Lin Shiyao looked up and saw rows of buildings about seven or eight stories high in front of her. They weren’t the old corridor-style apartments but more like small Western-style residential buildings. The surroundings looked nice too, with various trees planted downstairs. Their home was on the third floor of the building in front.
Lin Shiyao immediately breathed a sigh of relief—thank goodness it was only the third floor. In this era without elevators, climbing stairs would be a disaster for someone who preferred lying down over sitting whenever possible. After Mother Lin opened the door, her younger brother Lin Zhengbin dashed inside and didn’t forget to call out, “Sis, come in quickly!”
After entering, she looked around at the layout of the house. It wasn’t large, just three bedrooms and one living room. Then Mother Lin said, “Go rest in your room first. Mom has to go back to work. I’ll cook when I come home.”
“Okay, Mom, don’t worry about me. Go to work.”
“Alright, come on, Mom will help you in.”
“Mom, it’s fine, I can do it myself,” but Mother Lin insisted on supporting her into the room.
“Mom’s going to work now. If anything happens, ask your brother to help you.”
“Okay…”
After Mother Lin left, Lin Shiyao carefully examined the room she would live in from now on. It wasn’t big, simple but cozy. The furniture consisted of a 1.5-meter bed, a desk, and a wardrobe, with small miscellaneous items scattered in the corner.
She walked to the desk. On it were the original owner’s middle and high school textbooks, an enamel mug printed with “Serve the People,” and a mirror placed face down on the tabletop.
Lin Shiyao suddenly realized she hadn’t seen what she looked like now. She picked up the mirror and looked—wow, where did this beauty come from? Watery bright eyes that looked affectionate at a glance, a high nose bridge, and slightly upturned smiling lips—about eighty percent similar to her original appearance. Only now she looked a bit pale from the drowning incident.
Her brother had gone somewhere again, so she planned to sleep for a while. Ever since waking up in the hospital, her tense nerves finally relaxed.
Half asleep, she suddenly heard a faint “zzz” electric sound in her mind. Groggy, she only heard “please confirm,” waved her hand randomly, and fell asleep again.
What Lin Shiyao didn’t know was what kind of surprise would be waiting for her when she woke up.
After an unknown amount of time, rustling sounds came from the doorway, and she slowly woke up. Opening the door, she saw her brother fiddling with something.
“What are you doing?”
“Sis, you’re awake!” Lin Zhengbin said happily while tinkering with the thing in his hands.
“What is that?”
“Sis, I just went to avenge you with Erpang.” Lin Zhengbin was already thinking about how to mess with Wang Jiajia again next time. Today was only the beginning—hmph, hurting his sister meant paying the price.
He then enthusiastically recounted how he and several kids from the compound had gone to avenge her. Erpang was the grandson of the Zhang family living downstairs, and the children in the courtyard usually recognized Lin Zhengbin as their “boss”—this kid had a lot of cunning ideas.
It turned out they took marbles to the Wang house and shattered their window glass, then filled a few urine bags and threw them inside. Of course, the kids knew to avoid being seen.
Wang Jiajia lived just across the street from them, but the living environment there wasn’t as good as the family compound. It was a corridor-style building, small in size. The Wang family had two sons, and all the good things naturally went to the boys, so Wang Jiajia lived in a tiny partitioned space on the living room balcony.
Pitiable people must have hateful aspects—their family was like a fly, taking advantage wherever they could. Everyone around knew their character and kept their distance, afraid of being bothered by them.