After putting away the wooden shovel, Lin Muyan took out that key again.
Through these past days of trying things out and studying them, she knew everything the shovel dug up had a real use, this key surely wasn’t just for show. It was only that she still couldn’t crack what it was for.
Tucking the key away, Lin Muyan got ready to head out.
Father Lin had again gone off to work early, and Lin Xiaonuan had gone to school, the only one left in the house was Wang Yanqin, doing handicraft piecework for a little pocket money.
Lin Muyan called out a goodbye and left the urban village. These past few days she’d been out early and back late, often barely getting to exchange a few words with them. Fortunately her birth parents didn’t pry or demand anything of her, at the Lin house, she was free.
She had several places to hit today, so Lin Muyan simply went to a dealership and rented a small pickup truck, both a way to get around and a way to haul a bit of cargo.
First she went to the gold shop to cash out the gold nuggets, then headed to yesterday’s farmers’ market.
Several of the small shop owners were already waiting for her, because she’d ordered so much, everyone was extremely warm toward her.
“Young lady, you came to haul cargo in a little truck this small? Why not give me an address, I’ll arrange a vehicle to deliver it to your door.”
That made sense to Lin Muyan, but she couldn’t give out the Lin family’s address. A tiny, run-down little courtyard in an urban village suddenly taking in this much cargo would draw far too much attention.
“Hold on a moment, then, let me get in touch about a warehouse.”
Lin Muyan climbed into the little pickup and called Lin Xiao.
The two had swapped contact details yesterday. With injuries on his face, Lin Xiao didn’t dare let his parents find out, so he hadn’t gone back to the urban village, they’d agreed to keep in touch by phone if anything came up.
Lin Muyan had learned that the real-estate agency Lin Xiao worked for was the largest in S City, with the broadest reach, handling everything from siting factories and companies down to buying and selling cemetery plots. With business that wide-ranging, having him help rent a warehouse should be a piece of cake.
Lin Xiao was happy to get Lin Muyan’s call, and the moment she said she wanted to rent a warehouse, he sorted it out without a word.
His efficiency astonished Lin Muyan, this big brother really did have drive. In a matter of minutes he’d found a warehouse, not far from the farmers’ market, ten minutes away at normal driving speed.
After leaving the warehouse address and the delivery time, Lin Muyan rushed off without pause to the next stop, where she bought some seeds and seedlings. There wasn’t much of it, so she just loaded it straight onto the little pickup.
Lin Muyan was, in fact, the do-it-and-be-done-with-it type. At the Shens’, there’d always been someone to do everything for her, and many things she never had to handle herself, which made her seem “delicate,” the sort who couldn’t endure hardship.
Even the Shen family all assumed that Shen Muyan, who’d never lifted a finger for housework, wouldn’t be able to adjust to ordinary life after leaving the Shens, that she’d be miserable, and that in time her young-miss nature would surface and grate on everyone. No one was betting on her.
That was why Mrs. Shen had been worrying all along that Lin Muyan would be unable to bear life on the outside and come running back to the Shens.
But once they learned she wasn’t the Shens’ true heiress, no one at the Shen house would welcome her back, least of all Shen Shiqiu and his wife, who couldn’t stand the thought of the Shen family’s resources falling to someone with no blood ties to them, even someone with whom they’d built up twenty years of bond, their own adopted daughter.
In fact, though, not one of them understood Lin Muyan. She wasn’t so prissy, when it was her turn to step up, she’d do it no worse than anyone else.
Even the bullet comments were startled by Lin Muyan’s drive.
【Good heavens, that green-tea wretch actually loaded the seeds onto the truck herself? Isn’t she the kind who can’t carry a thing on her shoulder or lift a thing in her hand?】
【What’s she playing at now, putting on a show? But for whose benefit?】
By their reckoning, Lin Muyan loved to put on airs and act, given her character, if she was being this down-to-earth, she must be performing, fishing for sympathy.
But here was the problem: in a place like this, for whose benefit would she perform? The Shens’? The Shen family wouldn’t come somewhere like this. If she wanted to put on a show, she’d do it at the upscale venues the Shens frequented.
【Has the wretched girl really turned over a new leaf? She’s stockpiled all that cargo, even bought seeds, clearly prepping for the apocalypse. But how does she know?】
【And did you all notice? She doesn’t seem so green-tea anymore. Buying things and chatting with these small shop owners, there was nothing off about her, clean and crisp, like a different person entirely.】
【The green-tea wretch has turned into a normal human being, kind of throws me off, honestly…】
【Maybe whether she’s green-tea or not depends on the situation. She used to be plenty green-tea at the Shens’, and in front of Young Master Rong Muchen she was the best at putting on an act. Pity for her, Young Master Rong’s nothing to do with her now.】
Lin Muyan drove off, not daring to look at the bullet comments too long lest it distract her. But when the name Rong Muchen leapt out, her heart still gave a pang.
Muchen was the next heir of the Rong family, whose power was even more formidable than the Shens’. The two families used to be neighbors, and Rong Muchen was, you could say, Lin Muyan’s childhood sweetheart, the two of them had always had an unspoken something between them.
After her coming-of-age ceremony, Rong Muchen had quietly told her that once he took over the Rong family business, he’d come marry her and make her Madam Rong, give her a happiness the whole world would envy.
From then on, she’d believed she was sure to be Madam Rong someday, because they were simply too perfect a match, flawlessly suited in every respect.
They each had a “Mu” in their names, paired names, a sign of fate.
Their families’ backgrounds counted as a fitting match too. The Rongs held a bit more power at the highest levels than the Shens, but the Shens were, after all, a foremost wealthy old family in S City, no slouch themselves.
Childhood sweethearts who’d grown up together, parting only when they went off to university, the bond between them ran deep, and no one could pull them apart.
Before all this, Lin Muyan could surely have been so certain. But now she was a little not sure.
She’d become the Shen family’s fake heiress. Without that wealthy Shen background, would Muchen still think her worthy of him?
The Rongs always had their ears to the ground, they surely already knew about the Shens and Lin Muyan, and there was no way Muchen didn’t know. Yet to this day he hadn’t called to check on her, not even a text to ask after her.
Lin Muyan couldn’t help feeling a little low, and even when the bullet comments were wildly discussing Shen Jiaojiao and Rong Muchen, she paid them no more mind.
By the time she’d driven to the warehouse, it was nearly dusk.
Only on arriving did Lin Muyan learn that her big brother was there too.
Watching the delivery vehicles haul goods into the warehouse one after another until it was packed full, Lin Xiao was naturally shocked.
When Lin Muyan settled the final payments, she hadn’t deliberately kept Lin Xiao out of earshot, so as the enormous transfers went through one by one, Lin Xiao could scarcely believe his ears.
His sister had spent several million in one go, where had this money come from? Had she brought it out from the Shens?
And this warehouse full of all sorts of grain and oil, the rice alone was several tons, enough to feed a family of four for years.
What was his sister stockpiling all this food for? Was she planning to start a business of her own?
A string of questions hung in Lin Xiao’s mind. Only after the delivery drivers had all left did he think for a moment and ask:
“Sis, are you going into the grain trade? Do you need any help?”
Lin Muyan could tell her big brother had many questions he wanted to ask, but all he’d voiced was an offer to help, he hadn’t asked where the money came from, or why she’d bought so much grain.
With this, Lin Muyan was very satisfied. At least her big brother was a person with boundaries, who wouldn’t dig to the root of everything just because he was her blood brother.