Mu Wanqing sat quietly on the edge of her bed for a long time.
The room was silent except for the faint ticking of the old clock outside.
She had gone over the problem again and again in her mind, but no matter how many possibilities she considered, she could not find a solution.
She could not remain in this house.
But she could not leave either.
If she left without making proper arrangements, the Shen family might take advantage of her absence.
She had already seen how shameless they could be in her previous life.
Mu Wanqing pressed her fingers against her temples, “What should I do?” Her voice was barely audible.
Then, suddenly, a memory flashed through her mind as she remembered the conversation she had overheard between Shen Yucheng and Mu Qinglan in her previous life.
At that time, she had been too frightened and desperate to understand everything they were discussing.
She had only remembered certain words because they had sounded strange to her.
But now, with the benefit of her memories enhancement potion, she finally understood their significance.
Mu Wanqing abruptly stood up, “The letter!” Her eyes brightened, “How could I forget that letter?”
She remembered Shen Yucheng mentioning an old letter that could be used to support their claim over the house.
Because she was her legal guardian personally written my her grandmother.
If she could find it, perhaps she could finally understand free herself from their trap and once she obtains the letter, how will they apply for compensation as her legal guardian and beneficiary?
Without wasting another moment, Mu Wanqing opened the door.
She first looked into the corridor.
The entire house was quiet.
It was already half past twelve in the morning, yet the light in the living room was still on.
Mu Wanqing stepped out carefully and closed her bedroom door behind her without making a sound.
She moved silently through the corridor.
When she reached the living room, she stopped.
The scene before her made her lips twitch.
Everyone was still sitting around the dining table.
But none of them was awake.
Mu Qinglan had slumped against the back of her chair.
Shen Yucheng’s head rested heavily against the table.
Shen Ruoxi had fallen asleep with her arms folded beneath her head and Shen Zeyu was lying on the floor.
Even Manager Wei, the greasy middle-aged man who had arrived earlier that evening with Shen Yucheng, was lying motionless against the table.
Mu Wanqing glanced at him.
A faint look of disgust crossed her face, “So this is the man they were planning to sell me to?” She did not bother looking any longer.
After confirming that no one was awake, she quietly walked toward Shen Yucheng and Mu Qinglan’s bedroom and pushed the door open.
The room was not particularly large, but compared with the cramped storage room that had been forced upon her, it felt almost spacious.
Mu Wanqing’s eyes swept across the room.
This had once been her grandmother’s bedroom and now these shameless people had simply taken it over as though it had always belonged to them.
Mu Wanqing’s expression turned cold, but she did not have time to indulge her anger.
She immediately began searching.
She first opened the large wooden cupboard and checked the shelves one by one.
Nothing.
She searched behind the clothes.
Nothing.
She opened every drawer and examined the contents carefully.
Still nothing.
Mu Wanqing frowned.
She then crouched down and checked the wooden chests stored beneath the bed.
One by one, she opened them.
But still there was no letter.
She stood up and returned to the cupboard.
This time, she searched even more carefully.
She took out almost every piece of clothing and examined it before putting it aside.
Still found nothing.
Mu Wanqing’s breathing became increasingly hurried, “Where is it?” She looked around the room, “Why isn’t it here?”
She searched beneath the mattress, behind the furniture.
She than searched the backs of the drawers and the spaces between the wooden panels.
She even ran her fingers along the walls, looking for any concealed compartment the Shen family might have created, but still found nothing.
Mu Wanqing’s forehead gradually became damp with sweat.
She had already searched for more than an hour.
Yet the letter was nowhere to be found.
Her heart began to sink.
She had been so certain that Shen Yucheng had mentioning it.
So why could she not find it?
“Where did you hide it?”
Mu Wanqing whispered through clenched teeth.
Her eyes slowly reddened.
She was not afraid of losing money.
She could earn money again.
What she could not accept was losing this house to those shameless people.
This was not merely a property.
It was the last thing her grandmother had left behind.
Her grandmother had raised her and this old house contained the memories of her entire childhood.
Every corner carried traces of the woman who had protected her.
Mu Wanqing could never allow strangers to take it away and enjoy the benefits of her grandmother’s hard-earned property.
Especially not people like the Shen family.
Her eyes became increasingly moist, she felt genuinely helpless.
She had been given another chance and also a system.
But what good was all of that if she could not protect the one thing she had promised herself she would never lose again?
Mu Wanqing lowered her head.
Her fingers tightened around the edge of the cupboard, “Grandmaa…” Her voice trembled.
Inside the invisible space, System 888 was watching his host.
Although he already knew what Mu Wanqing was searching for e had been silent.
With his wide range of digital sleuthing abilities he has already located that letter.
He could simply tell her, but he hesitated.
He had been warned before coming to the human world to find his first host, when he had consulted several senior systems and every one of them had given him almost the same advice.
Do not become too involved with your host.
Human beings were complicated creatures.
Their emotions were unpredictable and desires were endless.
And, most importantly, humans were exceptionally skilled at taking advantage of others when given the opportunity.
A system might possess extraordinary abilities, but that did not mean it could outsmart every human.
System 888 had heard stories from his senior brothers.
There had once been systems whose hosts had become completely dependent on them.
They simply demanded rewards.
When the systems refused, the hosts would threaten, manipulate, or emotionally blackmail them.
Some systems had become so deeply entangled in their hosts’ affairs that they had ended up accumulating enormous debts.
One particularly unfortunate system had even been dragged into a serious violation of the system regulations and sentenced to confinement.
That story had become a prominent case study among the younger systems.
System 888 had remembered every word.
This was his first host and most importantly a human.
He absolutely had to be careful.
If he became too involved, what if Mu Wanqing started relying on him for everything?
What if she stopped completing missions?
What if she learned how to manipulate him?
What if…
System 888 looked at the girl standing helplessly in the middle of the bedroom.
She looked so small and lonely as her shoulders trembled slightly.
Her eyes were red from holding back tears.
System 888 fell silent.
He had already investigated her previous life.
He knew what she had endured and somehow his heart softened.
He hesitated for several more seconds before finally making his decision.
Rules were important.
But perhaps helping his host at a critical moment was not the same as spoiling her.
And what if she didn’t take the mission in order to save this house?
That would be another major problem wouldn’t it?
So he immediately made a decision on his own that in order to help his host focus on completing the missions, he will help her with small choars.
His voice finally sounded inside her head.
[Host.
Go back to the living room and check the bag beside Shen Yucheng.]
Mu Wanqing froze.
She had been so focused on searching that the sudden voice startled her.
She immediately raised her head, “System, what do you mean by bag?”
System 888 hesitated for a moment before finally speaking.
[Host, This morning, Shen Yucheng went to the Housing Bureau carrying a small stack of documents.
After that, he also visited a law firm for consultation.
There is a high possibility that his actions were related to this house.
Therefore, you should check the bag just in case.]
Mu Wanqing’s eyes immediately brightened, “Yes.
How could I have been so stupid?”
She immediately turned toward the door.
But after taking two steps, she suddenly stopped as somthing occurred to her.
Mu Wanqing turned around and hurried toward the old wooden cupboard.
She crouched down and reached into the concealed compartment she had discovered earlier.
Her fingers soon touched the familiar hard cover of a red booklet, she than carefully pulled it out.
It was her household registration booklet.
After her grandmother’s death, and after Mu Zhenhai’s departure for military service, Wanqing’s household registration had been separated from the family household.
As her legal guardian, Mu Qinglan had been responsible for safeguarding the booklet and handling matters concerning Wanqing’s registration.
But the booklet itself belonged to Wanqing.
Mu Wanqing stared at it for a moment, and a bitter smile appeared on her lips.
In her previous life, this tiny red booklet had been one of the reasons she couldn’t appear for collage entrance exam.
Mu Qinglan had kept it in her own possession and refused to hand it over to Wanqing whenever she needed it.
Later, when the time came for her college entrance examination, the Shen family had used it as another means to lure her after she ran away, Afterall without their she couldn’t do anything.
She slipped the booklet safely into her clothes and stood up, “This time, nobody will take anything from me.”
With those words, she hurried out of the bedroom.
The living room was still brightly lit.
The room smelled faintly of food, cigarettes, and alcohol, while the heavy silence of the night made their unconscious figures appear strangely sinister.
Mu Wanqing did not spare them a glance.
Her eyes immediately searched beneath the dining table.
There a dark leather bag was lying beside Shen Yucheng’s legs.
Mu Wanqing glanced at the three unconscious adults before carefully bending down.
She picked up the bag as quietly as possible, holding her breath whenever the leather brushed against the wooden floor.
Fortunately, nobody moved.
She carried the bag back to her bedroom, closed the door behind her, and locked it.
Only then did she allow herself to breathe.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she placed the bag on the bed, “Let’s see what you were hiding.”
She unzipped it and the first thing that reached her was an unpleasant smell of cigarette.
Mu Wanqing instinctively wrinkled her nose.
There were several half-empty cigarette packets stuffed inside, along with a lighter, a few receipts, and various miscellaneous items.
She pushed them aside with obvious disgust and continued searching.
After a moment, her fingers touched something solid.
A worn brown folder.
She pulled it out carefully and placed it on the bed.
The folder looked old, but the documents inside had clearly been handled recently.
Mu Wanqing opened it and the e first document made her entire body freeze.
It was the property ownership certificate of this house.
Her eyes moved slowly across the page.
Then they widened.
The registered owner was…
Only her?
For several seconds, she simply stared, “How…
How is this possible?”
She picked up the certificate with both hands and read it again, as though the characters might somehow change if she looked at them a second time.
But they did not, only her name was written there.
“But why?” Her brows drew together, “Shouldn’t Uncle have a share as well?”
She remembered her grandmother’s words.
The old compound had been left to both her and Mu Zhenhai.
At least, that was what she had always believed.
So why was the ownership certificate showing only her name?
She hurriedly turned to the next document and there was her answer.
Below it was a formal statement written in careful handwriting, followed by a familiar signature.
Mu Zhenhai.
Wanqing’s breath caught.
She read the document and her fingers tightened around the paper.
Her uncle had voluntarily transferred his interest in the property to her.
He had not kept a share for himself.
He had simply given it to her.
Mu Wanqing stared at the signature for a long time.
“But…
why?” Her voice trembled, “Uncle, why would you do this?”
Mu Zhenhai was only twenty-seven.
He was still unmarried.
He had his entire life ahead of him.
One day, he would have his own wife, his own children, and his own family.
He would need a home of his own.
In a city like Shanghai, owning a house was no small matter, especially for someone hoping to establish a family.
Yet he had given his share to her without hesitation.
Wanqing’s eyes slowly reddened.
She remembered the phone calls every weekend, without fail, Mu Zhenhai would call her.
Sometimes they spoke for only half an hour.
Other times, they talked for several hours until one of them finally noticed how late it had become.
He would ask whether she was eating properly, studies were going well or anyone at school was bullying her.
She had always thought those were merely the ordinary concerns of an uncle.
She had never understood how much affection was hidden behind those seemingly casual questions.
Her gaze fell onto the property declaration again.
A warm ache spread through her chest.
“Uncle…” Her lips trembled.
In her previous life, she had not known.
She had never known that he had been taking care of her from afar.
She had also never known that he had been sending more than half of his military allowance to Mu Qinglan every month so that Wanqing could be properly raised.
But Mu Qinglan had pocketed every single yuan, not once had she told Wanqing.
Wanqing only discovered the truth years later, after Mu Zhenhai’s death, when she received the few belongings he had left behind.
Among them had been a stack of old receipts and they all read, Money transferred for her living expenses.
The realization had shattered something inside her.
Her uncle had never abandoned her.
It was she who had believed that he had.
And there was another memory she could never forgive herself for.
Wanqing’s eyes suddenly widened, yes, her uncles death, how can she forget it?
The memory came rushing back with painful clarity.
It had been during a military training mission on an island.
The helicopter carrying Mu Zhenhai and several other personnel had suffered a serious malfunction and crashed into the sea.
There had been no survivors.
She had received the news in her previous life long after she had already become estranged from him.
If her memory was correct, that tragedy would happen three years from now.
Three years.
Wanqing’s fingers slowly curled around the edge of the document.
“Then in this life…” She took a deep breath, “I won’t let it happen.”
Her voice was soft, but there was determination in it.
This time, she would stay close to her uncle.
If the system truly wanted her to enter one of the most prestigious universities in the country, then she had already made her decision.
She would go to Beijing and would apply to Peking University.
Not merely because it would complete the system’s mission, but she wanted to be close to Mu Zhenhai.
Wanqing lowered her head and looked at the document once more.
A bitter smile touched her lips, “Uncle, you really are foolish.” She gently traced the edge of his signature with her fingertip, “You gave away your own house without even telling me.”
But beneath that smile was a deep ache.
Because she remembered what she had done in her previous life.
She had never told him anything about how she was being treated in Shen family.
Not even after she finally discovered their true intentions and ran away.
She had endured everything alone.
Part of the reason was Shen Ruoxi.
For years, Ruoxi had slowly planted ideas inside her mind of how she shouldn’t become a burden to him?
Little by little, Wanqing had begun distancing herself from Mu Zhenhai.
Eventually, their relationship had been reduced to those weekend phone calls.
She had never told him what was happening inside the Shen family.
Because there had been one sentence Mu Qinglan had once screamed at her that had remained buried deep inside her heart for years.
“You little wretch!
You are nothing but a jinx!
First you killed your mother the moment you were born.
Then you took your father away.
After that, even your grandmother died!
Isn’t that enough?
Why do you keep clinging to Mu Zhenhai as well?
Because of you, he has never been able to live his own life!
He is still unmarried.
He is already sacrificing everything for you, and yet you still have the face to keep calling him!
Have you no shame?”
At the time, Wanqing had believed every word.
She had been young, frightened, and desperate to avoid becoming a burden.
So she had stopped calling.
She had convinced herself that her uncle deserved a peaceful life, and that she had already taken too much from him simply by existing.
But now, Wanqing finally understood the cruelty hidden behind those words.
She had never been a burden to Mu Zhenhai.
She had been his family.
And Mu Qinglan had deliberately made her believe otherwise.
She poisoned her mind to the extent where she even requested her uncle to not visit to Shanghai much.
Afterall the Shen family stayed at the house and they felt uncomfortable with his around.
So he even stopped visiting Shanghai from than on.
Wanqing slowly folded the property declaration and returned it to the folder.
Her tears finally slipped down her cheeks, but she did not wipe them away.
“Uncle,” she whispered, looking at his signature one last time, “in this life, I will not misunderstand you again.
And I will never let anyone use me to hurt you.”