Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  “His surname is Cheng?” Lin Qi didn’t have an impression of who that could be, but he still said, “Tell him to come in.”


  Many people came to find Lin Qi usually, so Qin Yu and Lin Jinxuan weren’t surprised.

  Until they saw a cold-faced young man come in.

  “Mr. Lin, our young master said that this is the person you wanted.” Cheng Mu’s face was stiff as he loosened the woman behind him and nodded to Lin Qi and the others. “Since she has been brought here, I will take my leave first.”


  Lin Qi glanced at her. She was a girl about the same age as Qin Yu.

  He stood up immediately, frowned, and said solemnly, “Sir, did you make a mistake……”


  But before Lin Qi could finish speaking, Qin Yu stood up suddenly opposite him and said, “Wu Yan, why did you cut my violin strings? Was I not good to you?”


  Qin Yu stared at Wu Yan, trying not to show coldness and anger on her face. She pinched her fingers and forced herself to calm down.

  Wu Yan just sneered at Qin Yu and said nothing.

  “Violin strings?” Lin Qi paused and then asked warmly, “Yu’er, your violin strings are broken?”


  Lin Jinxuan noticed something strange.

  He took a piece of tissue to wipe the corners of his mouth, his eyes signaling for Qin Yu to explain herself.

  Qin Yu’s eyes were red. She didn’t even dare to go to school for self-study at night because she was afraid of people mocking her or judging her.

  “She cut my violin strings during today’s school celebration and ruined my performance,” Qin Yu said in a choked voice. Her eyelashes drooped and she clenched her fingers.

  Qin Yu’s violin had been specially customized for her by Lin Qi and was of great value.

  This amount of money was nothing to Lin Qi, however. He held a cigarette in his hand and turned toward Wu Yan seriously. “Student Wu Yan, right? Why did you cut my daughter’s violin strings?”


  Wu Yan didn’t speak.

  Lin Qi flicked his cigarette into the ashtray and looked up again. “You should know that Yu’er’s violin was customized. If you deliberately cut it, you will have to pay 580,000 yuan.”


  Qin Yu stared at Wu Yan in sadness and disbelief. “I also want to know.”


  “You want to know? Fine.” Wu Yan heard about the 580,000 yuan and raised her eyebrow. “Qin Yu, I want to know more about why you secretly took a picture of that middle-aged man and Qin Ran and then induced me to post it on the forum? Why do I have to be expelled from school, and yet you’re safe?”


  The entire Lin family fell into a strange silence.

  “What nonsense are you talking about? What picture did I take?!” Qin Yu’s pupils shrank. Wu Yan’s reaction was completely out of her control.

  Lin Jinxuan crumpled the tissues in his hands and threw them into the trash can at his feet.

  He raised his head slowly and looked at Qin Yu. “You took the picture?”


  “It wasn’t me.” Qin Yu was flustered. “Dad, Brother, you must believe me……”


  “You gave me your phone and clicked onto the picture intentionally. Wasn’t it just to show it to me on purpose?” Wu Yan was unhurried. She took out her phone, opened the photo, and showed it to Lin Qi.

  Qin Yu stared at Wu Yan’s phone.

  Lin Qi didn’t speak and just took a look.

  Wu Yan had used her mobile phone to take a picture of Qin Yu’s phone. Qin Yu’s phone had been picked by Lin Qi and was a limited edition phone that was rare in First Middle School, so he recognized it at first glance.

  Lin Qi was shocked, then he returned the phone silently to Qin Yu and then looked at Aunt Zhang. “Send student Wu Yan back.”


  Lin Jinxuan hadn’t looked up Wu Yan’s phone, but he could tell the result from Lin Qi’s expression.

  Now that things had gotten to this, Qin Yu closed her eyes and no longer had any excuses.

  “Dad, if you want to believe them and think it was me, then it was me.” Qin Yu’s face was pale and her eyes were closed. She wasn’t crying and just said tiredly.

  “Let me think about it.” Lin Qi walked upstairs.

  **

  In the study, Lin Qi called Ning Qing first.

  Ning Qing had been a little absentminded at the dinner table today and was still in a trance when Lin Qi called her.

  She hadn’t recovered from the incident in the afternoon.

  Ning Qing hadn’t paid much attention to Qin Ran since young and naturally didn’t know that she was able to repair the surveillance videos. To Ning Qing, this was a very impressive and high-tech skill.

  When Lin Qi asked her, she told him what happened intermittently.

  “She recovered the monitoring video?” Lin Qi was stunned. “She studied computers before?”


  “Maybe.” Ning Qing thought of something. “My Dad, or Ran Ran’s grandpa, was an old programmer. Maybe she learned from him.”


  “I understand.” Lin Qi nodded and pressed his temple tiredly. Then, he told Ning Qing to go out.

  After a long while, he dialed Lin Wan’s phone.

  He told her the whole incident.

  “Who is that Mr. Cheng? There is a flourishing aristocrat in Beijing.” Lin Wan stood in her back garden and subconsciously thought of the Cheng family in Beijing, but she smiled. “But those people naturally wouldn’t go to Yun Cheng. Forget about it, brother. Now is not the time to do this.”


  Lin Qi was silent.

  “Make a choice.” Lin Wan had a very bad impression of Qin Ran from the last time she was there. “The people called Cheng must have been planted by Qin Ran. That little girl is scheming even though she’s young and has put these in front of you. But she’s still young and can’t leave a retreat route for herself.”


  Qin Yu was a member of the Lin family and she was the only one helping her financially in Beijing. As long as Teacher Wei took a fancy to her, there would be infinite possibilities for them in the future.

  On the contrary, Lin Wan knew that Qin Ran’s grades weren’t good and she wasn’t good at the violin either. She only had a good-looking face and her future wasn’t comparable to Qin Yu’s, so her background couldn’t possibly be good.

  If Qin Ran was smart enough, she should have taken advantage of this time to build a good relationship with the Lin family and Qin Yu.

  Lin Wan didn’t really want to know about Qin Ran and just said, “Didn’t Yu’er say that Qin Ran also learned the violin before? I already asked my husband, but Teacher Wei will never accept a disciple like Qin Ran. But it’s still possible to find other violin teachers for her. You have to let Qin Ran learn properly from Qin Yu these few days though, those teachers don’t just accept any random country girl.”


  **

  Not far from the Lin family.

  When Cheng Mu came back, Lu Zhaoying was standing by the car, his face somber as he kicked the car fiercely.

  He glanced at Cheng Juan inside the car. “Why did you send her to the Lin family? Aren’t you suppressing them?”


  In the beginning, Lu Zhaoying didn’t know that Cheng Juan had asked Principal Xu to find someone for Qin Ran.

  But when Cheng Mu had gone to the Lin family’s house, he had gotten the truth out of Cheng Juan’s mouth.

  He had also learned about Qin Ran’s incident in the auditorium in the afternoon.

  With his protective instincts towards Qin Ran, he really wanted to go back in time, go to the makeup room and kill all of the people inside.

  “That’s not a long-term plan.” Cheng Juan didn’t get out of his car and just left the back door open. He leaned on the back of the chair, letting the breeze blow past him as he said slowly, “They have to make a choice first.”


  Cheng Juan had never checked on Qin Ran, but he could guess that her stepfather and stepbrother weren’t bad people.

  But her mother and sister were really too bad.

  With Lin Jinxuan and Lin Qi entangled in the middle, it was difficult for Qin Ran to really dismiss them.

  At this point, he was forcing the Lin family to choose one from the other.

  Cheng Juan didn’t elaborate further and Lu Zhaoying had to spend ten minutes before he understood. He finally turned to Cheng Juan silently. “Master Juan, you’re cruel.”


  Cheng Juan glanced at him and then looked away.

  He lowered his head slightly, opened the window, and took out a cigarette. “Let’s go.”


  **

  The next day.

  It was the afternoon self-study time.

  Gao Yang put his hands behind his back and walked in front of Qin Ran. He knocked on her table, pulled her to the corridor, and praised her with great admiration.

  “I heard from your Physics teacher that your results are nearly forty points. You have made great progress.” Gao Yang’s eyes were bright and his tone was very kind. “There are still seven months left until the college entrance examination. I believe that you’ll be able to get into a university.”


  Li Airong passed by with her lesson plan and felt too lazy to even ridicule her.

  Forty points were even worthy of praise?

  She looked at Gao Yang with a smile. “Teacher Gao, I think you should look at how your class average has fallen. Don’t get the last place during the midterm exam.”


  After that, Li Airong turned and walked away on her high heels without waiting for Gao Yang’s answer.

  She couldn’t help but feel fortunate that she had been able to withstand the pressure of the Principal back then. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be getting any year-end awards nor the outstanding teacher of the year award.

  Gao Yang was still smiling. He was a little plump and always gave people a gentle and warm feeling.

  He wasn’t bothered by Li Airong’s words.

  “Okay, just keep this mentality and work harder next time. Go and rest, your uncle is looking for you.” Gao Yang waved.

  He let Qin Ran go to the office.

  Qin Ran glanced at Gao Yang.

  “What’s wrong?” Gao Yang noticed her gaze and asked, still smiling. “Do you have anything to ask me?”


  “No. Thank you, teacher,” Qin Ran shook her head and answered slowly.

  She walked in the direction of the lounge.

  Before she went in, she thought it would be Feng Loucheng or Qian Dui…… or someone else who had come to find her.

  But she never thought that it would be Lin Qi.

  “Uncle Lin.” Qin Ran went in and closed the door. She turned sideways and wasn’t as cold as before.

  She was wearing her school uniform jacket properly today, with her black pants underneath, making her look quite obedient.

  Lin Qi stared at her and paused before he said warmly, “I came to find you today to apologize to you and talk to you about something else.”


  Qin Ran respected Lin Qi, so she pushed a chair over and let Lin Qi sit. “Yes?”


  “I want to know if you still want to learn the violin? Your mother said that you had also learned the violin and that you’re talented in it.” Lin Qi thought for a moment and continued, “I want to send you to Beijing to learn the violin. The teachers in Beijing have stricter requirements, but as long as you’re willing to learn, you can go for the assessment. Of course, I will let Yu’er teach you for a few days if you want. I heard that Old Master has taken a fancy to her music.”


  Wait!

  Qin Ran suspected that she had heard wrongly. She touched her ear and stood up straight. “Uncle Lin, what did you say? I didn’t hear it.”


  What had Lin Qi just said? Did he just tell her to learn the violin from Qin Yu?