Seeing someone only once and already claiming to be sincere? Not even a ghost would believe that.
Lin Xi didn’t say anything else. She simply asked Xiao Jingwen, “You sincerely want to marry me, so I have to marry you? Why?”
“Because of your family background?”
“But that doesn’t belong to me. If there’s ever a conflict of interests, they’ll only stand on your side.”
“Or is it because of the military rank, status, and prestige you’re so proud of?”
Lin Xi smiled faintly and shook her head.
“Xiao Jingwen, those things have even less to do with me.”
“Money and position are what you’re capable of using to establish yourself. What benefits can they bring me?”
She only believed in one principle: if something had no value that could be applied to herself, then it was equivalent to having no value at all.
She had no intention of waiting for Xiao Jingwen’s answer.
Lin Xi wiped her mouth and stood up.
“I’m done eating. What happened that day was just an accident. Let’s pretend it never happened. It’s best if we don’t see each other again.”
The door opened and closed, carrying in a gust of cool air.
Watching the woman’s decisive figure walk away without looking back, Xiao Jingwen lowered his eyes and smiled faintly.
“We’ll see each other again.”
His gaze followed her until she disappeared from sight before he finally withdrew it.
“Brother.”
Xu Shaoqin had been waving his hand in front of Xiao Jingwen’s eyes for so long that his arm was practically about to fall off. He sighed.
“Stop looking. She’s already gone.”
He had been sitting at the table behind them earlier and had heard everything they said.
Xu Shaoqin said, “Oh, come on. If she doesn’t want to marry you, then forget it. It’s not like you absolutely have to have her.”
“If you want to get married, Aunt Jin knows so many excellent female comrades. Putting everyone else aside, I think Sun Lingling is pretty good…”
“Her.”
The word was too short, and Xu Shaoqin had been talking himself, too, so he didn’t hear clearly.
“Brother, what did you say?”
“I said…”
Xiao Jingwen lowered his gaze.
“I want Lin Xi.”
Xiao Jingwen had completely disrupted Lin Xi’s plans.
After leaving the restaurant, Lin Xi didn’t go shopping. She simply bought several jin of candy and biscuits at the department store before heading home.
The vehicle stopped at the entrance of the alley.
On both sides of the street, a group of aunties were gathered together, enjoying the shade and chatting.
Perfect. She had been looking for someone.
Lin Xi walked over and greeted them.
“Hello, Aunties.”
They had lived on the same street for so many years. When had Lin Xi ever been this polite?
The women exchanged glances, seeing the same surprise in one another’s eyes.
“Girl from the Lin family, did you go shopping?”
The leading woman, Auntie Wang, looked at Lin Xi.
Lin Xi immediately handed over the candy in her hand.
“Yes, I went shopping. Auntie Wang, can I ask you a favor?”
“I wanted to ask, where is our neighborhood subdistrict office?”
The original owner’s memories didn’t contain that information, so Lin Xi could only ask.
Candy was a rare commodity, and Lin Xi had given her a full jin. Auntie Wang couldn’t bring herself to hold a grudge against her anymore.
She looked Lin Xi up and down.
“Girl, why are you looking for the subdistrict office? Did you have another fight with your family?”
Li Yufen hadn’t been idle during all these years after marrying into the Lin family.
In order to make sure her son could inherit the property Bai Keling had left behind, Li Yufen had been going around telling everyone that Lin Xi was domineering and unfilial, practically making sure the entire street knew about it!
When Lin Xi heard this, she smiled and shook her head.
“No. I was immature when I was little. I don’t fight with my dad anymore.”
Auntie Wang thought about it.
The Lin family did seem to have been much quieter these past few days.
Of course they had.
Li Yufen had been eagerly hoping to marry Lin Xi off during this period.
With marriage negotiations underway, would she really be stupid enough to go around telling everyone that Lin Xi had an unruly personality?
Lin Xi had deliberately chosen this gap in time and told Auntie Wang, “Aunt Fen has been really good to me lately. She buys me delicious food and even transferred the house to my name.”
No one believed that.
Forget whether a stepmother would treat her husband’s child like her own. Just giving her a house was impossible!
The entire Lin family of five was living in that house!
Seeing that no one believed her, Lin Xi hurriedly took out the property ownership certificate from her pocket.
“Really. Look.”
Lin Xi said, “Aunt Fen said that since Lin Ran is getting married, she wanted to use the things my mother left me first. She was afraid I’d worry, so she transferred the house to me first.”
The things Bai Keling had left behind?
Everyone on this street was an old neighbor. Who didn’t know that the Bai family had been wealthy for generations?
Borrowing the dowry to exchange for a house?
Anyone with common sense would know that the Bai family would be losing out badly, yet Lin Xi was standing there happily.
Unable to bear it, Auntie Wang reminded Lin Xi, “When it comes to lending things, there are a lot of details to pay attention to. You’d better ask exactly how many years you have to wait for repayment and how much you’ll get back.”
This was a simple and honest era, after all.
If this had happened in later generations, who would risk offending their neighbors just to tell her all this?
Lin Xi repeatedly thanked her.
“Thank you, Auntie Wang.”
“Thank you, Auntie Wang.”
“Thank you, Auntie Wang.”
Lin Xi had an exceptionally beautiful appearance. Her eyes were large and dark, and whenever she looked at someone with that innocent, pleading gaze, she looked pure and endearing.
“So, Auntie Wang, I want to go to the subdistrict office and find someone to help me witness this.”
Several of the other aunties had daughters of their own.
They might normally look down on Lin Xi, but as mothers, they couldn’t stand seeing an older daughter being schemed against.
Putting themselves in her place, if their own daughters married into a family and were manipulated by their mother-in-law like this, they would definitely march straight to that family and demand an explanation.
So without another word, they stood up and personally accompanied Lin Xi to the subdistrict office.
“Xiaoran has been gone for several hours. Nothing could have happened to her, right?”
Upstairs, Lin Ran was braiding her hair and changing clothes.
Li Yufen changed quickly. Once she had finished getting ready, she waited in the living room.
They were afraid the Xiao family might refuse to see them, so the whole family had discussed it and decided to go directly to the entrance of the military compound and wait there.
They would ask the sentry to notify the Xiao family. That way, even if the Xiao family only cared about saving face, they would have no choice but to meet them.
Lin Jianguo was wearing a Zhongshan suit. Worried that sitting down would leave wrinkles in his trousers, he stood to one side.
The moment he heard Lin Xi’s name, his expression darkened with irritation.
“Enough. Stop mentioning that unlucky girl. If she’s so capable, what could possibly happen to her?”
“Wow, Dad. So all those things you said when you borrowed money from me were just lies?”
“So you actually think I’m unlucky behind my back!”
Lin Xi suddenly let out a loud, tearful cry.
Lin Jianguo looked at her as though he had seen a ghost.
“Lin Xi, what are you up to now?”
Before he could finish speaking, two subdistrict office workers entered behind Lin Xi.
They lived on the same street and both workers knew about the Lin family’s situation.
They had often heard Li Yufen say that Lin Xi was naturally unruly and disobedient. But now that they saw her for themselves…
This wasn’t a daughter who refused to obey.
This was simply what happened when a family had a stepmother and a father who no longer cared about his daughter!
“Comrade Lin.”
“Director Fang.”
Lin Jianguo immediately put on a smile.
“Why are you here? Did Lin Xi cause trouble outside again? I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll discipline her right away.”
The two subdistrict workers frowned even more deeply at his words.
Their tone remained calm.
“No. We’re here to serve as witnesses.”
“Witnesses?”
Lin Jianguo was completely confused.
Lin Xi had cried enough. She couldn’t squeeze out any more tears even if she tried.
Without giving Lin Jianguo a chance to guess, she reached into her pocket and took out a written IOU that she had prepared at the subdistrict office.
She handed it to Lin Jianguo.
“Ah, Dad. These two aunties are here to witness the validity of this IOU.”
“An IOU?!”
Li Yufen screamed and rushed over.