After being kicked out of the wealthy family along with her yandere childhood friend

When Bai Tao and Pei Jin entered the police station, they were greeted by a middle-aged police officer with thinning hair and wearing black-rimmed glasses. He looked kind and gentle.

Bai Tao made Pei Jin recount the incident of being robbed, including details about the people involved, their appearance, and all the other details he could remember.

The police officer listened and took notes in his notebook, his brows furrowing more and more deeply.

"That alley..."

The police officer put down his pen and sighed.

"There are too many blind spots in the surveillance cameras over there, and if those people are familiar with the terrain, they can run away in different directions through the side roads, change their clothes, and be completely unrecognizable."

Bai Tao opened her mouth as if to say something, but then swallowed it back.

The police officer closed his notebook, looked up at them, and...

"Let's file the report first. We'll let you know when we have any updates."

But to be honest... the chances aren't high, so don't get your hopes up too high.

Bai Tao nodded, forcing a polite smile, but her heart sank.

As Bai Tao walked out of the police station, she squatted on the steps and let out a long sigh.

The sun was shining on her back, burning her slightly, but she didn't want to move. She just squatted there, like a blade of grass wilted by the sun.

what a shame.

If Pei Jin can find his phone, maybe their lives will be a little better than they are now. I wonder how much money Pei Jin has on his phone.

"Why--"

She sighed again.

Pei Jin stood beside her, glanced at her with his head down, and said nothing.

Bai Tao raised her head and squinted at the vehicles coming and going outside the gate.

She began to miss the days when she could sit in a Porsche with the air conditioning on.

Summers back then never felt hot.

The car was well-cooled, and the seats had ventilation. She was wearing a beautiful dress and pretty high heels, and she didn't even break a sweat.

Bai Tao rested her chin on her knees, which landed on the ground in front of her. Pei Jin stood beside her, a thin layer of sweat on his forehead, a few strands of hair sticking to his temples. He stood there silently.

She can't afford a car.

But she can afford to buy an electric car.

The problem is, she has never been able to ride an electric bike in either of her two lifetimes.

Even if she was kicked out in her past life, she would only take a taxi when she went out, and would only take the bus when she was not being seen.

She had never touched an electric car before, nor had she ever thought of touching one.

Bai Tao squatted there, her mind wandering through all sorts of random thoughts, when she suddenly realized that something was off about the quietness around her.

She suddenly looked up.

Pei Jin is gone.

Bai Tao's heart jumped into her throat.

"Pei Jin! Pei Jin!"

There was no response. She looked around frantically, then suddenly stood up, and the next second, everything went black.

Her body swayed, her knees buckled, and she fell forward.

A hand firmly supported her arm.

The darkness before Bai Tao's eyes slowly faded, and Pei Jin's face went from blurry to clear.

He frowned slightly, one hand supporting her upper arm, the other hanging behind her back.

"What's wrong?" Pei Jin's voice was a little lower than usual.

Bai Tao took a couple of breaths and waited until the blackness in front of her eyes had completely disappeared before straightening up.

Pei Jin's hand was still supporting her arm, the warmth of his palm seeping through the thin fabric, almost too hot.

She looked down at his hand, and Pei Jin released his grip, his fingers slowly sliding off her arm.

"Where did you go?!"

Bai Tao's voice was louder than she had expected, carrying a kind of anxiety that even she herself found unfamiliar.

Pei Jin looked down at her, his eyes filled with an emotion he himself couldn't decipher.

Why are you in such a hurry?

I didn't see him for a while.

Bai Tao seems to care about him a lot.

The moment he released the white peach, his fingers curled slightly, as if trying to grasp something in the air.

He himself couldn't explain what that feeling was like.

"I just went over there and asked."

Pei Jin's voice returned to its usual calm.

Are there any job openings nearby? Where can I find a job quickly?

Bai Tao paused for a moment, then nodded, her tone gradually calming down.

"Oh... okay. But with your high level of education, finding a job shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Pei Jin followed Bai Tao outside, saying, "I don't know either."

Pei Jin's voice was calm, as if he were talking about something that had nothing to do with him.

"But my graduation certificate and other resources are still on my old phone. My ID card is also in my suitcase. I doubt any reputable company would want to hire me."

Bai Tao slowed her pace, as if she was thinking about something.

She suddenly stopped, turned around to look at Pei Jin, and her eyes lit up.

"By the way, I know someone. I can ask him if he knows any of those thugs who committed the robbery."

Bai Tao scrolled through her WeChat chat history for a while before finally finding that familiar yellow profile picture.

Brother Wang is a socialite.

[Brother Wang, are you there?]

The message was sent, but there was no response from the other party.

Bai Tao stared at the screen for a few seconds, then put her phone away.

"Should we buy an electric scooter for transportation first?"

She looked at Pei Jin and tentatively asked, "Let's buy the phone later, just in case we find it."

Pei Jin's phone—she had seen it just a few days ago at an auction shop specializing in high-end custom-made products, and the price had made her gasp.

She thought she had the best phone available, but little did she know there were always people better than her.

She wouldn't be willing to spend a tenth of her money to buy Pei Jin a phone just like hers, in case the phone is found.

Then she would have wasted her money.

Pei Jin nodded.

The two walked along the road for a short while, and there were several unknown electric vehicle shops at the entrance of the residential area.

The shop wasn't big, and there were several rows of colorful electric bikes parked in front of it, each with red plastic ribbons tied to its handlebars, swaying gently in the wind.

Bai Tao looked at each shop one by one, and finally stopped in front of the shop on the far side.

A used Aima electric scooter costs only 800 yuan.

It looks very new, a light green color, with a rounded and compact front, light brown seats, and a small storage box behind the back seat.

In Taiwanese idol dramas, the female lead rides this kind of motorcycle while the male lead sits on the back. The wind blows through the female lead's long hair, creating a scene so beautiful it's like it's been filtered.

She wandered around the store again and found the exact same model, a brand new electric scooter, which cost four thousand yuan.

Bai Tao squatted down, carefully examined the tires and brakes of the used car, then stood up, twisted the accelerator, and listened to the sound.

She actually knows nothing, but she acts like she knows a lot.

Then she started bargaining with the shopkeeper.

After haggling for a long time, the shopkeeper insisted on the price of 800 yuan, so Bai Tao had no choice but to accept it.

When she paid, the shopkeeper gave her two helmets as a gift—one white and one pink, both round and with little bunny stickers on them.

"Young lady, these two helmets would cost you sixty yuan if you went outside!"

As the shopkeeper handed over the helmet, she shouted, "You've hit the jackpot!"

Bai Tao nodded, took the helmet with both hands, and turned to beckon Pei Jin to get in the car.

Pei Jin stood next to the light green electric scooter and remained silent for two seconds.

"I can't ride."

Bai Tao paused for a moment, her mouth opening and closing.

"Why didn't you say so sooner? I thought you would ride it, that's why I came to buy it."

The shopkeeper was wiping a car at the entrance when she heard the conversation between the two people, and she stopped wiping.

She had actually been observing the two of them for quite a while. The girl's clothes looked to be of good quality. Although she couldn't tell what brand they were from, the fabric and cut were definitely not ordinary.

The Hermes orange phone she was holding was one her daughter saw online every day; she recognized it—it was a new model, costing over ten thousand yuan.

That young man was different.

A white t-shirt, black shorts, and plastic slippers—the total cost from head to toe probably didn't exceed one hundred yuan.

Moreover, he didn't say a word the whole time, and the young girl paid for it.

The shopkeeper quickly imagined an entire TV series.

What kind of rich girl breaks with her family for love and elopes with a poor boy who has nothing but her looks? The two sleep on the streets, live frugally, and even have to buy a second-hand electric scooter.

The shop owner felt a tightness in her chest.

She threw a rag on the counter, quickly walked between the two men, and subtly pushed Pei Jin aside a little.

"Come, come, little girl,"

The shopkeeper warmly grabbed Bai Tao's wrist.

"I'll teach you. Sit behind me first, and I'll show you around. Watch me ride."

Pei Jin was jostled and took a step back, watching expressionlessly as the older woman pulled Bai Tao onto the back seat.

The older sister got on her electric scooter, twisted the throttle, and the scooter steadily drove into the alley next to her.

Bai Tao sat in the back, unsure of what to do with her hands, and finally carefully placed them on her older sister's shoulders.

"Little girl, how old are you this year?"

The eldest sister's voice drifted over from the front, carried by the sound of the wind.

"You're twenty-three, sis."

The eldest sister quickly did the math in her head: twenty-three, old enough to get married.

A wealthy heiress insisted on marrying a poor young man, which angered her parents so much that their blood pressure spiked, and they severed ties with her. In the end, the heiress ended up on the streets, eating steamed buns in a rented room.

This is bad.

"Twenty-three?!"

The eldest sister's voice unconsciously rose two octaves.

"Now you can get married! Let me tell you, your parents raised you with great difficulty, so don't let love cloud your judgment."

She paused, glanced at Bai Tao's face in the rearview mirror, and added earnestly,

"A man needs to have money in his pocket. Being handsome can't put food on the table."

Bai Tao paused for a moment, then smiled.

She understood the implication in her older sister's words, knowing she had misunderstood something, but she didn't explain, only saying softly,

"It's okay, sister, he's trying his best."

Looking at Bai Tao's innocent and lovely face in the rearview mirror, the older sister suddenly remembered the TV series she had been watching recently.

The female lead's parents in the drama also put a lot of effort into raising their daughter, only to have her be tricked away by a poor boy with a bowl of plain porridge.

The older sister felt a tightness in her throat.

Forget it.

Respect the fate of those who are obsessed with love.

She didn't want to talk anymore, so she silently led Bai Tao around the alley and then pulled over.

"Alright, you give it a try."

Bai Tao moved to the front, gripped the handlebars with both hands, and braced her feet on the ground.

My shoulders were so tense that I was frozen in the car seat.

"Twist the accelerator slowly, don't twist it all the way at once."

The older woman stood beside them, her hand resting on the back seat of the car, her tone much gentler than before.

"Yes, like that, slowly..."

Bai Tao slowly twisted the accelerator, and the car moved forward slowly.

She was startled, let go of the car, and it stopped again.

They shuffled and stopped for dozens of meters, and Bai Tao's forehead was covered in sweat.

Pei Jin had followed them without anyone noticing and was walking next to Bai Tao.

He took long strides and walked with ease, while Bai Tao rode her bike slowly forward. He could keep up by taking slightly larger strides.

"Pei Jin, I think I've learned it."

Bai Tao's voice carried the excitement of having just learned a new skill.

"Why don't you come up and give it a try?"

Pei Jin glanced around; there weren't many cars or people in the alley.

He put on the helmet in his hand, the pink one, with several cartoon rabbits printed on it, and two fluffy little balls on the tips of its ears.

He climbed onto the back seat.

Having long legs is an advantage; he stretched out his long legs, his two feet firmly planted on the ground, his knees slightly bent.

He adjusted his position, placing both hands on the handles of the back seat and leaning slightly back, trying not to lean against Bai Tao.

Bai Tao took a deep breath and slowly twisted the accelerator.

The bike wobbled forward a few meters, and Bai Tao twisted and turned the handlebars, causing the bike to sway from side to side.

Ahead stood a sycamore tree, its trunk thick and its branches lush, blocking the road perfectly.

"Ahhhhh—"

Bai Tao panicked, tightened her grip, and instead of releasing the accelerator, pressed it harder, sending the car straight toward the sycamore tree.

Just as the front of the car was less than half a meter from the tree trunk, a foot stretched out from the back seat and landed steadily on the ground.

At the same time, a hand reached over Bai Tao's shoulder, grabbed her hand, and squeezed the brakes hard.

stopped.

The front of the car was only a fist's distance from the sycamore tree.

Bai Tao's chest heaved violently, her heart pounding in her chest. Pei Jin held her hand, and her entire weight rested on his chest pressed against hers.

His body heat radiated through her thin undershirt, making her back tingle.

"get off."

Pei Jin's voice rang out from above Bai Tao's head, deep and calm, as if he wasn't the one who had almost crashed into the tree just now.

Bai Tao obediently got out of the car, her legs still a little weak.

Pei Jin moved forward and sat in the driver's seat.

He gripped the handlebars, his feet firmly planted on the ground, making him seem more reliable than Bai Tao.

"Come up."

Bai Tao gave him an uncertain look.

"Can you?"

"That's about right. If not, I'll go slower."

Bai Tao hesitated before getting on the bus.

People riding electric bikes nearby assumed they were a young couple arguing and cast curious glances their way.

An older woman rode past and then glanced back twice, a mysterious smile on her face.

Bai Tao's face turned a little red.

Pei Jin glanced around and urged, "Come on up quickly."

Bai Tao also felt that it was a bit strange to be watched like this, so she gritted her teeth, slowly pressed down on the back seat of the electric scooter, and climbed on.

She copied Pei Jin's actions, gripping the back seat handles with both hands and leaning back slightly, carefully avoiding touching him.

Pei Jin glanced at the rearview mirror.

In the rearview mirror, Bai Tao sat upright in the back, her hands gripping the back seat handles, her body ramrod straight, like a primary school student.

"Hold on tight?"

"Mmm." Bai Tao nodded.

The two men exchanged a glance in the rearview mirror.

Pei Jin withdrew his gaze and twisted the accelerator.

The car moved forward steadily.

He wasn't really sure about it, but his thinking was simple: at worst, he could just slide the car back.

He's a man, and he's strong.

Bai Tao's small frame couldn't even support the car's slightest sway, but he was different; his long legs allowed him to hold on.

The electric scooter seemed to suddenly become intelligent in his hands, moving steadily and obediently.

Gradually, Pei Jin got the hang of it. When there was no one or any cars around, he could twist the accelerator to the floor, the wind whistling past his ears and blowing his stray hairs backward.

Bai Tao sat in the back seat, feeling the cool breeze on her face, and nodded in satisfaction.

Pei Jin truly lives up to his name.

That's just being smart.