As night fell, the temperature plummeted, and a heavy rain poured down, making this cold winter damp and chilly.

But the basement hallway was leaking again. Shi Yao came back from the construction site, waded through the water, took out his key, opened the door, and went inside.

Shi Yao took off his raincoat, revealing his security guard uniform.

He was about to put down his raincoat when he saw He Qinqin on the sofa with bloodstains all over her face and her head swollen like a pig's head. He was shocked. "Qinqin, were you beaten up?"

While rubbing her face with an egg, He Qinqin tearfully recounted to Shi Yao what had happened during the day.

"Let me rub your face for you." Shi Yao took the egg from He Qinqin's hand. His cold fingers touched He Qinqin's face, and He Qinqin immediately felt that the pain had subsided by more than half. Looking at Shi Yao in his uniform, He Qinqin's face gradually changed from red and swollen to shy red. He thought that Shi Yao looked exceptionally handsome and roguish in his security guard uniform.

"Brother Shiyao, I want a kiss and a hug to comfort you." He Qinqin pouted, but Shiyao couldn't bring himself to kiss her because of her appearance.

Shi Yao gave He Qinqin a light kiss, and He Qinqin, smelling the sexy tobacco scent on Shi Yao, lowered her head shyly.

Shi Yao forcefully lifted He Qinqin's chin, rubbed He Qinqin's face with an egg, and then, seeing that the egg had cooled down, peeled the hard-boiled egg and stuffed it into his mouth.

He Qinqin even buys Michelin-starred eggs from high-end supermarkets; she can't afford to waste them.

The Shi family knew that He Qinqin was buying groceries from imported supermarkets every time she brought back supermarket bags. However, since it wasn't their money, they didn't feel bad about it. They assumed that He Qinqin must have some savings after 18 years with the Si family.

My palate has become quite discerning after a week of eating here, and I've also seen a lot of new and interesting things.

While chewing on an egg, Shi Yao said to He Qinqin, "That guy surnamed Pei is really going too far. He turned his back on you after you were kicked out of the Si family."

“Turn around and help that usurper Li Han.”

With red eyes, He Qinqin took out a video she had taken in the underground parking lot of Lexiang Group and showed it to Shi Yao.

"However, it wasn't a complete loss; I filmed Li Han getting into Pei Zhao'an's car."

Shi Yao's eyes turned red with envy when he saw Pei Zhaoan's sports car, but he still pretended to be nonchalant: "This rich kid's sports car is obviously brainless. It has a super low cost performance and is also fuel-inefficient. I don't know what's so good about it."

He knew that some people saw sports cars as toys, buying them to drive if they liked them. He was very envious. If he could have one of these sports cars, he would be willing to sit in the passenger seat.

He Qinqin watched Shi Yao analyze Aston Martin with such seriousness and agreed with him: "Shi Yao, you really know how to live frugally!"

"Your and your brother's van probably has enough space! This kind of sports car can't even fit a large suitcase."

Shi Yao breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that He Qinqin had no interest in Pei Zhaoan. After all, he had been sweating profusely just from seeing the man's profile in that video.

Remembering that he wanted to help Li Han find her family, He Qinqin said, "Why don't you take it to your coworker at the construction site and show it to him?"

After Shi Yao was fired from the photography department of Xinxing TV, his brother introduced him to a job as a security guard at a construction site. The job wasn't too demanding; he just had to watch out for people stealing things like steel. But it didn't matter, since he himself would secretly take some wires and other things to sell anyway. Besides, this was a construction site of the Si Group, so why not steal some? What was wrong with him taking some things from his mother-in-law's house?

People on the construction site knew that his girlfriend was the daughter of the Si Group and a nationally renowned reporter. They didn't watch entertainment news often, so they all fawned over Shi Yao. Shi Yao was thriving on the construction site and made many more connections with other people in the community.

One of Shi Yao's coworkers, who often offered him cigarettes, mentioned during a chat that Shi Yao's girlfriend was a senior reporter at a TV station: "The reporter who reported on that heartless nursing home I saw last time has the same name as the unfilial adopted daughter of one of my fellow villagers."

"I don't know if it's the same person."

“This adopted daughter was called Li Zhaodi when she was a child. Later, I heard from my fellow villager that she ran away after she grew up and even had someone change her name to Li Han.”

Upon hearing this, Shi Yao thought it was truly a stroke of luck! So he asked his coworker to contact his fellow villager, but the coworker said that he hadn't been in touch with him for a long time and would have to ask around to find out how to get in touch. However, since they were from the same town, it shouldn't be too difficult to contact him.

"Sure, your video makes it look like the third brother is being kept by someone. Everyone loves gossip, so it'll spread fast. Maybe the whole town will know about it, and the third brother's adoptive parents will come knocking on our door."

At that moment, the third brother was scrolling through his phone when he suddenly saw a message from the official 723 Convenience Store account on Xiaohongshu: the signature bento boxes will be available normally starting tomorrow, and all stores have sufficient stock.

"Shi Yao, look!"

"The inside information you gave me can finally come in handy. My chance to return to the Si family has arrived!"

Shi Yao glanced at the information on He Qinqin's phone screen, just as a text message popped up on He Qinqin's screen.

[Dear user, your Long Card credit card ending in 5214 is overdue. This bill is for a total of 15,870 RMB in Huaxia Coins.]

Shi Yao pretended not to see the message.

He glanced at the water in the basement. "Qinqin, the rain is too heavy today. Let's wait until tomorrow. You can go tomorrow morning when the rain stops."

Hearing Shi Yao's concern, He Qinqin felt a warmth in her heart, even in the dead of winter.

Shi Yao glanced at the empty kitchen; usually, dinner was already prepared when he got home.

"Qinqin, haven't you had dinner yet?"

“Yes, I can’t afford groceries—” He Qinqin was about to say that her credit card was almost maxed out and she couldn’t afford ingredients, but then she remembered that Shi Yao was in a critical stage of starting his business, so how could she trouble Shi Yao?

So he swallowed his words again.

Shi Yao looked at He Qinqin's hesitant expression and thought of the credit card overdue text message he had just received.

We shouldn't push people to the brink; we should offer them appropriate rewards.

He leaned close to He Qinqin's ear and said in a low, bubbly voice, "Baby, how could I let you go hungry?"

He licked He Qinqin's ear and said, "Be a good boy and wait here. I'll feed you (inject air) right away."

Shi Yao had just retracted his tongue when he felt a burning pain on the tip of his tongue: "Qinqin, what did you put on your ears?"

He Qinqin said shyly, "I used some Tiger Balm. My ears have been itchy for the past few days, like they've been bitten by bugs, so I put some on them."