"Should I take off your mask?" Muttering to herself, Lin Meilin reached towards his neck, about to pull off his mask, but in the end, held back.

"Not now... Let's have some patience." With a gentle smile, she kept on rubbing his face with cloudy eyes.

Even though she hadn't seen his true appearance, she knew he was young and probably wearing the mask to hide his true face, perhaps to avoid trouble.

"A twisted lemon might quench one's thirst, but it's always bitter." For someone like her, there were only a few things in this world worth paying attention to. Only a few things could bring her excitement, and Yang Ze was certainly one of them. With a physique that she hadn't even heard of, she knew what she needed to do.

"Let's leave some excitement and mystery for the future." It would be too boring and too quick if she discovered everything about him in one go. God knows how many years later, she found something so interesting. How could she spoil it? She was gonna take her time to slowly savour the meal that was dropped in front of her.

With a gentle smile, she gently ruffled his hair while humming a soft tune.

------------

Yang Ze didn't know how long he was alseep for. By the time he woke up, the first thing that greeted him was the chirping of birds and the sun that was starting to rise from the horizon.

"This." In haste, he jumped up, and the first thing he did was check his face and clothes. Only after making sure that nothing was amiss did he breathe in a sigh of relief.

"You are awake?" It was at this moment that Lin Meilin's charming voice sounded in his ears as if she had been waiting for him to wake up.

"You..." Yang Ze was about to say something when he came back to his senses and held back. He couldn't let this woman know under any condition that he could see through her disguise.

Someone who could make him sleep without him knowing how wasn't someone the current him could face.

It was much better to act ignorant.

"What?" Lin Meilin asked while lifting the lid of the pot, releasing a spicy fragrance that was enough to raise Yang Ze's appetite.

"You didn't sleep?" Yang Ze, who was about to blame her, swallowed back his words before asking in a gentle voice.

"No." Lin Meilin simply shook her head in response before pouring the freshly cooked stew into a bowl and handing it over to Yang Ze.

"Young hero must have been tired after running around for so long and helping us out. I just thought I should let you rest."

"I..."

"I see." With a nod, Yang Ze began to eat the stew. But it wasn't until he half emptied the bowl that he noticed something was off.

"Wait... Where is your third uncle?" The two of them have been sitting there for quite a while, but he hadn't seen the man anywhere. It was as if he had vanished out of thin air.

"Oh, he left to get some more supplies. Because you are going to accompany me to the Tianxu trade zone, he didn't have to worry about my safety."

"Which was why he decided to head back home and bring some more items."

"..." Her words merely made Yang Ze's body stiffen. He was absolutely sure that the man was just a mortal. For him to disappear so suddenly... it could only mean one thing. He was dead.

He didn't dare to think too much about him or ask any questions. He merely nodded in response before adding a remark.

"Your third uncle is awfully trusting of me." Swallowing a mouthful of stew, Yang Ze hesitated for a moment before deciding to speak further.

"Isn't he afraid that I will take advantage of you?"

"Advantage of me?" Lin Meilin merely furrowed her brows in confusion.

"Like how? Taking these herbs for yourself?"

This time, she was truly confused. At the moment, she was acting as a pitiful mortal who couldn't cultivate. The only thing she had of value was these low-grade herbs, but she doubted that Yang Ze needed any of them. But if it wasn't the herbs, what even was he talking about? Was he this desperate for money?

"Taking advantage of you like..." Yang Ze didn't speak but merely glanced at her ample bosoms.

"..." It was only now that Lin Meilin truly realised what he was talking about, and for a moment, she couldn't even reply.

"Hah...." It wasn't until a few more moments passed that her lips parted as she let out a gentle laugh.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHA"

The entire grassland seemed to be filled with Lin Meilin's charming laughter as she held her stomach while wiping the tears from the corner of her eyes.

Yang Ze could only look at her in confusion, wondering why she was laughing about such a serious matter.

"Young master is really funny." After laughing for a good five minutes, Lin Meilin finally controlled her laughter before speaking in a hoarse voice.

"Shouldn't it be the opposite?" Her watery eyes glanced at Yang Ze with interest.

"Shouldn't you be afraid that without my third uncle, I will make a move on you?"

"...." It was only now that Yang Ze remembered what kind of world he was in.

'What a rookie mistake.' Cursing in his mind, he simply averted his gaze from Lin Meilin, as if embarrassed by whatever she said. He had almost forgotten that this world was ruled by women, not men.

"How interesting." The more Lin Meilin interacted with him, the more peculiar she found him to be. His way of thinking, his way of talking... everything about him was just so different that even she, who had lived for god knows how long, found it interesting.

Ignoring her remarks, Yagn Ze finished the stew and, after smacking his lips in aftertaste, looked around.

"Shall we head on our way?" If not for Lin Meilin, who knows how far he would have travelled by himself? He just wanted to reach his destination as soon as possible and evolve his Spiritwing.

"Sure, just give me a minute." With a nod, Lin Meilin cleaned the area around her before jumping on the carriage, but unlike before, she wasn't inside the carriage, but on the driver's seat.

"Let's go, young master. Allow this humble woman to be your driver."

Yang Ze merely cast a look at her before jumping up and directly sitting beside her.

Instead of sitting inside that cramped space, it was much better to just sit outside and enjoy the fresh air and scenery around him.

"Eh!" Lin Meilin obviously wasn't expecting him to sit beside her. For a moment, her body stiffened, unsure of how to act, but she soon got back to normal.

"Let's go." Without wasting another second, she pulled the reins and commanded the horses to run.

In less than five seconds, the carriage was travelling at a rapid pace, no less than the cars Yang Ze used to travel in his previous life. Though there were innumerable bumps in the road, their effects were negligible to someone like him.

Feeling the wind on his face, he merely closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

The smell of grass, the smell of dirt and the intoxicating fragrance of flowers from Lin Meilin's body was enough to put him in a trance.

The two of them just sat in silence for a while when Lin Meilin suddenly broke the silence.

"Young hero never told me about his family."

"If you don't mind me asking..." Lin Meilin hesitated for a moment before completing her sentence, "What's your family like?"

"Huh!?" Yang Ze was taken aback by this sudden question. For a moment, he didn't know how to respond. Should he make up a family, or should he just answer honestly? But thinking about it, did any of it make any difference? For the current him, even his story from Earth was something that sounded made up. In that case, what was the use of making up a new story?

"....."

Lin Meilin too noticed the changes in Yang Ze's expressions when she asked about his family, and for a moment, a smile ran across her lips.

She had interrogated him about his past when she first saw him with her daughter and Lin Wan. And her searches about his true identity and his past only intensified after the events of Blue Faced Tribe.

It wouldn't be a lie to say that in this world, perhaps she was the only person who knew almost everything about Yang Ze.

"My family..." Yang Ze's eyes seemed to be in a daze as events on Earth flashed past his eyes.

"Nothing too special." Muttering to himself, he spoke further. "Just a loving father, a loving mother and a younger sister."

"These people were all I had."

"Oh!?" Lin Meilin merely raised an eyebrow. It was completely different from what she had uncovered, but she didn't interrupt him.

"Mmm..." Yang Ze merely nodded in response.

"Where are they now?" Lin Meilin didn't seem to be willing to give up.

"...." Yang Ze's breathing paused for a moment as he exhaled a mouthful of air before uttering a single word.

"Dead."

Lin Meilin's lips twitched as she listened to his words.

She knew that the brat had a family. He had a father, a mother, but no sister.

Instead, a younger brother.

His family lives in a small village far away from Yuyang City, in a completely obscure place, and because of their poor living conditions, they sold their sons to a wealthy woman.

On their way, their carriage was attacked by a demonic beast, and the two brothers managed to escape.

Though the younger brother died shortly after due to poison, the elder brother somehow managed to successfully reach Yuyang City and start a new life.

After constantly doing odd jobs, he finally managed to live a peaceful life, but unfortunately for him, this small peace of his didn't last long.

After some time, he fell in love with one of the women there, who took advantage of his naivety to trick him into taking a loan from the gang and then kept on exploiting him till he was sold to the Lin family.

Lin Meilin, of course, wouldn't tell him anything about it, and neither was Yang Ze interested in knowing the history of the current body. He had nothing to do with this body's parents or family. To him, they were completely strangers, no different than any random person he met on the road.

"If you don't mind me asking... how did they die?" Lin Meilin didn't ask him because she was interested in his sob story. She wanted to see how his mind works. She wanted to have a basic understanding of his way of thinking, so she could make appropriate plans for the future.

"Died in bandits' attacks." Yang Ze was, of course, not willing to share more information about himself.

"Enough about me..." It was at this moment that he decided to change the topic.

"Why don't you tell me about yourself now?"

"What kind of family do you have? How do you live, and your future plans?"

Just like Lin Meilin, Yang Ze too wanted to know how this woman's mind works, though he wasn't confident whether he could see through her.

But it didn't prevent him from trying out.

"Me?" Lin Meilin was obviously not expecting him to ask about her. She thought for a moment before a smile ran across her face and her charming eyes narrowed into slits as she slowly began to speak...

"Just like yours, I too come from a rather ordinary family."

"I have a father, a mother, three uncles and aunts and a bunch of siblings."

"But unlike you, I don't have a sister."

"And in our entire family, not a single person has talent for cultivation, so we could only focus on trading."

"And of course..." With a meaningful smile, she gazed deeply at Yang Ze.

"They are all alive."

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