Bright Town—

After living seventeen years, Aurora Whitmore was finding out for the first time that she wasn’t an orphan after all.

That father of hers, the one everyone said had been run over and killed ages ago, was actually alive and kicking. Not only that, he was some big-shot figure in Capital City.

The luxury car sent to take her back to "enjoy the good life" was already parked at the gate.

The whole neighborhood had come out to watch the drama.

"The Whitmore family owes this girl way too much. If they’ve got even a shred of conscience left, they better make it up to her from now on."

Inside the yard,

the old lady stood face-to-face with the elegant woman.

The woman had a designer bag hooked over her arm. One hand kept waving in front of her nose like the air itself offended her. Her face was well maintained, sure, but the disdain on it was impossible to miss. She didn’t respect the old lady one bit.

"Her father has to take her to a proper hospital and get her checked."

At that, the elegant woman shot an impatient glance toward the corner of the yard—

The girl was standing beside a chicken coop fenced with bamboo strips, holding a chipped plastic basin.

Ever since the woman stepped through the gate, that girl had been busy fussing over those scrawny chickens, acting like the woman who came to pick her up had absolutely nothing to do with her.

Granted, she had only been here for two minutes.

Still, shouldn’t this girl have been waiting at the gate ages ago, eyes full of gratitude, practically craning her neck to watch for the car, then rushing over the second it stopped?

I mean, after waiting all these years, after finally getting the chance to leave this dump because her rich father had come to take her away to a better life—

How was this nothing like what she had pictured?

Aurora Whitmore grabbed the last handful of feed and scattered it neatly into the coop with easy practice. Then she casually flung the basin to the ground.

Crack.

The already broken basin split even more.

She’d been the one who smashed it up like that in the first place.

She dusted off her hands, then lazily slid them into her pockets before finally turning her head to glance their way.

That expressionless face carried a clear, sickly chill.

Her skin was already pale, but now it looked even more unhealthily white.

The old lady was still going on and on.

The elegant woman cut her off impatiently. "Alright, alright, I got it."

As she spoke, her eyes kept roaming up and down over the girl.

The girl looked like her mother, inheriting that stunning face almost perfectly, but her whole vibe was the complete opposite, and her personality was even further off.

One look at those cold, distant eyes was enough to tell.

A plain white T-shirt, wide-leg jeans, and a high ponytail tied up neat and clean. Her thin frame looked even frailer under the loose clothes, so gaunt it made people feel a little bad for her.

But seriously, that face was ridiculously good-looking.

On the surface, she looked like one of those obedient top students who only cared about school, but that was totally different from what her husband had found out—that she skipped class every other day and ran wild all over the place.

Probably all an act.

Just looking at her now, hands in her pockets, standing there with that nothing-scares-me posture, made it obvious this girl was definitely not someone easy to mess with.

"Aurora, go wash your hands, then... then go home with her... with Mrs. Whitmore."

The old lady held back her tears and took her to wash up.

Aurora Whitmore said, "You're really not coming with me?"

Her voice was light, almost flat, but the concern in it was real.

The old lady shook her head, smiling with that same gentle warmth. "Grandma can't leave this place. Don't worry. I can take care of myself."

Even though Aurora Whitmore promised again and again that she had the ability to find her a separate place to live in Capital City, the old lady still refused without wavering.

For one, she did not want to become a burden to her.

For one thing, she really didn’t want to see Aurora Whitmore’s father.

She was getting old. She couldn’t stay by Aurora’s side for much longer, and sooner or later, Aurora had to leave this place.

Most importantly, Aurora needed to get proper treatment at a big hospital.

"When you get back, have your dad take you to a good hospital first and get your body sorted out."

The old lady held Aurora’s hand tight, over and over, like she was afraid that if she let go too soon, there would be things left unsaid.

"Live properly with them, okay? But don’t bottle everything up and suffer in silence either. Study hard too. You can’t keep being this wild like you are here, disappearing all day and making people worry..."

"Mm."

Aurora didn’t try to persuade her grandmother to come along anymore.

"If anything comes up, call me. If I’ve got time, I’ll come back."

They were about to part, yet neither of them looked especially heartbroken. Even now, her voice stayed calm, flat, almost detached.

Aurora swung the black backpack off the wooden table and slung it over one shoulder, then called toward the room,

"Blackward—"

"Woof—"

A tiny black puppy, dark as a lump of coal, shot out the second it heard her voice. Its round little belly was practically brushing the floor, and its plump backside wagged so hard it looked like a tiny motor as it zoomed straight to Aurora.

The shiny golden bell around its neck jingled nonstop the whole way.

Aurora lowered her eyes to the little black dog. "Say goodbye to Grandma. We’re heading out."

"Woof—"

Blackward instantly turned and barked once at the old lady.

The elegant woman had just started to relax when she saw the old lady clearly wasn’t planning to come with them. But the next second, she realized something was off and hurriedly asked,

"What do you mean? Don’t tell me you’re planning to bring this dog too? And..."

She leaned in and gave the shiny little black mutt a proper look, then pointed at it and asked, "So what is this thing exactly? A dog or a baby bear?"

The moment the words left her mouth, even the rich woman felt like her brain had glitched.

Who the heck keeps a bear?

But honestly, the little mongrel really did look a bit like one.

Like the kind that could totally sneak off and steal a cassock or something.

Aurora Whitmore slowly turned her head to look at her. Her face was blank, and she said, word by word, "Dog. Bear."

The rich woman ignored Aurora Whitmore's weirdness and said in a firm tone, "I don't care what it is. You're not bringing it."

Aurora Whitmore lifted her eyelids slightly. "Since when do you get the final say?"

The rich woman's temper flared instantly. She was just about to blow up when something crossed her mind, and she forced herself to swallow it back down.

She stopped wasting words on Aurora Whitmore, reached straight into her bag, pulled out a bank card, and shoved it into the old lady's hand without giving her any room to refuse.

"Marcus Whitmore asked me to give this to you. The password is written on it. Just take it. If you don't, I won't be able to explain myself when I get back."

With that done, she turned around and walked right out of the yard.

Aurora Whitmore climbed into the car with Blackward in her arms. Her calm gaze landed on the old lady standing at the gate, reluctant to see her go. Aurora Whitmore lifted a hand and motioned for her to head back inside.

"That car looks crazy expensive. So Aurora Whitmore's rich city dad really came to take her back? Was Old Mrs. Fairmont telling the truth? Is this for real, like a total glow-up from nobody to princess? She's seriously about to live in a huge villa and start the good life?"

"Who knows. That woman who came to pick her up is probably the new wife her dad married. One look and you can tell she's not easy to deal with. Aurora Whitmore's such an honest kid. She won't get bullied, right?"

"She's never home anyway, always running off somewhere, and she's never cared much about school. Even if she goes back, nobody there's gonna like her. Wouldn't be surprising if she got sent back again."

Amid all that so-called concern from the neighbors, Aurora Whitmore, who had basically been raised free-range for seventeen years, sat in the luxury car as it headed toward her biological father's mansion.

Aurora Whitmore quietly looked out the window at the place where she'd lived all these years.

They had never moved. Part of it was because her grandmother couldn't bear to leave, but to be fair, the scenery here really was nice.

Every single day, she had to keep her real temper on lockdown, hide what she was actually like, and play the part of some normal girl her age in front of her grandma and all the neighbors.

Honestly, it was exhausting.

And even then, they still weren’t happy.

They still thought Aurora Whitmore was bad news, not a good person by any stretch.

Though, to be fair, they weren’t exactly wrong～

She pulled out her phone, plugged in her earphones, and opened the game.

[CatNuts]: "God-tier player! I’ve got money, seriously, a ton of it, piles and piles of cash! Please, I’m begging you, move your noble little finger and accept my friend request!!!"

The second she logged in, a message popped up at the bottom of the screen.

She didn’t even need to look at the ID to know who it was.

This guy was seriously next-level persistent. And shameless too.

Didn’t matter whether she was on PC or mobile—every time she came online, he would show up like clockwork in the very first second.

How bored was this dude, seriously?!