Hmm, who could be knocking at my door? Ah, right, my sister.
Shao Mingzhu got up from his bed and took out a pair of red slippers from underneath the bed and put them on. He then made sure his shirt was buttoned on completely and fixed his collar a bit and glanced at the mirror on his desk that he left propped up against the wall.
Hmm, everything is fine, I think. I should just talk to her casually, as my speech patterns should've merged with Shao Mingzhu. She might find something odd, but that's it.
Shao Mingzhu mind checked off an invisible list in his head, and nodded his head when everything was fine, and slowly made his way to the scratched up dark oak door.
When he arrived, he comforted himself silently in his head, and his hand touched the cool metal door nob and twisted it. With a slight yank with his right arm, the door creaked open and a beautiful woman appeared outside the door.
"Hey, what took you so long to open the door?" Shao Yunlu said, walking into his room, bypassing him.
"Huh, you're a lot cleaner today, did something happen?" Shao Yunlu said, as her eyes scanned the room and fell onto his table, revealing a hint of surprise in her eyes.
"Hmm, not much." Shao Mingzhu said, "I just overworked myself a little."
Shao Yunlu nodded, and walked towards his desk and sat on his chair.
"Have you figured it out yet brother? Although this is your first ever job and might even secure a permanent position in the Church of Light, your health and body is much more important. You don't need to push yourself too hard; after all, I am an alchemist and can support me and you." Shao Yunlu said, and took a look at the paper on his desk.
"Sister, you might be an alchemist, but you're nearly a Tier One Fire alchemist which makes little money." Shao Mingzhu said, and with quick steps, he made his way towards his desk where his sister was and grabbed the papers and shoved them into one of the top drawers alongside the mirror.
"What, got any secrets on those papers?" Shao Yunlu said with a hint of surprise in her voice, not expecting her brother to act so rashly.
"Or do you have any smut on the papers?" She said with a sly smile on her face. "I can introduce you to one of my friends. She is a beautiful girl who is turning twenty one this year, and she is a genius at alchemy."
Saying that, she put her index finger on her chin and wiggled it slightly, "Now I think of it, you're not worthy of my junior sister right now."
Shao Mingzhu lips twitched, and hurried to make distance between the two of them. He still had some fear of her finding out that his heart was missing.
"Sister, stop joking. I need to focus on my career first. If everything goes well, I can at least live for another one hundred years."
Shao Yunlu rolled her eyes and rested her feet against his desk.
"You're so optimistic about your future cultivation? Brother, you're still a Tier One Runesmith at the age of twenty three with no signs of improvements. It's well known that it's nearly impossible for a Rune Master to improve in cultivation, as it requires knowledge beyond our understanding. I really don't know why you picked this profession. Although you theoretically use any professional skills, you'd have to learn them first, and you have zero talent in any of them."
Shao Mingzhu sat on his bed as he listened to his sister rambling. She was right, the highest Rune master in the current empire is a Tier Four Runesweeper. The path of a Rune master is extremely dangerous as the Heavenly Dao has been destroyed, meaning they can only begin to understand things outside of the heavens which will cause backlash.
If it was tens of thousands of years ago, Shao Mingzhu's choice would be correct, but with the fall of the universe and the disappearance of Heaven, it became almost impossible for one to improve their cultivation.
When one breaks through to a higher tier, your life span would increase by ten percent, meaning with his current lifespan, he'd have to reach Tier Seven to live for over a hundred extra years.
"Don't underestimate your brother, ok. I will get this permanent employment in the next couple of weeks, alright." Shao Mingzhu said, and hunched back onto the wall that his bed was against.
Shao Yunlu dropped the topic and her nose sniffed slightly like a dog, and her attention turned to Shao Mingzhu's neck.
"What's with the smell of medicine doing in your room?"
Shao Mingzhu's face froze, and his face stiffly turned to face his sister. He didn't expect her to walk the path of the dog, not an alchemist.
"Huh, what do you mean? I don't smell anything. Could it be that your nose hasn't adjusted yet after coming home?" Shao Mingzhu said, trying to play it off calmly, but the sweat that trickled down his palms said otherwise.
Shao Yunlu didn't respond, and she sniffed the air lightly with her nose and her eyes turned to one of the drawers where he put the leftover ointments. She waved her hand in the air, trying to stir up the remaining smell into her nose, causing her eyes to narrow in on the drawer and with confidence, yanked the drawer open.
With a light snort, Shao Yunlu grabbed the bottle that Shao Mingzhu used to treat his neck and sniffed it. Her face wrinkled slightly and shifted her attention back onto Shao Mingzhu.
"Brother, why is this ointment that I gave you for bruising opened?" She asked, and voice sounded commanding.
Shao Mingzhu coughed slightly and fixed his collar out of guilt and straightened his back.
"I fell yesterday and hurt my knee, so I used some of the ointments to heal it. It's done a good job so far sis, your skills as an alchemist have improved tremendously over the past couple of years. It won't take long for you to become a Tier Two Refinement Alchemist, by then, you can truly support me and you!"
Shao Yunlu gave Shao Mingzhu a half smile and got up from the chair and slowly walked towards her brother with her brows raised.
"Oh my dearest brother. You're really a terrible liar, do you know that? The more you speak, the more I just want to find out the truth." She said with a smile, but in Shao Mingzhu's eyes, it was that of a devil.
It's not that he didn't like her smile or the fact that she cared for him, but he currently has a giant gapping hole in his chest and didn't want his sister to find out and cause troubles. After all, who can live without a heart? Maybe she'd think he was possessed by some creature, ending his days as a transmigrator.
"Haha, sister, you're over thinking it." Shao Mingzhu said with a gulp.
Please stop and don't come over. Please stop and don't come over! Shao Mingzhu screamed in his mind, but sadly his pleas were not listened to. The heavens don't even exist now, so his pleas were useless to begin with.
Shao Yunlu made a small humph noise and pulled down a bit of Shao Mingzhu's collar to see a bunch of bruising around his neck.
"You-!"
Shao Yunlu's face turned ghostly white, and took a step back as her eyes turned red as it glistened with tears.
"You! What happened to you?" Shao Yunlu said, her voice slightly choked.
You wouldn't believe it if I told you what I currently know. Well, I guess I actually know nothing? Honesty is the best policy. Although I don't have to tell her about my death and transmigration, saying that I don't remember anything when I woke up is fine.
"I don't know, I just woke up with bruises around my neck and I'm also missing a piece of paper that I'm blanking on." Shao Mingzhu said with a sigh.
Shao Yunlu's face puffed up, obviously not believing his words.
"I'm telling the truth," Shao Mingzhu said, waving his hand around in defeat. "I genuinely do not remember. Just know that piece of paper should be something important. In fact, I don't even remember the past two weeks."
Shao Mingzhu confessed, and didn't hide much. To be honest, he had a small plan brewing in his heart. Since he didn't remember much from the past two weeks, perhaps she does. They do live together in this apartment together, and she always loves to come into his room and check in on him. Ever since she was a child, she loved to act like an older sister, but since their parents passed away and didn't have another child, she could only act like an older sister to him.
The years of being tormented by his "elder sister" might just pay off today.
I praise you, Shao Mingzhu. Me, Lan Yuan, would never scum to becoming the youngest child. Shao Mingzhu commented, and took a look into his sister's eyes as she pondered.
"Are you telling the truth?" She asked, whipping away some of the tears that dripped from her eyes to her cheek.
"I'm not lying," Shao Mingzhu said softly as he saw her calm down. "I don't remember much about my current job and what I have been doing. I only have the papers on the table that I put away as my current information. If you recall anything, please do tell."
Shao Yunlu was stunned for a moment, and her eyes darted to his neck and spoke, "First, let me get you some better ointment for your neck, then we'll talk."
Shao Mingzhu nodded and said, "Ok, I'll wait here."
Shao Yunlu sniffled a little and booked it out of his room, slamming the door behind her.