Chapter 73: The Era’s Beloved Scapegoat? It Doesn’t Matter—My Father Will Always Step In

Qin Sui-sui instantly felt a surge of hostility toward the sisters Qin Zhi-zhi and Qin Sang-sang.

“Who are they?” she asked.

Qin Long had always taken pride in this daughter. Whenever he played cards with others, as long as he brought his daughter along, fortune would unfailingly favor him. But as she grew up, his daughter became less willing to accompany him. The people at those games went barefoot, bare-chested, spitting and smoking, with the air thick with smoke—it was truly a terrible environment, so it was understandable that Qin Sui-sui disliked going. Out of consideration for her, Qin Long always went out to play cards instead of bringing people home.

Having grown used to doting on his daughter, Qin Long didn’t mind her increasingly dismissive attitude as she grew up. At this moment, he failed to notice anything amiss in her tone and simply smiled, saying, “These are your uncle’s daughters. Do you remember your uncle? When you were little, all your dresses, candies, delicious treats, and toys came from him.”

Qin Ye’s voice was cool and distant. “Yes, I bought all those things for my own daughters, and your daughter wore them, ate them, played with them.”

Qin Long was at a loss for words.

“Oh, all that’s ancient history now. Sui-sui, greet your cousins.”

Though Qin Sui-sui was a little impatient, she still greeted them, albeit with only the bare minimum of courtesy.

Just as their temperaments seemed naturally incompatible, the first meeting between Qin Sui-sui and the sisters Qin Zhi-zhi and Qin Sang-sang left a poor impression on both sides, tinged with mutual hostility.

Qin Sang-sang whispered to her sister, “I don’t like her.”

“Me neither,” Qin Zhi-zhi replied.

Meanwhile, the twins—boy and girl, always more interested in their own fun than people—were already playing on their own, though they stuck close to their cousins Qin Zhi-zhi and Qin Sang-sang. Overhearing their cousins’ words, the twins promptly declared, “We don’t like her either. We like our cousins.”

Of all the people present, only Qin Long, eager to curry favor and gain some benefit, was truly welcoming of Qin Ye’s family’s arrival. No one else showed any warmth.

Qin Hu’s family was absent. Old Man Qin’s face was twisted with displeasure, and Liu Feng treated Qin Ye as if he were invisible.

Qin Sui-sui sat quietly eating her meal, then went upstairs early and was not seen again that day.

Qin Ye told his daughters to take the twins and leave first, choosing to remain behind to further unsettle Old Man Qin and Liu Feng.

Qin Long, now full of self-satisfaction, kept referring to Qin Ye as “big brother” every other sentence. In his mind, he thought, surely his brother would value him deeply now. People always remember the old days. After so many years of struggle and success, what would be more natural than to return home? And among all the family, only he, the youngest, had truly thought of his brother.

Now that his brother was getting older and softer, surely he’d be valued more than ever. And since his brother only had two daughters, who would inherit that vast fortune if not him, the younger brother?

Qin Long indulged in these pleasant fantasies, but once Qin Ye returned home, he behaved as though Qin Long didn’t even exist. Whenever Qin Long tried to approach him, he was told Qin Ye was busy. The men blocking Qin Long’s way wore identical black suits and sunglasses, towering over him with such imposing builds that he felt like a little chick in their presence.

This left Qin Long uncharacteristically subdued.

As for Qin Ye, he truly was busy. When the “lucky carp” was young, Qin Ye hadn’t paid much attention, never realizing that it wasn’t a true koi, but rather a little demon that had absorbed some of the koi’s blood. It had gained a touch of sentience and a measure of the koi’s luck, and then taken on human form.

This was luck of an extraordinary, even overwhelming, kind—but it was not the pure, auspicious fortune of a true koi. It had a sinister twist, after all, having originated from blood. The koi would never bestow boundless luck on an enemy who had killed, skinned, and eaten it. Luck tainted by blood is poisonous.

So, rather than saying Qin Sui-sui was born lucky, it would be more accurate to say she could draw others’ good fortune to herself. But this came with a price: her luck was built atop the misfortune of others, and in time, it would turn back upon her.

Having deduced all this, Qin Ye decided to take the drop of koi blood away. How to do so was a problem, and that had kept him occupied these past days.

With other matters demanding his attention, Qin Ye had no interest in watching any further clown shows.

Qin Long soon discovered that he could no longer get close to his elder brother at all. And if he couldn’t reach Qin Ye, there was no question of approaching the sisters either.

His dreams shattered, Qin Long returned home, venting his frustration with a barrage of curses.

In the midst of his grumbling, Qin Sui-sui’s boyfriend, Bai Yu, came to the village to see her. He arrived in a car, smartly dressed and very much the young master. At that time, Liu An was hosting a banquet, inviting everyone from Stone Village, and even welcoming guests from other villages without expecting gifts.

As Bai Yu stepped into the Qin household, Qin Ye suddenly turned to look in that direction.

Bai Yu was strikingly handsome, standing out from the crowd. When Qin Ye glanced over, Bai Yu looked up and met his eyes.

Qin Ye felt a twinge of annoyance—another agent.

The little assistant reported, “Just detected a new fluctuation—a newly arrived task performer.”

“Do you know which department?”

“Stability Maintenance Division.”

Qin Ye withdrew his gaze with a hint of regret. A colleague, then. That meant he couldn’t stir up trouble.

He focused on the business that had brought him home. Once Liu Cai’s grave was repaired and arrangements made for its upkeep, Qin Ye took his daughters and the twins home.

Throughout this time, the sisters had little to do with Qin Sui-sui, but whenever they did cross paths, Qin Sui-sui’s glances grew ever more hostile, as if everything the sisters now possessed should rightfully have been hers.

Once, Qin Sui-sui even cursed Qin Ye. Qin Zhi-zhi, unable to bear it, rushed over and pinned her to the ground for a beating. Qin Sui-sui had spat out a torrent of venom, declaring that Qin Ye should have died long ago, and that Qin Zhi-zhi and Qin Sang-sang were nothing but pitiful wretches.

Though Qin Zhi-zhi was not much of a fighter with words, she had physical prowess to compensate. When she lost the argument, she simply used her fists. After the beating, she ran off, and Qin Sui-sui did not trouble them again.

But that night, Qin Zhi-zhi had a dream—a nightmare so vivid it felt like her true fate. In it, her mother died, her father died, and she and her sister lived in the Qin household like slaves, suffering miserably. She dreamt, too, that her sister’s future was accidentally ruined by Qin Sui-sui—and finally, she saw her own tragic end.

She awoke sobbing uncontrollably, rushed to find Qin Sang-sang, and threw herself into her bewildered sister’s arms.

When Qin Ye returned home, Qin Zhi-zhi had already cried herself unconscious.

“Dad, what’s wrong with my sister?” Qin Sang-sang asked anxiously.

Qin Ye replied calmly, “It’s nothing. She just had a nightmare.” He tucked in the blankets and left at a leisurely pace.

But Qin Sang-sang sensed it was more than a simple nightmare and stayed by her sister’s side.

After a night’s rest, thanks to Qin Ye’s intervention and some unknown twist of fate, Qin Zhi-zhi’s memories of her “story self” were corrected. The usual path of the reborn avenger is satisfying, but if one’s previous life was too tragic, and the new life has taken a completely different trajectory, then rebirth becomes unnecessary.

When she awoke, Qin Zhi-zhi remembered little beyond the sense of having had a particularly terrifying dream, the details of which were lost to her. She soon recovered her spirits.

Perhaps it was because of Qin Long’s old remarks about girls having no need for education that Qin Zhi-zhi was determined to pursue her studies, eventually becoming a researcher. Qin Sang-sang, meanwhile, studied film direction. After graduation, with Qin Ye’s support, she directed her first movie and achieved great success.

Both sisters met their beloveds and walked together through the rest of their lives, and Qin Ye’s mission was more or less complete.

With the new millennium, as Qin Ye aged and his health declined, he was eventually hospitalized. Just before the end, while his daughters and sons-in-law were by his side and he could barely speak, Bai Yu, whom he’d met once before, entered quietly.

“Is there something you need?”

Though he seemed at death’s door before his daughters, Qin Ye spoke with unexpected strength.

“I’m here to deliver something to you, sir.” Bai Yu held out his hand, revealing a teardrop-shaped, blood-red gem.

The blood of the koi.

Qin Ye accepted it without ceremony and asked with curiosity, “You didn’t do away with the heroine, did you?”

“Sir, I’m a law-abiding citizen. How could I commit such a bloody act?”

Qin Ye gazed at him. Bai Yu met his eyes. After a few seconds, Bai Yu gave a resigned sigh. “Really, the laws of this world are strict. I’m a model citizen here.”

Ah, so in worlds without strict laws, you’re not such a model citizen.

“The main characters in this world have deviated greatly from their destined paths, so intervention was necessary to set things right.”

“I see.” Qin Ye showed little interest in the Stability Maintenance Division’s work.

Bai Yu, recognizing his indifference, didn’t linger, and soon took his leave.

Once he was gone, Qin Ye waited for his children to arrive, then, with a tilt of his head, passed away.

The room filled with weeping, while Qin Ye found himself once more in the system’s space.

He sat on the throne, turning over the translucent, blood-red gem in his hand. This koi blood carried a familiar, warm aura—there was even a trace of his junior uncle’s cat.

So, it truly was the koi he had once raised.

It seemed the koi devoured by the cat all those years ago might still be saved.

Back then, Qin Ye had barely brought the koi home before the cat fished it out of the pond and ate it. By the time Qin Ye discovered it, only a few scales remained.

He collected the scales, weeping and wailing to his junior uncle, and thus managed to blackmail—no, persuade—his guilt-ridden uncle into giving him a trove of treasures as compensation.