Without another word, Chi Ye walked up to Li Zhiyin and raised his hand. “Chi Ye.”
Li Zhiyin looked up at the boy’s sharp, stern features.
Not only was Chi Ye handsome, but the other boys were also exceptionally good-looking.
Like a variety of pleasing flowers.
She politely shook his hand. “Li Zhiyin.”
Chi Ye gave her a deep look. “We’ll be attending the same school from now on. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask me at school.”
Li Wuyou beside them: “?”
She and Chi Ye had grown up together, yet she’d never heard him offer to answer her questions!
Li Zhiyin nodded and turned her gaze to another golden-haired boy approaching her.
The golden-haired boy frowned deeply, his face filled with displeasure. “I’m Yan Juexia.”
She shook his outstretched hand.
But Yan Juexia suddenly pulled her into his arms!
Li Zhiyin was startled as Yan Juexia pinched her face.
?
Yan Juexia held her face, examining it closely, his beautiful features filled with disbelief. “How can you be Level Ten? How can you be so amazing?”
Chi Ye sighed in exasperation, grabbing Yan Juexia by the collar and pulling him aside. “Stop acting crazy.”
The other boys also tried to step forward but were pushed away by Li Xinghao.
“I’m Li Xinghao!”
Li Xinghao looked at Li Zhiyin, raising his hand, his tone menacing. “Your second brother, your biological second brother!”
Li Zhiyin expressionlessly shook his extended hand. “I don’t have a brother.”
Li Xinghao narrowed his eyes dangerously. “You better never have one for the rest of your life!”
Li Yanlang also stepped forward, speaking unhurriedly. “I’m Li Yanlang. We’ll be attending the same school from now on.”
Li Zhiyin glanced at his hands tucked in his pockets.
This guy didn’t actually want to shake her hand.
She replied coldly, “Mm.”
Li Yanlang sneered. “We have plenty of time ahead.”
Li Zhiyin curled her lips into a smile, completely unfazed by his rudeness. “Mm.”
Li Yanlang left with a darkened expression.
Li Wuyou stepped forward, taking her hand. “Little sister, are you really not coming home?”
The glee in her eyes was almost impossible to hide as she suppressed a smile. “If you don’t come home, Mom, Dad, and our brothers will all worry about you. I can give up my place and swap everything back to how it should be. After all, I’ve taken over your life. Mom and Dad are really looking forward to your return.”
Li Zhiyin’s face darkened, and she immediately pulled her hand back.
Li Xiao watched from the side, growing furious. “Li Zhiyin, your sister is shaking your hand! How can you be so ill-mannered? Is this how your adoptive parents raised you?!”
Li Zhiyin shot him a cold glance, about to retort, when Shen Lianyan’s voice cut through sharply—
“Li Xiao, do you not know how your daughter grew up? She was raised by monsters who abused her! Are you expecting manners from monsters?!”
Li Xiao was taken aback, glaring angrily at Shen Lianyan. “Her parents are her parents, and she is herself!”
Shen Lianyan sneered. “Oh, so she’s herself, and her parents are her parents, huh? Then where were you when your daughter was being burned with cigarette butts?! You’re her biological father, yet I don’t see you playing any part as a father!”
Li Xiao: “!”
Li Zhiyin looked at Shen Lianyan in surprise.
Shen Lianyan angrily shielded her behind her. “Besides, this child has been polite to us strangers from the start. Is that what you call ill-mannered? You’re just biased against her!”
Li Xiao was stunned. “I’m biased? Clearly, she’s the one biased against Wuyou! She can shake hands with everyone else, but with Wuyou, she pulls her hand back!””What’s wrong with pulling her hand back?!”
Shen Lianyan raised her voice in retort: “It should have been Li Wuyou who was abused, and Li Wuyou who should have been burned with five or six cigarette scars! Li Wuyou stole Li Zhiyin’s life, so what if Zhiyin didn’t want to shake hands?!”
Wuyou cried: “Auntie, how can you say that about me?!”
Li Xiao also shielded Wuyou behind her: “Watch your words! What do you mean it should have been our Wuyou?! Why should our Wuyou suffer abuse? Wuyou is innocent!”
Shen Lianyan raised her voice even higher: “Then isn’t Zhiyin innocent too?! Why is Zhiyin’s Humanity Value so low? It’s precisely because she endured abuse—she had to numb herself just to survive. If it were a more fragile child, they would have long jumped into the river and drowned!!”
Li Zhiyin’s face instantly turned deathly pale, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
Sensing her discomfort, Shen Lianyan immediately pulled her into an embrace: “It’s alright, what’s past is past. Your foster mother won’t bring it up again.”
Li Zhiyin, treated this way, felt somewhat at a loss.
Shen Lianyan’s eyes reddened slightly as she rubbed Zhiyin’s cold arms with heartache: “From now on, you are my daughter, my child, Shen Lianyan’s child. No one is allowed to bully you!”
She glared at Li Xiao: “If you say one more bad word about my daughter, you’ll have me, Shen Lianyan, to deal with! Just try opening your mouth again?!”
Li Xiao: “?!”
Beside them, Shen Shiyi, her face streaked with tears, opened her mouth to speak.
Shen Lianyan directly cut her off: “Sis, I advise you not to speak. You’re too weak. Even if this child really went home with you, she wouldn’t lead a carefree life—she’d only suffer, and you couldn’t protect her!”
Shen Shiyi was left speechless, indignantly retorting: “Then can you protect her?!”
“Of course I can!”
Shen Lianyan straightened her chest with righteous confidence: “From now on, Li Zhiyin is my daughter, and she’ll be my only daughter. I won’t let her suffer the slightest grievance. What others have, she’ll have; what others don’t have, she’ll still have! I’ll register her household under my name, let her take the surname Shen, and raise her as my sole heir!”
Li Zhiyin stared blankly at Shen Lianyan.
From childhood till now, aside from her younger sister, no one had ever protected her.
So this is what it feels like to be protected by an elder?
She pressed a hand to her chest in confusion.
Another abrupt female voice interrupted—
“Um, excuse me.”
Everyone looked toward the source.
A doctor awkwardly approached Li Zhiyin: “We forgot to retrieve the Humanity Value detection patch from you. Could you please remove it?”
Li Zhiyin was taken aback: “Sorry, I forgot.”
She quickly went into the partition to peel off the testing patch on her chest.
The doctor then turned to Shen Lianyan: “Just now, this child’s Humanity Value increased.”
Everyone was stunned.
What??
Shen Lianyan exclaimed in surprise: “Humanity Value can increase?”
The doctor blinked: “Of course. When I saw you defending her earlier, it rose from one to ten.”
Shen Lianyan felt a surge of joy but then hesitated: “But I’ve never heard of someone with low Humanity Value being able to increase it.”
“It’s different,” the doctor whispered. “Usually, those people have undergone excessive Cybernetic Augmentation, leading to a decrease in Humanity Value. Because their bodies have become mechanized, it’s extremely difficult for their Humanity Value to rise.”
“But this child has no cybernetic body at all. Her low Humanity Value is clearly due to a poor upbringing environment.””Do you know what this means?”
The doctor’s eyes sparkled with hope.
“This child has a good foundation and can be reformed. If we work hard to treat her well, perhaps it could rise to seventy or eighty!”