The door of a private room in the special ward closed with a light click, signaling the departure of its patient's visitor. Soon, the sound of high heels clicking on the ground also faded away, leaving only silence behind.
Meanwhile, a beautiful young girl who looked to be barely out of her teens was deeply asleep on the only bed in the room, her face sporting an expression of peace and contentment– or not.
'...'
Because, this young girl, who looked to be in the deep reaches of the dreamland suddenly opened a single eye and covertly looked in the direction of the door and then continued checking the rest of the room. Seeing it empty of any living creatures save herself, she opened her other eye and heaved a long and weary sigh.
Yang Jingshen knew that he should have talked more with the young woman who departed just moments ago, but he was honestly not in the right state of mind to entertain his beautiful guest in a satisfactory manner.
One reason was that he was afraid of slipping up and telling something he shouldn't be in the know of. Granted, he was supposed to have amnesia, but this didn't mean that he could run off his mouth as he wished.
But the main reason for his refusal to engage Feng Xue was none other than the denial still prevailing in his heart regarding this whole absurd situation, despite his outward acceptance.
Because, Yang Jingshen, after waking up and finding himself mired in these totally weird and ridiculous circumstances, finally realized that he had somehow or other managed to get inside a novel– no, what do you call this thing again? Hmmmmmmm… oh, it's transmigration, right?
Now, where was he? Ah, then he had ended up transmigrating inside the body of a cannon fodder character in this particular novel, and a female one at that! Not only that, this is the type of character that had the misfortune of dying in the first 20 or so chapters no less! Actually, the original owner of his current body died in the eleventh chapter of this novel in question. →_→
And, did he mention that this was a book with more than a thousand chapters?
'...'
The indignity of it all!
He, Yang Jingshen, upcoming film emperor and bonafide genius with a high IQ and EQ, got thrown inside this kind of body? What kinda sick joke was that eh? Of course, he'd be unwilling!
Now then, someone might be wondering how our Yang Jingshen managed to transmigrate into this particularly murderous and trashy novel, considering that he kept claiming himself to be a possessor of absolutely high IQ and EQ.
Because, according to what usually happens in those 'transmigrating into books' trope novels, he should have read this thing for him to have transmigrated inside a character in it in the first place ah!
But, did this type of book look like one that a self-proclaimed genius like him would read in his free time? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm… Really sus! But then,
"It was that damned Li Min!" When he was later asked about this matter, this was the fuming reply given by our man.
Li Min, his young assistant had been an efficient and reliable individual, and both Yang Jingshen and his agent had always been quite satisfied with her work ethic. This was saying quite something since he already changed assistants four times during his rather brief career before finally settling on her.
But this brat, Li Min, had one fatal weakness which was commonly seen among a certain group of youngsters her age; she was addicted to reading web novels. No, it wasn't fatal to begin with, and he didn't really mind this little addiction of hers in the past either– Yang Jingshen's principle had always been that as long as his goals were achieved, other things were of little importance.
But, now that his indulgence in her ridiculous hobby had landed him in this kind of situation, he was deeply regretting his previous apathy.
Because, it was Li Min, who, having started to read this trashy novel named 'How to be a superstar' kept praising it to Yang Jingshen until even the usually indifferent him began to take an interest in it. And, he could only say that there really is a wealth of meaning behind the saying 'curiosity killed the cat'.
Of course, he had stopped reading this novel after barely reaching 30 chapters because it had been too damaging to his IQ. Like, why the hell should he spend his precious time reading a 1000-something word chapter in a book with nothing but praise for the unearthly beauty of the MC; how large, beautiful, watery, and black her eyes were, or how soft, tender, moist and white her skin was, or how long, silky and black was her hair and blah blah blah…
Yeah, you probably got the gist, and considering that he himself had always been such a looker, Yang Jingshen found it really difficult to understand the thought process of the novel's author. Ah, pei! (1)
But, the ink was spilled and the damage was already done. And, he wouldn't, even for a moment believe it if anyone said that he was facing this supernatural phenomenon of transmigration not because of that damned book!
Once again cursing Li Min and her eight generations of ancestors and even her eight generations of descendants supposed to arrive in the world– ah, he forgot that he was no longer in 'his' world!
"Fuck that! I think I'm starting to lose my marbles at this rate." Muttering another bunch of expletives, Yang Jingshen slowly and carefully got off the bed and hobbled towards the door with the help of his crutches, ignoring the occasional pain that shot up his still-mending leg.
Opening the door, he carefully looked at both sides of the long corridor before sneakily moving in one direction. Not, that he was prohibited from walking around or anything -they always tell him to walk more using his crutches- but he didn't think that this leniency would extend towards his quest in search of a vending machine.
Because all of a sudden, Yang Jingshen felt like he urgently needed to drink something cold and sweet to get rid of the nastily lingering taste of weeks of bland hospital food as well as to soothe his bruised heart. The meal bought by Feng Xue had almost done the trick, but the portions were halved down to suit his ailing body and were not nearly enough.
He will take an oath that he wouldn't aim for anything drastic like iced coffee, but maybe he can have some iced tea or lemonade?
Smacking his lips at the idea of finally having a taste of something sweet after what felt like forever, Yang Jingshen increased his gait and turned the corner, only to collide with something (someone?) much bigger and harder than him.
He flailed his arms, but it was to no avail.
"Ack!" Feeling himself falling down, he squeaked quite unceremoniously, thinking that he was done for– his poor leg wouldn't definitely survive this ordeal. It was at this moment that something caught him; something hard, strong, and definitely… alive.
'...'
It was an arm— Yang Jingshen could guess as much. A male one at that!
Blanching at the prospect of the oncoming shame, he cracked open his eyes and taking a look at the face hovering above his, felt his heart fall into utter bleakness; his worlds froze as snow storms raged, while everything fell into eternal darkness and it became all desolate within mere moments!
Wriggling out of the arm supporting him that felt like a brand seared on his skin, Yang Jingshen started to question the meaning of his existence. Why was he even born? Was it to suffer constant humiliation like this?
He was starting to feel like the world was pointing its imaginary finger at him and laughing its ass off. 'Look at this, you poor bugger– you only amount to this much. No matter what, that past glory is gone.'
"Miss are you ok?"
Yang Jingshen gnashed his teeth, feeling jealousy brimming his heart. 'Even his voice sounds better than mine.'
Yep, you got it right. Our Jingshen was jealous. Because, the young man standing in front of him was a stunner unlike one he had ever seen, probably even a notch above his original looks.
'...' He was jealousjealousjealousjealousjealousJEALOUS!!! Why did this kind of guy have to appear in front of him now out of all the times? If it was in the past he too could have boasted of his dreamy good looks and stand on equal grounds with this type of person.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Now, wait a minute! Why should it be on equal grounds? And what with that 'a notch above his looks'? Clearly, he, Yang Jingshen used to look infinitely better than this sort of wimpy brat! Hmph! Who was this guy to compare to his peerless existence?
Sadly though…
"I already lost my precious precious precious precious dragon!!" (2) Yang Jingshen muttered glumly while tapping the crutch someone had been kind enough to put into his hand while he had been ranting internally. He knew he was starting to sound like Gollum, but then again, who cares?
"--s are you ok?"
"Hmm?" Lifting his head, he was met with the sight of that incomparably handsome face yet again, and the atmosphere started to slowly turn awkward.
"..."
"..."
'Fuck! Why am I the only one getting embarrassed like this? For the past few weeks, I endured this and that– my body and even everyone and everything I know changed and this world also changed. I won't take this lying down! Not anymore!!'
Later on, when he thought back to this moment, Yang Jingshen would cower from the sheer cringe of his actions. But, the only excuse he had for himself was that at that moment he had felt utterly free like a bird released from its cage and supremely heroic like he was finally able to stand up for himself against all the injustice the universe continued dishing at him.
He could only say that the euphoria resulting from his anger propelled him to do something he would have never imagined his refined self to be even capable of. Or… could it have been a rare case of hidden chuunibyou flare-up?
Whatever he thought of his actions later on, at this very moment, under the gentle and encouraging gaze of his new rival(?), Yang Jingshen only did one thing.
He suddenly flipped his middle finger, and before the stupified handsome stranger nor the group of people following him could react in the slightest, he just as quickly scuttled back the way he came from, with a speed unimaginable for a patient of his condition.
*Sigh* So much for his supposed maturity and elegance...
#####
Glossary:
01) Ah pei:- Usually used to indicate the sound of spitting.
02) Dragon:- here, he uses the word dragon to refer to his *cough* you-know-what. Anyway, this wording is usually used because a dragon is an animal symbolizing power and strength, so, I suppose you get the general idea of it. ≥∇≤