable was truly difficult.
Yet… yet if it were true…
The old man’s whole body was tingling.
If it were true, what was there to fear for the nation’s rise?
If it were true, no matter how that white eagle across the Pacific hopped and postured, one burst of fire would swat it right out of the sky!
Li Ziyin nodded earnestly. “Elder Xie can send the Energy Stone for testing.”
Elder Xie studied her deeply. With his vitality restored, even in a hospital gown he radiated an awe-inspiring authority.
“Little girl, this old man will ask you one more time—can you take responsibility for everything you’ve said?”
Li Ziyin nodded seriously once again.
“You’re really willing to hand it over to the state?”
Li Ziyin smiled. “The system is imprinted on my soul—it can’t be taken out. As long as no one slices me up for research, I’ll cooperate with everything else.”
Elder Xie laughed too, his aura receding as he became a kindly old man again. “Don’t talk nonsense. If what you say is true, the state will be falling over itself to protect you. Who would dare touch you?”
Then his face darkened. “And if anyone dared, they’d have to step over this old man’s body first!”
From critical condition to hospital discharge, Elder Xie needed only three days.
The very day he was discharged, he rushed off to have the energy stone tested.
Li Ziyin had treated Elder Xie at the hospital while avoiding other people, so no one had noticed her.
She used this as her reason to refuse the layers of protection Elder Xie wanted to give her.
But she forgot that behind her stood a sister who loved stirring up trouble.
And behind that sister, a whole pond of fish.
Every fish in that pond had been strung along by the sister, each one “loving but never having.”
Two years ago, whenever Li Zihan was accompanying some other man, these fish would force Li Ziyin to play the substitute.
Every now and then, to please Li Zihan, they would torment her.
Though Li Ziyin found it utterly repulsive, she had no power to resist back then and could only play along to protect herself.
It was because of this that Li Zihan went mad and ran her down, leaving her in a vegetative state.
Now, Li Ziyin couldn’t even go out shopping without running into one of her sister’s fish.
And not just any fish—the biggest one of all.
The man before her had broad shoulders and long legs, dressed in a impeccably tailored, high-end custom suit.
Behind him trailed four or five burly bodyguards.
Who else could it be but Huo Yu, the current head of Huo Corporation, a man worth billions?
Li Ziyin kept her eyes straight ahead, intending to walk around him.
“Stop!”
Huo Yu’s voice was deep, its deterrent power overwhelming to most people.
But Li Ziyin acted as if she hadn’t heard, not even pausing in her steps.
A large hand seized her wrist from behind and pulled her back.
Li Ziyin’s brows knitted tightly. She shook off his hand and looked up at Huo Yu.
“Mr. Huo, is this road your family’s property?”
Two years ago, she had put up with their bullying only because she lacked the power to fight back.
Now, she had the power.
Huo Yu stared at her with cold, dark eyes, then suddenly let out a scoff.
“Li Ziyin, two years as a vegetable and your skills have grown, haven’t they? I hear the moment you woke up, you extorted ten million out of your sister?”
Li Ziyin pulled a wet wipe from her bag and carefully wiped the wrist he had just grabbed, as if something filthy had gotten on it.
Her skin was extremely pale—after two years as a vegetable without proper care, her wrist was so thin it looked like it would snap with the slightest bend.
But she wiped hard, and soon a ring of red rose on her wrist.
Only after finishing did she look up at Huo Yu again.
The corners of her still slightly pale lips curled into a mocking smile.
“Mr. Huo, if I ran you down and left you a vegetable, dumped you in a hospital and abandoned you, did whatever I wanted under your name, got you trending and cursed the moment you woke up, and then paid you ten million in compensation—could I call that extortion too, right?”
As she spoke, she flicked her hand, and the crumpled wet wipe landed squarely in the trash can two meters away.
Huo Yu’s face visibly darkened.
Li Ziyin tilted her chin up, sunlight falling across her slender brows and eyes, reflecting a faint cold gleam.
“If you’re not willing to accept that, then get out of my way.”
Li Ziyin turned to leave, but her arm was seized once again.
“Li Ziyin, don’t you think—”
Li Ziyin sidestepped, bent down, and with a clean, crisp over-the-shoulder throw, slammed Huo Yu heavily onto the ground.
Huo Yu’s words were cut off in his throat.