Becoming the Villainess: I Dominate the Cultivation Realm with My Wok!-Chapter 498

Facing this young man, Xiao An, instead of feeling the hesitance she had just displayed with the shop clerk, spoke candidly: "I haven’t picked herbs for daily expenses in days. My parents have long been annoyed with me, and now that I’ve brought this seriously injured cat back home, how could they tolerate another mouth to feed? Even for the sake of the cat, I cannot stay in that place any longer."

When Xiao An mentioned that place, she was unwilling to call it "home."

She had seen harmonious families before, like that of Wang Yiyi. Although her demeanor was arrogant and snobbish, it was the confidence her parents instilled in her. No matter what mistakes Wang Yiyi made, her parents would always support her.

Xiao An deeply understood she was different. Every choice she faced was like walking on the edge of a cliff while picking herbs. One wrong step, and she would fall into an abyss, with no one there to hold a rope for her.

Thinking about the rope, Xiao An couldn’t help but glance at the young man who was diligently cleaning the cat’s wounds. When she met this elder brother, he worriedly asked her if she wasn’t scared.

She was then right on the cliff’s edge, and the herbs she was gathering weren’t even rare—just common herbs. But because they grew on the cliff, no one wanted to pick them. Only someone desperate like her would risk it.

Her father had said if she didn’t bring back money that day, he would have to sell her to pay off their debts. Naively terrified, she failed to gather any herbs to sell and dared not return home.

But if not for that day, she wouldn’t have met the elder brother, nor would she have known that Huichun Hall, the place always willing to accept fresh, untreated herbs from her, was his family’s business.

"It’s done. It seems it hasn’t eaten in a while, so I’ll go get something for it."

Chen Muxue looked at her own body. After the young man treated her wounds, he even tidied her dirty, matted fur a bit. Though she couldn’t bathe in her current state, she felt much more refreshed.

This must be a good person, right? Chen Muxue speculated, glancing at Xiao An.

In Xiao An’s eyes, there seemed to be a faint flicker of hope, delicate enough to be extinguished with just a touch.

Soon, the young man returned with a bowl of cooked meat, still steaming slightly.

"It’ll need to cool before it can eat," he said, noticing the cat staring intently at the bowl in his hand, triggering his laughter.

His already sunlit features lit up even more brightly.

"Don’t just sit idly. Didn’t you want to become a doctor? I brought you a medical book. It’s one I read as a child. See if you can recognize all the characters?" The young man pulled a tattered book from his chest, evidently aged.

Xiao An nodded eagerly, "Of course I recognize them all! I used to listen from the window of the school, I’ve learned everything the students inside hadn’t!"

It seemed this was not her first time seeking guidance. Chen Muxue’s gaze shifted back to the bowl of meat.

Her keen sense of smell detected a faint sourness—perhaps the meat had spoiled over time? In ancient days, resources were scarce, and it was understandable not to feed good meat to a cat. But the sourness didn’t quite seem like it was from spoiling.

The meat in the bowl was chopped finely and already cooked, making it impossible to tell which animal it came from.

The pain from Chen Muxue’s wounds had already subsided, and she tentatively moved her limbs, discovering that her fractured forelimb felt unexpectedly agile since she entered the Illusion Realm.

Her gaze at the young man became even more complex.