Chapter 13 Rejuvenation

Eyes are the windows to the soul!

The essence, qi, and spirit of a person are most directly reflected in a pair of eyes.

Now, there is such a pair of eyes!

They are pure, as pure as a newborn baby shortly after its birth.

They are spirited, and in their movement, an indescribable charm strongly attracts one's gaze.

Their pupils have become pitch black and unfathomably deep, like a perfectly still deep pool, making one unable to resist the urge to plunge in, to search for the secrets hidden within that depth!

This pair of eyes can be said to be the finishing touch, making Li Xu's otherwise ordinary face suddenly come alive. Yes, it isolated him from the crowd of ordinary people in an instant, making him stand out, making him exceptional!

As for other changes, although not as evident as those in the eyes, some traces can still be found.

The somewhat flabby body has become firm, the limbs stronger and more robust than before, the chest puffed out, with the muscles on the abdomen and upper thighs particularly pronounced.

After washing off all the dirt excreted from his body, his skin has turned fair and tight. On his face, the bags under his eyes commonly seen from staying up late have disappeared, and the contours of his features have become more pronounced.

But overall, he is still him, and hasn't instantly transformed into a handsome guy radiating light; at best, he's a Second Attendant type male!

The prerequisite is, you ignore those eyes!

This is on the outside, as for the internal changes...

"Yo~~, great writer, admiring yourself so much?"

Li Xu quickly put down the mirror and turned around to see.

A young woman wearing a coffee-colored business suit stood at his door, black stockings, high heels, exquisitely made-up, with smooth lines.

"Hehe, Sister Wang, finished work?" Li Xu combed his still-damp hair, saying with a smile.

"Nonsense..." Sister Wang was ready to leave, but then it seemed as if she sensed something, turned back, and seriously took a good look at Li Xu from head to toe, teasing with a smile, "That's much better, you look so spirited now. Keep it up in the future, don't make yourself look like an African refugee again, okay? Even writers need to care about their appearance, right?"

"What blasted writer, I'm just a scribbler, Sister Wang, don't say it like that..." Li Xu smiled bitterly, his words cut off abruptly as he suddenly clutched his stomach, and then a thunderous rumbling came from within his body.

To call it thunderous might be an exaggeration, but even Sister Wang standing at the door could hear it quite clearly.

Sister Wang covered her mouth and laughed, lifting the food bag in her hand and waving it at Li Xu, "Peking duck, from Quanjude, how about it, smells good?"

Li Xu couldn't help but swallow a large gulp of saliva. Of course, it smelled good; he could not only smell it but also distinguish the multiple layers of the fragrance very clearly.

The roasted fat is very "fluffy," this "fluffiness" mixed with the unique sweetness of fruitwood, also blended with many spices: star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, bay leaves... However, it seems that the spices are a bit heavy, completely overwhelming the scent of scallion oil...

This acuteness, this sense of smell... undoubtedly, they are all a kind of internal change.

"If you agree to what I asked you a few days ago, I'll treat you to this... What do you say? The mouth-watering Peking duck from Quanjude, if you miss this chance, there won't be another!"

Sister Wang might be joking, but Li Xu was so incited by the aroma that he simply couldn't bear it. Hunger was like a real flame burning within his body, beyond what a normal person could endure, continually feeding urgent signals to his brain.

Aftereffects of the strengthening potion?

Li Xu quickly fumbled for his wallet from the drawer, stepped past Sister Wang, locked the door in one motion, and ran off in a hurry without having time to explain.

"Hey, hey, where are you rushing off to, to be reincarnated?"

Li Xu just waved his hand backward and rushed out of the yard onto the street.

The urban-rural junction is synonymous with chaos, noise, and clamor, especially at this time.

Some clocked out from work, others left school, and vendors set up shop; haphazardly-built illegal structures squeezed an already narrow street into a cramped path.

Pedestrians from the north and south brushed shoulders in a constant stream, various sounds mingled, and an array of food aromas made the hunger within Li Xu increasingly uncontrollable; at this moment, he even felt he could devour an entire cow.

"Boss, Boss... two large portions of Yangzhou fried rice, extra green onions, extra chilies!"

"Alright!"

"Hurry, make it quick!"

He couldn't wait another second; Li Xu grabbed a large water cup from the table, tilted his head back, and gulped it down, emptying it swiftly. The remnants of a meal left by a departing customer at the next table were like a siren's call—fatal temptation. He was certain that if this had been before, he wouldn't have been able to resist this debilitating hunger.

But now…

"Boss, make it fast!"

"Coming right up... coming right up..."

Five minutes later, the restaurant owner was full of amazement, while the two large plates of fried rice before Li Xu were spotlessly clean, not a single grain of rice left.

"I'm telling you, dude, how long have you been starving?"

Li Xu didn't answer. He hesitated for a moment, pulled out his wallet, and said impatiently, "Check, please!"

The ferocity of his hunger hadn't subsided, quite the opposite; the small amount of food he had consumed did nothing to alleviate the urgency inside him, it was like adding two logs to a fire, making the flames of hunger grow even wilder!

It must be a side effect of the Strengthening Potion!

But I have too many secrets to risk revealing them over something as trivial as this.

Alright, this is also an internal change. Strong willpower is a sign of mental toughness, and the meticulous thinking that isn't clouded by intense desires is also an expression of wisdom.

Afterward, Li Xu didn't enter any shops; he just walked down the street, buying a portion from a stall equal to what a normal person would eat, then continued eating while walking.

He forced himself to slow down his eating pace, and he made sure his behavior was just like the people around him!

From one end of the street to the other, then back again, by the time the sun had completely disappeared from the horizon and when all the lights, big and small, were lit, he patted his stomach...

It remained as flat as ever.

However, his wallet, which was never very full to begin with, was now utterly deflated.

If this had been in the past, he would be gritting his teeth in distress, but now, he merely frowned!

When the hunger finally subsided, it was replaced by a sense of complete renewal.

There was an unfamiliar sensation of fullness at the center of his forehead.

The world through his eyes seemed to shed a hazy veil, upgrading from standard to high definition quality. Observing a girl ten meters ahead, he could count the freckles on her face, spot the blackheads and pimples on the tip of her nose!

Concentration heightened, his ears subtly adjusted unconsciously, filtering out the noisy background, then he heard her whisper into her phone.

A warm breeze brushed by, making the exposed chill-inducing hair dance, his pores dilated, and his skin relaxed slightly.

With the wind came a variety of scents; they were no longer a confused cluster, but layered, three-dimensional, and Li Xu could distinguish most of them.

…

"This feeling... I really like it!" he murmured softly.