Chapter One: She No Longer Wishes to Be Human

Border of the Delta Triangle.

Deep within the forest, a secret research facility.

Underground laboratory.

The cramped, suffocating chamber was crowded with all manner of intricate instruments. The air reeked sharply of formaldehyde. At the center of the lab, on a cold surgical table, a little girl with black hair and eyes lay shackled at the wrists and ankles. Her skin was as pale as a corpse, her body gaunt, her eyes hollow.

The monitor attached to her body beeped incessantly. Several researchers in white lab coats moved about, testing the equipment, conversing as if she were not there.

“Six years, and we still haven’t figured out her miraculous ability. The higher-ups are losing patience. If there’s no breakthrough this time, her funding gets cut off immediately. Shit!”

“I saw it with my own eyes when she conjured something out of thin air!”

“So what? If there’s no progress, pouring more money into her is a waste; she’s as useless as garbage to us!”

“We spent a million just to buy her, not to mention all the research costs over these years… Damn it, all that money down the drain!”

The researchers cursed under their breath.

The elderly man in a lab coat, who had been standing before the surgical table, gazing at the girl, finally spoke. “One last time. If there’s still no result, Specimen Zero—terminate.”

“Professor, what should we do?”

The old man turned, the cold gleam of his black-rimmed glasses flashing on his nose. His tone was indifferent. “Vivisection.”

Those cold, heartless words echoed in the little girl’s ears. Her face betrayed no emotion; her eyes remained empty and expressionless.

On her fourth birthday, her parents brought her here, promising her a sweet cake if she could produce something for them. She conjured a delicious pear, looking at her parents with hope.

But there was no birthday cake that day.

After she made the pear appear, these people arrived. Her parents took a huge sum of money and left, overjoyed. No one looked back at her. No one thought to take her with them.

For the next six years, she was locked in this glass room, studied like a monkey in a cage.

Constant injections, blood and marrow drawn, machines filtering her body, surgeries…

She became an experiment—Specimen Zero.

Born without the ability to empathize.

“Hey, kid, you wear that dead face every day, it’s boring. Smile, or at least cry.” One of them approached the table, reaching out to slap her face, trying to force some reaction, some pain.

“This brat was born without empathy, and with her nerve endings damaged, she doesn’t cry or laugh. You know that.” Another stepped forward, determined to prove his words, and plunged a sharp scalpel deep into her thigh.

The little girl reflexively twitched, her dark eyes slowly shifting, yet she neither cried nor screamed.

The researchers burst out with mocking laughter. “See? Still the same dead look, ha ha ha!”

“When we cut her open alive, what do you think her face will look like?”

“Oh, wait, let me record it. This is going to be brilliant!”

The blade sliced through flesh. The pain was excruciating.

At last, her sunken face contorted slowly with agony. In her black eyes, an eerie crimson began to spread.

The lines on the monitor beside her suddenly spiked, the beeping turning into an urgent warning.

“Professor, she might not make it!”

“Ignore it. Continue!”

Beep—beep—beepbeep—

The alarm shrilled, growing ever more frantic, as if it would burst the machine.

Invisible particles in the air rapidly gathered, swirling, generating heat.

With a thunderous explosion, a mushroom cloud billowed up from the heart of the forest.

The underground laboratory was obliterated.

…

Northern Yue.

The 23rd year of the Hongde era, midwinter.

The bitter cold of the nine-ninth days gripped the north; the snow fell endlessly. The wind howled wildly, whipping the fallen snow into swirling drifts.

At the border between Yu Prefecture and Xiang Prefecture, in the village of Great Locust, a weak cry sounded.

Lost amid the whistling wind, the cry was as faint as a kitten’s mewl.

At midday, when the villagers were gathered around their fires, a sharp-tongued woman warmed her hands and glanced in a certain direction. “Sounds like Old Su’s family just had a baby. That house is so poor even mice avoid it, and now there’s another mouth to feed. Not afraid the child won’t survive, huh.”

“Why worry about other people’s children? Go sweep the snow off the roof later. It’s been piling up for days—too much and the rafters will cave in.”

Chastised by her husband, the woman pursed her lips and fell silent.

The Su family she spoke of lived just two houses away—poorest in all of Great Locust Village.

Their home was a tiny, battered courtyard, barely big enough to stand in, with three rooms.

At that moment, the old woman’s voice rang out from the Su courtyard. “It’s born! Xiu, see the midwife out, then fetch a basin of hot water from the kitchen! Second daughter-in-law, come in and help tidy up the mess! All you men, don’t block the doorway, go wait in the kitchen!”

The dusty curtain to the main room was lifted, and the midwife, clutching her six copper coins, pursed her lips in silent discontent, eager to be gone. A lovely woman in her twenties followed her out, then hurried to the kitchen to fetch a basin of hot water.

The cramped, dim room was thick with the scent of blood; it had to be cleaned quickly.

“Mother, is it a boy or a girl?” Su Xiu asked as she set down the hot water and rolled up her sleeves.

“A girl.”

“That’s good; another daughter for our family.”

“What’s good about it? Girls are born to suffer.” The Su matron wrapped the baby in swaddling clothes, her rough, deformed hands gently patting the child.

Though her words sounded harsh, Liu Yuelan, who had just given birth, and He Daxiang, the second daughter-in-law, exchanged knowing smiles. After years in the Su family, they knew their mother-in-law’s nature well—sharp-tongued, soft-hearted.

Suddenly, the old woman’s brow furrowed. “Why isn’t the baby making any noise? She only cried once when she was born. Has she caught cold?”

Her words drained the color from the faces of the three young women.

Ignoring her own weakness, Liu Yuelan tried to sit up in panic and worry. “Mother, let me see the baby!”

Su Xiu and He Daxiang dropped what they were doing and rushed over.

Just then, the baby slowly opened her eyes.

Dark, lustrous, and still dazed from her abrupt arrival in this world.

Su Xiu burst out laughing. “Sister-in-law, don’t let Mother scare you. The little one is fine—big black eyes, bright and lively.”

He Daxiang grinned. “Such a good baby, quiet and calm.”

The old woman’s expression softened as she met those clear, dark eyes. The weathered lines of her face grew gentle.

Staring up at the three faces above her, the baby’s barely visible brows slowly knit together, her look as grave as an old man’s.

What was happening?

She remembered dying in the explosion at the lab.

Why was she alive again?

She no longer wished to be human.