At the end of August, the sun blazed high in the sky, and a heat wave rolled through the small town.

On the second floor of Zhenzhong Hospital, a man leaning listlessly by the slightly dilapidated door. He wore a simple black and white checkered shirt, and when he lowered his head, the collar tilted askew.

Both sleeves were rolled up very carelessly.

Below that is a low-rise pair of jeans, slightly worn from wear and tear, revealing a slender and delicate waist.

It's incredibly eye-catching.

The nurse saw the man walk past the room for the third time and gave him a lollipop, nodding towards the ward, “Ranran, are your parents here?”

Qin Ran slowly tore open the candy, her eyelashes drooping slightly. When she bit into it, she only half-closed her eyes and said in a flat tone, "Is that so."

The nurse snorted, "You wouldn't know."

After saying a word, he hurriedly left with the medical records.

Inside the ward are Qin Ran's biological parents, Ning Qing and Qin Hanqiu.

The two divorced over a decade ago. Qin Ran has been living with her grandmother ever since. A month and a half ago, her grandmother fell ill and now needs to be transferred to another hospital, so Ning Qing and Qin Hanqiu have come back.

Qin Ran leaned against the wall, one hand slightly curled, listening to the sound of two people arguing in the ward without a trace of expression on her face.

Even through the door, Ning Qing's voice was cold and emotionless. "Qin Hanqiu, the car is downstairs. I'll take my mother to the city hospital, and Ranran will go with you."

"Why is Ranran with me?" Qin Hanqiu sneered, without any courtesy. "Didn't you marry a rich man? You can't even afford to support your own son with so much money?"

“I’ve already brought Yu’er to the Lin family, do you want me to bring another burden?” Ning Qing glared at him impatiently. “My mother raised your son for over ten years, and now that he’s sick, she can’t even take care of him. Won’t you take him away? Do you expect me to bring him back to the Lin family?”

Speaking of this, Qin Hanqiu's resentment became even more apparent, "Back then, I clearly wanted to raise Yuer, but you insisted on taking her from me. Now that you want me to take care of Ranran, fine, then you give me Yuer too."

They have two sons, Qin Ran and Qin Yu, who are only one year apart in age but differ greatly in every aspect.

When the two were getting divorced, they fought fiercely over custody of Qin Yu. In the end, Qin Yu herself wanted to stay with her mother, so the case finally came to an end.

At that time, no one wanted Qin Ran. The two of them pushed each other back and forth, eventually neither caring who got her.

Grandma Chen Shulan looked pitiful, raising Qin Ran alone for twelve years.

In the ward, Ning Qing looked at Qin Hanqiu's mocking face, and a breath of anger welled up in her heart.

Qin Hanqiu was abducted to their town as a child. He was a poor boy. When Ning Qing first fell for him, it was because of his good looks. After several years of marriage, the two couldn't stand each other's temper and simply divorced.

After the divorce, Ning Qing brought Qin Yu to live with a wealthy man in Yun City and she was living a life of luxury.

Qin Han Qiu also quickly got married and he and his current wife even had a son. Life is going well for them.

Both of them forgot that they still had an elder son.

Now they treat Qin Ran as a mere commodity, passing her back and forth like a ball, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Da'er is listening to their conversation outside the door.

Qín Hànqiū's feet are not afraid of wearing shoes, he would rather worry that if he really goes to the Lín family to cause trouble, it will only make him more embarrassed. He can only swallow his resentment and unwillingly take Qín Rǎn back to Yúnchéng.

"Rǎirǎi, don't blame Dad either," Qin Hanqiu casually dropped his package and saw Qin Rǎi at the door of the ward. He paused for a moment, "The Lin family is wealthy. If you go with your mother, they'll definitely find a good school for you to finish high school."

Qin Hanqiu is now raising a son, which is a considerable burden. He hasn't bought a house in the city yet and needs to make plans for the future. Before he came here, his current wife had already informed him.

He could only apologize to Qin Ran.

From the moment he arrived here, he had never thought about taking Qin Ran back.

Qin Ran leaned back, the air in the hospital corridor was stuffy without air conditioning. She lowered her head slightly, her fingers twirling around the second pearly white button on her collar.

Fingers slender and pure, like jade frozen in time, wrapped in a chill.

Her beautiful eyes held a hint of irritation, her gaze conveying a clear message: "Don't push me."

Unconcerned with the autumn of Qin and Han, he impatiently unbuttoned his garment. Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes and glanced at the window across the corridor, a chill flashing in his gaze.

A few meters from the window was an office.

The office across the hall.

The young man sitting in the chair was wearing a white lab coat. He had a handsome and intelligent face.

The new director of the hospital is Jiang Dongye.

Jiang Dongye glanced at the high-definition sofa opposite him, which didn't quite match the clinic.

A person was lying on the sofa, holding a cigarette between their fingertips. Their fingers were long and distinct, with wisps of pale smoke rising faintly. Their arm rested casually, and their eyes seemed to have been fixed for half a minute.

Jiang Dong Ye followed the other person's gaze outward and asked, "What are you looking at?"

A man in a black collared shirt lounged on the sofa, half asleep, leaning back with a cigarette dangling from his lips. He smiled and muttered, “Such a tiny waist.”

He tilted his head, his nose high and bridge sharp, skin unnaturally pale. His eyes were half-closed, long eyelashes casting shadows over his gaze, leaving a hazy and overly cold impression.

The voice seemed to still be waking up, a bit drowsy and husky, with an unintentional laziness to it, carrying a hint of clarity.

He brushed off some ash, his black collar open halfway, revealing skin on his neck that was as fine and delicate as porcelain against the stark darkness.

"Huh?" Jiang Dongye flipped through the medical records, not hearing clearly.

At a glance, I saw the charm and grace of him. It’s not hard to understand why so many men in the capital were crazy for this Third Master.

"None of your business." Cheng Jun straightened up, leaning back on the sofa, and spoke lazily, "In two days when this mission is over here, you'll go back to the capital city."

"And you?" Jiang Dongye came to his senses.

Well-defined fingers extinguished the cigarette in the ashtray.

Cheng Junqi, with two straight and elongated eyes that were slightly narrowed, his gaze was languid. He patted the clothes as if there were ashes on them, appearing relaxed and nonchalant: "I have other tasks."

Ning's family car is parked downstairs of the town health center.

It's a black BMW with Yun City license plates.

After Ning Qing met with the doctor, she immediately took Qin Ran and Chen Shulan back to Yun Cheng.

"The Lin family has many rules, don't bring your bad habits to the Lin family, understand?" Ning Qing tilted her head and furrowed her brow.

Qin Ran only brought a black backpack, placing it on her shoulder. She half-closed her eyes, looking rather sleepy, and nodded casually in response.

She wore a pair of slender and straight legs.

He was completely devoid of morals and principles, acting recklessly without a shred of shame. I wonder if he even heard a word I said.

"You look so troubled. Did you go rob someone last night?" After twelve years as a wealthy socialite in the Lin household, Ning Qing now radiates elegance in everything she does.

What I dislike the most is that Qin Ran and Qin Hanqiu share the same rogue air.

Qin Ran took out a pair of black earphones from her pocket and was about to put them on, nonchalantly saying, "Spent the whole night playing games at the internet cafe."

With the earpieces of headphones hanging halfway up, resting on his neck.

"You... You are not allowed to go to the internet cafe anymore!" Ning Qing looked at this irresponsible appearance, gritting her teeth, "Don't disobey me, if you put out one-tenth of Yu'er's effort, I wouldn't have to lecture you like this. The Lin family is not your grandmother's house, your every word and deed affects your sister, if you don't want to be good, don't drag Yu'er down with you."

As soon as she thought about having to find connections again and get Qin Ran into the third grade, Ning Qing felt even more agitated.

Given Qin Ran's current situation, I'm afraid that even if she searched throughout Yun City, she wouldn't find a school willing to accept her.

Back then, she married Lin Qi, a widower in the real estate business, because of her good looks. He had a son and explicitly said he didn't want Ning Qing to have any more children.

Qin Yu was exceptionally intelligent as a child and was also very handsome and likable.

Highly accomplished and exceptionally gifted, he has never caused the Lin family any worry about his studies.

No matter where they are, they are always "someone else's well-behaved child" in other people's mouths.

The Lin family was very satisfied with Qin Yu.

Ning Qing was naturally happy to marry into the Lin family with Qin Yu.

You could think about taking Qin Ran to the Lin family next.

Ning Qing didn't even have an appetite for lunch.

***

At four o'clock in the afternoon, a black BMW stopped in front of Yun Cheng Lin's villa.

"Madam." The one who opened the door was a middle-aged man wearing a blue shirt. Upon seeing Ning Qing's companions, Chen Shulan and Qin Ran, his expression showed surprise.

Ning Qing's mouth was a bit stuffy, and her heart felt restless. "Zhang Sao, you take my mom and Ranran inside. Yu'er will be off school soon, I'll go pick her up."

Lin's drivers have always been responsible for picking up and dropping off guests.

Today, Ning Qing personally went to pick her up. To be honest, she was still worried and didn't want to face Qin Ran at home. She needed to go out for some fresh air.

Chang Sao watched Ning Qing leave before turning her head to look at the two of them, suspicion in her eyes.

"Old woman, Miss Qin," she scanned the two of them up and down with an extremely obscure look in her eyes before opening her mouth, "Come in."

As he spoke, he turned ahead and led the way. Out of sight of the two people, he twitched the corner of his mouth.

Chen Shulan walked all the way, seeing the European-style buildings decorated with renovations.

His fingers unconsciously clenched into a fist, looking a little helpless.

Standing at the entrance hall, Zhang Sao was just about to take out the slippers.

But she saw Chen Shulan walk in the door wearing those shoes.

After Chen Shulan stepped in, she realized that Zhang's sister was looking at her with surprise. Her back felt like it had exploded, she was simply mortified.

Although he was a country bumpkin, he was always clean. There wasn't much dust on his feet or clothes.

Aunt Chang's eyes were fixed on her, but her grandson was right beside her. Chen Shulan ignored Aunt Chang's gaze as much as possible and stood straight.

He took a step back to change his shoes, but saw Zhang Sao push the slippers back in.

The Lin family had many guest rooms. Zhang Sao didn't approve of Ning Qing's current attitude and took the two of them to a guest room on the third floor.

On the second floor, at the corner, I saw a half-open house. Inside, in one corner, sat an expensive violin.

Qin Ran glanced at him again.

Zhang Sao glanced at Qin Ran with a blank expression and said, “That’s the Second Miss’s music room.”

Qin Ran raised her eyebrows, dragging her feet behind Zhang Sao. Her entire demeanor screamed "bored" in large letters. She couldn't help but think as she trailed along, Qin Yu must be quite spoiled living at the Lin family.

The guest rooms upstairs are monotonous.

"This is the bathroom. You'll need hot water, right?" Zhang Sao opened the bathroom door and introduced it, as if the two people opposite her were from the top of a mountain.

Qin Ran sat on the low table, one hand slightly curved, idly playing with the flowers placed on the low table, her sleeve rolled up a section.

Her delicate white wrist.

"Please rest first, if you need anything just let me know. I'll go downstairs to help in the kitchen now." Zhang Sao said a few words of advice and then went downstairs to help in the kitchen.

After leaving, Qin Ran locked the door.

Chen Shulan looked at the spotless and beautiful room, smiling and saying, "This Zhang Sao looks like a good person... very kind. I feel relieved knowing you'll be living here."

Qin Ran dumped the contents of her backpack onto the table.

Upon hearing this, she raised an eyebrow but decided not to remind her grandmother. Earlier that woman, Zhang Ma, had almost written "These two impoverished relatives are here to take advantage of the Lin family" all over her face.

Chen Shulan watched Qin Ran fiddling with her things, not disturbing her. This granddaughter had a lot of strange and peculiar things.

Last time, when she came here, she saw a gun pointing at her on the table. Chen Shulan was really scared, but later Qin Ran said it was just a fake toy gun.

Qin Ran sat at the table, fiddling with things in her backpack. There was a brandless laptop, looking new and unmarked, which she casually placed on the table without paying it much attention.

He took out another very heavy phone.

Keep throwing it on the table.

Something was always there, in a pile of items it picked out a white plastic bottle.

When you pick it up, there's still a sloshing sound, and it's full of water.

Outside, he drew a big Q in black with a marker and attached a sticky note.

Qin Ran tore down the sticky note. It was scribbled with a string of characters, messy and unintelligible. To onlookers, it looked like just a string of code. After staring at it for a while, she tossed it aside.

He held a white plastic bottle in his hand, glanced at Chen Shulan, hesitated for a moment, then put it back in his pocket.

In a short while, Zhang's wife came up and knocked on the door——

"Master and Grandfather are back, downstairs, and they want to see you two."

Downstairs, Lin Qi and Lin Jinxuan were speaking in low voices.

After all, she was going to bring a child back. Ning Qing didn't have the guts to make the decision on her own. She called Lin Qi while at the hospital.

"I heard he took a year off, got into big trouble at his old school, and was a real handful. Getting into First High is a bit of a challenge for him." Lin Qi thought about Ning Qing's request, frowning with worry.

He originally thought Qin Yu was so well-behaved, and her sister wasn't far behind. At the time, he didn't ask much.

Right now, things are troublesome. The Lin family has never produced someone so utterly despicable before.

Lin Jinxuan's eyes were indifferent, one hand resting on the sofa, tilting his head as he tapped his phone, seemingly chatting with someone.

When Lin Qi spoke, he didn't even lift his head, showing little interest in Qin Ran whom Lin Qi was talking about.

Only when he heard the silence at the stairwell would he casually glance up.

Stunned.