Fu Yansheng finished reviewing the documents in his hand and looked up just in time to see Lin Zhao gently pushing the door open, peeking his head inside to look around.
Thinking that the sound of him opening the door might have disturbed Fu Yansheng, Lin Zhao was just about to speak and apologize when he noticed Fu Yansheng’s expression soften into a gentle look before he chuckled softly: “Why are you standing outside instead of coming in?”
“I was afraid I’d disturb Brother Fu’s work.” Lin Zhao gave a bright, cheerful grin. After pushing the door open and stepping inside, he obediently pulled the door shut behind him, then stood completely still as he gazed intently at Fu Yansheng.
Standing there with his eyes shining brightly, he looked as though he were silently asking Fu Yansheng if there were any tasks he needed to take care of.
Fu Yansheng set down his fountain pen, tilting his head slightly as he looked at Lin Zhao, who was standing straight and proper. Though he found it utterly amusing in his heart, his expression remained completely unperturbed.
Outside the door, the chief assistant’s lowered voice could be heard asking Fu Yansheng whether it was time to head to the conference room.
“I’m going to a meeting. You can hang out in the office for a bit; if you need anything, just tell someone from the assistant office to handle it.”
Standing up, Fu Yansheng smoothed out the slight creases on his suit jacket and looked over at Lin Zhao.
Hearing this, Lin Zhao nodded obediently.
He watched as Fu Yansheng left the office with his usual cool and composed demeanor.
Confirming that he truly had no work assigned to him, Lin Zhao finally settled onto the sofa, pulled out his phone, and started scrolling through Weibo.
The news regarding the Lin family was still hanging high up on the trending searches. Lin Zhao glanced through a few of the top-rated comments, all of which were filled with speculation directed at him.
Some even claimed that his departure right now was merely a strategic retreat to play hard-to-get, forcing the Lin family to beg him to stay.
After all, as long as Lin Zhao remained with the Lin family given how much affection they had historically shown him he was bound to receive a substantial share of the family assets.
Furthermore, the current head of the Lin family’s company, Lin Rong, was notorious for being an extreme younger-brother-con.
Consequently, nobody believed that Lin Zhao would genuinely be willing to abandon everything belonging to the Lin family.
Lin Zhao couldn’t help thinking to himself that if others found out he truly had no intention of taking a single thing from the Lin family, they would probably curse him out as an utter fool.
Although the Lin family only ranked in the middle-lower tier among wealthy aristocratic families, they still possessed wealth that ordinary households could not earn in several hundred years.
Still, since there were plenty of people already calling him a fool anyway, Lin Zhao didn’t care to dwell on it.
Lying face down across the sofa, Lin Zhao felt utterly languid with a completely blank mind.
Even when his phone screen went dark, he didn’t pay it any mind, letting himself completely zone out.
With a vacant gaze and his chin propped against the sofa’s armrest, he lay sprawled out, his eyes devoid of any focal point.
“Young Master Lin, someone downstairs is looking for you. They say they’re from the Lin family.” The assistant who had been left behind in the office knocked lightly on the door before pushing it open to speak in a soft voice.
Although it wasn’t clear whether Lin Zhao had completely broken ties with the Lin family, on paper, Lin Zhao was still publicly recognized as a member of the Lin family for the time being.
Therefore, after mulling it over, the assistant decided it was best to inform Lin Zhao.
Hearing the voice, Lin Zhao turned his head toward the doorway, blinking his large, watery round eyes from his delicate little face as he stared obediently at the assistant.
For a split second, the assistant’s heart skipped a beat, and the tips of his ears instantly turned red.
He knew the Lin family’s young master was striking, and he often caught glimpses of him around, but this was the first time he had ever seen the young master looking quite like this.
Obedient and clean, with those eyes fixed squarely on someone, he made a person feel willing to pluck out their own heart and hand it straight to the young master.
“Ah? The Lin family?” Lin Zhao pondered for a moment. The only person who would come looking for him here was probably his older brother.
Yet he had explicitly told his brother yesterday not to come looking for him.
Why had he ended up showing up downstairs at the Fu Corporation building instead? He hadn’t even sent a text message beforehand.
Though confused, Lin Zhao still thanked the assistant (obediently).
Watching the assistant step out of the office, Lin Zhao slowly sat himself up. Catching his own reflection in the glass window, he grinned so brightly that his cute little canine teeth peeked out.
Satisfied that he was radiating sunshine and positive energy, Lin Zhao trotted over to catch the elevator.
Down in the lobby on the first floor, Lin Zhao searched around for a good while without spotting Lin Rong anywhere. He was just about to pull up WeChat to send Lin Rong a message
when someone suddenly tapped him on the shoulder.
Startled, Lin Zhao subconsciously spun around.
“Are you Lin Zhao?” The man withdrew his hand, his brow furrowing with an unpleasant expression.
Staring at the man, Lin Zhao froze in place. There was no mistaking it—the person before him shared a seven-tenths resemblance with Lin Rong, featuring fierce brows, tightly pressed lips, and an overall gloomy, shadowed aura.
With just a single glance, Lin Zhao instantly guessed the man’s identity.
The Lin family’s true young master.
Yet Lin Zhao had no idea what this person had come looking for him to discuss.
Looking blankly at him, Lin Zhao answered, “I am.”
“My name is Lin (Lin Xian) as in ‘a wild crane roaming free and leisurely. Let’s talk.” Without waiting for Lin Zhao’s reply, Lin Xian turned and walked straight toward the exit of the Fu Corporation building.
Left with no time to even offer a response, Lin Zhao watched Lin Xian stride away. Feeling rather at a loss, he nevertheless hurried along to catch up.
“How did you recognize me?” Lin Zhao asked out of curiosity. He couldn’t figure out how Lin Xian had picked him out instantly.
Since Lin Xian had never met him before, how was he able to recognize him at a single glance?
Hearing this, Lin Xian glanced sideways at the delicate, well-behaved youth with a refined, noble temperament walking beside him.
The boy probably didn’t even realize that the moment he stepped out into the lobby, he carried an air about him that completely set him apart from everyone else around.
It was the unmistakable aura of someone pampered and raised in luxury since childhood—carefree and entirely untouched by any worries or hardships—which naturally compelled people to cast their gaze upon him.
However, Lin Xian chose not to answer the question.
He led Lin Zhao to a nearby coffee shop. Since it was currently working hours, the place was virtually empty.
Lin Xian ordered a cup of coffee for himself, completely ignoring Lin Zhao.
Once the waiter had dropped off the coffee and walked away, Lin Xian finally spoke up.
“Eldest brother told me to be accommodating toward you, saying you would be the youngest younger brother in the family.”
Lin Xian’s tone was flat, sounding as though he were discussing someone else’s affairs entirely.
Lin Xian took a small sip of his coffee.
A bitter taste flooded his mouth. No matter how much coffee he drank, he could never get used to the flavor; it was just that working night shifts required coffee to keep him awake otherwise, dozing off would cost him a whole day’s wages so Lin Xian had gradually grown accustomed to the bitterness.
Life had not been kind to Lin Xian after he was swapped away. Back at home, whenever his adoptive father got drunk, he would take his anger out on Lin Xian as a punching bag. Combined with a weak-willed adoptive mother and the fact that Lin Xian wasn’t their biological child, they never bothered to invest any care or affection in him.
Shortages of food and clothing were a regular occurrence. Lin Xian scored exceptionally well on the college entrance examinations, but that couple, terrified that Lin Xian would leave for college out of town and grow too wild for them to keep a leash on, simply refused to give him tuition money and even secretly stole his scholarship funds.
Fortunately, Lin Xian was resilient; he worked hard to earn his own money, scraping together enough tuition for school over a single summer vacation, and spent the remainder of his university years relying on student loans and academic scholarships.
Compared to Lin Zhao, Lin Xian’s first twenty-three years could be described as utterly miserable.
Therefore, upon learning that he was not that couple’s biological child, Lin Xian had actually felt a wave of relief.
He was finally free from rotting away in that household; perhaps he might even have parents who truly loved him.
Yet Lin Xian never imagined that he would turn out to be a son of the affluent Lin family.
He shouldn’t have had to endure those twenty-three years of hardship in the first place.
At this thought, Lin Xian lifted his gaze to look at the refined, noble young master sitting across from him.
“I know the Lin family doesn’t like me, because I didn’t grow up to be the kind of person the Lin family hoped I would become.”
Hearing this, Lin Zhao felt his breath catch in his throat.
Looking at the man before him who shared seven-tenths of Lin Rong’s features, Lin Zhao knew with absolute certainty that he was the one who had usurped this person’s rightful place.
Nobody could truly remain completely devoid of hopeful delusions when it comes to their own biological parents.
There was always that quiet thought that upon returning home, parents would cherish them out of blood ties, and that they would be welcomed back as a recovered treasure of the household.
Yet all of those expectations could only hold true under the premise that the home didn’t already contain another treasured child.
“I won’t be returning to the Lin family; that place is your home,” Lin Zhao said with a heavy heart, the corners of his mouth twitching downward as his tone filled with apologetic remorse.
“Lin Xian, I’m sorry.”
“I enjoyed twenty-three years of things that never rightfully belonged to me, so you can rest assured, I will never steal your home or your future away from you.”
From Lin Zhao’s tone, Lin Xian couldn’t detect a shred of reluctance.
All he heard was genuine release. Raising his eyes to meet Lin Zhao’s, Lin Xian found a gaze as pure and clear as the heart of a deep forest shrouded behind distant mountain mists.
The youth’s soft, gentle features carried deep apology, utterly devoid of the reaction Lin Xian had anticipated that the moment he brought it up, Lin Zhao would stubbornly insist on clinging to the Lin household.
There was none of that whatsoever.
On the very first day Lin Xian returned, Lin Rong had told him that Lin Zhao was well-behaved, obedient, and sensible, that Lin Zhao would be the youngest brother in the family, and that Lin Xian would surely grow to adore Lin Zhao the moment they met.
Lin Xian had originally scoffed at Lin Rong’s words. He had painted Lin Zhao as a villain in his mind, assuming Lin Zhao’s departure was just a ploy to force the Lin family to actively track him down so he wouldn’t end up kicked out.
He assumed Lin Zhao would be reluctant to leave reluctant to part with everything the Lin family offered.
He never expected Lin Zhao to let go of it all so easily.
Although the Lin family was only a middle-lower tier aristocratic family, Lin Zhao had lived his entire life surrounded by such privilege, growing up so delicately handsome.
Once stripped of the Lin family’s protection, a pampered little young master would be like falling from the clouds straight down into the mortal dust.
Without haute couture clothing, comfortable surroundings, or even safety from the covetous eyes of others.
Did Lin Zhao truly not care about any of it?
Seeing that Lin Xian remained silent, Lin Zhao took out his phone and pulled up his WeChat QR code:
“I still have to get back to work. What happened was my fault toward you; if there’s ever anything you need help with, you can reach out to me directly.”
Lin Xian stared deeply at Lin Zhao, searching for any trace of pretense or hidden hypocrisy, but he found none whatsoever.
The resentment he had harbored toward Lin Zhao in his heart dissipated quite a bit.
While Lin Zhao was indeed the beneficiary of the swapped identities, Lin Zhao had been entirely innocent of the truth from start to finish.
Moreover, the moment Lin Zhao learned the truth, he had packed up and left the Lin family.
Lin Xian realized that his own displaced anger had been somewhat groundless.
Unlocking his phone, Lin Xian scanned Lin Zhao’s code and added him on WeChat.
“Lin Zhao.”
Meanwhile, elsewhere:*
“Lin Zhao, do you have any idea what you’re saying?” Lin Rong took a deep breath, flabbergasted that his sweet, obedient little brother’s first act of teenage rebellion was rearing its head over a matter like this.
Lin Rong still wanted to make one more attempt at persuasion: “After the recognition banquet, everything will be made public, Zhaozhao. I’ve told you before you will always be my younger brother.”
“Brother, if Lin Xian had grown up in the Lin family, he would be even more outstanding than me. You share blood ties with him; he will make the best brother for you, too.”
Lin Zhao’s voice dropped softly, carrying a persuasive sincerity.
“During my twenty-three years, I got to witness a world that didn’t belong to me, enjoy top-tier living conditions, and receive elite educational resources yet originally, all of those things belonged to Lin Xian.”
“Therefore, the recognition banquet is an absolute must.”
This was not just about the Lin family officially acknowledging Lin Xian.
Lin Xian would finally understand what Lin Zhao meant.
He would also understand that Lin Zhao had already made up his mind.
As for the Lin family, Lin Zhao was never going back.
“Zhaozhao, are you trying to completely cut ties with the Lin family?” The moment the thought crossed Lin Rong’s mind that the child he had raised since infancy wanted to sever ties with them, panic flared in his chest, turning his tone icy and revealing his burning anger.
Just as Lin Zhao stepped back inside his office, hearing these words made him freeze in his tracks, blinking in utter confusion.
“No, I’m not! I just think we need to make compensation to Lin Xian! When Lin Xian comes back to the Lin family, he’s bound to feel out of place, and if there isn’t even a proper recognition banquet, he’ll think you all don’t care about him, and he’ll be terribly hurt!”
What on earth did any of this have to do with cutting ties?!
A pair of wide, innocent eyes blinked in pure bafflement, entirely unable to trace the logical gymnastics of Lin Rong’s thought process.
He tried his best to explain his reasoning.
Yet Lin Rong remained utterly convinced in his own mind that Lin Zhao was plotting to sever ties with the family.
What an enormous pot of blame to be landed with!
Having just concluded his meeting, Fu Yansheng pushed open the door and stepped inside, arriving just in time to hear Lin Zhao frantically and hastily explaining to Lin Rong over the phone: I don’t want to become strangers who never cross paths again, big brother!
Listening to Lin Zhao’s flustered defense, Lin Rong curled the corner of his lips downward in an unconvinced smirk before replying that he didn’t believe a word of it.
Lin Zhao pouted, feeling as though Lin Rong was deliberately teasing him.
“Zhaozhao, what would you like for lunch?”
Walking up behind Lin Zhao, Fu Yansheng glanced down at the caller ID displayed on the screen: Lin Rong.
He then asked in a casual, unbothered tone.