The young man had a secret he never told anyone, not his grandparents, and definitely not his late mother. In truth, he was a transmigrator, a 27-year-old man from the Blue Star who had suddenly found himself in this world at the age of three, with all his past memories rushing back like a dream.
He had no idea how it happened. One night he fell asleep as usual, and the next morning, he woke up in the body of a stranger. The reason behind his transmigration was a mystery, but Su Wen didn't care about it anymore. Life moved on, and so did he.
In his previous life, Su Wen had been known as a genius doctor and physicist, someone who stood at the peak of both science and medicine.
But even with fame and respect, he lived a lonely life. No family, no friends, no one was waiting for him at home. All he left or had was his dream of uncovering the secrets of the human body and a childish dream of travelling in outer space.
Then, in this new world, for the first time ever, he was loved. His new mother, Su Qing, was gentle and kind, her warm smile easing the loneliness he carried over from his past life. But fate was cruel. Su Qing suffered from a mysterious spiritual illness that even Su Wen… once a great doctor… could neither diagnose nor cure.
Two years later, she passed away, leaving him truly alone once more. That day, Su Wen cried for the first time in both of his lives.
Despite the cheerful face he showed others, pride was etched deep into his bones. He had never bowed to anyone… not when he was starving, not when he was struggling at rock bottom.
Every bit of success he'd ever gained in his previous life, came from his own effort, step by step.
Not long after his mother's death, an even greater upheaval followed. His noble father… who had treated Su Wen as if he didn't exist for years… suddenly returned home with a new wife and two children in tow.
What shocked Su Wen wasn't just the betrayal, but the sheer indifference with which the man presented this new family.
"Su Wen, this is your new mother," his father said flatly.
Those few words were more than the man had spoken to him in many years.
Su Wen only glanced at them and said nothing. Pride kept his spine straight and his mouth shut. For a long time now, he had stopped thinking of that man as his father. After everything he'd endured, all he felt toward him was indifference.
But at that moment, something else mixed in… disgust.
Disgust at how someone could treat a woman as kind and gentle as his mother so lightly, as if her existence had meant nothing at all.
What his father never knew was that his late mother had quietly left Su Wen enough money to live comfortably for many years. The only family he truly cared about now were his maternal grandparents, though he had only met them a handful of times.
His father had always looked down on them, so their visits never lasted long before they were sent away.
Su Wen had wanted to live with them back then, but he was too young to travel on his own. So he waited. When he finally turned ten, he left that house for good.
He didn't say much that day… just a single line before walking away.
"I'm leaving. I won't be coming back."
When he appeared at his grandparents' doorstep, they were stunned. A small, quiet boy stood there, his eyes calm and mature beyond his years. The shock didn't last long, though… it quickly turned into joy as they pulled him inside.
During the two years he stayed with them, his grandfather taught him many things… farming, fishing, playing chess, and countless other worldly skills. His grandmother, on the other hand, taught him gentler lessons: how to sew, how to cook, and how to live a quiet, peaceful life.
He came to cherish those days. Life moved at a slow, unhurried pace in that dilapidated mountain home, and within its simple walls, Su Wen finally found the peace he had been seeking.
To his surprise, one day his grandfather handed him several cultivation manuals and scrolls. There was one each for spirit cultivation, body cultivation, and soul cultivation, along with a sword technique, fist arts, and a movement technique.
Su Wen wanted to ask about the origins of these techniques, but his grandfather gave no clear answer. Seeing that the old man had no intention of explaining further, Su Wen chose not to press the matter and simply moved on.
When he finally left for Sunrise City to attend the Sunrise Academy, he had already built a strong foundation. There, he studied advanced medicine, literature, and alchemy, while secretly practicing the cultivation arts that his grandfather has passed down.
He also began working at a physician's clinic in the city and sometimes travelled to the Old Yellow Town to treat patients with the other assistant physician.
And every three months, without fail, Su Wen would return to his grandparents' village for two weeks. He'd bring back a stack of books borrowed from the academy library, spend his days reading in the quiet of the countryside, and help his grandparents with chores, a small slice of peace in his ever-busy life.
In the academy, he grew close to the Scholarly Headmaster Michael and his wife, Elen, an Alchemy master, both of whom had mysterious backgrounds that were largely unknown.
Within three years after he joined the academy at 12, Su Wen had mastered almost everything they could teach in the Dao of Alchemy and the Dao of Poetry, utterly dumbfounding them.
They began to view him as an unpolished jewel that, once fully polished, would shine brightly. They wanted to send him immediately to the Central Continent, but he refused, unwilling to leave his only family behind in the village.
Not only were his grandparents aging and living alone in that dilapidated mountain village, but now he also had two more people he wanted to keep close as family: his close brother and his girlfriend.
Unaware of the darkness in their hearts, he was already planning a future they would share.
Today, upon realizing their true nature, he wouldn't beg or weep; his pride would never allow him to bow. Instead, he would quietly heal his broken heart and move forward with his life, simply dismissing them as a bad past.
They would be treated by him like dogs ignored with an air of indifference, or the creatures he simply wants to avoid lest he catch some kind of disease…