Chapter 1

The first day of the twelfth lunar month.

A light drizzle began to fall, and before long, it turned into a downpour.

Amid the crackling of raindrops, two figures crouching at the small courtyard gate suddenly sprang up from the ground and hunched over as they dashed under the eaves.

Inside the house, the taller figure bent down and carefully placed the item in his arms onto the heated kang bed.

As he moved, his sunglasses slid down his straight nose. They clinked twice against the edge of the kang, and one already loose temple broke off completely, leaving a few cracks in the round lenses.

The young man paused, his handsome and refined face now exposed to the air, instantly giving the shabby wooden house a sense of freshness and renewal.

He reached out and hooked the sunglasses back onto his nose, covering up his striking features that were as vivid as an ink painting. After changing out of his rain-soaked outer garment, he draped himself in a patch-covered Taoist robe and returned to the kang.

—On it lay a very beautiful orange-and-white lion cat with heterochromatic eyes. Its belly was heavily swollen, and it was breathing rapidly—clearly at a critical point in labor.

The fur on the cat’s hind legs had been stained pink by amniotic fluid. It stared warily at the two of them for a moment, then, too exhausted, slumped back down. Beneath it was a wet kitten, just born.

The smaller figure took off his wet coat, shivering as he clutched his phone and cautiously approached. “The internet says after the first one comes out, the next should follow in 10 to 20 minutes. But Sugar Tangerine hasn’t moved at all—could it be that she’s already done giving birth?”

After a pause, he poked the young man: “Xingzhou-ge, why don’t you do a reading?”

Ke Xingzhou formed a hand seal but didn’t move. His ink-black eyes glanced at him indifferently.

The kid immediately fell silent, rummaged in his pocket, and pulled out five yuan, handing it over.

“You think I’m that kind of person?” Ke Xingzhou clicked his tongue. “Make it quick. Ten yuan per divination—no bargaining.”

The kid puffed out his cheeks. “This is all I’ve got! I only managed to save this after eating plain steamed buns for five days!”

Ke Xingzhou looked at him, as if verifying whether that was true.

The kid stared back angrily. In a huff, he reached out to snatch back the five yuan. “Fine, then don’t do it. Anyway, out in the countryside, our cats give birth like this all the time. However many survive just depends on Heaven’s will…”

Before he could finish, the bill was already snatched away by Ke Xingzhou.

Ke Xingzhou swiftly pocketed the money, leaving no room for regret. “Forget it—Sugar Tangerine’s like family to me. I’ll cover the other five yuan for her.”

With his other hand, he began calculating over the lion cat on the kang.

But as soon as he started, the smile that usually played on his lips vanished. His expression grew increasingly serious, and he kept glancing to the side.

The kid watched as he calculated for a long time, then suddenly crouched down, reached out to rub the lion cat’s belly, and began muttering rapidly, his brows tightly furrowed. A thin layer of sweat soon formed on his forehead.He was practically leaning right in front of Ke Xingzhou, yet still couldn’t hear clearly what he was saying, and couldn’t help but feel a bit panicked.

“Xingzhou-ge?”

Ke Xingzhou motioned for him to be quiet. After rubbing for a while, he turned and rummaged through the birthing kit he had prepared earlier, pulling out a pair of medical gloves.

Taking a deep breath, Ke Xingzhou massaged the lion cat’s belly for several more minutes before finally pulling out a tiny kitten, completely purple all over.

After some quick rescue efforts, the oxygen-deprived kitten finally let out a weak mewl.

Ke Xingzhou's expression relaxed slightly. He placed the kitten back beside the lion cat and finally smiled again. “It’s nothing. Just now the King of Hell asked me why there was a flashing kitten head.”

The kid: “…”

That joke was ice-cold. Even standing next to the blazing kang bed, he felt a chill on the back of his neck.

“So, did you figure it out—how many kittens is Sugar Tangerine having this time?”

“Official fate rests in the official palace, children reside therein, the third son stays, elder and younger brothers both prosper,” Ke Xingzhou recited a line of divination. “Sugar Tangerine had only one surviving tomcat in her last litter. This time I snatched one back from the King of Hell. Counting the strong one born earlier, that makes three in total. Any more born after this won’t survive—better take her to get spayed.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the light suddenly dimmed, and a harsh shout came from the doorway: “You’re messing with this superstitious nonsense again? How many times have I told you—stay in the countryside and focus on recovering! Wasn’t the last incident enough of a lesson? Huh? If you’re so eager to die, why not go die outside while you’re at it?!”

The voice came abruptly, full of rage. Both people inside the room were startled, and the lion cat’s fur stood on end. She immediately moved to shield her two kittens, lowering her body and hissing toward the door.

Ke Xingzhou and the kid turned toward the voice and saw that three people—two men and one woman—had somehow appeared at the doorway, all dressed in fine clothes and exuding an air of wealth and refinement.

The one who had just spoken was the middle-aged man with a large belly.

He was currently fuming with rage, looking at Ke Xingzhou as if he were some unforgivable criminal.

Beside him, a beautiful woman clung to his arm—likely his wife. She looked about thirty-something, well-maintained and not much older in appearance than the young man standing on her other side.

The kid scanned their faces one by one—he didn’t recognize a single one. He nudged Ke Xingzhou: “They here for you?”

Ke Xingzhou responded blandly, “My so-called dad, mom, and big brother.”

The room fell silent for a moment, quickly broken by Ke's father.

Ke Zhengye was infuriated by his tone and began shouting hysterically: “What did you say? You little bastard, say that again? Who are you calling ‘so-called’ parents?!”

His voice was loud and shrill. The lion cat bristled again, and the kid was so startled he instinctively covered his ears—and then reached over to cover the kittens’ ears too.

Ke Xingzhou, however, was completely unfazed. Seeing this, he simply walked out and closed the door to the inner room behind him.

The heat from the kang bed was quickly sealed off by the not-so-tight-fitting wooden door.

Ke Xingzhou straightened his Taoist robe, walked around the three people at the doorway at a distance, pulled apart a stack of plastic stools from the corner of the living room, set one for each of them around the dining table, then poured himself a glass of water—without inviting them to sit.

“What do you want?”

Ke Zhengye was so enraged by his attitude he nearly fell over backward. “This is how you talk to your elders? All those years of education were completely wasted on you! I told them back then they shouldn’t have sent you to that damn Taoist academy—look at you, no manners at all!”

At the mention of his sect training, Ke Xingzhou paused and looked up at him.

His gaze was deep and penetrating. Under it, Ke Zhengye involuntarily flinched, as if his very soul had been laid bare. When he realized what had just happened, his face twisted further in fury, and he pointed a trembling finger at Ke Xingzhou, too angry to speak.

Madam Ke, standing beside him, gently patted his arm in a soothing gesture.She looked up at the drafty, broken-down house, her brow furrowing deeper and deeper. “Seriously, you had a perfectly good villa at home, and you choose to come live all the way out in the countryside? There isn’t even a proper road here.”

Her newly bought shoes were already ruined.

Ke Xingzhou followed her gaze downward. The edges of all three of their shoes were dirty to varying degrees, with splashes of mud on their pant legs. But it was still clear how expensive everything originally was.

Completely out of place in this shabby house.

He didn’t care at all, quickly shifting his gaze to the last person. “Still haven’t found your real child? If this keeps dragging on, I’m going to charge you emotional damages.”

Ke Zhengye flared up again. “I’m talking to you!! What are you looking at your big brother for? You’ve got the nerve to bring that up? You took my biological son’s place for twenty years—is this how you repay your parents? And you dare ask for damages?!”

Ke Chenyu: “…”

He felt suffocated. Their father’s temper was truly unbearable.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to keep it simple: “We’ve found him. But there were some complications. Now we need you to…”

Ke Father exploded again: “Speak clearly! I raised you for so many years—when did I ever let you go without food or drink? I haven’t even asked you to pay back the money we spent on you for twenty years, and you should be grateful for that!”

Madam Ke couldn’t stand the mud on her shoes anymore. Reluctantly, she approached the lopsided table with a missing leg, pulled out a stack of tissues, grabbed Ke Chenyu’s arm with one hand, and lifted a foot to wipe her shoes.

Ke Chenyu was busy trying to hold back Ke Father with one hand and steady Ke Mother with the other. With great difficulty, he continued, “...We need you to join the same talent show as Yuanbai and cooperate with us to help him debut.”

“Ke Yuanbai?” Ke Xingzhou confirmed the real son’s name with a look of disdain. “With that level of talent, you need a full-blown operation just to get him to debut?”

Ke Chenyu’s expression turned a bit awkward. He didn’t explain. Meanwhile, Ke Father’s yelling grew louder and more grating.

Ke Xingzhou remained entirely unaffected, his gaze shifting to Madam Ke. “What’s in it for me?”

Madam Ke had spent quite some time trying to clean her shoes, but only managed to smear yellow mud evenly across every rhinestone.

The woman, always known for her gentleness and composure, had a vein twitch at her temple. She tossed aside the empty tissue packet, having completely run out of patience. “Five million. You can have this house if you like it. From now on, we go our way, you go yours. We won’t bother you again.”

She knew her son too well. Sure enough, the moment money was mentioned, Ke Xingzhou’s eyes lit up.

But he didn’t agree right away. Instead, he tilted his head and asked, “If I take this five million, am I going to get in trouble?”

Ke Zhengye thought he was being sarcastic and snapped furiously on the spot. “What kind of bullshit are you saying! A measly five million—do you think the Ke family would scam you?!”

Madam Ke and Ke Chenyu both looked exasperated.

While the Ke family wasn’t some ultra-rich dynasty, they were still a well-known family in Beijing. Five million really wasn’t a big deal.

What they didn’t see was that, to Ke Xingzhou’s left, a faint translucent figure hovered over the offering table. One hand held a heavy book, while the other typed rapidly on a floating keyboard.

After comparing the book’s contents carefully, the figure gave Ke Xingzhou an “OK” hand sign.

Ke Xingzhou’s brows relaxed, his whole demeanor lighting up instantly. He even stood up, pushed his stool and water cup toward them, and said, “My dearest, biologically unrelated mother—so, which way is the program entrance?”

Madam Ke: “…”

Ever since Ke Xingzhou found out—at the age of five—that she wasn’t his biological mother, he had never called her “Mom” again.Hearing that long-forgotten form of address so suddenly, she was momentarily dazed.

Madam Ke looked at the sun-bleached stool and, feeling a bit uncomfortable, pulled her fur coat tighter around herself, not sitting down.

But she was clearly no longer as cold as before.

After a moment’s thought, she took out a card from her bag and handed it to Ke Xingzhou. “You haven’t celebrated your birthday at home all these years. This 200,000 yuan is to make up for your birthday gifts.”

Ke Xingzhou was visibly moved. “Is this really mine to have?”

Madam Ke’s heart ached in that moment.

Thinking about it, even though Ke Xingzhou wasn’t her biological son, he had still called her “Mom” for five years. Later, he somehow found out the truth and had even tried to tell them multiple times.

It was they who refused to believe a child’s words, dragging things out until now.

Not to mention, Ke Xingzhou hadn’t gotten much benefit from the Ke family—he had been sent to the countryside as soon as he was old enough to care for himself.

If you had to say what the Ke family had given him—there was nothing, really.

She looked once more at the dilapidated little house, imagining Ke Xingzhou living here alone as a child, and her eyes began to sting with tears.

But before she could even open her mouth to invite him home for a few days, the translucent figure beside Ke Xingzhou had already finished checking the results and nodded to him.

Without warning, Ke Xingzhou’s tone took a sharp turn. “Well, thank you very much!”

With lightning speed, he slipped the card into his pocket.

Catching Madam Ke’s stunned expression, he added as if just remembering, “The password’s still your birthday, right?”

Madam Ke: “……”

At the very least, Ke Xingzhou still remembered her birthday. Madam Ke felt a faint trace of comfort.

Meanwhile, Ke Zhengye had been thoroughly ignored the entire time. He hadn’t gotten a single word in from start to finish, and now he was absolutely livid. “Ungrateful child! Is all you see in this world just that filthy money?!”

Ke Xingzhou nodded without hesitation, seriously and firmly. “What else, then?”

Ke Zhengye: “……”

He was nearly driven mad with rage!

Just as he was about to blow his top, Ke Xingzhou finally gave him a proper glance—up and down—before sincerely offering, “Don’t get so worked up. The more angry you get, the more bad luck you’ll attract, and it’ll hurt your finances.”

Ke Zhengye happened to be at a critical stage in a business deal, and hearing that made him reel: “You little bastard! I’ve been here so long and you haven’t even called me ‘Dad’ once—and now you dare curse me? I’ll beat you to death today…”

As he whipped off his belt and charged forward, he failed to hold his waistband properly. His pants slipped down to his ankles, throwing off his balance, and he tripped forward—falling face-first onto the offering table.

The whole sequence was ridiculously smooth. When Ke Zhengye lifted his head again, his mouth was full of blood—he had knocked out a front tooth.

Madam Ke panicked. “Lao Ke?! Lao Ke, are you okay? Why is there so much blood?! Driver! Call 120, quick!!”

Ke Zhengye: “……”