Chapter 45 As long as the bad guys are killed, the System won't be separated from milk

Upon hearing that shrill and grating voice, Jiang Zhiming initially merely muttered his displeasure under his breath, but the disgust instantly and clearly manifested on his face.

However, the words that blurted out of his mouth...

Seeing her youngest son's expression, Lin Ya inwardly cursed, but before she could react, the words had already rushed out of his mouth.

"I hadn't noticed it before, but the way you look right now is cut from the exact same cloth as Uncle Lai from the east end of the village. Your chin is sharp and thin, your eyes slant to the side, you love picking your nose all day long, and you don't even take a bath for days on end! If you want to find someone to adopt you, you should go look for him. I guarantee anyone who sees the two of you together would think you were born of his flesh and blood, and maybe—"

Before Jiang Zhiming could finish, Lin Ya was quick of eye and deft of hand, clapping a hand over his mouth. With a face full of apologies, she looked toward the doorway at Liu Jinhua, whose expression was a mix of hurt and embarrassment: "Auntie Jinhua, I am truly sorry! Xiao Ming was just upset because someone was talking trash about his little sister, so he spoke without thinking. Once I change his clothes, I'll bring him right over to apologize to you!"

With that, she grabbed her youngest son and pulled him toward the house.

Nearby, Jiang Zhien had been overjoyed at the prospect of following his third uncle up the mountain to learn some skills, but was currently burning with anger after being disrupted by Liu Muli. Seeing his mother covering his younger brother's mouth and not letting him finish, he couldn't help muttering softly, "What younger brother said is right anyway! It was already—"

"Shut up!" Lin Ya's usually gentle face suddenly darkened as she scolded in a low voice, "You come inside with me too!"

Jiang Xiahxian looked cautiously at a somewhat angry Lin Ya and asked timidly, "Auntie, did older brother say something wrong?"

Watching the little girl twist her fingers in a nervous and uneasy manner, Jiang Zhiqing walked over to Lin Ya and asked in a soft, gentle voice, "Does Little Sister mean that if Mother thinks Older Brother is wrong, it means San Ya is right?"

"My name is not San Ya!" Liu Muli completely broke down, tearing at the top of her lungs, kicking her legs wildly on the ground, and screaming that she was not San Ya.

Yet, the members of the second branch completely ignored her.

The three children simply gazed wistfully at Lin Ya.

Lin Ya's eyelids twitched uncontrollably as she hesitated and said, "Well... what Xiao Er said does have a bit of truth to it, it's just that he was a bit too blunt!"

Liu Muli stared straight at Lin Ya, her eyes filled with sheer disbelief. How could the woman who used to be so amiable toward her suddenly seem like a completely different person?

Could it be because of that little wild seed?

That delicate little face of Liu Muli's now bore a sullenness and resentment entirely unsuited to her age. Educated Youth Kou had said that she was destined to be the granddaughter of the Lao Jiang family. Even if she couldn't be the eldest branch's daughter, becoming the third branch's daughter would work just fine.

Her eyes darted around as she schemed in her heart, her gaze falling upon Jiang Jing, who was leaning against the door frame chatting with Wang Lianjun. Liu Muli abruptly scrambled up from the ground, patted her rear, and scampered at a run toward Jiang Jing.

Mimicking Jiang Xiahxia's manner, she reached out as if to take Jiang Jing's hand, but Jiang Jing recoiled as if struck by lightning.

With a face full of grievance, looking at the expression of disgust Jiang Jing directed at her, Liu Muli turned down the corners of her mouth and said, "Why are you still disgusted with me? I'm going to be your only daughter in the future!"

Wang Lianjun stood nearby, dumbfounded, thinking this child must have something wrong with her head. But no matter what, she was still just a child of over a dozen years old.

If an adult had uttered such words, the Lao Jiang family definitely wouldn't let her run wild here.

Yet she was, after all, just a little girl who had already been disciplined before, and yet she kept throwing herself at the Lao Jiang family.

Wang Lianjun couldn't help asking, "Little girl, how do you know you'll be Jiang Jing's only daughter in the future?"

"Because he's a soldier! Soldiers die easily! I'm letting him adopt me now! Once he sacrifices his life, won't I be his only daughter left?"

As soon as those words left her mouth, Jiang Xiahxia instantly flew into a rage. With a single bound, she lunged forward and pinned Liu Muli directly beneath her, her small fists clenched tight, her little face as cold as frost, staring fixedly at Liu Muli: "Apologize! Uncle, won't die!"

Liu Muli's face flushed crimson with shame and vexation.

To think she was actually pinned beneath a younger girl who was also a wild seed—this was nothing short of ultimate humiliation.

"You money-losing little wretch, get off me!" Liu Muli cursed loudly while struggling desperately, but no matter how hard she tried, Jiang Xiahxia remained as immovable as a small mountain.

Liu Muli stiffened her neck, her face plastered with utter defiance. No matter how fiercely Jiang Xiahxia glared at her, she was dead set against apologizing.

That impervious, brazen, and arrogant attitude seemed to provoke Jiang Xiahxia, completely igniting the long-suppressed anger in her heart.

In an instant, the usually obedient and endearing Jiang Xiahxia seemed as though some mysterious switch had been flipped, and the aura around her shifted abruptly.

In her originally sparkling and clear eyes, the gaze turned so piercingly cold that it felt capable of freezing a person solid.

This sudden shift in atmosphere was so intense that it instantly froze Jiang Jing and Wang Lianjun, fixing the expressions on their faces and filling their eyes with astonishment.

Not far away, Jiang Hua and Jiang Zhuguo were likewise struck as if by an invisible current, their expressions instantly turning grave.

At that very moment, they genuinely felt a bone-chilling killing intent radiating from Jiang Xiahxia.

How old was she? Even if she had previously been locked up by enemy agents, where on earth did this aura of murder—as if returning from slaughter on a battlefield and having survived life and death—come from?

Filled with doubt and shock, the crowd stared blankly at this seemingly sudden stranger that Jiang Xiahxia had become, and for a moment, no one could utter a single word.

Lin Ya couldn't perceive the killing intent; she only felt as though Jiang Xiahxia had transformed into a completely different person.

It made her instinctively pull the three children into her embrace, her hands trembling slightly.

As for Liu Jinhua, clutching her rapidly pounding chest, she was so angered by Liu Muli's words that her limbs weakened and she slid down to lean limply against the wall, not even daring to raise her head to look at the Lao Jiang family, let alone notice the change in Jiang Xiahxia.

Liu Muli was the person closest to Jiang Xiahxia, bearing the brunt of this drastic transformation without any buffer.

A second ago, she had been stiffening her neck, filled with anger and disgust, her heart brimming with disdain for Jiang Xiahxia.

Yet the next second, as the aura around Jiang Xiahxia shifted abruptly, that biting killing intent surged toward her without reservation, wrapping her tightly like an icy, bone-chilling, tangible frost.

Her eyes bulged wide, terror churning within them, and all the color drained from her face, leaving it as pale as paper.

Though she had been fiercely biting her teeth, refusing to give in or apologize, her jaws now uncontrollably rattled up and down, clacking loudly.

Jiang Xiahxia, however, had lost her patience. She seemed to recall that during the end times, her grandmother's family members had vanished one after another, and then someone told her grandmother that all her family members were dead. Her grandmother's smile slowly faded, and then her grandmother went off to find her grandfather and uncle.

And after that—

Was the grandmother she had searched for so long going to vanish again as well?

Her vision was completely engulfed by darkness. Jiang Xiahxia could no longer hear the breathing of those around her, nor could she feel their gazes upon her. There was only a single thought in her mind: as long as Liu Muli died, her words wouldn't count, her uncle wouldn't be in danger, her grandmother wouldn't be saddened and disappear, and the family could stay together.

With this thought, Jiang Xiahxia's hands suddenly closed around Liu Muli's neck—