Chapter 1009: Purple-Eyed Young Girl
He hadn't stayed long in the botanical garden before someone entered through another door.
A young long-haired woman carrying a tray of injection needles and medicine walked lightly toward the girl sitting by the stream. "Miss Longzhi, it's time for your medicine."
The sound of playing in the water stopped. The purple-eyed girl raised her hand and knocked the tray over.
With a crash, all the medicine shattered on the ground. The long-haired woman expressionlessly crouched down to clean up, picking up every single shard before standing up and saying, "If you don't take the medicine, you'll only be hurting yourself. Why make things difficult for me?"
"I want to make things difficult for you. So what?" the purple-eyed girl stared at her.
The long-haired woman said nothing but turned and left. Soon she returned with new medicine. This time, she half-forcibly held the girl down and injected the drug into her, then said coldly, "Don't think that just because you're about to enter the Snow Palace, you can act recklessly. Just try to stay alive."
The long-haired woman turned and left. The purple-eyed girl angrily overturned a nearby potted plant, then fell to the ground and began to cry.
Her voice was a bit hoarse, not as clear and crisp as other girls her age.
Xu Huo waited until she stopped crying before walking over. "I remember the information you registered in the beauty pageant listed you as female."
The purple-eyed girl looked at him. A flash of self-loathing crossed her strikingly beautiful face, then she stroked her long hair and said, "Don't you think I'm beautiful?"
"Did you have surgery?" Xu Huo asked again.
Guo Longzhi tossed her hair back. "Who are you? You shouldn't be a guest of the Dong family, right. An outer zone player like you couldn't even qualify to be a bodyguard for the Dong family. If you harass me, you'll have to think about the consequences."
Xu Huo handed her a business card. "I'm a psychotherapist."
Guo Longzhi paused for a moment, then still reached out and took the card. "Who hired you? The Dong family usually doesn't hire psychotherapists from the outer zones."
"I came to treat Young Master Xuan," Xu Huo said.
"I heard he came back." Guo Longzhi let out an ambiguous laugh. "The young master went out and got knocked down a peg, huh. It's serious enough to need a psychotherapist. Was he sold off?"
"That's the patient's privacy. I'm not at liberty to disclose it." Xu Huo sat down three meters away from her.
"It must be that, then." Guo Longzhi laughed out loud. "Serves him right!"
"Since you can move freely around the estate, your medical skills must be pretty good." She looked at Xu Huo with watery eyes. "Can you counsel me too?"
Xu Huo stared at her for a few seconds. "You are indeed very beautiful. Among the beauty pageant finalists, there were also boys. Why didn't you participate as a male?"
"A teenage boy is cute, but once their Adam's apple sticks out, their bodies shoot up, and coarse body hair grows on them, they're no longer cute." Guo Longzhi gave a light laugh, leaned forward, half-lying on the grass, and looked up at him from below. "Compared to boys, men still prefer girls."
She touched her stomach again. "I can even have children."
"When I get pregnant, would you say I'm the child's mother, or the child's father?"
"You're still young," Xu Huo said. "Whether as a male or a female, you're not at the age to bear the next generation."
Guo Longzhi shook her head, half-pushed herself up, and crawled a step closer to him, extending her slender fingers. "But soon after I enter the Snow Palace, I'll have to get married. Rather than having a child for some random man, I'd rather pick one myself... Move a little closer."
Xu Huo glanced at her hand. "If it's tiring to hold it up, put it down first. I'm just an innocent passerby. We haven't even exchanged ten sentences. No need to be in such a hurry to kill me, right?"
Guo Longzhi didn't directly respond to his words. Having her intention exposed, she casually flipped over and lay on her back on the ground, playing with her hair as she said, "Can a psychotherapist really see through other people's thoughts? A few days ago, some idiot from the Dong family fell for it and got his leg broken."
"You don't need psychology knowledge for that. Unsolicited favors are either theft or treachery—that's common sense." Xu Huo unscrewed a bottle of water.
Guo Longzhi heard the sound and glanced over. "I don't recognize the writing on that. Which district are you from?"
"You know many different scripts?" The player system automatically translates, so players don't have to learn the local language every time they go somewhere.
"Not that many," Guo Longzhi said. "I only studied the official languages. The noble languages."
Xu Huo put the water aside. "The Dong family is going to give you to the Game Government?"
Guo Longzhi gave an inexplicable smile. "Aren't they afraid I'll take revenge?"
"A one-time gift. No one giving a gift ever thinks the gift can bite back." Xu Huo showed a trace of pity. "How long do you think you'll survive in another district?"
"No more than a year." Guo Longzhi was very clear about her situation. "They say the pageant is once every three years, but actually, it's held every year. Scarcity increases value. People from the outer zones probably haven't seen much good stuff. Even white skin and white hair seem rare to them."
Xu Huo pointed at the sun above. "Why are you staying here?"
Guo Longzhi stopped her movements and sighed. "I guess I'm also someone who hasn't seen much."
"I'm a bit curious." She sat up again and looked at Xu Huo. "Is a place with a sun as dark as District 002?"
That question didn't need an answer, and Guo Longzhi wasn't really looking for one. After finishing, she asked him for another bottle of water. "I want to taste water from the outer zone."
"Water from the outer zone can't stop the pain either. Do you want me to call someone to give you a painkiller shot?" Xu Huo said.
"Having something that doesn't belong to you inside your body—how could it not hurt?" Guo Longzhi pressed her abdomen. "I don't want to see that woman. Do you have any painkiller medicine?"
Xu Huo didn't give her any either. Instead, he stood up to leave.
"Are all you outer zone people this cold-blooded?" Guo Longzhi suddenly demanded. "Why can you turn a blind eye to what's happening in District 002? You come and go freely. Is it really that hard to help one person?"
Xu Huo looked down at her from above. "You don't need my help."
With that, he left the botanical garden, closing the door behind him as he went.
Back inside the botanical garden, Guo Longzhi suddenly groaned and collapsed onto the ground. The long-haired woman who had brought the medicine rushed in hurriedly and picked her up. "Miss Longzhi!"
Guo Longzhi lay in her arms, drenched in sweat, clutching her clothes tightly. "It hurts so much..."
The long-haired woman, tears in her eyes, gently patted her back. "Why do you have to be like this? Can't you just be a man..."
"I wish all men were dead... Unfortunately, I was born a man..." Guo Longzhi pulled her closer. "Find a newcomer... My illness is acting up badly today... Someone has to die..."
Xu Huo, standing outside the door, raised an eyebrow after hearing these words. No wonder the psychotherapist industry was thriving in District 002. Needing to kill someone to calm your mood—that was already beyond the scope of ordinary psychological counseling.
In this place, even people who seemed normal might not be normal.
He took out the "Small Tunnel" and opened a passage to Bai Xueji's villa.
(Chapter End)