Zhong Cui saw that Song Kexin was already tempted so she carried on. “Keeping her here will only upset you and the environment is not good for the child either. Sending her to the village will be good for you, Yize, our XingXing, and this family.
“It’s good for her as well. She wouldn’t need to be envious of Xinxin without the contrast.
“As for over here. You just need to make something up. You can say that she had gone overseas or out of town. Or that her health hasn’t been good so she will be staying in the countryside for a while. In either case, there won’t be any rumors.”
--- That sure made sense.
Song Kexin nodded reflexively.
“Have you contacted Zhang Qiang yet then? Is he okay with it?” asked Song Kexin.
Zhong Cui patted Song Kexin on her hand. “Don’t you worry. I have already had someone asked. He didn’t say he won’t do it. All we need is to give him some living expenses every month.”
Song Kexin nodded: Living in the countryside is inexpensive. Paying some living expense is not a big deal.
“Okay, this is settled then.” Song Kexin thought about it for a little bit and agreed. Being around Lin Xi all these years had wore her out. She didn’t notice it before but she was more and more exhausted as time went on. She even felt that she had been unfaithful to her husband.
“I only worry about convincing Lin Xi…” said Song Kexin with a troubled look.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of that…”
***
Lin Xi had heard enough by now.
She turned and quietly went back upstairs and into her own room. She pulled out a piece of bread that was already squashed in her backpack, took a couple of bites from it, and went back into bed.
***
It was mentioned in the novel that “Lin Xi” had been sent to the living in the village by her grandmother.
The guy Zhang Qiang seemed simple and affectionate at the beginning but revealed his true color the moment Zhong Cui had left.
Zhang Qiang had no job nor did he farm. He lived off of government subsidy and could barely support himself. He never wanted children of his own or, at the very minimum, would prefer to have a son.
He only accepted Zhong Cui’s suggestion for the 500 yuan of monthly stipend.
“Lin Xi” stayed with Zhang Qiang for a few days and he didn’t even let her go to school. He had her stayed home with him every day.
He only had “Lin Xi” help out around the house at the beginning – cooking, cleaning, washing his socks and underwear. Later on, he started touching her and even peeking at her showering.
One day, he tied her up on the bed and was going to violate her.
“Lin Xi” fought with her life and finally knocked off the old circuit breaker in the house. The house caught on fire and she was finally able to break free.
The entire village came over to help out or just watch the drama when Zhang Qiang’s house was burning.
When Lin Yize and Song Kexin found out about it, they worried that the matter would escalate and the media would find out about it so they paid Zhang Qiang a sum of money and brought “Lin Xi” back home.
In the novel, “Lin Xi” was never hurt and had returned to her original family. Nevertheless, her personality started to distort after this one incident.
***
Lin Xi had goosebumps and felt revolted from recalling the details of the novel.
-- She couldn’t just sit around and do nothing about it. She must come up with a way to get out of it.
Lin Xi quickly come up with idea in her head and try to figure out the most plausible option.
***
The servants at home finally recalled that Lin Xi existed and knocked on her door to come down for breakfast the next morning.
Lin Xi changed into her school uniform and went downstairs.
Lin Xi ate numbly over the dinner table.
Nobody seemed to have noticed that she was not being herself today.
Lin Anxin, sitting across from Lin Xi, gave her a look and asked in a low voice, “Are you alright, Big Sister?”
Seeing that Lin Xi did not respond to her, she added, “I don’t blame you over the incident.”
Having said that, she even gave Lin Xi a sweet smile.
-- She was smiling because she was happy. She had heard from her mother and grandmother in her room when she got up this morning that they had planned to send Lin Xi away for a while. She had no idea why but it was definitely good news to her.
Once Lin Xi was gone, the incident of her falling into the lake would be over and her family would never find out about the conflict between Yan Xueqi and herself.
***
Lin Xi snickered on her side.
It might sound like the incident had nothing to do with Lin Xi but Lin Anxin’s tone suggested openly and subtly that: Lin Xi was the one who pushed her into the lake but she was a very forgiving person and would not hold a grudge against Lin Xi.
Sure enough, as soon as Lin Anxin had said that, the atmosphere became heavier around the dinner table.
Xu Jiaofeng smacked her chopsticks down on the bowl and scolded, “What do you mean you don’t blame her for it? You don’t need to defend her when she was the one at fault!”
Hearing that, Lin Anxin shrank her neck back a bit and said docilely, “I was wrong…”
Xu Jiaofeng’s look turned tender all over again before she turned and looked at Lin Xi coldly.
“We will turn over a new leaf this time since Xinxin had already forgiven you. It would not be so easy next time. The Lin’s family do not have evil people like that.”
Lin Xi kept her eyes lowered and continued to eat what was inside of her bowl. She remained silent – it wasn’t that Lin Anxin was a good actor or good at making up excuses. It was simply that the others refused to believe in Lin Xi. As such, there was no point in saying anything else.
Probably because some major event was about to take place, Xu Jiaofeng was much “nicer” to her today.
Zhong Cui chimed in at this point, “Right, right, right. Something like this could not happen again.”
Obviously Zhong Cui wasn’t done talking yet.
The fact that she was there right now meant there was more.
Lin Xi looked at Zhong Cui expressionlessly, waiting for her show to begin.