It was already deep into the night. Surely everyone in the cabin was fast asleep. The old man had timed his move perfectly, sneaking in under the cover of darkness.
He crept along in the faint moonlight, glancing toward the slight bulge in the bed. He assumed the girl must be lying there.
It wasn’t that he lacked cruelty—far from it. It was simply that these two were far too perfect, too suitable to serve as his tools. Going even a day without refining poisons left his hands itching—he was simply unaccustomed to abstaining.
The old man reached out and yanked back the covers—but all he found was a pillow. He froze for a moment, only to be hit hard on the head.
Yun Shang had already hidden behind the door, a vase in hand, and smashed it down on the old man’s head.
“It’s already so late! Grandpa, why aren’t you in your own room? Why are you sneaking into mine? Did you have some bad thought, intending to do something wicked?”
She kicked aside the broken shards of the vase and delivered a hard kick to the old man.
“Sister, I told you before—this old man is no good. The moment I saw him, I knew his true, malicious nature would eventually show. And now, it finally has!”
Ah Du had been waiting outside the door, waiting for the day the old man would reveal his true self. If not for Yun Shang’s instructions, he might have ignored him entirely—letting him die without intervention.
The old man realized things were going wrong. He immediately pulled a packet of powdered medicine from his sleeve and hurled it toward Yun Shang and Ah Du.
But a sudden gust of wind blew in through the window, sending the powder right back onto him. Yun Shang and Ah Du covered their mouths and noses, inhaling nothing.
“Just by looking at your hands, it’s obvious you’re constantly in contact with poison. That’s why they’re blackened. You probably can’t even smell the stench emanating from yourself. Do you think I can’t see what kind of person you are?”
Yun Shang pinched her nose, disgust clear on her face. This man clearly had a penchant for refining poisons, and the stench clung to him.
It would have been one thing if he merely enjoyed the craft—but he tested his poisons on others, treating human life as nothing. That was how he had tortured Ah Du until life became worse than death.
Ah Du’s first impression of the old man—the uneasy premonition—had been correct. But it didn’t matter now. This time, the past would not repeat itself.
From then on, the old man felt as though he were dreaming. Initially, he had thought these two siblings, so beautiful and strong, would make perfect experimental subjects.
But that night, it was as if he had been transported to an inexplicable world, trapped forever in this small cabin with no way out.
He felt some strange force radiating from the girl. No matter how he tried—poisoning her, sneaky tricks—nothing worked.
She seemed impervious to all poisons. And the boy’s cold, unflinching eyes looked as if he would plunge a knife straight through his heart at the first move. This sister-and-brother pair were truly formidable.
“I know you have countless skills—poison-crafting and more. You will teach every last one of them to my brother. And if you dare to hide even a little, I’ll make you experience exactly how painful your own poisons can be!”
Yun Shang popped a fruit into her mouth and watched as the old man, pained and reluctant, obediently wrote down formulas for various poisons and elixirs, as well as his many skills. It was deeply satisfying.
In the original world, the old man had indeed passed his knowledge to Ah Du—but never wholeheartedly. He treated Ah Du purely as a test subject, experimenting and tormenting him in every way possible.
In the end, the old man couldn’t withstand Ah Du’s retaliation and was killed by the very poisons he had refined himself.
Watching Ah Du earnestly study the old man’s skills at her instruction, Yun Shang felt a pang of bittersweet tenderness.
It seemed this world’s male lead was truly pitiful. She had saved him, and they had lived peacefully in this cabin for several years.
Ah Du obediently followed her instructions in everything, never questioning, even when learning the old man’s strange and sinister techniques.
“Aren’t you curious why I want you to learn these things? Don’t you find it tiring?”
That night, Yun Shang gently held Ah Du’s hand and asked softly.
She truly treated Ah Du as her own little brother, raising him gradually. Watching him grow from a small child into a young teenager made her realize how quickly time had passed.
“As long as it’s something you tell me to do, it’s right. You must have seen the old man’s true nature, yet you brought him back. It’s because he has great skills, isn’t it? You want me to learn all of them, right?”
Ah Du looked down at Yun Shang holding his hand, suddenly feeling a warmth he hadn’t felt in years.
The only person who had ever given him warmth was his mother. After she was gone, he had wandered through hardship, never feeling such care. The woman before him felt almost unreal.
She appeared so inexplicably, so out of place, that it always seemed she might vanish the next second.
“Yes. I know the old man has ill intentions, but his skills are far too valuable to waste if you don’t learn them. Besides, we can’t hide here forever. Don’t you want to see the world outside? Don’t you want to find the people you’ve always longed to meet?”
Yun Shang’s face was soft and gentle. In the original world, a few years later, under the old man’s experiments, she would emit poisonous vapors from head to toe.
In the end, she had personally ended the old man’s life before leaving the mountains—never forgetting the past, never forgetting her own father. She went down the mountain seeking vengeance.
“What do you mean, Sister?”
Ah Du’s heart stirred. These matters had been buried for so many years—he hadn’t even dared think of them. And yet Yun Shang knew.
Of course—she was a mysterious person, knowing everything, almost as if she could foresee the future.
In recent days, the old man had tried sneaky schemes—attempting to incapacitate Yun Shang and Ah Du so he could escape—but every time he reached the cabin door, it wouldn’t budge. After a few attempts, he gave up entirely.