CH 2

Slowly, Physician Qi and Wan Fu Lian’s attitude towards him changed. Even though Hua Rong Yue was a little too young, and a little too good-looking, but they must agree that he was very steadfast and calm, and he was very smart. 

Hua Rong Yue’s personality was unlike Wan Fu Lian or Physician Qi’s. While he was amiable and gentle, he was also pragmatic, logical and collected. When he donned a serious expression, even his pretty face could hide his thoughts, leaving one uncertain about what he had in mind.  Topped off with his impeccable attire, he would able to scare off a number of misbehaving patients that had attempted to pull something funny. 

Not only so, after realising that this new apprentice could make soybean paste and pickled vegetables, and even dumplings too, Physician Qi and Wan Fu Lian finally succumbed. 

…

After tidying up everything, Hua Rong Yue entered his own room. Before sleeping, he closed the windows and placed a porcelain bowl before the window, 

To the others, Hua Rong Yue was always steady and collected. In reality however, after “he” returned to his own room, the person in the room was really a far throw from the calm and collected self that had presented to the others earlier.

She sighed heavily, feeling as though she’d just escaped the brink of death. 

She’d somehow made her way through another day.

She’d been through enough things in the past six month to write a “Transmigrator Guide” handbook. The opening paragraph would definitely start off with: “From experience, when placed under immense pressure, and supplied with sufficient resources and real-life hands-on opportunities, it is possible for someone to completely assume another identity that he or she did not know before within a short period of time…”

Hua Rong Yue: public servant, STEM student, stay-home person and infatuated with the 2D world. 

Meanwhile, Yi Ling Long: a professional assassin, a walking killing machine, someone with a tragic birth and death, someone who’d suppressed her personality, and her instincts. 

How was it possible for Hua Rong Yue to become Yi Ling Long? 

About half a year ago, Hua Rong Yue opened her eyes one day and found herself in another world. After bouts of suspicion and countless rounds of confirmation, she found something that explained all this tucked away a corner inside her head.

It was something like a word document. If she wanted to open “it”, a translucent interface would appear before her eyes. 

【This is the past and future of a pitiful person. I know you must be very confused about everything, but the only thing you need to concern yourself with is how to change this person’s fate. 】

After reading the entire document, Hua Rong Yue was a little at loss, and a little vexed about the upcoming troubles. 

Even though this body was a head taller than her original body, several years younger, and had a beautiful face, that didn’t mean she wanted to become Yi Ling Long. 

Hua Rong Yue graduated from university at 25, and was already working peacefully as a public servant… meanwhile, Yi Ling Long when she was 25 was already long dead, and she’d died a very tragic death.

According to the original world, this notorious assassin would encounter a series of obstacles. As a child, he was brought up with the sole intention of becoming a killing machine. When he was older and finally could take some things into his own control, his stressful childhood returned to haunt him; in the end, his mental state of mind collapsed and he succumbed to Madness. 

The one thing that he did that completely changed his life for the worse was — he was once issued a mission to board the Floral Vessel, and disguise himself as the most beautiful and most sought after queen of the flowers at the Vessel. He ended up steeping himself too deeply in his act, and fell into Madness. During his mission, he’d even attempted at something thoroughly appalling, and unorthodox — he got himself involved with another man.

After returning to Heaven’s Will Tower, his actions grew even stranger as he fell deeper into Madness. He began taking a peculiar favour to donning all sorts of vibrant, dazzling female robes, and would often put on makeup. Even his demeanour become more and more so like that of a female’s. 

When the news that Yi Ling Long became an effeminate Maniac spread, he was besieged by the righteous. In the end, he was met with a tragic death within Heaven’s Will Tower. Even till death, the man that Yi Ling Long had fallen in love with did not spare the latter a second glance. 

After reading through the entire story, Hua Rong Yue sighed heavily. From her perspective, Yi Ling Long’s life was perhaps much sadder than what it was made known to the masses. 

Because Yi Ling Long… was in fact just a girl that had fallen irrevocably in love with someone. Biologically speaking, “he” was in fact a she, Yi Ling Long was perceived as a male because she had cross-dressed from the very beginning in order to protect herself. 

After all, females had it much worse than males in Heaven’s Will Tower. 

However, all this happened much later. Before Heaven’s Will Tower was set ablaze, and before the sixth Master of the Tower died, Yi Ling Long was still a calm and deadly assassin.

In order to successfully assume the identity of Yi Ling Long, Hua Rong Yue spent a lot of time and effort in disguising herself. She tidied herself up and kept herself speckless at all times — to the point that just her stringent appearance was enough a reason for others to distance themselves from her. She was extremely careful, sensitive to details, and treaded the Tower so vigilantly it was as though she was walking on eggshells. Every single detail that she had to remember would be scribbled down on her arm; the notes were enough to fill her entire elbow. When completing her required tasks, and interacting with other people, she was alert and prudent; she memorised everything she was told, and kept her verbal interactions to people that even Yi Ling Long would know to the minimum.

Around two months ago, she finally saw a golden opportunity. 

In the original world, a notable incident that had occurred was Heaven’s Will Tower’s fire. The previous Master died; all of the Gu* worms that controlled the Tower’s assassins were in the previous Master’s hands. In the original world, Yi Ling Long remained in the Tower till her death. Hua Rong Yue’s choice however was vastly different from the original Yi Ling Long. She took advantage of the fact that she knew what was going to happen, and managed to retrieve her own Gu worm. And then, she disappeared. In the end however, the news that went around the grapevine evolved into — Yi Ling Long killed the Tower’s previous Master.

* Gu (蛊) are venomous worms that can be implanted inside human bodies and then take control over their host’s body.

It’s already been two month since the Tower’s fire, Hua Rong Yue had not expected for things to be blown so out of proportions. The entire jianghu was still bubbling over this incident. Exactly when will things die down? 

Hua Rong Yue had no idea if the fact that she was now Yi Ling Long would be discovered in the future, and so, she had to continue disguising as her Hua Rong Yue identity.

…

“Rong Yue, the Yamen said that there’ll be people coming over to improve the safety and security, stay in the apothecary if you can, don’t go out too much these days.” Physician Qi told Hua Rong Yue in the morning.

The Yamen was sending people over? Would they figure out who she was? They probably wouldn’t. While Yi Ling Long had quite a reputation, not a lot of people knew of her appearance before she became a Maniac.

Hua Rong Yue paused at Physician Qi’s words. After a moment of contemplation, she hummed in acknowledgement.