chapter 2
The demons’ massacre arrived on schedule, just as it had in my previous life.
—Poor darling Miaoyin. Her entire family died because of the Demon Realm’s prophecy.
—These demons are useless. They left Zhu Xueyi alive to make trouble for darling Miaoyin.
—Do the people above have any morals?
…
Only after reading the comments did I learn that the Zhu family’s massacre had not been random. A prophecy in the Demon Realm foretold that the Zhu family would produce a daughter capable of killing the Demon Lord. That was why the demons had come to wipe us out.
My blood ran cold.
Zhu Miaoyin was a spotless fairy of the highest heavens. An immortal sect had taken her away to pursue the Dao when she was a child.
But I, a mortal who ate grain grown in turbid air and walked upon dusty earth, had truly lived in the Zhu household for seventeen years.
Madam Zhu hated me. The head of the family treated me as merchandise.
Yet my concubine mother and my maid, for all their greed and petty faults, had shown me genuine warmth.
Silence finally settled over the ground above. Just before the thinning air in the cellar suffocated me, a familiar sword aura split open a path for light.
“There is someone alive here,” said Weisheng Yan, eldest disciple of the Xuanwei Immortal Sect, his voice as gentle as polished jade.
A graceful girl in green leaned over the opening. “You are…”
The comments erupted.
—Darling Miaoyin!
—Darling Miaoyin, Mommy loves you!
I suppressed my hatred.
Instead of reacting to the carnage with the same terrified stupor as in my previous life, I looked at the girl and let tears fall before the audience for the first time.
“Miaoyin? Is it really you?”
The comments immediately began speculating.
—Is the second female lead about to make trouble?
—You don’t deserve to say darling Miaoyin’s name! Call her Fairy!
—She cries so beautifully!
I took Zhu Miaoyin’s hand, my tears spilling freely. “Mother was still talking about you yesterday. You finally came home.”
When I mentioned Mother, a few comments predicted that I would use the forced marriage to make Zhu Miaoyin feel guilty. They fell silent when I said nothing else.
—That woman tried to force her to her death, and she’s still speaking kindly of her…
—Would the second female lead really be so kind? I don’t believe it.
—Did Zhu Xueyi turn evil later? She seems so gentle right now.
—She recognized darling Miaoyin at first glance after all these years. Zhu Xueyi looks like a good older sister.
Zhu Miaoyin’s hand was warm and smooth, unblemished as a newborn’s skin. I slowly released it, as though only now noticing the devastation around us. My eyes widened.
“What… What happened here?”
Weisheng Yan’s attention had remained fixed on the junior sister he adored, fearing that the sight of her massacred clan might shake her Dao heart. Now he spared me a glance.
“Demons.”
I spotted a jeweled ornament amid the scorched earth. From its quality, it must have belonged to Madam Zhu or Old Madam Zhu.
I stumbled over and clutched it to my chest. After a pause, I remembered that Zhu Miaoyin ought to have been closer to her mother, so I wept soundlessly and murmured, “Mother.”
—Madam Zhu treated the second female lead that way, yet she’s grieving for her so sincerely. Is she really supposed to be a villainess?
—She’s in so much pain she can’t even make a sound. God, I feel it too.
—Darling Miaoyin is so calm. As expected of a fairy with an unwavering Dao heart.
—Everyone, I’ve become a fan of Zhu Xueyi’s face. I’ll like her until she turns evil.
I wept until grief exhausted me. I had eaten nothing during my day in the cellar, and at last I collapsed unconscious.
When I awoke again, a cool, lingering fragrance told me I had once more arrived at the Xuanwei Immortal Sect.
I did not open my eyes immediately. Instead, I watched the people praising my beauty argue with those insisting I would eventually reveal a vicious nature.
Reveal my vicious nature?
Sorry. This time, I would become a character even more perfect and pitiful than Zhu Miaoyin.
Do not be stingy with your affection.
Defy heaven for me. Change my fate. Give me a way to live.
When Zhu Miaoyin returned from sword practice, she found me tidying her cluttered dressing table.
She froze, then flicked her fingers and moved me several paces away. “Why are you touching my things?”
I already knew the table hid a young girl’s secrets. A trace of hurt crossed my face, only to be quickly suppressed.
“I only saw that it was untidy and wanted to help you straighten it.”
Zhu Miaoyin stared. “Huh?”
She pointed at herself. “You’re my older sister?”
Her gesture was charmingly innocent. Her words were less endearing, especially after I had recognized my younger sister at a glance.
—No way. Zhu Xueyi has missed her sister all these years, but darling Miaoyin doesn’t even recognize her?
—They’re not full sisters. She’s only a concubine’s daughter.
—Darling Miaoyin has always been adorably scatterbrained. How are you only noticing now?
—So scatterbrained she doesn’t recognize her own sister. Wow.
I looked at Zhu Miaoyin and parted my lips. Only after a moment did I help her out of the awkward situation.
“You were young when you left home. It is natural that you do not remember. I am your older sister… My name is Zhu Xueyi.”
—Zhu Xueyi is really considerate.
—Wait, aren’t Zhu Xueyi and Zhu Miaoyin only one year apart?
—Why are you all arguing? No wonder she’s the vicious second female lead. One sentence and everyone pities her.
—Are you insane? Zhu Xueyi doesn’t know anyone is watching. How could she be fishing for sympathy?
Zhu Miaoyin tilted her head and thought. “Do I have a full older sister? I don’t remember… Oh! You’re the concubine’s daughter!”
My eyes lowered as though the words had struck a sore place. She noticed nothing and continued smiling.
“That explains it. I knew I didn’t have an older sister.”
“Yes,” I said softly. “After you entered the immortal sect, Mother missed you so much that she took me in and raised me under her name.”
This tender account of maternal devotion made Zhu Miaoyin melancholy for only a moment. Then she declared that she would avenge her family by killing the demons.
She thought for a moment and said, a little embarrassed, “When I saw you locked in the cellar, I thought you were a servant who had done something wrong.”
The words were cutting, but I no longer cared.
What mattered was the audience’s reaction.
A mortal concubine’s daughter who repaid cruelty with kindness.
A legitimate fairy daughter who knew nothing of the world.
The contrast spoke for itself.
Comments soon flashed past.
—Feels like Zhu Miaoyin’s emotional intelligence isn’t that great.
—Darling Miaoyin, stop talking! She’s the vicious second female lead. She’ll bully you!
—That’s hilarious. One of them is a fairy and the other is mortal. Who exactly is going to bully whom?
Me: Keep talking. Please, keep talking.
As in my previous life, once I awoke, Zhu Miaoyin, Weisheng Yan, and the others questioned me about the demons.
After hearing what I knew, they decided to send me back to the mortal world. This time, I begged Zhu Miaoyin to take me in.
“Miaoyin, for some reason, the demons destroyed only the Zhu family…”
If they sent me down the mountain now, I would be walking straight to my death.
Weisheng Yan, who had uncovered the prophecy, considered the matter.
“In that case, Junior Sister, why not let her stay and have her spiritual roots tested? Perhaps she can enter the sect.”
As the most gifted junior sister in the Xuanwei Immortal Sect, Zhu Miaoyin had been showered with affection. In my previous life, she did not learn until much later that the massacre had occurred because of the prophecy about her. She grieved, then plunged into a love-hate entanglement with the Demon Lord.
The Zhu Miaoyin of today did not understand, but she nodded. “If Eldest Senior Brother says so, then let us do that.”
She turned to me. “But the sect’s disciple-selection ceremony is still two months away… Never mind. Sister Xueyi, I’ll take you to be tested now.”
I shook my head gently. “You are already a disciple of the immortal sect. How could I ask you to bend the rules for me?”
In truth, I knew the audience did not yet love me enough. If I took the test now, I would probably be revealed as the same rootless cripple I had been in my previous life.
I thought of the rat.
I would use these two months to make the audience transform heaven and earth for me.
My answer made Weisheng Yan regard me with new respect. He smiled, refined and handsome.
“Then Miss Zhu may stay at the foot of Mount Xuanwei for now.”