Transmigrating back was not actually without advantages.
While Zhao Xiaokui was suffering through the pains, she had realized all of her abilities.
[Water Control] by itself may be more practical than she had anticipated.
It was no longer necessary to use a towel or a hairdryer. She could expel all the water from her skin or cool down the hot porridge by dividing it into several parts without even touching it.
She did not know the [Water Control] could be used in such a manner. She didn't need to dry herself in the mermaid world. After all, what else could she do but catch fish by manipulating the water current?
Or drain all water to create a dry space? She had assumed that the enormous pressure beneath the ocean would not have permitted that.
After a few minutes, the chicken rice porridge had cooled down. She felt warmth return to her body only after she drank it. As the warmth spread from her stomach, the excruciating pain became more bearable.
After six hours of agony, her soul completed the transformation. Zhao Xiaokui detected the change of her ranked-up soul.
[Lazybug: Shadow_path suggested changing the ‘Level’ of the soul to ‘Rank’ of soul. I too feel it will be perfect in that context. Thank you for the suggestion.]
However, it was still incomplete. Even if the transformation had ended, her other water ability would take some time to manifest.
Her soul, like a fertilized egg, would require time to mature before becoming a full-grown baby. Even if a newborn baby would have hands and feet, it would still take time to mature and adapt to walking and running.
A computer could be started with a single button press, but it would take some time to boot up. It was the time she needed to give her newly ranked up soul to reach maturity.
Zhao Xiaokui estimated it would need around a year for her body to become attune with her stronger soul.
It was neither too fast nor too slow.
Transmigrating back, Zhao Xiaokui knew that if she could bear the pain, she would be able to adapt much faster. For now, she didn’t spare any thought about it.
Zhao Xiaokui checked the time after finishing the porridge. It was already past midnight.
"Shen Zhifei hasn't come back..."
“Could it be that she is trying to avoid me?” She considered such a possibility but called her nonetheless.
She was, after all, eating other people's food and sleeping in other people's houses. It would be ungrateful if she didn't care about the host's safety.
She couldn't help but feel embarrassed as the call went through and the ringing rang in her ears. After all, she had threatened Shen Zhifei. Rather than being a source of concern, the phone call appeared to be a hypocritical act.
"Hello?" Greeted by Zhao Xiaokui's silence, Shen Zeifei inquired first.
Zhao Xiaokui’s voice was low, "... It’s already past midnight."
Suddenly, Shen Zhifei wanted to laugh. She felt she was a terrible parent who had told her child when she would return home, but she didn't keep the promise.
The auction didn’t end on time. However, unlike her, few people stayed until the very end. There were only a few cars left in the large parking lot.
While listening to the phone, Shen Zhifei greeted a few people she recognized and pressed the car key. The door opened with a couple of beeps. She pushed open the door, tossed her belongings onto the passenger seat, and sat in the driver's seat.
“Sorry. I had some questions about the auction and completely forgot about the time while speaking with the organizer. I will be back soon. Are you hungry? Do you want to eat something? There may still be a few late-night restaurants open as of now. I can bring you something to eat.”
Shen Zhifei inquired in a casual tone. She appeared to be very familiar to Zhao Xiaokui as if they had known each other for many years.
This attitude almost made Zhao Xiaokui forget they had only met this afternoon.
‘Even if you are trying to play rough… Okay, I will play along.’
Even if she doubted that Shen Zhifei wasn’t very sincere, and all of her concern was a ruse, Zhao Xiaokui still decided to accept it.
She had a soft spot in her heart for older women who were kind and gentle.
“You can bring whatever you want. I can eat everything.” Fearing that Shen Zhifei would misunderstand, she cautiously explained to her, “I don’t want to be a bother. I really can eat anything. So don't be concerned; you can bring whatever you want. You don't have to bring anything if it's too much trouble. I'm not particularly hungry, either.”
‘Afraid of bothering other people? She even knew how to express gratitude and restraint in response to the kindness shown to her, huh?’
Shen Zhifei was perplexed because this contradicted the report she had received from the private investigator she had hired.
In that hundred-page report, Zhao Zijin was described as a woman who would send President Rong to buy a barbecue 20 kilometers away in the middle of the night.
Zhao Xiaokui seemed to her like a little girl who hadn't grown up, someone who had no idea about how to differentiate between good and evil, yet...
“Will a portion similar to what you had in the afternoon suffice?”
She had fed Zhao Xiaokui a lot of food before sending her into the bathtub. It included a whole 12-inch cake, a party bucket full of chocolate, and as well as countless other snacks.
Zhao Xiaokui was unable to respond to this question right away. She couldn't decide whether she should restrain herself or eat until her heart was full.
‘In front of Shen Zhifei, I don’t need to maintain my human facade. However, eating so much after midnight… Will it turn me into a rice bucket?’ Zhao Xiaokui couldn't stop herself from wondering.
As soon as Zhao Xiaokui went silent, Shen Zhifei, on the other end of the line, guessed the answer.
In her mind, she recalled the locations of several shops that would be still open until the early hours of the morning. She was about to press the start button after inserting the key into the keyhole.
Shen Zhifei couldn't stop imagining how her car would smell if it were stuffed with food.
What was surprising, however, was that she didn't feel disgusted or repulsed by such a thought for some reason.
Perhaps it was because of the person to whom she was going to bring the food…
Is it unpleasant? No, not at all.
She couldn’t just suppress the seed of temptation that had sprouted in her heart. Even if she had been on the verge of death...
'It wasn't her fault,' Shen Zhifei spontaneously defended Zhao Xiaokui, thinking, ‘she probably didn't even know what happened during her coma.’
“I'm going to drive. Sleep for a while if you're tired. You can get food from the refrigerator if you're hungry. The restaurant…”
*Blink*
It was pitch black. The lights of the parking lot went off without warning.
It wasn’t just the light. Shen Zhifei didn’t realize when the sounds of human activity outside the car vanished. Her world was engulfed in deathly silence. It was as if the darkness had swallowed all sound of footsteps and voices.
She dared not to move in the darkness. She stared in every direction like a hungry eagle. However, she couldn’t find anything. The darkness made her blind. She couldn't even see herself in the pitch blackness.
Shen Zhifei drowned in the darkness. It was as if her entire body was engulfed in a thick, gooey substance. Her heart was becoming as heavy as stone with each passing moment. Her moistened breath had a rotting odor to it.
‘Something is wrong… very wrong’
It was just this afternoon when she had experienced the mysterious supernatural phenomenon for the first time. Shen Zhifei was no longer skeptical of those scientifically unexplainable abilities.
‘What kind of power is this?’ Shen Zhifei couldn’t help wondering. However, the pressing question in her mind was, ‘What should I do?’
She was afraid to open the door. Because the car had an automatic locking feature, she would have been safe in this isolated environment if she had gotten into the car before the creature in the dark appeared. She wasn't sure how long she'd be able to maintain this delusion of security, though.
Rather than powerful monsters or bloody murderers, real terror born from the fear of the unknown; like a sword of death kissing the neck.
She couldn't do anything, though.
Zhao Xiaokui, on the other hand, was no longer able to hear Shen Zhifei's voice. She might not have known Shen Zhifei for a long time, but it felt strange to her.
As soon as silence greeted her from the other end, she realized the fact that something had gone wrong. And it couldn’t be simple.
The evolution didn’t just upgrade her physical features, but also enhanced her senses. Even if she was on the phone with Shen Zhifei, she had still heard the rustling sounds in the parking lot through the phone.
Those sounds, however, vanished almost instantly.
She noticed Shen Zhifei had not hung up the phone.
‘Something appeared…’ Zhao Xiaokui did not doubt it.
“I hope the opponent won’t be too powerful.” Zhao Xiaokui mumbled as she checked Shen Zhifei's wardrobe, “otherwise, I might just become an extra dish.”
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Lazybug: Last month, my family had an accident. My aunt died and my brother had to get surgery. I wasn’t in my right mind to translate.
Also, I'm wearing a plaster cast on my right hand. So typing is difficult. It will be a few weeks before I can update regularly. But I'll make a few posts here and there. Please be patient.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
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