Family

After all that, his mom had just been playing mahjong. Zhu Ping'an had gotten his hopes up for nothing, and he hung up, a little disappointed.

"Ping'an Ge, what's wrong?" Yan Shubing asked, her big, watery eyes wide.

"Nothing. My mom called me home for dinner, so I'm heading back. Don't worry, I'll bring you a Blood Enhancement Pill as soon as I get one!"

Zhu Ping'an waved and walked off without looking back. There wasn't anything important happening next, and he didn't want to spend time with Yan Shubing for no reason.

Following the route from his memories, Zhu Ping'an arrived at the gate of a rather luxurious-looking residential complex.

The sun was sinking in the west, bathing the entire complex in golden light.

"It's so unfamiliar... yet somehow so familiar..." Zhu Ping'an murmured. Before transmigrating, he had been an orphan and had never known a father's or mother's love. Now, he couldn't help feeling a little apprehensive, like a traveler nearing home.

Zhu Ping'an took a deep breath, then strode into the complex. He wanted to see what his parents were like, too.

He took the elevator to the fifth floor and unlocked the front door with his fingerprint. The moment he pushed it open, the clatter of mahjong tiles reached his ears.

"Ping'an, you're back?" said a woman in a fitted qipao, seated at the mahjong table with her back to him. "I left the Blood Enhancement Pill on the table. Take it yourself. East Wind!"

"Okay, Mom." Zhu Ping'an managed to say the word, a title he had never called anyone before.

"By the way, 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 little. But after her father died in an accident, her family's finances took a steep dive, and in the end, they had no choice but to sell their house and move away.

Over the years, Zhu Ping'an's parents had covered Yan Shubing's tuition and living expenses, bullied into it by Zhu Ping'an's tearful threats and tantrums. Yan Shubing often came home to eat with him, too.

"She had something to do." Zhu Ping'an didn't want to explain. In the original story, his parents' fate had been far from good.

When they found out he'd given the Qi and Blood Pill to Yan Shubing, the two of them were so angry they nearly disowned him. Later, when they learned their only son had died for Yan Shubing, his father, Zhu Jianghua, drowned his sorrows in liquor day after day, while his mother, Xia Yue, was consumed by grief. She even stopped playing her beloved mahjong. Before long, both of them were in the hospital, with little time left to live.

By then, the Zhu family had fallen into decline. His younger sister, Zhu Kaixin, went to Yan Shubing for help, only to be met with her cold mockery.

"Your parents paid for my schooling and martial arts training because they wanted to PUA me into becoming their daughter-in-law. You never treated me like a person. I'm an independent woman, not an appendage of the Zhu family!"

Zhu Kaixin, who already had heart disease, was so enraged by those shameless words that she suffered an attack and died on the spot. Their father and mother passed away in the hospital not long after, and Yan Shubing never once came to visit—not even on the day Xia Yue died.

At the thought, Zhu Ping'an's gaze turned cold. Yan Shubing was a complete and utter ingrate. He had died saving her, and his parents had paid for her schooling, food, and living expenses, yet she couldn't even be bothered to visit them once.

Since Heaven had given him the chance to transmigrate here, Zhu Ping'an would never let that ending happen again.

"Mahjong! Pure One Suit! Pay up, pay up!"

Xia Yue cried out in delight at the mahjong table, her face wreathed in smiles. The other three well-to-do ladies, in contrast, looked as black as the bottom of a pot. After collecting her winnings, Xia Yue sent all three of them packing, saying that her son was home and the family needed time to catch up.

"Ping'an, go call your sister out to eat!" Xia Yue was clearly in a good mood after winning.

Zhu Ping'an obediently headed for his sister's bedroom, guided by his memories. His younger sister, Zhu Kaixin, had congenital heart disease and needed to take medication long-term, so she couldn't become a warrior and could only stay at home. If the chance came, perhaps he could try to cure her illness.

The bedroom door was open. A petite girl in a black dress lay on her stomach on the bed, her profile delicate and fair. Her little feet, pale and clad in lacy white socks, were crossed and lifted into the air, swinging back and forth.

Zhu Kaixin was fiddling with her phone, apparently recording a video. Then she began to speak.

"I drove my Black Jetta to the bar. When I got out, I generously handed the two doormen some roasted sweet potatoes."

Zhu Ping'an: "..."

Honestly, if Zhu Kaixin kept her mouth shut, she could pass for a sweet little girl.

Only after the video was over did Zhu Kaixin notice Zhu Ping'an standing in the doorway.

"Bro, you're home! Listen to the new song I learned and tell me if it's good! Pine and cypress! Obfuscating the obvious! Heavy snow..."

"Shut up!" Zhu Ping'an's forehead twitched. "Mom's calling you to eat!"

Why couldn't she just be a sweet little girl instead of learning all this weird stuff every day?

By the time he sat down at the dining table, their father, Zhu Jianghua, had joined them. He was a slightly chubby middle-aged man with a kind face, looking like a harmless, pudgy uncle.

"Ping'an, I heard from your schoolteacher that you've become a First-Rank Warrior?" Zhu Jianghua gazed at Zhu Ping'an, eyes gleaming.

"Yeah, just got lucky." Zhu Ping'an nodded.

"Hehe, my son is amazing! Let's see who dares say our family doesn't have a warrior now. Here, have a rib!" Xia Yue put a rib in Zhu Ping'an's bowl.

"A First-Rank Warrior—you'll definitely get into a key university, then. Have you decided where you want to go?" Zhu Jianghua's eyes held a smile, though it wasn't as obvious as Xia Yue's.

"I haven't decided yet. There's no rush; I can think about it after the College Entrance Examination." Zhu Ping'an answered honestly.

"Bro, I saw a news story recently about a warrior with a bachelor's degree who got rejected from a job because he couldn't produce a junior college diploma. Take my advice: apply to a junior college, then transfer to a bachelor's program, and keep going straight through to a master's and doctorate! Then no matter what diploma a company asks you for, you'll have it!" Zhu Kaixin said confidently from the side.

Xia Yue's face darkened, and she rapped Zhu Kaixin on the head.

"Zhu Kaixin, can't you keep your mouth shut even while we're eating? Your brother has grades like his, and you want him to apply to a junior college? Where do you come up with this stuff?"

"I was just joking..." Zhu Kaixin pouted miserably.

Zhu Ping'an felt a warmth he hadn't experienced in ages and, for some reason, finally relaxed. Though Zhu Jianghua and the others were complete strangers to him as a transmigrator, the memories and instincts in his mind still filled him with an indescribable sense of closeness.

He had been worried that he'd feel out of place in this family, but it seemed he'd been overthinking it.

After dinner, Zhu Ping'an returned to his room and began thinking about the path he should take from here.

He knew what would happen in the story, and he knew he could exploit bugs in it, while the key plot points couldn't be changed. It was like having the power to foresee the future.

He had to make good use of this information.

Wait!

As Zhu Ping'an thought, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him. He shot upright.

If the story meant he was fated to die in the jaws of that Mutant Beast while protecting Yan Shubing, didn't that mean he was immortal until then? Even if he faced a crisis that should have killed him, would the story still make sure he survived?