My sister, whom I raised, has turned evil after faking her death for three years.

"See, our little cutie is the most sensible."

Ding Xin looked at Su Qing, who was hugging Lin Zhi's waist and practically hanging on her as he pulled her back. A slight smile appeared on his lips as he took half a step forward and bent down slightly.

Su Qing's clear eyes were now staring at her warily, her brows slightly furrowed, and her lips tightly pursed, like a little kitten with its fur standing on end.

Ding Xin found it more and more adorable, and couldn't help but reach out to pinch that fair and tender little face. Her tone was undisguisedly flirtatious, "Such a cute little face, it's such a waste to keep it stiff. Come on, give your big sister a smile."

A crisp "snap!" rang out clearly in the now quiet teahouse.

The hand she reached out was slapped hard by Lin Zhi, leaving a red mark on the back of her hand instantly.

Lin Zhi slapped him with all her might, and her hand was numb afterward, but she didn't show it at all. Instead, she crossed her arms and shielded Su Qing behind her, raising her chin slightly and looking at Ding Xin with a condescending and disdainful gaze.

Ding Xin looked down at his hand, which was red and trembling slightly from being slapped, and the smile on his face finally vanished.

She slowly withdrew her hand, flicked her wrist, and let out two meaningful, cold laughs. She raised her eyes to look at Lin Zhi, her gaze shifting from disdain to a sinister glint: "What's your relationship with this pretty girl?"

"What business is it of yours what our relationship is?" Lin Zhi glared back defiantly, a sarcastic smile playing on her lips. "If someone doesn't want to be friends with you, and you keep pestering them like this, do you really think you're being touching? Let me tell you, this will only make people think you're particularly, particularly, disgusting."

She enunciated the last four words clearly, one syllable at a time.

Ding Xin's facial muscles twitched slightly as he stared at Lin Zhi with a forced smile. His heavily made-up eyes were filled with a sinister gloom: "Then there's no need for this auntie to trouble herself. I want to have a few words with the little beauty alone. You two should leave unscathed before I change my mind, otherwise..."

She trailed off her words, but the group of burly men who had surrounded the teahouse took a step forward at the same time. Their synchronized footsteps echoed in the empty hall, their threat unmistakable.

Lin Zhi chuckled at this. Did they really think they could use the same trick twice?

"Oh my gosh~ I'm not trying to be mean, but you old—auntie," Lin Zhi deliberately dragged out the words "old auntie," as if retaliating for the other person's earlier comment about her age, "You've got nothing better to do than get all that gaudy shrimp-themed tattoo. From a distance, someone who didn't know better might mistake it for a life-altering telephone pole covered in little GGs. And your hair is dyed like a red light at an intersection; I bet even a dog would crouch down and wait three seconds if it saw you standing on the street. And that foundation on your face is thicker than paint on a wall. You shouldn't smile so much; you look like a ghost, and I'm afraid it'll crack and crumble if you laugh. Someone like you has the nerve to call someone old? Do you have a built-in beauty filter when you look in the mirror, or does the mirror just explode when it sees you?"

The way he spoke was so vivid and engaging that Su Qing and Wen Liang couldn't help but burst out laughing at the same time. They then tried to cover it up in their own ways. Su Qing buried her face in Lin Zhi's back, her shoulders trembling slightly and suspiciously.

Wen Liang raised the teacup to her lips, but the tea inside rippled due to her slightly trembling hand.

Ding Xin's face turned completely black, even blacker than the black python tattoo on her arm.

Her eyes twitched, and the smile she thought was charming finally shattered into nothingness.

"Fine...very good. In this area of ​​Beicheng Ancient Street, you are the first person who dares to treat me like this."

Her voice was very low, each word seemingly squeezed out from between her teeth, "I hope you won't regret that mouth of yours later."

As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly raised her hand, clenched her fingers together, and waved them forward. The burly men who had been waiting for this opportunity immediately moved forward a few steps, surrounding the three of them even more tightly.

Ding Xin stood in the very center of the encirclement, raised his hand to smooth his dazzling red hair, and took a deep breath to barely suppress the rage that was about to burst out of his head.

Then she turned her gaze back to Su Qing, her tone suddenly becoming very soft and gentle, completely different from when she spoke to Lin Zhi earlier: "Little beauty, I'm giving you one last chance. Come with me willingly, and I won't make things difficult for you. With your looks, I can not only pamper you today, but also take care of you long-term, letting you live a life of luxury. Of course, I won't lay a hand on your two ungrateful friends; I'll let them leave quietly."

  

She tilted her head slightly as she spoke, as if talking to a beloved kitten, but the greed and covetousness in her eyes were so intense they seemed to drip out.

Before Su Qing could even utter a word of insult, Lin Zhi had already exploded, pointing a finger at Ding Xin's nose and raising her voice a full octave: "Kept?! Take a good look at yourself in the mirror! Your foundation is so thick it could be bulletproof, your laugh lines could trap flies, and you think you're a nightclub queen just because you have a red-light district hair color? Your colorful tattoos look like a moldy palette from afar, and you think you can have a relationship with a younger woman? If you have bad teeth, just stick to your porridge and stop embarrassing yourself here!"

The air in the entire teahouse seemed to freeze for a moment.

The system promptly reported to Su Qing's mind, its tone still that emotionless, synthesized electronic voice, but with a subtle hint of knowing that it was enjoying the drama: [Host, the other party's emotions are currently fluctuating wildly, nearing the point of being out of control. Furthermore, based on comprehensive analysis, this group's overall threat level to the host is approximately 35% to 37%, which is within a controllable range.]

Su Qing quickly went through the numbers in her mind: 37 percent? Less than half, so that means there's no threat.

Ding Xin's entire face had turned a deep liver color, and the muscles at the corners of his eyes were twitching uncontrollably, squeezing out several fine cracks from the thick foundation.

She abruptly raised her hand, her fingertips trembling as she pointed at Lin Zhi. Her voice, shrill and high with extreme rage, screamed, "Tear her mouth off! Do it! Don't hurt my little beauty, but that bitch... tear her mouth apart!"

Just as Ding Xin gave the order and the group of burly men swarmed forward, all the doors of the teahouse were simultaneously smashed open from the outside.

More people poured in, completely different from the group of burly thugs in the room dressed in various styles. These people were all wearing black suits, with upright postures, uniform movements, and even the expressions on their faces seemed to be carved from the same mold.

They rushed in incredibly fast, almost instantly locking each person's joints from behind before Ding Xin's men could even react, swiftly and decisively pinning them to the ground.

In less than half a minute, the group of burly men who had been aggressively surrounding the entire teahouse were now all lying face down on the floor, with no room to struggle.

Su Qing was taken aback by this sudden turn of events and subconsciously turned to look at Lin Zhi and Wen Liang beside her.

Lin Zhi was rubbing her hand, which was still numb from hitting someone so hard. Instead of being surprised, she had a knowing look on her face that said, "It's finally here."

Wen Liang picked up her teacup and took a sip, her movements elegant and composed, as if she were simply watching a movie that had nothing to do with her when that group of people rushed in.

Su Qing suddenly realized that these people in suits and ties might be the staff Lin Zhi had mentioned earlier, "responsible for recording the trip." Did the hotel really need such professional security just to record the trip's experience?

Ding Xin stood there stunned as he watched his men being pinned down in the blink of an eye.

She probably hadn't recovered from the smug feeling of being in control just now; the expression on her face changed from anger to astonishment, and then from astonishment to disbelief.

Just as she was about to say something, Su Qing felt the window behind her being opened from the outside. They were still on the first floor, right next to the carved wooden window on the side of the teahouse.

Before she could turn around, a figure had already climbed in and tightly, forcefully, pulled her into a warm embrace.

The force was immense, so great it felt like it was trying to knead her into its bones, yet at the very last moment of tightening, it restrained itself and lightened its grip, as if afraid of hurting her.

Su Qing could feel a warm body pressed against her back, and she could feel someone's chin gently resting on the crook of her neck.

She instinctively tried to turn her head, but the person holding her buried their face deep inside, their long, loose hair brushing against her neck, carrying a faint, somewhat familiar jasmine fragrance.

Jiang Ran raised her head, looked over Su Qing's shoulder, and her gaze fell on Ding Xin, who was standing there in a daze, his face still showing a mixture of rage and shock.

Her eyes were calm, so calm that it was almost impossible to tell any emotion, but that calmness was even more chilling than all of Ding Xin's hysteria just now.

Jiang Ran tightened her arms around Su Qing's waist, pulling her closer to her, then turned her head slightly and spoke slowly in an extremely soft tone: "You just said you were going to keep someone as a sugar daddy?"