Chapter 1166: Pitiful Fatty, Lu Ding Loses His Temper

Lu Ding was already feeling irritated as he listened. This was too much, simply too bullying. He gave her a gentle shake with his Spiritual Energy. "Stop crying, stop crying. When Uncle Wu brought you here, which direction did you come from? Do you remember?"

The girl nodded.

She pointed in the opposite direction of how she had been walking through the mountain forest. "That way."

Lu Ding looked where the girl was pointing, then instinctively swept his gaze carefully across the surrounding forest. Lesser demons and small monsters were everywhere, not few in number, and all kinds of wild beasts kept appearing endlessly.

Leaving her alone here, how was that any different from letting her fend for herself with no hope of survival?

"What's your name?"

The girl answered, "My name is Fatty."

Lu Ding asked, "Don't you have a name?"

The girl looked puzzled. "Isn't Fatty a name?"

Lu Ding didn't know what to say for a moment, but he could also tell that this child was likely lacking in mental capacity. To put it simply, she might be a bit...

"I mean your formal name, just like my name is Lu Ding."

Fatty shook her head. "No. The Matriarch said that a humble name makes for an easy life, so I've always been called Fatty. But I remember my mother gave me a name once, I just don't remember what it was. It was... it was..."

As she spoke, the healthy flush in the girl's face drained away, replaced by a deathly pallor.

"It hurts... it hurts..."

Lu Ding: ????

Why was she suddenly crying out in pain out of nowhere?!

"It hurts? Where does it hurt?!"

The girl clutched her chest. "Here... here... it hurts... medicine... Fatty needs medicine..."

Lu Ding quickly probed her with his Spiritual Energy. And wouldn't you know it, the moment he checked, he found that in the place where the girl's heart should have been, there lay a stone covered in talisman inscriptions. Though Lu Ding wasn't skilled in this particular art.

Judging from the aura emanating from it.

This stone wasn't divine or extraordinary, nor was it some kind of treasure. It was simply a medium stone carved with talisman inscriptions, meant to replace the girl's heart and keep her from dying without one. That was all.

Afraid that his probing might inadvertently offend the girl's body.

Lu Ding's Spiritual Energy scan went from the inside out, which avoided accidentally seeing her body. Moreover, Lu Ding's scan was limited in scope. He wouldn't probe her physique in a way that outlined her body's curves in his mind.

Instead, he simply examined it piece by piece, flesh by flesh.

And then.

He saw it. In front of the stone heart, there was a vicious scar, clearly man-made!!!

Lu Ding raised his hand and summoned the Eight-Dragon Sandalwood Chariot to ease the girl's pain, then asked with a grim face, "Where is your heart!?"

She clutched her chest. "This is a secret between me and the Matriarch. I can't say."

Lu Ding didn't press the question directly, afraid of triggering her.

He gave the reins of the Eight-Dragon Sandalwood Chariot a flick and headed in the direction the girl had pointed earlier, all the while skillfully extracting information through clever questioning.

Because his approach wasn't direct, and he asked about this and that, scattering his inquiries like wild swings in every direction, Fatty didn't think too much about it. Whatever Lu Ding asked, she answered.

In the end.

All her answers gradually connected like dots forming a picture in Lu Ding's mind.

Fatty was the young miss of the Shen Family in Wushuang City. Her mother was the original head wife of the Shen Family patriarch. Once, when her mother was away, Fatty's lesser mother, the woman she had just referred to as the Matriarch, came to her and said she wanted to play a game.

And the result was, her heart was cut out!!!!

Then a stone was stuffed into the spot where her heart had been.

And she even called it a secret, as if that made it all fine.

Later, when Fatty's mother returned and discovered what had happened, she made a huge scene, demanding answers.

But instead, Fatty's lesser mother's family got involved and had her beaten. It was worth noting that this woman who had carved out Fatty's heart, her surname was Jin!!!!

She was from the same family as Jin Tianran in Wushuang City, who was on Lu Ding's list!

Later, based on what Lu Ding managed to coax out of Fatty, combined with his own reasoning and deduction, he learned.

After the confrontation, Fatty's mother was severely injured. Her father wasn't home at the time. If not for an elder of the Shen Family stepping forward to intervene, Fatty's mother might have been beaten to death on the spot!

Later, Fatty's father returned.

As for how it was resolved, Lu Ding didn't know, because Fatty herself didn't know either.

Anyway, the final result was that it was simply swept under the rug. At least that was how it seemed to Lu Ding, because Fatty's heart never came back, and Fatty's mother, because of this incident, eventually succumbed to her injuries and died in her father's arms.

Before she died, Fatty's mother made her father promise to take good care of Fatty.

She said, "What's done is done, I can no longer turn the tide. But I need you to swear to me, swear that you will never, ever let any harm come to Fatty's life. I want you to swear an oath."

After that, she cautioned Fatty, telling her to always be careful and cautious, to play alone, to eat alone, to curl up in a corner and live her life slowly, to never trust anyone... Mother is leaving, and Mother can't rest easy about you...

According to Fatty, when her mother said this, she died with her eyes wide open.

Afterward, Fatty did as she was told, following her mother's instructions, and lived like a ghost in her own home, surviving quietly.

Until one time, the young master of the Jin Family came to visit. He was the beloved nephew of the woman who had cut out Fatty's heart, the one who hadn't just escaped punishment for her crimes but had actually been promoted to the position of head wife of the Shen Family.

Though Fatty was called Fatty, she was actually quite adorable, plump and round, fair-skinned and chubby. The young master complimented her.

And that.

Roused the jealousy of the Matriarch's daughter.

Because the Matriarch's daughter and this young master had been betrothed to each other since childhood.

And that was how Huahua, Fatty's dog, got beaten to death.

At the time, Fatty was furious and wanted to fight back, but because she had no cultivation or Spiritual Energy, she got beaten up herself too.

She was the one who had suffered and lost, yet the Matriarch took advantage of Fatty's father's absence to secretly order someone to kill her.

When Lu Ding heard all this, his grip on the reins tightened.

What a venomously vicious heart!!!!

"Damn it, that poisonous woman!!!!"

Lu Ding couldn't help but curse out loud.

Fatty looked confused. "Damn it?"

"Don't learn that, kid. It's a swear word."

Lu Ding paused, then added, "Fatty, I might take it upon myself to help you become the head of the Shen Family. Would you like that?"

Fatty asked, "Head of the family? No, I don't want to."

Lu Ding said, "If you become the head of the family, you'll have endless snacks. You know those pastries in your arms? You'll have all the pastries you can eat."

Fatty took out the few remaining pastries from her bosom, picked one up, and shoved it right into Lu Ding's mouth. "You let Fatty ride in your carriage. If you want to eat, Fatty won't refuse. No need to beat around the bush."

Lu Ding chewed on the sickeningly sweet, low-quality pastry, which even had bits of incompletely crushed bean residue in it.

This was the young miss of a prominent family.

And this was what she ate, treasuring it like a precious jewel.

Sigh...

Lu Ding chewed slowly, his mind working through his own plans. He hadn't come here just to return to Lü Mountain, enter the sect, and visit the Old Man. He was also here as an envoy for the Great Han.

Afterward, he would need to select a location to establish an embassy.

Now that Lu Ding had heard all of Fatty's story, he thought Wushuang City wasn't a bad choice.

He could merge the Shen Family into the Great Han Embassy, and this poor, not-so-bright girl could become the head of the Shen Family. The embassy could look after her too, so she wouldn't end up having her family's entire fortune consumed, or be so poorly managed that she'd suffer a miserable life in her later years.

As for the Shen Family's meager wealth and territory, those scraps were beneath Lu Ding's notice. He might as well just buy snacks for the kid with it all.

Moreover, by incorporating a local power into the embassy, it could also mitigate some of the local factions' xenophobia, which would help the newly established embassy take root and stand firm here faster and better.

Meeting someone was fate.

Since she had shown him the way, Lu Ding didn't mind giving her a hand with her problems.

Mainly, it was just too pitiful. Sure, there were countless pitiful people in the world, and Lu Ding couldn't help them all, nor would he bother to. But Fatty was someone he'd encountered, and she'd pointed him in the right direction. What he'd heard made his blood boil and his fists clench, so he could afford to step in.

While Lu Ding was lost in thought, Fatty offered him another pastry.

"I won't eat any more. If I keep eating, you won't have any left."

Fatty looked at the pastries in her handkerchief and counted on her fingers. "One, two, three, four."

"Anyway, they won't last past today anyway. If I eat them today, they'll be gone tomorrow. Whether Fatty eats one less today or one more today, they'll all be gone tomorrow anyway. It doesn't matter."

Lu Ding listened.

Sighed. "Sigh..."

He gazed into the distance, where he could already make out a hint of Wushuang City. "Motherf*cker, I'm going to destroy every last one of you!!!!!"

....

This is an extra chapter for the Gift King sent by the big shot Jun Shen Hongchen earlier. Thank you, big shot! I had to look up reference materials today, and I also had to think about skills, plus write this extra chapter, so the update came a bit late. Sorry, my darlings!