Ye Hong finally felt at ease, as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He seemed to have aged several years in an instant, letting out a long sigh. “In this lifetime, I can no longer go to the capital to see Brother Xiao. When you return in the future, convey my apologies to your grandfather on my behalf. In the end, I failed the bond between us. I hope he will not hold a grudge against Xiaobao in the days to come.”
“He won’t,” Xiao Moye replied. He knew his grandfather well—the man was incapable of holding grudges.
Besides, judging by how urgently he had urged Xiao Moye to come and bring the old man and his grandson back to the capital, Grandfather harbored no displeasure toward Ye Hong’s request. In fact, he had seemed delighted. Grandfather was willing to have a daughter of the Ye family marry into the Prince’s household.
Thinking that he would one day be wed to Ye Xiaojin, another wave of irritation surged through his chest.
He had been pestered by the Third Princess since childhood, weary of her hypocritical ways—how she wanted everything yet pretended otherwise. As a boy, he had suffered no small amount of unjust grievances because of her.
As he grew older, he tried to avoid the Third Princess, but the more he avoided her, the tighter she pursued him.
Even on this journey out of the capital, the Third Princess had sent people to follow him. He had dispatched his attendants to shake off those tails before coming alone to Shuiwan Village.
He had escaped the Third Princess, only to encounter Ye Xiaojin, who operated by the same playbook.
The days ahead would be dark and endless. Had he, in a past life, dug up the Old Man in Heaven’s ancestral grave…
“You should return. You must come as promised in three days,” Ye Hong said, noticing his distracted state and beginning to dismiss him.
Xiao Moye rose to his feet. “I’ll send word for Elder Guo to examine you.”
Ye Hong waved his hand, saying with a desolate air, “No need for futile efforts. Birth, aging, sickness, and death are the natural course of things. As long as Xiaobao is well, I have no regrets.”
Xiao Moye’s lips moved, but he could find no fitting words to comfort the old man. All words seemed pale and meaningless.
He could only bow to him and turn to leave.
As Xiao Moye stepped out of the room, he saw Ye Xiaojin standing at the door. Though he now understood that her request to marry within three days was due to Ye Hong’s condition, his resentment toward her was genuine and substantial.
“I’ll see you out.” Ye Xiaojin quickly followed his departing steps.
Xiao Moye furrowed his brow. “What do you want now?”
“I’ve come to see the Heir Apparent off, and to add something—a simple wedding is fine, but the marriage contract cannot be omitted. In three days, the Heir Apparent must remember to bring the marriage contract.” She had just confirmed with the System that the task would only be complete with the marriage contract, and only then would her grandfather gain three hundred days of HP.
Xiao Moye stopped in his tracks and looked down at Ye Xiaojin, his deep eyes filled with contempt. “Ye Xiaojin, you just swore you would never beg to marry me. Barely a few moments have passed, and now you’re eagerly reminding me to bring the marriage contract in three days. Are you afraid I might actually honor your vow and leave you with no chance to enter the household?
You’ve lived in the countryside for ten years, yet you haven’t learned a single thing about the simplicity of the common folk. But the affectation and pretense of those women in the capital—you’ve mastered them to perfection.”
His attitude was within her expectations, and his words were something Ye Xiaojin could accept. Thus, she was not angered. Instead, she smiled faintly and said, “Whatever the Heir Apparent says is what it is. The Heir Apparent’s words carry no regret—just don’t forget to bring the marriage contract in three days. Goodbye, no need to see me off.”
With that, she gave a slight bow, and without regard for whatever expression Xiao Moye wore behind her, she turned and headed back into Ye Hong’s room.
He hadn’t refused—her goal was achieved. How he felt about her didn’t matter in the slightest. What mattered was that Grandfather would live.
With three hundred days of HP as a buffer, she was sure to find other ways to extend her grandfather’s lifespan. She had just communicated with the System’s Xiao Mu, who told her that no other tasks were currently available, but that the System would flexibly assign tasks and award Points in the future based on her experiences.
Oh, right—as Xiao Mu had reminded her, there were two additional rewards from when she had signed the contract with the System. One was a storage Space about the size of a hotel room; she probed it with her consciousness and found it to be roughly forty square meters.
The other reward was an unlimited supply of Water of Oblivion.
She had read about storage Spaces in many novels before, so she knew what that was for. But why would the System reward her with Water of Oblivion? Could it be that in the future she was supposed to make someone lose their memory by pouring a mouthful down their throat?
In that case, she’d give Xiao Moye a bowl first…
She put a stop to the various thoughts running through her head, let out a turbid breath, and stepped into her grandfather’s room.
Her grandfather must have noticed her unusual behavior today. There were some things she needed to clarify now, lest they cause trouble in the future and create a rift between them.
Ye Xiaojin knelt before the old man, head bowed and eyes lowered. “Grandfather, what I’m about to say may sound unbelievable. Please don’t get agitated—just hear me out.”
Seeing how solemn his granddaughter was, Ye Hong sat up straight.
After letting the old man take a sip of hot water, Ye Xiaojin continued, “You just asked me why I was crying. Actually… I already died once last night.”
Hearing this, Ye Hong was so shocked that he shot up from his chair, coughing repeatedly.
“Grandfather!” Ye Xiaojin was alarmed and quickly patted his back to soothe him. “Grandfather, please don’t worry. Let me finish. Yesterday, that medicine killed me. I went down below and met a Taoist master. He said that my past behavior was so disgraceful that I deserved to go to hell, but considering that you had merit from rescuing disaster victims, he gave me a chance to turn over a new leaf and come back to take care of you. He also taught me some skills. Look…”
With that, she raised her hand and cast out a handful of pebbles she had picked up in the courtyard. The pebbles shot out with tremendous speed, each one embedding itself firmly into the pillars of the room.
In her memories, Ye Hong had indeed spent his entire fortune to rescue disaster victims, and given that ancient people were naturally superstitious, this was the excuse Ye Xiaojin could use to explain her subsequent changes without revealing any flaws. The display of skill at the end was meant to make the Taoist master excuse more believable.
That was a skill she had practiced unceasingly for over a decade in her previous life—the original owner of this body did not possess it.
After hearing his granddaughter’s account and seeing the pebbles deeply embedded in the pillars, Ye Hong was shaken. Even at the peak of his martial arts before his cultivation was crippled, his power was no greater than this. Then he felt fortunate—thankful that he had done everything in his power to rescue disaster victims, which had earned his granddaughter this chance at life.
Then he thought of his own failing health and let out a deep, heavy sigh. “It’s good that you have some skills to protect yourself. If I leave you alone in the future, I can rest a little easier.”
“No, Grandfather.” Ye Xiaojin’s gaze was resolute. “I will make sure you live to a hundred.”
Ye Hong chuckled. “Silly girl, a person’s lifespan is predetermined. It’s not as if you could make a deal with the King of Hell.”
Ye Xiaojin thought to herself, completing tasks to add years to your life—isn’t that exactly making a deal with the King of Hell?
So she said, half-truthfully, “Grandfather, look at the opportunity I’ve been given. The Taoist master sent me back to take care of you, which means nothing will happen to you. Otherwise, why would he say he was sending me back to honor and care for you? You will definitely live to a hundred, staying with me for a long, long time.”
The old man pulled his granddaughter up. “Alright, Grandpa will try to live a bit longer. Didn’t you say you were hungry and wanted some porridge? Go on, Grandpa will rest for a while.”
Ye Xiaojin followed her memories to the kitchen.
The porridge Grandpa had made was already done. She filled two bowls, found some pickled vegetables in the kitchen, and carried everything to Grandpa’s room. She accompanied him through breakfast before clearing the dishes and returning to the kitchen.
Ye Xiaojin looked around the entire kitchen—dirty, cluttered, and dilapidated, filled with a sense of decay.
The kitchen was usually managed by the old family servant, Grandpa Zhuang. Grandpa Zhuang had followed Grandpa since his youth, and later they went to the battlefield together. He was two years younger than Grandpa and had lost an eye during the final great battle. When Grandpa brought her back to their hometown that year, Grandpa Zhuang had insisted on coming along no matter what.
Two rough old men who knew nothing about household matters except for fighting—yet they had managed to raise the original owner, spoiling her rotten and refusing to let her lift a finger. So much so that Grandpa Zhuang, whose remaining eye was now failing, still bore the burden of all the household chores.
And Grandpa, because the original owner loved to look pretty, had learned with hands that only knew how to wield weapons to comb her hair into various styles and mend her clothes.
Ye Xiaojin sighed. Spoiling the original owner into uselessness—both old men, Grandpa and Grandpa Zhuang, were to blame!
She looked at her hands—slender fingers, rounded tips, smooth knuckles barely visible, skin fair and delicate. Just by looking at these hands, one could tell the original owner had never lifted a finger for chores.
Unlike her hands in her previous life, which had calluses hardened across the palms and between thumb and forefinger from years of training.
She glanced into the water vat—her reflection was identical to her previous life’s face…
Meanwhile, in a gray, hazy space elsewhere, a man and a woman stood atop a pavilion, gazing at a young woman in a mirror of illusion.
“Little Meng, do you think this will really work? Forcibly binding them in marriage—could it backfire? Look at them, there’s not a hint of mutual affection.”
“Judge Ge, when it comes to love in the mortal world, who understands it better—you or me?”
“…”
“If the boss says to do it this way, then we do it this way. The boss expended ten thousand years of cultivation for this single chance to twist time and space. Whether it works or not, there’s only this one shot.”
“Sigh. As long as we don’t break the rules, let’s keep an eye on things.” Thinking of Yinsi overflowing with ghosts and the System crashing, he felt his head growing balder.