A sharp pain shot through Leng Xuan’s mouth. She couldn’t open her eyes, but she could feel the unusually scorching sunlight through her eyelids.
She felt a giant face looming over her, its owner mercilessly slapping her with a palm as large as a cattail fan!
While slapping her, he shouted, “Hey, Xiao Xuan, wake up, wake up!”
The voice was young yet deep, seemingly steeped in worry.
“Smack! Smack!”
Two more heavy slaps landed. It really hurt!
Immediately after, she felt someone pinch her chin, forcing her mouth open and pouring a few drops of a cold liquid inside.
So bitter!
As the bitter liquid flowed down her throat, Leng Xuan swallowed instinctively.
She felt a cool, refreshing sensation spread from where the liquid had passed. This comfort quickly permeated her entire body. She gradually regained consciousness, and her strength seemed to be returning bit by bit.
After a long struggle, Leng Xuan finally gathered enough strength to open her eyes, only to be met with a chiseled face with deep-set features.
He was truly handsome, especially with those slightly upturned phoenix eyes, which were filled with deep affection and sorrow. One look was enough to make you want to bear all his burdens for him.
Who was this devastatingly handsome man?
Seeing that she had opened her eyes, the man immediately stopped.
“You’re awake!”
His voice was icy, but the delight in his phoenix eyes was impossible to hide. In that instant, it was as if all the peach blossoms on the mountain had bloomed within his gaze.
Who am I, where am I, why am I lying here, and who is this person in front of me?
Leng Xuan was completely bewildered.
A second ago, she had been tackling a difficult problem in her lab. Perhaps from exhaustion, she had felt a wave of dizziness and collapsed.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in this place.
She strained to look around, only to see a world of lush green. The flowers, grass, and trees all seemed to be several times their normal size, and the verdant forest was as rich as undiluted paint.
A flood of memories that didn’t belong to her rushed into her mind.
A girl in tattered linen clothes was scavenging in the mountains with her father. Suddenly, the girl spotted a tree laden with bright red fruits and ran toward it without a second thought.
Her father shouted for her to come back, that the area ahead was a High Radiation Zone.
However, the girl seemed to have some intellectual disability. Her mind and eyes were filled with nothing but the delicious red fruits, and she dashed into the High Radiation Zone in one breath.
After that, she remembered nothing.
Leng Xuan was certain that she was now in that girl’s body.
Had she transmigrated?
She could hardly believe that something so fantastical would happen to someone as utterly uninteresting as her.
The original owner of this body was a bona fide fool, the kind who couldn’t even count to five—a complete simpleton.
But she knew that “fool” wasn’t a compliment. Therefore, ever since she was little, whenever someone called her a fool, she would chase them down the street and give them a sound beating once she caught them.
The one who had received the most beatings was the man right in front of her.
His name was Qi Xu, and he was the original owner’s neighbor. Qi Xu had a sharp tongue since childhood. Every time he saw Leng Xuan, he would whistle and shout, “Hey, fool!”
As Qi Xu grew older and joined a Mercenary Corps, he stopped calling her a fool as often in the past two years. However, every time they met, he would give her a look filled with complex emotions.
Leng Xuan couldn’t figure out what was going on between these two. The original owner was a fool with limited memories.
Right now, all she wanted was to stand up. She didn’t want to lie here so wretchedly, being gawked at by so many people. But when she tried, she was shocked to find she couldn’t move at all. The moment she exerted any force, a pain like needles pricked her entire body.
She turned her head to look at the original owner’s father. His tall, lanky body lay stiffly on the ground, motionless. Qi Xu was holding a small vial and pouring medicine into his mouth.
Several other mercenaries stood beside Qi Xu.
A tall, dark, and skinny man said disdainfully, “Qi Xu, have you been hanging around the fool so long you’ve gotten stupid too? There’s only one Radiation Purification Potion per person. You used it on these two fools, what are you going to do for yourself later?”
Unconcerned, Qi Xu poured the rest of the potion from the vial into Leng Xuan’s father’s mouth and kept patting his face.
“Uncle Leng, Uncle Leng, wake up!”
He didn’t stop until Leng Xuan’s father also woke up.
Only then did Qi Xu sit down as if drained of all energy, retorting coldly to the tall, skinny mercenary, “Don’t worry, I’m hard to kill!”
A wave of emotion stirred within Leng Xuan.
Although she didn’t understand this world, she could tell from their conversation that this Purification Potion was extremely precious. For Qi Xu to willingly give something so valuable to this pair of simpleton father and daughter was remarkable.
It was clear that Qi Xu was actually very good to the original owner.
It was just a pity that the girl from before could never have understood. All she knew was that she would hit anyone who called her a fool.
And so, she had tirelessly beaten Qi Xu for so many years.
Leng Xuan quietly observed everything, trying to piece together the current situation from the men’s conversation.
The tall, skinny man said, “I say, kid, have you taken a liking to this fool? To be fair, the little thing isn’t bad-looking. If she weren’t a fool, I might even deign to marry her and take her home. Wouldn’t be bad to have her warm my bed!”
As he spoke, he actually squatted down beside Leng Xuan, reached out a sinewy hand to pinch her chin, and examined her from left to right.
The sight of his yellow teeth made Leng Xuan’s stomach churn. She wanted to struggle, but she had no strength at all.
Qi Xu suddenly shot to his feet and violently slapped the man’s hand away. “Don’t you fucking touch her.”
Having been publicly humiliated, the tall, skinny man grew angry. “What’s this, Qi Xu? Getting protective already? Don’t tell me you really want to marry this fool?”
“Hahahaha…”
He had made a rather malicious joke, and the other mercenaries all started laughing along, seemingly trying to prevent the two from making the scene too ugly, hoping they could laugh it off and bury the hatchet.
However, Qi Xu didn’t appreciate the gesture at all. He said coldly to the dark, skinny man, “Who I marry is my business. Xiao Xuan is my little sister. No one is to touch her, got it?”
As he spoke, he made no effort to hide the ferocity in his eyes. The oppressive, hostile aura he emitted silenced everyone.
Humiliated once again, the tall, skinny man coughed up a thick wad of phlegm and spat it viciously on the ground. “Fuck! I was a damn fool for meddling in your business.”
With that, he turned, hopped on an electric scooter, and sped off in a cloud of dust.
It was the first time Leng Xuan had ever been protected like this, and a tiny bit of warmth bloomed in her heart. But she knew clearly.
Qi Xu’s protection was for the original owner, not for her.
Soon, Leng Xuan was seated on Qi Xu’s little electric scooter. Fearing she would fall off, Qi Xu even used a hemp rope to tie them tightly together.
Such a tall and straight back!
It was just a bit bony. This kid was too skinny. He was a mercenary, couldn’t he get enough to eat?
Of course, her own chin was just as bony. Bone knocking against bone was extremely uncomfortable.
Her father was moved to the back of another short, stocky man’s scooter.
The stocky man said, “Qi Xu, the radiation levels in their bodies are already 80% over the limit. Even if you save them now, they’ll just be half-dead and bedridden. Without a steady supply of Purification Potion, they’ll still die in a few days!”
Facing the short, stocky man, Qi Xu’s expression softened slightly. “I can’t just watch them die and do nothing.”
Leng Xuan’s opinion of this devastatingly handsome man changed once again. Could he be the legendary type who appeared cold on the outside but was warm on the inside?
She tried hard to check on her father’s condition. She saw that this tall, lanky, cheap father of hers could only barely lift his eyelids. He seemed to want to say something but lacked the strength.
He just flashed her a big, white-toothed grin.
Leng Xuan bared her teeth back at him, indicating that she was fine.
Seeing his daughter smile at him, Leng Lao Er instantly cheered up, his own smile growing even brighter. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that his radiation levels were severely over the limit.
Did that tall, skinny man just say two fools?
Does that mean the original owner’s father is a fool too?