“Ah, I heard some news yesterday,” Red Spiral suddenly said. “The Demon Lord from Winter City has been stirring up trouble again. Seems like he’s preparing to expand his territory. Crane Immortal City might also be within his attack range.”

“Really?” Shi Yan clicked her tongue twice. There was a great demon king in Winter City called Sima Jiao, who controlled an enormous amount of territory. He had already brought nearly half of the Demon Realm under his command. Even “commoners” like Shi Yan knew that this Demon King, whose base was in Winter City, would likely unify the Demon Realm soon.

But what did that have to do with her? Fighting over territory in the Demon Realm was a common occurrence. When she chatted about it with others now, it was like gossiping about presidential elections in her previous world—it had nothing to do with her.

Red Spiral was quite excited though. “If they attack and seize the territory, that would be great! I can’t imagine meeting the Demon Lord, but if a few handsome Demon generals come over, that works too! I’d go up and beg to sleep with them!”

After finishing her breakfast, Shi Yan returned to Rouge Platform and spent another uneventful day. When night fell, she got off work on time. A duck shop by the roadside reminded her that they had a new specialty marinated duck from the cultivation world today, and she happily bought quite a bit to take home.

As she stepped into the courtyard, she saw her father Shi Qianlü sitting in his wheelchair, staring at the sky with a bitter expression.

Seeing Shi Yan return, his face darkened as he looked at her, his expression clearly saying—disappointed in someone who failed to live up to expectations. Shi Yan was used to this. She supposed most parents looked at their children this way. She grabbed a handful of roasted peanuts for her irritable father and asked, “Want some?”

Shi Qianlü didn’t want to eat. He slapped the armrest of his wheelchair forcefully and said coldly, “How can I eat when the great vengeance of our Shi family remains unfulfilled?”

Oh, here we go again. Fine, don’t eat then, it’s not like he would starve to death. Shi Yan took the food back and ate it herself while listening to his daily lecture.

Ever since she had awakened in this body, her father had been constantly telling her about their Shi family’s former glory and their bitter feud. He talked about it every day, tirelessly, as if trying to brainwash her.

About ten years ago, their Shi clan had been the top leaders of the Gengchen Immortal Mansion in the outside cultivation world. They had been quite prominent. Unfortunately, they were destroyed by their great enemy Sima Jiao, leaving the family broken and nearly everyone dead. Only those with high cultivation levels barely managed to escape.

And her father, once the Master of the First Immortal Mansion, had become the stray dog he was today, forced to hide everywhere to escape their enemy’s pursuit. It was truly miserable. As for herself, she had also been injured in that disaster, disfigured, and even lost her memory—

When Zhou Yan first arrived here, she knew nothing. She only remembered being exhausted from overtime work the night before, falling asleep in bed, and then opening her eyes to find herself in a different world. Her father was sitting in front of her, asking, “Do you remember who you are?”

How was she supposed to answer that? She couldn’t just say she had transmigrated, so she went along with it and said she couldn’t remember anything. Her acting skills probably weren’t that good, but somehow this father immediately believed her. That’s probably what made him her real father. He then naturally introduced her to her identity and finally reminded her not to forget the family feud.

“In the future, if you see Sima Jiao, you must kill him!” her father said once again, filled with rage.

His body had been severely injured back then, even losing his legs. Shi Yan could fully understand his bitterness and bad temper. Hearing this, she obediently nodded, pretending to be compliant.

But as she turned away to pick up some marinated duck, she thought to herself: if you could kill him, would your family have been destroyed in the first place?

If she were the original Shi Yan, she would certainly have carried this hatred and shared in the vendetta. But she wasn’t. She was just an innocent victim, inexplicably caught up in this grudge. Revenge was impossible. She just wanted to work quietly here. The only thing she could do for the original Shi Yan was to care for her elderly father until the end of his life.

As for going to Winter City to seek revenge against the great Demon King—well, that was out of the question. One should know their limits.

The door opened, and a young man walked in.

Seeing him, Shi Yan called out, “Brother.”

Shi Zhenxu wasn’t as bitter toward her as Shi Qianlü was. He was quite nice. After recovering from his injuries, he went out to work just like Shi Yan, except his job required him to travel around, visiting various cities. Having been outside a lot, he only returned home once every ten to fifteen days.

“You’re back. I’ll go boil some water for your bath,” Shi Yan slipped away, taking the opportunity to escape her father’s endless nagging.

Once Shi Yan left, Shi Zhenxu bowed to Shi Qianlü, “Sect Master.”

Shi Qianlü’s face remained solemn. “Hmm, how are things outside?”

Shi Zhenxu: “Over in Winter City, Sima Jiao is indeed preparing to expand his territory further. Crane Immortal City might not be safe soon. Should we take her away?”

Shi Qianlü was utterly distressed: “This Liao Tingyan is truly useless. After years of instilling hatred in her, she still only thinks about eating and drinking all day. Back then, we used secret methods to erase her memory, intending to cultivate her into a weapon against Sima Jiao. Now it seems she is completely worthless!”

Shi Zhenxu glanced at the marinated duck on the table nearby, his mouth twitching as he pressed his throbbing forehead.

Had he known, he wouldn’t have used such a precious life-saving immortal tool to save her back then. He truly regretted it now.

If Shi Yan were here, she could accurately describe these two men’s thoughts—they had invested heavily in stock, expecting it to bring them significant returns, but the stock remained stagnant. They didn’t know when they might see any returns if they continued to hold it, yet selling felt wasteful.

Over the past few years, the two had agonized over this countless times.

Shi Yan was completely unaware of all these schemes. She called out to Shi Zhenxu from the window: “Big brother, the water’s ready for your bath. And bring the marinated duck in while you’re at it!”

Shi Zhenxu remained silent for a moment. After Shi Qianlü darkened his face and waved his hand, he picked up the marinated duck and put on the face of a good brother as he entered the room.

As soon as he entered, Shi Yan pulled him aside, chuckling and even giving him a back rub. Shi Zhenxu’s expression stiffened at her touch.

“What is it now?” he asked.

Shi Yan said, “I haven’t received my wages yet, and I’ve been buying too much food lately, plus some clothes. I’m short on money, hehe, big brother…”

Shi Zhenxu: I knew it.

He took out a bag of demon stones, trying his best to disguise himself as a good brother, speaking kindly, “Here, take it.”

Once again, Shi Yan was moved by this sibling relationship. In her previous life, she often said the country owed her a brother. Now in this world, she finally experienced what that was like. Friends whose brothers refused to give their sisters pocket money and even took money from them were fake brothers. This was what a real brother was like!

Shi Yan: “Brother, you’re the best.”

Shi Zhenxu: “Hehe.”

With her pocket money, Shi Yan enjoyed several more carefree days.

A few days later, when she returned home from work, she saw a stranger in her house—a middle-aged woman holding a zither, speaking quietly with her father.

Shi Yan: Shock! Her irritable father welcoming a second spring?!

Both of them looked at her simultaneously, their expressions not particularly pleasant. The female cultivator’s gaze toward her was especially unfriendly as if she harbored some deep grudge against her.

Shi Yan thought to herself, perhaps this was a stepmother? Generally, only stepmothers would have such resentment toward their stepdaughters. When it rains, and father wants to remarry, there’s nothing to be done about it. After all, she wasn’t the woman’s biological daughter. So she maintained her composure and asked, “Father, who is this?”

Shi Qianlü gave Shi Qiandu a look, signaling her to restrain herself a bit, then said, “This is my sister, your aunt. She’s been away all this time and has now found us. You don’t remember her, do you? You two used to be very close.” He spoke as if it were true.

So she was her biological aunt. But are you sure the original Shi Yan had a good relationship with this aunt? Wasn’t that hatred rather than the warmth of relatives reuniting after a long separation in her aunt’s eyes? To be frank, they looked like they had the kind of plastic aunt-niece relationship.

Shi Yan hesitated for a moment but still stepped forward and grabbed Shi Qiandu’s arm, calling her: “Auntie!” Plastic or not, she had to show some respect.

Shi Qiandu’s expression was almost twisted. She pulled her hand away from Shi Yan’s grasp. “It’s been a long time. Are you well?”

Shi Yan nodded sincerely: “I’m doing very well.”

Shi Qiandu was not doing so well.

Shi Yan felt that this suddenly appearing aunt was strange. That night, she couldn’t sleep, lying on the roof watching the stars, when she accidentally encountered her aunt and father talking in a corner of the courtyard.

They were using a sound-blocking spell, being all secretive. Liao Tingyan was a bit curious—what matter required such secrecy in the middle of the night in a corner? She had coincidentally learned a method for eavesdropping from Red Spiral and, after hesitating briefly, decided to use it, listening in on their conversation.

Well, they were all family, what could there be that she shouldn’t know?

She heard Shi Qiandu saying: “Sima Jiao didn’t find the person back then and has never believed they died. He’s been searching everywhere, still not giving up. He suspects us, preferring to kill mistakenly rather than let anyone escape. He kills every Shi family member he sees. We don’t have many people left and don’t dare send anyone casually to appear before him.”

Shi Yan: Oh, so they’re discussing their great enemy Sima Jiao. No wonder they’re being so cautious.

Whenever they talked about this great Demon King, they were always on high alert and gritting their teeth with hatred. This made her unconsciously imagine Sima Jiao as someone with a blue face, and fangs, standing 2.8 meters tall, with dozens of muscles all over his body, and a love for eating people.

Over there, Shi Qiandu was still speaking: “We can’t continue to be passive. Can Shi Yan be useful or not?”

Surprised to hear her name, Shi Yan’s ears perked up.

Shi Qianlü said: “It’s not yet time for her to act.”

Shi Qiandu gave a cold laugh, “I can see it. Even without her memory, she doesn’t want to deal with Sima Jiao. These dog lovers! I see her as useless. It was a waste to save her back then! We should have just let her die. If she had died, Sima Jiao might have gone completely mad from losing his love!”

The amount of information in this paragraph was overwhelming. Shi Yan listened with a head full of question marks and exclamation points alternating.

What shocking secret had she just heard!

That great enemy of their family, Sima Jiao! And the original owner of this body, Shi Yan! They had been involved! They had dated before!

The story of Romeo and Juliet flashed through Shi Yan’s mind—star-crossed lovers forced apart by their identities and families, becoming enemies, entangled in grudges, and so on.

No wonder. This explained everything.

Why did her aunt become angry as soon as she saw her? Because her original self had dated their enemy, and possibly even sided with the enemy during the clan’s extermination.

Why did her father never question her “memory loss”? Because he was glad his traitorous daughter had forgotten everything. Why did he constantly instill in her the idea that she must hate Sima Jiao and seek revenge? To prevent his daughter from getting back together with their enemy!

Shi Yan’s mind was racing wildly, almost going bald from overthinking.

The situation was already very clear. This was a tragic love story. Based on how things were developing, there might even be a plot of broken mirrors being reunited.

But she was truly scared. What did the relationship between Sima Jiao and Shi Yan have to do with her, Zhou Yan? That Sima Jiao was not someone to mess with—he could easily exterminate an entire clan. If she ever encountered that great Demon King and he discovered that she had occupied his girlfriend’s body, wouldn’t she die horribly?

She couldn’t bear to think about it. Thinking about it meant death.

She didn’t even have the heart to continue listening to her father and aunt’s conversation. She returned to her bed and didn’t sleep well all night. Rarely did she suffer from insomnia. She didn’t even have the energy to clean up when she saw someone randomly dumping corpses at her doorstep on her way out.

Today Red Spiral wasn’t at work. She slowly ate breakfast alone and eventually convinced herself.

It’s fine. The great Demon King was separated from her by such a vast distance. They would probably never meet. She could continue to lie low for a while longer.

In the distance, there was a loud boom, and someone screamed: “The forces under Winter City’s Demon Lord have invaded Crane Immortal City!”

Shi Yan: “…” Damn it, why now?