Is it hard to chase the school beauty?It doesn't matter, she still has roommates

She picked up the greasy menu on the table, glanced at it, and then spoke to the somewhat bewildered owner standing to the side.

"Boss, ten skewers of each kind, please. Hmm... lamb skewers, beef skewers, beef tendon, heart tube, chives, eggplant... and this, this... oh, right, and two more lamb kidneys. Half a dozen beers, ice cold, please."

She ordered quickly, in a calm tone, without showing any sign of dislike or discomfort; her skill was surprisingly adept.

Qin Luo watched her series of actions, especially when he heard her order the bold dish "Kidney" without batting an eye, and his expression became somewhat strange.

He picked up the beer on the table and took a sip, trying to hide his surprise.

After Mu Linshan finished ordering, she handed the menu back to the owner before turning her gaze back to Qin Luo, just in time to catch a fleeting look of surprise in his eyes.

She smiled slightly, a smile that instantly enlivened her cold and beautiful face, as if the ice and snow had just melted.

"What? You think a woman like me shouldn't be sitting in a place like this, eating at a roadside stall and drinking beer that costs only a few dollars a bottle?"

Qin Luo put down the wine bottle and readily admitted it.

"It is indeed a bit of a surprise. I thought that people like you... well, people with a higher standard of living, would keep their distance from these things."

"Level of living?"

Mu Linshan repeated the word softly, a slightly self-deprecating smile curving her lips.

"Yes, now it seems like I never lift a finger, I go to high-end places, and live a life of luxury."

Her gaze seemed to drift further away, and her voice lowered, carrying a calm reminiscing about the past, but beneath this calm lay a turbulent undercurrent.

"But before I was adopted by my godfather... I used to rummage through garbage dumps for leftover food, and I even fought with stray dogs for half a piece of moldy bread... When I was in the orphanage, I was also kidnapped by human traffickers and almost sold to some unknown place."

Qin Luo listened quietly without interrupting.

“Around the age of seven,” Mu Linshan continued, her eyes somewhat vacant, as if she had traveled through time.

"I was wandering the streets alone, cold and hungry. I couldn't take it anymore, so I picked up some food that had been thrown away by someone and had gone bad. As a result, I had a terrible stomachache and a high fever. I curled up under the overpass, feeling cold and miserable. I thought I would die from the illness that night, or freeze to death there."

Her tone was calm, but the scene she described was heartbreaking.

"Later, a very young and seemingly kind couple found me."

A glimmer of light flashed in Mu Linshan's eyes, a memory that was a mixture of warmth and confusion.

"They bought me clean food and hot water. The aunt hugged me and kept me warm, while the uncle went to find a doctor to treat me."

They took pity on me and wanted to take me in. At that time... I really thought I had met an angel and found a home.

"but,"

Her tone faltered slightly, carrying a hint of barely perceptible disappointment.

“The next morning, when I woke up, they were gone. They left me with some money and a note with an address and a name on it... It was my godfather, Grandpa Mu. Later, my godfather found me at that address and took me in.”

After recounting her difficult childhood, she picked up the still-cold beer bottle that had just been served, and without using a glass, tilted her head back and took a big gulp, her action displaying a boldness that seemed incongruous with her appearance, or perhaps... a form of catharsis.

As Qin Luo listened to her story, especially when he heard about the young couple, an inexplicable sense of familiarity arose in his heart, as if something deep in his mind had been touched.

He guessed that the couple might not be heartless, but rather had some unspeakable difficulties, or even that they had specially arranged for Grandpa Mu to take in Mu Linshan. However, after so many years, the truth could no longer be verified.

Mu Linshan put down the bottle, her fair cheeks flushed slightly from the alcohol and her emotions.

She took a deep breath, as if temporarily suppressing those heavy memories back into her heart. Her gaze became sharp and firm again as she looked intently at Qin Luo, and then abruptly changed the subject.

"Qin Luo, let's get married."

"puff--!"

Caught completely off guard, Qin Luo spat out the beer he had just taken a sip of, choking and coughing until his face turned red.

He looked up and stared at Mu Linshan with the eyes of someone looking at a madwoman, hardly believing his ears!

marry?!
This was only the second time he and this woman had met! They barely exchanged a few words at the hospital; their total conversation was less than three sentences!

Now, she's sitting in front of a smoky barbecue stall with a serious expression, proposing "marriage" to him, who's practically a stranger!

Qin Luo's first reaction was to reach out and touch Mu Linshan's forehead, his tone filled with disbelief.

"Miss Mu, are you... are you running a fever? Or did you drink too much at the party tonight and are still hungover? What nonsense are you talking about!"

He couldn't understand or accept this sudden and utterly absurd marriage proposal at all.

Looking into Mu Linshan's eyes, which were still serious and even resolute, Qin Luo felt a huge sense of absurdity and pressure.

He stood up abruptly, disregarding all decorum, and almost instinctively turned and left!
This place, this woman, everything is so strange!

He needs to leave quickly!

Mu Linshan sat there, watching Qin Luo's almost hasty retreat. Her carefully drawn eyebrows furrowed tightly, and a hint of surprise, resentment, and anger at being slighted flashed in her beautiful eyes.

Her visit was the result of careful consideration.

In her view, marrying Qin Luo, the "crown prince" who nominally holds 70% of Anbang Group's shares, is the best solution to break the current deadlock.

By virtue of her status as the "Crown Princess," she can legitimately intervene in and control the operations of Anbang Group, integrate resources, suppress Qiu Qinxiang, and ultimately achieve her strategic goal of "using the Crown Prince to gain control of Anbang."

She had even planned out a series of subsequent actions and bargaining chips for the exchange of benefits.

She had anticipated that Qin Luo might hesitate and try to bargain, but she never expected his reaction to be so intense and direct—as if he had heard something unbelievable, and then… he turned and left?!

This completely disrupted her rhythm and expectations.

"Qin Luo!"

Mu Linshan couldn't help but stand up and ask Qin Luo's retreating figure a question with resentment.

"Don't you want to truly control Anbang Group? We can cooperate!"

However, Qin Luo didn't even pause for a moment. He simply waved casually with his back to her, and his figure quickly disappeared into the bustling crowd of the night market, leaving Mu Linshan standing alone, feeling the curious and inquisitive gazes cast upon her by the diners around her.

An indescribable resentment welled up inside her. When had Mu Linshan ever been treated with such coldness and contempt?
However, when faced with Qin Luo, who had the strong support of Daofeng and was nominally the largest shareholder of the group, her usual methods of coercion and inducement seemed to have lost their effectiveness.

She took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing her anger and frustration, and resumed her cold and aloof demeanor, as if nothing had happened.

She glanced at the steaming hot skewers and ice-cold beer that had just been served on the table, but ultimately lost all interest in sitting down to enjoy them.

"Bill, please."

She coldly gave an order to the bodyguard beside her, then turned around and, amidst a sea of ​​awe and curiosity, sat back in the extended Rolls-Royce.

The convoy slowly started moving, driving away from this place full of life yet which made her feel utterly defeated.

……

Back in her luxurious penthouse apartment, Mu Linshan dismissed all the servants and stood alone before the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing down at the dazzling night view of Fuzhou. The city's prosperity and hustle and bustle seemed to be separated from her by an invisible barrier, and her mind remained restless.

Qin Luo's departing figure, without hesitation, was like a thorn stuck in her heart.

But at the same time, the past events mentioned at the barbecue stall tonight were like opening Pandora's box, causing those vague childhood memories buried deep in her heart to surge up uncontrollably.

That cold night, the biting wind under the overpass, the excruciating pain in her abdomen, and the young couple who descended like angels, giving her warmth and hope... Their faces are somewhat blurred in her memory, but the feeling of being cared for and protected remains clear.

She went to the bedroom and opened a built-in safe that required both a password and fingerprint verification. Inside, there was no jewelry, no documents, only a small, exquisite velvet box that looked somewhat old.

She carefully took out the box and opened it.

What was treasured inside was not some valuable jewelry, but rather half of a faded and somewhat worn red hair tie.

This was the only thing she owned as a child that could be considered an "accessory".

The floodgates of memory were opened completely.

She was about six or seven years old that year. She was abducted by human traffickers and ended up wandering the streets, suffering all kinds of hardships.

Just when she thought she was going to die silently under that cold overpass, the young couple saved her.

They not only gave her food and medicine, but the gentle aunt also helped her wash and groom herself, clumsily but patiently braiding her hair into two small braids with this red hair tie.

She remembers being very happy at the time, thinking it was the most beautiful hair tie in the world.

She carefully untied the hair tie, then forcefully broke it in two, giving one half to the chubby-faced little boy next to the couple, who looked about her age.

The little boy received the broken hair tie and smiled broadly, revealing his missing front tooth. He confidently told her.

"Miss, you're so kind! When I grow up, I'll definitely marry you! I'll use this half of a red ribbon as a betrothal gift!"

Her childlike words, though innocent, gave her immense comfort and hope during those dark years.

However, beautiful fantasies are as fragile as bubbles.

The next morning, when she awoke from a rare peaceful sleep, the kind couple and the little boy who had promised to marry her were nowhere to be found. Only some money and a note with Grandpa Mu's contact information were left beside her pillow.

Later, Grandpa Mu found her, adopted her, and gave her a comfortable life and the opportunity to receive an education.

To live up to the surname "Mu" and to repay the life-saving grace, Mu Linshan made efforts far beyond what ordinary people could do.

She was exceptionally intelligent, completing all high school courses on her own at the age of fifteen, graduating with honors from top universities in China, such as Tsinghua and Peking University, at the age of eighteen, and then going abroad to earn a master's degree from Cambridge University at the age of twenty-one.

After returning to China after completing her studies, she transformed Anbang Group's previously insignificant security and property management companies into absolute leaders in the industry in Fujian Province in just over three years, thanks to her exceptional talent and decisive methods, thus creating a stable and substantial cash flow for the group.

She has everything she had ever dreamed of.

Status, wealth, and power.

But deep down, she never gave up searching for the couple and the little boy.

She used all available resources and connections, but the family seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace.

That broken red hair tie became her only remaining thought and an irreparable regret.

……

On the other side, Qin Luo practically fled back to his penthouse at Yipin International.

Mu Linshan's sudden "marriage proposal" tonight was so shocking that he is still somewhat unsettled.

He went straight into the bathroom, turned on the cold water, and let the icy water wash over his body, trying to calm his somewhat confused mind.

After showering, wrapped in a bathrobe, he walked to his desk and subconsciously opened one of the drawers.

There were no documents in the drawer, only a small wooden box that looked quite old. The box wasn't well-made; in fact, it was rather rough, like something a child would have made.

He opened the wooden box, inside were several small pieces of paper with crooked drawings on them. They were his only toys when he was a child in the orphanage—cards he had drawn himself.

In addition, half of a faded and very old red hair tie lay quietly in the wooden box.

Qin Luo picked up the broken red ribbon, a strange sense of familiarity washing over his fingertips.

He vaguely remembered that it was given to him by a kind older sister when he was a child in an orphanage.

The girl seemed to take good care of him, but the specific circumstances under which she gave him the broken hair tie, and what she looked like... these memories were shrouded in a thick fog, and no matter how hard he tried to recall, they remained blurry and unclear, leaving him with no impression whatsoever.

Just seeing this broken hair tie occasionally stirs a faint, indescribable ripple in my heart.

Just as he was staring blankly at the hair tie, he suddenly heard the sound of a key being inserted into the lock outside the door.

Qin Luo was taken aback. Who would come at this time?
He put down the hair tie, closed the drawer, and went to the living room.

The door was gently pushed open, and a slender figure peeked in.

When her gaze met Qin Luo's, who was standing in the center of the living room, both of them were stunned.

The person who came in was Chen Yihan. (End of Chapter)