In the living room.
Lin Xi had only been asleep for half an hour when Lin Jianguo called her out of bed. She yawned repeatedly.
“What’s the rush? You’re getting old, yet you still can’t stay calm. I really don’t know what my mother ever saw in you.”
There was one great thing about having an unruly reputation—you could say whatever you wanted whenever you wanted.
But this time, after she said it, Lin Jianguo surprisingly didn’t blow up.
Well, he was adapting pretty quickly. He could bend when necessary and knew how to swallow his pride. Deep down, he really was born to live off a woman.
Lin Xi snorted.
“Spit it out. What is it?”
Lin Jianguo snorted too and glanced at Li Yufen beside him.
“Oh, Dad, you even brought a spokesperson?”
“Who would’ve thought? With such a big attitude, and yet you don’t even hold an official position…”
“Can you keep your mouth shut for a moment?” Lin Jianguo was getting a headache from her.
Lin Xi shrugged regretfully, folded her arms, and leaned back against the sofa.
“Oh.”
“Go ahead, then.”
Even Li Yufen felt a little nervous about speaking to her with that attitude.
“Xiaoxi, it’s like this. Your father says transferring the house to you is fine.”
“Say ‘but.’”
Lin Xi had no patience to watch Li Yufen put on an act, so she interrupted her directly.
Caught off guard, Li Yufen’s smile froze. She awkwardly paused for several seconds.
“There’s not really a but. It’s just that your father has been especially busy at the military factory these past few days…”
“I’m not in a hurry.”
Lin Xi slowly stood up.
“I’ll say the same thing again. Whenever you transfer the house to me, that’s when Lin Ran can leave this house with her dowry.”
There was no way to stall anymore.
Lin Jianguo snorted.
“Fine, fine, fine! Tomorrow morning, I’ll take you to transfer it!”
“That’s more like it.”
Lin Xi looked at Lin Jianguo approvingly.
“Better to settle things early and be done with each other.”
After saying that, she let out a derisive snort.
“Besides, what’s so great about your job anyway?”
“This is outrageous!”
Behind her, Lin Jianguo’s furious curses mixed with heavy breathing.
Lin Xi treated it like a dog barking and simply went upstairs.
They couldn’t delay the dowry arrangements. Before Lin Ran got married, Lin Jianguo would definitely have someone come and fix the locks.
So she didn’t have much time left to make her decision.
She needed to get the house.
She needed to report Lin Jianguo.
Most importantly, before reporting him, she absolutely had to sever ties with him.
What Lin Jianguo had done was enough to get him executed. There was no way she was going to let him drag her down with him.
After making all her plans, Lin Xi happily climbed into bed.
During her years as a graduate student, she had spent every day working outdoors, sleeping in the wilderness with her back to the earth and her face toward the sky. It was rare to have such a comfortable place to rest.
So Lin Xi slept for twelve straight hours out of sheer revenge against her accumulated exhaustion.
After washing up, she went downstairs.
Lin Jianguo was sitting in the living room, waiting for her with a perfectly obedient expression.
Well, he was clearly in a hurry to transfer the house.
But Lin Xi wasn’t.
She rolled her eyes at the three of them.
“Wait. I’m eating first.”
Not only was she going to eat, she was going to eat well.
There were no fried dough sticks on the table today.
Apparently, they had learned their lesson.
“Hey, you.”
Lin Xi pointed at Li Yufen.
“Fry me two eggs. I want them completely cooked.”
Her imperious tone finally pushed Lin Ran past her limit.
“Lin Xi, who are you ordering around? Don’t you have any manners? That’s my mother—”
Slap!
Another slap.
The spiritual spring water really did work. The mark from today’s slap was already deeper than yesterday’s.
Lin Xi admired her handiwork on Lin Ran’s face.
She snorted.
“You know she’s your mother too?”
“I warned you yesterday. If you’re going to live off someone else, then act like it. Stop yapping.”
“If you push me too far, we can all stop having a good time!”
As she said this, Lin Xi’s gaze casually swept over Lin Jianguo.
The corner of her lips curled upward.
Lin Jianguo had been right about one thing.
Lin Ran really was the family’s precious darling.
Without Lin Ran, how could Lin Xi manipulate the whole family this easily?
People only had weaknesses when they had something they wanted.
And once someone had a weakness, they became vulnerable.
Lin Jianguo was completely focused on getting connected to the Xiao family now. No matter how outrageous Lin Xi acted, he had no choice but to endure it.
“Dad.”
Lin Ran covered her face and looked at Lin Jianguo.
She glared viciously at Lin Xi, wishing she could tear her apart with nothing but her eyes!
There had never been so many problems in her previous life!
Why had Lin Xi suddenly become so uncontrollable ever since she decided to marry Zhao Mingze?
Half of Lin Ran’s crying was an act, but the other half came from genuine grievance.
“Cry, cry, cry. You’re going to cry away all the good fortune of the Lin family.”
Lin Xi impatiently walked away.
The only good thing about this era was everything except the clothes.
Summer was scorching, yet there were no underwire bras.
What could a little camisole possibly cover?
Walking down the main road, Lin Xi occasionally felt like she was practically walking around naked.
Houses hadn’t yet become commercialized real estate.
The housing office was empty.
Both service windows were vacant, so Lin Xi casually picked one and sat down.
Lin Jianguo followed behind her with a dark expression.
“Comrade, could you help us transfer the property?”
The clerk inside was cracking sunflower seeds. Hearing that they wanted to transfer a property, he took the household registration booklet from Lin Jianguo.
“Transfer it to whom?”
“Me.”
Lin Xi smiled politely at the clerk through the window.
She was naturally fair-skinned, with bright, dark eyes.
When she smiled, her full under-eye smile lines made her look especially sweet and adorable.
The clerk couldn’t help taking another look at her, and his tone became much gentler than before.
“Why would a father transfer property to his own daughter?”
Lin Jianguo moved his lips, about to speak—
Lin Xi beat him to it.
“Ah, Comrade, it’s like this.”
“My mother passed away when I was young, and this house was left behind by her.”
“My stepsister is getting married now. My father’s idea is to give all the money my mother left behind to my stepsister as her dowry and give me the house instead. That way, I won’t be losing out either.”
…Lin Jianguo was stunned.
“What do you mean, give all the money to Lin Ran?”
“Wasn’t that what you asked me to do?”
Lin Xi looked at him innocently.
“Did I say anything wrong?”
Technically, she hadn’t…
But!
Lin Jianguo hurriedly tried to explain to the clerk.
“That’s not what I meant…”
Everyone working in the housing office had some kind of connections. Who had time to listen to Lin Jianguo explain himself?
“All right, if you’ve done something shameful, don’t complain when your child talks about it!”
“I knew it. Once there’s a stepmother, there’s a stepfather too.”
The clerk took a couple of digs at Lin Jianguo before looking at Lin Xi with even more sympathy.
“Child, what do you mean by ‘you won’t be losing out’? If your mother could leave you such a huge house, surely she left you quite a bit of money too?”
“Hehe.”
Lin Xi smiled innocently twice.
“It’s fine. My sister said she’ll pay me back later.”
After hearing that, the clerk looked at Lin Xi with even more pity.
Meanwhile, Lin Jianguo was huffing furiously beside them.
While the clerk lowered his head to stamp the paperwork, Lin Xi stole a glance at him.
Gotcha, old geezer.
Do you know what a selective-truth lie is?
You simply state the facts you choose to state. You accomplish your goal while technically telling the truth.
Go read some more books when you get home!
The clerk worked quickly.
It was almost as though he was afraid that if he delayed for even a minute, Lin Jianguo might somehow snatch the house back from Lin Xi.
Five minutes later.
The father and daughter walked out of the housing office.
“Are you satisfied now, Lin Xi?”
“Pretty much.”
Lin Xi curved her lips into a smile.
The lifted corners of her eyes and the triumphant smile on her face made her look like a sly little fox.
Just like that night.
“Brother, what are you looking at?”
Xu Shaoqin followed Xiao Jingwen’s gaze across the street—
The moment he saw Lin Xi, he immediately sucked in a sharp breath.
“Ah! Is that the woman who paid you for sex?”
“And the man standing beside her—isn’t that her husband?!”
“Brother, stop looking! Let’s get out of here… Huh? Brother, where are you going?!”