Love Notes: Find My Mr. Right

It was the middle of 21st century. H City was fully developed and completely in line with the world's economy. It was possible to consider it as one of the most prosperous cities in all of Country C. With a large number of assets, abundant funds and talents, ZY Real Estate Industry Group Co., Ltd. was the most influential and leading enterprise in this city.

The ZY Group mainly engaged in real estate, supplemented by catering, entertainment and game development. In addition to its own strength, it also had a particularly strong connection with the Qin Group. The Qin Group was a low-key international family enterprise with a hundred years of business history, a stable foundation, strong assets and a wide range of businesses. Its subsidiaries and branches were distributed in major economic cities all over the world, and the ZY Group was one of its three giants.

The so-called "three giants of the Qin Group" referred to the three subsidiaries. In addition to the ZY Group, the other two subsidiaries were the CT Group of S City in Country C, and the STAR Group of D City in Country R. They were different from other branches of the Qin Group. Other than the fact that they were subsidiaries, they were relatively independent. But the reason why they were so special was that the presidents of the three subsidiaries were all the Qin Group's family members.

Since Jack Qin, the chairman of the Qin Group, died three years ago, the power of the Qin Group had been transferred to the madam in charge, Jean Xu.

The president of the ZY Group was Oliver Qin, the second son of Jack and Jean Xu.

The president of the CT Group was Lewis Qin, the eldest son. While the president of the STAR Group was Ben Qin, the youngest son who had just taken office.

The head office of the Qin Group was originally the CASP Group in Country A. However, not long after Jack's death, Jean Xu left Country A and stayed in Country R where her youngest son was. In the past three years, the economic center of the Qin Group had gradually shifted to the STAR Group. After Ben Qin took over the STAR Group on the board of directors not long ago, the elite managers of the CASP Group had been transferred to the STAR Group under the arrangements of Jean Xu. Many of the public guessed that among the three sons, Jean Xu loved her youngest son Ben Qin the most, and assumed that in the future, he would take over the power of the Qin Group. In C City, Country A... Although the CASP Group was still the nominal head company, in the near future, everyone had predicted that Jean Xu would definitely transfer her shares to the STAR Group so that the assets would be reorganized and thus replacing the status of the head company.

Although such conjectures came out one after another from people's public opinion, Jean Xu herself had never had such a plan. As for the heir of the Qin Group, Jean Xu preferred it to be her eldest grandson, Austin Qin.

There were three members of the younger generation of the Qin Group. In addition to Austin Qin, there were also two granddaughters, Cassie Qin and Clare Qin. Both Austin Qin and Clare Qin were the children of Oliver Qin. The two of them were more than one year apart. Although they didn't look very similar, they were both shaped with the excellent genes of their parents. From childhood to adulthood, Austin Qin and Clare Qin were outstandingly good-looking. Lewis Qin's daughter, Cassie Qin, seemed to also naturally inherit the "fine appearance" of the Qin family. As for Ben Qin, he was still young and single, and so he hadn't had a child yet.

Among the three, Austin Qin had the greatest business talent. At the age of 10, he was often brought along to the meetings of the board of directors by Oliver Qin. By 12 years old, he was able to make his own opinions and suggestions. When he was 16, he had the ability to manage his own auction companies behind the scenes.

Cassie Qin, the eldest granddaughter of the Qin family, was the only child of Lewis Qin. She was beautiful and had a good character. Although she was not interested in business, she was particularly interested in creating new, innovative inventions. Her biggest dream since her childhood was to be a scientist. Unfortunately, it was nothing more than just a dream for her.

Clare Qin, the youngest granddaughter among her generation, almost died when she was born, which frightened the whole family. On the day of her hundred day baptism, Jean Xu specially hired the most notable fortune-teller to tell what laid ahead for her. "Her good fortune is too much to bear. She might die for it," the fortune-teller said. "This girl can't live under the protection of the ancestors of the Qin family before 12 years old, or she will be entangled with all kinds of diseases and die early." In other words, if Clare Qin wanted to grow up healthily, she couldn't live as a descendant of the Qin family until she was 12 years old.

Although science ad rational thinking was prevalent in this time, the Qin family still believed in fate. In order to make sure that their weak and sick granddaughter could grow up safely, Jack and Jean chose to listen to the advice of the fortune-teller. Therefore, before Clare Qin was 12 years old, her name hadn't appeared on the Qin family tree, and her family had been keeping the news of her existence from the outside world.

When she finally turned 12, the Qin family decided to officially recognize her as a family and hold a press conference to announce her identity. But at that time, Clare Qin had been used to living as an ordinary person in front of outsiders, so she asked her family to continue to hide her identity until she reached adulthood. So that year, although the Qin family arranged for her to acknowledge her family in private, they did not make any public appearances or announcements. Therefore, up to now, in addition to the Qin Group itself and the people who were particularly familiar with it, the outside world still only knew that there were Austin Qin and Cassie Qin in the Qin Group, and did not know that the existence of Clare Qin.

In the Qin family's villa in H City. The summer vacation was coming to an end.

"Brother!" A girl who was about fifteen years old, rushed into Austin Qin's study. She was wearing a pink cartoon nightdress and a pair of cute sandals with rabbit ears. In her arms was a stuffed toy bear that was almost as tall as she was. Her dainty, beautiful face was enough to lighten up anyone's mood. This time, however, there was a sour look on her face. "I'm so upset right now!" she declared.

The young man who was playing online games in front of the computer turned around, looked at the girl and gently asked, "What's wrong, Clary?" In fact, the moment Austin Qin saw the expression on his sister's face, he had already guessed what his sister was going to say.

As he expected, the next moment--

"I don't want to be separated from you!" Clare Qin announced loudly, "I hate the end of this summer vacation!"

Apart from the fact that he was the eldest grandson of the Qin Group, Austin was the most promising candidate for the inheritance of the Qin Group. What was more, Jean had personally chosen him as the heir.

Ever since he was in junior high school, Austin's elders had been telling him that he would have to leave his parents once he had stepped into his second year of senior high school. The plan was that he would go stay with Jean. There, he would still continue his studies while he was simultaneously groomed as the group's heir by Jean herself. Everything had been planned out for Austin's life. Clare had never been separated from her brother for more than a week. Obviously it was hard for her to accept that he was now moving away.

Seeing his sister, Austin smiled helplessly. He stood up from the chair, walked to her, patted his sister on the head and did his best to give some comfort. "Don't say wayward words. You won't even notice that I'm gone! If you miss me, you can call me at any time. Besides, you can also take a plane to see me during your vacation. Of course, I will come back to see you once my classes are not so intensive."

"No, I don't want you to go away!" Clare insisted.

Then, her lips trembled as she gave a pout. "I feel like you're abandoning me, brother," she continued in a meek voice.

Abandon.

Hearing this word, Austin couldn't help but touch his forehead and suppress a smile. It was silly for her to think that he was 'abandoning' her.

Austin always felt that outsiders were deceived by his sister's appearance.

When he was at school, he could always hear some people talking about the famous Clare Qin:

"Beautiful."

"Elegant."

"Smart."

"Calm."

All in all, she was a perfect girl that everyone wanted to be or be with. However, no one could imagine that this perfect girl was really such a spoiled child at home, especially towards her brother.

The more Austin thought about it...

Well, he had to admit that she was rather cute.

"Alright. Then go to Country R with me," Austin suggested, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No way!" Clare refused without hesitation, "I don't want to join you just to be tortured by Grandma."

Tortured?

Austin couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Don't let Grandma hear you say that. Otherwise, she would be really pissed off."

"Right, of course," Clare said with an exasperated sigh. She knew well enough that if she said anything like that in front of Jean, it was like she was asking for a death wish.

With a grunt, she jumped onto Austin's bed, the stuffed bear still tightly in her arms, and started to kick her legs rudely.

"I'm still so upset!" she cried out, repeating what she had just said earlier.

From her tone, Austin realized that there must be something else irritating his sister besides the fact that he was about to leave H City.

"Who pissed you off?" he asked gently.

"Our irresponsible parents, that's who!" Clare was filled with righteous indignation and complained, "They just told me that they were going to abandon me and enjoy their annual vocation in Country F. They are going to abandon me, just like you!"

She then sat on the middle of the bed to frown deeply at her brother. "They'll be gone for three whole months! I mean it's fine that they're going to this so-called 'annual event' that I have never even heard of until now. Of course, they can just leave the company's affairs to their subordinates. In fact, I want them to enjoy their little trip to Country F. But how could they leave me alone at home so irresponsibly? They've gone too far this time! So! I'm very angry now! And so! I've made up my mind..."

Clare paused, trying to elicit a sense of suspense.

Leaning in, Austin adjusted his expression and pretended to be curious.

With a satisfied smile, Clare straightened her back and squared her shoulders. "I'm going to run away from home!"

Her voice resounded inside Austin's room, each word said with much robustness.

If Austin only ranked as second as the person who knew Clare the most, no one else could ever possibly rank first. And so, when he heard her say that she was planning on running away from home, he knew she meant it.

Since school was about to begin, Clare couldn't go on the trip with their parents. On top of that, Austin was about to leave as well. Staying at home alone for three months could drive her crazy with boredom. It wouldn't be a surprise if she ended up burning the house down! Because of this, it was understandable that she would want to run away.

Of course, Austin deeply loved and cared about his sister. And so, he couldn't help but ask the first question that popped into his mind. "Where do you want to go then?"

"To S City! I'm going to study there! Mom and Dad already agreed to it. And I won't have to worry where I can stay since I can come live with our cousin!" Clare said determinedly.

Hearing this, Austin nodded. There were several people in S City who were very close to the three of them, and they were also the same few people who knew what kind of person Clare was really like. When Clare was eight years old, she, Cassie and several other became sworn sisters. After that, they named their small group "Dreamlike Seven Stars". Now it sounded a bit childish, but it was the result of their long discussion about their treasured friendship. Given this, S City was the first place that came to Clare's mind when she thought about 'running away' from home.

"That sounds like a good plan," Austin said. "But have you decided which school to go to?"

"XY High School!" Clare smiled and answered without hesitation.

A slight frown appeared on Austin's face. "Why?"

"Everyone else at Dreamlike Seven Stars is studying in XY High School now. Wouldn't it be...weird if I didn't go there when I went to S City? Besides, XY High School has a good reputation. Doesn't it make sense if I studied there?"

"Really? That's all?" Austin asked doubtfully.

Looking at her brother, Clare blinked innocently and threw the question back to him. "Or what?"

"Grandpa passed away in S City, and he used to be a member of the board of directors of XY High School." Austin's face became serious. "Clary, don't tell me that it has nothing to do with your choice to go to XY High School."

"Brother..." Clare felt a little frustrated. "You always make me feel bad by exposing me like this! Fine. Yes, part of the reason why I chose to go to XY High School is because of Grandpa."

Clare scooched over to the edge of the bed to get closer to Austin. "But, don't you have some doubts about Grandpa's death?" she continued. "Be honest, Brother. You know that there was something wrong with what happened to Grandpa that year. I don't believe that Grandma, Dad, Mom and Uncle Lewis can't see it! But after three years, they didn't do anything about it at all. Don't you find it strange? Besides..." Clare grabbed her stuffed bear and placed it on her lap, a subtle smile on her lips. "Don't tell me that the reason why you agreed to go to Country R so easily has nothing to do with Grandpa."

Austin sighed with a smile. Just like how he was towards her, there was nothing he could hide from Clare.

"Yes, you're absolutely right," he admitted. "But Clary, just as you said, Grandma and the others also know that there is something wrong. And they haven't done anything in the past three years, which proves that this matter may be more complicated than we imagined, and even dangerous..."

"I'm not afraid of danger!" Clare interrupted. "I just want to find out the truth. Brother, don't you want the same? Since you can investigate into it, why can't I?"

"Because you are my sister," Austin answered.

Clare raised an eyebrow at him. "What? Just because I'm a girl, I can't go?"

Austin laughed, "I just don't want you to get into trouble. But now that you have made up your mind, I know I can't stop you. Just make sure you can take care of yourself."

"Of course!" she chimed. She knew her brother would understand her.

"Just make sure not to let Cass and Amie know about it," Austin added. "After all, it's just our simple suspicion now. No need to make them worry, too. If there is really any trouble, I don't want them to be involved. If we can't find anything, it doesn't matter. Maybe we're just overthinking this whole thing."

Clare nodded obediently. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

Standing up, Austin ruffled her hair. Then, he turned around and walked to the bookshelf. He took an intricate box from the topmost shelf and handed it to Clare with a smile. "I saw it a few days ago by accident and thought it was suitable for you, so I bought it. Do you like it?"

Clare took it and asked curiously, "What is it?"

Taking the box back, Austin opened it for her, revealing a small trinket. "It's just a bracelet. It's a gift for you."

Clare took out the bracelet and her eyes gleamed with excitement. "Wow, Pisces! You are the best brother ever!"

The purple crystal bracelet in the box was a product of the famous jewelry brand "Pisces" in H City. Its specialty did not lie in its high price and exquisite appearance, but in its uniqueness. All of the jewelries at Pisces were all designed by the top designers in the world. They were exquisite and each style was one of a kind. That was why the price of the jewelry was extremely high, but it still attracted the nobles and all the rich people in H City to buy their products.

Austin took the bracelet, and put it around her wrist. "Stop joking around. Take good care of yourself when you go to S City, okay?" he said softly.

"Got it." Clare looked at the bracelet her brother put on for her with a smile and teased, "Brother, you are more like Mom than Mom is."

But, Austin ignored her comment and looked at her seriously. "Clare, please try to keep a low profile. Okay? You know, you have always been in trouble since you were a child."

Clare sighed exaggeratedly, "Alas, I have no choice. This is the life of such a beautiful creature such as myself."

Rolling his eyes, Austin went back to sit in front of his computer, busying himself with the game he had been playing earlier.

Three days from now, he would go to Country R to receive instructions from his grandmother. Meanwhile, his sister was about to move to S City to start a new life.

A simple decision is enough to completely change the course of one's life. But at this moment, Austin and Clare were still not aware of this...

The scorching sun blazed high in the sky, sending off a wave of summer heat. At this moment, XY High School was busy starting its new school year.

XY High School was a famous institute in S City -- it could even be considered as the compulsory high school of the noble class. It was one of the best schools in the country as the academic performance of its students were considerably top-notch. It was also one of the most expensive schools anyone could ever go to. Given that, there were three types of students who were in this school: smart students who got in through a highly competitive scholarship, students from rich and powerful families, and students who were both intelligent and rich.

A lot of people could only dream to attend XY High School. Unlike most of schools, it was actually a place where students could enjoy learning. Anyone would want to attend such a prestigious and gratifying school. There were countless reasons.

For one, the teaching facilities here were the most advanced among all the middle schools in this city.

It was also constantly listed as the top three schools in S City.

What was more, all the grade departments, except for the junior high students, did not have to busy themselves at night with homework and studying. They did all of that in daylight hours, which gave them more than enough time to get some decent rest every day.

And so on.

Perhaps it was just by chance or the fact that most of the students were from famous families -- whatever the reason was, many of them were undeniably good looking. This school year's batch of sophomore high school students were especially star-studded.

In fact, the students even decided to have a little contest going wherein they voted who were the seven most handsome and seven most beautiful students in their whole grade. Apart from their good looks, they were all intelligent and had great moral conduct. Their family backgrounds were also the envy of many. Regrettably, not everyone was lucky enough to fall under such a classification. Most of the attractive students were all congested in four classes: 0201, 0204, 0205 and 0207.

The only thing that could possibly get in the way of the students' studies, more specifically the girls', was all the other attractive students around. This was Cassie's sentiments, even though she herself was dubbed as one of the seven most beautiful girls in the sophomore year.

As the September sun shone upon XY High School, the new semester ushered in a fresh start filled with vitality.

The sounds of some students' cheers could be heard from the basketball court. There, Cassie stood under a tree nearby with a yawn, her sky blue skirt bellowing in the gentle breeze. Wasn't it just a friendly match between the school basketball club and the neighboring school? Why did they take it so seriously as if they were watching an international game? Although she also knew that most of the girls in the audience were not interested in the competition, but rather so that they could ogle at all the handsome boys.

Most of the freshmen were still at the stage where they were adapting to the new surroundings, whereas the juniors were busy preparing for the upcoming college entrance examinations. And so, most of the extracurricular and student union activities were participated by the sophomores. Of course, today's basketball match was no exception. The seven most handsome boys in their grade were all part of the basketball team, which was the main reason why there were screams on the basketball court today.

"Hey, Cassie! What are you doing there?" A melodious voice sounded from behind. At the next second, a pair of hands shook Cassie's shoulders gently.

Turning around, Cassie saw who it was and smiled. "Hey there, Amie."

Amy Li was in the same class Cassie was in, and was also a part of their clique, the Dreamlike Seven Stars. "Why are you standing all the way over here instead of watching the game over there?" Amy Li asked.

"It's a riot in there. It's basically impossible to get in without getting elbowed to death," Cassie said helplessly.

Amy Li smiled and was about to say something when their cell phones suddenly rang at the same time. Seeing the caller ID on each's screen, the two smiled at each other and answered the phone at the same time.

Cassie, "Jill... Well, I'm with Amie now... At the playground... Yeah, we're by the tree on the right side. Okay, see you later!"

Amy Li, "Joe... Yes, near the basketball court. Well, Cass is also here... Okay, we'll wait for you."

Less than ten seconds after the calls, two figures squeezed out of the crowd around the court and walked towards Cassie and Amy.

"Hi, Amie, Cass." Jill Yue called out, a half smile on her lips. Beside her was Joe Meng. The two of them were also members of the Dreamlike Seven Stars.

After greeting each other with a quick hug, Cassie looked around and asked, "Where are Lydia and Celine?" Celine Cao and Lydia Cao were also members of the Dreamlike Seven Stars. They were twin sisters. Fortunately enough, they were non-identical, and so it was easy to tell them apart.

"Ms. Yuan wanted to talk to them about something," Joe Meng said. "I saw them go inside the teaching building earlier. I think they might have gone back to their classes by now." Aside from Clare, all the members of the Dreamlike Seven Stars were studying in XY High School. Although they were close with each other, not all of them were in the same class.

Cassie and Amy were in class 0201, Joe Meng and Jill Yue were in class 0205, and the two sisters, Lydia Cao and Celine Cao, were in class 0207.

"Okay!" Cassie nodded. "Let's go back to the teaching building first then," she suggested.

Joe Meng looked at the basketball court and asked hesitantly, "Don't you want to finish watching the basketball match?" She came to school early today to see Carl Yang and several others play the game.

Cassie sighed. Of course, she too wanted to watch the basketball match. However, it would be impossible to get through with all the people there. The madness... The screams... It was scary.

"Ding Dong."

As they stood there under the shade of the tree, all their phones rang at the same time.

It was a group message from Lydia Cao.

BY Lydia Cao:

"Dear sisters, come to our classroom. There is a surprise waiting here. See you soon! ...

"Huh. What could this be about?" Jill Yue asked the others curiously.

"I have no idea," Amy shook her head, feeling curious at what Lydia's surprise could possibly be.

"Let's go," Cassie said decisively as she pocketed her phone. "We'll know when we get there, won't we?"

Meanwhile, at the basketball court... After the four left, the referee, Zack Zhao, blew the whistle around his neck, signaling a timeout.

The members of both sides went back to the rest area of their schools separately. Wiping the sweat off his forehead, a player wearing No. 9 jersey tapped one of his teammates. "Brian, why didn't Cassie and Amy come?"

Brain Xiao raised his head and took a big gulp of water. "I don't know, Vincent. Can you care less about the girls and more about our basketball match?"

With a charming smile on his face, Vincent Xu continued to look around at the crowd. "I can think about girls and the game at the same time, can't I?"

"Come on! If you have that much going on your mind, what if you suddenly make a mistake when you're out there?" another boy chimed in beside them.

"Well, Frank... You said it yourself that it would be a 'mistake'. Mistakes are unforeseeable and inevitable. That's why they're called 'mistakes' in the first place," Vincent Xu countered. Then, he picked up a glass of water and took a sip. "By the way, I just saw Joe and Jill. Why are they gone now?"

"Vincent, if you think about girls all the time, you might not be able to play your best. Don't hold Carl back later, okay?" a coquettish female voice suddenly interjected. Hearing this, Vincent Xu looked up at the speaker and raised his brows in surprise. "Fiona Gong? What are you doing here?" There was an unwritten rule during basketball matches: If there were no accidents or urgent matters during the game, no one else was allowed to go to the rest area other than the players themselves.

"As the temporary manager of the basketball club, that means that I'm also part of the team, right?" Fiona Gong smiled brightly. She passed by Vincent Xu and went straight to the boy wearing No. 7 jersey. The boy was reviewing and going through pages of data.

"Carl," Fiona Gong said in a flirtatious voice. With a smile, she handed over a clean towel to him. "Here, take this to wipe your sweat."

All of a sudden, the crowd murmured unhappily. Most of the girls in the audience disliked Fiona Gong for taking advantage of her position and approaching the basketball players.

However, although everyone disliked her, no one dared to stand in her way and say a word about her -- everyone in the school knew that Fiona, the eldest daughter of the Gong family, had all the means to make their lives a living hell.

"No, thanks," Carl Yang refused indifferently, not even bothering to raise his head to look up at her.

However, Fiona was obviously not the kind of person who knew when to give up. If she wanted something, she would do anything to get it. Putting down the towel, she grabbed a drinking bottle from her bag and handed it to Carl.

"Have something to drink at least," she pressed. "This is a sports drink I specially asked someone to bring back from abroad. I heard that it's very good in keeping you hydrated and energized."

This time, Carl didn't even respond.

Because of this, Fiona started to feel more and more embarrassed.

"Hey, I'm a little thirsty. Give me the drink then," No. 12 player, Sam Tang, couldn't help but mediate. Anyway, Fiona was the temporary manager of today's basketball game. Even if they didn't want to talk to her, they should at least show respect to Zack Zhao who appointed her as the temporary manager.

For a while, Fiona hesitated, hoping that Carl would look up and change his mind. But he did not show her an ounce of interest. And so, she threw the drink in her hand to Sam Tang, turned around, and left angrily. The girls couldn't help but cheer in the hearts. "Hah! Good riddance!"

No. 14 player, Roland Zhang, looked at Sam Tang and shook his head with a smile. "It's not easy to be a good person, isn't it?" he teased.

Sam Tang just smiled and he put the drink aside casually.

When their break time was about to come to an end, Carl finally stopped what he was doing. He raised his head and walked up to one of his other teammates. "John, your foot injury hasn't recovered yet. You should just rest the second half out, okay? Roland has had enough rest during the first quarter. It wouldn't be a problem to let him play in your place."

John Shen nodded. "Okay."

A minute later, the referee blew the whistle again.

"The second half of the game begins!" Zack Zhao announced.

When Cassie and the three of her friends arrived at class 0207, Lydia Cao and Celine Cao were already waiting at the door of the classroom. The two of them were smiling from ear to ear.

"Hey, what surprise do you two want to show us?" Jill Yue asked excitedly.

The two girls of the Cao family smiled at each other and pushed the door open. "Surprise!"