Lin Hao checked his watch for the Nth time.
“Third Brother, what do we do? If that bitch doesn’t come back, how are we supposed to carry out tonight’s plan?”
Even Lin Chang, who loved playing the sensible and obedient child the most, looked pretty grim.
“What else can we do? We should have locked her in the house this morning.”
Lin Chang regretted it deeply!
“If this gets screwed up, we won’t get any benefits from Uncle Shen either.”
“Do you think she went on her own first?”
“Hey, why are you glaring at me?”
Lin Chang couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to this brainless, physically developed brother of his.
Lin Shuang had no idea which restaurant the banquet was being held at.
Besides, anyone could see that the wretched girl didn’t want to go. Otherwise, Sister Lanlan wouldn’t have asked the two of them to wait for Lin Shuang, ordering them to use force if necessary to drag her over no matter what.
It wasn’t just the twins who were waiting anxiously.
Qin Hongwen was equally desperate to find Lin Shuang, a towering rage burning in his heart.
He had been planning for eight years, yet the pawn he planted had just informed him that those items had been taken away.
At first glance, he thought someone else had claimed them by mistake.
But when he thought about Lin Shuang’s recent abnormal behavior, he became certain that Lin Shuang had taken them.
How unwilling he felt in his heart!
Qin Hongwen made up his mind that he had to claw them back from Lin Shuang’s hands.
All afternoon, Qin Hongwen remained locked inside his study.
To be precise, inside the secret room.
Qin Hongwen went through every box and every single corner of the house.
He was determined to dig up the other property deeds. With such a massive dowry, Lin Shuang must have hidden them in another residence.
However, the clues on his end were pitifully scarce.
Those two old fogies had left most of the property deeds to Lin Shuang.
No, he had to force the location of the dowry out of Lin Shuang.
What did a young girl need with so much dowry anyway?
Meanwhile, the target of everyone’s thoughts, Lin Shuang, was passing by a state-run restaurant.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted several familiar figures.
Lin Shuang stopped, squeezed the brakes, and planted her foot on the ground, looking relaxed enough to start cracking sunflower seeds right on the street.
“Oh? So it’s actually being held here?”
Shan Hanyu was accompanying Lin Lanlan to receive the guests.
Zhou Qingman was nowhere to be seen, though.
She usually doted on this daughter the most, yet at such a crucial moment… that didn’t make any sense!
Looking closer, not a single member of the Lin family had shown up.
Or perhaps they had gone up to the second floor.
However, seeing how Lin Lanlan kept glancing toward the intersection and watching her ugly expression that she could barely suppress, Lin Shuang guessed that not a single member of the Lin family had actually arrived.
How strange!
Didn’t they usually spoil Lin Lanlan the most?
Yet at such a critical moment, not one member of her maiden family was there to support her.
Tsk, tsk, tsk!
Lin Shuang admitted she was feeling a bit of gloating pleasure.
This scene was nothing to her, but for Lin Lanlan, it was quite humiliating.
If none of the Lin family members showed up tonight, it would be no exaggeration to say that the sky had fallen for Lin Lanlan.
Since her beloved family hadn’t even arrived, Lin Shuang, a poor little thing who was targeted all day long, certainly wouldn’t rush over to help her save face.
Even though her stomach was now growling with hunger.
Straightening her back, she pushed off with her foot and sped away, stopping again in front of another state-run restaurant a street away.
This was a three-story Western-style building. Years ago, her maternal grandfather had donated it; it was first used as a temporary hospital, and later, after the hospital was standardized, this place was renovated into a state-run restaurant.
Lin Shuang locked her bicycle and went inside.
By this time, the sky had already darkened, and there were only a few scattered customers in the first-floor lobby.
Restaurants at this hour usually closed early unless there was a reserved banquet.
Lin Shuang ordered a bowl of large bone soup noodles, wanting to taste whether it still had the touch of that old master chef.
Just as she found a seat and sat down, the other customers got up and left one after another.
Just as Lin Shuang was lamenting that she had essentially rented out the whole place, there was movement at the entrance.
Lin Shuang was facing the door to begin with, so she subconsciously looked up.
Then she saw a familiar person.
Calling him familiar was because his family had lingered in the original host’s mind like an obsession for far too long.
However, Lin Shuang herself was meeting this Mr. Shen—Shen Linfeng’s father, Shen Hongrun—for the very first time.
Judging from his facial features, both Shen Linfeng and Father Shen had auspicious phoenix eyes, high nose bridges, and deep-set eyes. Based on these similarities alone, no one would doubt their father-son relationship.
Not to mention that Shen Linfeng had been kept by Shen Hongrun’s side and taught by him since childhood. His manner of doing things was a direct legacy of Father Shen—for instance, smiling so gently even at a dog by the roadside that it stirred the romantic feelings of countless young girls.
With these two factors combined, it was easy to understand why no one suspected anything.
However, having stumbled upon the truth, when Lin Shuang compared the looks of the father and son again, she felt that nothing matched up at all.
Father Shen had a classic straight nose. From the bridge down to the tip, it was almost a straight line with a very small curvature; unless viewed from a certain side angle, it was hard to tell, as it was nearly 90 degrees perpendicular to the face.
Shen Linfeng, on the other hand, had a wavy nose. From the front, it looked like a tall, prominent nose bridge, but the original host had observed Shen Linfeng’s side profile: from the bridge to the tip, there were many irregular bumps forming a wavy line in the middle.
Furthermore, there were differences in their eyebrows, lips, and facial contours.
Besides, Shen Linfeng didn’t look like Shan Hanyu either.
Originally, Lin Shuang only believed about seventy to eighty percent of it, but now that she saw Father Shen bringing a pair of young man and woman along, she believed it one hundred percent.
For no other reason than the fact that those two young people resembled Father Shen far too much. Even if they were at most sixty to seventy percent similar, that kind of genetic and bloodline power was something no one who saw them could ever mistake.
If Shen Linfeng were to come over and stand with them right now, he would look completely like an outsider.
Lin Shuang’s eyelid twitched suddenly. She thought to herself: if even she could spot the issue, could an old fox like Father Shen fail to see it?
Yet Father Shen’s cultivation and protection of Shen Linfeng over all these years were genuine and substantial.
After all, pretending for a day or two was fine, but acting like a loving father for twenty years was not something just anyone could achieve.
While Lin Shuang was lost in thought, that young girl looked over. As their eyes met, Lin Shuang generously returned a smile by way of greeting.
The girl froze for a moment before nodding back at Lin Shuang.
Huh? She actually had good manners.
Father Shen was also accompanied by a woman who dressed simply and plainly, yet carried a scholarly aura about her.
Father Shen’s gaze remained glued to the woman the entire time, making their relationship self-evident.
Pulling out a chair for her, taking care of her food preferences, speaking with patience and gentleness…
Lin Shuang now had a clear picture: Father Shen wasn’t clean either!
Thinking of Shan Hanyu, it was fortunate that when she separated from Bo Jin earlier, she had revealed some information to him.
Having just experienced his nephew’s betrayal, Bo Jin would surely want to know whether Shen Linfeng was truly his biological nephew more than anyone else.
Once he found out he wasn’t, Shan Hanyu’s side would definitely not spare the person behind the scenes.
However, this required a process, and Lin Shuang couldn’t wait that long.
Finished with the large bowl of egg noodles in a few bites, Lin Shuang left the restaurant.
Before leaving, she took a glance at Father Shen and realized he hadn’t recognized her from start to finish.
Thinking about it, it was understandable.
When Lin Shuang was ten years old, she was abused and starved by her stepmother. When her eldest aunt came to see her, she was as thin as a stray dog on the street, which was why her eldest aunt went wild and threw a massive scene at the Lin family’s house.
Over the past eight years, Lin Shuang had been well-nourished by her eldest aunt’s family.
Besides, a girl changes fast as she grows into womanhood; anyone who didn’t see Lin Shuang regularly wouldn’t be able to recognize her at all.
Following her memory, Lin Shuang lay in wait at the entrance of an alley until she spotted a young boy dressed in rags.
“What… what are you doing here?”
Upon suddenly seeing Lin Shuang, the young boy instinctively took a step back.
Lin Shuang hooked her finger at him. “Do something for me, and I can give you ten yuan.”