Velvet Chains of a Tycoon

Returning to Songhu Villa, she was surprised to find Lu Sheng at home.

"Back so early today?" Qin Ran greeted him with a hint of surprise.

"Yeah, no overtime today."

Lu Sheng looked up from his tablet and glanced at her. "What's making you so cheerful?"

Qin Ran paused for a moment, raising a hand to touch her face. Was it that obvious?

She wasn't someone who wore her emotions on her sleeve, usually keeping both joy and sorrow hidden. But tonight, she was genuinely happy, and perhaps her expression had betrayed her without her realizing it.

"I don't have to move from my workplace for now," Qin Ran explained casually.

Lu Sheng raised an eyebrow. "For now? Does that mean you'll still have to move eventually?"

"Yeah, the landlord wants the house back, but they're giving us some extra time."

Qin Ran remained optimistic. "It's better than having to move out right away. This is a good compromise."

Qin Ran, a food lover, had passed by Qian Dama's vegetable stand on her way back and bought a pack of fruit cucumbers on sale. She took them straight to the kitchen to wash, then bit into one as she walked out.

"Lu Xiansheng, would you like a cucumber?"

Lu Sheng looked up, staring at the woman biting into the cucumber, momentarily at a loss for words.

Seeing his blank stare, Qin Ran swallowed the cucumber and asked again, "They're really good—crisp, sweet, and juicy. Would you like one, Lu Xiansheng?"

"No, thanks!"

Lu Sheng grabbed his tablet and headed straight to his bedroom.

In his mind, cucumbers were vegetables, meant to be eaten after being seasoned and mixed, not bitten into like fruit.

Qin Ran stuck her tongue out at the closed bedroom door. No need to offer twice, she thought. The pack only had three small cucumbers, barely enough for her.

Her mood improved, and she slept well that night.

The next morning, she didn't see Lu Sheng in the living room. The door to the master bedroom was closed, and she didn't know if he had gone to work or was still asleep. She didn't care; a marriage of convenience was no different from having a stranger as a husband to her.

After the exposure of the landlord's malicious rent increase at Ren'an Clinic, things unfolded as Qin Ran had expected. Under public pressure, Zhang Hong posted an apology online, which seemed to have been written by a professional. She claimed she was taking back the shop to start her own business, not to evict them with a rent hike. She also agreed to honor last year's lease, giving Ren'an Clinic until the end of next month to move, with the rent remaining the same for the final month.

Qin Ran and her colleagues had hoped for ten to fifteen days, so getting a whole month was a welcome surprise. It gave them some breathing room.

Though the neighborhood elders were sad to see them go, the shop belonged to the Yang family, and there was nothing they could do about it. So, for the next two days, Qin Ran and Zhao Lin searched for a new location within a five-kilometer radius.

That afternoon, Qin Ran found a suitable shop for rent and was about to talk to the owner when her sister-in-law, Du Xiaomei, called.

"Qin Ran, look what you've done! Your brother has been fired by the gas company and has to pay a huge fine. Now our whole family will starve, are you happy now?"

Her sister-in-law's sharp and cutting words stung, but Qin Ran couldn't dwell on it.

"Sister-in-law, what do you mean? My brother has worked at the gas company for ten years. If anything, they should be compensating him, not the other way around."

"How should I know? He came home crying, saying the gas company is making him pay, or they'll send him to jail..."

Qin Ran abandoned her search and rushed to her brother's place, locking her shared bike and taking the subway.

Upon entering, she saw her sister-in-law pointing at Qin Jian, who sat dejectedly on the sofa.

"I told you, your sister is a troublemaker. A new residential complex in the West District had its gas pipes installed incorrectly. Your brother was in charge, and he put all the gas pipes where the water pipes should be. Now everything has to be redone, and the gas company is blaming him. All the materials and labor costs add up to over 500,000 yuan!"

If they had installed two more buildings, even selling their house wouldn't cover the cost.

"Brother, how could you make such a mistake after working there for so long?"

Qin Jian looked up, his face pale. "I don't know. I followed the plans. This morning, the plumbing team arrived and discovered the error."

"If you followed the plans, it's not your fault," Qin Ran said.

"But the plans are missing," Qin Jian lamented.

Du Xiaomei glared at Qin Ran, hands on her hips. "I told you, Yang Cheng's uncle is the manager at the gas company. You offended the Yang family, and now they're retaliating against your brother. Do you believe me now?"

Qin Ran pursed her lips. "Are you saying the Yang family gave my brother fake plans to get back at me?"

Du Xiaomei hesitated. "How should I know? I haven't seen the plans, and even if I did, I wouldn't understand them."

"Brother, let's go. I'll sort this out," Qin Ran said, pulling Qin Jian up from the sofa.

Du Xiaomei snorted. "You might as well go to Yang Cheng directly. If you apologize, maybe his uncle..."

"Apologize for what? Xiao Ran hasn't done anything wrong!" Qin Jian interrupted, frustration evident in his voice. "I'm already stressed enough. Can't you just stop for a moment?"