Chapter 47: The Third Wish

Chapter 47: The Third Wish

Jasmine felt a surge of excitement, but she was still a little uneasy.

“What… what kind of price do I need to pay?”

In her view, the fact that the earlier free attempt had required no price did not mean the wishes afterward would be the same.

Klein straightened the tall top hat on his head and said with a smile,

“The penny you pay is the price. The corresponding changes you must bear after your wish is fulfilled are also part of the price.”

Jasmine nodded, seeming to understand and yet not fully understanding. She hesitated no longer and reached into her pocket, trying to find a few copper pennies to complete her wish.

But her pocket was completely empty. Aside from a handkerchief, there was nothing inside.

Having stayed at home for far too long, she had not come into contact with money for quite some time.

Earlier, when she had come from home to the municipal square, she had walked the entire way and had not taken a trackless public carriage.

“I—can I go home first?” Jasmine asked, both annoyed with herself and embarrassed.

“Of course. That is your freedom. But I cannot guarantee the Fully Automatic Wish Machine will always be here waiting for you.” Klein smiled in the tone of a magician. “Sometimes, it is very willful.”

Jasmine gave two “Mm”s, thanked him, turned around, and trotted away in the direction opposite the municipal square.

The more she ran, the lighter her body felt. She had recovered the healthy state she had possessed before being burned, returning to the youthful young girl of seventeen or eighteen.

To her, this was a scene that appeared only in dreams.

Of course, as an ordinary person, after running for a while, she gradually felt tired and had no choice but to slow down and begin walking.

The cool night wind blew. High above, one brilliant star after another shone through the clouds. The trees by the street swayed gently, scattering shifting shadows across the ground. Everything was so quiet and beautiful that Jasmine felt both body and mind relax, and all her worries recede.

Since being injured, this was the first time she felt so peaceful. Without realizing it, the corners of her mouth had lifted slightly.

After walking for five or six minutes, she suddenly heard someone call her name.

“Eh, Jasmine?”

Jasmine turned and saw a familiar face. It was her former neighbor, Mrs. Hamill.

“Good evening, Mrs. Hamill. I haven’t seen you in so long. Are you going to the carnival?” Jasmine, no longer wearing a scarf, smiled from the bottom of her heart.

Mrs. Hamill was a woman with somewhat graying hair. She examined Jasmine carefully for a few moments and said,

“Since you moved away, I haven’t seen you at all. I heard you were injured in the earlier bombing?”

“Mm, but I’m already healed.” Jasmine nodded heavily.

She immediately asked,

“How is Julie now?”

Julie was Mrs. Hamill’s eldest daughter and Jasmine’s playmate from the past.

Mrs. Hamill’s expression instantly darkened.

“She was… she was violated by the Feysacians, and then she died…”

Jasmine froze for a moment. Amid her sorrow, she inevitably thought of her own experience.

A Feysac soldier had once forced his way into her home, intending to violate her. But after seeing her face, destroyed by fire, he had only kicked her and left.

“Poor Julie.” With pain and sincerity, Jasmine drew four clockwise points on her chest, outlining the stars.

After hearing what had happened to an old friend, she discovered that perhaps she could still be considered comparatively lucky.

After parting from Mrs. Hamill, Jasmine walked all the way back to the apartment building where her home was located.

When she arrived outside her door, she had recovered a great deal. Her mood was much better, and she began anticipating the expressions her parents would show when they saw she had returned to her original appearance.

They should no longer press their pain deep inside and pretend nothing had happened. They would definitely cry from excitement and joyfully embrace me… Jasmine took down the key hanging from her neck like a necklace. While imagining that scene, she opened the door.

The room was dark. Neither candles nor gas wall lamps had been lit.

From the bed in the outer room came two snores, one heavy and one light, forming a certain contrast with the lively atmosphere of the municipal square.

They’re both asleep… That’s right. They usually work so hard… Jasmine gently closed the door, walked to her parents’ bedside, and, borrowing the crimson moonlight streaming in through the window, quietly cast her gaze over them.

Dad has so much more white hair. His nasolabial folds have become so deep… Even while sleeping, Mom is frowning. Her face is peeling a little, dry and rough… Only then did Jasmine discover that she seemed to have gone a very long time without seriously looking at her parents’ faces. She had not realized they had aged so much.

Before the war, her father had been an accountant with a decent income. He had been able to rent a row house and let his wife stay home to look after the family. Now, he could only enter a cloth factory and do heavy labor, while Jasmine’s mother also had to leave the home and become a textile worker.

Dad’s health is getting worse too. He coughs all the time. Still, he has already passed the recent unified examination for government employees. Once the interview results are announced, he will be able to have a respectable job… Mom is always complaining that her eyes and arms are getting worse… Jasmine looked deeply at her parents and did not wake them.

She had already decided on her second wish.

Lightening her steps, Jasmine entered the inner room and poured the last few pennies from her nearly empty coin bank.

Then she left the apartment and boarded a trackless public carriage.

She was afraid that if she arrived too late, the Fully Automatic Wish Machine would have disappeared.

At this hour, there were many passengers on the public carriage. Most were heading to the carnival. Jasmine looked to both sides, saw no seats, and could only hold onto a support, standing in the aisle, squeezed among many people.

After a little more than ten minutes, she got off at her stop and turned into the earlier street.

When the brass-colored machine embedded with several panes of glass entered her sight, Jasmine silently breathed out in relief and quickly approached.

During this process, she looked around but did not find the magician named Merlin Hermes.

“It’s really fully automatic and doesn’t need him beside it?” Jasmine whispered in confusion.

She did not waste time. Taking out one copper penny, she inserted it into the Fully Automatic Wish Machine.

“I wish my parents would recover their health, and I wish our family would become wealthy.” Jasmine whispered her wish and closed her eyes, waiting for the miracle to occur.

The next second, she heard a clinking sound, like a coin rolling out from inside the Fully Automatic Wish Machine.

Jasmine opened her eyes in astonishment and looked forward. She saw that the copper penny she had just inserted had already landed in the small tray outside the coin slot.

This wish cannot be fulfilled? Uh, maybe one wish can’t contain too many things? What I just made was actually equal to two wishes… With the experience of her burns being healed already before her, Jasmine did not suspect that the Fully Automatic Wish Machine had malfunctioned.

After thinking seriously, she inserted that one-penny coin again, lowered her head, and made a quiet wish.

“I wish my parents would recover their health.”

This time, she heard a gentle knocking sound from inside the Fully Automatic Wish Machine.

“Tok.”

Seeing that the copper coin had not been returned, Jasmine knew that her wish had already been fulfilled. She could hardly wait to go home and see her parents’ condition.

Suppressing her excitement, she inserted a second one-penny coin.

She had originally planned to wish for her family to become wealthy. But when she thought of how her father was almost certain to become a Limon City government employee and how the family income would then be guaranteed again, she could not help forming a different thought.

After the age of ten, she had already realized that she was not beautiful at all. This was not to say that the people around her disliked her or that her appearance was unqualified. Rather, among her playmates, there were two rather beautiful girls. In many situations, they could receive preferential treatment and experience the world’s goodwill.

Compared against them, Jasmine had inevitably dreamed that, as she grew older, she would become more and more beautiful. Yet reality had proved that dreams could only be dreams.

But this time, the dream could very possibly become real, because before her was an extraordinarily magical Fully Automatic Wish Machine capable of creating miracles.

If I can become beautiful, I can find a very good husband. That can likewise improve my family’s situation… Jasmine seemed to hear a devil whispering beside her ear. Unable to control herself, she closed her eyes and made a wish:

“I wish to become very, very, very beautiful.”

She used three verys to modify beautiful.

The moment her voice fell, the Fully Automatic Wish Machine’s door opened again. A silver-white mask was pushed out and covered Jasmine’s face.

Jasmine abruptly opened her eyes, just in time to see the mask disappear.

At the same time, she seemed to have become connected to something.

Filled with expectation, she turned around and once again came to the shop beside the street, using the light of the gas streetlamp and the glass window to see her current appearance.

For a moment, Jasmine could not specifically describe what changes had occurred to her features and facial outline. She only knew that, at that instant, even she herself became immersed in that beauty.

Her nose had become higher, her lips much fuller, her eyes larger and extremely moist. Her skin was tender like milk pudding. Only a little of her original appearance remained.

“This… Is this a divine miracle…” Jasmine sincerely, uncontrollably, let out a sigh of praise.

She admired herself in fascination. Only after a long time did she manage to draw her gaze away and bow toward the Fully Automatic Wish Machine.

Then she walked, nearly floating, toward the public carriage stop. Along the way, gaze after gaze fell upon her.

Bang!

A man, too focused on looking at her, walked straight into a gas streetlamp pole.

Jasmine pursed her lips in a smile and said nothing, stepping onto the trackless public carriage.

There were still quite a few people inside. All the seats were occupied.

Just as Jasmine tried to find a place to stand, several gentlemen lifted their backsides, straightened their bodies, and looked at her with smiles.

“Miss, you may sit here.”

Jasmine was briefly stunned. She had not expected to receive so much goodwill.

She did not refuse. She took the nearest seat and showed the gentleman who had given it up a smile.

“Thank you.”

That gentleman’s expression became extremely vivid. He said modestly,

“This is what a gentleman should do.”

Jasmine still retained the habit she had developed while shutting herself away at home. She did not say much and quietly remained seated until she reached the area near her home, then got off the carriage.

After walking a few steps, she suddenly felt someone looking at her and hurriedly turned her head.

It was a drunken man. He was staring at Jasmine with a disgusting gaze that could not be described.

Jasmine was startled and hurriedly walked quickly toward her apartment. Yet the men she encountered along the way all revealed similar expressions in succession, as though they might turn into beasts at any moment.

At that moment, Jasmine felt as if she were walking through the wilderness.