The smell of vegetable soup and toasted bread greeted them downstairs.
The Lin family dining room looked like something taken from a magazine about perfect families: a long polished dark-wood table, a spotless white tablecloth without a single crease, silver utensils arranged with precision, and a vase of fresh flowers placed in the center.
Morning sunlight streamed through the large windows, making the entire room feel warm.
Unfortunately, the warmth belonged only to the decorations.
The people seated around the table were far less harmonious.
Lady Su was already sitting at the head of the table.
She wore a soft pastel dress with a pearl necklace that felt far too extravagant for an ordinary breakfast.
Her hair was styled flawlessly, and her smile looked so practiced it was difficult to tell where it ended and the mask began.
“Qingyu,” she said warmly.
“So you’re already able to come downstairs by yourself.”
Lin Xue, sitting nearby, casually spread jam over her toast before adding lightly, “Yeah.
You look more alive than usual.”
Her smile was sweet, but the mockery beneath it remained unmistakable.
Qingyu sat down without saying much.
She was already used to words that sounded like compliments while hiding thorns beneath them.
In her previous life, Ning Zhen had met many people like this as well.
They smiled while slowly sliding in the knife.
Because of that, she was not offended.
Qingyu simply continued eating.
A servant immediately stepped forward to fill her bowl with warm soup.
The aroma of carrots, potatoes, and chicken broth rose slowly with the steam.
Auntie Yue stood slightly behind the others, quietly observing the table without drawing attention to herself.
“How did you sleep?” Lady Su asked while lifting her teacup.
Her expression looked gentle on the surface.
But Qingyu found no concern there.
“Better,” Qingyu replied softly.
She picked up her spoon before adding in a casual tone, as though speaking without any particular meaning behind it,
“The bed felt… warmer.”
Her gaze briefly lowered toward her own hands.
Compared to the storage room.
The atmosphere froze for the briefest second.
Lin Xue nearly choked on her water.
The servant pouring milk into a glass paused momentarily before hurriedly continuing as though nothing had been heard.
Auntie Yue lowered her head even further.
Lady Su laughed lightly too quickly.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked while maintaining her smile.
“If other people heard you, they might misunderstand.”
She turned slightly toward the servants.
“Qingyu tends to exaggerate when she’s sick.
Don’t take her words too seriously.”
Several of them gave small nods while pretending to remain busy.
Qingyu scooped another spoonful of soup.
She added nothing further.
Instead, she let the earlier sentence linger in the air, allowing everyone at the table to form their own conclusions.
Sometimes, words left unexplained were the hardest to erase from a person’s mind.
Her gaze moved briefly around the room.
The servant who had helped move her into the storage room that night was nowhere to be seen today.
Interesting.
Lady Su truly was cautious.
The television in the sitting room was still on, its sound faintly reaching the dining room.
“…another poisoning victim has been discovered, this time in the southern district.
Hospitals have yet to identify the type of poison found in the victim’s body…”
Click.
The television immediately fell silent.
“So noisy,” Lady Su murmured as she placed the remote on the side table.
“Morning news is always too dramatic.”
Qingyu swallowed a spoonful of soup before asking lightly,
“Dramatic because it involves poison, Mother?”
The spoon in Lin Xue’s hand stopped midair.
Lady Su turned toward her.
The room grew quieter
The Qingyu they knew was usually too quiet to start conversations herself.
Lady Su looked at her for slightly too long before answering.
“Poison and other unpleasant news simply aren’t suitable topics for the morning.”
She smiled faintly.
“It seems you’ve become interested in depressing stories?”
“No,” Qingyu answered calmly.
“I’ve simply started thinking.”
“Oh?”
Lady Su’s tone shifted slightly.
“About what?”
Qingyu lifted her gaze.
“It seems the medicine I’ve been taking all this time wasn’t very suitable for me.”
The room fell silent again.
“Poison and medicine are very similar,” she continued while scooping another spoonful of soup.
“Sometimes the only difference is dosage… and the intentions of the person giving it.”
Lady Su’s gaze sharpened immediately.
“I’ve become interested in learning medicine and herbal studies.”
Lin Xue glanced quickly toward her mother.
For the first time, the girl genuinely looked unsure how she was supposed to react.
Lady Su slowly lowered her teacup onto the table.
“Since when did you come to that conclusion?” she asked.
Her voice remained soft.
But something beneath it had become sharper now.
“Since my health suddenly worsened,” Qingyu replied lightly.
“And I almost died.”
This time, Lin Xue truly lost the ability to speak.
One of the servants nearly dropped a spoon.
Auntie Yue lowered her head even further, as though trying to hide her own expression.
Lady Su tightened her grip slightly around the teacup.
Her thoughts moved rapidly.
Since when had this child changed?
Had Qingyu merely been pretending to be weak all this time?
Impossible.
The night before, the girl had genuinely looked like she was dying.
Her body had been cold, her breathing weak, and her eyes barely able to remain open.
Lady Su herself had checked.
And the tea…
No…
There was no way Qingyu could know anything.
“You’re too sensitive, Qingyu,” she said at last.
Yet even she could hear that the sentence lacked its usual confidence.
She was beginning to realize something deeply unsettling.
For the first time, Lady Su could no longer predict where the conversation was heading.
Nothing Qingyu said openly attacked anyone, yet somehow her words caused other people to start thinking.
Lady Su quickly changed the subject.
“Since your father is coming home soon,” she said while looking sharply at Qingyu, “make sure your face doesn’t look like a ghost.”
Then she turned toward Lin Xue.
“Xue’er, take her to the salon later.
Have them tidy up her hair.”
“That’s such a wast—”
Lin Xue immediately stopped when she received a look from her mother.
“…fine,” she muttered with a lazy shrug.
“As long as she doesn’t embarrass me outside.”
Qingyu remained silent for several moments.
A salon?
Appearance had never been something Lin Qingyu cared about before.
When her hair became too long, she cut it herself, sometimes with Auntie Yue’s help.
But now, Qingyu understood something.
In this world, appearance carried its own kind of power.
The way a person dressed, walked, and carried themselves could determine how the world treated them.
A sickly appearance would become another kind of weakness.
“I’ll go,” Qingyu finally said.
“Thank you for the suggestion, Mother.”
The gratitude sounded sincere.
And because of that, Lady Su felt even more uneasy.
She could no longer tell whether Qingyu was being obedient… or playing some deeper game.
After breakfast ended, the servants began clearing the table.
Not long afterward, Lady Su’s phone rang.
The moment she saw the name on the screen, her movements became noticeably gentler.
Lady Su stood and walked toward the living room while answering the call in a sweet voice entirely different from the one she had used only minutes ago.
“How are you, Husband?
We’re all doing well.”
Lin Xue immediately returned to her phone.
Qingyu silently observed everything.
“…Qingyu?
Ah, her condition was fairly serious two days ago,” Lady Su continued while briefly glancing at Qingyu.
“But she’s much better this morning.”
A few seconds later, she called gently,
“Qingyu, your father wants to speak with you.”
Qingyu rose from her chair and walked over.
When she accepted the phone, Lin Qingyu’s memories instinctively helped her understand how to use this world’s communication devices.
She raised it to her ear.
“Hello, Father…”
The man’s voice on the other side sounded deep and somewhat stiff.
“Qingyu… how are you feeling today?”
Qingyu fell silent briefly before replying,
“I’m fine, Father… for today.”
Lady Su, standing not far away, stiffened slightly.
But on the other end of the call, Qingyu’s father suddenly felt an uncomfortable heaviness settle in his chest.
For today…
It was just a simple phrase, yet somehow, it made him realize that perhaps his daughter had never truly been fine all this time.
“I’ll return the day after tomorrow,” he said after several seconds of silence.
“I’ll see you then.”
“Alright, Father.”
The call ended.
Qingyu handed the phone back to Lady Su.
The woman looked at her for several seconds longer than usual before finally smiling faintly.
“I have an event to attend today.
Stay home.”
“Mom, I won’t be back until tonight!” Lin Xue quickly added from the sofa.
Lady Su paused halfway up the stairs and turned around.
She looked at Lin Xue with unmistakable affection.
“Alright, dear.
Be careful outside.”
Lin Xue smiled with satisfaction before returning to her phone.
In the past, scenes like this had always left a painful ache in Lin Qingyu’s heart.
A mother’s concern, warmth, and affection were displayed so openly before her eyes, yet never once directed toward her.
But Qingyu no longer felt that same wound.
Now, she only saw the pattern.
Lady Su truly loved Lin Xue.
And someone who genuinely loved their child would do anything to protect their position.
Even removing threats.
Today, the house would be quieter.
It was a perfect time to observe this place more freely.
Qingyu’s father’s return would become her first opportunity to measure how far she could reach into the Lin family’s business world…
Without allowing Lady Su to close that path before it even opened.
Qingyu walked toward the dining room window.
Her reflection in the glass appeared faint, matching her current state: a body still far from strong.
She was still weak.
Far weaker than she had once been.
But one thing had already changed.
She now occupied a seat at a table that once could not even acknowledge her existence.
And now, that table was beginning to realize something was different.