"Come out, stop hiding. I know you're behind me." Zhou Ye tapped the table, signaling Jin Shuo, who was still acting crazy, to quiet down. Hearing Zhou Ye say this, he indeed quieted down.

Was Lin Yiran eavesdropping in the back?

What's the point of his mental abilities? He doesn't even know when someone is approaching? Jin Shuo felt like he'd wasted all these years of his life, he'd lost even this basic level of vigilance.

Lin Yiran sighed and slowly walked out from the stairwell, where there was a wall, just the right size for her to hide and eavesdrop without being discovered.

But she overlooked one problem.

The two people opposite have mental abilities, so it's easy for them to spot someone eavesdropping anytime, anywhere.

See, the secret couldn't be kept, it's been exposed now.

She walked out somewhat awkwardly, trying to smooth things over by acting nonchalant or changing the subject with a happier topic. Unfortunately, the two people opposite her were shrewd and had already crossed their arms and were leaning back in their chairs, waiting for her to confess.

Lin Yiran didn't know how to start the conversation.

Zhou Ye: "Are we brothers? If so, just say it!"

Lin Yiran weakly replied, "No."

"...They are sisters. I am a woman, so I cannot address you as brothers."

Jin Shuo asked Zhou Ye in confusion, "Shouldn't they be siblings? You two are both wrong?"

It would have been better if he hadn't said anything, but once he did, the situation became incredibly awkward.

Well, Lin Yiran just wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear!

Zhou Ye: "Come here. Talking about that is useless. Be honest and tell me what you plan to do in the future?"

Lin Yiran sighed and said, "This is my own business, I can handle it, you..."

Jin Shuo interjected at the opportune moment: "Hey you! Don't you consider us one of your own? We saved you, after all. We risked our lives to go into the Forest of Hope to find you. We've been through thick and thin together, Lin Yiran," he angrily pretended to slam his hand on the table: "Is this how you treat us?"

"It's one thing to not treat us like family, but now that such a big thing has happened, you still don't trust us?"

"Wasn't the person who kidnapped you last time your dean?"

"She tried to kill you yesterday, and she'll have someone else kill you again. You managed to dodge it once, but can you guarantee you can dodge it next time?"

“Lin Yiran, this is no joke. You can’t always solve all the problems by yourself. A person is vulnerable and easily taken advantage of, just like…”

"Just like Zhou Ye! Last time he was ambushed, if it weren't for you dragging him back from the Forest of Hope, he would have been devoured by mutated plants and animals long ago, leaving not even a bone! He is a cautionary tale; you can't learn from him, or you'll end up learning nothing good!"

He spoke with righteous indignation, but he didn't notice that Zhou Ye's eyes were almost blinded by his glare, and he couldn't stop him from continuing to ramble on.

Fine, for Lin Yiran's sake, I'll reluctantly become a negative example this time.

Zhou Ye withdrew his gaze.

Lin Yiran sighed after hearing this, unsure of what to say.

She considered going directly to their door, but she was also afraid that this might be a conspiracy between the Lin family and the dean. What if the Lin family didn't want a useless young lady without any spiritual power at all?

She used the pretext of wanting to find out the truth.

It seems I've been avoiding the truth all along, unwilling to face it. Today, Jin Shuo's words stirred up all my emotions, leaving me with a sour feeling in my chest and a general discomfort.

Fortunately, she didn't feel much of a sensation.

It seems that whether or not I go back doesn't matter.

Because she is not Lin Yiran; she is an outsider soul who took over this body and became Lin Yiran.

But she was never Lin Yiran, and she didn't have any special feelings for the Lin family.

She had only one obsession, an obsession she had sworn to take responsibility for the original owner of the body from the very beginning.

The goal is to reveal the original owner's identity to the world, to let her leave with a clear conscience, instead of being denied recognition, beaten up, and dying alone in that garbage dump, with all her hopes extinguished by an acid rain.

She vaguely remembered that the system had shown her a clip.

A little girl in a tutu hugged a doll and stayed on a vast, desolate battlefield, surrounded by all sorts of plants and the corpses of soldiers. She stayed there for an entire night.

She didn't dare cry all night, suppressing her sobs as she tightly clutched the doll in her hands, watching all sorts of ferocious beasts come to hunt for food, tearing apart the corpses of those mutated beasts right in front of her, their blood splattering onto her face.

She was lucky enough to survive that night, and then the next morning she was detected by a garbage truck that came to collect the trash. They put her and the teddy bear she was holding into the garbage truck as trash. They were then discovered by a garbage-collecting robot and sent to a cargo starship bound for the Ninth Star System.

When she woke up again, she no longer had her doll and was walking alone on the steel city streets.

Lin Yiran just felt that the original owner of this body shouldn't have been treated like this.

Therefore, she should reveal the original owner's identity to the world; she will have to go back sooner or later.

Jin Shuo watched Lin Yiran's ever-changing expression and couldn't understand it: "No? Is it so hard to let you go back? The Lin family is so great! You can enjoy endless wealth and luxury, have money to spend, and gourmet food to eat, and have people to serve you. Why don't you want to? Isn't that better than you struggling here to earn a few million star coins?"

Zhou Ye kicked him: "Don't talk like that!"

Jin Shuo shut up.

The real Lin Yiran said: This is really not her fault. It's the system's doing. Actually, she would rather be a mercenary or a mecha warrior or something. That would be so cool! Fighting all day, beating people up, PK-ing with people whenever she wants, and then going to the front lines to kill mutated plants and animals, doing her part for the Federation. That's what she really wants to do.

Just like before the apocalypse, she had always wanted to join the army. Unfortunately, the world went into chaos, and she barely managed to find a shelter after struggling through the chaos.

In short: Lin Yiran will always value martial prowess and will always treat improving her martial prowess as the most important thing in her life!

However, it's also possible to do both without interfering with each other.

This is Lin Yiran's current situation.

It's not perfect, but it's not bad either.

As for returning to the Lin family now, she really hadn't thought about it.

"I'd like to reconsider returning to the Lin family, at least until I figure out exactly how the genetic testing went wrong." After thinking it through, Lin Yiran calmly said this.

After understanding Lin Yiran's concerns, Jin Shuo actually understood her a little: "No, I really don't understand either. You know, the Lin family controls such a large medical company, and one of their businesses is genetic testing. I never thought that their own daughter could make a mistake in genetic testing?"

"What's this for?"