He slowly dragged his hand down from her hair, his knuckles brushing lightly against her cheek, leaving a trail of scorching heat in their wake.

"...what has replaced her is the most breathtaking, fierce, magnificent little creature I have ever seen."

Ji’an’s eyes widened in shock.

’He... he doesn’t care?!’ Her brain short-circuited completely. ’He knows I’m a transmigrator, or at least a different soul, and he’s completely fine with it?! He’s not mourning his sister! Rather, he’s... he’s just fascinated by my existence?! Is that it? Does the original owner amount to so little to him?’

The sheer deviance of the male leads in this novel was actively destroying her sanity.

She expected a war, expected tears and accusations.

But she didn’t expect the supposedly righteous, upright Vanguard Commander to look at an imposter possessing his sister’s body and decide, ’Yes, I will keep this one.’

Lin Feng pulled back slightly, his lips curling into a slow, devastatingly handsome, and terrifying smile.

"Don’t worry about playing the part, my little bird," Lin Feng murmured, stepping back and gesturing toward the stone bench. "You don’t need to hide your true nature from me. Now, sit down. We have years of ’brotherly’ catching up to do, and I want to hear exactly how you managed to terrorise the Second Prince."

Ji’an stood frozen.

She looked at the stone bench, then at the towering Vanguard Commander who was currently pouring two cups of tea with the calm serenity of a man who had just successfully trapped his prey.

’I am doomed,’ Ji’an realised, a profound, existential despair washing over her.

"I hate this family," Ji’an muttered under her breath, trudging toward the bench with the heavy, dragging footsteps of a prisoner walking to the executioner’s block.

"I love you too, little bird," Lin Feng chuckled warmly, handing her a teacup.

As the moonlight reflected off the serene lotus lake, Ji’an sipped her tea, hopelessly trapped in a ’brotherly conversation’ that felt more like a high-stakes interrogation.

The imperial capital was proving to be infinitely more dangerous than any dungeon, and her "vacation" had officially become a fight for survival against the most formidable opponent yet: a family member who refused to let her go.

But then again...

Did he really not... feel anything?

Was he really that cold-hearted towards the only sister he had?

.

.

.

The quiet isolation of the moonlit lotus pavilion, initially a sanctuary from the deafening applause of the Imperial Banquet, had now transformed into a psychological pressure cooker.

Lin Ji’an sat rigidly on the cold, carved jade bench, her hands wrapped so tightly around her porcelain teacup that her knuckles were entirely white.

The fragrant steam rising from the pale green tea did absolutely nothing to soothe the chaotic storm of emotions currently ravaging her mind.

Across the round stone table, Vanguard Commander Lin Feng sat with the relaxed, sprawling grace of an apex predator entirely at peace in its territory.

He was casually swirling the tea in his cup, his dark, silver-flecked eyes locked onto her with that heavy gaze.

He had just told her he didn’t care if she was a demon.

He didn’t care if she was a wandering spirit who had stolen his little sister’s body.

He had looked at the imposter wearing his sibling’s face and simply decided to lay his claim to the shiny, fierce new soul inhabiting it.

For a few minutes, Ji’an’s primary emotion had been sheer panic for her own survival.

But as the silence stretched, stretching thin and taut like a drawn bowstring, the panic slowly began to curdle.

It mutated, darkening into a hot, sharp, and incredibly bitter wave of resentment.

It wasn’t resentment for herself. It was resentment on behalf of the ghost that haunted the corners of her mind.

Ji’an’s enhanced memory flashed back to the phantom echo she had experienced in the courtyard.

She remembered the bleeding emotion of the seven-year-old girl with scraped knees in the gravel.

She remembered the desperate adoration the original host had felt for her eldest brother. Lin Feng had been her shield.

He had been her hero. He had been the only source of warmth in a toxic, abusive, freezing household that had actively tried to crush her spirit.

The original Lin Ji’an had waited for him.

She had endured the beatings from the Second Brother, the starvation from the Stepmother, and the absolute, crushing isolation, all while clinging to the desperate hope that her big brother would eventually return from the Northern Barrens to save her.

But the original girl hadn’t survived to see him return.

Her soul had faded, or shattered, or simply given up, leaving the vessel empty for a modern-day chef from Earth to transmigrate into.

And now, the hero had finally returned.

’And he doesn’t even care,’ Ji’an thought, her teeth grinding together so hard her jaw ached.

She stared at Lin Feng’s handsome, scarred face; the absolute betrayal of it all burned like acid in her chest.

If Lin Feng had drawn his sword and accused her of being a demon, Ji’an would have been terrified, but she would have respected him.

It would have meant he loved his sister enough to avenge her stolen body. It would have meant the original host’s long wait hadn’t been in vain.

Instead, he was sitting across from her, completely unbothered by the fact that the fragile, weeping child he had sworn to protect was gone.

He was fascinated by the "replacement," amused by the imposter.

’Was it all a lie?’ Ji’an’s internal monologue raged, her silver-flecked eyes narrowing into a fierce, hostile glare. ’Was his affection just a performance? Did he only care for her because she was pathetic and made him feel strong? And now that a "better," fiercer version is sitting in front of him, he just discards the memory of the girl who worshipped the ground he walked on? What a hypocrite. What an absolute, petty, bad guy!’

The sheer injustice of it made Ji’an’s blood boil.

Her Harmonious Five-Grain Qi, highly sensitive to her emotional state, began to subconsciously leak into the surrounding atmosphere, causing the surface of the tea in her cup to vibrate violently.

Across the table, Lin Feng paused mid-sip.

He lowered his cup, his dark eyes tracking the sudden, aggressive shift in her aura.