Lin Yu noticed the change in Miao Haixin's expression.
A pang of sorrow struck his heart.
During all those years when the grandmother and granddaughter only had each other to rely on,
scenes like this must have happened many times, right?
Facing a once-beloved family member who suddenly doesn’t recognize you, treating you like a stranger—
That feeling… must be unbearable.
“You are… Xiaochun? No, Xiaochun should be older than you, no no.”
“Jianjun’s daughter? But you’re much fairer than her…”
“Heh, I’m getting old, my memory isn’t what it used to be.”
Granny Miao struggled to guess her granddaughter’s identity.
Failing to recall, she gave an awkward, embarrassed smile.
Miao Haixin quickly stepped in to help:
“Grandma, don’t worry, let me give you a hint. How many granddaughters do you have?”
Granny Miao raised a finger:
“Just one. My son only had one precious daughter—I only have one granddaughter.”
Miao Haixin continued guiding her:
“Then do you remember what your granddaughter’s name is?”
Granny Miao patted Miao Haixin’s arm and chuckled while looking at Lin Yu:
“Hah, listen to this kid—how could I forget my granddaughter’s name?”
“My late husband was surnamed Miao, called Miao Dashan. My son is Miao Chenggong, and my granddaughter—she’s Miao Haixin, Xinxin!”
Lin Yu maintained a gentle smile and nodded at the elderly woman.
Yes.
She remembered everything clearly.
Yet she had forgotten that her granddaughter had just been sitting beside her, watching TV.
No—
It wasn’t that Granny Miao had forgotten.
It was just that time had stolen her memories away.
Miao Haixin leaned closer to her grandmother, turning her face toward her:
“Now look at me again. Who am I?”
Granny Miao studied her for a long moment.
Then she poked Miao Haixin’s cheek lightly:
“Oh! Xinxin!”
“My granddaughter Xinxin! See how my memory fails me, heh.”
Her words seemed directed both at Lin Yu and herself.
When the three of them finally sat down to chat,
Granny Miao suddenly stood up again, clapping her hands:
“Ah! A guest is here, and I forgot to make tea!”
“Xiao Song, you two sit and talk. I’ll go to the kitchen and get the teapot.”
With that,
Granny Miao shuffled slowly toward the kitchen.
Lin Yu rose to stop her, but Miao Haixin signaled with her eyes for him to let her go.
He could only watch as the elderly woman moved at a snail’s pace toward the kitchen.
“It’s fine, let her go. Keeping busy is good for her mind—slows down… the forgetting.”
“When the nanny and I aren’t home, she’s often alone anyway.”
Miao Haixin motioned for Lin Yu to sit back down.
Lin Yu asked curiously:
“Nanny? You hired someone?”
Miao Haixin pushed the fruit tray toward Lin Yu.
Picking up an apple, she handed it to him:
“Yes, when I’m at work, I have a nanny come over.”
“She watches over Grandma for a few hours, cooks for her, keeps her company.”
“Sometimes, when I’m too busy, Grandma has to stay alone.”
As she spoke to Lin Yu, Miao Haixin’s gaze kept drifting toward the kitchen.
Clearly,
she wasn’t as at ease as she appeared.
On the contrary,
she was deeply cautious about Granny Miao’s daily movements.
Lin Yu felt even more moved.
In his past life, he hadn’t known much about his advisor’s family situation.
He never imagined that her job barely covered so many expenses—
Rent, hiring a nanny, daily living costs…
How could she possibly have savings under such circumstances?
Yet she still lent him five thousand yuan?
How much could she even have left for herself?
Miao Haixin’s optimistic demeanor seemed untouched by hardship.
She even joked with Lin Yu:
“So, how’s the actor? This extra’s performance giving you a headache?”
Lin Yu quickly shook his head:
“Not at all! Grandma’s spirit is amazing.”
“Elderly people her age rarely have such vitality.”
But Lin Yu wasn’t here just to visit.
He was here to diagnose a problem!
Earlier, when shaking Granny Miao’s hand, he had taken her pulse.
Truthfully,
Miao Haixin had taken excellent care of her grandmother.
Her pulse was steady and strong—no signs of serious illness.
The likelihood of a sudden health crisis in the coming months was low.
So then…
how could something happen to her?
Considering that Granny Miao was often left alone, Lin Yu made a bold guess:
The accident likely occurred when neither Miao Haixin nor the nanny was home!
But when? And what kind of accident? Lin Yu couldn’t imagine.
Food poisoning? Gas leak? Fire?
For an elderly woman with a fading memory, any mishap was possible.
Lin Yu changed his approach and asked:
“Advisor, how old is Grandma this year?”
Miao Haixin answered without hesitation:
“Sixty-eight. Her health’s not bad, right?”
Lin Yu nodded and pressed further:
“Sixty-eight? She doesn’t look it at all. If my grandmother were still alive, she’d be sixty-eight too.”
“Do you remember Grandma’s birthday?”
Miao Haixin gave him a slightly puzzled look.
But he had to ask.
If this wasn’t illness but fate,
perhaps metaphysical methods could reveal some clues.
With her birth details, he might be able to calculate something.
His knowledge of Zi Wei Dou Shu (a Chinese astrological system) might actually help.
Yet reality dealt Lin Yu a harsh blow.
His advisor shook her head regretfully:
“Ah… I don’t know Grandma’s birthday. Even she doesn’t remember.”
“I asked her long ago, before her mind started fading.”
“She said her family only remembers she was born during cabbage harvest—no one noted the exact day.”
“Back then, families had too many children. Many didn’t keep track of birthdays.”
Lin Yu’s heart sank.
Right—
Many elders from rural areas didn’t know their birthdays.
And just like that,
his hope of using her birth chart for divination was dashed.
“Drink, drink! Chat while you sip.”
Granny Miao returned from the kitchen, carefully balancing a small teapot in one hand and two tiny cups in the other.
Setting them on the table,
she placed no cup for herself but arranged one each before Lin Yu and Miao Haixin.
Then she poured tea for both with painstaking care.
“Thank you, Grandma.”
Lin Yu expressed his gratitude, but as he looked at the cups, his heart twisted.
No steam rose from the tea—in fact, the liquid looked no different from plain water.
Miao Haixin touched the cup and immediately realized it was cold.
She began to say,
“Grandma, you—”
Before she could finish,
Lin Yu lifted the cup and began sipping slowly,
as if the water inside was scalding hot.
...
(Extra chapter delivered! More to come tomorrow. Thanks for reading—your support means the world to a small-time writer like me. If you enjoyed it, consider sending a little love my way. Grateful to you all!)
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
