"The surgery was successful."
Annie removed her mask and said wearily to Lu Qianqian.
"The shrapnel... it's all been removed."
"It didn't damage any vital organs."
"She is very lucky."
"And also... incredibly tough."
"Her physical constitution is the best I've ever seen."
Hearing Annie's words, Lu Qianqian's tense body gradually relaxed.
She nearly collapsed to the floor.
"Can I... go see her now?" she asked.
"Of course," Annie nodded.
"But she's still under anesthesia and needs quiet."
Ji Wushuang was transferred to a private room.
Lu Qianqian walked into the ward.
She looked at Ji Wushuang lying on the bed, her face as pale as paper.
Her tears could no longer be held back and streamed down.
But this time, she made no sound.
She simply sat quietly by the bedside.
Then, she began to study frantically.
She found the hospital nurses, asking for instruction on various first aid knowledge.
From how to bandage a wound, to how to measure vital signs.
She found a thick copy of The Field Survival Manual and began studying it earnestly.
She vowed never to let what happened today repeat itself.
Never to let herself become a burden to anyone again.
Ji Wushuang woke up on the third day.
Ji Wushuang, true to her name meaning "Peerless."
Lucky and tough.
When she opened her eyes, she didn't see the white ceiling.
Instead, she saw a face etched with exhaustion and worry, yet utterly focused.
Lu Qianqian was holding a medical notebook she had procured from somewhere.
Reading it while softly murmuring something.
"...Shock index equals heart rate divided by systolic pressure. Normal value is 0.5; greater than 1 indicates shock..."
Her voice was very soft, still carrying a hint of hoarseness.
Yet, this voice felt like a warm current flowing into Ji Wushuang's heart.
"Water..."
Ji Wushuang uttered a faint syllable.
Lu Qianqian's head snapped up, seeing Ji Wushuang's open eyes.
Her eyes instantly reddened.
But she didn't cry.
She just quickly pressed the call button.
Then, picked up a cotton swab, dipped it in water.
And carefully moistened Ji Wushuang's parched lips.
Her movements were clumsy, but very gentle, very soft.
Ji Wushuang looked at her, at this girl who seemed reborn in just a few days.
Her eyes no longer held the spoiled willfulness from their first meeting.
Nor the fear she had faced danger with.
All that remained was a settled resilience and sense of responsibility.
Ji Wushuang wanted to say "thank you" to her.
But in the end, only two words came out.
"Not bad."
Lu Qianqian was taken aback for a moment, then, she smiled.
...
Time passed, several more months.
The gunfire and explosions of Country K seemed like a distant memory.
This was Country T.
A country whose name was hard to find even on a map.
Red earth and a scorching sun seemed to be the eternal themes here.
At a dusty temporary medical camp.
Several large white tents stood lonely on the barren plain.
This was another aid station for "Doctors Without Borders."
Lu Qianqian was crouched in the shade of a tent.
She wore a volunteer T-shirt.
She was changing the dressing on a little girl's arm wound.
Her movements were no longer as clumsy as before.
They were skilled and gentle.
Sweat dampened the hair on her forehead, sticking to her cheeks.
Her skin was tanned a healthy honey color.
A few smudges of dust still clung to her face.
Those eyes that once only showed willfulness and confusion now held only focus and calm.
She was a completely different person from the exquisitely doll-like young lady of a few months prior.
The little girl was very well-behaved, not crying or fussing.
Just staring at her with big, clear black-and-white eyes, full of curiosity.
"All done."
Lu Qianqian tied the final knot.
She looked up and gave the little girl a gentle smile.
She took a piece of candy from her pocket.
And handed it over.
The little girl happily accepted it.
In the local dialect, she whispered, "Thank you."
Lu Qianqian smiled and patted her head.
After completing the research in Country K, her and Ji Wushuang's footsteps began appearing all over the world.
From war-torn borders to plague-ridden villages.
From drought-cracked deserts to flood-swept river valleys.
She had seen too much death.
And also too many resilient lives struggling to survive amidst hardship.
She was no longer afraid, nor confused.
She had found something more important than the identity of "the Lu family heiress."
Just then.
Ji Wushuang walked quickly to her side.
She handed over a satellite phone.
On the screen was a piece of news from back home.
"Qianqian, take a look at this."
Lu Qianqian, somewhat puzzled, took the phone.
When her eyes fell upon the headline, bolded and enlarged in bright red font.
She felt as if struck by lightning.
[Shocking Secret! The Inside Story of the Eighteen-Year True and False Heiress Saga in the Top-Tier Lu Family, A Meticulously Orchestrated Life Swap!]
Buzz—!
Lu Qianqian's mind went completely blank.
She felt the whole world spinning.
She couldn't make out the dense text in the report.
But those few key phrases were exceptionally glaring.
"Cuckoo occupying the magpie's nest."
"Liu Mei's daughter."
"Deceived for eighteen years."
Her body began to tremble uncontrollably.
She wasn't the Lu family's daughter?
She was the daughter of that woman—Liu Mei—who had destroyed her family?
So, everything she had possessed for the past eighteen years.
Her father's affection, her mother's doting, her brothers' indulgence...
All of it was a lie?
A life she had stolen from someone else?
A massive wave of humiliation and absurdity threatened to drown her.
She instinctively wanted to scream.
To burst into loud sobs.
To immediately return to Jingzhou and confront everyone!
But when her gaze swept around.
Seeing those children still striving to live on this barren land.
Seeing those international doctors still standing firm at their posts under harsh conditions.
Seeing the steadfast Ji Wushuang beside her, always protecting her...
A completely different emotion slowly overwhelmed the shame and panic about to erupt.
She remembered many things.
Remembered her eldest brother's almost cold attitude towards her over the past six months or so.
Remembered the "Young Leaders Independence Plan" her eldest brother had forced her to join.
Remembered the words her eldest brother had said to her when seeing her off at the airport.
"Qianqian, the value of a life never depends on where you stand, but on where you look."
"I hope you can find the sky that truly belongs to you."
At the time, she hadn't fully understood her brother's deeper meaning.
Only at this moment did she awaken as if from a dream.
Instantly, she understood all of her eldest brother's struggles!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
