Upon entering the forbidden palace grounds, the black snake instinctively shrank itself. At this point, its waist was only about as thick as a person’s height, just the right size to freely slither through the corridors of the forbidden palace. Now that it had shrunk, Shi Yan could finally escape from between its teeth, but half of her body was still in the great snake’s mouth, being tossed around until she was dizzy.

The black snake didn’t care at all about being cursed at by its damn master. It was currently extremely excited, wagging its tail, and with a “ptooey” sound, it spat out its little friend.

“Hiss hiss—” It was presenting a treasure.

Sima Jiao didn’t understand what it meant. He stared at Shi Yan, who had rolled on the ground and then gotten up with a completely bewildered expression. They stared at each other for a full ten minutes.

Who is this? As soon as this question popped into Shi Yan’s mind, she simultaneously vaguely deduced the answer. The black snake was raised by Sima Jiao, and the person in front of her who could scold the black snake was undoubtedly its master.

Wait, what happened to the promised blue-faced, fanged, 2.8-meter-tall great Demon King? Was Sima Jiao this pretty boy in front of her?

No, that’s not right. During the time she was staring at this pretty boy, Shi Yan urgently recalled the most important setting. Sima Jiao and the original Shi Yan were in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship! What should she do? Had he recognized her now? That made sense—she wasn’t disguised, and anyone with functioning eyes would recognize her.

This development was truly unexpected. Brought all this way, delivered to his doorstep—what kind of fate was this? She felt like a delivery package.

What should she do? Should she act now? Act out a scene of lovers reuniting after a long separation, eyes brimming with tears, feigning resistance while welcoming… but with her poor acting skills, she would reveal flaws. Or should she just say she had amnesia? The amnesia trick works everywhere! But that wouldn’t work either; it would still test her acting skills.

The Sima Jiao in front of her didn’t look like someone easy to fool. She couldn’t just casually claim amnesia and expect him to casually believe it.

After ten minutes of staring, Shi Yan gradually calmed down from her rapid heartbeat and jumbled thoughts. There was no help for it; her nervousness was always difficult to maintain for long periods. At this point, she could only stare with wide eyes.

Sima Jiao examined her for a full ten minutes before finally making a move. His voice carried a slight hoarseness as he said, “Come here.”

Shi Yan didn’t move.

Sima Jiao didn’t get angry. Even the frown that had been on his face earlier relaxed. He walked over to Shi Yan himself and picked her up in his arms.

Shi Yan: “!!!”

Are you this direct?

She was suddenly lifted. She should have struggled, but either her body hadn’t reacted in time or her brain hadn’t caught up. In any case, she didn’t struggle. After she calmed down a bit, she thought about struggling but felt it would be awkward, so she comforted herself that not changing in response to changes and using stillness to control movement were good survival strategies.

It was better to pretend she was a corpse and stay quiet. She absolutely would not take the initiative to speak.

The pretty boy who was presumably Sima Jiao held her with strange familiarity, one hand pressing the back of her head, pushing her head against his neck.

Shi Yan suddenly recalled the years of instructions and various teachings from her Shi family father. Summed up in one sentence—one day when you see Sima Jiao, don’t hesitate, kill that bastard.

Now this great enemy of the Shi family was right in front of her, with his fragile neck near her hand—a perfect opportunity. But very strangely, as she was pressed against him with her head held there, she smelled a faint, dry, special scent and couldn’t help feeling sleepy. That extremely drowsy feeling knocked her down instantly.

Since arriving in this world, she had never felt so tired. It felt like working overtime for three days and three nights and finally returning home, collapsing face-first onto the bed.

Could it be that after just a few days without sleep, she had become this exhausted? No, it must be that this mysterious pretty boy had sprayed some kind of sleeping drug or something!

“If you want to sleep, then sleep,” Sima Jiao tilted his head, his cheek rubbing against her hair. She felt a cold hand press against the back of her neck, then stroke down her hair and spine, carrying a natural soothing intention.

Then Shi Yan’s head tilted, and she fell asleep.

She fell asleep in his arms and woke up still in his arms, but in an even more intimate position. Sima Jiao sat there supporting his head, and her head rested against his arm, completely nestled in his embrace, with even her legs covered by his sleeve.

As soon as she opened her eyes, she met Sima Jiao’s downward gazing look. In the corner of her eye, a snake head was swaying, a flickering tongue that attracted her attention. Then Sima Jiao kicked the approaching snake head away with one foot. The great black snake writhed resentfully for a while, still trying to approach, only to be pushed away by Sima Jiao’s hand.

“Get out,” Sima Jiao pointed to the wide-open window.

The great black snake sensed that its master was not as calm as he appeared on the surface and realized that if it continued to make trouble, it might get beaten. So it obediently crawled out, looking quite pitiful.

Perhaps it was because she had just awakened and her mind wasn’t clear yet, but Shi Yan even felt a strange sense of familiarity with this scene, as if she had experienced it many times. The atmosphere was extremely domestic, like the dynamic between a boyfriend and a pet dog.

Thinking of this, Shi Yan suddenly jolted.

This wasn’t right! None of this was right!

Shi Yan tugged at her hair. What was it? What had made her fall dead asleep in the arms of a strange pretty boy she had met for the first time? Where was the vigilance she had cultivated so carefully? Had it died? Although her sleep quality had always been good, it couldn’t possibly be this good—and that sleep just now had been so deep and satisfying.

After killing people, she would always have nightmares for several days, but not this time.

She had good reason to suspect that the snake-raising man in front of her, who was holding her and playing with her hair, had used some kind of drug.

Sima Jiao reached out and caressed her chin.

“Why so dazed? Did you sleep well?”

Shi Yan heard his incredibly familiar tone and felt a bit suffocated. No, I’m not your girlfriend.

“Since you’ve rested well, let’s talk,” Sima Jiao said.

Talk… talk about what?

Sima Jiao: “Where have you been all these years?”

Shi Yan found herself powerless to resist, and her mouth uttered a few words with a mind of its own: “In Crane Immortal City.”

Shi Yan: What is this?? Did I drink a truth serum or something? How do I not know this skill???

Sima Jiao: “Was it the Shi family who took you away? Is Shi Qianlü by your side?”

Shi Yan: “Yes.”

Sima Jiao: “Why didn’t you return to me?”

Shi Yan: “I don’t know you. I don’t know why I should return to your side.”

After three questions, Shi Yan understood and became depressed. This guy was cheating; he could activate a truth buff.

With three questions, Sima Jiao had more or less guessed what had happened over the years.

Back then, he had made such a commotion searching everywhere for Liao Tingyan’s whereabouts. The way he searched, even if Liao Tingyan’s soul had shattered into a thousand or eight hundred pieces, he would have collected them back. But there was nothing, not a trace, so he quickly sensed something was wrong.

At that time, he couldn’t accept the reality that Liao Tingyan had disappeared. In his anger, he went to hunt down the Shi clan for vengeance. During his search for the Shi family members, he discovered anomalies and suspected that Liao Tingyan had been taken away by them.

At the same time, he also suspected that someone from the Demon Realm might be causing trouble. After all, Liao Tingyan was from the Demon Realm, and those who had sent her might have interfered. Even if they hadn’t, they might have ways to find Liao Tingyan.

He suspected everything and investigated all possibilities.

Because of this, after he destroyed the Gengchen Immortal Mansion, he discovered that the decimated Shi family members showed signs of fleeing to the Demon Realm. So he simply abandoned the mess of the Gengchen Immortal Mansion and headed to the Demon Realm to stir up trouble.

First, he killed the original Demon Lord of Winter City who had sent Liao Tingyan to the Gengchen Immortal Mansion to gather information. Then he followed the traces of the Shi family, bringing all the cities that had cooperated with them under his control… Over these years, he had pursued them relentlessly. Every single survivor of the Shi family was struggling to survive and escape. He had nearly driven Shi Qianlü bald, so it was no wonder Shi Qianlü was so irritable every day watching Shi Yan dedicatedly working as a wage slave.

Shi Qianlü would never have thought, even in death, that after going to such lengths to hide Liao Tingyan for so many years, not only would the brainwashing fail, but she would inexplicably run to Sima Jiao’s side by herself.

It could be described as going bankrupt overnight, with only jumping from a building able to solve a thousand worries.

Sima Jiao had figured out most of the situation by himself. When he discovered that Liao Tingyan didn’t remember him, his expression grew increasingly dark. He asked a few more questions, completely unraveling her story.

Now she was called Shi Yan, Shi Qianlü was her father, and she had lost her memory ten years ago.

Sima Jiao laughed in anger. If Shi Qianlü were in front of him right now, he would stab him thousands of times on the spot. The old Shi family bastard was truly capable of anything. Memory loss? It was likely that the old man had used the Shi family’s soul-washing technique to erase all of Liao Tingyan’s memories, hoping to make her see him as an enemy, to use her for revenge. That old bastard only knew these tricks.

“You, accepting a thief as your father, hmm?” He directed all his anger at Shi Qianlü, while his attitude toward her—panicked but with a hint of resignation like a salted fish—was more like that of a boyfriend throwing a tantrum. His entire demeanor was a capital “I’M ABOUT TO GET ANGRY” warning sign.

“Stupid. Do you believe whatever that old bastard says? He wants to be your father? Is he worthy?” Sima Jiao held her chin. “You are Liao Tingyan, with no relation whatsoever to that old Shi bastard. He just wanted to use you against me. Next time I catch him, I’ll make him bow to you as a grandson.”

Shi Yan: “Huh?” The plot seemed to suddenly have a twist. This development was more complex than what she had imagined earlier… But anyway, it had nothing to do with her, Zhou Yan.

She couldn’t keep up, not knowing what kind of plot was unfolding in this strange situation. She just looked innocent. Sima Jiao stared at her irritably for a long time, clicked his tongue, gave up on the spot, brushed aside the hair on her forehead, and kissed her there. In the end, he didn’t get angry with her. “It’s all that old bastard’s fault.”

Although it was an intimate gesture of closeness, his tone was truly cold and frightening: “When I catch him, I’ll grind his physical body and soul into powder, bit by bit, to vent your anger.”

Shi Yan’s eyelid twitched: “Wait!”

Sima Jiao immediately changed his expression: “What? You don’t believe me? You don’t want him killed?”

It seemed like if she nodded, he would immediately fly into a rage and kill someone.

Shi Yan felt she might have activated a bear’s heart and a leopard’s gallbladder buff. Facing such a terrifying face that was ready to kill at the slightest disagreement, she actually… couldn’t feel afraid?

Her tone became unconsciously weak. “Well, I don’t know which of you is telling the truth, right?”

Sima Jiao remembered how she would have nightmares after killing someone. “Don’t worry, when the time comes, I’ll handle it myself. I won’t make you do it. I know you’re afraid of these things.” As he spoke, he pulled her tighter into his embrace and patted her back.

Forced to be his pillow, Shi Yan thought, my goodness, it seems the original body’s owner was a delicate fairy, the type who lived peacefully and didn’t like violence. Tsk, tsk, tsk, perhaps great Demon Kings preferred innocent, naive, unworldly, and kind young girls.

Maybe she was the “promise me you won’t kill anymore, forget hatred, learn to forgive, okay?” type.

In her heart, she created a drama of love and hatred between ‘Sima Jiao’ and ‘Shi Yan,’ imagining them having conflicts due to different statuses and identities, breaking ties in the pouring rain. ‘Sima Jiao’ wanted to kill the Shi family, but ‘Shi Yan’ wouldn’t let him, crying with a stubborn gaze at her lover, resolutely saying: “If you want to kill, kill me first!” Then ‘Sima Jiao,’ filled with hatred, shouted: “Move aside! Don’t stop me!” After a series of commotion, he accidentally injured ‘Shi Yan.’

She passionately imagined ‘Shi Yan being fatally injured, lying in ‘Sima Jiao’s’ arms in the same position they were in now. The girl, with her last breath, said: “Forgive me, I love…” and then her head tilted before she could finish.

As Shi Yan was passionately imagining this, her head unconsciously tilted to the side, and she saw Sima Jiao’s current expression. He was no longer irritable but expressionless as he looked at her, his gaze very strange.

Shi Yan: …um, why is he looking at me like that? Hahaha, he couldn’t possibly have mind-reading abilities… could he?

Sima Jiao opened his hand, covered her face, and made a grasping motion in the air.

Shi Yan: “?”

Sima Jiao: “Extracting all the messy thoughts from your mind.” That old bastard Shi Qianlü had instilled such an identity and experiences in her—was he mentally ill?

Shi Qianlü: I’m not, I didn’t!

Sima Jiao pulled her up, held her by the waist, and asked: “Do you want to listen to Shi Qianlü and kill me?”

Shi Yan: “No, no.” The truth buff struck again.

Sima Jiao snorted laughter: “Don’t you believe them? They want you to kill me, why don’t you want to?” He stroked her face, appearing to be smiling.

Why only “appearing” to smile? Because there was no smile in his eyes.

Shi Yan: “Because there’s no grievance between us.” Regardless of what the plot was, it was the Shi family who had a grudge against him, not her. The Shi family’s father always told her that as a member of the family, the family’s rise and fall, honor and disgrace were more important than the individual—this she couldn’t agree with.

Shi Qianlü’s greatest failure was that he didn’t know she was a soul from another world, not bound by this world’s natural order. So the memories Shi Qianlü had washed away were only those from after she arrived in this world, which meant she didn’t become a blank canvas for him to paint on.

Similarly, Sima Jiao couldn’t hear any thoughts from her about the other world.

Hearing a familiar answer, Sima Jiao was slightly appeased but still maintained the black face of a boyfriend whose girlfriend wanted to break up.

“You don’t believe it now, fine. When I catch Shi Qianlü, I’ll let you hear it from him yourself.”