[Lazybug: This author's Chinese is very easy to translate, but he has a unique way of writing. Rather than giving a monologue or thought of a character, the author breaks the fourth wall and writes the info directly, explaining what he needs to explain.
It’s not a writing style I have translated before. So I translated the flow of the story in the past tense (it’s most suitable). And all the information/explanation is going to be in the present tense. The previous translator also used a similar process. Please let me know if you have a suggestion.]
Zhao Xiaokui was not sure whether Shen Zhifei would listen to her words. She could only have hoped for the best.
Rather than fainting on the street and being taken to the hospital by an enthusiastic crowd, she was more willing to bet on Shen Zhifei. She couldn't enter the hospital, not now, at least.
Most of the time, an injury was the origin of pain, however, growth or mutation could also cause pain.
She knew from the research conducted by the mermaids that the body and soul are intertwined and inseparable. Most of the time, the soul and the body are in harmony. Together, they grow and decay.
It wasn't absolute, though. Nobody could predict when an accident would occur or when lady luck would be smiling at them. Just as not every pack of instant noodles contains seasonings, there are always a few lucky ones who are blessed with fate to win the "grand prize"
For a soul, being too weak or too strong was not the best option. Needless to say, the former would be too dumb, have a low IQ, and respond more slowly than ordinary people. It could be attributed to their weak, incomplete soul.
The second one sounded like a protagonist who stood out. But more often than not, it's like stuffing a three hundred pound fat man into small clothes. Either he'd be strangled to death, or his clothes would be torn apart.
Fortunately, Zhao Xiaokui was not too "fat". Otherwise, when she returned to her body, ordinary people in a coffee shop would have watched a gruesome horror movie in broad daylight.
Sometimes she had the impression that fate liked to play jokes on her. In the mermaid world, the human soul of Zhao Xiaokui was too weak, making its growth rate much slower than that of the ordinary mermaid.
Just by reaching adulthood, ordinary mermaids were able to reach the second level of their growth. Yet she had to struggle hard to escape the stigma of a 'no-level'. She crossed the threshold just to become a level-one mermaid.
[Lazybug: I used the 'level' instead of the 'rank. ' As with each ‘level’, both her body and soul will develop or grow, the term 'level' is better suited for growth than 'rank'.]
However, things were different in the human world. She was lucky that her soul was only at level one, otherwise, she wouldn't be able to return to her body.
According to research records of the mermaid world, with each level of growth, the life-force has gone through a process of sublimation. Thus, with each level of growth, the soul would radically change.
Compared to level 2, the reformation of the body due to the achievement of level 1 could not be considered earth-shattering and was still within the limits of human pain tolerance.
However, this transformation was the very reason she couldn't go to the hospital.
The reconstruction of the body that followed the evolution of the soul wasn't slow and subtle, nor was it an undetectable process. It's a violent and painful one.
Like fire molding the shape of steel, the soul would shape the body into a suitable vessel of its own as quickly as possible.
Even Zhao Xiaokui herself did not know what would happen to her during the intense reconstruction.
To begin with, this was a supernatural process that had never been studied before; no one could say for sure that a new organ would not appear or that some organ would not disappear because of mutation.
That's also why she didn't dare to appear in front of the doctor. She didn't want to wake up and find herself lying on a dissection table, under bright light, in a laboratory.
Shen Zhifei firmly grabbed Zhao Xiaokui's weak body. The soft and delicate body melted in her arm. Shen Zhifei could feel the shaking of the body of Zhao Xiaokui in her arms; it was trembling non-stop.
Drops of sweat formed on her pale, delicate skin. Signs of weakness became apparent in her body.
Soon, the chauffeur realized something was wrong. He rushed out of the car and asked, "Madam, should I call 120?"
[Ladybug: 120 is the emergency number for the ambulance service.]
"No. Call my personal doctor. Tell him to wait for me at my house."
'Perhaps there will be a report of miscarriage on the hot search tomorrow after I go to the hospital today.' Shen Zhifei had never trusted the morality and integrity of the current media outlets, 'they just look for hottest trends and spicy gossip. Never do they try to find the truth.'
She couldn't help but feel pity for these artists. Even if they were sick, they didn't even dare to go to the hospital.
The chauffeur was having similar thoughts. Although he was over 40 and a normal middle-aged uncle, he also paid attention to gossip entertainment. He needed to interact with these people for his work, after all.
Shen Zhifei carried her like a princess. Even if she was a woman, she was not too weak. After all, she had been exercising every day, all year round.
She had no problem in carrying a woman similar to her height. Glancing at Zhao Xiaokui, she understood that this woman wasn't too heavy, but she couldn't help but feel astonished by the lightness in her arms when she carried her in her arms.
'I heard the camera adds 30 jin of fat. But it looks like this woman is harsher on herself than I thought.' Thinking about Zhao Xiaokui's weight, she couldn't help but sigh in her heart.
[Lazybug: 30 jin= 18 kg. I really don't know what kind of camera that is.]
While trying to find an explanation for Zhao Xiaokui's sudden unconsciousness, Shen Zhifei could come up with just one reason: her blood sugar is too low.
It was five o'clock in the afternoon when they met at the café. It was almost time for dinner. She ordered a cup of sweetened cappuccino to replenish her sugar level. However, Zhao Xiaokui had ordered only a cup of concentrated Americano.
Thinking about it, she walked into the car. The chauffeur started the car and drove to Shen Zhifei's house. Outside the window, the scenery accelerated in the opposite direction.
Shen Zhifei moved her eyes and checked the face of the person close to her; this person was supposed to be her love rival.
Shen Zhifei had once read a comment about Zhao Xiaokui's beauty on the internet, saying that she had a face of a celestial being. And now she felt it was true.
The first time she saw Zhao Xiaokui, it was in a commercial on the mobile app's opening screen.
It was a dynamic video commercial, capturing 360 views of her face. It was so close that it felt like the lenses were almost touching her face, yet it failed to find a single ugly angle of her face.
At that time, she felt this girl was so pretty.
'Rong Zhen is a supercilious man who feels that the entire world revolves around him. Even that arrogant man is crazy about her.' Shen Zhifei always wondered why. However, as she saw the actual person today, she understood it all.
‘This woman is truly beautiful beyond human imagination.’ Shen Zhifei moved closer to take a better look at her. Zhao Xiaokui's eyelashes trembled a little, and she frowned slightly. Her beautiful face contorted in pain.
As Shen Zhifei looked at her painful expression, she understood the meaning of 'Xizi holds the heart*'.
[Lazybug: *西子捧心 is an idiom that goes along the meaning even when in pain the beauty will be still beautiful.]
Staring at the mesmerizing beauty, she forgot to breathe for a moment. Her eyes were stuck to the Zhao Xiaokui as if she was a sticky candy.
It was only when the chauffeur stepped onto the accelerator again that her trance broke.
She was quick to check the situation just to find that Zhao Xiaokui was lying on her lap.
Shen Zhifei noticed that her skin was as delicate as porcelain, she couldn’t see a single pore on her face. And the drops of sweat that had leaked out of her forehead looked like brilliant crystals.
She peeled off the wrapper and pushed a piece of chocolate into Zhao Xiaokui's mouth. The moment her finger touched her lips, she almost thought she was touching the delicate petals of a rose.
[Ladybug: Stop this woman, otherwise she might turn this novel into smut. She even forgot that Xiaokui was her enemy in love.
Jokes aside, I am back. I am a translator who translated novels that have not received enough love and have been abandoned by the translator. So if you have any suggestions, please let me know about that. (Though I'm not sure the previous translators will allow me to translate them.)
And support me on KO-FI: https://ko-fi.com/whotakesallthenames]