Chapter 2
The December wind howled through Jing City, scraping across people’s cheeks like a bone-cutting blade.
The leaves on the trees lining both sides of the roads in the Jinhe Garden villa community rustled in the wind.
According to the weather forecast, Jing City would see its first snowfall in another week.
The Pei residence was as warm as spring. The scent of bergamot still lingered in the third-floor bedroom, its citrus notes permeating the room.
On the two-meter-wide bed, the quilt completely covered the sleeping person’s body, leaving only the crown of her fine, jet-black hair visible.
It was still early, not even eight o’clock yet.
Several minutes later, the person in bed let out a wail. Finally, she sat up and raked a hand through her hair in frustration.
Pei Hanying’s muttering carried a hint of despair. “How have I been transmigrated into this body for four years and still haven’t gotten rid of this damned biological clock?!”
In her previous life, Pei Hanying had been a miserable corporate drone. Under the company’s brutal 007 schedule, she had not only achieved the goal of spending her entire salary every month but had also managed to die young in one fell swoop. Before even reaching thirty, she had dropped dead at her post.
Perhaps Heaven had taken pity on her for dying so young and given her the chance to be reborn with all her memories intact.
And just like that, Pei Hanying was reborn into one of Jing City’s wealthiest and most prestigious families, becoming the Pei family’s only daughter.
The moment she was born, she effortlessly came into possession of five properties in Jing City’s most prosperous districts, along with all kinds of luxury cars and more priceless jewelry than she could count.
For the more than four years since her birth, Pei Hanying had been cherished in the palms of her parents’ hands. They had spoiled her into becoming arrogant, willful, and free-spirited, and she no longer wore the faint look of impending death on her face every day as she had during her corporate-drone years.
She was now a genuine young heiress.
But the one thing she couldn’t change was her biological clock, which became increasingly punctual as she grew older. Every morning between seven and eight, she would inevitably wake up.
Falling back asleep was completely impossible.
What kind of young heiress had such a punctual early-rising schedule?!
Pei Hanying raked another hand through her hair.
The little girl’s thick, long hair fell messily around her shoulders, doing nothing to diminish the beauty of her face.
Although she was only four years old, she was already exquisitely pretty and adorably fair, with delicate features that made anyone who saw her praise her as a beauty in the making.
After sitting in bed for several minutes, Pei Hanying maneuvered her short arms and legs and nimbly climbed down.
She changed into casual clothes in the walk-in closet, washed up, and only then went downstairs.
By the time she reached the ground floor, Aunt Feng had already prepared breakfast. Pei Hanying preferred Chinese food, so nearly all three of the Pei family’s daily meals were prepared according to her tastes.
Hearing the little girl’s light footsteps, Pei Yuan paused her conversation with her husband and turned around. When she saw the child in a red cardigan and white woolen skirt, looking like a bright little mushroom, her lips curved into a smile.
She called out, “Yingbao, it’s time for breakfast.”
Pei Hanying raised her head and gave Pei Yuan a sweet smile.
“Good morning, Mommy. Good morning, Daddy.”
Chao Qing nodded, bent down, and lifted her into her special chair.
The Pei family had originally followed the rule of not speaking during meals or at bedtime, but ever since Pei Hanying learned how to talk, she had become a complete chatterbox.
She simply couldn’t stop herself from talking while eating, so the rule had fallen by the wayside.
Listening to her daughter’s young, crisp voice during meals always put Pei Yuan in a much better mood.
After breakfast, Pei Yuan and Chao Qing played building blocks with Pei Hanying for a while before preparing to leave for the company.
Once her parents had left, Pei Hanying placed the final block on top and sighed somewhat melancholically.
Pretending to be a child and acting like an obedient little darling in front of her parents was exhausting.
She clearly already possessed a mature soul.
As she thought this, the playroom door opened.
A maid poked her head inside and said, “Miss, the roses in the greenhouse have bloomed. Would you like to go see them?”
Pei Hanying’s eyes immediately lit up. “Yes! Sister Tingting, I want to see them!”
She tossed her previous thought aside, sprang to her feet, and followed the maid toward the greenhouse.
A large part of the Pei villa’s backyard was occupied by Pei Hanying’s greenhouse.
Growing flowers was a hobby she had only developed in this life.
Pei Hanying was quite talented at it. Most rare and valuable flowers survived under her care and bloomed beautifully.
The orchids Old Madam Pei liked were difficult to cultivate, so most of them had to pass through Pei Hanying’s hands.
Pei Hanying also treasured every flower and plant in the greenhouse.
The rose in bloom was an Yves Piaget. Its large, beautiful, deep-pink double blossoms stood out vividly among the greenhouse’s many pale-colored flowers and plants.
After admiring it for a while, Pei Hanying watered and fertilized the other plants before patting the soil from the hem of her skirt.
The greenhouse was enclosed but transparent. The little girl had only just stood up when her sharp eyes noticed that the persimmons, which had still been green some time ago, had now turned completely red. The bright-red fruits dotted the branches, whose leaves had nearly all fallen, making the tree look like an ink-wash painting winding upward.
She licked her lips and looked at the maid, Xia Ting, her eyes sparkling.
“Sister Tingting, let’s go pick persimmons.”
Xia Ting’s heart skipped a beat, and she immediately tried to dissuade her:
“Miss, that’s too dangerous. We should have someone else pick them.”
Pei Hanying had already formed a plan. She shook her head.
“I want to pick them myself. I’ll only pick one or two. Mommy and Daddy won’t find out.”
“If anything happens, it’ll be because I insisted on it. It won’t have anything to do with any of you.”
Having said that, she made the decision. “Sister Tingting, have someone set up a ladder against the wall. It’ll be steadier and safer that way.”
Although she was young, she had always known what she was doing.
No one in the household dared defy her decisions, so after hearing this, Xia Ting could only arrange for someone to set up the ladder.
Pei Hanying put down the small shovel in her hand, went back inside to put on a down jacket, then picked up a small basket and pattered toward the backyard.
There was a considerable difference between the temperatures inside the house and outdoors. The moment she entered the yard, Pei Hanying shuddered from the cold.
But her enthusiasm for picking persimmons remained undiminished. After directing several people to secure the ladder against the section of wall nearest the persimmon tree, the maids held it steady below while Pei Hanying climbed to the very top and reached out to pick several persimmons.
She wasn’t greedy. After picking a few, she planned to climb down, but just as the persimmons dropped into the basket, she heard a faint sob from the other side.
It sounded like a kitten’s quiet cry, scratching lightly across the tips of her ears.
Pei Hanying froze, pressed one palm against the top of the wall, and looked around in confusion.
The maids holding the ladder below were trembling with fear, terrified that their little tyrant might fall.
Seeing that she had picked enough but still showed no sign of coming down, Xia Ting could only remind her:
“Miss, hurry and come down. It’s cold outside. You’ll catch a cold if you stay up there.”
Pei Hanying knitted her brows, pressed a finger to her lips, and softly went “Shh,” signaling for them to be quiet.
Once everything fell silent again, she could hear nothing but the fierce roar of the wind.
It was as though the sound Pei Hanying had heard earlier had merely been an illusion.
Could she really have imagined it?
Unable to find anyone, she picked up the basket and was about to climb down the ladder when she suddenly sensed something. Her gaze swept toward the corner outside the villa wall and abruptly stopped.
A girl whose face she couldn’t make out was curled up in the corner outside the villa wall, her face buried in her knees. Her frame was tiny, and she looked only three or four years old.
She wore thin clothes, and her body trembled violently. Her long hair hung loose, covering most of her body, its ends yellowed. She was gray and grimy from head to toe, like a bedraggled little kitten.
Whose child had wandered over here? Pei Hanying wondered in confusion.
Security at Jinhe Garden was excellent. Anyone who didn’t live there wouldn’t be allowed inside, which meant the only possibility was that the girl was also a resident.
That couldn’t be right, could it? She didn’t look like a child from a wealthy family.
But appearances alone couldn’t determine everything. Perhaps the little girl had quarreled with her family.
Leaning over the top of the wall, Pei Hanying called in her direction:
“Hey, whose child are you?”
Her voice was crisp, without the softness or childish lilt commonly heard among children, making her sound somewhat imperious.
The child didn’t respond, but Pei Hanying’s sharp eyes caught the slight stiffening of her body.
How rude. She had clearly heard Pei Hanying but still refused to answer, Pei Hanying complained inwardly.
She disliked impolite children most of all and shouldn’t have meddled in the first place.
With that thought, Pei Hanying lowered her head and looked at the maids anxiously watching her. “Sister Tingting, help me catch the basket.”
With that, she tossed the basket down, and they caught it perfectly.
After seeing the basket land safely, she decided she would no longer concern herself with that rude child and began climbing down while holding both sides of the ladder. But after descending only two rungs, she puffed out her cheeks and immediately climbed back up.
Pulling off her down jacket, Pei Hanying shouted, “Hey! Make sure you catch this. My clothes are very expensive!”
With that, she threw the down jacket over the wall. Her aim was fairly accurate, and the wind blew it directly over the child in the corner, covering her from head to toe.
Pei Hanying, now dressed in nothing but her thin cardigan, couldn’t help sneezing.
She swiftly climbed down the ladder, hugged her arms, and headed back inside.
The soft, lightweight down jacket covered the little girl in the corner, carrying a faint citrus fragrance.
Her body, which had been trembling from the cold, was instantly enveloped by the warmth remaining in the jacket. Heat welled around her, shutting out the cold from the outside world.
Ning Song raised the face she had buried between her legs and poked her head through an opening in the down jacket.
Emerging from the burgundy jacket was a pale, delicate face. A deep bite mark marred her originally bloodless lips, lending them a hint of color. Most striking of all were her jade-green catlike eyes.
She raised her head and looked toward the top of the wall where Pei Hanying had been leaning moments ago. The girl who had spoken was already gone, and even the top of the ladder peeking above the wall was quickly removed.
As she listened to the footsteps receding into the distance, Ning Song’s red, swollen fingers clutched the down jacket.
She wondered blankly why that girl had suddenly given her a down jacket.
…
“Achoo! Achoo!”
Pei Hanying sat on the sofa clutching a cup of prepared cold medicine, her face ashen.
She wrinkled her nose and said in a muffled voice, “I don’t want to drink it.”
Children had weak immune systems. Although she had only been exposed to the cold for a short while, the tip of her nose was already red, and she couldn’t stop sneezing.
Aunt Feng looked at her, appearing utterly cold and merciless at that moment.
“No. You have to drink it. Otherwise, if you catch a cold, Sister Tingting and the others will be punished.”
Pei Hanying tightened her grip around the cup. “It wasn’t their fault. I was the one who insisted on being willful.”
Although she knew Pei Yuan and Chao Qing weren’t the kind of people who would take their anger out on others, Pei Hanying still worried that she might implicate Xia Ting and the others and get them punished. In the end, she pinched her nose and gulped down the awful cold medicine.
As she drank, Pei Hanying thought viciously:
If she ever had the chance to meet that rude child again, she would definitely force her to call her “Big Sister” several times.
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