“Ahh~”
Lin Zhe opened his mouth wide, waiting for Lin Xi to feed him bite by bite.
He was actually perfectly capable of eating by himself now, but he was putting on a show of being completely paralyzed—for the Liang mother and son sitting across from them to see.
And Lin Xi quietly fed her brother, not even glancing at the ugly expressions on the faces of Mother Liang and her son across the table.
She truly hadn’t expected Liang Xu to be like this. She’d thought he came to pick them up out of the goodness of his heart—turns out he had his eye on her brother’s money.
Buying a house, splitting the down payment and paying off the mortgage together—she could accept that. But this money belonged to her brother! How dare they even think about it?
Mother Liang held back for a long while before finally speaking: “I thought you brought your brother to Mocheng for surgery. I never imagined it would be this ridiculous. Our family is marrying you—not you and your brother together.”
Liang Xu couldn’t help asking Lin Xi either: “Xi, is what your brother said true? The way things are now, we can’t be together…”
Lin Xi felt a chill in her heart and said coldly, “I barely know you, and I never said I’d marry you. Besides, the person who won the lottery really is my brother. That money belongs to him and can only be spent on him. No one else should even dream of it.”
“You say you won’t marry and that’s it? What about all the time our Xu spent courting you? Do you realize you’ve wasted my son’s time? A few days ago, a director’s daughter wanted to meet our Xu, and I turned it down…”
“You country people really have some nerve. Marrying a Mocheng local like us should be an honor beyond your wildest dreams, and yet you expect us to support your brother…”
Mother Liang had completely dropped all pretense, hurling sarcasm and mockery at Lin Xi in rapid, clipped Mocheng dialect. If Lin Zhe hadn’t lived here for a long time in his past life, he wouldn’t even have understood what she was cursing about.
Lin Xi set down her bowl and chopsticks, looked coldly at Mother Liang, and said, “I’ve known Liang Xu for less than a year—hardly anyone wasted anyone’s time. My brother doesn’t need anyone to support him either. I can afford to support him myself. In the future, please stop bothering me, you and your son.”
“…”
“Country people—no idea how to appreciate a good thing!”
Mother Liang spat out an insult, stood up, and walked out. After a few steps, seeing that Liang Xu was still hesitating, she shouted at him angrily, and Liang Xu lowered his head and followed.
And after Lin Zhe called out, “Damn it—ordering food and leaving without paying the bill,” Liang Xu walked even faster.
Lin Xi followed them out and unloaded the siblings’ luggage from the old Santana. When she returned to the restaurant, she found Lin Zhe already eating on his own with chopsticks.
“Sis, Liang Xu may be a bastard, but he’s right. If you have to live with me, it really will affect your marriage…”
“Forget having a crippled brother—even if I were healthy and bouncing around right now, I’d still be a minus on your score in the marriage market…”
Lin Zhe was telling the truth. Whether in Zhonghuajia on Lanxing or in the Daweichao dynasty Lin Zhe had transmigrated to, a “Fu Di Mo”—a sister obsessed with supporting her brother—was the object of every man’s dread.
Sure, some brothers were ambitious and didn’t need their sisters’ help, but in certain regions, using a sister’s bride price to get a younger or older brother married was a common occurrence. That was why so many men in the matchmaking scene were prejudiced against girls with brothers.
“Slap~”
Lin Xi slammed the table and looked coldly at Lin Zhe. “You knew perfectly well I’d never abandon you, so why did you play those little tricks just now? You think I can’t see the hostility you have toward them? Why did you do it?”
“………”
“Wow, Sis, you actually noticed. Impressive, impressive. Truly terrifying…”
Lin Zhe admitted, with some exaggeration, that he had indeed played the meddling matchmaker in reverse, but he offered no explanation for why he wanted to break up Lin Xi and Liang Xu.
Because his conscience was clear.
In his previous life, after Lin Xi brought her paralyzed little brother to Mocheng, she wore herself out struggling alone, and Liang Xu had taken advantage of her vulnerability to become her emotional crutch.
Liang Xu strung Lin Xi along with sweet words, helping her fight off a “forced marriage” on one hand while scouting for his next mark on the other. In the , he squeezed a sum of money out of Lin Xi and left to “study abroad,” vanishing without a trace ever after.
But years later, when the Lin siblings finally turned their lives around, Liang Xu suddenly came back.
By then, there was already another boy at Lin Xi’s side. Liang Xu used every trick in the book to squeeze that boy out, hoping to latch back onto Lin Xi.
Lin Xi was no fool and flatly refused to get back together with him, but Liang Xu teamed up with the siblings’ aunt and cousin, launching wave after wave of underhanded attacks, loudly spreading rumors that Lin Xi was a marriage scammer and a Fu Di Mo.
Later, he even kept leaking “insider information” online under the identity of her “ex-boyfriend,” maintaining his own clout and becoming a famous internet celebrity in Daweichao.
By then, the Lin siblings were public figures, and every move they made drew attention. Moreover, because of his disability, Lin Zhe had grown wild at heart, and there was plenty of gossip about him and various actresses. The media dug deeper and deeper with growing excitement, until Lin Zhe finally capsized mid-wave and spiraled into darkness.
So in this life, Lin Zhe would absolutely never allow his sister to have anything to do with Liang Xu again. He just hadn’t expected things to fall so neatly into place today—with the lottery mishap and Mother Liang’s assist in pushing for reconciliation—the relationship between the two was severed cleanly and decisively.
The Liang mother and son were shrewd. With a paralyzed deadweight of a little brother like Lin Zhe in tow, it wouldn’t matter even if Lin Xi were as beautiful as a fairy.
“Done eating? Then let’s go!”
Seeing her brother brazenly own up to it, Lin Xi wasn’t all that angry. She quietly paid the bill and pushed Lin Zhe out the door.
Lin Xi found an inn and showed the owner both their household registration booklets and ID cards before, under the owner’s odd looks, renting a single room.
Lin Xi helped Lin Zhe into the bed, then laid out the bedsheet she’d brought and slept on the floor.
Just before falling asleep, Lin Xi suddenly said, “Your sister has her pride too. Anyone who looks down on us siblings, I look down on them right back. What you did today was right—don’t feel guilty.”
Lin Zhe stared at the ceiling, the corner of his mouth curling into a crooked smile. “Of course. Sis, you’re destined to be a goddess no one can ever hope to reach. Your little brother supports you.”
“Tch, what a boast!”
“Sis, I’m not lying!”
“Right, you’d rather lie to ghosts!”
“Hss—you guessed that too… Truly terrifying…”
……….
The next day, Lin Xi took Lin Zhe to Mocheng’s Sixth Hospital, where they met another person Lin Zhe remembered vividly—Pu Ruosong, the most popular young doctor in the psychiatric department.
Almost as handsome as Lin Zhe himself, a graduate of a prestigious university, with a cold, aloof air, unmoved by the advances of countless female doctors and nurses—one of the acknowledged heartthrobs of the Sixth Hospital.
Pu Ruosong read through the stack of test results again and again, his brow furrowed tightly for a long time without relaxing.
“Although we’re not sure what the cause is, Miss Lin, your brother… is developing in the direction of a full recovery. So I don’t think there’s any need for another surgery.”
“Dr. Pu, is it really not necessary? You don’t need to worry about the cost of the surgery—we can afford it.”
“Really, there’s no need. If you’re still worried… leave me a contact number, and I can provide regular consultations by phone. After all, your brother has difficulty getting around right now, so coming here each time would be quite hard.”
Dr. Pu took out paper and pen and handed them to Lin Xi, unaware that his own face had turned somewhat red.
Lin Xi hesitated. A woman’s intuition told her that Pu Ruosong had feelings for her, but in the she still left her phone number, and Pu Ruosong walked the two of them to the door.
“Miss Lin, please don’t misunderstand. I won’t disturb your life. I only want to offer some help to someone as strong as you…”
“Thank you!”
Lin Xi nodded and pushed Lin Zhe away. Her mind was entirely on her brother now, and she didn’t notice Pu Ruosong’s anxiety and inner turmoil at all.