Lin Xiyun pressed her lips tightly together, saying nothing. The corners of her mouth trembled as she struggled to hold something back.
Keep your mouth shut. That’s your mom. Don’t lose it.
Just then, the waitress calling for customers to pick up their food sounded like heavenly music.
Whether it saved Lin Xiyun or Liu Xia was hard to say.
The two of them went to the counter together and carried their food back. Each took one meat bun, while the remaining five were packed for Liu Xia to bring home.
“Remember to give one to my little niece.”
Five buns—one each for her parents, her eldest brother, her sister-in-law, and her four-year-old niece. She had planned it perfectly. As for her one-year-old nephew… he’d have to wait until next time.
Wrinkling her nose, Lin Xiyun deliberately reminded her mother. She was worried that her softhearted mom, influenced by certain people, might give away the bun that was meant for her niece.
Then again, remembering her sister-in-law’s formidable personality, she felt a little more at ease.
“I know.”
Liu Xia lowered her head and bit into the juicy meat bun, her eyes flickering slightly.
Lin Xiyun only ate a few bites of the braised pork. It was simply too greasy for her taste—she didn’t like fatty meat—so she transferred all the fatty pieces into her mother’s bowl.
Liu Xia froze and hurriedly pushed the bowl away.
“You need nourishment. Why are you giving it all to me?”
Taking another bite of her meat bun, Lin Xiyun couldn’t help sighing in satisfaction.
The thin wrapper and generous filling were delicious.
Way better than those thick-skinned buns sold downstairs from my apartment back in the modern world.
She couldn’t believe she’d only been here a few days and was already craving food like this.
“I don’t like fatty meat.”
Seeing that Lin Xiyun had eaten only the lean portions and left all the fat behind, Liu Xia resignedly picked it into her own bowl.
“When your father and I aren’t around, don’t do this. Wasting food will get you criticized.”
“I know, I know. I just won’t order it next time.”
Lin Xiyun had only indulged because she knew her mother would happily finish whatever she didn’t eat. After sampling a few pieces, she left the rest of the braised pork untouched.
The fish-flavored shredded pork over rice was wonderfully fragrant—far better than the few token slices of meat Zhao Jinlan had grudgingly cooked the other day.
Between the two of them, they polished off every last bite.
After thinking for a moment, Lin Xiyun asked her mother to wait while she stepped outside.
A little while later, she returned carrying two aluminum lunch boxes.
Liu Xia blinked.
“Xiaoyun, what are these…?”
Lin Xiyun had packed two more servings of braised pork. She placed the still-warm lunch boxes into her mother’s hands.
“Dad and Big Brother have been working hard all day. Take these back this afternoon so they can have something good for dinner.”
“And after you wash the lunch boxes, they’ll be handy for bringing meals later.”
She thought the lunch boxes were pretty nice herself, so she’d quietly bought a few extra to keep in her storage space.
“The meat buns were already more than enough…”
Liu Xia lowered her head, staring at the lunch boxes nestled in her arms. She could almost smell the rich aroma wafting from inside.
Her emotions became a tangled mess.
Her daughter had really grown up.
She had become thoughtful.
She knew how to care for her family now.
But…
Why did her heart suddenly feel so empty?
After lunch, Lin Xiyun brought her mother back to the Lu house for an afternoon rest.
Liu Xia closed the floral curtains in her daughter’s room.
The curtain fabric was even nicer than the material of her own clothes.
“Mom?”
Lin Xiyun blinked in confusion.
“Why are you closing the curtains in broad daylight?”
Liu Xia secretly pulled her over to sit on the bed. With practiced speed, she took out a small cloth pouch from inside her clothes and tucked it beneath the quilt.
Patting the hidden bundle, she said,
“This is the bride price money I’ve been saving for you. Keep it somewhere safe, and don’t spend it recklessly.”
Lin Xiyun paused.
She had been planning to ask about it, yet her mother had already brought it with her.
A warm ache filled her chest.
“Mom… why did you suddenly decide to bring it today?”
“You hit your head this time. That’s serious.”
“I know you’re careless with money and probably don’t have much savings left. But your health comes first.”
“Besides, this was originally the bride price Fourth Lu gave when he married you.”
Liu Xia rubbed her forehead, looking puzzled.
“To be honest… these past few days I’ve been feeling strange.”
“I don’t know if I’m just getting old and forgetful.”
“I keep feeling like I’ve forgotten something.”
“With this much money in my hands, I can’t sleep well. I always feel like someone’s thinking about it.”
Forgotten something?
Someone was after the money?
When Lu Yanbei had paid the bride price, only both sets of parents had been present. Even her two brothers might not know about it.
Who could possibly be thinking about it?
A strange thought suddenly flashed through Lin Xiyun’s mind.
What if it wasn’t a person who knew…?
After all…
There was someone in the Lin family who possessed a system.
But…
What did her mother mean by forgetting things?
If Lin Xuanyuan had openly mentioned the money, Liu Xia wouldn’t be acting so vaguely. She would have clearly identified who had said it.
Something wasn’t right.
Lin Xiyun silently filed the matter away.
As casually as if she were chatting about everyday life, she sat cross-legged on the bed and asked,
“Mom, I heard Second Brother came home not long ago?”
In the original novel, Lin Xiyun’s parents and two brothers all adored Lin Xuanyuan.
Her second brother, Lin Changyuan, had joined the army at a young age and had been stationed in the far north for years.
Perhaps because he’d been so far away from Lin Xuanyuan, he hadn’t fallen completely under her influence.
There had even been one occasion when the heroine and the villainess argued, and Lin Changyuan had been the only family member to stand by his own sister.
Readers had flooded the comments demanding a redemption arc where the brother regretted his treatment of her.
The author had replied that there would definitely be one later.
For some reason…
It never happened.
Instead, Lin Changyuan barely appeared after that.
Then the author killed him off.
Shortly after that argument, he was transferred to the Yunnan border and died during an armed border conflict with a neighboring country.
Lin Xiyun remembered it vividly.
In the novel, the villainess who shared her exact name received news of her own brother’s heroic death on her twenty-fourth birthday.
Lin Changyuan had always insisted that marrying would only burden some innocent girl.
He remained unmarried until the day he died.
Back when she’d read the novel, she hadn’t liked the villainess very much.
Even so…
That scene had made her genuinely sad for the siblings.
It had been unbearably cruel.
“Changyuan did come back,” Liu Xia recalled.
“But he didn’t have enough time to come see you before the army called him away again.”
“Before he left, he said he should be back for the New Year.”
She rolled her eyes upward, trying to remember.
“I think his unit was transferred. He’s stationed outside Beijing now.”
“Mom… Second Brother isn’t getting any younger. Haven’t you thought about finding him a wife?”
For the first time, Lin Xiyun truly understood why military leaders were always urging soldiers to get married.
Someone with no attachments…
Had no reason to leave themselves a way back.
Lying beneath the quilt with her eyes half-closed, Liu Xia waved her hand dismissively.
“Your second brother looks easygoing and gentle, but once he’s made up his mind, not even eight oxen could drag him away from it.”
“I can’t control him.”
Leaning against the headboard, Lin Xiyun fell into thought.
Even his own mother’s words couldn’t sway Lin Changyuan?
She pressed a hand against her chest.
A complicated emotion welled up inside, heavy and suffocating.
Ever since arriving in this world, all she’d wanted was to stay away from the heroine and quietly live her own peaceful life.
Life was short.
Being comfortable and happy should have been enough.
But…
There were some things she now felt she simply had to do.
After thinking for a long while, she closed her eyes and rested.
Around one-thirty that afternoon, after seeing Liu Xia off, Lin Xiyun shut herself inside her room and checked her bankbook.
“Exactly five hundred yuan?”
Holding the passbook, she stared blankly for quite some time.
The Lin family had never been well off.
From marrying off their sons to raising two grandchildren…
Her mother had never once touched the bride price money.
In this era, bride price money was generally considered to belong to the bride’s parents.
Yet her mother had quietly kept every cent untouched all these years.