Leaving Home, Your Life Is Yours to Decide
The first thing Lin Jin needed to do was confirm whether the events in his dream were real.
He picked up his phone from the bedside table and saw that he’d slept for more than two hours. It was already dinnertime.
But food could wait. He opened Weibo and scrolled through Lin Group’s official account, post by post. In the dream, he’d learned that the announcement of his engagement had been posted there.
It didn’t take long to find the post congratulating him on his engagement. The one before it celebrated a partnership between Lin Group and Guangke. Less than an hour separated the two.
Lin Jin stared silently at his phone for more than ten seconds, then searched Guangke’s official account. Sure enough, he found two similar posts from around the same time that day. Guangke had even included photos of the contract signing, with Huo Jianting signing on behalf of Guangke.
Next, Lin Jin checked his contacts and WeChat and found Huo Jianting there too. But in the month since their engagement, they hadn’t spoken once on the phone, and their chat history contained only a few brief messages. Those messages were from last week, when Lin Jin had invited Huo Jianting over for dinner, only for Huo Jianting and Lin You to fall in love at first sight.
Lin Jin narrowed his eyes slightly. His memories had always felt continuous, yet the only part that seemed to be missing was anything to do with Huo Jianting.
Regardless, now that he’d confirmed his situation matched the story, he wasn’t about to keep making the same brainless decisions as the character in the book.
Cling to the engagement? Fight for control of Lin Group?
Hah.
There was no way Lin Jin was going to waste his life on such tedious nonsense.
He wanted nothing to do with any of them.
Lin Jin tossed his phone aside, got out of bed, changed, and washed his face. Then he opened the bedroom door and headed downstairs to the dining room.
*
As soon as Lin Jin reached the first floor, he heard laughter coming from the dining room.
He paid it no mind, walking into the dining room to the sound of their laughter. Calm and unhurried, he passed the family of three chatting together and took his usual seat, his expression unchanged.
His soft-soled slippers made almost no sound against the floor. He’d appeared so suddenly and moved so casually that Father Lin, Mother Lin, and Lin You didn’t notice him until he was seated.
The dining room fell instantly silent, as if someone had hit pause. The warm, happy atmosphere froze, and every voice stopped at once.
The housekeeper waiting nearby was the first to react. She quickly brought Lin Jin a bowl of soup, then went back to the kitchen and brought him a bowl of rice and two dishes that had been set aside for him.
Looking at the two dishes in front of him, Lin Jin suddenly realized that even his tastes were quite different from those of the affectionate little family.
He glanced at his parents and younger brother, who had fallen quiet, and saw the complicated looks on their faces. Lin You especially couldn’t hide his reaction. He was too young to keep his composure, and the smile he’d been wearing had frozen on his face.
After the dream he’d just had, Lin Jin couldn’t even be bothered to keep up appearances. He ignored them, lowered his gaze, picked up his spoon, and drank his soup at an unhurried pace.
Father Lin and Mother Lin soon collected themselves and resumed eating.
In the end, Lin You was the one who couldn’t take the strange atmosphere any longer. Seated across from Lin Jin, he couldn’t pretend not to see him as calmly as Lin Jin did. After a couple of bites, he forced a smile and said, “Brother, I went to look for you before dinner, but you were sleeping so soundly that I didn’t wake you. Have you been busy lately? You should take care of yourself and not work too hard.”
Lin Jin lifted his bowl, ready to drink the last of his soup. Hearing that, his lips, hidden behind the bowl, curved into a faintly mocking smile. He was probably the only person in the family who remembered that it was the first anniversary of his grandfather’s death.
The thought killed his appetite. He didn’t want to stay here another moment, either. He set down his bowl, took a tissue, and wiped his mouth. Then he used Lin You’s remark to bring up, ahead of schedule, the matter he’d originally planned to mention after dinner.
“Yes, I think I’ve been working too hard, too. So I’ve decided to resign from my position at Lin Group. I’ll send my resignation letter by email later. I hope you’ll approve it promptly, Father.”
Lin Jin was so calm, as if he were just making idle conversation, that it took the other three several seconds to understand what he meant.
Lin You stared at him, dumbfounded, unable to think of a response.
Father Lin fared a little better. He managed to keep his expression under control, but the delight in his voice was impossible to hide. “You’re serious?!”
Mother Lin didn’t say a word, but the subtle changes in her expression showed that she was more pleased than surprised.
Lin Jin took in all three of their expressions and gave a cold laugh inwardly.
He showed none of it. Rising calmly to his feet, he lowered his eyes and said in an even tone, “In six months, I’ll sell all the Lin Group shares I hold. If you want to buy them, Father, you can start raising the money now.”
With that, Lin Jin didn’t wait for their reaction. He turned and walked out of the dining room.
He went straight upstairs to his bedroom. He couldn’t even be bothered to pack properly. He grabbed a bag and stuffed his laptop and tablet into it, checked that his phone was in his pocket, then went downstairs and headed for the front door.
As he passed the dining room, he could just make out the three of them discussing the stock price. Not one of them noticed him walking past outside.
In the entryway, Lin Jin kicked off his soft-soled slippers and changed into his leather shoes. He opened the front door and, with a dull thud as it closed behind him, headed for the garage.
*
It was rush hour. No matter how expensive the car, once it hit the road it could only crawl along, moving for a stretch before getting stuck again. On top of that, a steady drizzle was making the traffic even worse.
Lin Jin drove along with the flow, stopping and starting. Away from the home where nobody cared about him, the irritation that had flared up earlier gradually faded in the cool scent of spring rain. He reached out and turned on the car stereo. A classic song from the last century filled the car.
It was a song Old Master Lin had loved listening to while he was alive. Lin Jin had listened to it the whole way back from the cemetery that day, and now he tapped the steering wheel to its rhythm.
By now, Lin Jin had completely calmed down. He just felt that his grandfather had deserved better.
Old Master Lin had raised Lin Jin from childhood, so naturally Lin Jin had been closest to him.
When he was young, Old Master Lin had seized the opportunities of his time and built Lin Group from nothing. But starting a business in those days had been hard. He’d devoted himself entirely to work and inevitably neglected his wife and children. Grandma Lin had never complained. She took care of everything at home and supported him quietly from behind the scenes.
But Grandma Lin’s outlook had been limited by the times. And as Old Master Lin’s business gradually took off and the family grew wealthier, she became even less willing to let her son endure hardship. As a result, Father Lin grew up spoiled, afraid of hardship and fatigue, and unwilling to strive.
Grandma Lin was unlucky. They’d enjoyed less than ten years of good times before a sudden illness took her. Without his wife, Old Master Lin finally realized that his son wasn’t much good. But Father Lin was already an adult by then, and changing his character was next to impossible. Fortunately, universities were expanding their enrollment at the time. Old Master Lin managed to get Father Lin into a school, figuring he could teach him everything himself once Father Lin graduated.
Father Lin and Mother Lin met at university. They fell in love quickly and, unable to keep their hands off each other, ended up having a child before they were married. In those days, it was a serious matter, but not exactly unheard of. Still, it wasn’t the sort of thing people wanted to hear about.
After the two families sat down and discussed it, they arranged a wedding banquet for Father Lin and Mother Lin. The couple would register their marriage once they were old enough, and Mother Lin would take a year off from school to have the baby at home. But Father Lin didn’t hold up during that year apart. He started getting involved with someone else at school.
Mother Lin had a difficult labor when she gave birth. She’d already grown somewhat resentful of the child, and when she later found out Father Lin had a new love interest, she blamed the baby for coming along at all. Before her month of postpartum rest was even over, she ran back to school to keep an eye on her husband.
The child belonged to the Lin family, but Mother Lin’s family refused to raise him, so they sent him to Old Master Lin. With no other choice, and uneasy about leaving everything to the housekeeper, Old Master Lin had to raise the child himself.
That child was Lin Jin.
Lin Jin had always been quiet, never crying or fussing, and never clinging to anyone. He was easy to raise. The more time Old Master Lin spent with his grandson, the more attached he grew. He also realized that the boy was exceptionally clever and quick to learn, so he decided to groom him as his successor.
Lin Jin lived up to his grandfather’s hopes. With Old Master Lin’s full support and guidance, he grew quickly, starting his own business while still at university and achieving impressive results.
After graduating, Lin Jin had originally planned to keep building his own company. But by then Old Master Lin was getting on in years. The excessive strain of his youth had taken its toll, and he was no longer able to handle the work. Father Lin was too mediocre to shoulder the responsibility, and Lin Jin couldn’t bear to watch his grandfather worry about everything, so he joined Lin Group instead.
At the time, Father Lin was president of Lin Group, but Old Master Lin was always above him. Later, Lin Jin had his grandfather’s full support as well, leaving Father Lin little more than a rubber stamp and a figurehead. Besides, Father Lin had never been close to Old Master Lin and had rarely even gone home to stay.
After Father Lin and Mother Lin reconciled, they moved away to enjoy their life as a couple. They never brought Lin Jin to live with them and barely visited him a few times a year. After Lin You was born, Mother Lin came up with the excuse that living near the school would make it easier to be there for her son. From the time Lin You started kindergarten, the family of three moved whenever he changed schools.
If Old Master Lin’s health hadn’t visibly deteriorated over the past few years, Father Lin would never have moved back to curry favor with him. He was afraid his father would leave everything to Lin Jin. Even so, Mother Lin and Lin You still lived mostly in an apartment near Lin You’s university, coming back here for only a day or two on weekends.
Old Master Lin had felt guilty toward Father Lin, too. After all, he’d neglected his family in those days and failed to raise his son properly. Before he died, he left most of his estate and 30% of Lin Group’s shares to Father Lin. But he also left Lin Jin 15% of the shares, to ensure he would have a say in the company.
That meant Lin Jin and Father Lin had to stand together to overrule the other voices at Lin Group. From Old Master Lin’s perspective, there was no need to worry. They were father and son, after all, and their interests should naturally align. Father Lin, however, saw things very differently.
With the mountain that had always loomed over him finally gone, Father Lin had spent the past year thinking mostly about how to weaken Lin Jin’s influence and take control of the company himself. Now Lin Jin had suddenly resigned and announced he would sell his shares. To Father Lin, it was as if a golden pie had fallen from the sky.
Thinking of this, Lin Jin couldn’t help giving a quiet, scornful laugh. Lin Group had grown out of that era, and so many problems had accumulated over the years that the company was now too unwieldy to fix. He hadn’t wanted to be tied down there in the first place. Now he’d tossed out that golden pie. He’d just have to see whether the family of three could catch it, or whether it would crush their hands.
*
The rain kept falling. It took nearly an hour before Lin Jin finally reached the area near the house he’d bought to stay in occasionally.
Seeing a huge line of unmoving headlights on the main road ahead, Lin Jin took advantage of his familiarity with the area, turned the wheel, and headed down a side street.
He drove through several alleys. Just after he turned onto a quiet road with little traffic, a small black shape suddenly darted down from a tree beside him.
Lin Jin hit the brakes instinctively. Fortunately, he’d been driving slowly, and there was no car behind him, so he came to a complete stop at once.
The little black shape bounced off the ground and landed lightly on the hood. Only then did Lin Jin see that it was a calico kitten, its fluffed-up fur already dotted with raindrops.
Lin Jin frowned slightly and opened the car door.
He’d meant to shoo the kitten away. But perhaps because he’d thought about his grandfather so many times that day, the sight of the kitten staring up at him with wide, wary eyes unexpectedly brought back something his grandfather had often said with a smile: “You really are like a cat.”
Lin Jin’s outstretched hand stopped in midair without him realizing it.
The kitten was strange, too. It had been arching its back and baring its teeth, but when Lin Jin’s hand stopped, it slowly let its fur settle and tilted its head with a meow. Then it pushed off with its hind legs and leaped into Lin Jin’s arms.
Lin Jin froze, then quickly caught it. The moment he felt the tiny raindrops on its fur, he stopped thinking and pulled open his coat, wrapping the kitten inside.
Just then, a boy of about sixteen or seventeen came running up and stopped in front of Lin Jin. He clasped his hands together and apologized in a rush. “I’m so sorry, sir! My cat caused you trouble!”
Lin Jin looked closely and saw tiny raindrops in the boy’s hair, too. He must have run after the kitten in the rain.
“Is it yours?”
“Yes, yes. I brought it in for a shot today. The pet clinic is just up ahead.” The boy scratched his head, looking thoroughly embarrassed. “It had a bit of a reaction to the medicine and got so restless that it wouldn’t get into its carrier. I tried to just pick it up and put it in the car, but I let my guard down for a second and it ran off.”
There was indeed a fairly large pet clinic up ahead. Lin Jin let some of his wariness go, but said nothing, simply holding the kitten. It poked its head out of his coat, rubbed against his shirt, and gave a soft meow.
Seeing that Lin Jin didn’t respond, the boy grew even more awkward. He reached out toward the kitten and coaxed it, “Mimi, come home with me, okay?”
The kitten looked at him. It seemed to recognize its owner, because it wriggled out of Lin Jin’s arms, pushed off with its hind legs, and leaped toward the boy.
The boy caught it and let out a quiet breath. He wrapped it in his coat, rubbed its head, and complained in a low voice, “You naughty little thing! Now your fur’s all wet. Don’t hide when I get the hair dryer out.”
Seeing how affectionate the kitten was with the boy, Lin Jin didn’t ask anything else. He simply said, “Keep a closer eye on it next time. It’s dangerous.”
The boy nodded quickly. “I will, I promise. It won’t happen again!”
Lin Jin glanced at the kitten and reminded him, “It just had a shot, so don’t bathe it for the next few days. Get it home quickly before it catches a chill.”
The boy smiled shyly, bent at the waist to give Lin Jin a small bow, then turned and ran off with the kitten in his arms.
Lin Jin watched him run to the pet clinic a short distance ahead and climb into a large SUV. Only then did he reach up and ruffle his slightly damp hair, get back into his car, and continue driving home.
Inside the SUV, the boy was wiping the kitten’s fur with a towel, chattering away. “Uncle, are you really going to keep Mimi? Mimi’s so naughty. I don’t think you’ll put up with it for more than a few days. If you really can’t handle it, you have to bring it back to me. Don’t just abandon it or give it away.”
The tall man sitting beside him was fiddling with the camera in his hands, responding now and then.
After drying the kitten, the boy wrapped it in another towel. When he turned around, he found the man still staring at the camera, with no sign that he was about to start driving. Curious, he leaned over to take a look. The camera screen showed the young man he’d just met.
The image showed the young man in profile, his head lowered as he looked at the kitten in his arms, which was gazing up at him. The streetlights and headlights cast a hazy, warm glow over the two of them. A glint of light reflected off the raindrops on the tips of the young man’s hair and the kitten’s fur, lending the image a lively quality.
“Wow! Uncle, you took a picture of him without asking!” The boy looked up at the man with a mischievous grin. “But it came out really well. You managed to catch that moment in such dim light.”
The man calmly switched off the camera and put it in his bag. “I was keeping an eye on your cat.”
The boy didn’t believe him for a second. “Mimi climbed a tree. How were you supposed to keep an eye on it? Good thing there weren’t many cars on that road. It could’ve been really dangerous.”
Then he suddenly let out an “Ah!” and continued regretfully, “That gentleman got out of his car because of Mimi, and his clothes got wet. I should’ve offered to pay his dry-cleaning bill.”
As the man started the car and drove off, he said leisurely, “You can make it up to him next time you see him.”
“Hm?” The boy tilted his head. “Do you think we’ll run into him again? Or do you know him?”
The man’s lips curved into a smile. “I don’t know him. But we’ll definitely meet again.”
◇◆
They say fluffy things have a way of soothing the soul. After the encounter with the kitten, Lin Jin found that his mood had somehow settled completely.
He got a good night’s rest. The next day, he called the housekeeper to make sure no one else was at the Lin residence before going back to collect his things. He didn’t want to run into the family of three and have his mood spoiled again.
Lin Jin had just finished packing what he needed when he heard footsteps pass outside. It sounded like Lin You.
He stood up and turned the doorknob. He’d barely opened the door a crack when a figure darted past, followed by another flurry of hurried footsteps.
Lin Jin opened the door wider and looked out. All he saw was Lin You’s back as he hurried downstairs. Lin You was wearing a baseball cap, with hair reaching his shoulders peeking out from underneath. It was obviously a wig.
The disguise stirred a memory. From the information about the original novel that he’d learned in his dream, Lin Jin recalled that Lin You liked to dress up this way when meeting Huo Jianting in secret.
Lin Jin narrowed his eyes and thought it over. The novel had gone into detail about this date. And after it, Huo Jianting would come clean to Lin Jin and demand that they break off their engagement.
Good. It seemed he could cut ties with all of them for good today.
Lin Jin took out his phone and called his special assistant.
“Shu Ling, do I have anything urgent today? … Good. If it can wait, put it off for now. Go change into some casual clothes… Then use those skills you showed when you helped your best friend catch her cheating partner, and help me catch one too.”