Chapter 261

261 WHAT HAPPENED TEN YEARS AGO

Note: this chapter contains a flashback scene, and it took place ten years ago.

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[Six years ago, his thoughts were very simple. Knowing how his mother was kidnapped before being mercilessly killed in a river not far from Mount Heping, he thought he just needed to kill himself in the same river so he could meet his mother in the afterlife.

He was a naive nine-year-old kid at the time, and since he assumed that his life would be useless without his mother, he foolishly thought of ending it. Moreover, he also hated himself back then. Whenever he looked at his reflection in the mirror, he could see the disgusting golden scales on his forehead, and he assumed that he was no longer human with the scales that normally belonged to a fish.

Even his father asked one of the maidservants in the palace to help him cover the golden scales using a bandage every day. His father told him not to show the scales to anyone if he didn’t want to be hurt by some bad people.

Back then, he didn’t even understand the situation, but he obeyed his father’s orders to hide the ugly scales on his forehead. Unfortunately, the golden scales on his forehead were not the only ones as several other parts of his body were also covered by the same scales. Thus, he truly believed that he was no longer a human with a large number of fish scales.

He thought that the world would not need a strange human like him, and that was why he foolishly decided to jump into the river flowing from the top of Mount Heping. At that time, he really died, but who would have thought that another child managed to save him from Hell?

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The boy was called “ChenChen,” but his real name was Bai Chen. Even after six years had passed and he was now a fifteen-year-old teenager, he still remembered the name as if it had been engraved in his mind.

Of course, he still remembered that name because it belonged to the person who gave him a second chance to live. Perhaps the boy just accidentally gave him his Power Crystal, but the boy ended up losing his crystal which was the source of his strength to save him, and that was why he felt indebted to the boy.

Now, he was no longer a naive child who would attempt suicide just because of losing his mother and losing the trust of many people, but rather he had a bigger goal that he wanted to achieve by continuing to live in this world.

Wu Jinhai was now fifteen years old, and he had even received an honorary name from his father which automatically replaced the birth name given to him by his parents fifteen years ago. Now, he was no longer the clueless Wu Jiang but a mature Wu Jinhai, and he could even decide what he should do to hide the golden scales on his forehead.

So, he no longer used gauze to cover the exposed golden scales on his forehead, and he used a golden mask instead. Behind the golden mask, he tried to hide the truth that he was no longer a normal human being.

Wu Jinhai always felt that the atmosphere in the Wu Li Imperial Palace was suffocating as the two factions continued to have a cold war there. Maybe those people didn’t immediately raise their swords to kill each other in broad daylight, but the way they stared at each other coldly whenever they walked past each other was enough to prove that those people’s hearts were filled with hatred.

That was why Wu Jinhai didn’t like spending time in the palace, and he would choose to wander around the Wu Li Empire instead. Just like today, he was also wandering lazily in one of the markets in Wu Li. To be honest, even the food cooked by the palace cook didn’t taste good on his tongue because the air there was too suffocating, and that was why the masked youth carefully carried his long legs to one of the taverns in the market.

People with high status in the empire definitely recognized him as the Eldest Prince of Wu Li, but the commoners in the market knew nothing of his identity. What they did when they saw the man in red enter the market was offering the goods they were selling as they usually did to other customers.

“Aiyah, young man! Why are you wearing such an ugly mask? You should see my beautiful masks here! I’m sure you’ll look even more handsome if you wear the one I’m selling! I can even give you a discount!”

Wu Jinhai’s steps suddenly came to a halt when he heard how an old woman was enthusiastically offering the item she was selling to him. When he stopped walking, he could see that the woman was selling more than a dozen masks at her stall, and his brown eyes peeked through the two holes of his mask as he looked at the masks the old woman was selling.

“You agree with me that the masks I sell are prettier than the ones you wear, right, young man? That’s why you should buy one of them. I’m pretty sure beautiful women will get stuck by your side if you wear the mask I’m selling,” the old woman continued to offer the mask she was selling, and she even smiled widely at the man in red, not caring about how her front row of teeth had lost two teeth since she was no longer young.

???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????

Wu Jinhai heard the old woman’s words, but he didn’t plan to say anything in return for the words she said. Instead, he was going to carry his feet to continue walking towards a tavern in the market, but he was forced to delay his movement when he heard someone else talking to him.

“The mask you’re wearing isn’t ugly at all, young man. On the contrary, I think it’s very beautiful. Was the drawing on the mask made by someone important to you, young man?”]