“Did you see her on the wanted list?” Jia Qingqing eagerly questioned.

The man glanced at her oddly but didn’t answer such a nonsensical question. Instead, he looked at Yu Ning, his cheeks slightly flushed with excitement.

“You’re Yu Ning, right?”

“You know me?”

“We took the college entrance exam the same year! Of course, someone like you probably doesn’t remember me—she’s the genius I told you about, the one who ranked second in the entire province during the exams.”

“So it’s her!” The crowd murmured in admiration.

Jia Qingqing looked Yu Ning up and down, thinking she was clever, and said,

“You must have taken a bribe from her, right? Otherwise, why would you lie?”

“Miss Jia, please show some respect. Yu Ning skipping grades to take the college entrance exam was a hot topic back then. You can look it up online.”

The young man, thrilled to see his idol from school days, eagerly pulled out his phone to search.

He quickly found a lot of information and handed the phone to Jia Qingqing, challenging her to deny it.

Jia Qingqing only glanced at a few keywords, her eyes nearly popping out.

15-year-old, second place in the province, a phoenix rising from a regular high school, genius.

Each keyword struck at the fragile heart of Jia Qingqing, the underachiever.

Compared to Jia Qingqing, who had to use deceit to get into college, Yu Ning’s academic record was like a towering mountain.

“I don’t believe it, she must have cheated! It’s all fake!” Jia Qingqing raged.

No one paid her any attention.

The young man seized the moment to ask a question that had puzzled him for years.

“Yu Ning, why did you transfer from a prestigious high school to a regular one?”

Yu Ning was a legend; she had transferred from a top high school to a regular one. Being a grade-skipped student, she was already younger than her peers.

She only attended high school for one year before taking the college entrance exam, becoming the city’s top scorer and second in the province, causing a sensation throughout the province.

Her alma mater still had her photo hanging to inspire students, proving that regular high schools could also produce top students.

“There was a bit of an issue back then, and my family helped me transfer.” Yu Ning kept some details to herself.

The young man wanted to ask more, but the little black cat in Yu Ning’s arms meowed impatiently.

Question, question, are you the ten thousand whys? Can’t you see the girl is already upset? Lin Zheng interrupted the topic.

“My cat might need to use the restroom. I’m not needed for anything else, right?”

Yu Ning hugged the black cat tightly and, after receiving an affirmative answer, quickly left.

“Just look at her poor appearance, it’s obvious her family couldn’t afford it, right? Hmph, bumpkin, pauper,” Jia Qingqing sneered at Yu Ning’s back.

“Miss Jia, you need to come with us for an investigation.”

The young man, now back in professional mode, said sternly.

“No! I! Won’t! Go!”

Yu Ning entered the elevator with her cat, the door cutting off the cries and howls outside.

She leaned against the elevator wall with a sigh of relief.

The dark past of her youth was not something she liked to recall.

Back then, despite her hard work to get into a prestigious high school, Wu Yan inexplicably flew into a rage and locked her in a dark room for the entire summer.

Later, Yu Ning found out that Wu Yan did this because her biological daughter, Yu Zihan, didn’t get into high school.

The more outstanding Yu Ning, the fake daughter, was, the more worthless Yu Zihan, the real daughter, appeared, and jealousy twisted Wu Yan’s face.

Wu Yan then went to her school several times, causing trouble that almost led to Yu Ning dropping out.

It was only with the help of her middle school homeroom teacher that Yu Ning managed to transfer to a regular high school. Even then, Wu Yan kept causing trouble, refusing to pay her tuition and trying to get her expelled.

Wu Yan’s repeated troublemaking forced Yu Ning to take the college entrance exam early as an independent candidate.

“If I could, I wouldn’t want to skip grades. I’m no genius, just someone who’s been beaten a lot.”

Yu Ning gently stroked the little cat, talking to herself.

She didn’t care for the labels the outside world gave her.

If fate had given her a choice, she wouldn’t want to work so hard and would rather live a leisurely life like Jia Qingqing.

But no one would believe her if she said this out loud, Yu Ning thought with a self-mocking smile.

The black cat rubbed its head against her fingers, as if to say, “I understand you.”

At that moment, Lin Zheng suddenly understood.

Why this girl always seemed so serious, even when reading a silly novel or teaming up with noobs in a game, she was always very earnest.

Having endured hardships and injustices beyond ordinary people’s experience at an age when she should have been cherished, it was remarkable she hadn’t grown bitter.

Despite seeing the darkest of times, she still believed in the light and genuinely worked hard to live.

Growing up in such a family and always skipping grades, lacking interaction with peers her age, made her seem overly sincere at times—but that shouldn’t be considered a flaw.

Having figured it all out, Lin Zheng found this girl to be exceptionally brilliant and dazzling.

He wanted to grab his troublesome brothers and beat them up one by one.

Look at this girl! And then look at those useless idiots… Learn from her!

Back on the third floor, Yu Ning fetched some goat milk to feed the cat and then called a doctor to ask about the life-support equipment connected to Lin Zheng.

She was staying in President Lin’s bedroom now, and if anything happened, she needed to know how to use this equipment.

The experts were all foreigners, speaking in a foreign language, but Yu Ning communicated with them effortlessly. She even prepared a notebook to jot down the care instructions provided by the doctors.

Lin Anbang and Mrs. Lin came up, and seeing Yu Ning talking to the doctors, Lin Anbang’s anger flared up again.

This woman was too cunning!

“Who are you putting on a show for?” Lin Anbang dismissed the doctors and sneered at Yu Ning.

“Huh? A show?”

“You deliberately embarrassed me in front of others, knowing there was surveillance at home but not saying it until the police arrived, making me look bad! And now, you’re pretending to be considerate in front of the doctors!”

“Uh, Comrade Lin Anbang, do you need the doctors to prescribe some sedatives for you?” Yu Ning asked sincerely.

Lin Anbang valued his pride above all else, and today’s events had already made him lose face. To him, Yu Ning’s sincerity was just a deliberate attempt to humiliate him!

“You’ve only been here a day, and after just one meeting with my son, you act like you care more about him than his own father! You ask the doctors questions to make it seem like I don’t care about my son—what are you looking at?”

He hadn’t thought to ask the doctors about the equipment himself, so why should she? This scheming woman was up to no good!

After his outburst, Yu Ning didn’t respond.

She stared at Lin Anbang without blinking, examining him from different angles, making him uncomfortable.

“I’m analyzing your facial features deeply. I’m curious if President Lin is really your son; he looks more like he was picked up from a trash heap—oh, what a pity.”

The black cat’s ears perked up. Pity for what?

Let’s get into the details of regret!