Merely a few days had passed since Lin Jin transmigrated over to this world, and the memories belonging to his predecessor were like countless dust-covered books. Not every memory could be immediately inherited by Lin Jin.
For some of the painful memories that his predecessor was reluctant to actively recall, Lin Jin wouldn’t have automatic access to them. But if they were invoked, the memories would still resurface on their own.
From that piece of memory, Lin Jin could only summarize it in one word.
Wretched.
Of course, this was a mess created by his predecessor so Lin Jin was unwilling to shoulder the guilt.
The situation was simple. Lin Jin’s predecessor used to be engaged to the Chen Medicine Hall’s young miss, Chen Yuanyuan.
One was a gloomy beast appraiser, the other was the young lady of a medicine hall. They were never meant to cross paths, but previously when Lin Jin had just been certified as an official beast appraiser, he wasn’t gloomy at all. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he had been quite pleased with himself.
Back then, Lin Jin had once rescued an old man on the streets. And the cliched part? The old man, Chen Wenlin owned this Chen Medicine Hall.
As an educated and sensible man, Chen Wenlin was naturally grateful to Lin Jin for saving his life. He then invited Lin Jin to his home and prepared him a feast to show his appreciation.
When they got to know each other and he realized that Lin Jin was an official beast appraiser, Chen Wenlin decided to betroth his daughter, Chen Yuanyuan to Lin Jin as an act of repaying Lin Jin’s kindness.
During the time, Chen Yuanyuan appeared, and upon exchanging glances the wretched and useless Lin Jin fell head over heels for her. Chen Yuanyuan had said nothing back then as a daughter’s marriage was to be decided by her parents. Or perhaps she too had been attracted to Lin Jin.
All had been well at first. Wretched Lin Jin went on several dates with Chen Yuanyuan and it had been lovely, romantic even. However, good things never last. One day, Chen Yuanyuan began ignoring Lin Jin. Not only did they stop meeting, but she was even defaming him and kept urging to have the engagement called off.
Despite this, wretched Lin Jin was the obsessive type, so things got very awkward between them.
Chen Yuanyuan lost her mother at a young age and her father Chen Wenlin had been busy with work during her childhood days. Lacking proper upbringing, Chen Yuanyuan ended up becoming a willful young lady. She cried, threw tantrums, and even threatened suicide, forcing Chen Wenlin to call off the arranged marriage.
Needless to say, Lin Jin became the laughing stock of Maple City. If the blow he received back then was to be described with modern-day terms, the man ended up withdrawing from society and was incredibly depressed.
When Lin Jin of today looked back at it, he felt that it was too insignificant a matter.
‘You became withdrawn just because of this? After meeting a few times, you decided that you’d stay with a woman forever? Oh this wretched fool, you’re too young, too simple.’
The memory displayed that much. Lin Jin shook his head to clear his mind of the negative feelings. The previous wretched fool had died. New Lin Jin was in command now.
‘What Chen Yuanyuan? I don’t care even if it’s Gao Yuanyuan.’
Opening his eyes, Lin Jin no longer let that memory affect him. After all, that was all in the past. He couldn’t possibly go shouting something like, ‘life has its ups and downs, don’t look down on a poor man!’ at the girl. He should just do what he should be doing.
Today, he was here for medicinal ingredients. That was all.
“Excuse me, I’m here for medicinal ingredients,” Lin Jin called for the staff nearby. Then, with a brush and paper, he listed down the ingredients required to make the energy gathering pill and let the staff do their work.
That staff member said no more and set about completing his task.
Lin Jin stood where he was, surveying the area as he waited. Admittedly, the Chen family’s business was very doing well with many customers flowing in and out endlessly.
Just then, several people came in.
Leading the group was a woman of similar age with Lin Jin. Dressed in a pink pleated skirt, she donned a white mink shawl and her neatly worn robes showed off her slender figure. Her features were defined and beautiful. The only thing that set the girl apart from her outfit was the icy expression she wore.
“This is preposterous! Zu Yingying is just relying on her family’s strength. She’s no match for me be it in appearance or figure, so why can she attend the Maple Flower Event but I can’t?”
That woman was grumbling as she walked, frightening everyone else so much that they opened up a path for her.
Following beside her was a pet beast.
A maned jackal.
Although it was a canine, this creature was classified as an extremely ferocious violent beast. According to the records, a jackal with a mane was called a maned jackal. They had a strong physique and sharp teeth that put them on par with lions and tigers. These creatures were bloodthirsty animals, to say the least.
The maned-jackal was not a rare breed, but among normal pet beasts, it ranked highly in terms of brutality.
With her pet beast this intimidating, who would dare to approach her?
The woman’s followers dared not utter a word as well in fear of offending their mistress.
Upon seeing this woman, Lin Jin shook his head. This was too much of a coincidence. Not only had he accidentally entered the Chen family’s medicine hall, but he also ran into the woman who left his wretched predecessor captivated, Chen Yuanyuan.
But it was a pity that Lin Jin 2.0 had higher standards. After all, both Zhao Ying and Lu Xiaoyun were exceptional beauties that far exceeded Chen Yuanyuan. For him to be seeing excellent beauties every day, it was a given that Lin Jin’s standards have become skewed.
Lin Jin wasn’t familiar with Chen Yuanyuan so he tried his best to ignore her. And yet, Chen Yuanyuan managed to spot him the moment she walked through the entrance.
This gave her suffocating anger an outlet.
Her eyebrows immediately furrowed when she pointed at Lin Jin, roaring, “Who let this piece of garbage in here?”
A staff member immediately came over to reply to her question.
Lin Jin was frowning as well. This Chen Yuanyuan had no manners to speak of. She looked nothing like a young lady from a dignified household.
Perhaps it was after hearing the staff’s answer, Chen Yuanyuan scoffed. “To buy medicine? Does he even have the money to do so? He’s a poor man! Keep your eyes peeled and don’t let him steal anything. If something goes missing in here, you’re all responsible.”
‘F*ck!’
Lin Jin was enraged. This woman was a mad dog and Lin Jin didn’t have time for people like her. Instead of provoking her, the best thing he could do was to leave her alone. Also, Maple City was huge with tons of medicine halls. He didn’t have to insist on purchasing from Chen Medicine Hall.
In an instant, he got up and left. Lin Jin wouldn’t even spare this woman a glance.
However, Lin Jin underestimated one thing. That is, when it came to hysterical women like her, ignoring them was the same as a declaration of war. To explain it in their messed up language, ‘who are you to ignore me?’
“Lin Jin, stand there!” Chen Yuanyuan bellowed.
Lin Jin didn’t even turn back. When it came to the mentally deranged, he fancied keeping a distance from them.
With this, Chen Yuanyuan got even angrier.
The lack of a proper upbringing from a young age gave her a volatile temper and the tendency to never consider the consequences of her actions. Already fuming from the ears, Lin Jin’s actions made her explode.
“Bite him!” Chen Yuanyuan commanded and her pet beast immediately pounced over.
It was common for Chen Yuanyuan to order her pet beast to bite someone. Her pet beast wouldn’t kill its target. It would just injure the person at most and Chen Yuanyuan would then use money as compensation to resolve the trouble. This in turn further encouraged her arrogant personality.
Only this time, she had no idea that she was kicking an iron board. And the toughest iron board at that.
Lin Jin still didn’t look back, but Xiao Huo did to shoot a glance at the maned jackal.
The deterrence ability of a Rank 3 pet beast was unleashed and retracted just as quickly. Like a peerless swordsman drawing and sheathing his blade in the blink of an eye, the maned jackal’s eyes rolled back upon being assaulted by a forceful aura akin to the king of beasts. Immediately, it lost consciousness.
Although this seemed like an exaggeration, it did happen.
With just one gaze, Xiao Huo was able to frighten the pet beast unconscious.
One was a perfect Rank 3, the other was a regular Rank 3 canine beast. Their disparity in terms of their strength was overwhelmingly huge. Moreover, Xiao Huo had cultivated the Beast Energy Formation. In ancient times, he would be a legendary ‘immortal cultivator’, so to make a low-level beast faint was just too easy.
Once outside, Lin Jin’s back profile was aloof. His robe fluttered in the wind as he strode away like a debonair. Xiao Huo followed closely behind him, his tail shaking with the wind in a domineering manner. They left the mouths of onlookers gaping and Chen Yuanyuan, who was too stunned to even spit out verbal abuses.
