Chapter 54

Did you drive here?

After settling the bill, Yun Shuqian followed Qin Xiaoyu into the elevator, watched him press the “-1” button, then turned her head in confusion, looking up at him and asking.

Buying a car these days isn’t anything new.

But Yun Shuqian found it strange: just not long ago, she’d heard from Chen Wei that Qin Xiaoyu’s startup was struggling.

To buy a car in less than two months clearly defied logic.

Someone gave it to me.

After Qin Xiaoyu answered, they reached the basement level. After a few steps, they stood before a brand-new Kulinan.

He walked straight to the driver’s seat.

Behind him, Yun Shuqian froze solid at the sight.

Girls usually don’t know much about car brands.

But Yun Shuqian, as a counselor at Yun University, recognized the unmistakable golden emblem.

This car was a gift?

Whether others believed it or not, she didn’t believe a single punctuation mark. A walking god of wealth like Gaohe? He wouldn’t give someone a Rolls-Royce.

Are you coming or not?

Qin Xiaoyu started the car. Seeing Yun Shuqian still standing outside, he rolled down the passenger window and urged her.

In that moment, Yun Shuqian suddenly felt this man was growing harder to understand—almost as if a strange distance had opened between them.

Yun Shuqian knew clearly this feeling wasn’t caused by their long separation.

It was as if Qin Xiaoyu had become someone entirely new.

To find out why he’d changed so much, she had to go with him—no matter what.

Of course I’m going!

Yun Shuqian snapped out of it, opened the door, and slid into the passenger seat.

What puzzled Qin Xiaoyu was that after getting in, Yun Shuqian didn’t ask any more questions.

She fastened her seatbelt, gazed quietly out the window, her thoughts drifting, a flicker of daze in her eyes.

…

Evening.

At the entrance of a children’s welfare home in Yuncheng, the sunset painted the ground in gold.

Beneath this picturesque scene, few noticed a deeply discordant spectacle unfolding nearby.

A very young girl ran frantically through the crowd.

Tears filled her eyes; she kept glancing back over her shoulder as she ran.

When a strange man and woman appeared in her line of sight, her expression grew even more panicked.

A loose stone tripped the girl.

Raw, horrific wounds covered her knees; weakness and searing pain filled her with despair and terror.

At that moment, a small hand appeared before her.

Get on, I’ll carry you! They’re catching up.

The boy reached out, pulled the girl up, squatted low, and turned back to say.

The girl hesitated for a few seconds, saw the strange couple closing in, clenched her teeth, mustered her last strength, and climbed onto the boy’s back.

The boy struggled under her weight, turned a corner along the road, slipped through a broken gap, entered the welfare home, and finally reached a corner.

It’s… it’s okay!

The boy gasped for breath, caught his breath after a moment, then turned to ask the girl: “Who were those two?”

I… I don’t know them.

The girl, her face trembling with fear and unease, shook her head slightly and answered.