Chapter 12: Chapter 12 Survival of the Fittest, Living for Survival
After our father's death, my eldest brother took over the company.
Not long after, his fiancée was killed in a drunk driving accident by our second brother. Heartbroken, he left the country in despair.
Our second brother, a headache-inducing prodigal son, was then forced to take over the Qin family industry.
Meanwhile, Qin Ruan was framed and put in jail by Han Xian and her daughter, causing the death of the child she carried due to her carelessness.
Many things happened, considering Ling Xiaoxuan's case was put aside.
In her past life, even if Qin Ruan had met Ling Xiaoxuan today, she would not have known that she was plagued by demonic entities.
Now that she had opened her Heavenly Eye, she had the responsibility to control and eradicate all evil in the world, and naturally would not allow these things to harm Ling Xiaoxuan.
"Qin Ruan, what would you like to eat? Tomato stew again? Are you sure you don't want something lighter in the morning?"
Unconsciously, the two had already stepped into the restaurant.
Ling Xiaoxuan took two plates from the cupboard and placed one into Qin Ruan's hand.
Despite asking what Qin Ruan wanted to eat, she didn't hesitate to take action.
She pulled Qin Ruan's arm and quickly came to the window where the tomato stew was served.
Qin Ruan seemed cold, but she was very affectionate. She loved tomato stew the most.
Since Ling Xiaoxuan had known her for these few months, whenever they ate together, tomato stew was always present on the table.
It showed how much she liked this dish.
Hearing about the tomato stew, Qin Ruan's eyes sparkle a hint of excitement which quickly disappeared as she simply curled the corner of her lips into a smile.
"Alright."
In her previous life, from the time when disaster struck the Qin family until her death, she had never tasted this dish again.
Now, she actually missed it a bit.
Tomato stew, this dish for Qin Ruan, cast a shadow over her before she turned eighteen in her previous life.
From the time she was taken back to the Qin family until the moment of her death, this dish became her obsession.
West City, the slum district of Capital City, was mainly populated by all sorts of desperate folk. Thieving, kidnapping and defrauding were common events.
Even in the orphanage, the children were brutal.
Qin Ruan as a child was as thin as a monkey, always hungry and cold.
As she grew older and understood the principle of survival of the fittest, she started to resist, learning the bad habits of survival in West City, just to fill her stomach, just to survive.
Qin Ruan could never forget the dreadful experience she had when she was seven.
One of the male caretakers in the orphanage was a relative of the director. He was responsible for watching all the children in the orphanage, and many children feared him.
In the summertime, the man wore short sleeves, revealing tattoos of an Azure Dragon on his left arm and a White Tiger on his right arm. With his shirt unbuttoned, there was even more black ink covering his chest.
If any child in the orphanage upset him, a beating would swiftly follow.
He mostly targeted boys, rarely being violent with girls.
Noticing this pattern, Qin Ruan took her chances and provoked him.
Each year, the orphanage received donations of money and supplies from the government, private individuals, and corporations. These usually ended up in the hands of the orphanage's director and staff.
The children pounced upon the leftover old clothes and items that seemed unimportant to them – textbooks, bags, and daily necessities.
They struggled just to survive, so how could they care about these things? What they needed was food.
Qin Ruan was a girl, and she was too young to compete with the older children, so she often went hungry.
To fill her stomach, she would steal food from the kitchen.
Once, the cook at the orphanage was away for three days, leaving all the children starving.
For three days, they had nothing to eat. They had to go outside and find ways to fill their stomachs; whether by stealing or snatching, if it could fill their stomachs, it was good enough.
On the third evening, Qin Ruan was too hungry to bear it any longer. Her stomach was writhing in pain.
She climbed out of her wooden bed, intending to go outside and drink some water to fill her stomach.
Chapter 13: Chapter 13 Her Scars and Taboos
Having just left her room, Qin Ruan was hit with the intoxicating aroma of beef.
She was ravenous, to the point of almost fainting.
Perhaps, she was so hungry then that her eyes shone green, otherwise, she wouldn't have attracted the attention of that demon.
The Headmaster's male relative, who was also a caretaker at the orphanage, had set up a table in the yard, drinking and eating a delicious meal.
As Qin Ruan secretly swallowed her saliva, she was also secretly eyeing the meat dish on the table, tomato beef stew.
The mix of tomato and beef presented a vibrant color, its tantalizing aroma beckoning; it looked appetizing and immensely satisfying.
Perhaps delirious from hunger, the seven-year-old Qin Ruan made a dash for it, grabbing the stew in the plastic takeaway box and ran.
But with short legs, how could a child outpace an adult?
Qin Ruan was caught.
"Little rascal, stealing from me, eh? If I don't teach you a lesson today, won't you all take advantage in the future!"
The man's cruel and savage voice would be etched in Qin Ruan's nightmares.
The man vowed to punish her, and was utterly relentless with his fists and kicks.
The children sleeping in the house were awakened by the commotion, and many poked their heads out from the windows, while the bolder ones came out to watch.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the steaming-hot tomato beef stew was force-fed into Qin Ruan's mouth.
The dish was freshly cooked, scalding her mouth, throat, and her frail stomach.
The excruciating pain, relentless despite her struggles, engraved itself deeply into Qin Ruan's memory.
Her mouth, covered with blisters from the burn, and her already painful stomach compounded her agony.
For the following week, she couldn't eat.
It was not that she wasn't hungry; she simply couldn't swallow any food.
She could only quench her hunger by drinking water.
Yet even drinking brought her pain due to her internal injuries.
The trauma from these childhood experiences made Qin Ruan forever avoid tomato beef stew.
Just the sight of the dish would trigger her resistive instincts, as gruesome memories flooded her mind, the sensation of intense pain manifesting itself physically.
After being brought back to the Qin Family, one day, her father and her two elder brothers prepared three different tomato beef stews for her.
She thought that they knew.
That they knew about her wretched experiences at the orphanage.
To Qin Ruan, these were her wounds, her taboo.
The dishes prepared by her father and brothers were met with a strong sense of repulsion.
Under the expectant eyes of her father and brothers, she swept the three servings onto the floor, causing the ceramic dishes to shatter with a crisp piecing sound.
The bonds of father, daughter, and siblings were likewise kept at arm's length.
From the day she entered the Qin Family, Han Xian, and her daughter Han Kexin, had instilled into her that the kindness shown was due to remorse and compensation, and that she was ultimately a foreigner to the Qin Family.
The mighty Qin Family's actions towards her were nothing more than charity.
Qin Ruan knew well of the dislike from Han Xian and her daughter.
But she was not gullible to believe them blindly.
Having grown up in the slums of West City among various unsavory characters, Qin Ruan was guarded, wary of the Qin Family.
The misunderstandings between her father and brothers grew with each passing day, exacerbated by her aversion and the duo's persistent provocation and manipulation.
Not till everything was lost did she find the chance to clear up the misunderstandings.
No one knew that after turning over the dishes her father and brothers made, Qin Ruan quietly picked them up.
After all, she yearned for kinship deep down.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
242 Power
stone 
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