After leaving the hospital, they went to Doctor Aisen’s clinic. Doctor Aisen had been waiting for them for quite some time.
What Ruan Qiao never expected was that the moment Jin Ge saw Doctor Aisen, he instantly freaked out!
With a “ga” sound, he jumped straight from the ground onto Ruan Qiao’s shoulder, causing her to stumble completely off balance.
If it weren’t for Ah Qi grabbing him, she would have gone face-first into the ground!
Ruan Qiao was so angry she wanted to scold someone.
But seeing the little one so flustered and chaotic, she couldn’t bring herself to say a word.
Jin Ge, who had been specially chosen by Ruan Qiao to accompany her today, was overjoyed and full of pride.
He had been walking with his head held high the entire way, feeling like he was the director’s favorite little darling.
But he never expected that the director had brought him out just to see a doctor!
He wailed at Ruan Qiao, his voice filled with a strong sense of accusation.
It wasn’t until Ah Qi could no longer tolerate it that he grabbed Jin Ge by the wings, tossed him onto the doctor’s examination table, and closed the door. Only then did things quiet down a little.
Ruan Qiao was completely stunned.
She looked at Ah Qi in surprise. “He’s afraid of Doctor Aisen?”
That can’t be, such a kind, charitable person…
Ruan Qiao hadn’t forgotten the joy Lin Shan and Gungun had shown when they came.
Ah Qi was silent for a moment and said, “Their previous encounters probably weren’t very pleasant.”
Hearing this, Ruan Qiao immediately understood.
It was likely that in the past, Ella had often brought Jin Ge to Doctor Aisen for wing treatment.
It was just like a child who had already had vaccinations, when they go to the hospital again, they always cry louder than children who are visiting for the first time and haven’t been “tricked” yet.
Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but smile and rub her temple helplessly.
Fortunately, the examination was over very quickly.
Ruan Qiao held the whining little one in her arms, gently stroking his feathers to calm him while listening to Doctor Aisen explain the examination results.
Doctor Aisen was very pleased and extremely satisfied with the little guy’s rehabilitation progress.
He even praised Ah Qi repeatedly, saying they had really put in effort, and at this rate, Jin Ge had a much higher chance of successfully completing his transformation.
Finally, Doctor Aisen offered a suggestion to Ruan Qiao: “If you can manage it, I think you could buy Jin Ge a set of motion-sensing exercise equipment. There are models specifically designed for rehabilitation, which would allow targeted exercises for his condition. Plus, on hot days, he could use it indoors without affecting his training.”
After saying this, he seemed worried Ruan Qiao might feel pressured and quickly added, “Of course, this isn’t mandatory. With Ah Qi’s assistance, the current results are already very good.”
But Ruan Qiao was intrigued.
She immediately asked, “How much would the motion-sensing equipment cost?”
She had heard of this kind of device in her previous world, and Doctor Aisen’s explanation made it clear what type it was.
Ruan Qiao was impressed with the technological level of this world; even the climate control in the nursery’s rooms was satisfying.
Since the doctor suggested it, she believed it must be necessary.
“One suitable for Jin Ge would cost about ten thousand star coins,” he said.
Ruan Qiao: “……”
“Actually, if you don’t mind, you could consider buying second-hand,” Doctor Aisen continued. “These devices update quickly. Many people buy the newest models but barely use them before they’re left idle. You might find a good one on the second-hand market for two or three thousand star coins.”
Could it really be that easy?
Ruan Qiao’s eyes immediately lit up!
Excitedly, she grabbed Ah Qi’s sleeve and asked, “Doctor Aisen, where is this second-hand market? Let’s go now!”
Doctor Aisen told her the market’s location.
Then, slightly puzzled, he asked, “Ruan Qiao, don’t take this the wrong way. I know the situation at the nursery, and you must be under significant financial pressure. In that case, why not consider taking out a loan?”
His tone carried genuine confusion; it was clear he truly didn’t understand.
“You’ve already started planting vegetables, and according to what you said, you’ll soon have a harvest. The hard times are only temporary.
With your situation, I don’t think any bank would refuse your loan application, right?”
Ruan Qiao: !!!
She had completely overlooked this.
She had never once thought to check whether it was even possible to get a loan in this world!
But if it was possible…
Ruan Qiao immediately voiced her question: “If loans are possible, why didn’t Ella choose this option back then?”
Doctor Aisen gave a wry smile.
“Your situation is different from Ella’s. She had been ill for many years.
Given her age and health, even using the mountain as collateral, no institution would have been willing to lend her money. And besides, she simply had no means to repay it.”
Ruan Qiao understood.
It ultimately came down to the fact that she was growing vegetables.
With vegetables came income, and with income came eligibility for a loan.
She nodded and said gratefully, “Thank you, Doctor Aisen. This suggestion is incredibly important to me. We’ll go to the bank right now to check.”
With that, she was about to stand.
Seeing her get ready to leave, Ah Qi, who had been silent until now, stood up first and took Jin Ge from her arms.
Seeing Ah Qi, Ruan Qiao suddenly remembered the question she had been meaning to ask the doctor.
She gestured for Ah Qi to wait and asked, “Doctor Aisen, have you ever heard of the Aixin Charity Association?”
At the mention of this, Doctor Aisen’s expression changed, and he asked anxiously, “What? Did they come to see you? Did Ella contact them before?”
Seeing that Doctor Aisen seemed to know something, Ruan Qiao didn’t hide anything and explained what had happened that morning, of course without mentioning Ah Qi’s unusual condition.
When she added that she absolutely wouldn’t sell the mountain to Aixin, Doctor Aisen visibly relaxed and let out a long, deep sigh.
“Back then, Ella mentioned to me that she wanted to sell the back mountain to them. I advised her not to do it.
That organization has a terrible reputation outside; people have been saying that behind the scenes, their so-called charity association is involved in illegal activities.
Although no one has proof, I think [1]“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire” means that if there are signs, rumors, or indications that something might be wrong, there is probably some truth behind them. It suggests that problems or … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1816241_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1816241_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Also, some of my veterinarian friends told me that, under the guise of a charity, they took in many young cubs whose transformations had failed.
All of these cubs eventually went missing. Where they ended up, no one knows.
I was really worried that the charity association might set their sights on the children in the orphanage.”
Hearing the mention of the little ones, Jin Ge panicked and squeaked a few times, burying his head deep into Ah Qi’s arms.
Seeing this, Doctor Aisen realized he might have said too much.
He gave an awkward smile and said, “Ella didn’t fully understand the situation. She was probably just desperate at the time. But now you’ve taken over, right? With you here, the little ones will never be left without a home again.”
“Yes, my aunt really had no choice back then. But now that I’ve taken over, nothing like that will ever happen again,” Ruan Qiao said solemnly.
After thanking Doctor Aisen once more, the three of them, two adults and one little one, left the clinic.
Since time was tight, Ruan Qiao and Ah Qi decided to first go to the bank to inquire about loans, leaving the second-hand market for later.
Fortunately, there was a large bank not far from the clinic, and within a few minutes’ walk, they arrived.
Ruan Qiao asked Ah Qi to wait outside with Jin Ge while she went to the credit department.
After presenting an electronic version of the property certificate and showing photos she had taken of the nursery room and the vegetables at various growth stages, the staff became very interested.
He asked Ruan Qiao detailed questions and then told her that her materials had passed the preliminary review.
However, whether the loan would ultimately be approved depended on a professional from the bank visiting the orphanage to conduct an on-site assessment.
They would determine the loan amount based on that evaluation.
Although the staff didn’t make a final promise, Ruan Qiao could sense that it was basically a done deal.
After hearing she was in a hurry, the staff even called the assessment team in front of her and scheduled a visit for the next morning.
While she was in the credit department, Ruan Qiao managed to keep her expression composed, trying to appear confident and proper.
But as soon as she stepped outside, she was so happy she felt like she could jump for joy.
She ran over, grabbed Ah Qi’s arm, and beamed with excitement: “It’s done! Tomorrow the assessment team will come to our orphanage to evaluate us. Once the results are out, we’ll get the loan!
Once we get it, we can buy meat, buy delicious food, and even get a motion-sensing exercise device for Jin Ge! No more second-hand stuff, we’ll buy a brand-new one!”
Actually, after hearing Doctor Aisen, Ah Qi had wanted to tell Ruan Qiao that the exercise device wasn’t necessary.
With his plan, Jin Ge’s physical condition could be maintained perfectly well.
But seeing her so happy, he didn’t mention it. He simply nodded along and said, “Alright, we’ll get a new one.”
In his mind, he was already thinking about cleaning out the storage rooms on the first floor of the small building to make an indoor exercise area for the little ones in the yard.
Seeing Ah Qi agree with her idea made Ruan Qiao even happier.
She grabbed his arm and headed toward the main gate. “Let’s go, let’s go! While we still have time, we can buy you a few sets of clothes, I’ve been wanting to get them for you for a long time.”
They walked quickly, so much so that near the gate they almost collided with a group entering.
Ruan Qiao quickly stopped in her tracks.
At the same time, the man at the front of the group also paused.
He looked at Ruan Qiao, removed his sunglasses, and nodded slightly to her. Without waiting for a response, he put them back on and continued walking forward.
He was a tall middle-aged man, probably in his fifties, with an imposing presence without looking angry. Around him were four or five people of different ages, clearly his subordinates.
Ruan Qiao was a bit dazed by the brief acknowledgment. She tried to recall everyone she had met on this planet but couldn’t remember this man at all.
Giving up, she shook her head and didn’t dwell on it, tugging Ah Qi along. “Come on, let’s hurry. We don’t want to be out after dark, I don’t like walking at night.”
Ah Qi gave her a long, steady look, opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything.
The next morning, everyone got up early. After their morning run, Ah Qi and the little ones didn’t linger on the mountain, they all returned to help tidy up the yard and clean.
Together, they cleaned the orphanage until it was sparkling, the glass gleaming everywhere.
But when the agreed time came, the assessment team still hadn’t arrived.
Ten minutes passed, then twenty, and the gate remained quiet, with no sign of anyone.
Ruan Qiao couldn’t wait any longer. She forced a smile and said to everyone, “I’ll call to check what’s going on. You don’t have to all stand by the gate, go inside and play.”
If this were in her old world, maybe it would be traffic, but on 0813, there are so few people that the idea of a traffic jam doesn’t even exist.
By now, with still no one showing up, Ruan Qiao felt a creeping sense of unease.
Sure enough, when she called, it was the same staff member from yesterday, but his attitude was completely different.
He didn’t offer any explanation and simply told her, “I’m sorry, your loan application has not been approved. After evaluation, we determined you do not have the ability to repay.”
Then he hung up.
Staring at the darkened screen, Ruan Qiao felt utterly confused.
Even if she couldn’t get the loan, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world, she hadn’t even planned on it before yesterday.
But this flip-flopping attitude left her completely baffled.
Seeing her like this, Ah Qi, who had somehow followed her inside, hesitated for a moment before asking, “The man from yesterday… do you know him?”
“Which one?”
“The one at the bank entrance.”
“No, I don’t. Why?”
Although Ruan Qiao had noticed the man’s actions yesterday, she had already pushed the memory completely aside. Hearing Ah Qi mention it now, she realized something wasn’t right.
“You mean the bank’s rejection is related to that person?” she asked in surprise.
“I think so. His name is Wei Qiu, and he’s the largest shareholder of that bank. I saw his introduction and resume in the bank’s public notice board before,” Ah Qi explained.
“Wei Qiu? Wait a second!”
Ruan Qiao’s eyes widened. “He owns the Aixin Charity Association too?”
“Yes,” Ah Qi nodded. “I looked him up last night. Besides being a bank shareholder, he has other businesses, real estate and the aid association. I think he must have recognized you yesterday.”
“I’ve never even met him, how could he recognize me? This is absurd,” Ruan Qiao said, frustrated.
Complaints aside, she had to admit Ah Qi’s reasoning made sense.
Without that explanation, there was no way to account for the bank’s complete reversal in attitude.
Thinking this through, her impression of the Aixin Charity Association grew even worse, and her disgust for Wei Qiu skyrocketed.
She stood up, massaged her stiff shoulders, and sighed. “Well, that’s definitely a dead end. Forget it… if we can’t make it with him, can’t we still survive without him?”
Not wanting anyone to see her disappointment, Ruan Qiao covered a yawn and said to Ah Qi, “I’m exhausted. I barely slept last night. I’m going to rest for a bit. You take them out to play.”
With that, she returned to her bedroom.
She said she was going to sleep, but with all the frustration bubbling inside her, how could Ruan Qiao possibly rest peacefully?
She had a dream. In the dream, she saw a book lying open, its title: The Strongest Interstellar Commander.
Ruan Qiao instinctively reached out and flipped through it, then was immediately drawn to a passage:
“Jiang Qi lit a torch and threw it into this filthy, blood-soaked orphanage…”
Her heart skipped a beat. Struggling to calm her rising unease, she turned to the next page.
Ruan Qiao flipped through the book rapidly and then realized—
Her so-called “transmigration” wasn’t to another planet at all. She had actually entered an interstellar novel, becoming a cannon-fodder female character who shared her name.
And the Ah Qi she had adopted was not some helpless child abandoned by a family, but a young interstellar commander who would eventually become the most powerful commander in the entire galaxy.
Reading further, Ruan Qiao finally understood many things that had confused her before.
For example, why did Wei Qiu know her?
Why had the original girl refused Ella at first, yet Ella still left the orphanage to her in her will, seemingly expecting her to accept the inheritance?
In the book, the original girl, like many young people on this planet, dreamed of leaving to live on the capital star.
So when Ella contacted her, asking her to take over the orphanage, she had refused without hesitation.
But when she learned that Wei Qiu intended to buy the land, she quickly changed her mind and reclaimed the inheritance.
Afterward, the original girl, ignoring her promise to care for the children, sold the land to Wei Qiu in exchange for a ticket to the capital star.
Wei Qiu used the orphanage and the land behind it to build a garbage dump, and the children in the orphanage were sent to his Aixin Orphanage.
Later, because of failed transformations, Jin Ge and Lin Shan died, while the remaining three children who succeeded in transforming were sent to the dump as laborers.
When Jiang Qi returned from the battlefield and came looking for his nephew, he found that Jiang Wang and Huihui had already died from gas poisoning.
Of the five children from the orphanage, only the hedgehog Gungun survived, barely alive after being tortured.
What happened next was exactly as written on the first page of the book: Jiang Qi set fire to the trash-filled orphanage, soaked with the blood of the dead children, and then, carrying Gungun, embarked on a path of revenge.
Ruan Qiao: !!!
So, what kind of misfortune had she brought upon herself? Not only did she end up here helping to raise someone else’s children, but she also had to take the blows on their behalf?!
According to the book, the original girl later, out of fear of being pursued by Jiang Qi and Gungun, fled across several planets and ultimately died in destitution, freezing and starving on the streets!
Reading this, Ruan Qiao couldn’t bear it and angrily woke herself up.
After Ruan Qiao left, Ah Qi didn’t immediately leave the room. He sat down at the computer and began searching for information about Wei Qiu.
He didn’t tell Ruan Qiao because he didn’t want her to worry. But when he saw this man’s name, his headache worsened, even more intense than the first time.
He had to find out exactly what was going on.
Ah Qi spent a long time searching online but found nothing useful, leaving him a little frustrated.
He closed the webpage and casually opened a folder on his desktop.
This folder contained information on the children in the orphanage. He wanted to look at Jin Ge’s file again and refine the training plan for him.
When the file opened, the first name he saw wasn’t Jin Ge’s, but, Jiang Wang!
Seeing this name, Ah Qi’s mind went blank, and the pain in his head intensified.
Something seemed to be on the verge of emerging!
He couldn’t control himself and clutched his head, his face contorted with pain.
When Ruan Qiao stepped out of her bedroom, this was exactly the scene she saw!
References[+]