Chapter 12: blind.

Mayin knows she can't avoid him as long as she stays here, she braced herself, greeted him, and said, "I just received a call from my daughter, I'll go back to my post right away."

"There's no need to hurry, is it something urgent? you can take a leave," trying to look magnanimous like always in front of her, but she knew behind her back, he was the one making suffer. She was always buried under piles of work. She has to work overtime every day to keep up with the schedule. He didn't even pay her additional hours. When she complained to him, he always promises but never gives. She applied for other jobs many times and didn't even pass the screening. The market was bursting with qualified candidates. She struggled to attend university and wasn't able to finish her degree to support her daughter, and her marital status, she didn't stand a chance. That was why she had to bear all this without complaining, to put food on the table.

Some coworkers passed by, stopped after hiding from the boss' eyes. They looked her up and down before they left, shaking their heads. She knew their talk would only take longer if she refused his offer, so she accepted, "thank you, boss, I'll come as soon as possible, and make up for the lost time."

"You don't need to be this serious, you know I admire you," he took a few steps closer to her.

"Thank you, boss," she hurriedly stepped back and bowed slightly, "I'll take my leave then."

"You know, you can always come to me."

She didn't turn back, instead hurried her steps away hearing his last words.

After the afternoon period, Lanru left school only to find Meili waiting for them again, Nuan was with her in Meili's personal car.

Meili looked hopefully at her, "are okay today."

"Not bad," Lanru still can't understand why Meili liked to buy her clothes, was it her hobby, maybe that was the reason she could overcome their differences.

"Great, let's shop again, you still need a lot of clothes."

"Yeah, we didn't make it last time," Nuan chimed in.

Lanru could only accept, she got in the car and Rubi followed after her, but Maili stopped her and pointed sternly to the other car, "you go back first."

"Mom, I want to go too."

"No, you will keep buying clothes you don't need, you already have more than enough."

Rubi grumbling took the other car, and each went in separate directions. At the mall, Nuan kept giving her bad suggestions, and she took none of them. Because of her in the past, she didn't have a lot of good outfits. Even now, they wasted a lot of time because of her, yet again, she brought another outfit with a smile on her face, an overly colorful one, "here try this Lanru, I think this would definitely look good on you."

Lanru couldn't take it anymore, "aunt Nuan, thank you but I think we have different tastes," Nuan's smile distorted, Lanru ignored her and said, "let's leave it for aunt Meili, our tastes match perfectly."

Meili seconded, she was tired as well, "sister, let's do that, you don't seem to share the same tastes, indeed."

Nuan's lips parted and closed a few times without saying anything, she humped and left to check other clothes. She chose clothes for herself this time. Lanru could finally relax as she didn't want to offend Meili through her sister.

After that, the shopping went smoothly and they were able to return home, but Lanru was stuck with another shopping rendezvous. According to Meili, they wasted a lot of time, so they weren't able to buy everything she needed. It wasn't that Lanru hated shopping, it's just that she had a lot in her mind to deal with.

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The next morning, at school, she was on her way to her class when a message from her mother arrived. Reading it, Lanru smiled, her mother acted fast, there was a bank account number. She called her mother for a moment before she went to class.

The next day, finding her way to the class, as usual, she ran into Shifan, she almost spat in his face to ward off bad luck.

"Hello Lanru," he smiled at her like a good senior.

"Hello, senior,"

She just greeted him and continued on her way. She could see his displeased face but paid him no attention. She didn't even tell him her name, yet he already found it on his own, and here he was comfortably calling her like they are already close.

She spent most of the last few days in school looking for a way to keep an eye on her brother, especially today, she spent the whole day brainstorming a foolproof method. That was the most important thing for her right now, she wasn't ready to deal with her ex yet.

She thought of bugging their rooms but it won't be enough. She needed to spy on them all the time, especially when they were talking with other people. Only then would she have a chance to find something important. The only thing that accompanied people everywhere, every day, was their smartphones.

Unfortunately, her father has an Ephone. As uneducated as she might be on the subject, she knew it wasn't easy to install a spying app on it. Her brother on the other hand has an android smartphone. Lucky for her, he was her prime suspect.

The day passed in a jiffy like that. No other teacher found trouble with her, maybe she became a little bit too popular. Only Mr. Wang, Mrs. Fu glared daggers at her, but said nothing, she even made it obvious she didn't care about their class, yet received nothing but death stares. It was disappointing, but whatever, she takes what she can get.

Waiting by the building exit was Shifan. He walked to her before she could pretend she didn't see him, saying hello, then he said, "are you free by any chance?"

"I'm not sure, why?"

"I was just wondering if you want to grab a drink together."

Lanru smiled, her mouth wide, 'I want to grab your neck and strangle you, that's what I want,' but she can't say it, she was still too angry to deal with him for a long time, she needs to be as cold as a snake to start her plan, 'so just piss off for now, please,' she took a deep breath, "I think my auntie is waiting for me," she took a few steps away before her legs halted, "besides, I don't think we are close, senior."

"We can get close from now on, can't we?" He smiled, posing with his hand brushing back a few locks of hair on his face, "let's do it another time," he caught many girls' hearts with his looks and status, but Lanru didn't seem impressed. His confidence didn't waver, though.

'You can act hard to get, that would only make it more fun.'

The three snake girls passed by her again, they glared at her viscously. But Shifan reprimanded them, "hey you, don't let me catch you picking on her again, do you understand."

The 3 girls only humped and looked away, walking past them.

'Hah, how stupid.'

Lanru just rolled her eyes, before she left without saying anything. It looks like this guy was really set on getting her, it was no mistake that they dated in the past. The guy was doing many things behind her back, but somehow she missed any of it. It was just appalling how blind she was, but there's no use crying over spilled milk. Fortunately, at least this time, she can see things more clearly. He was definitely hiding something.

She cleared her mind of him, and could only laugh awkwardly seeing Meili waiting for her with her personal car. it seemed her sister already left, and Nuan wasn't there either. She used to accompany them all the time for shopping. it seems there's no fun if she can't ruin it, "auntie, I think we got enough outfits for a while," she already expected her again. It was like the past, she was guarded at the beginning, thinking her stepmom was just scheming something, it was too good to be true. Time proved her wrong though, Meili kept showing the same interest and sincerity toward her, and didn't make her suffer in any way, she could only give up. This was the reason she was still hesitant to doubt her stepmom.

"We didn't buy you winter clothes, it won't be long before it comes, it's better to be prepared."

Knowing Meili, she could only surrender, but she has to find a way to reject her amiably, she can't keep her company all the time.

Back at home, she brought her shopping bags to her room, and after dinner, she started her research. She looked up how to bug smartphones, but her fingers stopped mid typing.

Thinking about the cameras, she really can't carelessly use the internet in this house, her privacy wasn't assured here. She can't let anyone know about her intentions. She looked for a way to protect her phone's privacy first. It was a big subject, she tweaked with some basic options, and installed a VPN app for now.

Feeling more at ease, she resumed her research. Android stores didn't offer the spying apps she wanted either, but at least it was easy to install unofficial apps on android devices.

Checking the available apps, she didn't find much, and none of them worked perfectly. They were untrustworthy to put on her brother's smartphone, he was still family after all, and they weren't exactly what she was looking for either.

Looking for more alternatives, she opted to order a custom-made app. She found a popular freelancing website, prepared her requirements, and put a command for freelancers to bid their offers on it.

Her requirements were simple:

Record audio, upload it on a server organized by device and ordered by time.

Another app to listen live on spied devices, or to listen to uploaded recordings, and an option to delete the recordings.

Though she lacked money now, it would be easy to get it. Even if her plan to get some funds failed, she can just thicken her skin a bit and ask her father, so she wasn't worried.