Qi An’an had always been a well-behaved student since her school days, so when she was called out by the teacher to stand outside the classroom for the first time, and in such a humiliating fashion no less, she blamed the whole unlucky incident on Qi Yan when she got home.

“Uncle Chen, is my brother coming home for dinner tonight?”

After receiving a negative response, Qi An’an decided to go all in on Qi Yan’s weakness— his sister complex. “Fine. He made a point to say he would be coming back to spend time with me, but not only has he not spent a single day with me, but he keeps making excuses whenever I ask him to take me out. And now, he still won’t give me a straight answer. Whatever. I won’t ask him anymore.”

After putting on her pitiful act with a round of dramatic sniffles, Qi An’an ran upstairs. Sure enough, not even ten minutes later, Qi Yan called.

“An’an,” Qi Yan’s voice sounded helpless on the other end, “are you mad at Brother?”

Hearing his slightly tired but still gentle voice, Qi An’an felt a bit guilty and hurriedly denied it, “No, no, I’m not mad at you.”

Qi Yan chuckled. “Be good. I’ll wrap up my work tomorrow and take you out for dinner. I’ll stay home with you too, alright?”

To be honest, Qi An’an hadn’t really been angry or needed him to coax her. She had just wanted to act a little spoiled to get him to agree to her request. But Qi Yan’s soft tone and patient coaxing made her feel a little embarrassed.

“Brother, are you really tired? You don’t need to rush everything just to spend time with me. I’m fine on my own. I was just curious about the great artist you wanted to sign. I wanted to see how that works, but you keep refusing to take me.”

Forget it. Qi Yan had never heard anything tender from his sister’s mouth for so many years. If she hadn’t transmigrated there, he probably never would. So she figured she should at least act like a proper younger sister and show some concern for this newly acquired brother of hers.

After all, no matter what bad things Qi Yan ended up doing in the novel, his intentions had always been to protect Qi An’an. He was, by nature, a good person. Their parents were unreliable. Their father was out indulging in debauchery, and their mother was keeping a boy toy. Qi An’an had been raised by her brother, who managed to provide her with a carefree childhood, spoiling her to the point that she grew up ignorant, picky, and willful. That alone proved how much he doted on her.

Qi Yan, already deep in the late stages of his sister complex, was nearly brought to tears hearing her say all that. He asked solemnly, “An’an, have you been wronged recently? Why are you suddenly saying things like this? Did……” He paused. “Did you feel upset because Mom and Dad left you there alone?” After thinking for a moment, he said, “If you’re really unhappy, I’ll figure out a way to transfer you over to live with me.”

No, no, she wasn’t upset at all. She loved it there— loved it too much, in fact. It wouldn’t be long before her precious girl would appear, and she was far too excited about that to feel wronged. If anyone tried to take her away, it would be like stealing candy from her jar.

Qi An’an quickly reassured him. “Brother, I really like it here, so don’t worry about me. I’m doing just fine, I’m not upset at all. If Mom and Dad don’t care about me, it’s fine, because I still have you, right?”

Her sweet, soft voice saying such things warmed the heart. On Qi Yan’s end, even the sound of flipping documents paused for a few seconds.

He said, “Alright, you’re getting better at being sweet. Since you like it there, once I wrap up the current project, I’ll put in a request to transfer over. I’ll stay there long-term and be with you until you finish high school.”

Qi An’an laughed. “Oh…… then……”

“I’ve already agreed. I really can’t say no to you. I’ll take you with me then.” Qi Yan said helplessly. “Let’s tentatively set it for next Tuesday night. If anything changes, I’ll let you know. Is that okay now?”

Qi An’an immediately smiled. “You’re the best, Brother!”

She hung up the phone and quietly marked down the date— Tuesday.

────ρя


With the matter settled, Qi An’an became noticeably livelier and no longer pestered Butler Chen during class all the time.

She hadn’t checked her phone nearly all day, which Jiang Lu had noticed long ago. Usually, she could barely go through one class without sneaking a peek three or four times, but today she had behaved unusually well.

For some reason, Jiang Lu also felt more relaxed than before.

The last two periods of the day were a pop quiz. Qi An’an finished easily. It was only middle school material, after all, still quite manageable for her. She felt she should savor this while it lasted. Things probably wouldn’t be this easy once she got to high school.

Thinking that, she sneaked a glance at Jiang Lu, only to find that he had already finished his paper at some point too.

That was only natural. After all, he was her brilliant cub. Even though his irresponsible mother caused him to miss kindergarten and pre-primary classes and even skip first grade entirely, he still demonstrated exceptional talent. He rarely got anything less than a perfect score on exams.

However, during his dark childhood and those years when he went to prison for murder, all that had been taboo. Only after he returned gloriously and stood at the pinnacle of power did people start mentioning again that he had once been an academic genius.

Drifting between thoughts, Qi An’an grew bored. She didn’t want to disturb anyone, so she couldn’t talk to Jiang Lu— not that he would respond anyway. Thus, she picked up her answer sheet and started reviewing it aimlessly.

To her surprise, the review actually paid off. She had carelessly filled in the wrong option starting from question twelve, which messed up all the answers that followed.

This would not do. This was her first quiz since transferring. Even though it was just a regular in-class test, it still mattered for appearances. She rummaged through her pencil case, only to find that she hadn’t brought an eraser.

Left with no choice, Qi An’an whispered, “Jiang Lu, can I borrow your eraser for a second?”

They had been deskmates for a while now and Jiang Lu was no longer as cold toward her as he had been in the beginning. Sometimes, when her notebook ended up on his desk, or she accidentally used his pen, or even spilled water on his desk and frantically wiped it clean— only to get caught in the act— he wouldn’t say a word.

Jiang Lu’s fingers twitched slightly. He had originally meant to hand over his eraser, but suddenly stopped.

An eraser wasn’t the same as a pen. When it rubbed away mistakes, it was left covered in dirty gray smudges. His eraser was far too filthy.

In truth, Jiang Lu surely understood that an eraser was meant to fix mistakes. Everyone’s erasers were dirty.

But he wasn’t like everyone else. The blood that flowed beneath his skin carried an innate filth that could never be washed clean. He had already done his best to keep his belongings as clean as possible. The thought of using such dirty hands to hand over an equally dirty eraser to Qi An’an— he simply couldn’t accept it.

Qi An’an didn’t mind using the pen he had used. He could lie to himself and pretend she didn’t care. But not the eraser. That would be like ripping away his final shred of dignity, forcing him to confront her with his own filth.

Jiang Lu said quietly, “I don’t have an eraser.”

His voice was soft when he said that, and the sharp lines of his delicate profile seemed a little cold.

Qi An’an felt he looked a bit upset. Had she accidentally touched a sore spot? She couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy. What’s so scary about not having an eraser? Mommy will buy you one. Mommy will buy you ten pounds of erasers.

As she was mulling it over, the boy sitting in front of her turned around and handed her an eraser. Flashing a bright white grin, he said cheerfully, “You can use mine.”

Jiang Lu lifted his eyes and glanced at the other party.

Then his gaze dropped to the eraser in the boy’s hand. It was pitch-black and grimy to the extreme. Jiang Lu couldn’t help but frown slightly.

“Great, thank you.” Qi An’an said as she accepted it. Because the seats rotated weekly, this deskmate was new, and she hadn’t had a chance to get to know him yet. So she asked, “What’s your name?”

“I’m Yu Tianyang.”

Oh! So this was Yu Tianyang.

Yu Tianyang was the only person who could be called a friend during Jiang Lu’s school years. When Jiang Lu was released from prison, it was Yu Tianyang who went to pick him up. He had followed Jiang Lu in all his endeavors since.

Yu Tianyang had a good personality and treated Jiang Lu well. Because of that, fans of the novel affectionately referred to him as ‘Big Nephew.’

“So it’s you! I’m so happy to see you, Big Nephew!” In the novel, Yu Tianyang didn’t appear until high school, so Qi An’an didn’t expect them to be in the same middle school class. Her excitement made her blurt out his nickname.

“Huh?” Yu Tianyang looked confused. “Are we related or something?”

“No, no, same name, I mistook you for someone else.” Qi An’an hastily made up an excuse, then gazed at Yu Tianyang with maternal warmth.

Be good friends with our precious boy, Big Nephew. I’ll work hard to help you chase your crush.

The two of them only exchanged a few words, but it already felt like they’d known each other forever. That was just how Qi An’an was— bright, cheerful, kind to everyone, and effortlessly likable. Jiang Lu watched coldly from the side, his dark eyes silent as he turned his head away.

After Qi An’an finished correcting her answer sheet and handed it in, it was self-study time. There was still a long while before school ended. She had just completed a full set of practice tests, her mind stuffed full of knowledge, and for the moment, she didn’t want to do any more questions.

Beside her, Jiang Lu remained turned slightly away, radiating a clear ‘do not disturb’ aura.

Qi An’an had no choice but to pull out her phone and send a message to Butler Chen.

【An’an: Uncle Chen, send me a few silly videos of Dashun, or maybe some of its dumb cute pictures.】

Uncle Chen replied quickly, distressed, 【Miss, you’re slacking off again.】

Qi An’an gave a false report, 【Uncle Chen, I got a full score on my mock exam. Hurry up and let me see Dashun.】

This time Butler Chen didn’t argue. He sent a flurry of messages— several videos and a bunch of photos.

Qi An’an immediately entered full-on cat-adoration mode. Dashun’s cuteness made her heart tremble. She held her phone lovingly, flipping through the media over and over, trying hard not to laugh out loud.

She was at it again. Jiang Lu set down his pen. The irritation in his heart, which had just barely been suppressed, surged once more.

After trying twice to focus, Jiang Lu found he couldn’t ignore her. At last, he couldn’t help but glance in her direction.

And with that one glance, he saw the kitten on Qi An’an’s phone screen.

Jiang Lu’s eyes widened slightly, frozen in place. That was……

There was no way he could mistake that kitten and that little white patch on its forehead, as he had raised it for three months. Just recently, he had left it in front of Granny Zhang’s house.

Jiang Lu’s fingers curled slowly inward. He blinked once, very slowly, and looked toward Qi An’an.

Qi An’an was intently staring at her phone screen, unaware of Jiang Lu’s gaze. She didn’t realize how she looked to him at that moment.

A girl in school uniform, radiating an unexplainable sense of cleanness and clarity. Wisps of soft hair framed her fair cheeks, and when she smiled, small dimples appeared, making her look impossibly soft and lovely.

Jiang Lu’s lips parted of their own accord. “Qi An’an……”