Stop pretending, the fake heiress is actually a master of metaphysics.

Her gaze passed over the building and fell upon the spirit of a woman floating in the air, her face blank.

"Don't go down. Just pretend you don't know anything about this, and don't tell anyone I was here."

If an ordinary person dies, Shen Nian is not going to get involved.

Firstly, it's inexplicable why she was there, and secondly, it's inexplicable how she left.

It's better to avoid trouble and pretend we don't know anything, waiting for the Shen family to report the case.

"Will she come back? Will I still be in trouble?"

Shen Yingjia said nervously.

"Probably not."

Shen Nian said, "Her target shouldn't be you."

It was only because Shen Yingjia happened to see something she shouldn't have seen that she came to him.

"But I'm still scared."

Shen Yingjia glanced at Shen Nian cautiously: "Aren't you a Taoist priest? Do you have any... exorcism artifacts? The kind that can keep ghosts away from me?"

"Don't worry, I'll pay!"

Shen Nian: "...Now you know how to ask for help."

Where did your arrogance from the other day go?

Shen Yingjia, well-versed in the principles of flexibility and pragmatism, grabbed Shen Nian's sleeve and began to cry, "I was wrong, I was really wrong, sister, please save me! I'm so young, I don't want to die, waaaaah!"

Shen Nian pulled her hand away with a look of disgust and tossed him a protective amulet strung on a red rope.

"Eight million in total, I'll send you the bank account number later."

Shen Yingjia thanked him profusely and ran away with the protective amulet in her hands.

As for the others...

How could he know which of the other people had done something heinous that caused the female ghost to come seeking revenge?

If they're really in a dire situation and about to die, they can just call Shen Nian and ask her to save them.

He can't be the only one contradicting himself and pleading with Shen Nian in a low voice.

Shen Nian opened the black iron gate again. This time, as she stepped inside, the black iron gate slowly disappeared as if it were air.

Shen Yingjia rubbed her eyes several times to make sure it wasn't a hallucination before closing the door and going to bed with the hard-won protective charm.

The next day.

The maid on duty in the early morning discovered the body in the garden.

The deceased was the maid who was on duty last night.

She wore a plain white long dress, white embroidered shoes, and her hair was styled in an ancient hairstyle.

She was hanging from a swing in the garden by a white silk ribbon. When she was found, she was still swaying back and forth on the swing, which nearly scared the servant who found her to death.

When Old Master Shen learned of this, he frowned and ordered someone to call the police.

The Shen family does not mistreat its servants. Since it has nothing to do with the Shen family, they are not afraid of the police investigating.

What worried Old Master Shen was that the death would affect the feng shui of the Shen family, and consequently, their fortune and business.

While reassuring the old man, Auntie San casually remarked, "It's strange, this family has always been fine, and the children all love each other. How come such a life-threatening incident happened as soon as the eldest daughter came back?"

"Xiao Jia and his sister Yingwei are best friends, but they didn't even speak to each other when they met today."

"Do you think it's because Shen Nian's birth chart is incompatible with our family's, so..."

The implication is that Shen Nian is a jinx.

Third Aunt was full of her own calculations. She thought to herself that Shen Yingwei was out of the question, since she had no blood relation to the Shen family and the old man wouldn't leave her much after his death.

But Shen Nian is different.

She is the biological daughter of the eldest son's family and the old man's granddaughter, which means the eldest son's family will receive several more shares of the family property than the others.

They did want to have a few more children to divide the inheritance, but...

It's strange, but the Shen family, such a large family, has become so small in this generation that each branch has at most two children.

However, the old man forbade them to use in vitro fertilization, feeling that it was against human nature and would be forcibly bringing a child who had no affinity with the Shen family into the Shen family.

Of course, adopting children who are not related by blood is also prohibited.

The eldest son's family agreed to adopt Shen Yingwei because Shen Nian had gone missing and could not be found. In order to comfort Song Daiqing who had lost her daughter and to save Song Daiqing and Shen Zhaozhang's marriage from falling apart, the family was in trouble and needed the help of Song Daiqing's family.

Before adopting Shen Yingwei, Old Master Shen consulted a master to determine that her birth chart was definitely not compatible with the Shen family.

So the second aunt knew what the old man cared about most, and deliberately steered the conversation towards that aspect of Shen Nian's identity.

However, Old Master Shen's attitude left Second Aunt completely baffled.

Old Master Shen pondered for a moment, then said, "Do you really think that these things happened because of the discord between Shen Nian and the Shen family?"

Third Aunt nodded: "Isn't that right? Our family has been doing well all these years, so why did things suddenly change as soon as she came back..."

Old Master Shen: "I think it's because you all acted so irresponsibly and angered her to leave, which led to this."

"A group of adults in their fifties or sixties harassing a child—how can you be so shameless?"

Auntie's face stiffened.

"And that adopted daughter of the eldest son's family, ha, she's really been in the Shen family for too long, she doesn't know whose blood is flowing in her veins anymore—if it weren't for Shen Nian, would she even be worthy of being our Shen family's granddaughter? Instead, she's framing my own granddaughter."

The second aunt wasn't stupid; she could tell whose side the old man was on, so she smiled ingratiatingly and said, "Yes, it was us elders who were in the wrong."

"I'll go and persuade my older brother and sister-in-law to apologize to Niannian and ask her to come back."

"But Niannian does have a bad temper. She can get angry, but she can't just run away from home over a disagreement. Now that she's back, she still has to stay at home."

Grandpa Shen waved his hand: "It's alright."

"Young people have their own opinions and don't want to live at home, which is understandable. If she wants, she can come back to have dinner with me once a week. As for the rest of the time, she can stay wherever she wants."

"The Shen family didn't raise her for more than a few days. It's really against the rules to make her abide by the Shen family's rules as soon as she was adopted."

The second aunt hadn't expected the old man to favor Shen Nian to this extent, and forced a smile: "...Yes. But isn't it a bit unfair that only Shen Nian has this privilege? What if the other children want to live elsewhere..."

Old Master Shen sneered: "If they want to sever ties with the Shen family, they can go live wherever they want."

But when the second aunt went to find Song Daiqing and Shen Zhaozhang, she was told by the servants that the two had left the Shen family early in the morning.

"Where did my older brother and sister-in-law go?"

"They said... they went to apologize to Miss Shen Nian."

The maid replied humbly.

However, Shen Zhaozhang and Song Daiqing did not see Shen Nian.

When they arrived at Tiannan Mountain, Shen Nian had already gone to the Gu family's old residence with Gu Qiwen and Gu Yuncheng.

Shen Nian was about to get off the bus when she received Shen Yingchuan's call.

Shen Yingchuan asked her where she had gone and when she would be back.

Shen Nian glanced at Gu Qiwen and said indifferently, "I don't know."

"I can't wait for you to go back to the Shen family."

She didn't need Song Daiqing's apology.