But in that moment, Qin Na was truly like a child abandoned by her parents.

Seeing it was her niece, Qin Na sat up. She rubbed her eyes, red from crying, and asked softly, "Xiao Jiao, do you need something?"

"Aunt, if you feel awful, just cry it out. It’s okay. When you’re done crying, we’ll go on living our lives. There’s no hurdle we can’t clear, no river we can’t cross."

As Qin Jiao spoke, she sat on the edge of the bed and patted her aunt’s shoulder. Qin Na couldn’t hold back any longer and burst into tears.

She sobbed, "I knew they might not be happy about me and Jianhua, but I never imagined they’d try to make me marry that Blacksmith Li! When I wanted to get a divorce, they wouldn’t let me escape that hellhole. Now, they’re trying to push me into another one!"

Qin Na cried as she spoke. Qin Jiao poured her a glass of water and sat quietly by her side.

More than ten minutes passed before Qin Na’s crying subsided. After drinking some water and wiping the tears from her face, she said sheepishly, "I’m sorry, Xiao Jiao. You had to listen to me complain."

"Aunt, don’t say that. You’re my aunt, and I’m your niece. Of course I should be here for you when you’re upset. Grandpa and Grandma play favorites. You just have to look at how they treat my dad to know that. Otherwise, our family wouldn’t have insisted on moving away from our hometown. Since Grandpa and Grandma don’t care for us, we’ll let our uncle’s family take care of them in their old age. We just need to focus on living our own lives."

"I know, it’s just..."

"Yeah. It only hurts because you had expectations. From now on, let’s not expect anything from them."

Qin Na nodded, her mood genuinely starting to settle. Qin Jiao mentioned that her mom had made noodles and wanted her to come downstairs to eat. Qin Na went to wash her face first, then followed Qin Jiao downstairs.

Just then, Qin Jiao saw Shen Yi standing in the living room, talking to Su Yun about something.

Seeing her come downstairs, Su Yun said, "Xiao Jiao, Xiao Yi is here to ask you about some problems. We don’t need you down here, so why don’t you two go upstairs and study."

’My parents sure are trusting,’ Qin Jiao finally realized.

’Aren’t they worried that something might happen, with a boy and a girl alone in a room together?’

Xiao Shi was still sitting there watching cartoons. She didn’t have much winter break homework from elementary school and had finished it long ago.

Seeing how engrossed her little sister was, Qin Jiao didn’t have the heart to disturb her. Instead, she nodded to Shen Yi and said, "Come on upstairs."

Shen Yi silently followed her up. This wasn’t his first time in Qin Jiao’s room, but it was the first time they had been in there alone together.

The heating in the house was quite strong. As soon as they got upstairs, Shen Yi took off his jacket, revealing the sweater he wore underneath.

Qin Jiao glanced over and breathed a sigh of relief. ’Good, it’s not the one Mom knitted. I was starting to worry he never changed his sweater.’

"Which problem are you stuck on?"

"These few math problems."

"Oh, I wasn’t too sure about these when I did them, either. They feel like they’re beyond the scope of the curriculum."

They sat very close, both genuinely focused on studying the math problems that seemed to be beyond the curriculum. Occasionally, their arms would brush against each other, or Qin Jiao’s long hair would sweep across the back of Shen Yi’s hand, but neither’s expression changed as they continued working on the problems.

Once they had finished all the complex problems, Qin Jiao let out a sigh of relief and reached for the cup on her desk. She was surprised to see it already in Shen Yi’s hand, who then casually took a sip from it.

Qin Jiao’s eyes flew wide.