The Taste of a Miracle

The flavor was intensely salty, fishy, and astringent!

The moment the first spoonful of porridge graced Liuxia’s tongue, an indescribably complex medley of tastes erupted within her mouth.

Dominating all else was the unyielding, intensely savory flavor of soy sauce, so potent it verged on bitterness.

She wondered just how much had been added to achieve such an astonishing concentration.

Yet, despite this, the porridge’s hue appeared perfectly balanced, a baffling contradiction.

How had this been accomplished? Was some arcane culinary technique at play?

Then there were the eggs; why, upon chewing, did they possess a peculiar, slimy texture, reminiscent of undercooked egg whites?

Outwardly, the egg blossoms seemed entirely solidified.

Could it be the starchy paste exuded by the rice grains themselves during cooking?

Moreover, even after the porridge was swallowed, a potent astringency clung to her palate, akin to biting into an unripe green persimmon.

Adding to her dismay, the moment the porridge entered her mouth, Liuxia’s senses—far more acute than any ordinary person’s—discerned a faint, peculiar fishy odor.

Though subtle, it stubbornly persisted, refusing to be masked by the deliberately added green onions.

Despite racking her brain for all her culinary experience and memories, the girl could not pinpoint the ingredient responsible for this unique fishiness.

Still… odd as the taste was…

Gradually, Liuxia realized that while the fishy taste was far from delicious, after consuming it, she felt an inexplicable… compulsion.

Furthermore, this was the first meal her junior had personally prepared for her, imbued with their profound and heartfelt intentions.❤

Thus, the girl, maintaining an impassive expression, continued to chew and swallow, bite after silent bite.

“It’s awful, truly very, very awful.”

“As food, it’s utterly unacceptable…”

“Chunsheng, he really can’t cook at all…”

As the warm rice porridge slid from Liuxia’s mouth into her stomach, the girl felt waves of profound warmth spreading through her heart.

“But, it’s incredibly warm…”

This internal warmth caused her body temperature to rise.

Though she was suffering from a high fever and should have found the increasing heat unbearable, the girl instead felt a comfortable sweat break out across her entire body, spurred by this unexpected warmth.

Liuxia’s pace accelerated, eventually she even ceased the act of swallowing, the porridge seeming to glide directly into her stomach.

“I feel like… I still haven’t had enough?”

Clink!

Only when Liuxia scraped her spoon against the bottom of the bowl, emitting a crisp clinking sound, did she startle, realizing she had consumed the entire bowl of peculiar porridge.

What surprised the girl even more was the noticeable improvement in her previously weakened body.

Drenched in sweat, Liuxia clearly sensed an unending surge of power coursing through her.

She felt capable of rising from her bed at that very moment, brimming with energy to tackle household chores.

Yet, another revelation shocked her even more.

Liuxia stared blankly at the “gold content” value displayed before her eyes—a number visible only to her.

[10]

Her gold content had actually returned to a positive number!

The girl had never encountered a single instance of someone who had devolved into a goblin having their identity value revert to a positive number.

Rumor had it that a church research institution had once conducted experiments using captured goblins, but regardless of the immense quantities of gold coins they invested, the efforts proved futile, like casting stones into the ocean; their gold content value remained utterly unchanged.

Consequently, a widely known adage had emerged in this world: “Goblins borrow gold coins, they never return.”

It was precisely for this reason that society as a whole adopted an almost merciless indifference towards those who had unfortunately devolved into goblins, viewing them as “beyond salvation.”

‘Is it a miracle… a miracle brought to me by my junior?!’

‘Though I have no idea how he accomplished it…’

‘Thank you, Chunsheng! Thank you… for making me a normal person again.’

Liuxia offered her heartfelt gratitude in the deepest recesses of her mind.

‘A normal… person…?’

The very next moment, the girl’s heart plummeted.

‘A normal person? Am I… truly a normal person now?’

Would a normal girl possess a “gold content” number, a trait exclusively found in men?

At this thought, the immense joy she had just felt from her gold content returning to a positive number rapidly dissolved like foam.

‘What exactly am I… a transvestite?’

She had heard of a peculiar subculture in a neighboring diocese, specifically in District 13.

There, some men would undergo surgery and take medication to transform themselves into women.

These individuals, despite their female appearances, possessed “gold content” like men, yet were incapable of bestowing “blessings” upon others as true women could.

Most of them ultimately subsisted as playthings for the wealthy…

‘What fundamental difference, then, exists between my current state and theirs?’

Liuxia had, by then, gradually come to terms with her existence: her negative gold content, her life disguised in a woman’s form to survive.

After all, she had already resigned herself to being a “monster” with negative gold content; any further abnormalities that befell her could be numbly accepted.

Yet now, the undeniable fact that her gold content had returned to a positive number abruptly shattered the psychological equilibrium she had painstakingly constructed.

‘Hahaha… In the end, I’m… still an utter monster, aren’t I…’

Gazing at the empty bowl in her hand, Liuxia’s thoughts were steeped in sorrow.

‘If… if the girl I pursued back then… had responded to me with such thoughtfulness, like Chunsheng…’

‘Then I… wouldn’t have ended up in this state, would I?’

Mu Shengling… Mu Shengling…

With Li Chunsheng serving as a stark contrast, Liuxia, for the first time, felt an “improper,” clear, and intense hatred for a woman.

‘Men shouldn’t be like this.

It makes them seem too petty, too narrow-minded!’

‘But now, I am merely a monster, neither man nor woman!’

With her psychological balance utterly destroyed, the masculine self-perception Liuxia held finally fractured, a deep chasm appearing within it.

Though the girl’s expression remained soft, an indelible gloom settled in the depths of her eyes, and her entire demeanor grew somewhat somber.

****

Meanwhile, Li Chunsheng was forcibly suppressing his complex expression, a mix of joy and slight discomfort.

He had been staring intently at his senior eating, while also closely monitoring the fluctuations in his own gold content value.

Throughout Liuxia’s meal, his gold content was continuously consumed at an astonishing rate, dropping into negative numbers, only to be instantly restored to 10 by his golden finger.

This process repeated countless times within just a few minutes.

Ultimately, he estimated that fully ten thousand Black Iron coins had been expended to restore his senior.

“So expensive… good thing I’m spending fake money,” Li Chunsheng sighed.

“Is using this special ability to cure illnesses really so costly? The effects are certainly fast, though.

No wonder most ordinary people in this world still opt for slower, traditional medical treatments when they fall ill.”

‘But is this “healing-like” ability part of Senior’s authority? It feels… like something from the Temple of Life’s domain?’

‘Even after becoming a goblin, can one still use authority?’

However, it would be better not to tell his senior about today’s “added ingredients” experiment.

Otherwise, Li Chunsheng had no doubt that even someone as good-natured as Liuxia would instantly turn on him upon learning what she had eaten.

Because this… was a blunder of epic proportions for his senior!

Suddenly!

‘Wait! Senior’s expression… seems off?

Why has their demeanor become… a bit gloomy?’

As the person most familiar with his senior, Li Chunsheng noticed the subtle changes in Liuxia.

‘Could it be… she found out I added something to the porridge?’

His heart grew uneasy.

‘Or is she remembering that I skipped work to take care of her, and so… she’s upset…?’

After a moment’s thought, Li Chunsheng decided to strike first and apologize sincerely.

“I was wrong, Senior!” He abruptly stood up from his chair and bowed deeply to Liuxia on the bed.

“Chunsheng, what… what did you do wrong?”

Liuxia’s words were entirely sincere at that moment, but due to her foul mood, this intended comfort sounded passive-aggressive to the guilt-ridden Li Chunsheng.

‘She really is angry!!!’

He was terrified.

So, Li Chunsheng honestly and thoroughly criticized himself, starting from his initial disrespectful leave request to his superior, Mu Shengling, and then recounting how he had “kind-heartedly” added some “strange ingredients” when making the porridge.

However, he still exercised some caution, glossing over the exact nature of the “ingredients” he had added to the porridge, lest his senior explode on the spot upon hearing it.

What Li Chunsheng didn’t expect, however, was that the moment Liuxia heard him recount how he had requested leave from Mu Shengling, she automatically disregarded everything that followed.

In her mind, Li Chunsheng and Mu Shengling’s conversation replayed constantly, repeatedly.

‘Chunsheng… he actually spoke to Mu Shengling like that?’

‘Her expression at the time must have been priceless, right…?’

‘She, who was so high and mighty in front of me, was spoken to so rudely and disrespectfully by my junior… yet she still… still had to swallow her anger, and even wanted him to return to work…?’

‘And Chunsheng, who was so forceful and rude to her… is so gentle with me, this neither-man-nor-woman monster…’

A dark, morbid joy, like a breached flood, surged forth from Liuxia’s already shattered “man’s heart,” filling the girl’s self-loathing at having become a monster.

‘Oh no… I’m about to burst out laughing.

This won’t do, Chunsheng clearly did something wrong, and as his senior, I should properly scold him…’

Li Chunsheng finally finished his account, bowing deeply to his senior and loudly delivering his final apology.

“I’m sorry, Senior! I truly… I’m so, so sorry!”

He kept his head down, awaiting Liuxia’s wrath.

However… the anticipated fury never came.

Instead, he was embraced by a soft, warm bosom, soaked with sweat and carrying the faint, sweet scent of a young girl.

Then, a warm breath brushed against his ear.

“…You did well, Chunsheng.”

In his ear, came a gentle reply Li Chunsheng had never anticipated.

“Eh?”

His heart skipped a beat.