Chapter 0006

“Stupid girl! Stupid family! No wonder I end up possessing this body. With her pig brain and stubborn temperament, this body would have died sooner or later.”

Athena lamented the shortsightedness of the honest. Those who are too honest and simple minded will be taken advantage of eventually.

First, the engagement. Lisa spent a small sum raising Asalia future husband based on a promise. Guess what? People break their promises. If the Dugu family wasn’t in dire straits, they wouldn’t accept those conditions, and if they did, they could re-engage on the promise anytime. There nothing the Tourant family can do if the Dugu family up and split after living off them for a while.

The area where Lisa was living in followed a more patriarchal society. If a man breaks his engagement, he doesn’t suffer the consequences where as the female is label as unwanted. Furthermore, the woman can’t break the engagement set by the elders. The man can.

If Athena was there, then the situation would be different. Instead of an engagement where Lisa providing for the family is considered as Asalia’s dowry, Athena would write a debt contract, accounting for everything Lisa provided to the Dugu family. The debt will be voided if the two children married each other.

A debt contract gives the Tourant family more leverage and bargaining power than an engagement. Verbal promises are written on air. A debt contract is written in blood. The Dugu family can’t dispute the contract they signed.

Enforcing the contract when the family abscond with the money is another matter, but it at least doesn’t leave little Asalia in the ditch and destroying her future prospects.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The second issue Athena has with the whole situation is a designatory wedding. Having been raised in America, Athena has a modern and western ideology about marriage. There will be no child bride, or in this case, child wedding.

Just eewwww.

Goosebumps.

Rub arm vigorously.

This Dugu Shi Xiao should have known better. He should have just left with his master and forget everything about the Tourant family. Maybe this tragedy wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Athena placed all the blame on Dugu Shi Xiao, completely aware that Dugu Shi Xiao was a child himself when the designatory wedding took place.

Dugu Shi Xiao is a cultivator. He life span extends far beyond what mortals can imagine.

Athena lives by the Earth standard where 80 is a foot in the grave. Athena can barely see herself living to 80, much less the 500-year average lifespan of a cultivator. When Asalia is an old infirm granny at 200, Dugu Shi Xiao will look like a young man in his twenties. Asalia will only suffer as she watches herself age while Dugu Shi Xiao remains ever youthful.

Athena knows the situation quite well. The vampire genre is quite popular. The human vampire pairing is all the rage in mainstream romance novels. When she was at the asy… ahem, psych… ahem hospital, she did nothing but read. Hard to try and commit suicide with a book.

Anyways, immortal and mortal pairing ends when they get together. Most authors don’t extend the story, or they make the human turn into a vampire. Otherwise, father time will corrode the youth and vital of one side while the other watch in misery.

In Athena’s opinion and her opinion is the only one that matters right now, Dugu Shi Xiao should have cut ties with his mortal fiancée. Holding on will hurt more.

Third strike selfish brat.

The fourth problem Athena had with the whole situation is the most dangerous one with the most obvious warning signs. The tyrant dragon was going to eliminate the Tourant family somehow.

When they had no prospect, Asalia was a good daughter-in-law. However, once Dugu Shi Xiao unearth his amazing immortal potential, the scary dragon will never be content to have a country bumpkin as her daughter-in-law. Would a pauper turned prince marry a beggar? Ha. He’d marry a princess to secure his right to the throne and become king. Even if the prince wants to marry the beggar, those around him won’t allow it. Once his back is turn, then kacha, off with her head.

Dead is dead.

As long as they don’t get caught, who would know? Dugu Shi Xiao definitely wouldn’t.

The warning signs were there too.

Now it has come to this.

Asalia is dead and Athena is alive.