Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

The picture had been taken in their house’s garden. Her parents sat in the garden’s pavilion while she and her brother stood by the side.

The girl’s youthful face carried a confident smile. Qiao Yi had always been a quiet and obedient child.

The mother was soft-spoken and gentle, while the father was handsome and elegant.

They had been a happy family of four and in Qiao Lian’s mind at the time, this happiness would never come to an end. But who would have guessed the sort of changes that life would bring?

Her parents were falsely accused and committed suicide to escape punishment.

She had never believed that her parents had done the things they said.

Hence, she had to obtain her reporter’s certificate so that she could investigate it and pursue the truth. She had to report the truth and let the world know that her parents were innocent.

She wouldn’t allow her father to have a tarnished reputation.

She clenched her fist tightly and sighed heavily.

She had put up with it for nine months, there were just three more to go.

With this thought, she carefully slipped the photograph between the pages of her notebook in the drawer.

The photo albums before she was 18 had all been destroyed in that fire.

This particular picture was the one she had carried in her wallet, so it had been spared.

And this picture was everything to her.

She sat for a while until she calmed down and then stood up to go to the restroom.

When she returned from the bathroom, she found…

A group of people had gathered at the entrance of her office.

Angry voices could be heard coming from the office and amidst the commotion, she vaguely heard something fall on the ground and then Shi Nianyao’s raised voice, “Stop it, what are you doing? Let go!”

Qiao Lian froze for a moment and then dashed into the office. By this time, her office had been turned upside down by Su Meimei.

Su Meimei was like a madwoman and had swept away all of her belongings on the desk onto the floor. Furthermore, the huge bouquet of 100 roses from Shen Liangchuan had been thrown on the ground and trampled over.

Even more infuriating, after doing all that, Su Meimei couldn’t be appeased and continued venting. She went on and opened Qiao Lian’s drawers, emptying all the content on the ground.

The roses on the ground had become a trampled mess and the rose petals had been squashed into damp pulp.

The notebook in her drawer had fallen on the ground, and it had been dyed scarlet by the pulp at once.

Qiao Lian’s pupils shrank as she spotted her family portrait falling on the ground.

But then, Su Meimei inadvertently stepped on the picture.

Suddenly, she felt something snap inside her head. Without another thought, she pushed through the crowd and charged into the room, mournfully shrieking, “Su! Mei! Mei!”

Every word carried all the hatred and anger that she felt. Her voice was sharp and bore a certain foreign element, shocking and stunning everyone around them, including Su Meimei.

She clenched her fists tightly and walked into the room one step at a time.

After Liu Zhixing had slapped Su Meimei, she had gone back to talk to him and seek his forgiveness.

However, Liu Zhixing was determined not to see her.

Full of uncontainable fury, the next best thing she could do was find trouble with Qiao Lian.

After the destructive rampage, she was a little calmer but when she turned and saw the burning anger in Qiao Lian’s eyes, she immediately panicked.

She had never seen Qiao Lian this way.

The rims of her eyes were blood red, and the darkness and hatred reflected in the windows of her soul were as though they came straight from the depths of hell, making one tremble with fear.