“Little Jasmine, what are you doing?”

Mustering her courage, Mu Nanyan walked up to Little Jasmine and asked in a soft, gentle voice as warm as sunshine.

“Don’t call me that.” Liya looked thoroughly disgusted, but didn’t stop what she was doing. “Can’t you tell? I’m digging your grave.”

Liya said it so casually that Mu Nanyan’s face turned deathly pale in an instant.

“If the antidote doesn’t work, you can just be buried here.”

Liya raised her dirt-smudged little face and glared fiercely at Mu Nanyan.

“Ahaha… But Liya, shouldn’t you be looking for the herbs I asked for instead of digging a hole here…?”

Mu Nanyan gave an awkward laugh. She really did feel like the number one person in another world to make a fool of herself for nothing.

“I don’t need to do it myself. The herbs will be back soon. Just wait quietly.”

Liya replied without even looking up. As soon as she finished speaking, a shadow slowly emerged beside her feet.

A figure made entirely of darkness placed an herb with a bitter scent beside Liya’s feet. It bowed slightly, then disappeared back into her shadow.

“A shadow? This girl can summon servants from the darkness?”

Mu Nanyan was a little surprised. The original novel hadn’t said much about Liya’s abilities.

Although she was the Demon Emperor’s daughter, she was mostly just a tool for Long Aotian. The original novel focused far more on her pretty, cute, empty-headed-doll qualities. Her abilities were always glossed over in just a few words.

Now that she thought about it, could her ability be…

Mu Nanyan wasn’t sure. After all, that part of the story came much later. But later meant powerful—and useful.

It was like a game: if you found a boss-level item in the newbie village, wouldn’t that give you an overwhelming advantage there?

So that was it—a Blood Clan hybrid… Could she be the legendary Blood Princess? Who’d have thought the person Long Aotian spent over a hundred chapters searching for later on was right here?

But Mu Nanyan still couldn’t be sure. Just because Liya could use magic to control shadows didn’t mean she was the person Mu Nanyan had in mind.

“I’ll have to keep watching. Things are starting to get interesting.”

Mu Nanyan murmured to herself, then a sudden, out-of-place rumbling sound interrupted her thoughts.

Liya gripped the shovel. Her expression shifted slightly, and she began digging even faster.

“Ah? Liya…”

“What!?”

Liya’s ill-tempered reply startled Mu Nanyan. The words she’d been about to say got swallowed right back down.

“N-no, it’s nothing. Could you maybe make my grave a little roomier?”

What an honest little girl. Oh well. I am your mother by design, after all. In that case, I’ll do a little something to protect my sweet daughter’s pride.

“…”

Liya didn’t answer. She kept digging, completely absorbed in the task.

Mu Nanyan sighed. It was true: ever since the Demon Emperor had fallen, the entire Demon Clan had been on edge.

Liya might be an independent girl, but she was still just a child. The Demon Emperor’s fall had kept her worried and frightened all day. She probably hadn’t eaten a thing.

A child can’t just go without food!

Mu Nanyan looked around. The little courtyard had only one room, but it did have a stove. It hadn’t been used in so long that it was covered in dust.

Mu Nanyan thought for a moment, as if she’d just had an idea. Then she hurried over to the stove and started tidying it up with practiced ease.

From a distance, Liya watched Mu Nanyan briskly wiping down the stove and couldn’t help frowning.

“This woman can do housework? Isn’t that something only the lowest-ranking maids do?”

“Well, whatever. This works out. I can have her brew the medicine herself later, so I won’t have to go back and get a maid to help.”

Liya watched Mu Nanyan’s busy figure. Strangely, Mu Nanyan didn’t reach for the herbs that had already been prepared. Instead, she rummaged through a cupboard and pulled out a bag of red beans.

A hint of delight appeared on her face as she carefully picked out the moldy beans, one by one. She tossed all the small, shriveled ones, too.

Only the plumpest beans remained.

Liya had no idea what she was trying to do. But Mu Nanyan wasn’t trying to get herself killed or fight back, so Liya let her be.

Before long, smoke began rising from the stove’s chimney.

The herbs were ready, too. Before Liya could even prompt her, Mu Nanyan had already placed them on the prepared little clay stove.

The poisonous herbs bubbled away in the pot, giving off an extremely pungent smell. Mu Nanyan put it out in the courtyard; if she left it in the room, no one would be able to sleep there tonight.

But that left Liya stuck in the courtyard, where the foul smell made her cough uncontrollably.

She really didn’t want to, but to spare her nose, Liya finally dropped her shovel and went inside to take shelter for a while.

The smell inside was completely different from the one in the courtyard. The moment Liya stepped in, she caught a peculiar, sweet aroma.

“Huh!?”

The scent stirred memories that had long been buried in her mind—memories so hazy they were almost impossible to grasp…

Liya had been taken in by the Demon Clan when she was five. By then, she was already old enough to remember things.

A long time had passed, but she still remembered the little courtyard from her childhood, and her parents laughing and chatting together every day.

But no matter how hard Liya tried to remember, everything seemed veiled in a layer of mist.

She couldn’t clearly recall what her mother or father looked like. She only knew that her father was stern but loving, and that her mother was gentle, with eyes always fixed on her.

Her father was tall and strong, and he could lift Liya high into the air. It had felt as if she could reach up and touch the sky.

Her mother was kind and beautiful, as gentle as an angel.

And then there were the meals they had every night. They smelled wonderful. In Liya’s memory, they were the best food in the world. She’d tasted all kinds of delicacies in the Demon Clan, but none could compare to those simple home-cooked meals.

Especially the treats her mother made by hand. Their aroma alone could draw Liya home, even when she was so absorbed in playing with mud outside that her mother didn’t even have to call her.

Liya had thought she’d never smell that scent again.

Then Mu Nanyan opened the steamer and brought out a plate of snowy-white glutinous rice balls. The clean fragrance of the rice mingled with the sweetness of red beans.

They were Liya’s favorite red bean glutinous rice balls!

“You’re back? Look at how dirty your face is. Go wash your hands and have a snack.”

A veil of steam blurred Mu Nanyan’s figure. For a moment, Liya thought she was seeing the scene she most longed to see again.

The haze in her memories was just like the steam before her. Then, all at once, everything became clear: Mu Nanyan was walking toward her through the mist, her beautiful face filled with warmth and gentleness…

“Mom…”

The word slipped out before Liya even realized it…