The next day, a black sedan pulled up in front of the orphanage gate. The car was clean and expensive-looking, the kind one would never see in a village like this. The driver's door opened, and a middle-aged man stepped out. He stared at the gate and immediately felt his mood drop.
The gate was rusted in places, and the paint had peeled off so long ago that nobody probably remembered what color it used to be. Even the signboard was missing to indicate what this place was. If he hadn't been given the exact location before and, and if he couldn't hear the sound of children laughing from inside, he would have thought this was some abandoned building.
He clicked his tongue inwardly.
So this was where the Shen family's eldest miss had been living all these years?
Ridiculous.
Before yesterday, he did not even know the Shen family had another daughter.
When Butler Wang suddenly told him to drive to some remote village to pick her up, he had honestly thought the old man was joking. Then he remembered that he and Butler Wang weren't exactly close enough for that kind of joking around.
From the few words Butler Wang had said to him, he could already tell that this girl wasn't favored by the Shen family. And honestly? He didn't really blame them.
Not only was she a cripple waste who had dropped out of school, but she also lived in a remote village. Who knows what she had been doing all these years? Her mere existence was a stain on the name of the Shen family. If it were up to him, he would have never let her come back.
He swallowed down all his complaints and pushed open the gate, which groaned loudly, making him wince.
The kids who had been playing in the courtyard stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at him. The kids who were playing in the courtyard stopped in their tracks when they noticed him and stared at him. Then, one of the boys ran inside, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"There is a man at the gate! There is a man at the gate!"
The driver frowned in displeasure and followed the direction the boy had run into. Halfway across the courtyard, he was met by an older woman who was the director of the orphanage. She gave him a polite smile and led him to her office.
A soft breeze blew through one of the open windows, making the thin curtains flutter. Shen Yelan sat quietly in her wheelchair near the open window. The pale sunlight fell softly across her face. One of her hands rested lazily against the armrest while the other casually tossed an old phone into the air before catching it again.
Sometimes later, there was a knock on the door. Grandma Wen stepped inside. Her eyes were a little red, though she was trying hard not to show it. She looked at Yelan for a moment, then said quietly, "It's time."
.
.
The car has been driving for eight hours, stopping only twice because the driver needed a break and had to eat something. He never once asked Shen Yelan if she needed to use the bathroom or what she wanted to eat. Each time he came back to the car, he tossed a wrapped sandwich onto the backseat.
Both sandwiches were still sitting on the seat next to her, untouched. A water bottle had joined them at some point.
The driver kept glancing at her in the rearview mirror. He'd been doing it since they left. He still couldn't quite believe that this girl was the eldest daughter of his master.
Since yesterday, he had created all kinds of images in his mind about what she would be like.
Maybe she would be loud and uncivilized after growing up in a village. Maybe she would be timid and awkward. Or maybe she would desperately try to please him after realizing she was getting rescued from that rundown orphanage.
But Shen Yelan was none of those things.
She had barely said two words to him the entire trip. When he introduced himself, she just nodded. When he told her to get in the car, she just wheeled herself over and somehow managed to get into the backseat without any help. When he tossed the sandwiches back there, she just let them sit and never complained. She did not even look at him after the initial introduction.
His thoughts unconsciously drifted toward Shen Wanwan, the beloved young miss of the Shen family. Compared to Shen Yelan, Shen Wanwan truly lived like a princess. She was always dressed in limited edition brand clothes, unlike the faded jeans and a blue hoodie with frayed cuffs Shen Yelan was currently wearing. Shen Wanwan never left her room without applying makeup on her face, while Shen Yelan was sitting bare-faced, revealing her pale face. The only color on her skin came from her red lips.
Yet even like this, Shen Yelan was far more beautiful than Shen Wanwan. No, there wasn't even a comparison between the two in the first place.
Even while sitting quietly doing nothing, she drew attention naturally.
Her skin was pale, almost to the point of looking translucent under the city lights. Her long dark hair framed her face softly, making her gray eyes appear even colder.
The only color on her face came from her lips.
They were bright red like fresh blood against snow.
The driver quickly looked away again. Something about this girl made him uncomfortable. Most children her age would have been nervous returning to a wealthy family after living in a village for years.
But Shen Yelan looked completely unbothered.
.
.
At some point, the car finally entered South City. Tall buildings stretched endlessly into the night sky while streams of cars moved like flowing rivers beneath them.
Cold night air rushed inside immediately, playing with strands of her dark hair. She rested her chin lazily against her palm while watching the city outside.
In the distance, a tall skyscraper stood proudly above all the others. The building was not straight, but had a perfect curve, like a bow ready to be drawn. At the very top, the name KIAROS glowed in clean silver letters.
Shen Yelan's gaze lingered there for an extra second. Then she looked away.
When the car stopped at a signal, another car pulled up to them. To most eyes, it would have looked like an inexpensive, ordinary car, but Shen Yelan, who had a deep love for cars, recognized it at first glance.
This low-key car was from one of the most exclusive car brands in the world. Judging by the exterior, she could tell it was modified. There was an insignia on the car's hood, though she could not recognize which family it belonged to.
.
.
Sitting behind the steering wheel, Mo Shiyu was dying of boredom.
Because of one small incident, where he had lost some money due to a scam, he was now forced to work as the secretary of this ice sculpture masquerading as a human being by his eldest cousin, so he could 'learn' some common sense. It had been two weeks into his sentence and he was already wishing he could go back. But what to do, if this man was a devil, his eldest cousin was the King Yama himself.
So here he was, working as a driver when he should be at a bar drinking with the other children of rich families. If his friends found out, he would never recover from the humiliation.
In the back seat of the car sat a man in a dark suit. His black hair was combed back without a single strand out of place. A pair of thin gold-framed glasses sat on his nose, hiding his sharp phoenix eyes. His gaze was lowered, reading a file in his hand.
"Oh, it's snowing!" Mo Shiyu suddenly exclaimed.
The man in the back seat raised his gaze from the file and looked outside.
Small white flakes had begun to drift down from the dark sky, swirling gently in the wind. This was the first snow of the winter.
He watched the snow for a moment. Then his gaze shifted to the car next to them. A pale hand was stretched out from the open window, trying to catch the snowflakes.
His eyes moved along the arm and landed on the red lips that were curved into a soft smile reveling a set of dimples. Her eyes were slightly long and narrow, angled at the corners like a mischievous fox. The gray in them sparkled like gemstones under the falling snow and city lights.
She was really pale, and the only color on her skin was the red of her lips. It should have made her look sickly and fragile, but instead, it made her look ethereal, untouchable. Like some winter goddess who had accidentally wandered into this mortal world.
He wasn't sure how long he'd been staring. As if feeling his gaze, the girl looked in his direction. If it wasn't for the tinted window of his car, their eyes would have met.
Then, the signal turned green, and the cars pulled away from each other, heading in opposite directions.