Mrs. Shen was uneasy, afraid Lin Muyan would change her mind and declare she didn’t want to leave after all.
Just then, Lin Muyan walked deep into the walk-in closet and pulled a cardboard box from the very back.
A thought turned over in Mrs. Shen’s mind, she came over, crouched down, and spoke with earnest gravity:
“Muyan, I know it’s hard for you to leave, but you really ought to count your blessings. Your Uncle Shen and I don’t ask for any repayment, we only hope you’ll understand that, in the end, nothing beats one’s own flesh-and-blood parents. They’re surely hoping you’ll come home, too.”
Lin Muyan knew Mrs. Shen was saying this on purpose, worried she’d back out of leaving. She gave a bitter smile.
“Don’t worry, ma’am, I’ll be gone shortly. It’s just that this box holds the happiest memories of my childhood. May I take it with me?”
The box held only odds and ends, and yet they were the treasures of Lin Muyan’s childhood.
A faded, well-worn plush rabbit, washed pale, this was Ah-Beibei, her constant companion until she turned ten.
A pellet drum [1] a traditional rattle-drum twirled by its handle so the beads strike the skin jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2620852_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2620852_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); missing one of its little beads, its body carved from golden-thread nanmu [2] a rare and precious hardwood jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2620852_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2620852_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
And a number of other small toys, unremarkable to look at yet far from cheap to make. The sight of them warmed her.
Papa and Mama Shen would never give her warmth again, perhaps carrying off these childhood keepsakes could bring her heart a sliver of comfort.
Seeing they were just some worthless trinkets, Mrs. Shen agreed at once.
“Of course you can. These are all things you played with as a child, no use to us. Take the lot.”
“All packed? Once you’re done, hurry downstairs. I’ll have Auntie Zhang see you to the nearest bus stop.”
Lin Muyan couldn’t very well drag it out any longer, she could only nod, and was bustled out the villa’s front door.
Bang!
The heavy door swung shut with a thud, cutting off Lin Muyan’s last glimpse of the villa within.
Auntie Zhang dragged Lin Muyan along, muttering, “Get moving. What’s left to look at? This isn’t your home anymore.”
“That birth mother of yours is really something, coming up with a dirty trick like swapping the babies. Thanks to her, the young miss suffered all those years out there. Don’t go dreaming you’ll ever come back. No one here will ever welcome you again!”
Auntie Zhang spat the words at her viciously, whether out of genuine indignation on behalf of the Shens and Shen Jiaojiao, or out of sheer envy that Lin Muyan had enjoyed twenty years of good fortune for free, who could say.
Either way, now that she was the fake young miss, the dove that had seized the magpie’s nest, no one here thought anything of Lin Muyan anymore.
She hardly dared imagine how her friends would react if they found out, her senior schoolmates, her handful of high-society friends. Would they all turn on her in an instant, just like Auntie Zhang?
Lin Muyan was still lost in the thought when Auntie Zhang dumped her out onto the road leading down from the hillside villas.
“Walk yourself down. A grown woman like you needs an escort? You’re no real young miss, quit putting on airs.”
Auntie Zhang spat, turned on her heel, and left Lin Muyan behind, heading back.
Gazing down the long road, Lin Muyan drew a deep breath and started down the mountain, her footing uneven on the slope.
【Tsk, tsk, tsk, so even you have a day like this. Heaven has eyes.】
【In the end she couldn’t take a thing, though that box of hers, picked apart, could probably fetch a few coins.】
【Haha, she even took Ah-Beibei with her. No good days ahead, does she plan to hug her little Ah-Beibei and snivel under the covers?】
The comments drifted ceaselessly above Lin Muyan’s head, most of them mocking and jeering, though there were a few of a different sort.
【I can’t believe she actually left the Shens. Doesn’t that mean she’s gone off the original plot? Does anyone know what’s going on here?】
【Who knows. Maybe it’s just her new way of stirring up trouble. Probably she’ll come crawling back in a few days. Just wait, this woman won’t be brushed off so easily, she’s holding out for some big move.】
Suddenly one comment flared red, standing out vividly, and Lin Muyan looked over at once.
【I think she’s walked off with Jiaojiao’s golden finger [3] “golden finger”, a cheat: a special power or item that hands a story’s protagonist an unfair advantage jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2620852_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2620852_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.】
Golden finger? One that belonged to Shen Jiaojiao?
Lin Muyan slowed her steps, thinking it over carefully. What of Shen Jiaojiao’s had she taken?
Her backpack held only a few old clothes from years back and important papers, her ID, her diploma, and the like. Apart from that, there was only this box cradled in her hands, full of her childhood memories. Which of these was Shen Jiaojiao’s?
Lin Muyan was still puzzling over it when the comments multiplied.
【Answer me! Look in my eyes! Tell me why! What do you think you’re doing with my baby girl’s golden finger?! Put it back!】
【Wretched green tea, you’d better open that box right now, this very instant, take out the little wooden shovel inside, and bring it back to the Shens. Tell them your sticky fingers got the better of you, that you should never have taken what was never yours. Damn you!】
【You mean the Golden Shovel, the one you can dig and dig and dig with, turning up piles of treasure? Oh my god, how dare Lin Muyan!】
A strange look came over Lin Muyan’s face. The wooden shovel in the box? Wasn’t that just the little toy she’d played with in the sandpit at age three? That thing was a golden finger?
Half believing, half doubting, Lin Muyan glanced around. Not a single car on the road. It was a workday, and the only people who used this road were the wealthy households of the Half-Mountain villas, at this hour, hardly anyone passed by.
So Lin Muyan simply stopped, crouched at the roadside, and opened the box.
【What’s she doing?】
Amid a string of question-mark comments, Lin Muyan slowly picked up the little shovel and studied it closely. It was nothing but the most ordinary little trinket. She let out a soft laugh.
A wooden shovel, how could it possibly be what the comments claimed, unless the world had turned into some fantasy tale.
Shaking her head, Lin Muyan was about to set the shovel down, and every last commenter breathed a sigh of relief.
【Scared the crap out of me, she almost caught on.】
【Wretched green tea, put the Golden Shovel down, your filthy chicken claws are smudging my baby’s golden finger.】
【Are you the protagonist, that you think you can touch it? You don’t know your own limits.】
However even-tempered Lin Muyan might be, seeing these comments forever cursing at her made her angry, and made her want to do the exact opposite of what they demanded.
Gritting her teeth, she gripped the wooden shovel tighter and drove it into the grass beside her.
They wouldn’t let her touch it, said she had no right to touch it?
Then she’d touch it anyway! Not only touch it, she’d put it to the test and see whether the shovel really was so miraculous.
The wooden shovel was hers to begin with, and of everything in the box, it was the only toy her adoptive parents hadn’t bought for her.
It had been given to her at age three by an old granny at the little park. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t the Shen family’s at all, it belonged to Lin Muyan, and Lin Muyan alone!
One small scoop, and Lin Muyan felt the shovel strike something hard with a clack.
She drove it in again with force and abruptly turned up a lump of gold.
Lin Muyan nearly leapt straight off the ground in shock. What on earth? How could there be gold in the grass by the roadside?
She picked up the lump and examined it. Real gold, no question, about a hundred grams. At today’s soaring gold prices, this nugget had to be worth over a hundred thousand!
Lin Muyan quickly tucked the nugget into her backpack and glanced around again, only once she was sure no one was about did she let herself relax.
By now, the comments had gone berserk.
【It’s over, she’s figured it out, what do we do about Jiaojiao now? The side character using the female lead’s golden finger, can you believe it?】
【The sky’s falling, is this wretched green tea actually about to turn things around?】
【I can’t take it, even she gets this kind of luck. When’s my golden finger gonna ship?】
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