“Don’t cry, don’t cry, if Mom and Dad come in and see, they’ll think I bullied you. Here, my deskmate gave me this gum, I’ll split it with you.”
In a flustered hurry, Lin Xiaonuan broke off half the gum and pressed it into Lin Muyan’s arms, then leaned in, round eyes wide, to check whether Lin Muyan had stopped crying.
The sight of her, funny and adorable at once, made Lin Muyan laugh.
Seeing her laugh, Lin Xiaonuan grinned and giggled along.
“Sis, you’re way easier on the eyes than my old sister. You have no idea how high-maintenance she was. With her around, I had to squeeze into one room with Mom and Dad to sleep. Now I’ve finally got my own little bed!”
With that, Lin Xiaonuan flopped onto her own little bed, the picture of contentment. Lin Muyan asked, curious:
“You didn’t used to live in this room?”
Lin Xiaonuan pursed her little lips. “As if I’d dare fight her for territory. She used to hog a whole room to herself, I bunked with Mom and Dad, and Big Brother had to make do with a floor mat in the living room.”
Even now Big Brother still had to bed down on the living-room floor, but at least Lin Xiaonuan had a little room of her own, so naturally she was happy.
Lin Muyan knit her brows. Her little sister didn’t look like she was lying, it really did seem there was something wrong with this Shen Jiaojiao.
A casual glance, and sure enough the comments had started defending her again.
【What does a little kid know? This brat is plenty annoying too, if you ask me, all she does is badmouth my Jiaojiao!】
【Lin Xiaonuan is a little green tea through and through, loves to lie and spout nonsense. It was clearly her hogging the whole room, leaving Jiaojiao crammed into a little corner of the master bedroom.】
【The Lins are nothing but a pack of demons spouting lies, the vicious mother’s a monster, the coward father’s worthless, and then this brat, so badly raised. I really hope the world gives her a harsh beating soon!】
Lin Muyan had her own judgment now, and she’d noticed that wherever Shen Jiaojiao was concerned, the comments would mindlessly take sides, lambasting her and the Lin family until they couldn’t tell a nose from an eye.
Either way, she was back now, she had eyes of her own, and she’d see and feel for herself.
Just then Wang Yanqin called out from the courtyard that dinner was ready. Lin Xiaonuan was the first to spring up and bolt outside at a dead run.
Halfway there she remembered her big sister, and hurried back to grab Lin Muyan’s hand and tug her along, saying as they went:
“Sis, come eat with me, quick! Our mom’s cooking is so good, unbeatable!”
A smile lingering on her face, Lin Muyan went out and came face to face with Father and Mother Lin.
The couple, seeing the smile on their second daughter’s face, both froze for a moment, then couldn’t help exchanging a smile of their own.
It seemed Xiaonuan liked this real big sister of hers. They’d worried the little monkey wouldn’t take to Muyan, after all, back when Jiaojiao was around, the two girls had never gotten along, Xiaonuan had rejected Jiaojiao from a young age, forever crying and making scenes.
At the table, Wang Yanqin kept piling food into Lin Muyan’s bowl, glancing now and then at how she ate, seeing her eat with such relish filled her with deep satisfaction.
“Dear, if there’s anything you can’t eat, or anything you’d like, just tell Mom and Dad and we’ll buy it and make it for you. Don’t ever stand on ceremony with us, this is your home.”
Lin Xiaonuan pouted. “Mom, I’m your daughter too, how come you don’t ask me?”
Wang Yanqin shot her a mock-exasperated look and asked with a smile, “All right then, what do you want to eat?”
Xiaonuan bared her teeth in a grin. “I want a big pork trotter! The roasted kind!”
“All right, all right, Mom will go buy one for you tomorrow.”
The warm, merry mood at the table was infectious, and even Lin Muyan caught it, the corners of her mouth lifting as she shoveled down her rice.
It struck her suddenly how nice this family’s atmosphere was, warm, and full of the texture of real, lived-in life. It made her think of the Shens again.
She’d once thought the Shen household had a fine atmosphere too: Director Shen holding all the power, master of the whole Shen Group, and Mrs. Shen living the life of a wealthy wife. At the table the family was waited on by servants, no one even had to trouble themselves to reach for a dish.
The Shens set great store by etiquette and observed the rule of no talking at meals [1] 食不语, a Confucian table custom: eat in silence jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2620858_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2620858_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, the family dined in perfect quiet. Lin Muyan had once thought this was the proper way, but now, with something to compare it to, she suddenly realized that perhaps this, here, was how a family was meant to be.
At the Shens’, though her adoptive parents had been good to her, it was the kind of good that weighed on a person. She’d never been allowed to forget she was the young miss of a great house, mindful of her every gesture and move.
Now, watching Lin Xiaonuan eat with her mouth all greasy, Mother Lin doting as she wiped it clean for her, and Father Lin sipping his little cup of wine as he watched the mother and daughter chatter and laugh, it was a scene of pure warmth.
Before she knew it, Lin Muyan had eaten her fill, overfull, in fact, fighting back a burp and a private laugh. Who’d have thought her flawless image as a great-house young miss would crumble this fast.
“Good grief, Sis, you sure can eat, but Mom and Dad say a hearty appetite is a blessing. You’re way more blessed than that Lin Jiaojiao, oops, she goes by Shen now. She used to be so fussy. Mom’s cooking is this good, and she’d turn her nose up at everything all day, demanding abalone and sea cucumber, saying she was a princess, how could she eat this garbage?”
“Ha! What a joke!”
Mother Lin gave Lin Xiaonuan’s little belly a soft poke, signaling her to stop, and only then did the girl stick out her tongue and fall quiet.
And it was true, that Shen Jiaojiao had less sense than this ten-year-old. Mom and Dad had suffered untold grief and hardship for her sake, and how did she repay them? By growing more and more outrageous. She’d brought her own state upon herself.
It was all of Shen Jiaojiao’s own making, courting her own ruin while the whole family coddled and indulged her.
The thought of it made Lin Xiaonuan cross. She was the youngest in the family, yet their parents had been forced to pour all their energy into Shen Jiaojiao, who was she supposed to cry to about that?
Lin Muyan turned Lin Xiaonuan’s words over thoughtfully. Ever since seeing Shen Jiaojiao’s medical records, her conviction had begun to waver, perhaps none of this was as she’d thought, and Shen Jiaojiao was very good at putting on an act.
If so, then once she went to the Shens’, wouldn’t she put her adoptive parents through the wringer too?
When she’d called them that afternoon, they’d already blocked her, but say what you would, they were still the adoptive parents who’d raised her for twenty years.
Lin Muyan thought to herself that Shen Jiaojiao’s condition was something they had to be told.
Even in the very worst case, Shen Jiaojiao’s illnesses still needed ongoing treatment, even for her own good, the truth ought to be told to her adoptive parents.
After dinner, the family chatted a while longer, and the talk turned to the Lin household’s eldest son, Lin Xiao.
“Xiaoxiao just graduated, and it’s hard to get by in the big city. For now he’s found work as an agent, there’s commission, so the income’s decent enough.”
“Most of the time he stays in the staff dormitory and only comes home on weekends when he’s free. Muyan, your brother did mean to come back to see you, but he’s only just been made a permanent hire and can’t easily take leave, don’t hold it against him.”
Wang Yanqin explained on her elder son’s behalf. Lin Muyan didn’t mind in the least.
She rose and returned to her own room, Lin Xiaonuan went to do her homework in the living room, and quiet settled all around.
After resting a while, just before bed, the Golden Shovel refreshed. Lin Muyan got up, meaning to go out and try her luck.
Her first three tries had all gone well, she wondered what she might dig up this time.
References[+]