Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

She no longer plays with other children.

No more catching butterflies, no more swinging on swings, no more weaving flower garlands.

She started reading.

I read them one by one.

The manor's library is very large, containing many books on occultism.

Susie couldn't understand most of the content, but she tried her best to read and memorize it.

Especially the part about diseases.

Virus, plague.

Infectious diseases, toxicology.

She needs to figure it out—

How exactly did my mother die?

Two years later, Susie found the answer.

My mother died of leukemia.

An extremely rare blood-borne disease.

The mortality rate was extremely high, and the symptoms matched exactly what she had seen—high fever, coughing up blood, mental confusion, and dark purple spots on the skin.

But there is a problem.

The natural spread of leukemia is extremely slow.

The incubation period from infection to the onset of symptoms is usually three to four weeks.

And mother—

From the time I returned home that night until I started having a fever—

Only one night later.

overnight.

This is not a natural infection.

This is—poisoning.

Susie sat in a corner of the library, her fingers trembling slightly as she looked at the words on the pages.

She remembered the way her mother rushed home that night.

A look of fear.

Don't ask anything.

She remembered the look in Risa's eyes when she visited her mother.

That look in his eyes, confirming his prey.

She remembered her mother's dying words.

"Treat your wife well."

"Don't go against her choice."

Mother knows.

My mother knows everything.

She knew who killed her.

But she dared not say it.

With her last breath, she told her daughter—

Do not resist.

live.

Susie sat there for a very long time.

The words on the pages were blurred, then became clear again.

She didn't cry.

Tears welled up in her eyes, but she forced them back.

Crying won't help.

She knows this better than anyone else.

That night, Susie made a decision.

She planned to escape from this home.

She was too small and too weak to do anything.

But my mother said—serve your wife well.

If you behave well enough and obedient enough.

Perhaps the lady would be willing for her to leave.

Susie found Risa.

She hopes Risa will agree to let her move out, citing her studies as the reason.

Risa sat in the chair and listened to everything.

Then he nodded slightly.

"I see."

she says.

His tone was gentle, and his expression was calm.

"You're a smart child, Susie."

That evening--

Susie has fallen ill.

The symptoms are exactly the same as the mother's.

High fever. Cough. Chills all over.

But it attacks faster and more violently—

It was as if someone wasn't going to give her any room to struggle.

Before losing consciousness, Susie clenched her teeth.

She dragged her nearly broken body off the bed.

Step by step.

His fingers dug into the cracks in the floor, and his knees scraped bloody marks on the ground.

She climbed down the corridor.

They climbed up to Daisy's door next door.

With his last ounce of strength, he knocked three times.

When Daisy opened the door, she saw Susie huddled in the doorway, her face burning red, her lips bluish-black, looking like a discarded rag.

Daisy screamed and immediately called the doctor.

The doctor arrived quickly, and the medication was administered very aggressively.

Susie lay in bed for two whole weeks before being pulled back from the brink of death.

The day she woke up, sunlight shone on her face.

She opened her eyes and saw Daisy asleep by the bedside, her eyes red and swollen, with tear stains on her face.

Susie stared at her for a long time.

Then--

She turned her gaze to the window.

The view from the window is of the manor's garden.

The roses are in bloom.

Red, white, pink.

very beautiful.

Looking at the flowers, Susie suddenly felt—

They are not pretty at all.

She understood everything.

Risa did not remain silent, did not repent, and did not show any mercy.

She took action immediately.

Just like with a mother.

Clean, efficient, and decisive.

"You're a smart child, Susie."

That sentence means—

Clever children don't live long.

From that day on, Susie stopped talking.

I no longer communicate with anyone.

I no longer read books about viruses and plagues.

He stopped asking about the cause of his mother's death.

We will no longer investigate the undercurrents beneath those mysteries.

She moved next door to Daisy.

I only do two things every day.

Studying, eating.

When she missed her mother, she would go to the cafeteria and ask for a pastry.

Soufflé, honey cookies, almond tarts, cinnamon rolls.

The taste is different now.

It wasn't as good as what my mother did.

But the shape is still the same shape, and the color is still the same color.

Susie ate slowly, one bite at a time.

It's like chewing up a memory.

Gradually—

In everyone's eyes, she became a foolish woman who knew nothing but studying and eating.

Nobody paid attention to her, nobody was on guard against her.

No one saw her as a threat.

This is exactly what Susie wanted.

She believes that knowledge can change one's destiny.

She read countless books on mysticism in the library.

Runes, spells, rituals, formations—

She learns very quickly.

He's faster than any of his peers in the manor.

But she never showed it.

In front of everyone else, she was just that dull, slow-witted Susie who only knew how to eat pastries.

She has a dream.

A very small dream.

Perhaps one day, she will be able to learn a sufficiently profound mysticism.

Runes powerful enough.

Mystical runes helped her escape the nightmares of her childhood!

But she also knew—

Risa is a very scary character.

She had seen the third-tier extraordinary beings in the manor—those beings who were like gods in the eyes of ordinary people—bow their heads in front of Risa, not daring to utter a single word.

It's not because Risa herself is particularly strong.

Rather, it's because—

She stands at the heart of the Link family's power structure.

She is the clan chief's wife.

She controls the fate of everyone in the manor.

Susie can't escape.

She knew she couldn't escape.

She could only cling tightly to Daisy—

The sister who opened the door and hugged her when she was at her most desperate.

They clung to life, barely clinging to life.

waiting.

Waiting for an opportunity that may never come.

……

Under the covers, Susie curled up even tighter.

She had another dream.

It was a stormy night in my dream.

The rain pattered against the window.

The mother lay in bed, stretching out her withered hand—

"Sissi."

"Don't go against her choice."

Susie nodded frantically in her dream.

Tears slid down from her tightly closed eyes, soaking the pillow.

She gripped the blanket tightly, covering her small body completely.

To prevent darkness from taking advantage of the situation.

……

The morning mist flowed slowly along the rooftops of the manor, like a layer of grayish-white gauze.

Xilun opened his eyes precisely at five o'clock.

The cracks in the ceiling are still the same as yesterday, and the light coming through the gaps in the curtains is a bit colder than it was a few days ago.

He sat up and flexed his wrists.

The black mark on his right wrist was quiet and still, like a lurking spider.

Not urgent.

He put on his clothes and looked at his face in the mirror.

With pale skin, grayish lips, and a weary look in his eyes that was a disguise, he had fooled most of the people in the manor.

But we can't let it stay this pale today.

Today is the second time we've had net pressure.

After tucking the pistol into his waistband, Xilun inserted the Soul-Suppressing Nail into the hidden button on the inside of his left sleeve, and finally adjusted the collar of his shirt to cover a dark pattern below his collarbone that had been tempered by the cold air.

He pushed open the door and went out.

The corridor was quiet, and the morning mist seeped in through the gaps between the pillars, making the air damp and cold.

When the two maids saw him from afar, they stopped what they were doing and bowed their heads in greeting.

His gaze carried a complex mix of emotions—awe, curiosity, and a hint of sympathy.

Xilun nodded slightly, his pace neither fast nor slow.

As he walked through the courtyard, he noticed that the benches next to the flowerbeds were empty.

Susie is not here.

By this time, she would usually already be sitting there.

Xilun's gaze lingered for a moment before returning to the south wing dining hall.

There weren't many people in the cafeteria.

Several servants, who were eating their bread with their heads down, visibly froze when they saw Xilun enter.

Xilun brought a bowl of hot porridge and sat down in a corner.

The porridge is very hot.

He blew on it and took a sip.

The taste was bland, but it warmed my stomach.

"Mr. Celen."

The voice came from behind.

Xilun didn't turn around; he had already heard footsteps.

David sat down opposite him, looking even more haggard than yesterday, with dark circles under his eyes that looked as if someone had drawn them on with charcoal.

"Didn't sleep all night?" Xilun asked.

David gave a wry smile. "I can't sleep."

He paused, then lowered his voice, "I checked the warehouse records again, and there's still nothing unusual."

Xilun didn't stop drinking his porridge.

"You won't be able to find it."

David looked up.

Xilen put down her spoon and looked at him. "Someone who can bypass warehouse records, evade security systems, and stay close to your father for so long—he leaves no trace."

David remained silent for a moment.

"you mean--"

"I didn't mean anything by it." Celen picked up the bowl and took another sip. "I'm just someone who came here for treatment."

This sentence shut down everything David wanted to ask.

David stared at the table for a while, nodded, and stood up.

"The net pressure this morning is all ready."

Xilun hummed in agreement.

David took a few steps, then stopped without looking back.

"Mr. Celen."

"Um?"

"……Thank you."

The voice was very soft, as if it were squeezed out from between the teeth.

Xilun did not respond.

He watched David's figure disappear at the cafeteria entrance, then picked up his bowl and finished the last mouthful of porridge.

Then he wiped his mouth, got up and headed to the South Wing training room.

The temperature of the items in the cold room had been pre-set, and the low-temperature field pressed against him the moment he pushed the door open.

Xilun sat down cross-legged.

First, there is the Moon Memory Meditation Method.

In the spiritual world, the sacred bud of prayer emits a soft white light deep within consciousness, and its delicate branches and leaves gently unfurl in the void.

The white light flowed like a stream through every crevice of the spiritual core, washing away the impurities accumulated last night.

Then comes the Xuan Yin Breathing Method.

A chilling aura surged from the dantian, flowing along the meridians and resonating with the low-temperature field of the cold room.

That cold, stinging pain has become bearable—no, not bearable, but a habit.

Like getting used to a wound.

An hour later, Xilun opened his eyes.

Mental strength has recovered to 85%.

enough.

He stood up, pushed open the door, and walked out of the cold room.

The butler was already waiting in the corridor.

"Mr. Sir, the master's bedroom has been cleared."

Xilun nodded and followed him toward the east wing.

As he walked through the courtyard, he caught a glimpse of a figure out of the corner of his eye.

Susie.

She sat on a bench beside the flowerbed, holding half a cookie in her hand, staring blankly at a flower bud that had not yet bloomed.

……

In the patriarch's bedroom, the curtains were drawn tightly shut.

In the dim light, Loy Link lay on the bed, his face dark and his lips cracked, like a withered tree that had been drained of its moisture.

But Xilun knew that the interior of this deadwood was far more complex than it appeared on the surface.

He walked to the bedside and sat down.

The door closed behind me, the latch clicking shut.

The whole world is quiet.

Xilun closed his eyes and activated the reverberation chamber.

Perception flooded in like a tidal wave.

Roy's heartbeat was extremely faint, but steady.

Breathing from the lungs—slow and rhythmic.

The traces of medication remaining on the stomach wall—faded a bit from yesterday, but still there.

Xilun's perception continued to penetrate deeper, reaching the back wall of his heart.

The black parasite is still there.

but--

He froze for a moment.

wrong.

Of the seven contaminated threads he burned off, two had already withered and fallen off on their own.

The remaining threads also became loose, no longer clinging tightly to the heart wall as they had before the first treatment.

The overall activity of the parasite decreased by at least 40%.

This is not normal.

During the last treatment, he only burned seven threads, suppressing the parasite's activity. According to his estimate, the remaining threads will take at least two to three more days to gradually loosen.

But now—

Only one day had passed.

Xiren opened his eyes and looked at Loy on the bed.

His face was dark and his breathing was weak; he looked like he was terminally ill.

But his heartbeat remained unusually steady.

That's too stable.

A Tier 3 Extraordinary being corrupted by both parasites and Virus One shouldn't have such a steady heartbeat.

unless--

His physical condition is far stronger than it appears.

Xiren remembered what David had said.

"My father has been bedridden for a long time."

How long is "xujiu"?

A third-order extraordinary being—an aberrant being—the head of the Link family, a viscount family that has been passed down for five generations.

Such a person, if they have truly been tormented by both parasites and viruses for a long time...

His heartbeat shouldn't be this steady.

Xilun lowered his gaze and remained silent for a moment.

Then he closed his eyes again and guided Baiyi into Luoyi's body.

This time, he did not rush to burn the silk thread.

He first wrapped the outer layer of the parasite with white, and then tentatively applied a layer of weak pressure.

The parasite did not resist.

Or rather—its resistance was much weaker than expected.

West London continues to exert pressure.

The white light, like an invisible net, slowly tightened, compressing the parasite into a smaller black core.

The remaining threads broke one by one under pressure.

It looked like withered vines peeling off the wall.

Five.

Three.

The last one.

Everything is disconnected.

The parasite completely lost its connection with the host's heart wall, curled up into a small black bead, and remained silent and motionless, enveloped in white.

Xilun completely peeled it off the heart wall and guided it to a safe area for isolation.

Then he began to deal with virus number one.

The virus's activity was also lower than expected.

The toxins remaining in the stomach wall and internal organs have been significantly reduced under the combined effects of the tranquilizing potion and the inhibitors.

Xilun used White to clean away the remaining toxin particles one by one, while covering the damaged tissue surface with a protective film.

The whole process lasted about half an hour.

Mental energy depletion - 30%.

Only 30%.

It's a full 10% less than the first time.

This further confirmed his judgment.

Roy's body is repairing itself.

Moreover, the speed of the repair far exceeds what one would expect from a person who is "on the verge of death".

Xilun withdrew his white intention and opened his eyes.

He was about to stand up.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed his wrist.

The force was not great.

But it's very stable.

Xilun's movements suddenly stopped.

He looked down.

The withered hand on the bed tightened its grip on his wrist bone, finger by finger.

Then--

Loy Link opened his eyes.