Old district streets shaded by ancient trees, with cicadas chirping and birds singing. Peddling calls, amplified through crackly speakers, repeated ceaselessly: “Steamed buns, fried dough sticks, soy milk…”
The moment Lu Aotian opened his eyes, he realized he had already been sent back to his original world by the Quick Transmigration Bureau.
His brain was still in the familiar haze of dizziness, forcing him to only search through very distant, fragmented memories in his mind.
Lu Aotian vaguely recalled that back then, he had been run over by a large truck fully loaded with steel. He thought his muddled life had ended right there, but he was unexpectedly bound by the Quick Transmigration System and ultimately succeeded in obtaining a chance for resurrection.
He thought he would wake up in a hospital bed, but upon opening his eyes, he found himself standing in front of a breakfast shop.
A long queue stretched in front of the shop. Across a wide main road stood the grand and imposing marble main entrance of the Affiliated Hospital.
Why was he here? Even if the male lead father-son duo had successfully seized power, they wouldn’t dump him in a rundown hospital in an old district like this, if only for appearances’ sake.
However, the excitement of a king’s return quickly diluted the doubt in his heart. Lu Aotian deeply gazed at this long-missed world for a moment, a glint of sharp light flashing through his eyes.
Just then, a voice came from behind him: “Little friend, where are your parents?”
Lu Aotian: ?
“If you’re not eating, don’t hog the stool, okay?” The chubby boss wiped sweat from his forehead. Scanning the area and seeing no parents responding, he reached out, picked Lu Aotian up from the plastic stool he was standing on, and passed the stool to a waiting customer.
Lu Aotian was already dizzy from transmigration. His head spun more when someone moved him, but he couldn’t dwell on that. As soon as he was steady on his feet, he immediately looked down. Seeing clearly, his small frame swayed violently.
He, Lu Aotian, the former Sky-Shielding Divine Venerable, SSSSSS-Class Humanoid Weapon, Unrivaled Ghost Emperor… had actually become a short-limbed, three-heads-tall toddler?
There must be a problem!
Resurrection, unless it was a special selection by the person involved, always reversed from the time of death. Even the missions he performed before were always into adult bodies. Except for his actual childhood, he had never been a toddler.
Lu Aotian called out to the System in his mind, but before he could wait for a response, another wave of customers surged at the entrance of the bustling breakfast shop, immediately shoving him outwards.
A rough male voice came from beside him: “Hey hey hey, take it easy, buddy, don’t push! I’m still squatting here, and there’s a kid next to me!”
It was a burly man who, unable to find a seat, simply squatted by the roadside to eat his breakfast. Lu Aotian quickly swept his gaze over the man.
The burly man’s attention was on his phone call. He glanced to see the little boy beside him hadn’t been jostled, then withdrew his gaze and continued complaining to his superior:
“Sister Li, I really can’t do a thing. I specifically got up early to see that kid. What fracture? It’s just a twisted ankle. He just doesn’t want to come on the baby variety show.”
“Is there really no backup option?” He asked, then took another bite of his bun. Something flickered in his mind, but was immediately interrupted by his boss’s new order. “Sigh, I’ll go try again later…”
Lu Aotian was still trying to call the System but getting nowhere. He was preparing to find a quiet corner to plot his next steps.
He spotted half a discarded mirror leaning next to a trash bin at the alley entrance and naturally walked toward it, needing to confirm the current state of this body.
But just as he approached, a figure darted out of the dark alley and immediately scooped up Lu Aotian’s tiny body.
The middle-aged man reeked of sweat and spoke with a thick rural accent: “Where you runnin’ off to, baby boy? Made your pa look hard for ya!”
Lu Aotian, having been sent into the body of a child by a transmission error, couldn’t immediately confirm if he’d been sent into his own childhood or someone else’s. Being suddenly grabbed, he hesitated for a moment.
Looking up and meeting the middle-aged man’s greed-flashing eyes, Lu Aotian immediately dismissed his suspicion. This man was definitely a human trafficker. He was all too familiar with that kind of malicious gaze.
Afraid? Unthinkable. Even if he’d lost his formidable physique and become a weak child, he still had his brain. A mere thug was nothing to fear.
Lu Aotian’s still-dizzy brain spun rapidly. He blinked his clear, bright eyes and put on an innocent, blank look, as if trying to recognize whether the person before him was his long-lost father.
The child was skinny and small, looking dull-eyed and not too bright. The trafficker, seeing the child seemed to actually believe him, relaxed his tense arms a little and changed tactics. Hastily putting on a face of relieved rediscovery, he continued his con: “Pa’s been lookin’ for ya so hard, so hard!” Saying this, he made to turn and walk into the dark alley behind him.
Just as Lu Aotian was preparing to play along a bit more to further lower the man’s guard, a loud, clear shout came from afar: “Wait! Don’t go—!”
A burly man not far away huffed and puffed as he ran over, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he muttered frantically: “Sir, I want to talk to you about your kid, about going on, on the show… don’t… don’t run…”
The middle-aged man’s original plan was to just coax the child home like this. After all, he hadn’t expected to pick up a free child early in the morning without needing a knockout drug-laced handkerchief. Luckily, the kid was foolish enough to cooperate.
Seeing a burly man chasing after him now, the trafficker immediately panicked. Hugging the child, he lifted his legs and ran.
Lu Aotian had no choice but to quickly switch strategies, planning to use the burly man… Before he could finish the thought, the burly man behind him was already too exhausted to run and stopped midway, panting heavily.
Lu Aotian watched helplessly as the distance between the two sides grew further and further apart. He felt the anger buzzing in his head. Useless!
~
Carrying Lu Aotian, the trafficker ran out of the dark alley and then made a dash down another, less crowded branch road.
Lu Aotian continued to pretend to be foolishly calm as he was carried, his fingertips secretly scraping at the grime on his cuffs, searching for the next opportunity to break free. The trafficker was clearly very familiar with the local routes. Seeing them running into more and more desolate areas, Lu Aotian knew he didn’t have much time left.
There was only one pedestrian on this remote path: a tall, thin young man who looked sickly and dispirited. Holding a diagnostic result in his hand, he was wandering by the roadside, looking completely lost, as if his soul had left his body.
When the trafficker carried Lu Aotian past, the boy spotted him immediately. But after experiencing the useless burly man, Lu Aotian, seeing the stranger’s frail figure, had no expectations of him and directly categorized him as a mere variable to increase success rate.
The trafficker, seeing the burly man hadn’t caught up and that the skinny weakling ahead could be kicked over in one hit, considered himself safe. His breath eased, and his pace slowed.
At that moment, the child in his arms formed his hands into claw shapes. Nails packed with grime instantly gouged into the trafficker’s eyes. The stinging irritation from the filth and the force of Lu Aotian’s desperate dig made the trafficker howl and curse.
The trafficker had to lift one hand to block the child’s attack: “You little dog-spawned animal!”
Lu Aotian fiercely bit onto the trafficker’s waving hand, while simultaneously tightening the force in his fingers once more. The strength, almost exceeding the physical limits of a toddler’s body, was entirely focused on the trafficker.
The three or four-year-old boy, gaunt and thin, had no trace of baby fat on his cheeks. His beautiful peach-blossom eyes were bloodshot from the extreme exertion.
The trafficker screamed in excruciating pain. His other arm, which clamped Lu Aotian, loosened as he used both hands to try and pry the child off.
Lu Aotian released his bite, letting the man try to tear him away. All his strength was concentrated in his tiny, grimy hands, one clutching at each eyeball until his strength was completely exhausted, finally being thrown off by the trafficker.
Theoretically, his landing should involve rolling to neutralize inertia, but this body was simply too weak. After nearly bursting the trafficker’s eyeballs, his limbs were no longer agile enough to react.
Just as he was waiting for the muffled “Bam—!” of impact with the ground, he was instead securely caught in a warm, firm embrace.
Lu Aotian raised an eyebrow, not having expected this frail-looking young man to be more useful than the burly man earlier.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the trafficker, unable to open his eyes, still trying to lunge this way. Lu Aotian’s expression darkened. He raised his gaze to the pale, haggard young man in front of him.
Lu Aotian’s eyes were full of intimidating, domineering authority as he commanded the other: “Call the police, this is a traffiger.” The moment he opened his mouth, the majestic momentum turned into a soft, milky baby voice.
Not just milky, but also somewhat slurred.
Lu Aotian: !!!
Slurred speech is normal for a small child. The young man’s attention was entirely on the word “trafficker,” but Lu Aotian was so mortified by his own strange voice that his whole body stiffened.
However, it was only for a moment. He then made a move to leave the young man’s embrace, ready to continue using his wits against the trafficker.
Unexpectedly, the other’s single-armed grip was even stronger than the trafficker’s. The seemingly haggard and thin young man spun around and kicked out, his strike fast as lightning, landing right on the trafficker’s groin.
The trafficker was kicked to the ground, curling up, one hand covering his eyes and the other his crotch, writhing on the ground in pain.
Lu Aotian: …?
Hearing the word “trafficker,” the young man’s inner fury instantly shot up three thousand meters. After kicking the man, he suppressed his anger and confirmed with the child: “You were really kidnapped by him?”
“Yes, he is a trafficker.” Lu Aotian tried to suppress his baby voice but failed. Frustration welled up inside him. He tried to find a reasonable explanation for the situation: this sickly young man must have just kicked with incredible precision, to be able to bring down a middle-aged man in one kick.
Lu Aotian had just reached this conclusion when he saw the young man slam the brown paper bag in his other hand to the ground. Holding the child tightly with both arms, he raised his foot and pounded on the man fiercely: “I hate traffickers and domestic abusers most in this life! You bastard, die! for! me!”
“Crack—” The sound of a man’s bone breaking.
Lu Aotian: …
The young man’s voice wasn’t loud, and his breathing was very heavy. He sounded genuinely, terribly weak. But the power behind his kicks onto the trafficker was astonishingly strong.
The middle-aged man had started off cursing and shouting, but later was in so much pain that only hoarse, rough groans remained.
The facts were right before his eyes, yet everything defied logic. Lu Aotian looked at the explosively powerful but frail young man. Could it be that he had mistakenly arrived in a world that appeared ordinary but actually possessed superpowers?
~
Ji Nuo always knew his own limits. Seeing that the trafficker had been kicked beyond running, he finally stopped.
Turning to the little boy beside him, he adjusted his emotions, revealing two gentle, shallow dimples.
The child was filthy and smelly. At a glance, he was dark and thin, like a little beggar who’d been wandering for days. Having not seen clearly in the backlight earlier, Ji Nuo only noticed now that the child’s facial features were actually quite well-formed.
Especially his large, glistening eyes, with long, dense eyelashes that fluttered as he blinked. The curve of his eye shape was full, the outer corner slightly upturned. Like Ji Nuo’s own, they were standard peach-blossom eyes.
The difference was, the child’s pupils were a grey-blue. Under the sunlight, they shimmered like two crystalline glass beads, beautiful to the point of seeming unreal.
A faint, flushed hue touched Ji Nuo’s pale, wan cheeks from the intense “aerobic exercise.” The warm sunlight streamed across his delicate face, and his bright, moist peach-blossom eyes showed gentleness and kindness: “Little friend, what’s your name?” His clear, melodious voice was very soft and pleasant.
“I’m called Lu Ao…” But Lu Aotian, thinking of the other’s “superpower,” was extremely wary. No, he hadn’t yet figured out the current situation. It was temporarily unwise to reveal his real name.
But for some reason, while he hadn’t felt this uncomfortable even when snatched by the trafficker, being watched with such a beaming smile by the person before him was making it hard to think straight.
Lu Aotian pursed his lips and hesitated in his baby voice: “My name is Lu Ao, Ao…”
As soon as his little mouth pursed, two shallow little dimples appeared at the corners of his lips, identical to Ji Nuo’s. Ji Nuo was thoroughly delighted: “Little friend, Ao’ao, you have dimples too! It must be destiny that we met!”
Lu Aotian’s name was finalized before he could even make one up. He frowned in displeasure, while simultaneously glancing at the other’s dimples and touching the corner of his own mouth. His real body did have dimples…
~
Once they arrived at the Police Station, Lu Aotian saw his current appearance clearly in a large mirror right at the entrance. This was indeed his body.
Although the bodies he used in other worlds bore varying degrees of resemblance to his original form, only his own eyes were grey-blue.
Back then, it was precisely because of these eyes that looked mixed-race and couldn’t be sold, that he was kept by the trafficker’s family to be their Adopted Son.
So, had he been mistakenly sent back to his childhood by the Quick Transmigration Bureau?
“Ao’ao? Let’s go inside with Uncle, okay?” Ji Nuo spoke softly, reaching out to hold his small, grimy hand.
Lu Aotian was thin as skin and bones. When Ji Nuo pulled his hand up, the loose, oversized cuff slid right down, revealing a skinny, withered arm covered in black and purple marks. Fine, dense lines crisscrossed each other mottled across the skin.
Ji Nuo gasped sharply: “Did the trafficker do this?”
Lu Aotian shook his head, his face sinking. His brows furrowed deeply into a prominent frown pattern, looking extremely mismatched with his childish face. He couldn’t understand why these marks were on him either.
Back then, right after he was born, he was taken by a trafficker. Because of his unusual eye color, he couldn’t be sold. The trafficker, surnamed Niu, decided to keep him, planning to raise him for forced labor, giving him just enough food to not starve.
Emaciated to skin and bones, he still had to go up the mountain to cut pig fodder and gather firewood. When he was older, he had to till the fields. If either of the Niu couple was in a bad mood, they would beat him. As long as they didn’t beat him to death, no one would care.
He had been precocious from a young age, retaining a fair memory of things from two or three years old… However, no matter how clear it was back then, many lifetimes had passed. Had he not seen these familiar scars, these memories would likely have remained dormant deep in his mind forever.
Could it be that this time, not only was there a transmission error making him into a child, but he was also still growing up in the Niu family according to the original plotline?
That would explain why these marks were on him… Fortunately, the system placed his body at the entrance of the Affiliated Hospital, saving him the trouble of escaping the Niu family.
Ji Nuo bent down, gently rubbing the child’s head, and comforted: “Ao’ao, don’t be afraid. The bad guy has been locked up. The police uncles and aunties will send you home.”
Home?
Lu Aotian’s gaze turned cold. Send him back to those so-called Foster Parents?
Violent, murderous energy surged within him. He flung off Ji Nuo’s hand, his voice hard yet babyish: “This police station, not worth entering!” Saying this, he shook his legs to stride away.
In the next instant, Ji Nuo scooped him up by the armpits and lifted him, leaving only a pair of short, little legs kicking wildly in the air.
