Chapter 4

Traveling from Jiang City to Water Lotus Village took at least the better part of half a day, including a stretch of muddy mountain road. The journey was long and bumpy.

By the time An Xiang reached the village after her long trek, it was already afternoon. The rustic mountain village lay hidden deep in the wilderness, beneath a vast, open sky, with clear water and green trees. All that beautiful scenery unfolded before her eyes.

Most of the villagers were elderly. They gathered in twos and threes beneath the shade of trees to chat and play cards, occasionally pointing at An Xiang as she passed, their eyes openly scrutinizing her.

She was not used to such naked stares. She could not help lowering her head and quickening her steps.

The courtyard where her grandfather had lived was just ahead. Funeral banners hung outside the gate, where several nosy children stood on tiptoe, constantly peering inside.

Her son was in that courtyard.

The moment that thought arose, An Xiang suddenly felt like retreating.

It was not that she had never visited over the past three years, but she had always watched from afar, never approaching the child or speaking to him.

To An Zimo, she was an unfamiliar mother; to An Xiang, the boy in the courtyard was a son she knew nothing about. They were mother and son, yet complete strangers.

While she was flustered, the system's voice sounded in her mind.

[Host, before you go in to find your son, there are a few things I want to tell you.]

Compared with usual, the system's tone was noticeably tinged with nervousness.

"G-go ahead." An Xiang had no mind to listen to the system. She craned her neck and looked around. When she failed to spot that tiny figure, disappointment immediately set in, and she found an old pagoda tree and furtively crouched beneath it.

System: [Don't be too shocked when I tell you this, but your son isn't actually your son.]

"...?"

An Xiang was stunned for a long moment. "What?"

The system said solemnly: [Well... it was someone else that night.]

An Xiang's heart lurched, and she began carefully recalling every man she had encountered since transmigrating.

Other than the young man selling vegetables downstairs and the old man guarding the residential complex, she swore she had never interacted with any other young men. Never mind young men-she had never even interacted with young women.

An Xiang panicked, her expression urgent. "D-d-don't make things up! I haven't slept with anyone except that person!!"

She was the most well-behaved vampire in the world. If it had not been to awaken her Vampire Clan abilities, she would never have rashly accepted such an absurd mission.

What the system had said was an outright insult to her dignity as a vampire!

An Xiang could bear it no longer. She tore at the grass in agitation. "Y-you take that back right now. I'm about to see my son. It wouldn't be good if he heard you."

[Don't panic. What I mean is...] The system's signal wavered. [I had a bug.]

After that, it sank into a long silence.

"...What???" An Xiang was even more bewildered.

What did it mean, it had a bug? Something this high-tech could have bugs too?

System: [The last time you secretly came to see An Zimo, I noticed something was off about his Vampire Clan bloodline. So I checked and discovered a program error that made you sleep with the wrong vampire.]

An Xiang's thinking was already a beat slower than an ordinary person's. The complicated, unfamiliar terminology nearly crashed her brain.

She tried to understand what the system had said, but her mind was still a muddle in the end.

"I'm not very smart. Can you explain it in a way I can understand?" An Xiang did not understand, but she could sense that things were going badly. Her eyes immediately stung, and she felt like crying.

The system patiently explained: [Simply put, you slept with the wrong person, conceived the wrong child, and failed the mission. I have to leave.]

The system had secretly investigated. There was a strong possibility that the soul of this current An Zimo belonged to the son the original owner of the body had borne in a parallel world.

There were countless parallel worlds in the universe. The same people existed in each world, but with completely different personalities and different lives.

In the parallel world, An Zimo's biological father was unknown, and his biological mother was cruel.

He lived under his mother's exploitation every day, experiencing violence and oppression every moment.

A life without love had left him with severe emotional deficiency disorder. He could not feel happiness or experience sorrow. Finally, at fourteen, he fell from a tall building, ending his short, miserable life.

The program bug had caused two parallel worlds to intersect and had also brought the original novel's plot crashing down entirely.

What was done was done, so naturally, the system had no reason to stay.

An Xiang's eyes widened. "If you leave, what am I supposed to do?"

System: [Although I don't know what the male lead's future life will be like, this body's death is inevitable. You will still die in a year and return to your own body. Rest assured, it won't affect you in any way.]

That was not the point at all!!!

An Xiang's face drained of color.

Back when her soul had left her body and she had inexplicably been summoned by the system, she had willingly signed the contract and lived out someone else's life for the sake of her Vampire Clan abilities.

If the system left, wouldn't her grand awakening plan go down the drain too?!

An Xiang was so anxious she wanted to cry. Aren't you from a dimensional space? How could you make a mistake like this? I won't agree to let you leave!

The system argued confidently, without a trace of remorse: [To be precise, I'm a bundle of code from a higher-dimensional space. Any code can develop bugs. It's a normal occurrence.]

That was it? And this was supposed to be a normal occurrence??

An Xiang was speechless. Suddenly at a loss for how to argue back, she felt anger surging up from her stomach.

She haphazardly wiped away the tears that had welled up without her noticing and opened the system panel for the first time in three years. A pale blue panel floated before her eyes. She quickly scrolled down, finally finding the report button at the very bottom of the page.

System: [???]

System: [H-host, don't do anything rash!! We can talk this out!!]

"Talk my ass! I'm not talking to you!"

It was her first time swearing. She froze briefly, then repeated the curse. "Talk my ass!"

Yes, that was the feeling!

Without hesitation, An Xiang mercilessly pressed Report.

[Please enter your reason for reporting (multiple selections allowed): A: Verbal abuse and personal attacks against me; B: Program bugs obstructing my mission completion; C: Sexually harassing me and seeking an interspecies romance with me; D: Throwing the game.]

Without another word, An Xiang selected B and D.

[Customer service is reviewing your report. Please wait.]

[Review successful. Report verified. The bugged system has been recalled on an emergency basis.]

[Our company deeply regrets the losses we have caused you and will provide the following compensation-1: Repair the physical impairments of the host's body; 2: Fix the erroneous bug causing a Vampire Clan member to be allergic to blood and unable to drink it; additional gifts-an above-average sense of smell, allowing you to locate high-quality human blood more quickly; one milk tea shop you have always dreamed of. Our company will purchase supplies for you every month, and all earnings will belong to you personally.]

An Xiang had indeed said back in Chapter 2 that she wanted to open a milk tea shop or draw comics to earn a little money to support herself. However, the funds needed to open a shop far exceeded her bank savings, so she had settled for drawing simple comics online. Clicks earned her two or three thousand a month, and with rental income added in, she made eight or nine thousand a month.

Now she could actually get a shop for free?

Could something this good really happen?!!

[Compensation will be issued when your soul returns to your own body; you may choose to receive the additional compensation now or later.]

Now, now!

She had to hurry and open her shop to earn an inheritance. Once she died, she would leave it all to her son!

Things had come to this, and the system would no longer concern itself with her. Since the novel's plot had collapsed, her son's future life could no longer be predicted either. No matter which time and space her son had come from, he had come out of her belly.

She had made up her mind. She had left him here for over three years to complete the mission. Now, even without the mission binding her, she would take good care of her son.

She had never received her parents' love; now she could choose to let her son have it.

Even though... she had no idea how to be a mother.

An Xiang clicked to accept the compensation, and the system departed from her consciousness completely.

Without realizing it, she had already been standing beneath the tree for a long time.

The sun slowly sank westward. Evening clouds filled the sky, painting the mountains and waters red. Smoke rose from the low houses around her, and villagers headed home together. In the blink of an eye, An Xiang was the only person left on the road.

She was naturally easy to please. After a brief spell of disappointment, she quickly accepted the reality before her. Although it was a little unfortunate that she could not awaken her abilities, being able to speak and no longer being allergic to blood were pretty good too. With the milk tea shop, she could leave her family even after returning to her own body and continue running the shop to earn money.

When she thought about it carefully, life was still incredibly wonderful!

An Xiang silently gave herself a little encouragement, tightened her grip on her luggage, and entered the courtyard.

Water Lotus Village still practiced burial. A dark brown coffin stood in the courtyard, and a memorial photograph and offerings sat on the altar.

The two distant relatives in mourning clothes who stood nearby lighting incense had not yet noticed An Xiang. They whispered together in lowered voices, and every word reached her ears.

"Look at that child. His great-grandfather died, and he hasn't shed a single tear."

"I heard he's an idiot. Who knows where that granddaughter of his slept around to get him."

"At his age, still helping raise a child. I wouldn't do it even if you beat me to death."

"His granddaughter has several apartments in the big city. She pays him plenty..."

As they spoke, the two put down what they were holding and returned to the house arm in arm, laughing.

An Xiang had grown up hearing countless cruel words. This little bit of gossip from the village women could not hurt her at all.

She was more afraid that An Zimo would hear it. Three- or four-year-old human cubs were sensitive, and even the smallest blow could leave them psychologically scarred.

An Xiang stood on tiptoe to peer through the window. The main room was packed with people. An Zimo was quiet by nature and liked being alone, so she knew without thinking that her son was not inside.

Perhaps he had gone to play in the sunflower field? Or in some corner of the mountains.

Just as she was about to turn and go look for him, she suddenly sensed a sinister gaze coming from the side.

An Xiang stopped and looked toward its source.

The young child huddled in a corner by the wall. Weeds grew wild, their tangled mass almost concealing his entire body.

He hid in the shadows like a lost little beast, his pitch-black eyes concealed beneath the grass and fixed firmly on her.

Those eyes were cold and blank, mingled with hatred and intense brutality.

He did not seem like a child of nearly four, but more like a villain filled with hatred.

Faced with those eyes, An Xiang froze.

At the same time, an indescribable fragrance drifted into An Xiang's nose on the evening breeze.

It was the scent of blood, one she had not smelled in a long time.

In that instant, the fragrance scrambled all her thoughts. Allergic to blood since childhood and never having experienced the pleasure of drinking it, An Xiang unsurprisingly succumbed at once.

Her gaze fixed on An Zimo crouching by the wall, and she moved toward him uncontrollably.

The scent drew closer.

The fragrance grew stronger.

Slurp.

With no self-control whatsoever, An Xiang could not help swallowing as she looked at her son, whom she was meeting for the first time.

Immediately afterward, An Zimo, who possessed the superpower of mind reading, heard An Xiang's thoughts at that moment-

My son smells so good.

I really want to eat him.

An Xiang: Son, let me explain!! Slurp.

The situation now is that Mommy has received the extra gift and can smell the fragrance of blood, but her human body can't drink blood...

Her son came from a parallel world! He was reborn in the wrong time and space! The original owner in the parallel world was a bad mother who constantly abused him.

I'm explaining it again in case you don't understand~

I'm late again!!!!!!

Still 500 red envelopes. Love you all.

I've noticed that red envelopes aren't very enticing to you, but whenever I act cute, I get more comments. Sure enough, I'm a charming woman.