“Ow!” Lin Xiwei pretended to be startled by the bloody, messy scene downstairs and acted obediently in front of her grandfather.
“That scared me to death. How can they be… each one more abnormal than the last?”
The old man’s heart ached. His precious flower, carefully raised in a greenhouse—how could she be subjected to such filthy sights?
“Don’t look, don’t look. A bunch of filthy trash.” The old man pushed Lin Xiwei back into the room and instructed,
“Nancheng will be coming later. Xiwei, change into something proper and nice, then come downstairs with Grandpa for dinner.”
Qin Nancheng, captain of the bomber squadron of the Ninth Independent Regiment of the Naval Aviation Division.
He was six years older than Lin Xiwei. Back when she had her first-birthday grab, she ignored everything else and insisted on grabbing Qin Nancheng, refusing to let go, even slobbering all over his face.
From then on, Lin Xiwei had a childhood betrothal—a “Brother Nancheng.”
Later, Lin Xiwei’s parents were sent down, and Qin Nancheng’s parents were also separated and sent down. He had no choice but to move north and live at her grandfather’s home.
After that, they never saw each other again.
Lin Xiwei was surprised: “Brother Nancheng is coming? What is he coming for!”
In her memory, Qin Nancheng coming over was something that never happened.
Did Qin Nancheng also come in her previous life?
A certain possibility suddenly occurred to Lin Xiwei…
The old man clicked his tongue and countered,
“What do you think he’s coming for? Nancheng is your fiancé. This child—when will you ever grow up?”
The old man secretly blamed his granddaughter for not knowing what was good for her—such an excellent fiancé, yet she wouldn’t want him and instead got tangled up with someone like Fu Xinghan.
“Grandpa, you’ve misunderstood me. How could I possibly be interested in something as lowly as Fu Xinghan? It’s all just rumors spread by people with ulterior motives.”
Lin Xiwei repeatedly distanced herself from Fu Xinghan and complained pitifully:
“I see it clearly now—some people joined forces against me, deliberately set up a ladder outside my balcony, and just happened to run into Brother Nancheng coming over. If their scheme had succeeded, who knows who in this family would have married Brother Nancheng in my place.”
The unspoken meaning was clear: her scumbag father and stepmother had teamed up with Fu Xinghan to set her up—
First, let Fu Xinghan succeed and force Lin Xiwei to marry him, so he could gain an urban household registration and legally swallow up the Lin family’s assets.
Second, drive a wedge between her and her grandfather, making her lose her only backer.
Third, make Qin Nancheng disappointed in his fiancée and turn around to marry Lin Yulan instead.
One arrow, three targets—truly vicious!
…
Lin Xiwei could sort out the stakes clearly, and the two old hands naturally understood as well.
“Bastards!” The old man stomped his cane angrily and declared firmly,
“No matter how they jump around, Grandpa will always stand on your side. As long as Grandpa is here, no one can bully you.”
Suddenly, Butler Zhang added, “Chengyou personally went to invite Nancheng, saying he wanted to arrange some position in the army for Haojie, and also come over to have a meal and talk about the marriage alliance between the two families.”
Lin Xiwei suddenly laughed in anger. “Grandpa, look at what’s happening downstairs—can Lin Haojie still enlist? And Fu Xinghan… looks like he’s dead.”
The old man shot Butler Zhang a look. Butler Zhang nodded and turned to go downstairs to deal with the scene.
“Grandpa, given today’s situation, it doesn’t seem suitable for Brother Nancheng to come to our house,” Lin Xiwei reminded him.
The old man sighed. “You don’t need to worry about that filthy mess. Grandpa and Old Zhang will handle it. None of them are on our household register—if something happens, it has nothing to do with our family.”
Lin Chengyou returned to the city at the end of last year. Through his connections, the old man only secured a quota for him alone.
As for Fu Cuilian and the others who came back with Lin Chengyou, they all currently held rural household registrations and could only visit the Lin family with letters of introduction.
Moreover, the Lin family still had to accept them; if the Lin family drove them out, they would have to leave.
Letters of introduction generally could not exceed three months within the province, or six months across provinces.
Coincidentally, the six-month visiting period for that group of freeloaders was about to expire.
After Butler Zhang went downstairs, he called the police.
Ten minutes later.
Nearby patrol officers arrived with a roaring Changjiang 750 sidecar motorcycle.
Butler Zhang led them swiftly to the scene. “Comrade, the homicide scene is here.”
Lin Haojie had already fled carrying the ladder. Lin Yulan had long since broken free from Fu Xinghan and run away, even shoving her younger sister Lin Juying toward the beast whose drug had taken full effect.
Even though Lin Juying cried as if her heart were breaking, Fu Cuilian still stuffed the food box into her hands and told her to hurry and hide.
At the crime scene, only Fu Cuilian remained—her clothes torn, hair ornaments askew, her blood-red lipstick smeared across half her face.
“What happened here?” the two officers stepped forward to ask.
The moment Fu Cuilian saw them, she lunged forward, clutched their legs, and wailed loudly:
“Help! Comrades, please save me—you came just in time! This, this beast worse than pigs and dogs, I don’t know what kind of potent drug he swallowed, he dragged me into a secluded corner and violated me… woo woo woo!”
Twisting black into white—Fu Cuilian did it with consummate skill.
“Poor me, an innocent woman, ruined for nothing by him!”
The two officers looked at the refined, delicate young corpse, then at the faded, aging Fu Cuilian. Their expressions were indescribable.
“Alright, alright. Come with us first to make a statement. Right and wrong will be judged fairly.”
Based on their preliminary judgment, the young man had died after being accidentally beaten to death by the elderly woman during the act.
Butler Zhang said nothing, merely watched the spectacle.
Fu Cuilian taking all the blame herself was ultimately to protect her children. After all, they still bore the Lin surname, and Old Zhang could not expose anything outright.
He casually looked up. Old Master Lin Weixin silently nodded.
…
Half an hour later.
Lin Xiwei changed into a Jinling brocade cheongsam she had tailored by hand. Her makeup and hair were carefully done, light and elegant, as she walked gracefully to the balcony.
“No matter how you look at it, my Xiwei is still the most beautiful,” pride overflowing in the old man’s eyes.
“Grandpa! You just like teasing me,” Lin Xiwei said, acting childlike and coquettish.
Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced downstairs. All those troublemakers were gone. Heh—cleanup of the crime scene was fast enough.
Toot—toot!
Suddenly, a horn sounded in the distance.
Lin Xiwei and her grandfather looked over at the same time—
Under the golden glow of the setting sun, an olive-green 212 Jeep slowly drove over, carrying with it a fierce, battlefield-hardened aura, stirring autumn leaves into the air.
The ginkgo leaves of golden autumn rustled, as if lined up to welcome them.
The fallen Lin family was no longer what it once was. The servants had long since been dismissed, leaving only a few elderly people with nowhere else to go.
For example, Butler Zhang.
For example, Cook Wang.
And also the aged master Lin Weixin, and the only young person left—Lin Xiwei.
Lin Xiwei followed her grandfather downstairs. Just as the grandfather and granddaughter stepped out of the main hall, the Jeep drove up, made a drifting turn, and came to a steady stop.
What stood out the most was that on both sides of the Jeep stood two soldiers carrying submachine guns.
Lin Xiwei was secretly surprised. Had Qin Nancheng become so important that he needed armed guards just to go out?
However—
Lin Yulan rushed out first, wearing a white blouse with a suspender plaid skirt, white stockings on her legs, small leather shoes on her feet, her hair tied in a high ponytail, like a youthful butterfly fluttering with vitality.
Her voice was especially crisp and sweet:
“Brother Nancheng, I’ve finally been waiting for you!”
The Jeep door opened. The aide in the front passenger seat got out first, his voice booming like thunder:
“Comrade, please step aside!”
Lin Yulan shuddered and instinctively took a few steps back.
The aide ran quickly to the rear door, stood at attention, raised his hand, and placed it on the door handle:
“Report! The surrounding environment is being checked. Please wait, Chief.”
Lin Xiwei couldn’t help clicking her tongue. Just how high-ranking was Qin Nancheng, to have such a display?
She watched as the two soldiers who had been standing outside the vehicle disembarked, shouldered their guns, and thoroughly checked the surroundings to ensure no danger was hidden.
Then the aide pulled open the door. “Report! All clear! Chief, please exit the vehicle!”
Lin Xiwei saw a pair of gleaming leather shoes come out first—those long legs, tsk, beautiful!
Qin Nancheng, dressed in a white military dress uniform, stood tall and heroic, resolute and imposing. With a casual lift of his hand, he put on his dress cap—so handsome it was impossible to look away.
The known height of a 212 Jeep was about 1.87 meters, yet Qin Nancheng was actually a bit taller than it.
Lin Xiwei stared, eyes wide, thinking to herself: “In my last life I must have been blind and stupid—why didn’t I want him? Heavens above, this man is pure walking testosterone!”