Chapter 4: the Ning family

It had already been a month since her aunt leaked the truth about her birth while drinking in some bar, but only on the last day before school started that she was going to move to the Ning family.

After her exam result, she was admitted to high school, with the excuse of changing location, her father transferred her to the top school in the province, near their house. He had to pull some strings and pay the sponsorship admittance fee, to make up for her lacking score.

They stood beside the car sent by her father. Looking at her mother, even in her previous life, though they didn't warm up to each other like now, her mother still has the same look on her face; her tears were flowing incessantly. At that time she just scoffed at her, she thought it was stupid, and just trying to make her feel guilty. This time she was no different than her mother, she caught her mother's hands, "Mom, I'll make sure to come to see you next weekend, I'll call you often."

Her mother wrapped her in her embrace tightly, "just take care of yourself, don't let yourself suffer, you have me."

The chauffeur scoffed audibly and rolled his eyes. He got impatient as they kept hugging each other, "ahem ahem."

Mayin let go of her, and Lanru glared at him that he was startled, and avoided her eyes. She kept her eyes on him for a while, but she didn't say anything in the end. She wants to allow anyone to look at her again without her permission.

She hugged her brother as well, "brother take care of mom, you're the man of the house."

He wasn't awkward this time, he hugged her back, "It's not like you it was you, I always was the man of the house."

"This brat," she smacked him gently, and let him go.

He grinned and said, "Leave it to me, just visit us soon."

"Me or the smartphone, you snotty brat."

"Isn't it obvious," his grin widened.

She took a last look at her old neighborhood. They were renting the second floor of a 60 square meter house, it was in an old neighborhood where the houses were packed closely to each other not leaving any sunlight in. Fool smells and molds festered everywhere in the shadows.

The neighborhood wasn't safe for them, nor was it good for her brother's education. Unemployed thugs occupied hidden corners and narrow passages here and there. She had no doubts that she was gonna do it in no time. She didn't get a rebirth's cheat like those novels, but rebirth is a cheat in and of itself, especially for someone like her, who majored in finance; she studied a lot about the financial market. Once she organized her memories and get her hands on some funds, she would make her own money, a lot of it.

'I'll make sure to take you out of here as soon as possible.' she promised herself before she got in the car, looking at her mother and brother from the rear windows of the car getting smaller and smaller.

They were in the capital city of a second-tier province of country z. It took a while to travel to the Ning family mansion, it was on the other side of the city, The scenery continually changed as they got closer and closer to the new neighborhood, the travel got more comfortable as the car seized to bounce, the view relaxed with cleaner roads and spaced buildings, with more greenery in between.

Finally, their mansion could be seen, majestic even to its high-class entourage, with the main building rising above the walls with grand trees around it.

The car stopped inside, and two maids were waiting for them. One of them, around her early thirties, came over and took the luggage from the car's trunk, she was a nice one from her memories. The other one on the other hand in her forties was crossing her arms, she looked her up and down behind her big glasses before she joined the other one without unfolding her hands. Her magnified eyes weren't funny as she could hear her muttering, "..what a shameless bit.. ..ow can she come...?"

Lanru knew her very well, she was one of the servants who openly acted against her. Actually, she was at the center of it all. As she was soon to replace the head maid, she used her power over the housekeeping staff to pick on her. This time she won't let her off, but it wasn't the right time yet. Back then she made a scene as she used to do, and it didn't leave a good first impression of her, so she avoided arguing with the maids anymore, and it cost her dearly after most of the servants joined in covering for each other, and she wasn't able to stand tall in her own home.

She ignored her for now, she followed them for a while crossing the garden through a wide stone walkway. They came in front of a grand entrance, it was framed between two big pillars, and raised a few steps separated from the garden level. The door opened, and four people walked out comfortably.

Her father, Ning Shuji, looked at her with his narrow brown cold eyes, deep within their sockets. His dark stubble strictly compliments his short hair. It was like the first time she met him with her mother after her birth scandal broke out. He invited them to meet in a luxurious restaurant. He blamed her mother for hiding the truth of her birth from him, and he left immediately after he convinced her mother to send her over to him, to have a better future. He barely spared her a look or talked with her. At the time she was sad the father she missed her whole life didn't share the same feeling, but his fortune and the aspiration for a better life consoled her. Now, she was mature enough to understand his position, she didn't hate him, but she didn't like him either.

On her father's side, though he didn't show it. He was displeased by this daughter that popped out of nowhere. As a prominent family in the province, these past days were the first time in his life that he had to deal with so much criticism and scorn. Especially in the media, even their stocks show some negative fluctuation. But no matter what he couldn't be as narrow-minded as to blame it on his daughter, however, he couldn't hold any goodwill toward her either, even the background check didn't show she was special in any way. She was more likely trouble than anything else.

But looking at her now, at least she has the right temperament, she wasn't cowering in front of their wealth, nor was she excited senseless out of greed, at least she showed none of it. He liked this part about her.

Surprisingly as it may seem, out of all of her blood relatives present here, she liked her natural nemesis the most, her stepmom, Meili. Her eyes reddened as looked at her heart face, her straight hair turned around her neck and rested elegantly on her left chest beside a beautiful silver necklace, she was older than her mother in her late thirties but looked fresher, on her floral white summer dress, a lovely ruffle adorned its hems. Young back then, she wished Meili was her real mother, she was noble unlike her perception of her mother.

She missed her so much, she wished she could give her a big hug right now. In the past, she thought she was gonna meet a demon from hell, but she turned out to be a lovely lady. She was the person aside from her mother who stood by her the most. It was inappropriate though, she could only hold herself back.

Her sister, Rubi was like candy, with her round rosy face with sparkling big black eyes wrapped in smooth short hair. She was smiling at her like her mother. Her brother, Chenji, was three years older than her. standing beside her sister, in contrast, was as cold as tall as his father, but he was more disinterested in her than displeased.

Lanru bowed a bit once she got close as they walked to each other, "Hello, father, auntie, brother, and sister."

Meili walked closer to her, "your name is Lanru, right, it's as beautiful as you."

"Thank you, auntie. You are too nice," she smiled and looked at her sister, "my sister is the most beautiful, she looks a lot like you, auntie."

"Oh, you're so sweet," Meili smiled warmly at her.

Lanru nodded at her brother and father, but her sister pulled her to the side, "forget about them, they are so stiff, let me show you around."

Meili joined in, "yeah, we don't need to welcome you, this is your house from now on."

"Thank you for accepting me."

After showing her the main places in the house, they led her to a large room, a long table stretched in the middle, with a row of chairs around it.

"This is the dining room," Meili walked in first, "I'm showing it to you first before we let you rest in your room, so you can join us later on lunch, after that, I can show the rest of the house"

Lanru nodded and looked around like she was interested in the room, so Meili said, "Ok, let me show you your room now."

Lanru smiled, 'it looks like it's time for some action.'