Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Upon hearing Meng Xinran’s words, Lin Qi put his documents down and paused for a moment. He took a while to realize that it was Qin Ran that she was referring to.

“What ticket? What exactly happened?” Lin Qi stood up.

“The tickets to the exhibition match.” Meng Xinran was almost mocking in her tone.

Lin Qi paused before answering, “I got it. Where’s Mr. Gao? I’m coming over to the school now.”

He hung up and tossed his pile of documents aside.

“Chairman Lin.” The assistant hurriedly came over as she saw him stand up.

“Put my schedule on hold.” Lin Qi frowned. He then gave Ning Qing a call, but she did not pick up.

Lin Qi furrowed his brows, “Give Housekeeper Zhang a call, ask her where Madam went.”

Lin Qi grabbed his coat and went out.

In fact, he actually had no idea if Qin Ran would even listen to Ning Qing.

Housekeeper Zhang replied very promptly—Ning Qing was at the beauty salon.

Lin Qi did not go straight to the school. He went over to the beauty salon to get Ning Qing first.

When he arrived, Ning Qing was having her eyes closed as someone gave her a facial massage. Her bag was left in another room, so she hadn’t heard it ring.

Ning Qing was shocked when she saw Lin Qi and got the masseuse to stop for a moment. “What are you doing here?”

Her heart sank. Lin Qi’s expression wasn’t too pleasant.

“Let’s go to school first. Your daughter had a conflict with Xinran,” Lin Qi calmly said.

Qin Yu was in the capital now.

Only Qin Ran was in Yun Cheng, and in the same class as Meng Xinran. Ning Qing felt her heart skip a beat. She didn’t even have time to grab her jacket as she got up immediately. “What happened?”

Why would she have a conflict with Meng Xinran?

Ning Qing knew how Lin Qi had been treating Meng Xinran.

“I’m not sure yet, let’s go to school first.” Lin Qi turned around and exited the salon.

Ning Qing grabbed her bag and walked out while giving Qin Ran a call. It was hung up on the second tone.

She evidently did not want to pick it up.

**

Over at First Middle School.

Meng Xinran took a huge breath and looked at the terrible mess of books. She went up to the Ninth Class without picking them up.

When she arrived there, she realized that her original seat had been filled—

This couldn’t have been Gao Yang’s doing. He had just arranged for her to sit where she was sitting, why would he make changes for no reason?

Besides Qiao Sheng, she couldn’t think of anyone who would do this.

Her fingers trembled with anger.

She walked into class and headed for Qiao Sheng right away, without even glancing at Qin Ran. “Qiao Sheng, what’s the meaning of this?”

How could he allow Qin Ran to just throw her belongings off the building?

“It doesn’t mean anything.” Qiao Sheng leaned back in his seat. “You threw someone’s books, and someone did the same to you. It makes sense.”

The other people in the class kept their heads low.

Meng Xinran looked around and sneered. “Fine.”

She turned away and walked out of the class.

She went to look for Gao Yang at his on-campus residence right away.

Gao Yang was the Head of the Mathematics department. He was spending his time preparing lesson notes.

With Director Ding and the principal involved, the other teachers in school dared not poke their nose into this business.

Meanwhile, the Ninth Class students did not inform Gao Yang about it too. Initially, it was because they hadn’t expected things to blow up like that. Then, it was because Wei Zihang was now involved, and everyone did not want to create more trouble.

Only when Meng Xinran went to look for Gao Yang did he learn about this.

He did not say much. He simply got Meng Xinran to take a seat first as they waited for Lin Qi’s arrival.

**

Qin Ran had been resting on the desk the whole time.

She only got up during the fourth lesson. Holding the few damaged books in her hands, she walked towards the school doctor’s office.

Everyone around her kept quiet.

Qiao Sheng furrowed his brows and asked He Wen, “Ask Director Ding whether they’ve gotten hold of the surveillance cameras footages.”

The most important thing now was to find out the truth.

Otherwise, the conflict would only get bigger.

Qin Ran arrived at the school doctor’s office. Lu Zhaoying was leaning back in his chair when he saw Qin Ran arrive with a book. “You’re reading tonight, not practicing your penmanship anymore?”

“I am.” Qin Ran looked at the practice sheets on the table.

Cheng Juan looked up as he heard her come in. He saw her expression and paused, but did not say a thing.

Cheng Mu had not arrived with the food, so Qin Ran sat there and began practicing.

Her expression eased as she wrote.

The cell phone she placed on the table rang.

She held it up in frustration. Just as Cheng Juan thought that she might hurl the cell phone to the ground, her expressions mellowed down.

“I’m going out to get something.” She did not pick up the phone as she told Lu Zhaoying and Cheng Juan that.

Cheng Juan nodded. “Go on.”

Cheng Juan waited for Qin Ran to leave with her cell phone.

He then came out and leaned against the table Qin Ran was sitting at as he flipped through her books.

These were the books he’d picked out with her.

They were very new, and Cheng Juan knew that this girl wasn’t interested in much, but she treasured such books a lot.

But he could see that these books were damaged in some way.

Why were there footprints on these brand new books?

Cheng Juan paused and narrowed his eyes.

**

Qin Ran walked out and saw the black van.

She walked towards it and the back of the van was opened.

There were only two people inside—a chauffeur and a young man in a baseball cap.

Ever since Qin Ran got into the back seat, the chauffeur had been trying to size her up.

But she was looking downwards, and he couldn’t see her whole face in the rearview mirror.

Her features looked nice, but she appeared rather impatient.

“Where are the things I asked you for a few days back?” Qin Ran leaned back.

The man sitting by the window tipped his chin up and placed a stack of tickets in Qin Ran’s hands. “You’re coming to watch our exhibition match tomorrow?”

He tilted his head and asked her.

His voice was clear and even sounded rather serious.

If someone else was here, they might be screaming.

Even though only half his face was visible, those hardcore fans could surely recognize that this was the king of Kyushu Tour Yunguang Consortium, Yang Fei.

“I don’t know, I’ll see. I’m asking for these for my friends.” Qin Ran didn’t look at how many he’d given her, but it was a rather thick stack.

She received it and placed it in her pocket. “Alright, I’ll be off then.”

On one of the nights she’d spent in the school doctor’s office, she’d video-called Yang Fei, asking for the tickets.

Yang Fei nodded and watched her leave.

Only after she was completely out of sight did he turn away.

He took his left hand out of his pocket.

It’d been clenched the whole time, and now he realized he’d been sweating.

The man sitting in the driver’s seat was the OST team’s current coach.

He looked at Qin Ran leave and a thought came to mind. He suddenly had a memory of a picture he saw when he met the older OST members. He turned around and looked at Yang Fei. “Sun God, j-just now… don’t you find that that girl really looks like…”

Yang Fei did not respond as he reminded. “Coach, we’ve got to go. There’s a training session at seven.”

The coach nodded.

But he couldn’t help but look towards the school gate one last time.

**

When Meng Xinran called Lin Qi, it was already during the third period in the afternoon. By the time he picked Ning Qing up and arrived at the school, it was already 10 minutes past dismissal time.

Ning Qing understood what happened from Lin Qi’s assistant.

She couldn’t believe it. “She took your ticket? Why?”

Qin Ran was disobedient, but from what Ning Qing knew about her, she wouldn’t do this.

“It wasn’t taking my ticket. It was stealing. The ticket is still with Qin Ran, that’s the evidence.” Meng Xinran corrected Ning Qing with a mocking tone. “As to why she did it, you’ve got to ask her. I don’t want to bring this to the police station, but I can’t take this lying down.”

Ning Qing panicked the moment she heard “police”. “Why would she be stealing, that ticket could be…”

“Do you think everyone can get that ticket?” Meng Xinran glanced at Ning Qing.

It wasn’t in a sarcastic tone, but Ning Qing stiffened.

“Uncle, that’s your stepdaughter. You settle it yourself.”

Ning Qing turned towards Lin Qi.

Lin Qi thought for a bit and then asked Gao Yang, “Mr. Gao, Ran Ran won’t pick up our calls. Could you get her to come here?”

Although he wasn’t really prejudiced against Qin Ran, and even regarded her quite highly, Meng Xinran was still more important in comparison