Chapter 1: Tomorrow, it rains.

Clouds stormed endlessly over the remote city, carelessly scattering rain and wind across it. It fell unassumingly before the doorstep of a small orphanage.

Standing before this same orphanage was the bloodied figure of a woman, her beautiful, large eyes red-rimmed and puffy. Her face conveyed mixed feelings of guilt, fear, and determination, with the lattermost emotion eventually triumphing over the rest.

Looking down into her arms, great amounts of love could be made out from her expression, as there laid a small child nestled within a blanket. He had large eyes like her own, but they were shut tightly as his small brows furrowed.

She cooed gently at the child, stroking his cheek with her long, slender fingers. "Xiayu, your mother loves you, you know that, right?"

The child slowly opened his eyes as he grabbed onto his mother's finger. Seeing this, the woman felt tears welling up but held back. She had prepared herself for this and knew that she must not hesitate.

Taking a moment to vividly carve her son's image into her eyes, she forcefully pulled herself away from the eyes of the confused child.

Setting him down, she said, "I will someday return for you, Xiayu, so just wait for your father and I. At that time, we can finally be together." At the same time, she pulled out a small necklace which had the words 'Ming' and 'Xiayu' carved on the front and back.

After putting it around her son's neck and knocking the wooden door, she quickly turned around and fled in the opposite direction, not wanting to stay a moment longer as it would put her child in further danger.

The small child, Ming Xiayu, watched his mother walk away under the cover of endless rain and dark clouds. However, there was a kind of intelligent clarity in his eyes that was not there before.

At this time, a woman stepped out of the orphanage and looked around. After that, she noticed the child at her feet and sighed.

Su Qinxue had never expected that a child would be orphaned the very first day of working at her aunt's orphanage. However, she was still not unfamiliar with such cases and proceeded as she had been taught.

She gently picked up the child from the floor as she peered into the fold of the blanket. Then, she had actually received some genuine surprise. This was because two big, pretty eyes were calmly looking back at her.

Although Su Qinxue had never personally done a 'pick-up', she was still well-informed. She knew it was very strange for a baby to not cry in this kind of circumstance, and was worried it might have hit it's head.

But after a minute or so of scrutiny, she could not find any faults. Instead, she could even say that the baby was abnormally cute and sensible. That was also when she saw the necklace wrapped around his neck. She read aloud.

"Ming... Xiayu. Xiayu?" Su Qinxue turned to the raining skies at the mention of this name.

She was not the only one who reacted to the name however, as the child cutely tilted its head with that same curious look. Even more, there appeared to be a look of faint… derision?

Su Qinxue shook her head. There was no way that this child who could only be around a year old would have the mental capacity to look down on someone.

Quickly laughing at herself for these thoughts, she said, "Let's get inside, Little Yu." Of course, she had already taken the liberty of nicknaming him.

Closing the door behind her, they went inside together.

Not more than 15 minutes later, two men in strange clothing arrived. If any bystanders were present, they would have asked if they were shooting a historical drama given their martial attire.

After a moment, the taller one spoke. "The rain has washed away a lot of her scent, I can no longer track her." His tone was serious and offered no room for argument.

Hearing this, the shorter one spoke. "It doesn't matter, once that wench hears that we have her lover, she'll return to the family anyway. At that time, how could we not extract the location of their child."

The taller one again spoke with the same monotone expression. "Regardless of what she has done, she is still our Lin Family's Eldest Miss. You are not allowed to call her otherwise, unless you want to die without a complete corpse."

Hearing this threat, the shorter figure did not even have a change of expression. Instead, he casually waved his hand, "Yeah, yeah. But tell me, in your heart, do you really see her as our family's Miss?"

On the taller figure's paralyzed face, a rare conflicted look appeared.

Seeing this, the smaller figure inwardly 'tsked' as he turned around towards the direction they came from. "Our mission is complete, Old Hei, let's return. If that woman knows what's best, she'll return on her own."

Old Hei subconsciously nodded as he shook himself out of his thoughts. He surveyed the surroundings one last time, his eyes momentarily lingering on the orphanage, before looking away.

In his eyes, no one could tell what he was thinking as he returned to the Lin Family's ground with his mission partner.