Chapter 1: A Bolt from the Blue

“A three,” the girl in the delicate black-rimmed glasses placed a card down cautiously, looking at the empty cardboard box in front of them. “Clockwise or counter-clockwise?”

“Clockwise. It’s my turn next. Boom.”

Qi Ran slammed her cards down onto the empty cardboard box—four sevens, a move with considerable swagger.

The harsh, blazing sun of high summer filtered through the dense canopy of leaves, casting dappled light and shadows onto the dark brown wooden desks. A breeze, tinted emerald green by the leaves, toyed with the treetops, making them sway with a grating, irritating rustle. The infuriating cicadas were crying their hearts out with an earsplitting racket, merging into a sea of noise.

“Leading with a bomb right from the start? Sis, do you have any brain cells?” the short-haired boy sitting cross-legged on the floor on the other side of the cardboard box grumbled, throwing his own cards down. “And I’ll follow that with a bomb. Four Kings.”

“Wait a minute, aren’t you two on the same team? Why are both peasants leading with bombs?” the bespectacled girl sitting on a wooden chair exclaimed, gaping. Staring at the two Jokers in her hand, she hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should just go with the flow and bomb them too.

The short-haired boy said listlessly, “I can tell her mind is clearly not on the game. It’s probably still stuck back in the Teachers’ Office.”

The bespectacled girl, named Xu Yan, put down her cards and asked with keen interest, “I didn’t even ask yet. Was that your sister who came to school? She’s really beautiful.”

Qi Ran sighed and rubbed her already messy hair. The dark blue peekaboo highlights hidden within her loose strands were very striking. “She’s my sister? Do you see any resemblance between us at all?”

The short-haired boy put down his cards, stared at her seriously for a moment, then shook his head. “You two standing together look like a deep-fried grasshopper and French escargot.”

“You mean, although the styles are different, they each have their own merits?” Xu Yan asked.

The short-haired boy sighed, rubbing his brow. “No, I mean, one looks really poor, and the other looks really rich.”

“Straight to the point. Liu Xu, as expected of a popular novelist with a pre-tax monthly income of 1,600 bucks,” Qi Ran praised somewhat distractedly.

She glanced out the window once more. By the railing on the fourth floor, those two silhouettes were still chatting. They seemed to be having a very pleasant conversation. That woman just had that kind of talent—she could talk happily with absolutely anyone, acting flawlessly perfect.

She scratched her head. What Liu Xu said was indeed spot on. She and Tao Xiao were practically from two different worlds. If Tao Xiao was a flower arranged in an exquisite blue-and-white porcelain vase, then she was like a stalk of weeds growing in the corner of a wall. Thinking about it that way, Tao Xiao was really getting the short end of the stick—gaining nothing, and getting saddled with her in the bargain.

She truly couldn’t figure out what exactly was going on between Tao Xiao and Qi Jianguo. They had gone from meeting to being engaged in just one week. After meeting Tao Xiao, her father had acted like a completely changed man, saying he would quit drinking, quit gambling, turn over a new leaf, and become a new man. Without even holding a wedding, he’d brought Tao Xiao home and told Qi Ran to call her “Mom.” During that time, Qi Ran felt like she was sitting on pins and needles, because Qi Jianguo really had changed. He didn’t touch a drop of alcohol or a single cigarette and even asked about her well-being with concern. For her, interacting with this reformed version of Qi Jianguo was harder to stomach than getting beaten. Fortunately, within less than a week, Qi Jianguo went to prison. It was said someone had reported him, complete with evidence from his past fraud and pyramid scheme activities. The circumstances seemed quite serious, and he was sentenced to a full fifteen years.

Everything that happened was just completely baffling, she thought. It’s a good thing I’ve long since gotten used to this kind of baffling craziness.

She didn’t want to go live with her biological mother and older sister, so the only option left was to be Tao Xiao’s daughter in name.

“Correction, please call me Mr. One Thousand Nine… Alright, it’s basically the same thing, they’re both flops,” Liu Xu sighed. “What are you actually worried about? Putting aside the fact that Jiang High is really lax about dyed hair anyway, your stepmother seems to have a pretty good temper. Look, if we let her chat with Teacher Xia a bit longer, the two of them will probably be calling each other sisters.”

“Wait a sec, that beautiful woman is Qi Ran’s stepmom?!” Xu Yan looked like she’d been struck by lightning. Pointing at Qi Ran in front of her, her voice trembled, “That lady looks like she hasn’t even graduated college yet; she’s three years older than Qi Ran, tops!”

“Correctly speaking, ten years older,” Qi Ran stated flatly. “If I remember right, Tao Xiao should be twenty-seven this year.”

Xu Yan was speechless for a moment. She looked at Qi Ran, then back out the window, and lowered her voice to ask, “I forgot to ask, how old was that father of yours again?”

“Probably forty-four when he went in. He should be forty-six now.”

“Two years ago… so at that time, your stepmother was about twenty-five… just one year out of college?” Xu Yan’s voice trembled.

“No, at that time she was pursuing her doctorate at Pingjiang University. She married Qi Jianguo one week after meeting him.” Qi Ran’s tone was calm.

“Getting a PhD at Pingjiang University? Marrying a week after meeting him?! Marrying a drunk, abusive, debt-ridden gambling addict?! Huh?! Why?! What was she after?!” Xu Yan took off her glasses. This quiet girl, usually radiating a studious air, covered her face with her slender fingers, her expression looking like she was on the verge of a breakdown. Only after a moment did she finally calm down and, after careful analysis, ask, “I remember Qi Jianguo went to prison not even a week after the wedding for running a pyramid scheme. Does that mean… she was the one who put your dad away? Is Qi Jianguo actually a secret tycoon? Did he hide a huge amount of money somewhere outside before he went in, and your stepmother only married him for that money? Is she actually some kind of righteous superhero?”

“A righteous superhero wouldn’t do something like that. A superhero would just string that person up with the evidence and deliver him to the police station for some righteous judgment… If a female superhero got involved in a trashy cliché like this, the writer would get cyberbullied to death,” Liu Xu sighed, pressing his brow again.

He understood why Xu Yan was breaking down and babbling nonsense. As childhood friends, the three of them had grown up together—same neighborhood, same kindergarten, same Elementary School, same Middle School, same High School. They knew each other’s family situations intimately. Qi Ran’s heavyweight biological father had left a very deep impression on him and Xu Yan when they were young. After visiting Qi Ran’s house once, he and Xu Yan never dared to bring up the idea of visiting again.

Stepping inside, you were immediately greeted by a gloomy, dimly lit living room. All the curtains were drawn shut. The stuffy room was filled with the heavy stench of tobacco and alcohol. The worn-out leather sofa was covered in grease stains and cigarette burns where butts had been stubbed out.

Liquor bottles and large trash bags were piled on the filthy coffee table. A man in a shirt that hadn’t been washed in who-knows-how-long lay sprawled on the sofa, snoring like a tractor. Trembling with fear, he and Xu Yan followed Qi Ran into her bedroom. The bedroom door had been removed and was leaning against the wall. There was a wooden desk, a bed, and a small wardrobe in the room. Qi Ran’s expression was quite calm though. She even took out a crumpled deck of cards from the wardrobe and asked them if they wanted to play. They hadn’t played more than a few rounds when Qi Jianguo woke up. His smile was overly polite and ingratiating as he greeted him and Xu Yan, acting very much like an amiable old man, asking if they wanted fruit. He even forced five bucks on each of them, saying it was pocket money, and offered to walk them home… That overly attentive smile had creeped him and Xu Yan out to their cores, and they made an excuse and went straight home.

On Tuesdays and Fridays, that was when Qi Ran’s father was most emotionally unstable—the so-called lottery drawing times. That man would sit on the sofa, staring fiercely at the screen of that ratty old notebook, the veins on his forehead bulging. With every number revealed, he would roar along with it, occasionally throwing things on the floor. When the neighbors downstairs cursed at him, he would stand on the balcony and curse them back. When he lost money, he would slap his own face fiercely. After slapping himself, he’d start calling to borrow money. If he couldn’t borrow any, he’d sit on the sofa and drink in complete, oppressive silence… At times like that, any sound could be the spark that ignited his temper.

So, from a young age, Qi Ran learned to lie. She had quite a talent for it—completely deadpan and unabashed, making up stories on the spot. She lied to that man, saying the school offered a free boarding welfare program for single-parent families, allowing her to avoid home from Monday through Friday. Her initial plan was to hide and live in the equipment room of the school gymnasium, using the high jump mats as a bed. She could wash up and clean herself in the Washroom and Changing Room. But that plan quickly fell apart because the school security guard found her and said he would call her guardian. In the end, it was Xu Yan who begged her parents to go to the school and bring Qi Ran home. After learning about Qi Ran’s situation, they specifically set up a fold-out bed for her in Xu Yan’s bedroom.

When they found out Qi Jianguo had been convicted for multiple crimes and sentenced to fifteen years, the three of them held a small celebration, just thinking they were finally free. But life still had to go on. Even with help from Liu Xu and Xu Yan, it still took Qi Ran an entire afternoon just to clean up the house completely, finally making it look like a place someone could actually call home.

Tao Xiao had asked her very early on if she wanted to live with her. Qi Ran refused outright. Xu Yan’s parents also asked if she would be willing to be adopted by them, but Qi Ran refused that too. She had long since grown accustomed to living alone like this. The affectionate and close family atmosphere that Xu Yan had would actually make her quite uncomfortable if she were to be adopted into it.

Guess this means I’m a wild boar that can’t stomach fine dining? Qi Ran thought self-deprecatingly.

She spread her hands. “How could Qi Jianguo possibly have money? Right after he got locked up, debt collectors were throwing rocks through the glass of our windows and doors.”

In fact, it wasn’t just rocks. People had also painted words on the main door in paint—things like “Deadbeat, Pay Your Debts.” Sometimes, they’d even stake out the doorway. So whenever she came up the stairs and saw people loitering in front of her apartment, she would just keep walking up naturally, pretending her home was on a higher floor. She would then sit on the rooftop of the top floor, zoning out until the debt collectors got tired of waiting and left. She couldn’t be bothered to do homework during those waits. Anyway, her Middle School class teacher didn’t dare summon her guardian. The first time the teacher called Qi Jianguo in was because her homework had been torn up. That old class teacher, who had always looked down on her, was convinced she was lying and not doing her work. Qi Jianguo came into the school holding a slipper and, first thing, told the teacher, “Don’t worry, Teacher, I’ll discipline her right now…” In the end, several teachers had to come pull him away to put a stop to it. Perhaps fearing the hassle, that old class teacher actually stopped picking on her. In a way, maybe Qi Jianguo actually did the right thing there.

She glanced out the window once more, and this time, she froze. By the railing, Tao Xiao’s figure was gone. Teacher Xia stood there, looking like she was in a very good mood.

“I’m heading out first,” she said, bolting to her feet and grabbing the backpack beside her. “When she gets here, just tell her I went home right after school.”

“Huh?” Xu Yan couldn’t react in time. Qi Ran moved extremely fast. Since they were on the first floor, she simply chose the window on the other side and left through the bushes there.

Almost at the exact same moment, a gentle knocking sound came from the open door of the abandoned Classroom.

“Hello there… Are you students Xu Yan and Liu Xu?” The woman’s voice was very gentle. “I’ve come to pick up Xiao Ran to go home. Have you seen her?”

Xu Yan was completely tongue-tied for a long moment. She looked at the half-played game of Landlord on the cardboard box in front of her. With the irrefutable evidence right there, she really couldn’t bring herself to brazenly lie. She could only cast her gaze towards Liu Xu beside her.

Under the pressure, Liu Xu had no choice but to steel himself and lie through his teeth. “Hello, Aunt Tao. Qi Ran went home right after school.”

“It was Xiao Ran who told you to say that, wasn’t it?” Tao Xiao looked genuinely apologetic, her slightly furrowed brows filled with gentle worry. “I’m sorry to have put you both in a difficult position… It seems I’m still not a good enough mother.”

Liu Xu was at a loss for words and could only nod, feeling his conscience heavily condemned.

After Tao Xiao left, Xu Yan let out a long sigh and repeated her earlier bafflement. “Why? What is she after?”

“…Can this even be considered disaster relief?” Liu Xu muttered. “Or is she a Buddhist, trying to accumulate good karma?”