Su Mian had spent more than twenty years as an outsider in the Su family.
She was sent to the countryside as a child, and after returning home, she was still just a foil for her younger sister. Even her fiancé of five years only ever had eyes for the fragile Su Ruo.
Without telling anyone, she endured her anemia and underwent a bone marrow compatibility test for her sister, who had leukemia, hoping only that she would get better.
Then, holding her diagnosis in front of the family at the dinner table, she tested them by pretending she had leukemia and asking if a close relative would get tested for compatibility.
Her mother called her a troublemaker. Her father accused her of emotional blackmail. Lu Qingzhou frowned and said, "Don't force Ruoruo."
No one asked if she was in pain.
No one asked how she could be treated.
One slap from her father shattered every last hope Su Mian had.
Only then did she finally understand: in this family, and in her fiancé's eyes, she would always be an outsider.
A severance agreement drew a clear line between her and the family. Su Mian walked away and married someone else in a whirlwind wedding.
Qin Zhao stood at the pinnacle of Haicheng, able to turn the clouds with one hand and summon the rain with the other. Even Lu Qingzhou treated him with utmost respect: he was his younger maternal uncle.
Their marriage was supposed to be a contract, with each getting what they needed, but Qin Zhao cherished her with all his heart.
When she tried to tough it out through her illness, he coldly insisted she rest.
When she was wronged, he quietly made the other person pay.
Later, when the Su family ran out of options and came begging at her door, Lu Qingzhou swallowed his pride and pleaded for her to come back.
Leaning against Qin Zhao's shoulder, Su Mian chuckled. "Who was it that said whoever asked for help first would be the other one's grandson?"
The man lowered his head and kissed the top of her hair, his tone indulgent in a way he reserved just for her. "Be good. Don't let a grandson get to you."
