The world treats me like a blade of grass, only you see me as verdant mountains!
Her lonely helplessness, only he felt pity for her; his confusion and hesitation, only she understood him. Eve...
(194)
Lin Tingxuan reached out and nervously placed his hand on Ye Wenyu's shoulder, then suddenly said to her, "Don't move."
"What?" Ye Wenyu looked at Lin Tingxuan in surprise and said in a low voice, "There's a big green caterpillar on your shoulder too."
Ye Wenyu's face paled, and goosebumps immediately rose on her body. She dared not move and stood frozen like a wooden doll.
Lin Tingxuan burst into laughter again, laughing until tears streamed down his face. After he had finished laughing, he said, "So you're afraid of bugs too."
Ye Wenyu realized it was a false alarm. She rolled her eyes at him and hurried forward with her head down.
Lin Tingxuan caught up with her and said, "Why didn't you ask me how I found you?"
Ye Wenyu finally came to her senses and said directly, "Isn't it a piece of cake for your Lin family to find someone?"
Lin Tingxuan laughed, glanced at Ye Wenyu, and slowly asked her, "My brother went to great lengths to get you, didn't he?" His tone was meaningful.
Ye Wenyu blushed, took a few steps back, and quickly kept her distance from Lin Tingxuan. Although she was still a little angry about Lin Tingfeng's scheming in pursuing her, they were now very much in love and getting along very well.
Therefore, she didn't want to hear any bad things about Lin Tingfeng from Lin Tingxuan's mouth, even though she knew the brothers didn't get along.
Lin Tingxuan was somewhat surprised by her sudden aloofness. He asked, puzzled, "Do you know what kind of person my brother is?" The implication was, "You're just foolishly following him around?"
Ye Wenyu naturally understood. She thought with some irony, did these rich kids think that everyone in the world was like them because they were born into a life of luxury, with a bunch of servants waiting on them? They thought that everyone was born with a big gift from God, and that they could live a comfortable life from childhood until they died.
Why not eat meat porridge?
When a poor person is starving to death, would they care whether the person who gives them food and shelter is a person of high moral character? At that moment, whoever gives her food and shelter is the person of the highest moral character.
Therefore, she sneered and said somewhat impatiently, "Lin Tingxuan, what exactly did you come to see me about today?" She glanced at her watch, indicating that she could leave at any time. She had originally planned to learn more about Lin Tingfeng through Lin Tingxuan, but then she thought that asking Lin Tingxuan would probably only yield all sorts of bad news about Lin Tingfeng, so it was better not to ask.
Lin Tingxuan was even more surprised, and after a moment he said softly in a voice that was almost disbelieving, "You seem to really care about my older brother?!"
Ye Wenyu remained noncommittal.
At this moment, the two walked to the vicinity of a hexagonal pavilion. Lin Tingxuan stopped, his forehead covered in sweat, and his breathing was rapid. He clearly did not want to walk any further and wanted to rest.
But Ye Wenyu didn't want to sit and chat with him in the pavilion.
Lin Tingxuan started coughing at this moment. After a violent coughing fit subsided, he said, "I'm not in good health. I've been taking medicine for years and can't walk for too long. I'm feeling a bit dizzy now. Can we sit down and talk in the pavilion?" He walked towards the pavilion, whether out of domineering refusal to ask for her opinion or out of fear of her rejection, it was unclear.
Ye Wenyu had initially been angry and wanted to leave, but upon hearing that Lin Tingxuan was ill, she felt a pang of pity. Furthermore, she suddenly remembered that Lin Tingfeng had mentioned when she first met Lin Tingxuan that he suffered from mental illness and might need long-term medication to maintain normalcy. However, Lin Tingxuan didn't seem mentally ill at all. Ye Wenyu had a neighbor who was mentally ill, so she knew very well what mental patients looked likeāthat kind of gaze, sometimes calm and sometimes confused, was something normal people would never have. But Lin Tingxuan's eyes were clear, like the stars in the sky, like the water of a deep mountain lake; he didn't seem like a mental patient at all.
With her doubts in mind, Ye Wenyu walked into the pavilion and sat down opposite Lin Tingxuan.
She observed him. Lin Tingxuan was indeed very weak. After a violent cough, beads of sweat the size of soybeans had appeared on his forehead, and his clothes on the back were soaked with sweat. A breeze blew by, and the smell of his sweat wafted over. However, the smell was not unpleasant, because it carried a pleasant, faint fragrance of Chinese medicine.
She thought to herself that he wasn't lying to her; he must have been taking medication for years, and the smell of the medicine had seeped into his body, into his blood vessels and skin, so the smell of the medicine would also evaporate when he sweated.
Lin Tingxuan was pleased to see that she was willing to listen, and he said to her in a commanding tone, "Ye Wenyu, leave him!"
What? Ye Wenyu was shocked, as if struck by lightning.
Leave him? Leave whom? Ye Wenyu raised an eyebrow, looking at Lin Tingxuan curiously. Was this why he came to see her?
Lin Tingxuan looked around, seemingly fearful. When he realized no one was around, he said urgently, "Get away from my brother!"
What? As if hearing a thunderous roar, Ye Wenyu realized that this was Lin Tingxuan's purpose in coming to see her today: he wanted her to leave his elder brother.
Ye Wenyu looked at Lin Tingxuan, who was weak and terrified, and her curiosity grew. Why did he want her to leave his elder brother? This was only their second meeting, so what was his purpose?
What kind of confidence does he have that he thinks she can leave his older brother with just a word from him?
Seeing Ye Wenyu's expression, Lin Tingxuan knew she didn't believe him, so he sighed and spoke to her in a low voice, "Do you think my older brother is a good person? That he rescued you, a poor girl, from a helpless situation, that he's a hero who saves a damsel in distress? So you gave yourself to him, that you followed him regardless of status, that you fell in love with him?"
Ye Wenyu froze, looking at Lin Tingxuan who was staring at her nervously, and couldn't help but feel angry. She thought bitterly, "Is everyone in the Lin family like this? Before even getting close to someone, they find out everything about them. Lin Tingfeng was like this, Lin Tingyue was like this, and now this Lin Tingxuan is the same!"
She had no money, her parents divorced when she was young, and her mother remarried after she finished her college entrance exams. They knew all about these things! Was poverty her original sin?
Ye Wenyu gritted her teeth, glaring fiercely at Lin Tingxuan. Her hands, placed at her sides, were slightly clenched into fists. She was angry, very angry.
Lin Tingxuan looked anxious. He glanced around nervously, then lowered his voice and said to Ye Wenyu, "Ye Wenyu, although I met you after my brother, I'm not a bad person. I genuinely care about you. Trust me! Look at you, so beautiful, so young, and a top student at Q University. Your future is limitless. Don't let my brother ruin you. Escape as soon as possible!"