Family

After all that, it turned out his own mother was just playing mahjong. He'd gotten excited for nothing. Zhu Ping'an hung up, somewhat disappointed.

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

"Nothing. Mom called me home for dinner. I'm heading out. Don't worry, if I get the Blood Enhancement Pill, I'll bring it to you, got it?"

Zhu Ping'an waved his hand and walked off without looking back. There wasn't any important plot coming up anyway, and he had no desire to stay with Yan Shubing if he could help it.

Following the route in his memory, Zhu Ping'an arrived at the entrance of a luxurious-looking residential complex.

The setting sun slanted westward, coating the entire complex in a layer of golden light.

"Somewhat unfamiliar... yet somewhat familiar..." Zhu Ping'an murmured to himself. Before his transmigration, he'd been an orphan, never knowing what fatherly or motherly love felt like. In this moment, he couldn't help but feel a touch of nervousness at approaching home.

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

Taking the elevator to the fifth floor, Zhu Ping'an unlocked the door with his fingerprint. The moment he pushed it open, the clatter of mahjong tiles rolling reached his ears.

"Ping'an's back?" A woman in a form-fitting qipao, seated at the mahjong table with her back to him, spoke up. "I put the Blood Enhancement Pill on the table. Help yourself. East Wind!"

"Okay, Mom." Zhu Ping'an forced out the address he'd never used before, somewhat awkwardly.

"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 little, but after her father died in an accident, her family's finances took a nosedive, and they'd eventually had to sell the house and move away.

Over the years, under Zhu Ping'an's relentless tantrums—crying, making a scene, threatening suicide—his parents had been covering Yan Shubing's tuition and living expenses. Yan Shubing often came home with him to eat.

"She's got something to do." Zhu Ping'an didn't want to explain further. In the original plot, his parents' fate hadn't been pretty.

When they found out he'd given the Qi and Blood Pill to Yan Shubing, the two elders were so furious they nearly cut ties with him. Later, when they learned their only son had died for Yan Shubing, his father Zhu Jianghua drowned his sorrows in drink every day, and his mother Xia Yue grew so depressed she even stopped playing her beloved mahjong. Not long after, both ended up in the hospital, their days numbered.

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

"Your parents supported my schooling and martial training just to gaslight me into being a daughter-in-law for your Zhu family. You never saw me as a person. I'm an independent woman, not some appendage of your Zhu family!"

Zhu Kaixin, who already had a heart condition, was so enraged by this shameless speech that she had a fatal attack on the spot. Her father and mother passed away in the hospital not long after, and Yan Shubing didn't even come back to look at them once, right up to the day Xia Yue died.

Thinking of this, a chill crept into Zhu Ping'an's gaze. That Yan Shubing was a complete and utter ingrate. He'd died saving her. His parents had paid for her schooling and her meals. And she couldn't even spare a single visit.

Since heaven had given him the chance to transmigrate, Zhu Ping'an absolutely wouldn't let that ending happen again.

"Mahjong! Pure suit! Pay up, pay up!"

Xia Yue let out a delighted cry at the mahjong table, her face beaming. In contrast, the other three wealthy ladies looked as black as a pot. After collecting the money, Xia Yue shooed them away, saying her son was home and the family needed to gather.

"Ping'an, go call your sister out to eat!" Xia Yue, clearly thrilled from her win, said cheerfully.

Zhu Ping'an obediently headed toward his sister's bedroom from memory. Because of her congenital heart disease, which required long-term medication, his sister Zhu Kaixin couldn't become a martial artist and had to stay home. If he got the chance, maybe he could try to cure her illness.

The bedroom door wasn't closed. A petite, delicate girl in a black dress lay sprawled on the bed, her profile fine and fair-skinned. Two small, pale feet in lacy white socks were crossed and dangling, swaying back and forth.

Zhu Kaixin was fiddling with her phone, seemingly filming a video. Then she opened her mouth.

"Driving my Black Jetta to the bar, I get out and generously hand the two doormen a baked sweet potato."

Zhu Ping'an: "..."

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

Only after the video was done did Zhu Kaixin notice Zhu Ping'an standing at the door.

"Bro, you're back! Quick, listen to this new song I learned—is it good? Pine and cypress! Veiling the truth! Heavy snow..."

"Shut up!" Zhu Ping'an's forehead veins bulged. "Mom says come eat!"

A perfectly nice sweet girl, and she had to go learn Asa Asa instead. What kind of nonsense was she picking up these days?

When they sat down at the table, their father Zhu Jianghua appeared too. He looked like a slightly chubby middle-aged man, kind-faced and harmless, like a plump, friendly uncle.

"Ping'an, I heard from your school teacher that you're already a First-Rank Warrior?" Zhu Jianghua fixed his gaze on Zhu Ping'an.

"Mm. Just lucky." Zhu Ping'an nodded.

"Heh, my Xia Yue's son is something else. Let's see who dares say our family has no martial artists now. Here, son, have a rib!" Xia Yue picked up a rib and placed it in Zhu Ping'an's bowl.

"A First-Rank Warrior—you'll definitely get into a top university. Have you thought about where you want to go?" A hint of a smile crept into Zhu Jianghua's eyes, though not as obvious as Xia Yue's.

"Not yet. I'll think about it after the College Entrance Examination." Zhu Ping'an answered truthfully.

"Bro, I saw a news story recently. A martial artist with a bachelor's degree got rejected from a job because he couldn't produce a junior college diploma. Listen to me—just apply for a junior college, then upgrade to a bachelor's, then go straight for a master's and doctorate! That way, no matter what diploma a company asks for, you'll have it!" Zhu Kaixin declared confidently from the side.

Xia Yue scowled and rapped Zhu Kaixin on the head with a knuckle.

"Zhu Kaixin, can't even food shut you up? Your brother's grades, and you want him to apply for a junior college? Where do you get these ideas!"

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

Zhu Ping'an felt a warmth he hadn't experienced in a long time, and inexplicably let out a sigh of relief. Though Zhu Jianghua and the other two were complete strangers to him as a transmigrator, the memories and subconscious in his mind still stirred an indescribable sense of closeness.

He'd been worried he might feel out of place in this family, but it seemed he'd overthought it.

After dinner, Zhu Ping'an returned to his room and began pondering the path ahead.

He knew how the plot would unfold from here, and he knew he could Exploit Bug in the story, though key plot points couldn't be changed. That was like having the power of foresight.

He had to make good use of this information.

Wait!

As he thought, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he sat bolt upright.

If, according to the plot, he was destined to die protecting Yan Shubing in that beast's jaws, then didn't that mean he was invincible until then? Even if he faced a life-or-death crisis, the plot would keep him alive?