So it turned out his mom had been playing mahjong the whole time. Zhu Ping’an hung up the phone in disappointment after being happy for nothing.
“Brother Ping’an, what’s wrong?” Yan Shubing asked with her watery eyes wide open.
“Nothing. My mom told me to go home for dinner. I’m leaving first. Don’t worry. If there’s a Blood-Enhancing Pill, I’ll definitely bring it to you.”
Zhu Ping’an waved his hand and left without looking back. There were no important plot developments next, and he did not want to stay around Yan Shubing if he could avoid it.
Following the route in his memory, Zhu Ping’an arrived at the gate of a very luxurious residential community.
The sun was setting in the west, casting a golden glow over the entire complex.
“Somewhat unfamiliar… yet somewhat warm…” Zhu Ping’an muttered. Before transmigrating, he had been an orphan and had never experienced fatherly or motherly love. At this moment, he felt a strange nervousness, like returning to a hometown he barely knew.
He took a deep breath and strode into the community. He wanted to see what his parents were like.
After taking the elevator to the fifth floor, he unlocked the door with his fingerprint. The moment he pushed the door open, the clattering sound of mahjong tiles filled his ears.
“Ping’an is back?” A woman in a fitted cheongsam sat at the mahjong table with her back to him and spoke. “I put the Blood-Enhancing Pill on the table. Take it yourself. East Wind!”
“Okay, Mom.” Zhu Ping’an called out the word awkwardly, a term he had never spoken before.
“Oh right, why didn’t that girl Shubing come back with you? White Dragon!” Xia Yue asked curiously.
Yan Shubing had been their neighbor when she was young. But after her father died in an accident, her family’s finances declined sharply, and they eventually had to sell their house and leave.
Over the years, under Zhu Ping’an’s crying, tantrums, and threats, his parents had been paying Yan Shubing’s tuition and living expenses. Yan Shubing also often came home with Zhu Ping’an for meals.
“She had something to do,” Zhu Ping’an said briefly. In the original plot, his parents’ ending had not been good.
After learning that he had given the Vitality and Blood Pill to Yan Shubing, the two elders had been so furious they almost cut ties with him. Later, when they learned that their only son had died for Yan Shubing, his father Zhu Jianghua drowned his sorrows in alcohol every day, and his mother Xia Yue became depressed. She even stopped playing her beloved mahjong. Not long after, they were both hospitalized and soon passed away.
By that time, the Zhu family had fallen into decline. His younger sister Zhu Kaixin went to ask Yan Shubing for help, only to be met with cold ridicule. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
“Your parents paid for my schooling and martial arts training just to manipulate me into marrying into your Zhu family. You never treated me as a person. I am an independent woman, not an accessory of your Zhu family!”
Zhu Kaixin, who already had a heart condition, was so enraged by these shameless words that she suffered an attack on the spot and died. Not long after, their father and mother also passed away in the hospital. Yan Shubing did not even come back to see Xia Yue one last time before she died.
Thinking of this, Zhu Ping’an’s gaze turned cold. Yan Shubing was truly ungrateful to the core. He had died to save her. His parents had supported her education and daily life. Yet she could not even visit them once.
Since the heavens had given him a chance to transmigrate back, Zhu Ping’an would never allow such an ending to happen again.
“I win! Pure Suit! Pay up, pay up!”
Xia Yue exclaimed excitedly at the mahjong table, her face full of smiles, while the other three wealthy ladies looked as dark as thunderclouds. After collecting her winnings, Xia Yue directly sent the three of them away, saying her son had come home and the family needed time together.
“Ping’an, go call your sister out for dinner!” Xia Yue was clearly in a good mood after winning money.
Zhu Ping’an obediently walked toward his sister’s bedroom, as remembered in his mind. Because she suffered from congenital heart disease and had to take medicine long-term, his sister Zhu Kaixin could not become a martial artist and mostly stayed at home. If possible, perhaps he could try to cure her illness.
The bedroom door was open. A petite girl in a black dress lay on the bed. Her side profile was delicate and fair. Her small white feet in lace-trimmed white socks were lifted and crossed, swinging back and forth.
Zhu Kaixin was fiddling with her phone, seemingly recording a video. Then she spoke.
“I drove my black Jetta to the bar. After getting out, I generously gave two doormen roasted sweet potatoes.”
Zhu Ping’an was speechless.
If Zhu Kaixin kept her mouth shut, she actually looked like a sweet girl.
After finishing the video, she finally noticed Zhu Ping’an standing at the door.
“Brother, you’re back! Listen to the new song I learned! Pine and cypress! Trying to cover up the truth! Heavy snow…”
“Stop!” Zhu Ping’an’s temples throbbed. “Mom said it’s time to eat!”
Why couldn’t a perfectly sweet girl learn something normal? What was she picking up all day?
When they sat at the dining table, their father Zhu Jianghua also appeared. He was a slightly overweight middle-aged man with a kind face, looking like a harmless, gentle uncle.
“Ping’an, I heard from your school teacher that you’ve become a 1st stage martial artist?” Zhu Jianghua looked at him with bright eyes.
“Yes, just lucky,” Zhu Ping’an nodded. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“Hehe, my Xia Yue’s son is amazing. Let’s see who dares say our family has no martial artist now. Here, son, have a rib.” Xia Yue placed a piece of spare rib into Zhu Ping’an’s bowl.
“As a 1st stage martial artist, you’ll definitely get into a key university. Have you decided where to apply?” Zhu Jianghua asked, a hint of a smile in his eyes, though less obvious than Xia Yue’s.
“Not yet. It’s not too late to think about it after the college entrance exam,” Zhu Ping’an answered honestly.
“Brother, I saw a news story recently. A martial artist with a bachelor’s degree got rejected during a job interview because he couldn’t produce a vocational college diploma. Listen to me. Just apply to a vocational college directly, then upgrade to a bachelor’s degree, and continue straight through master’s and doctoral studies. That way, no matter what diploma a company asks for, you’ll have it!” Zhu Kaixin declared confidently.
Bang!
Xia Yue smacked Zhu Kaixin on the head with a dark expression.
“Zhu Kaixin, can’t you keep your mouth shut while eating? With your brother’s grades, you’re telling him to apply to a vocational college? How do you even come up with that?”
“I was just joking…” Zhu Kaixin pouted in grievance.
Zhu Ping’an felt a long-lost warmth and breathed a sigh of relief. Though Zhu Jianghua and the others were strangers to him as a transmigrator, the memories and instincts in his mind gave him an indescribable sense of closeness.
He had worried he would feel out of place in this family, but now it seemed he had overthought it.
After dinner, Zhu Ping’an returned to his room and began to consider his path forward.
He knew how the plot would develop. He knew it could be exploited for loopholes. He also knew that key plot points could not be changed. That was equivalent to having foresight.
He had to make good use of this information.
Wait!
As he pondered, a sudden realization struck him, and he sat upright.
If, according to the plot, he was destined to die in the jaws of that ferocious beast while protecting Yan Shubing, then before that moment, did it mean he was effectively immortal? Even if he encountered a mortal crisis, would the plot force him to survive?