"Xie Zhijin?" Lin Haoyu was taken aback. She searched through all the relevant information in the original novel but couldn't find this person anywhere. She couldn't help but wear a face full of question marks—who was this guy?
Sun Shuhui said, "You haven't been out much, and the family hasn't bothered you with these matters, so it's not strange that you don't know. Since you'll be socializing in the future, I should tell you more about these things, so you won't be completely in the dark and accidentally commit a taboo."
"Go on, Mom," Lin Haoyu immediately perked up her ears to listen.
Sun Shuhui's expression suddenly turned a bit odd. "Speaking of Xie Zhijin, the head of the Xie family, his story is quite bizarre. After Mrs. Xie gave birth to Xie Zhijin, the nanny who had taken care of her since childhood secretly pulled a switcheroo—swapping the baby with one born to the nanny's daughter and Mrs. Xie's husband. What exactly happened in between, no one outside knows. But suddenly, at the age of ten, Xie Zhijin showed up at the door of the previous head of the Xie family—the old master of the Xie family who passed away a few years ago."
Seeing Sun Shuhui's expression growing even stranger, Lin Haoyu knew there was more shocking news to come and quickly asked, "And then?"
"After the old master of the Xie family investigated and confirmed everything, he quickly acknowledged Xie Zhijin as family. The nanny and her daughter are still rotting in prison to this day. The impostor who had occupied Xie Zhijin's place for ten years was cast out of the Xie family. Mrs. Xie later had the person sent to the Kowloon Walled City, because that's where Xie Zhijin had been abandoned. That heartless nanny and her daughter left a newborn baby to fend for himself—those two women are absolutely vicious!" Sun Shuhui said with a face full of indignation. She was a mother herself; if her child had been treated like that, she would have wanted to kill someone.
Lin Haoyu's eyes widened in shock. "The Kowloon Walled City?!"
Calling the Kowloon Walled City a den of poison wouldn't be an exaggeration. A newborn baby thrown there—wasn't that just a death sentence? "Xie Zhijin was lucky to survive. He was fortunate enough to be picked up and raised by someone, or else no matter how gifted he was, he never would have grown up," Sun Shuhui said with a sigh of regret, then continued, "If it weren't for Xie Zhijin's extraordinary genius—showing up alone at the age of ten to find the old master Xie—why would the old master have acknowledged him? After Xie Zhijin returned to the Xie family and displayed even more remarkable abilities, that's why the old master turned a blind eye when Mrs. Xie sent Xie Lijun to the Kowloon Walled City. Xie Lijun was the heir the Xie family had carefully groomed for ten years."
"Xie Lijun?!" Lin Haoyu exclaimed again in shock, but this time her pupils dilated from sheer astonishment. Xie Lijun was the male lead of the original novel—how could she not be shocked? So where exactly had she transmigrated to?
Sun Shuhui said, "After the old master of the Xie family passed away, the eighteen-year-old Xie Zhijin seized control of the entire Xie family with an iron fist, suppressing his father, uncles, and cousins alike, and sent Xie Lijun to Africa to mine."
Lin Haoyu asked, "Xie Lijun is mining in Africa?"
Sun Shuhui did the math. "Almost four years now. I think he'll be mining for the rest of his life."
Lin Haoyu: "…"
Lin Haoyu pondered for a moment. In the original novel, Xie Lijun was the lofty eldest young master of the Xie family, but he was capricious, violent-tempered, and pathologically clean—often flying into rages and hitting people. He had a torturous, passionate love affair with the female lead, and in the end, after enduring eighty-one trials and tribulations, the female lead moved Xie Lijun's heart, and the two achieved a blissful, happy ending.
The novel never mentioned why Xie Lijun's temperament was so unpredictable, nor did it ever mention a figure like Xie Zhijin. It only said that the previous head of the Xie family died unexpectedly, Xie Lijun's father took over the family, and Xie Lijun naturally became the eldest young master of the Xie family.
So it was only natural that Xie Lijun's father, having usurped his son Xie Zhijin's position, would take over the Xie family. And there was no doubt that Xie Lijun, having been tormented for years, would have a terrible temperament.
The more Lin Haoyu thought about it, the more she couldn't bear to look at the original novel. There were too many things in it that couldn't withstand close scrutiny. She had never been interested in torturous romance novels, nor did she have the free time to read them. The only reason she knew about this novel was because her boss's daughter in her previous life had recommended it. At the time, she was the boss's daughter's right-hand woman. The boss's daughter was a novel fanatic, especially fond of torturous romance novels. To have common topics with the young miss, Lin Haoyu naturally catered to her tastes and read the entire novel seriously. She couldn't recite it backward and forward, but she knew all the major and minor plot points inside out.
But now she understood—even if she had read and remembered the entire novel, she couldn't apply it directly to reality. A novel is a novel; when a novel becomes reality, everything is based on the real world, and the novel should only be used as a reference.
"Then wouldn't the rest of the Xie family hate Xie Zhijin to death?" Lin Haoyu harbored some suspicion about the "unexpected death of the previous head of the Xie family."
Sun Shuhui said, "Hating him is useless. Xie Zhijin is ruthless, and he has plenty of men willing to die for him. The old master of the Xie family left almost all of his wealth to Xie Zhijin, giving only scraps to the rest of the family. Not only does Xie Zhijin have his own personally trained loyalists, but he also pulled people from the other branches of the Xie family to work with him. So only his father is still making a fuss; everyone else has backed off. Xie Zhijin isn't stingy—those who work with him get real, tangible benefits."
Lin Haoyu asked again, "Then does he have a lot of bodyguards around him?"
"He has an entire security team. These bodyguards are retired military personnel from the mainland. I hear every one of them is highly skilled—taking on ten men single-handedly is nothing to them," Sun Shuhui said.
Lin Haoyu blinked. So it seemed highly likely this was an accident. The head of the Xie family was capable and certainly not lacking in caution—who would have the ability to kill him? The most probable explanation was that he'd been forced off the stage by plot-induced death, making way for the male lead, Xie Lijun.
Sun Shuhui continued, "Four years ago, the Xie family wasn't even the wealthiest in Hong Kong. It was only after Xie Zhijin took over that they became the richest family, and over the past two years, their position has only grown more secure. Xie Zhijin truly has real skill. If Little Seven had even a fraction of his ability, I'd wake up smiling every day."
Ah, so Xie Zhijin was also a sucker—working hard to build the Xie family up and strengthen it, only to end up making wedding clothes for his enemy.
Lin Haoyu couldn't help but think of the original owner. In the original novel, after the original owner died of illness, the female lead cousin attended the funeral with her parents. Because the female lead was also born prematurely and frail, the original owner's mother transferred her affection to the female lead, treating her wonderfully—giving her expensive clothes, jewelry, and medicinal herbs, and hiring famous doctors to treat her. The female lead's health was much better than the original owner's, and she was actually cured.
Lin Haoyu fell into deep silence. How should she put it? Subtle, very subtle. In a sense, the original owner was also a sucker—like a tool character set up to pave the way and then step aside for the female lead cousin. Of course, that was just the novel; the author naturally had to set up a bunch of tool characters to drive the plot forward.
Lin Haoyu thought that since she had transmigrated into the original owner's body, the original owner had perhaps also become a tool for her. Stop! Some things shouldn't be examined too deeply—so, the other Lin Haoyu, you must be reborn into a good life, ah!
"Sixth Sister, are you feeling unwell?" Sun Shuhui's expression changed drastically when she saw her daughter's pale face.
Lin Haoyu rubbed her cheeks and gently shook her head. "I'm fine, really."
Sun Shuhui checked several times before she finally relaxed.
Mom was so good to her. Lin Haoyu quietly touched her chest and sighed—she always felt a bit guilty.
Lin Haoyu's guilt lasted less than a minute. What was done was done; she couldn't change anything anyway. The right thing to do was just live her own little life well and not dwell on philosophical questions. A salted fish's brain tastes like salted fish, hee hee.