Eight-year-old Lu Xinyi hummed a song to herself while she tried to create a flower necklace for herself. Her grandmother—her father's mother—had yet to pick her up from this orphanage where she was temporarily staying.
Her mother had recently died, and she refused to stay in the Sun Mansion any longer, in fear that her aunties would hit her again and Sun Feiyan taking her favorite toys and books in her possession.
She hated that place! It was full of meanies like her Auntie Ruying and cousin Feiyan! When Sun Feiyan took her brooch, the last gift she received from her mother, her Aunt Ruying told her she didn't belong to the family so she'd better give it to Sun Feiyan. Those meanies could keep it for now, but she swore she would find a way to get it back!
She was preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn't see a figure stumbling down from the window of the second floor. Her eyes widened when she saw an older boy fall onto her flower necklaces besides her.