Chapter 1: The Little Ginseng Has Turned Into a Human!

Chapter 1: The Little Ginseng Has Become a Human!

1975.

In a ward at a military district hospital in the Northwest.

The girl lying on the bed slowly opened her eyes.

Her black-and-white eyes scanned the stark white surroundings, and as she caught the faint, unpleasant medicinal scent, she had no idea where she was.

"What's going on?"

Her head throbbed with a dull ache. She raised her hand to cover her head, but the next moment, she sat up in surprise.

"Hands? A head?"

Human hands, a human head? Had she become a human?

She quickly pulled back her clothes and saw her scrawny body. She discovered that she possessed all the characteristics of a human!

She was a human, truly a human!

She felt like dancing with joy.

After being a ginseng for hundreds of years, she could finally be a human—*wuwuwu*—she would never have to eat dirt again!

The little ginseng tilted her head happily, shaking her hands and feet.

Having just become human, she hadn't yet shed her habits from when she was a ginseng; whenever she was happy, she wanted to wiggle the leaves on her head and the roots beneath the soil.

As a newcomer to humanity, she noticed two round objects sitting on a table not far away.

She knew those were apples. Back in the soil where she used to live, there had been an apple tree nearby.

She had heard the people who came to pick the apples say that these things were fragrant and sweet...

The little ginseng swallowed hard and turned her face away.

She patted her cheeks with both hands, shaking her head repeatedly to force herself to stay calm.

"No, I don't know whose these are. I can't just eat them."

However, the fragrance wafting from the apples kept enticing her, calling her to move toward them.

"Wuwuwu, I want to eat them so badly, I can't hold back anymore."

The little ginseng’s eyes turned red with pity, and her body inched bit by bit toward the apples.

Lu Changzheng pushed open the ward door and saw the little "fiancée" who had traveled thousands of miles to find him only to faint at the military gate, slowly, bit by bit, inching toward the table.

He wondered what she was doing, then looked up and realized her gaze was glued to the apples.

Her eyes were filled with longing.

Lu Changzheng was a bit puzzled. He reached out and picked up an apple. "Do you want to eat this? Shall I peel it for you?"

The sudden voice startled the little ginseng. She turned her head and looked at the man behind her with a pitiful expression.

"Can I eat it?"

"It was bought for you in the first place, why wouldn't you be able to eat it?"

Lu Changzheng asked in return.

The little ginseng’s eyes lit up instantly, and she reached out to grab the apple. Being a human for only the first day, she was still a bit unaccustomed to this body.

But, her hands could actually grasp things!

She held the apple up to her face, looking at this fresh, novel thing with a look of wonder.

Lu Changzheng’s usually stern face softened quite a bit because of her reaction.

Before he could say anything, the little girl in front of him had already taken a bite of the apple.

She hadn't peeled it, yet she ate with such intoxication, consuming the skin and the flesh together...

Lu Changzheng opened his mouth to the side, not knowing what to say for a moment.

Thinking of how she had traveled thousands of miles alone and suffered so much on the way, Lu Changzheng decided to wait until she was rested before telling her that the marriage arrangement was void.

That’s right, the little girl on the hospital bed was the girl Lu Changzheng’s mother had picked out for him back home.

He was twenty-six and had never married. Every time he called home, his mother would nag him about his marriage.

Having no interest in romance, he had put it off whenever he could.

But he hadn't expected that yesterday he would receive a call from his mother saying she had found him a wife and that she would be arriving at the base soon.

Before Lu Changzheng could say anything, a sentry reported that a comrade named Jiang Tang was at the gate, claiming to be his wife and looking for him.

He ignored his mother’s words about taking good care of Jiang Tang and how she was "one in a hundred," hanging up the phone and heading to the gate.

Before he even reached the gate, someone reported that Jiang Tang had fainted...

She had been unconscious from yesterday until she woke up just now. Lu Changzheng hadn't had the chance to say what he wanted to say.

He would talk to her once she had rested a while...

Lu Changzheng snapped back to reality and found that the apple in Jiang Tang’s hand was already gone. When he looked over, she was gnawing on the apple core.

She hadn't just eaten the skin; she was even eating the core.

"Jiang Tang, wait."

Lu Changzheng quickly reached out and grabbed Jiang Tang’s wrist. "You can't eat the core."

"Can't eat it?"

The little ginseng frowned, looking at the apple core in her hand in confusion. "Can't I?" She chewed on the core she had just bitten into—it was perfectly edible!

To the little ginseng, if it could be chewed, it was edible.

"You didn't know that?"

Lu Changzheng’s brow furrowed even deeper than hers. "How did you grow up?" Did she lack even this bit of common sense?

"Eating dirt and drinking dew," the little ginseng answered earnestly.

Lu Changzheng...

Memories of what his mother had said surfaced in his mind: this girl had a hard life, her parents had passed away, she lived with her brother, and after her brother married, her life became even more difficult...

Lu Changzheng had joined the army very young.

So, he really didn't have any impression of the Jiang family in the same town.

However, he never imagined that a man like Jiang Dawu could be so heartless to his own sister!

Anyone with a shred of humanity wouldn't let their own sister grow up eating dirt.

The firm resolve he had felt earlier to send her back began to waver.

If she went back and had to eat dirt and drink dew again, what would happen?

Lu Changzheng’s face was dark, but his mind began to consider how to settle Jiang Tang.

What could she do here?

It seemed she couldn't do anything!

And if he kept her, he would certainly have to give her a proper identity...

The little ginseng didn't know Lu Changzheng’s thoughts; she was marveling at how great it was to be a human—she didn't even have to eat the fruit cores!

Ginseng and human were only one character apart, but the difference was truly huge!

Being a human was just too good. She must be a good human so she wouldn't have to be afraid of being chased by rabbit spirits or gnawed on by stinky wild boars.

Just as she mentioned the rabbit spirit, on a train heading toward the base, a sleeping female comrade sneezed.

"Damn ginseng! I will never share the sky with you!"

Even in her sleep, the woman ground her teeth loudly.

The man sitting on the opposite bunk heard her talking in her sleep. He looked up at the woman with her eyes tightly shut and sighed helplessly.

If his wife didn't change her unforgiving temper by the time they reached the family compound, she would have a hard time ahead.

Thinking of this, Zhao Jianguo then thought that although his wife was fierce, at least he was a man with a wife.

Unlike Old Lu, who was still a bachelor at his age.

Thinking this, Zhao Jianguo felt much more balanced.

At the compound.

Lu Changzheng left the hospital with Jiang Tang.

(End of chapter)