It took a good ten minutes on foot to reach the low building where her birth family lived. It wasn’t one of those tall, crammed tenement blocks, but the cluster of little single-story houses before her was hardly any better.
Seeing what looked like a struggle and distaste in his daughter’s eyes, Father Lin let out a quiet, helpless sigh.
The family was buried under an enormous debt and could only squeeze into a place like this. His daughter had come from the Shen household, a pampered young lady, she surely couldn’t bear it here. But what could be done? It was all the fault of useless parents like them…
“Muyan, the place is a bit small, no comparison to the Shens’, of course. If you really can’t—”
Lin Jianbin had meant to say that if she truly couldn’t get used to it, he’d rent her a decent place in the city, but before he could finish, Lin Muyan was already stepping into the passageway.
“Let’s go. We’re here now anyway.”
Lin Muyan hadn’t yet decided what attitude to take with her birth family, and the sight of such shabby surroundings did nothing to lift her spirits, she kept her face blank, holding down every emotion churning inside.
In Lin Jianbin’s eyes, it came across as something else entirely.
Just as he’d feared, Muyan must look down on them.
And it made sense. A girl whose life had been perfectly fine, a young miss with everyone fawning over her like stars cupping the moon [1] 众星捧月, everyone gathered round to dote on one cherished person jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2620854_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2620854_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, now had to claim poor folk like them as parents. How could she possibly be happy about it?
Lin Jianbin didn’t know how to comfort his daughter, nor did he have the confidence to promise her the life she wanted, he could only lower his head and follow in silence.
After passing through the narrow, dim corridor and skirting a small heap of garbage, a low door appeared before Lin Muyan.
The door stood open, the inside pitch-dark, nothing to be seen.
Lin Jianbin hurried past to lead the way, glancing back as he went to murmur a warning: “Mind your head, Muyan. This entry door was built a bit low, and you’re tall, you’ll have to stoop a little.”
Past the three-meter-deep entry hall, the view suddenly opened up.
It was a small courtyard. Though it looked old, the kind of humble rural courtyard you’d find in the ’80s or ’90s, compared to the filth and disorder outside, this place was clearly well tended and very clean.
A few inexpensive wildflowers added a touch of color, and all three doorways were hung with clean curtains. Not a bad little place at all.
It was more than Lin Muyan had expected.
The comments, too, were full of surprise, most of them remarking that the Lin home looked better than expected, a courtyard with three rooms around it, forming a neat square, a self-contained household, really rather cozy.
“Muyan, this is our home. It’s a bit small, but your mother keeps it clean.”
Lin Muyan was mildly surprised. The “vicious mother” actually cleaned house? That didn’t match what the comments said.
【Huh? Keep dreaming. That tigress of a wife of yours, doing your housekeeping?】
【The stubborn old dead duck won’t admit he’s wrong [2] 死鸭子嘴硬, refusing to concede even when plainly in the wrong jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2620854_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2620854_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. If you ask me, he’s head over heels for that vicious woman, locked in for life.】
“Jianbin, is that Muyan home?”
Suddenly a voice came from the side room, very gentle, even more pleasing to the ear than Mrs. Shen’s.
Lin Muyan caught her breath and looked tensely toward the source of the voice.
The door opened from within, the curtain swept aside, and out stepped a woman of lingering grace and beauty.
Her face was full of anticipation, she’d opened the door so quickly that her eyes met Lin Muyan’s all at once.
In that moment, Lin Muyan felt the gray sky brighten, the woman before her was like the sun, radiating warmth.
Almost at a glance, Lin Muyan knew this was the “vicious mother”, because the two of them looked so very much alike!
Lin Muyan had always known she resembled neither Mrs. Shen, Director Shen, nor any of the Shen relatives. She’d never paid it any mind, and no one in the Shen family had ever mentioned it.
Because she was beautiful, strikingly, almost aggressively so, and in a great house such looks were a weapon worth wielding. The Shens had often praised her beauty as surpassing everyone else in the family.
Now Lin Muyan finally understood: she took after her birth mother, a good seventy percent her image, at the very least.
But that was the strange part. The “vicious mother” had once been a maid in the Shen household. As the fake young miss grew to look more and more like the family’s former maid, had they truly never suspected a thing?
Then again, perhaps they really hadn’t noticed. The Shens had many servants, each with their own duties, only two or three of the more important ones ever moved about in front of the masters. The rest, the ones who did the labor, weren’t even allowed into the areas where the family lived.
Most likely this mother of hers had been just an unremarkable little maid at the Shens’, someone no one ever noticed.
Wang Yanqin stared at Lin Muyan without blinking, lost in the sight of her, as if to carve her image into her mind forever. It was Lin Jianbin’s reminder that finally brought her back to herself.
“Xiaoqin, don’t just stand there staring at our girl, go on, talk to her.”
Lin Jianbin grinned foolishly. Wang Yanqin quickly agreed, “Yes, yes, look at me, I’ve finally met my second daughter and I’m just too overwhelmed.”
Wang Yanqin’s eyes reddened, she wiped the corners with her sleeve and reached to take Lin Muyan’s hand, longing to be close to her.
Lin Muyan instinctively took a step back. Mother Lin’s hand closed on empty air, and she stood there, awkward and at a loss.
“Um… hello, both of you…” Lin Muyan greeted them with her head down, her thoughts a tangled mess.
Had her mother really, all those years ago, swapped the babies out of pure selfish desire?
Eyes this gentle surely couldn’t be faked. How could a person like this have done something so heartless?
Many in the comments thought the same as Lin Muyan, though, of course, there were the diehards too.
【Mama Lin doesn’t look like a bad woman. What’s going on here?】
【Fam, I think we’ve met the founding ancestor of the green-tea-and-white-lotus arts [3] “white lotus”, someone who feigns pure, saintly innocence while scheming underneath, the sister act to “green tea” jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2620854_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2620854_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, she’s reached the level where the fake passes for real!】
【No doubt about it, this is a high-ranking lady. Next to her own mother, Green Tea Girl is a mere fledgling chick. Just wait, this woman will show her chicken feet [4] give herself away, reveal her true colors jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2620854_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2620854_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); sooner or later.】
Lin Muyan looked at the comments, then at her birth mother, who positively glowed with motherly warmth, and doubts sprouted thick in her heart.
Wang Yanqin knew her daughter, only just returned, would surely feel out of place, and didn’t press her to acknowledge them right away. She simply said:
“Muyan, this is the room Mom got ready for you. This is where you’ll stay from now on.”
As she spoke, she deftly lifted the curtain over the doorway to the right.
“Xiaonuan used to have this room to herself, but now that you’re back, I’ve split it in two. You take the inner half, there’s more space, and since she’s still little and at school all day, she only sleeps here at night. Arrange it however you like, it’s all up to you.”
Mother Lin’s words sent Lin Muyan into thought once more.
Silently she stepped into the room. A wooden partition already divided it down the middle, the inner half clearly the larger, the outer half held only a small bed, the space Mother Lin had left for her younger daughter, Lin Xiaonuan.
And to Lin Muyan they’d given the bigger space, with the window for fresh air on her side too. The partition even had a door fitted into it, with a lock.
The couple stood awkwardly at the doorway, Mother Lin rubbing her hands as she explained:
“Your dad’s a renovation worker, does carpentry too, so he put up this partition himself. Go take a look, and if there’s anything else you need, Mom and Dad will go buy it for you right away.”
Lin Muyan’s feelings were a tangle beyond words, she even felt the urge to cry.
Because of the comments, because the Shens had told her she’d owed her twenty years of wealth and splendor to a vicious birth mother’s baby-swapping scheme, and because of Shen Jiaojiao’s parting warning, she’d held no illusions whatsoever about this birth family. She’d even imagined the home would be a den of vipers, that coming back would mean untold suffering, that they’d skin her alive.
But none of that had come to pass. There was only this humble yet warm little home, a father straining to win her favor, and a mother who couldn’t help reddening at the eyes the moment their gazes met, who spoke in a voice as gentle as flowing water.
Who could tell her, what on earth was real?
References[+]