Unable to connect with her system, Ming Yue felt uncomfortable under their scrutiny.
Despite not knowing she was being watched by them, her body reacted instinctively, making her feel a certain sense of unease creep in.
If not for her instincts as a spy to not react to outside stimulus easily, she really would've had a hard time controlling herself.
Well, in a sense, her body didn't have those instincts so it did visibly stiffen and tried to unconsciously decrease the space her body occupied.
In her mind, though, she still kept calling her system.
And finally her calls seemed to have been answered...
[Ah, ah? Hello? Can you hear me Host?]
'Ahhhhhhh! Yesss! Where did you vanish to??'
[Uhm... I don't know? But there seemed to be some bug which got fixed...]
Before the system could complete it's words, Ming Yue yelled at it.
'What?! A bug!? But you only found me a few hours ago!? Such incompetence!!'
'Nevermind that! Tell me something about them so I can get out of this situation.'
She asked her gossip system as she either needed some leverage or some basic information, at least, to come up with a plan.
Her goal was dead clear: leave their family.
Only... her household registration was under Grandma Shen... as her daughter.
So, in accordance to seniority, she was the youger sister of Father Shen and Aunt of Shen Pei'er and her brother.
Ahem, that was the only thing she knew.
But it was far from enough to get what she wanted.
[Well..., Shen Gucheng, or father Shen, had rushed over to see his mother one last time. No matter how great the resentment, she was still the woman who had given birth to him and raised him.
But he hadn't expected to encounter such a surprising situation.
He was certain of Ming Yue's existence but her adoption process and household registration were beyond his expectations.]
'And? What use is this!?'
Ming Yue asked, leaning against her seat and gazing out the window. She appeared calm, but her heart was filled with frustration.
'It seems to be nothing but growing certainly of me saying goodbye to my lonely but affluent future life!'
Perhaps feeling sad for its Host, the system grew nervous and blurted out: [Shen Pei'er isn't his daughter.]
'What!?' Ming Yue almost jolted in shock, turning to glance at the girl and inadvertently glanced at Shen Gucheng and Zhou Mei, the Shen couple.
'Huh? Doesn't she look similar to her mother and father, though?' Ming Yue asked in utter confusion.
[Well, she is indeed Zhou Mei's daughter, just not Shen Gucheng's.]
Ming Yue: "..."
She really had no words for this kind of explosive melon being fed to her.
Although... it seemed the girl herself wasn't aware of her origins as she was busy trying to coax her 'father' about Ming Yue's existence.
Yet... Ming Yue's full attention was on the system as it gave another explosive melon: [Zhou Mei only found out about it after her daughter returned and met her little lover to discuss it and faked the paternity test.]
As soon as these words fell upon Ming Yue, she crafted a good plan to escape.
She just needed to blackmail Zhou Mei and leave or even Shen Pei'er.
'So easy?' she wondered, but realised it wouldn't work without evidence.
No matter how anxious Zhou Mei was, she wouldn't get easily swayed by her bold words and would definitely doubt them.
Of course, Ming Yue didn't plan to directly confront Zhou Mei regarding this as that would be a slap in the face.
'And I don't want any lingering targets on my back just to leave.'
[Host, you can't leave even if you want to.]
'Eh? Why?' Ming Yue asked in puzzlement.
[There will be a banquet to recognise the real daughter that returned to the Shen Family and they want to use you to highlight her...]
Being a gossipmonger, Ming Yue didn't even bother listening to any more of the system's words.
She figured it out without needing to.
'It's probably the three of them wanting to use me as a toolman while Shen's Father wants to sell me off?'
Her guess... wasn't that far off from the cold, harsh truth.
At best, they were going to use polite words a bunch of sweet words, but, in the end, it was the same.
Despite Grandma Shen's last request being taking care of Ming Yue, they wanted to trade her off.
In Father Shen's words, he was doing what his mother asked "taking care of her".
In Mother Shen's words, she was doing the girl a favor by allowing her to marry into a rich family.
In Shen Pei'er's words, Ming Yue deserves just this: being sold off.
In her brother's words, she didn't even deserve that!
He thought it was an honor to get married as the daughter of the Shen Family, unaware that she was his aunt if one went by their household registration.
Eitherways, it mattered little as Ming Yue had no plans of going with their arrangements.
Weren't they going to host a big banquet?
Isn't that the perfect place for people to wander around in the midst of so many guests.
She didn't believe that a spy like her would be unable to extricate herself and vanish without a trace before anything unsightly could happen.
Of course, there was always a what-if situation she wanted to desperately avoid.
'System, tell me, do they seem like the kind to drug me and send ne to an old man's bed?'
'Or send me to marry off in place of my sister with a nentally diabolical man?'
'Or to someone with some rare kind of disease or even some cripple?'
'Honestly, I'd prefer a cripple unable to do anything over the other types...'
While Ming Yue thought over the possibilities, discussing them with the system, someone was making moves back in China.
"Tell me, is there no information about here till now?"
The cold voice made multiple people shudder yet none dared to say anything.