Ouyang Zixin Wanted to Raise Him at First Sight: A Peerlessly Beautiful Boy Like This Would Be Worth Keeping Just to Look at Every Day!

Ouyang Zixin felt as though something had clenched around her heart.

It hurt.

And there was another, deeper impulse she was a little too embarrassed to admit.

She really wanted to raise him.

She really wanted to take him home.

A peerlessly beautiful treasure of a boy like this—even if she merely kept him around to look at every day, her life would be worth it.

"What's your name?"

She crouched down, bracing both hands on her knees, bringing her gaze level with Lin Yan, who sat on the ground.

The sunset shone from behind her, gilding the edges of her hair.

"Lin Yan."

The boy's voice was flat, as if he were merely answering a passerby asking for directions.

His gaze returned to the mushroom stall, making it clear that he had no intention of continuing the conversation.

Ouyang Zixin was not annoyed by his reaction. The curve of her lips merely deepened.

She glanced at the piles of colorful mushrooms on the cloth and could not help laughing. "You won't be able to sell them like this."

Lin Yan looked up at her.

"College students usually eat out. Middle school students do not cook for themselves either. These mushrooms of yours—"

She pointed at the pile of blue-staining boletes.

"They do look quite fresh, but who would buy them and take them home to stew?"

Lin Yan fell silent for quite a while.

He had been so focused on thinking that "it was easy to make money off foolish college students" that he had completely forgotten college students did not cook at all.

Ouyang Zixin pointed at the brightest-colored pile of mushrooms again, uncertainty in her tone. "And these mushrooms of yours... they're poisonous, right? They could kill someone, couldn't they?"

She had not specifically studied how to identify mushrooms, but she still knew the basics—brightly colored mushrooms were more poisonous.

The stall had practically gathered every color of the rainbow. No matter how she looked at them, they did not seem edible.

"They're not poisonous. They're fresh."

Lin Yan was instantly displeased.

What he could not tolerate most was anyone questioning his mushrooms.

He casually picked up a glossy red mushroom, wiped it on his sleeve, and stuffed it into his mouth.

The movement was smooth and swift, so fast that Ouyang Zixin did not even have time to stop him.

"Hey—?"

The instant the mushroom entered his mouth, a familiar wave of dizziness exploded from deep within his brainstem.

The scenery before his eyes began to drift, as though separated by a swaying curtain of water.

Ouyang Zixin's face moved farther and closer in his vision, while the halos around the streetlights stretched into long tails.

The entire world looked like an oil painting splashed with water, every color flowing away.

Lin Yan shook his head, then shook it again, desperately forcing his vision to focus—

Then he met Gu Yuena's utterly innocent purple dragon eyes.

Gu Yuena blinked, tilted her head, and put on an expression that said, "What happened?"

She really was innocent.

Mainly because he had not reminded her to detoxify these mushrooms.

Whenever he ate them before, she would habitually purify the toxins with her elements first.

Good thing these had not been sold.

Otherwise, before he earned any money, someone would have ended up in prison.

Lin Yan's eyes were unfocused, but the killing intent still reached Gu Yuena's forehead with perfect accuracy.

Gu Yuena shrank her neck and guiltily buried her head between her front paws.

"Thud."

Lin Yan collapsed.

"Hey—!!"

Ouyang Zixin was so frightened that she immediately crouched down, scooped up Lin Yan's upper body, and touched his forehead with the back of her hand—

It was terrifyingly hot.

"How are you? Are you okay? I'll take you to the hospital right now!"

As she spoke, she wrapped an arm around Lin Yan's waist and lifted him up.

The girl's arm strength was unexpectedly great. With a princess carry, she easily held the boy, who was half a head taller than her, in her arms.

Her thighs were long and strong, her figure's curves fully outlined beneath her fitted school uniform, curving where they should curve and rising where they should rise.

But she had no attention to spare for that now. Her mind was filled with only one thought: He's going to die.

In her arms, Lin Yan caught a faint, pleasant fragrance through his hazy consciousness.

Then he heard the words "hospital."

His eyes flew open. He shoved Ouyang Zixin away and staggered out of her arms, steadying himself against a streetlamp.

"N... no need."

His voice was hoarse, his face pale, and a fine layer of cold sweat covered his forehead.

"It just hit a little too hard. I haven't recovered yet."

He took a deep breath and mobilized the Soul Power within him to suppress the surging toxin.

After the transformation of his life essence, his resistance to poison seemed to have improved considerably. The mushrooms' hallucinogenic effects came on fiercely, but faded quickly as well.

The dizziness was slowly receding, and the scene before his eyes gradually regained clear outlines.

Ouyang Zixin stood where she was, looking at him leaning against the streetlamp, pale-faced and disheveled, her eyes reddening slightly.

He had just collapsed right in front of her.

All to prove that his mushrooms were not poisonous?

Who would risk their life just to sell a few mushrooms?

She wanted to talk to him more, to learn what this boy, who seemed to have the word "miserable" written all over him, had gone through.

But Lin Yan clearly did not want to talk. He leaned against the streetlamp with his eyes closed, his posture plainly saying, "You can leave now."

Ouyang Zixin opened her mouth, but in the end, she did not press him.

She merely crouched down and played with Gu Yuena for a moment. Then she stood up and snatched Lin Yan's communicator from his hand.

"Hey—" Lin Yan opened his eyes.

"Let's add each other's contact information."

She quickly entered her communication number, then called it. Only after the communicator in her pocket rang did she stuff his communicator back into Lin Yan's hand.

"My name is Ouyang Zixin. Class One, Grade Five, Eastsea Academy. If anything comes up in the future, remember to come find me."

By the time she finished speaking, the blush on her face had already spread to her ears.

She did not even dare look at Lin Yan's expression again. Turning around, she broke into a near jog on those long legs and disappeared into the twilight.

Her heart hammered wildly inside her chest.

As she ran, she pressed the back of her hand to her burning cheek, feeling as though she had used up all the courage she had possessed in her life just now.

Her beauty, which had always been invincible, seemed to have completely failed in those brief few minutes.

The boy's gaze toward her had remained calm and indifferent, as if he were looking at a tree, a streetlamp, or a wildflower by the roadside.

She only stopped after running half a street, bracing her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. She looked back toward the little stall, which was already too far away to see clearly.

Worry pricked her heart like a fine needle.

What would he eat tonight?

Where did he live?

Because of the matter of selling poisonous mushrooms, he could not stay at the entrance to the university district any longer.

Lin Yan rolled up the stall cloth, stored the mushrooms in his small world, picked up Gu Yuena, and left.

His legs moved incredibly fast. He did not know whether it was because his life essence had improved or because of the characteristics of his spatial martial soul.

When he ran, his footsteps were almost soundless, and his breathing remained steady.

On top of that, Gu Yuena continuously replenished his Soul Power.

In less than twenty minutes, he had run more than ten kilometers, from the university district to the vegetable market on the other side of Eastsea City.

The sky was already completely dark.

The evening market at the vegetable market was bustling.

Aunties and uncles carrying shopping baskets weaved between the stalls, while the sounds of haggling rose and fell.

Lin Yan found a corner, spread out the stall cloth again, and arranged the mushrooms.