Author's Notes: Hello! and welcome back to another exciting chapter of from Ground Zero! Now, things are about to get more exciting! I've been reuploading my story from AO3 here to see if this story would take off here. Thank you for bookmarking this story and supporting me!
"You can call me Meng Yao but, you also know me as the so called "Asshole AI" you seem so fond of cussing out" he muttered sarcastically.
I felt a slight twinge of guilt, wishing the earth could swallow me up again. How was I supposed to know that there was an actual human sending me out on these missions? For all I knew, I could have been at the mercy of a supercomputer with a twisted sense of humor or perhaps a serial killer that liked to see people in dangerous situations.
"W-why did you keep sending me out on those dangerous missions then?" I asked
"I'm not a warrior and I don't have anything to defend myself with. I'm just a normal person."
"I wanted to see what kind of a person you are and what you're capable of." he said as he took a sip of his tea.
"And evidently, you're more reckless than I give you credit for. I may be the one to assign you missions but, I'm not the one running through a patch of thorns to escape fierce corpses, nor am I running down a hill barefoot trying to escape a fox demon."
"I was desperate and scared! What do you expect from me? That I just MAGICALLY learn how to use a sword and hack everything to pieces? It doesn't work like that!"
"Unfortunately, you don't really have a say in the matter. You see, I've been assigned to be your mentor, and it's my job to make sure you don't do anything dangerous. I'm bound to you so if anything happens to you, it happens to me too."
"Wait, what do you mean I don't have a say in things?"
With a wave of his hand, a screen appeared before us. On it, I could see what looked like a very sickly and emaciated young girl with shortly cropped black hair and a light dusting of freckles currently lying in a bed drenched in sweat and face flushed red with a fever. It had taken me a moment to realize that the girl on the screen was ME. And not just that, it was me as a 5 year old kid, though now with sunken in cheekbones and dark circles under my eyes. Sitting at my bedside were the two gentlemen from before with a basin filled with water resting on a dresser next to the bed. They were taking turns watching over me while I painfully wheezed and coughed in my sleep. I felt the colour draining from my face as I covered my mouth with both hands in shock.
"Wha…I don't I understand!" I sputtered "Who…why am I like this? Is this some sick joke?"
Meng Yao rose from his seat and made his way over to where I was sitting.
"Do you remember someone asking you if you wanted a second choice in life after you died?" he asked me.
I slowly nodded, too shocked to say anything. How could I not remember something like that?
"When you accepted that offer, you were turned back into a child as seen here. Anything younger than that wouldn't do because you have a mission to fulfill: collect 1000 points in three years, or else be barred from the reincarnation cycle for a century."
Wait? Three years?! How could I collect that many points in that time span? There was no way in hell I'd be able to do so much in that little time!
"I've…also had my own regrets in life. I'll spare you the details of what I've done but, I hurt a lot of people when I was still alive and I need to prove to my… "benefactor" that I'm worthy enough for reincarnation by making amends with them."
"Whoa okay! Stop stop stop!" I said putting both of my hands in front of me.
"You're telling me that in addition to my own personal problems, I have to help you clean up YOUR messes? Hell no! I did not sign up for this! Why don't you clean up your own damn messes yourself?"
Meng Yao gave me an annoyed look, looking like he was going to strangle me with that one good hand of his. It was true wasn't it? I just wanted a chance to have a fresh start in life, enjoy having a happy childhood and perhaps find out what my purpose in life was. I didn't want to get dragged into whatever sort of family or political shit storm he left behind when he died. He could have owed some very dangerous people a lot money or have been part of some sort of sex trafficking ring! And seeing how my physical body is now that of a 5 year old, I didn't want to wind up being kidnapped by a pedophile and being kept as a sex slave.
"As much as I would love to clean up my own messes myself, I can't because if I dared showed my face outside in the physical world, I would either be imprisoned or I would wind up being executed! I know I can't promise much to a person I just met but I can't move onto the afterlife without clearing my debts and making things right with the people I've hurt in life."
In that moment, I couldn't help but feel a bit of pity for him. How many people did he hurt when he was still alive? And how much of that remorse was genuine? Questions like these continued to swirl around in my head, but I knew that I wasn't going to get an answer out of him right away. I couldn't really walk away from this either since he's supposed to be mentoring me. If he was willing to take responsibility for what he did, then who am I to deny him that chance?
"Fine, I'll help you with your unfinished business. I don't know how much I'll be able to help you in the body of a child but, you must be upfront and honest about what you did from now on. No secrets and no surprises!"
I held my hand out in front of him, which he looked at in confusion. I suppose the concept of handshakes weren't a thing back in Ancient China.
"Back in my world, we call this a handshake. If you shake my hand, then you're proving to me that I can trust you. Do we have an agreement?"
Without hesitation, Meng Yao stuck his own hand out and grasped my own firmly. I curled my own fingers around his hand and gave it a firm shake.
"It's a deal"
Turning back to the screen, he watched as the sunlight filtered back into the room where I was currently sleeping in. I watched as one of the men, (I think that shorter one with the black, dark gray and red hanfu) wrung a small hand towel out in the basin and replaced the one on my forehead with it.
"I think it's high time for you to get back to the real world" he said as he waved the screen away.
"We'll continue talking about this at a later time. If you ever need to find me, you know where to look."
And with that, I watched as my surroundings faded into white light, the taste of pu'er tea still lingering on my lips and the smell of peonies fading away to nothing.
I awoke to the feeling of my throat burning and a cool, moist towel on my forehead. I found myself in an unfamiliar room with tall ceilings, walls covered in delicate ink paintings and simple but functional furniture that managed to look elegant at the same time. Round Chinese lanterns swung gently in the autumn breeze outside by the windows.
"OBJECTIVE CLEARED. YOU HAVE ESCAPED THE FOREST! TOTAL POINTS EARNED: 100. GOAL FOR COMPLETE REINCARNATION: 230/1000 POINTS"
"Ugh, Meng Yao, where am I?" I asked in my mind
"YOU ARE IN BAI LIAN VILLAGE RIGHT NOW. IT'S THAT VILLIAGE THAT YOU SAW ON THE MAP THAT'S WEST OF HERE LAST NIGHT."
Blinking a few times, I groaned and felt a familiar pair of slender and callused hands help me sit up in bed, taking the towel away from my forehead. I noticed that my hospital gown was gone and instead had been replaced by a set of simple white cotton sleeping robes that were tied at the side. My left arm was in a crude sling while my feet and legs were wrapped in gauze bandages, with the addition of there being two pieces of wood being tied around my right ankle.
Sure enough, it was that gentleman from the night before with the flute sitting beside me on the bed. I was surprised to see that instead of those alarmingly scary red eyes that glowed in the dark, they were now just normal but warm dark gray-purple eyes. Meng Yao's voice rang in my head as a notification window appeared in my field of vision, scanning the man before me.
"ACCESSING DATABASE. CHARACTER PROFILE UNLOCKED. NAME: WEI YING. COURTESY NAME: WEI WUXIAN. AGE: 38 YEARS OF AGE. OCCUPATION: INSTRUCTOR AT THE CLOUD RECESSES"
For a man that was about to push forty, he really didn't look his age. Either he had a really good skin care routine or, it was some sort of weird magic mumbo-jumbo I had yet to grasp my head around. He reached a hand out to touch my cheek, which I gladly leaned into, feeling how cool and gentle they were against my feverish face.
"早上好，今天感觉如何？" he asked me.
I stared at him blankly, not really understanding what he was saying. I guess he didn't get the memo that I couldn't really speak a lick of Mandarin at all. He suddenly slapped himself on the forehead, like he just remembered something he had forgotten. Taking a paper talisman out of his sleeve, he chanted an incantation under his breath. It dissolved into various red runes before flying towards me. I could hear a rush of wind in my ears as overlapping voices in Mandarin, Cantonese and English echoed in my head, threatening to split it in half. The sudden cacophony of that many voices bouncing around inside caused me to double over in pain while covering my ears in an effort to get them to stop. Just as quickly as the voices started, they suddenly stopped.
"Sorry about that, I'm still in the process of working the kinks out of that spell. I asked if you were feeling alright."
I looked at him with widening eyes, mouth hanging open in shock. What witchcraft was this? I could now understand what he was saying!
"Y-you…you can understand me now?" I asked incredulously.
"Well, if I couldn't understand you, we wouldn't be having this conversation now would we?" he replied with a soft chuckle.
I suddenly felt a wave of dizziness overtake me and a pair of hands catching me. Wei Wuxian took some pillows from behind me and propped them against my back. I hissed slightly as I leaned onto them, remembering how cut up my back was from the night before.
"I'm sorry" I rasped out "I'm still not feeling well enough. But thank you for saving me last night"
"Well, if I couldn't understand you, we wouldn't be having this conversation now would we?" he replied with a soft chuckle.
At that moment, I heard the sound of knocking on the door. Wei Wuxian got up and glided over the front of the room to open the door. Outside was that gentleman in the white and light blue robes with a cart filled with food and medicine. Meng Yao's voice echoed in my head again as another notification window popped up in my field of vision after scanning him.
"ACCESSING DATABASE. CHARACTER PROFILE UNLOCKED. NAME: LAN ZHAN. COURTESY NAME: LAN WANGJI. AGE: 38. OCCUPATION: HEAD DISCIPLE AND INSTRUCTOR AT THE CLOUD RECESSES"
I watched him place a tray of food on a table off to the side as Wei Wuxian strode up to him and planted a kiss on his lips as he happily wrapped his arms around his neck.
"Welcome back" he whispered in his ear.
Lan Wangji smiled back at him and returned the kiss while wrapping his arms around Wei Wuxian's waist.
"En. I'm back."
If I wasn't already sick with a fever, then I'd be a blushing mess right now as I watched those two exchanging pleasantries. I felt as though I really shouldn't be watching something so simple yet intimate between these two, but I couldn't look away from them. The two men who valiantly fought off waves of fierce corpses and a fox demon to protect me...they were really a pair of sappy love birds! What on earth have I gotten myself into? It was at this point that I heard Meng Yao let out a groan.
"OH NO… NOT THOSE TWO AGAIN."