Marrying the Short-Lived, Maniacal Eldest Miss for Good Fortune 59

Chapter 59

The first meeting between mother and daughter was filled with endless conversation.

It was like a parent picking up their child from school, holding hands, and walking through the long street of food stalls.

What happened today, do you want to learn to drive during the summer vacation, where do you want to travel, Mom has already sun-dried the quilts, the sun has been good these past few days, it will definitely be warm at night…

Fang Yi was at the “food stall” on the side, burying her head in her food.

She listened quietly, feeling that the woman’s sense of care could not be faked. As long as she was good to Lin Shuxing, nothing else really mattered.

Who doesn’t have a few secrets?

“By the way, baby, what direction do you want to develop in in the future?” The woman served Lin Shuxing a bowl of chicken soup and stirred it with a white porcelain spoon until it was warm.

“Financial management.”

The young lady had chosen her major long ago. She had a talent for finance. Her initial stock trading was not just for fun as the adults thought. Her goal had been very clear from the beginning.

She wanted to win, and she would win.

She liked to play with those physical data, dismantle, analyze, and make decisions, watching the market move step by step in the direction she had predicted.

The first time she had won a great victory, she had no doubt that the financial market was born for her.

Hearing this answer, the woman’s hand, holding the spoon, paused. She raised her eyelids slightly, and a meaningful smile appeared on her lips.

Lin Shuxing paused, afraid that the woman would overthink it, and added, “It’s not because of the Lin family that I chose this direction. I will start my own business in the future—”

“I know, I know, baby.” Lin Xinyou gently placed the bowl in front of her. “No matter what you choose, Mom believes you will succeed.”

Lin Xinyou asked a few more questions about Fang Yi’s situation, a gratified smile always on her lips.

Most of the time, she just asked questions and then listened to the two children talk about their lives, touching the paths they had taken through their words.

Fang Yi ate the last piece of meat she had been given and, as if unintentionally, probed, “Auntie, what do you usually like to do?”

“We also want to know more about you.”

“Me? My daily life is actually quite boring,” the woman tucked the stray hair by her ear, her smile a little embarrassed. “I’m a housewife. I don’t have a job. I usually just manage the trivial matters at home. It’s not as exciting as you young people.”

“My husband, He Zhuang, has a bit of a bad temper. It’s just what you’ve seen. I’m sorry you had to see him like that. He was drinking at the time. He’s not a bad person usually…”

“He Zhuang often travels for work and stays at his unit. He was hospitalized with an illness a few days ago. I don’t know when he’ll be back.”

“His son is in university and lives on campus. He went on a trip with his classmates during the summer vacation.”

“After Xiao Wan left, I’m the only one living in this house. I feel a little lonely sometimes.”

“I usually just do housework, arrange flowers. The piano that my son insisted on buying when he was a child, he didn’t learn, but I’ve slowly gotten a little better at it. I also play it sometimes, but I don’t play well…”

The crow’s feet at the corners of Lin Xinyou’s eyes showed a happy complaint, just as the neighbors had said, calm and plain.

So practiced, as if she had practiced these words countless times.

A person with He Zhuang’s personality, how could he “not be bad”? And there’s also an annoying stepson… Lin Shuxing bit her lip and held the woman’s hand. “Do you like to play the piano? Then I’ll teach you, okay?”

Lin Xinyou’s eyes lit up, and her other hand gently rested on the back of Lin Shuxing’s hand. “That would be great!”

When she lowered her eyes, she was so happy that she was a little choked up. She gently wiped the corners of her eyes with a napkin.

Fang Yi asked, “He Zhuang is sick? What’s wrong? Do you need help?”

“I have a doctor friend who might be able to take a look at him.”

“No, no, how can I trouble you,” Lin Xinyou quickly waved her hand, sighed softly, and a hint of sadness appeared in her eyes. “It’s a chronic illness that has worsened in recent years. The doctor said it can only be delayed, not cured.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

After Fang Yi finished, she felt the young lady gently kick her under the table. Realizing that her words were a bit inappropriate, she changed her words. “I’m sorry, my condolences.”

“…”

Those words were even more out of place.

Lin Shuxing’s heart ached for her mother’s situation, and she glared at Fang Yi with a warning.

Fang Yi touched her nose. She didn’t fully believe the reaction Lin Xinyou was showing, but it seemed that as long as Lin Shuxing was here, no one could press Lin Xinyou any further.

After dinner, Fang Yi went to the kitchen to wash the dishes but was stopped by a panicked Lin Xinyou.

“How can I let a guest do it! You and Star go to the room and rest for a while. The air conditioning is already on. That’s the room I specially prepared for you…”

She had given up the master bedroom and had transformed it into a sky-blue room, with even the chandelier being a warm yellow little star.

Fang Yi said, “I ate the most. I’ll do it.”

“You haven’t seen each other for a long time. You should have a lot to talk about.”

“How can I be so embarrassed!” The woman wanted to refuse.

Lin Shuxing gently pulled Lin Xinyou’s arm. “Mom, Fang Yi is not an outsider. Let her wash it this time. I’ll buy a dishwasher, and in the future…”

“No, how can I take your things!”

Lin Xinyou’s lips moved. She blocked Fang Yi from entering the kitchen, and then two lines of tears flowed down. “Although Mom is not very capable, I can still do this kind of thing.”

The young lady was at a loss. “That’s not what I meant…”

Fang Yi’s brow twitched. She looked at Lin Xinyou and suddenly said, “Don’t cry.”

Her suddenly cold tone startled the mother and daughter. Lin Xinyou nervously grabbed Lin Shuxing’s hand and subconsciously stood in front of her.

“Auntie, Star will be heartbroken if you cry. Since you want to wash, then wash.” Fang Yi put her arm around Lin Xinyou’s shoulder and pushed her into the kitchen.

The young lady behind her came to her senses and said in a huff, “Fang Yi, are you crazy?”

Fang Yi pressed down on Lin Xinyou’s hand, which was reaching for her apron pocket, and whispered in her ear, “Auntie, your left colored contact has slipped.”

After it slipped, a double pupil appeared in the woman’s eye, and the fine lines on the white of her eye looked a little familiar to Fang Yi.

It was a special pattern used to interfere with machine recognition.

In layman’s terms, it could be used to evade iris scans.

“…”

The woman immediately narrowed her eyes and blocked them with the back of her hand, pretending to wipe her tears. “Alright, alright. You go and rest first.”

“It’s fine, baby. Don’t argue over this.”

Fang Yi pulled the fuming Lin Shuxing back to the room. Before her sharp gaze could sweep over, she raised her hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Don’t be angry. She wants to do something for you, so let her. She’ll be happier that way.”

“Just like you also want to do something for her, right?”

The young lady’s anger subsided a little, but she still frowned. “Then can’t you speak properly? Why are you so fierce?”

Just now, she had clearly seen Fang Yi’s cold face for a moment, as if she were catching a fugitive.

“This is my mom,” she emphasized.

Fang Yi raised her hand and pinched her puffed-up cheeks, and deliberately asked, “Who was it that said before, ‘just an intimate stranger’?”

The young lady’s face turned red. “Nonsense!”

When Lin Xinyou came back, Lin Shuxing’s foot was on Fang Yi’s calf.

Seeing the woman’s teasing gaze, Lin Shuxing immediately pulled her foot back and said reproachfully, “Fang Yi is so annoying. I’m just playing with her.”

Lin Xinyou smiled without saying a word and brought over the cut after-dinner fruit.

“I’ve cut some fruit. Have some. It will cleanse your stomach.”

“Yes, Auntie, you have some too.”

Fang Yi had already eaten her fill at lunch. At this moment, she was in a dilemma with a toothpick in her hand, and under the young lady’s threatening gaze, she had no choice but to feed a piece into her mouth.

The second bite, she fed to Lin Shuxing.

The third bite, the fourth bite, she still fed to Lin Shuxing…

The young lady took small bites. Before she could finish, Fang Yi forked another piece over. She couldn’t help but frown and glare at her. “Who wants you to feed me? I’ll eat it myself.”

She had also eaten noodles before she had left, and Fang Yi knew that.

Fang Yi: “Alright, eat slowly.”

While the two were eating fruit, Lin Xinyou smiled faintly and, as if by magic, took out two large red envelopes and stuffed them into their pockets without any explanation.

Fang Yi: !

She still had a fork in one hand and was afraid the juice would drip. She was completely defenseless with one hand.

A good plan. It was a plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain with fruit.

Lin Xinyou said gently, “Take it. It’s a custom in our place to give children a gift when we meet. It’s for good luck. It’s not much. Don’t mind it.”

Unlike Fang Yi’s panic and bewilderment, Lin Shuxing did not refuse.

She took the red envelope generously, stood up, and hugged Lin Xinyou. “Thank you, Mom.”

Fang Yi was at a loss. She subconsciously wanted to ask someone, Can I take this money?

She let the System out of the study room.

[I, I, I know! I can tell from the thickness of the red envelope. It’s ten thousand and one, meaning one in a million.]

The money-grubbing little system’s proud voice immediately popped out, and it seriously gave its not-so-socialized host a popular science lesson:

[You can take it. It’s part of some wedding customs. Just think of it as a fee for changing your address.]

[Hurry up and call her, Mom, Mom, Mom—!!]

Fang Yi’s hand trembled, and she locked it up again.

“Open it and see. I should have given it to you long ago.” Lin Xinyou held the young lady’s hand, her eyes slightly wet again.

Lin Shuxing obediently opened the bulging red envelope and poured out a stack of money and a small golden longevity lock.

“The old people say that if you hang a longevity lock on a child, they won’t get sick easily.”

Lin Xinyou’s expression was sad, and she forced a smile. “This is something left by your other elder. She, she passed away before you were born, which is why I married my current husband.”

“We were both looking forward to your birth… In a flash, so many years have passed.”

Lin Xinyou’s voice was very soft. Looking at her daughter’s face, for a moment, she remembered many things.

After so many years, she had thought she had long forgotten her lover’s face.

She hadn’t dared to keep any photos, and she couldn’t even make the other person’s name public.

But when she looked at the fruit of their love, the scenes of the past immediately stirred up dust in her heart and leaped up vividly.

She remembered that turbulent and chaotic bloody era, remembered that she and her lover had held a flag and kissed under a gun, remembered the stormy night, and if she hadn’t been pregnant, she might not have been able to walk out of that forest.

For her daughter, for her daughter.

She could do anything for her.

“My child, our child…” she squeezed the longevity lock, her fingertips turning white.

She carefully traced every inch of the young lady’s skin with her gaze. Just looking at her from such a close distance made her feel very at ease.

The woman placed the longevity lock in the young lady’s palm, took her hand, and squeezed it tightly.

Hearing that it came from Lin Shuxing’s “other elder,” Fang Yi immediately looked over keenly and found that it was a very ordinary style. The hollow effect was only half-done, and it was very roughly polished. It should be made of gold-plated silver.

Wang Quan liked gold very much. When Fang Yi had gone shopping with her before, she would often go over to look.

Although Fang Yi didn’t buy it, she had heard a lot from Wang Quan.

This style of longevity lock should be a mass-produced item, uniformly made from a large mold. Generally speaking, it was relatively cheap, and the buyers were basically in a specific range.

Very ordinary, very normal. It was something that an ordinary rich person of that era could afford.

The suspicion in Fang Yi’s heart faded a little. At least, the people of the Yanjing Li family should not have come into contact with this kind of thing, let alone pass it on to their children.

Lin Xinyou’s flowing gaze had been intentionally or unintentionally on Fang Yi. She narrowed her eyes slightly and held out her hand to Fang Yi. “Little friend Fang Yi, I have something to say to you alone. Is that okay?”

Lin Shuxing blinked, her drawn-out tone carrying a hint of coquetry. “Is there something I can’t hear, Mom—”

“What, are you worried that Mom will make things difficult for your little girlfriend?” Lin Xinyou scraped Lin Shuxing’s nose and smiled dotingly. “I have to check her out for you.”

Blood ties are so wonderful. Even though they had not seen each other for eighteen years, they were still as close as if the young lady had just returned from a long journey.

She was travel-worn and wore a mask of what she thought was strength in front of the woman, but she didn’t know that the woman had been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.

**

In another room.

Lin Xinyou closed the door, gently rubbed her eyes, and said to Fang Yi, “I’m sorry. I cried a little too much just now. Thank you for not letting her see me in such a strange state.”

“You should be able to understand wanting to maintain a perfect image in front of your daughter, right?”

Fang Yi nodded.

Before she could ask, the woman had already taken the initiative to take off the colored contact in one eye.

Her natural pupil color was also very light, just like Lin Shuxing’s.

Like an amber gem, but warmer and thicker than the young lady’s. In a daze, countless years seemed to be condensed in her eyes. With just a light glance, she could see through the dusty years.

Smart, sharp. Her eyes showed appreciation.

Lin Xinyou generously handed it over for Fang Yi to see and slowly introduced, “This contact lens is actually also a kind of biochip.”

“I know you may have some questions. Since baby trusts you, I don’t want to hide it from you. But can you promise me that you will keep it a secret from her no matter what?”

The truth came too suddenly. Fang Yi was a little confused by her directness, but she still nodded and added, “It must be something that is harmless to her. She and I are in the same boat. I hope you understand.”

A terrible analogy.

Lin Xinyou smiled faintly and waved her hand. “I’m glad you can say that.”

“You are a top student in IT. You may know the function of this contact lens. It can disguise the iris information.”

“I mainly use it because… my other half is a local of Z City and used to have a lot of debt from business.”

“After she died, I sold my property and paid off a lot, but this kind of high-interest loan is endless. I was pregnant with a baby at that time and had no choice but to… buy a fake identity on the black market with the help of a friend. This thing was also bought at that time, for identity disguise.”

The woman gave a bitter smile.

“I don’t go to see Star also because I’m worried that I will implicate her one day.”

Under the gaze of these eyes that were so similar to Lin Shuxing’s, and so melancholic, Fang Yi’s heart also skipped half a beat, and a wave of heartache unconsciously welled up.

Decades ago, Z City was still very chaotic. The few local powers were completely local emperors. Any policy that was to be implemented had to first ask for the opinions of the family heads.

Fang Yi had vaguely heard that the dark and evil forces at that time were very rampant.

But if we really want to talk about it, the Lin family should also be one of these dark and evil forces. Why not let Lin Lan solve it?

As if she had seen through Fang Yi’s thoughts, Lin Xinyou said, “Lin Lan knows.”

“But things are not as simple as you think. The interest has been rolling over to this day, and it’s already an astronomical number. It’s not as simple as paying back the money. If the creditor knows Star’s identity, they will use it as a threat.”

“I’m really ashamed to have caused so much trouble. I’m sorry to Star, and I’m sorry to the Lin family…”

“Lin Lan is a good person. With her, both children will be happy.”

Lin Xinyou wiped her tears, and a shadow also covered her beautiful eyes. Her plain face suddenly became vivid.

Fang Yi held her breath, thought for a moment, took out all the paper from her pocket and gave it to her, and said solemnly:

“Don’t be sad. I will protect her. I have a lawyer friend. This kind of high-interest loan is not legal in the first place. Do you have an IOU or a proof of asset for paying back the money?”

Hearing that Fang Yi was still considering a solution in this situation, the corner of Lin Xinyou’s mouth, under the napkin, stiffened.

The next second, she cried even more like a pear blossom in the rain:

“How can I trouble you with such a dangerous thing? Let the past be the past. It’s been so many years… It was my other half who was at fault in the first place.”

“I don’t want Star to know that her blood relative is such a terrible person. Please help me keep it a secret. I beg you!”

Fang Yi still wanted to say something, but the woman’s long, tear-stained eyelashes blinked gently, her grievances and pleas all tangled together, like a boundless sea, reflecting Fang Yi’s shadow, and then, with a whoosh, she was drowned.

Fang Yi finally knew who Lin Qingwan had learned her habit of crying at the drop of a hat from.

But being stared at by these eyes, she really couldn’t say no. She could only subconsciously nod.

Lin Xinyou hugged Fang Yi, patted her, and said gently, “Good child. I believe you and Star will be happy.”

Her scent was very fresh, the most ordinary soap scent. A little bit of the smell of food was still on her cascading hair, easily pulling one into the afternoon sun.

Warm, just smelling it was very reassuring, making one unconsciously let down one’s guard and slowly feel sleepy.

Good child… such a gentle call.

A strange feeling. It was like an electric shock to the heart, tingling and numb.

Fang Yi’s stiff expression also melted in her embrace, becoming a little at a loss. Her hanging hands squeezed her sleeves, wanting to hug her back, but not daring to.

Gentleness is really a very terrible force, making it impossible to refuse, and too close a distance is infinitely close to death.

The woman pressed a hand on Fang Yi’s back, and with the other, she quietly pulled out a handkerchief soaked with a special medicine from her sleeve, and coaxed softly, “Baby, are there any other questions? We are a family. There should be no barriers.”

Fang Yi’s resume and the hesitation on her lips made the woman have to be vigilant.

“Uh, it’s just that,” Fang Yi was a little embarrassed. “Actually, I didn’t know there was this kind of biochip. Can you let me see it? I have a colleague who also works on chips. We’re developing a virtual reality game…”

Lin Xinyou’s hand, which had reached Fang Yi’s ear, paused, and then slowly withdrew.

Her smile was still warm, like a rustling spring flower blooming. “Of course you can.”