Su Wanqing’s eyes widened.
“What did you say?”
Su Nian was in no hurry to explain.
She brushed past Su Wanqing, glancing back coldly as their shoulders met.
“She will be an interesting little fellow.”
“Stop right there. You’d better explain this clearly to me today. Isn’t torturing me alone enough? I haven’t seen my father since I was a child. Who knows if I’m even yours or just adopted?”
Su Wanqing clenched her fists.
Her only purpose for living was to kill the woman standing before her.
Facing her murderous daughter, Su Nian didn’t panic. Instead, she laughed.
“What? Haven’t you been secretly stealing my hair and running DNA tests countless times? Besides, don’t you always say that everyone is a stranger or a stepping stone to you? You shouldn’t be catching feelings for someone like me. I just found you a sister, not a stepdad. Moreover, you instinctively got angry without verifying my information. You’re too impulsive; you’ll never be my successor like that.”
Su Nian walked over to the coffee machine and tipped an empty jar.
She looked down at the pile of empty cans at her feet, noticing the 100g net weight labels.
Her gaze shifted to Su Wanqing.
“Drinking too much coffee will make you irritable.”
“None of your business! You were lying to me just now, weren’t you?”
“It’s true.”
Su Nian ignored Su Wanqing’s shocked expression, unscrewed her thermos, and took a sip of coffee.
“However, given your current mental state, I can’t hand her over to you yet. Otherwise, you’ll play her to death sooner or later.”
Su Wanqing tightened her grip.
Her cold gaze landed on the hand Su Nian used to hold her coffee cup.
She sneered, “Who knows if you’re lying again? Besides, I’ve never seen her. Even if you bring this sister back, I won’t acknowledge her.”
“Reverse psychology doesn’t work on me. Instead of wasting time arguing with me, you should think about why you only have the courage to argue with me and nothing else.”
Su Nian smiled slightly and closed her thermos.
“Alright, I’m going to rest. Don’t come up to the second floor tonight. I’m going to tidy up a room for your sister. Or, if you think she’s that annoying, I can just take her to my place.”
“Wait.”
Su Wanqing blocked Su Nian as she prepared to go upstairs.
“Give me… give me a photo of my sister.”
“No.”
Su Nian was firm, her face blooming with a smile.
“How could I let my little darling be doxxed by her own sister?”
With that, Su Nian headed to the second floor without looking back.
Su Wanqing watched Su Nian’s receding figure, her hair ruffled by the warm draft.
She went to the kitchen and opened the coffee cabinet.
Finding it empty, she opened a delivery app.
She ordered a cup from a nearby coffee shop that hadn’t closed yet, then rushed into her room and locked the door.
She tossed the curved daggers hidden in her pockets onto the table and put on a cat-ear headset that completely clashed with her usual vibe.
Giving a frustrated kick with her small feet clad in black leather shoes, she opened her game.
She had no actual skill and played terribly, but her “money power” made up for that shortcoming.
After dropping a red envelope in the lobby, someone joined almost immediately.
“Want to add me on VX? I’ll carry you.”
Su Wanqing frowned.
She clicked the top-left corner and kicked the person out.
She recruited in the lobby for a while longer until someone with a newbie title joined.
Just as Su Wanqing was about to complain about which blind newcomer had the nerve to accept a high-priced commission and was ready to kick them, a message popped up in the chat box.
“Can I just play one game?”
Su Wanqing was a bit confused.
This person was acting like they owned the place.
Their avatar frame was plain, looking like a newly registered account rather than an expert.
Wait, it *was* newly registered.
Damn, she had run into a real character.
“Just one game, please! I want to eat a 9.9 Pinhuofan.”
Su Wanqing:
“…”
Sometimes, when a person reached a certain level of speechlessness, they actually wanted to laugh.
Since she was in a bad mood and found the situation amusing, she reluctantly agreed.
“We’re playing for fun. Don’t tank my rank.”
“Um… but there’s a Golden Egg Event today. The drop rate is higher in a team. It’d be a pity to miss it.”
‘They even know about the Golden Eggs?’
Those were high-level resources that could be sold in the Trading House.
But with this person’s setup, could they even snag an egg?
Su Wanqing had a bit of a headache and didn’t feel like looking for another teammate.
She simply started the game.
If her rank dropped, she would just hire a female booster to climb back up later.
***
Inside the Hospital Ward, Jiang Ran saw that her Pinhuofan was within reach.
She was moved to tears; she never thought she’d have to beg for food even inside a game.
‘Rich lady, I’m hungry. Please give me money!’
Once in the game, Jiang Ran asked her teammate for basic equipment and then hurriedly typed for the other person to follow her.
A question mark appeared on the public screen.
Jiang Ran realized then that the exploit in this game hadn’t been discovered by anyone in this world yet.
It would probably be a while before it was patched, so she simply told the other person to stay close and not ask questions.
When it came to gaming, Jiang Ran was still quite confident.
Although her body had shrunk, her mind was still sharp.
Relying on her superior mechanics, she racked up several kills right at the start.
Using certain game features, she handled the enemies with ease.
By the end of the round, the person beside her had basically won without even firing a shot.
Afterward, Jiang Ran didn’t ask for any items and gave the Golden Egg directly to the “rich lady.”
“With your skills, you could make more than a Pinhuofan in the boosting section. Why are you begging in a public lobby?”
Su Wanqing voiced the doubt in her heart.
This person’s skill was even better than some of the top-ranked female boosters she had hired before.
Even if they were desperate for money, it shouldn’t be like this.
“Uh, I don’t have much time. I was just purely hungry and wanted to eat some takeout. I saw someone posting a request and took it. Sorry if I disturbed you.”
“Oh. Are you a boy or a girl?”
Su Wanqing tapped the screen.
If it was a guy, she’d just transfer the money in-game.
If it was a girl, that was a different story.
Maybe they could play together in the future.
“I’m a girl. Why? Just transfer it to me in the game, and I’ll find a trader to cash it out.”
“Don’t go through all that trouble. Give me your Penguin account, and I’ll add you. I hire boosters all the time anyway; I’ll pay you according to their rates.”
On the hospital bed, Jiang Ran’s eyes sparkled as she read the text.
‘There are such nice strangers in this world.’
Without hesitation, she copied and sent her Penguin account over.
Afterward, she chatted with Su Wanqing about various resources they could stock up on that might increase in value.
Of course, Jiang Ran knew that these price differences were nothing to an all-powerful rich lady.
The game they played was in a completely different league.
Just looking at the guns the rich lady had given her—almost every single one had a skin, and some were of rare quality.
It took thousands of dollars to roll for those skins.
In the past, Jiang Ran could only look at them.
She couldn’t afford to buy them, as just one would cost several months of her living expenses.
Meanwhile, back in the apartment, Su Wanqing copied the “expert’s” ID and pasted it into the add-friend interface.
She clicked search.
Immediately, a notification popped up on the screen, showing that they were already friends.
Seeing that 1 hour ago, they had been warmly sending out club meeting messages to each other, Su Wanqing tentatively typed a question:
“Jiang Ran, are you… really short on money lately?”