Little Sister, Why Are You Sneaking Glances at Your Big Brother?

In the silence, Auntie was the first to react. "Nian'er!" she shrieked.

Husband and wife joined forces to save their precious son, who had no will to live. Auntie held him and wept, tears streaming down her face like rain on pear blossoms. Second Uncle stood beside them, sighing over and over.

Xu Qi'an looked at his cousin, whose soul had nowhere to settle, and understood him perfectly.

There were three things most likely to embarrass a young man: being caught red-handed by his parents while performing a slow-motion routine with his left and right hands; being overheard commenting on how big a female teacher's butt was; and having a chuunibyou wish-fulfillment novel he had written exposed to the public. Any one of them could make him roll on the floor in shame.

He hadn't managed physical death, but he had achieved social death.

I'm trained. No matter how funny it is, I won't laugh. Xu Qi'an went "kukuku" beside them.

Xu Lingyue turned and gave her eldest brother a reproachful glare, silently accusing him of gloating over another's misfortune. Xu Lingyin had wanted to ask her brother for candy, but when she saw the scene, she didn't dare.

Xu Xinnian lived up to his reputation as a scholar. Quick-witted, he rapidly devised a way to handle the situation: his eyes rolled back, his legs kicked out, and he fainted.

In a side room of his courtyard, Xu Qi'an took off his clothes and soaked in a large bath barrel. The cool water seeped into his pores, leaving his whole body feeling refreshed.

A physique at the Peak of Essence Refinement was exceptionally resistant to cold.

Now that he had escaped the crisis of life and death, he could finally settle down and ponder some philosophical questions about life.

"Why aren't there any memories from before the original owner died or fell unconscious?"

Xu Qi'an clearly remembered how he himself had kicked the bucket; it was most likely alcohol poisoning. But the original owner didn't seem to have any memories of that sort.

As for Xu Qi'an himself, the cause of death was alcohol poisoning, and the reason for the poisoning was that he had gotten a promotion and a raise and had drunk himself into a frenzy.

After graduating, he had chosen to start a business. In his second year, society had given him a brutal beating. After reflecting on the painful experience, he had started over at the bottom.

He had become a diligent corporate slave.

Laughing up at the sky, Xu Qi'an had gone out and invited a few friends to a bar to celebrate. After all, he could already see his future: he could afford a mortgage and a bride price, marry, and have children. As long as his next-door neighbor wasn't surnamed Wang, life would be peaceful and pleasant.

"Slap!" He smacked the surface of the water, sending droplets flying. "I finally got my ticket into the middle class, and the next thing I knew, I was hit with a dimensionality-reduction strike and exiled to a feudal society. That's a bit too unlucky."

"I still had six hundred thousand in the bank for a down payment on a house. Is the most tragic thing in the world being alive while your money is gone? No, it isn't. It's being dead while your money is still there."

"Forget it. I'll consider it an inheritance for my parents. I wonder if the inheritance tax is high. Give me one more season and I could definitely reach King."

"I still haven't watched the last season of Attack on Titan. The national football team hasn't won the championship; I can't die with my eyes closed. Oh, forget that one."

"Crap, I didn't delete the 120 GB of wives on my computer's hard drive."

If Mom and Dad find them, I'll have suffered social death too!!

He fell asleep without realizing it. By the time he woke, dusk had fallen.

His skin had turned pale from soaking and his fingertips were wrinkled. Xu Qi'an changed into clean clothes and tied up his hair in front of a bronze mirror.

The mirror reflected a young man's face, with thick black eyebrows and sharp eyes. Years of martial training had given his face a hard outline.

"Although it falls far short of my looks in my previous life, which put Tony Leung Chiu-wai to shame, gave Louis Koo an inferiority complex, and were handsome enough to startle the Party, it will do." Xu Qi'an nodded to himself.

And his body was countless times stronger than in his previous life.

He was a martial artist, after all.

"But that might not be a good thing. I'd rather have transmigrated to a normal ancient era. Then everyone would have a combat power of five. Unlike here, where there are too many experts. Your head could fall off before you even realized what was happening."

This world not only had the Demon Race, but also a bewildering variety of cultivation systems. Besides martial artists, whose system was known as the system for the unlucky, there were warlocks, the Confucian School, the Buddhist Order, the Daoist Order, shamans, and Gu Masters.

Six hundred years ago, when Great Feng was founded, the first Superintendent of the Directorate of Astronomy had assigned ranks to the various systems.

Xu Qi'an himself was at the Ninth-Rank Essence Refining Realm of the system for the unlucky; Second Uncle was at the peak of the Eighth-Rank Qi Refining Realm; the Seventh Rank was the Spirit Refining Realm.

Xu Qi'an didn't know what came after that.

He knew quite a bit about the Directorate of Astronomy's Warlock System, on the other hand.

That was because the Directorate of Astronomy's cultivation system belonged exclusively to the Great Feng Dynasty and kept an exceptionally high profile. Among its practitioners, the inventions and creations of Sixth-Rank Alchemy Masters had found their way into countless households.

The Warlock System: Ninth-Rank Physician, Eighth-Rank Qi Observer, Seventh-Rank Feng Shui Master, Sixth-Rank Alchemy Master.

Xu Qi'an didn't know what came after those, either.

His knowledge of the other systems was very limited, even though he had lived in the Capital since childhood.

Just then, a girl in a green skirt entered the courtyard. She was Auntie's personal maid, Lü'e.

"Dalang, the master has called you over for dinner." Joy showed in Lü'e's eyes and brows, but her gaze was tired and haggard.

She had been sold to the Xu Household at ten and had served Auntie. After disaster struck the household, the servants were dismissed, and she had been worrying about how she would make a living.

To her surprise, the Xu Household's fortunes had turned around in just five days. According to the eldest young lady, it was all thanks to Dalang.

The pretty eighteen-year-old maid now seemed a little shy and timid in front of Xu Qi'an.

"Um, don't call me Dalang." Xu Qi'an felt terribly awkward.

"But Dalang is Dalang," Lü'e said, puzzled.

...Forget it. It's not as though my surname is Wu.

The two left the courtyard side by side and entered the Xu Residence. After a moment's hesitation, Lü'e said, "The master and madam were arguing just now."

"What happened?" Xu Qi'an asked.

"It seemed the madam insisted on knowing how the tax silver was switched and who did it. The master couldn't answer, and after a few exchanges, they started arguing." Lü'e lowered her voice. "You know, don't you, Dalang?"

On the way back, Xu Qi'an had told Second Uncle that the tax silver hadn't been seized, but had been switched.

Auntie hadn't said anything at the time, but it turned out she had kept it in mind.

The inner hall!

Xu Qi'an had barely crossed the threshold when he heard loud wailing. The bean-sized Xu Lingyin threw her little arms behind her, leaned forward, and raised her head, unleashing a piercing sonic attack at her mother.

Second Uncle calmly sipped his wine, Xu Lingyue ate with her head lowered, and Xu Xinnian, still reeling from the collapse of his image, ate in silence.

Auntie pressed a hand to her forehead, looking as though she had a headache. When she saw Lü'e, she immediately said, "Take her away, take her away!"

Xu Qi'an glanced at his bawling little sister and asked gently, "What's wrong?"

"Mommy lied. Mommy said if we could come home, she'd take me to the Laurel Moon Tower." Little Bean wailed, "Daddy said Laurel Moon Tower just now."

The Laurel Moon Tower was the Capital's finest restaurant. Its patrons were all high officials and nobles; it did not serve commoners or wealthy merchants.

As a foolish child who couldn't even remember her older siblings' names, the main reason she could remember the Laurel Moon Tower was that she had once eaten there.

It seemed the child wasn't stupid; she had simply put her talent to the wrong use.

Well done, Old Xu. You've learned to divert trouble eastward, even using your daughter as a tool. Xu Qi'an glanced at Second Uncle Xu, who was drinking with perfect composure, and at Auntie, whose head ached but who could do nothing about it.

Little Bean was Auntie's weak point.

"It was just something I said in jest. Things were like that back then." Auntie sighed.

"Tricking even a little child. Auntie, you don't keep your word." Xu Qi'an instinctively sniped at her, making the beautiful woman's chest heave with anger.

"Big Brother, Big Brother, take me!" Seeing Xu Qi'an's kindly face and hearing him speak up for her, Little Bean happily ran to his feet, grabbed his trousers, and began climbing.

A meal at the Laurel Moon Tower costs one tael of silver per person. Xu Qi'an said gravely, "Lü'e, take her away!"

Little Bean was taken away.

Auntie kicked her husband and discreetly gestured toward Xu Qi'an with her lips.

Second Uncle Xu felt a little embarrassed and glanced at his son, who had always been eager to learn. Unfortunately, Xu Xinnian had suffered social death. Dead men couldn't speak; they could only eat.

The food tasted ordinary, mainly because there was no stock; after all, everyone had only just returned home. Eating was like chewing wax for Xu Qi'an. He stared irritably at his pretty sister. "Lingyue, why do you keep sneaking glances at your big brother?"

Three chapters today.