Qin Luming's Family Background Overview

Qin Qin was less than two years older than Qin Luming, so there was not much of an age gap between the siblings. Qin Luming's mother had married into the Qin family in the 1990s. The family had traditional values; although they did not harbor the bad habit of looking down on girls, they still hoped to have both a son and a daughter. After giving birth to her first child, Qin Luming's mother recuperated, prayed to Buddha, and made a series of preparations that looked rather superstitious. Sure enough, her second child, Qin Luming, was a boy.

That entire set of methods was thereafter regarded as sacred truth. Yet when it was later used on Qin Luming's uncle's wife, it proved completely ineffective. At present, Qin Luming was still the only male of the Qin family's third generation.

Qin Qin was less than two years older than Qin Luming, but because she had never taken a leave from school, she had long since graduated and entered the workforce. Like other fresh graduates with no family business to inherit, she had found a job and worked at a company unrelated to her family for a while. Now, she had returned to help her mother manage some of the family's businesses.

As a woman, Qin Qin had reached the age when her family truly began pressuring her to marry. But like Qin Luming, her standards were extremely high. Just as Qin Luming had his uncle's female confidante as a reference, making his expectations for a girlfriend impossible for ordinary girls to meet, Qin Qin's standard for a partner was a man who would spoil her as indulgently as her uncle did.

Qin Qin believed Qin Luming would never find a girlfriend that way, and Qin Luming felt the same about her.

Qin Luming asked Fairy Jiang to avoid them for the moment. Fairy Jiang had no interest in meeting any other bugs, so she picked up the house manual and began flipping through it with a frown. She walked into the living room of the apartment across the hall without sitting down. After all, the place had not been used for a long time, and neither Qin Luming nor Zuozuo and Caicai were diligent cleaners.

Caicai rode the robot vacuum to greet Qin Qin. Qin Qin would not find a girl riding a robot vacuum strange, so Caicai had no intention of hiding. She openly took the slippers from Zuozuo and handed them to Qin Qin.

"Zuozuo and Caicai have grown taller again!" Qin Qin was a young woman with waist-length hair. When she bent down, she habitually gathered her hair aside as she tilted her head to examine the two beautiful girls. Back when her brother's hands had yet to recover, these two girls had appeared at the hospital and stayed by his side. To this day, their parents had never been found.

Two little girls of unknown identity had shown up, and the family had simply adopted them? Of course not. At the time, however, her brother had been in poor health and was rather withdrawn. Many things had also cast a shadow over the boy's heart. The family cherished him dearly, so they had not forcibly driven away the two little girls who insisted on playing with Qin Luming... More importantly, Qin Luming seemed to like them very much. It was rare to see her brother so calm around others, or to see a smile on his face like that of an ordinary boy, bright with the warmth of sunlight. Whether it was their mother, their uncle, or elders such as their grandfather and granduncle, they all felt they could investigate the girls' backgrounds while allowing them to keep Qin Luming company for the time being.

Although they had continued to monitor missing-person reports and related information, Qin Qin selfishly hoped the girls could remain by Qin Luming's side forever.

It was only after Qin Luming repeatedly urged her this year that his mother finally found a way to register household records for Zuozuo and Caicai.

The method followed the general plan for registering unregistered persons laid out in the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Resolving Household Registration Issues for Persons Without Household Registration," issued in January 2016. Each locality then introduced specific implementation measures based on its actual circumstances.

Many people neither looked into it nor understood it, merely believing that household registration and ID cards were difficult things to obtain. In truth, it was not so difficult as long as the person was a minor.

"Here, your ID cards are finally ready. Zuozuo, you look a little thin in your photo." Qin Qin handed the IDs to the two girls as soon as she entered.

At those words, Zuozuo smiled happily. The tooth she had lost had grown back, so she no longer spoke with a lisp.

"No, it still looks like a chubby little pig hoof." Caicai leaned over to take a look, then ran off to find Qin Luming. "Brother Luming, look at our ID cards... Can we get bank cards by ourselves now? Can we have our own Alipay accounts? Can we link WeChat Pay? Can we verify our identities to play games? Can we..."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Qin Luming had no choice but to answer like a broken record. The little girl was clearly far too excited.

"You seem to have grown taller too." After putting on her slippers, Qin Qin walked up to Qin Luming. She placed her palm over the top of her own head, lifted it upward, then brought it down onto Qin Luming's head and patted it. "You're about as tall as me now."

"I saw the messages in the family group. Are you going to be based in City A this time?" Qin Luming did not mind being shorter than his sister. She was taller, so what? She could be nine feet tall for all he cared... At that thought, Regent Jin's figure could not help surfacing in his mind. In truth, despite that excessively tall and imposing appearance, Regent Jin was still an overall very charming woman.

"That's right. A newly opened hotel has been handed over to me so I can get some practice and familiarize myself with management. It's right next to your school. I've reserved a villa for you, and it's much bigger than this place, with far better amenities. The hotel staff can take care of it for you, so your daily life will be much more convenient." Qin Qin spoke with concern. Her younger brother had been living independently for several years already, yet he refused to let anyone look after him. He was too stubborn. Although the family was doing fairly well, both their mother and Qin Qin felt they spent too little time with him and had failed to care for him thoroughly in everyday life.

"Behind the hotel, I designed a tree-lined avenue. It hasn't officially opened yet, but it's already become an online-famous attraction. You can leave home and follow it straight to your school. You can take a leisurely walk to school every day, and driving girls along it would be very romantic too." Qin Qin looked at Qin Luming expectantly. "Have you got your eye on any girls? Your school is full of beauties."

"Why are you acting like Mom too... Shouldn't we be on the same side about this? You haven't found anyone either." Qin Luming waved his hand. "Sis, I appreciate the thought, but I'm doing fine here. I can't be bothered to move."

"I designed such a beautiful road for you, and I even came up with the name. It's called Yuanyuan Road." Qin Qin said unhappily.

"You..." Qin Luming took a deep breath and calmed himself. "I won't take a single step on that road. I told the grocery delivery guy to bring ingredients on Monday, so there isn't much to eat at home today. Let's go buy groceries."

"Fine. I'll show you the layout of that place later. It's much better than this one. This place of yours isn't particularly big or small, tall or short, and the view is just so-so." Qin Qin could only give up for the moment. She had only just changed into slippers to come inside, but now she changed back into her shoes and went to the supermarket with Qin Luming.

Naturally, Zuozuo and Caicai were going too. They could buy lots of things they thought were both delicious and fun.