Fu Cuilian’s expression changed abruptly, her heart pounding with unease:
“Has that brat A-Han still not climbed up? Why can’t I find him anywhere… That’s not right! Just before I came upstairs, I clearly saw him climbing up—everything was supposed to be a sure thing. How did things suddenly go wrong? Could it be… that I brought the old man to break in too early?”
Lin Xiwei took in her shifty, furtive look without revealing anything and calmly led the old man toward the balcony:
“Grandpa, I was enjoying the show just now. I vaguely heard knocking, but I wasn’t sure, so I didn’t go open the door for you.”
The old man froze for a moment, let out an “Ah,” completely failing to follow his granddaughter’s sudden turn.
Lin Xiwei immediately unleashed her coquettish routine again. “Oh, come on, I already said it—I wasn’t going on a hunger strike, and I didn’t deliberately refuse to open the door.”
The old man stopped short, turned his head, and stared unblinkingly at his granddaughter as she played dumb and acted spoiled:
“Hiss—so now you’re the one feeling wronged? My old arms and legs carried meals up and down eighteen trips. I deserved that, huh?”
The old man felt even more aggrieved! ~【emoji】【emoji】【emoji】~
Butler Zhang, quicker on the uptake, instantly understood what Lin Xiwei was trying to cover up and chimed in:
“Old friend, Xiwei is explaining it to you. She wasn’t refusing food over that little bastard. She just overslept and missed the meal delivery. Just now she was too busy watching the excitement to hear the knocking—that’s all.”
He shot the old man a meaningful look, signaling him to notice the gun in the young lady’s hand.
The old man’s gaze dropped and he saw his precious granddaughter holding that little popgun. The safety was off—and the bullet was already chambered!
A nameless fury flared in the old man’s heart. He knew something was definitely amiss here, yet he still cooperated and played along:
“Oh! I see, I see. Look at these old bones of mine—my brain’s nearly rusted over.”
The old man’s face changed like June weather—clear skies in an instant:
“I knew it. A carefully raised eldest granddaughter must be wise.”
From the age of one, Lin Xiwei had lived with her grandfather. When her parents were sent down, she was raised by him with his own hands, his precious little heart.
Affection across generations was already indulgent, let alone under such circumstances. The old man had long been completely wrapped around his granddaughter’s finger.
“Of course!” Lin Xiwei lifted her chin proudly, secretly vowing in her heart—
In this life, she must never disappoint her grandfather. She would become his pride, become a diplomat like her aunt, become a powerful red-capitalist tycoon like her mother.
…
Lin Xiwei deliberately shot a glance back at her stepmother, whose eyes were darting about, raising her brows in provocation:
“Who knows which filthy, foul-mouthed piece of trash dared to go and stir things up in front of my grandpa, heh heh.”
Who she was cursing—everyone knew.
Fu Cuilian was practically about to explode with rage!
But she didn’t dare act out at all. She could only swallow the humiliation, forcing herself to keep smiling.
In an instant, the bedroom atmosphere turned subtle and icy.
Lin Xiwei deliberately controlled the timing. When it felt about right—guessing that downstairs Fu Xinghan was done doing that with Lin Yulan—she finally said:
“Grandpa, let’s go. There’s something exciting to watch under the balcony—absolutely spectacular. I’ve never seen men and women stacking up like human pyramids in my whole life~”
She spoke innocently, but to Fu Cuilian it sounded like a bolt from the blue:
“What?!”
Fu Cuilian screamed shrilly, dashed to the balcony in a flash, and looked down, her eyes nearly popping out of their sockets:
“Oh heavens! You—you—you… you all stop, stop… ah!”
She beat her chest and stamped her feet, spinning in circles on the balcony, her voice hoarse, her speech completely disintegrating. She even accidentally blurted out the truth:
“Damn you, Fu Xinghan! I told you to climb in through the window and ruin Lin Xiwei’s chastity—what are you doing instead?!”
Hearing this, the old man flew into a rage, his tiger eyes blazing as he barked, “What did you say? Say that again if you’ve got the guts!”
At this moment, Fu Cuilian couldn’t care about anything else. She scrambled down the ladder outside the balcony:
“Stop it—shut up! Fu Xinghan, stop right now… Haojie, go get a rock, smash your cousin—don’t let him ruin your sister’s chastity!”
Ever since coming to the Lin family, Fu Cuilian had changed everything she wore, inside and out. Unfortunately, her sense of aesthetics was truly limited.
She was wearing a red-based, green-flowered satin brocade cheongsam with a high slit, her hair pinned with multicolored fabric flowers, stepping on fashionable Mary Jane high heels, with a pair of purple fitness pants—also called stirrup pants—underneath.
From a distance, she looked like a human-shaped festival lantern come to life, rapidly backing down the long ladder.
The old master of the house couldn’t understand why Lin Chengyou had married Fu Cuilian, but Lin Xiwei knew all too well!
Her scumbag father had been sent down, couldn’t stand the loneliness, and had an illicit affair with Fu Cuilian in a cornfield.
Fu Cuilian was a notorious “secret prostitute” known throughout the surrounding villages—lazy, greedy, and completely uninterested in earning work points, preferring to lie back, spread her legs, and live off men’s support.
Lin Chengyou, that playboy, was no good either. In his youth he drank, gambled, visited prostitutes—four of the five poisons, lacking only one.
Lin Xiwei’s mother had been dragged down by him and forced to be sent down for reform as well.
Back then, Fu Cuilian didn’t know whose business she’d done, ended up pregnant with no one to take responsibility, and could only pin it on Lin Chengyou.
Lin Yulan was actually not Lin Chengyou’s child!
Even the other two children, Lin Juying and Lin Haojie, were not Lin Chengyou’s either.
Fu Cuilian threatened Lin Chengyou with reporting him for soliciting her, successfully forcing out Lin Xiwei’s mother—the lawful wife—and took her place beside him.
Lin Xiwei’s mother went missing, and even after her rebirth, there was still no trace of her.
…
The old man raised his cane and chased to the balcony, so angry his beard bristled and his eyes bulged:
“What kind of taste does Chengyou have, to take such a low-character woman as his second wife? I—I truly can’t understand it no matter how I think!”
Butler Zhang’s lips moved twice, but in the end he had nothing to say.
The second wife Lin Chengyou chose… was truly hard to describe.
Even someone as smooth and tactful as Butler Zhang was left utterly speechless by Fu Cuilian’s behavior!
Everyone knew Lin Xiwei was the old man’s precious treasure, yet Fu Cuilian repeatedly instigated Lin Chengyou to bully the orphaned daughter of his former wife.
Butler Zhang had investigated Fu Cuilian and knew some of the truth, but he dared not tell Lin Weixin everything, afraid the old man would be so enraged he’d pass away on the spot.
Lin Xiwei glanced downstairs and spoke casually, “Grandpa, I see clearly now—the man looks like Fu Xinghan, and that girl… Lin Juying?”
Fu Xinghan doing that to Lin Juying was also a surprise to Lin Xiwei. Tsk—Lin Yulan had escaped disaster this time.
She would have preferred to see Fu Xinghan and Lin Yulan turn on each other like rabid dogs.
Since that whole group had plotted against her, they deserved to have the boomerang come flying back and stab them hard!
Fu Cuilian was in too much of a hurry and actually lost her footing on the ladder, falling straight down in front of Fu Xinghan and Lin Juying.
Her eyes were filled with unbearable sights, her ears with Lin Juying’s miserable cries.
Fu Cuilian twisted her ankle, yet still crawled over cursing, tore Fu Xinghan away, and slapped him hard across the face:
“Beast! I told you to go after Lin Xiwei—look at what you’ve done! Huh?!”
Fu Xinghan was completely unhinged. The drug was so strong that he even found Fu Cuilian alluring.
He suddenly pounced forward…
Lin Haojie lifted a large rock and smashed it down hard onto Fu Xinghan’s head.