First confession
Xie Chengnan tightened the reins, and the horse neighed loudly, its hooves rising high before landing back on the spot.
At the same time, Lin Yi shouted from inside the car, "Stop the car!"
The actions of dismounting and stepping out of the carriage happened almost simultaneously; it was unclear who rushed towards whom first.
Lin Yi's surprise was undisguised. She had just called out "Xie Chengnan" when she was pulled tightly into someone's arms.
Her hand, which had been hanging there, paused for a moment, and then naturally fell onto Xie Chengnan's shoulder and back.
She had opened her arms as if she wanted a hug, but she hadn't fully extended them yet. But look—she thought, she didn't ask for it, and yet she got a hug.
"Xie Chengnan."
"I am here."
Lin Yi buried her face in Xie Chengnan's shoulder and whispered, "I like you."
Her voice was too soft, and the two of them were too loud to hear, so it was normal that Xie Chengnan didn't hear it. But whether it was her imagination or not, Xie Chengnan's arm around her stiffened.
Realizing this, Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat—she had been too carried away. She had only just confirmed her feelings and received a hug, and yet she had blurted it out so carelessly.
The initial elation of reunion was like a bucket of cold water being poured over one's head; after it cooled down, the resentment of being held hostage slowly surfaced.
Lin Yi pushed the person away a few steps, then looked up and stared intently at Xie Chengnan's face.
Xie Chengnan's face betrayed no emotion, only a hint of unease, as if he had swallowed his words and wanted to say something but held back.
Lin Yi wasn't sure if his embarrassment stemmed from hearing his own confession or from regret for the man rushing up to hug him.
Either one of them was enough to chill Lin Yixin's heart.
He still disliked Qiu Qingye. But the fact that he didn't shove him away in a fit of rage suggests the latter reason.
"I……"
Are you hurt?
Lin Yi shook his head.
Xie Chengnan still checked her over from head to toe with concern, and only relaxed after finding that she was indeed not injured.
"Let's go back first."
The two turned to look at the carriage. Sanqi and the other two guards from the Qiu family immediately straightened up when they noticed the gaze, turned their heads away, and looked at each other with an upright and honest expression.
After nodding to the group, Xie Chengnan mounted his horse and, once settled, reached out to Lin Yiyi below.
The hand with its distinct knuckles was outstretched, palm facing upwards, hovering in front of Lin Yi. She hesitated for only a moment before firmly grasping it. As she used the momentum to leap onto the horse's back, she heard a very soft laugh escape his throat.
Lin Yiyi smiled and gave a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth.
"You should go back first and tell Father that my son-in-law and I have returned to the Xie residence together. Please tell him not to worry."
As soon as he finished speaking, Xie Chengnan patted the horse's back, and the horse carried the two of them back the way they had come.
The remaining three stood there stunned for a moment. Sanqi clicked his tongue and said, "What a perfect match! That young master Zhao must have lost his mind. He actually thinks our young lady and son-in-law don't get along and insists on interfering!"
“Exactly!” the other two chimed in indignantly.
...
Are you scared?
Lin nodded, then realized that Xie Chengnan couldn't see her. Just as she was about to speak, she heard Xie Chengnan laugh self-deprecatingly, "I'm scared."
Lin blinked, realizing he had just said something ambiguous and romantic. Her heart was filled with mixed feelings, but she still couldn't help asking happily, "What are you afraid of?"
Xie Chengnan's clear laughter broke through the air from ahead, "Naturally, I'm afraid that if you are really kidnapped, the Chief Chou will lead people to demolish my Yong'an Marquis's mansion."
Lin Yi also laughed.
Unlike their swift arrival, the horse lazily carried the two along the long street, as if strolling through its own backyard. A child playfully bumped into the horse's hoof, eliciting only a slightly disgruntled snort.
After laughing enough, Lin asked, "Is that all you're afraid of?"
Xie Chengnan said, "Of course not." He didn't continue, and Lin Yi tacitly refrained from asking further questions.
The conversation ended there, and silence stretched out from the horseback. No one mentioned hurrying back to the manor, letting the horses' hooves pound against each other.
When the horses' hooves finally came to a stop at the Xie residence gate, and their eyes met Xueya, who was squatting in front of the gate with her face streaked with tears, the two realized that they had been moving far too slowly.
"Xueya..."
"Miss!" Xueya sobbed uncontrollably, but still jumped up the moment she saw her, staggering as she rushed over. "Miss, are you alright!? Where... hiccup, where were you? You... you scared me to death..."
Lin Yi knew that his abduction by Zhao Binglin would surely cause panic throughout the Marquis's mansion, and he couldn't help but feel guilty. Xie Chengnan, on the other hand, felt guilty.
The men he sent out should still be searching for people all over the city like fishing.
Seeing that the master and servant had entered the mansion, Young Master Xie personally went to the several locations that had been arranged earlier and called people back one by one.
Erhei went to Mingdu Prefecture to report the case, Cangxie continued to search for clues at the corner of West Market, while the shop owner and the rest of the people were scattered throughout the city.
After several trips, Xie Chengnan thought, why not spend some money and hire more people?
After a thrilling battle of wits and courage, Lin Yi was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Only when he returned to the Xie residence did he feel at ease and finally feel like he was home.
In her heart, the Yong'an Marquis's mansion was more in line with her understanding of home than the Qiu family mansion.
Lin Yi grew up in an orphanage. Although the elderly director treated her very well, she wasn't part of his family. It was a large community, crowded with abandoned and foster children. Even though the director showed favoritism, the time he could dedicate to her was pitifully little.
From middle school onwards, she lived in a boarding school until university. That long period of boarding life, lasting more than ten years, made her feel even more alienated.
During holidays, her roommates would all go home with their luggage, leaving her alone in the empty dormitory, watching the dazzling lights outside the window that didn't belong to her.
Therefore, after arriving in this world, apart from the first few days when he found it difficult to accept, Lin Yi was not actually in a great hurry to go back.
In that real world, there was no one waiting for her.
Why did I say 'also'? Lin Yi immediately dismissed the thought; there were people waiting for her here.
The Xie residence was the first place she visited after arriving in this world, and she spent most of her time there with Xueya, Xie Chengnan, and Cangxie.
The young girl treated her with all her heart, and she was willing to reciprocate with sincerity. Cang Xie, on the other hand, had always been calm and reliable.
As for Xie Chengnan, although they were at odds with each other at the beginning, they also accompanied each other for three months. Gradually, Lin Yi developed a different kind of feeling for him.
Lin Yi didn't know what kind of past or what reason had turned Xie Chengnan into the carefree and dissolute person he was today. In fact, he possessed methods and abilities that were no less than Gu Shu'an's.
She admired and trusted the boy's unbridled and arrogant nature, and was also moved by his every act of favoritism and protection.
He was such a good person, but Qiu Qingye's start was terrible. At the same time, she felt a secret sense of relief, thankful that she was the one who transmigrated, otherwise it would have been the truly arrogant and vicious Miss Qiu who married Xie Chengnan.
...Lin Yi curled up beside the couch in the hall, his thoughts wandering, and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep.
In her dream, she was in her childhood orphanage, her hands and feet still small. The director, Grandpa, gave her some local snacks he had brought back from a research trip, which were discovered by the other children.
She stood there, watching the snack she had just torn open and hadn't even had a chance to take a bite of before it was snatched away. A sense of helplessness and sadness gripped her young heart. From then on, her friends who used to read picture books with her stopped asking her out, and the lines for lunch, where they would always chat and joke, no longer included her. After class, the group of children who had been chattering amongst themselves would fall silent the moment they saw her approach.
She was isolated.
But she clearly didn't do anything.
My heart felt as if it were stuffed with a piece of water-soaked cotton, heavy and cold.
Lin Yi was lost in a dream, as if floating on water, unable to rise above the surface or sink to the bottom, with water plants swaying and entwining her limbs and cheeks...
Lin Yi finally woke up with a start, and unexpectedly met the eyes of the person squatting in front of the bed!
Xie Chengfeng watched her blink, and Lin Yi glanced at his left hand—he was holding a foxtail grass, which seemed to be the waterweed from her dream.
"Xie Chengfeng?" Lin Yi called out to him.
Upon hearing his name called, Xie Chengfeng threw the grass at Lin Yi and ran off.
Lin Yi was confused and ignored him. After a while, Xie Chengfeng poked his head out from outside the door, his eyes almost overflowing with grievance and resentment.
Do you want me to play with you?
Xie Chengfeng snorted coldly and hid behind the door.
Lin Yi watched him leisurely with his arms crossed. Sure enough, after a while, Xie Chengfeng poked his head out again.
"If you want me to play with you, nod your head, nod your head, okay?" Lin Yi nodded his head repeatedly as he spoke.
Xie Chengfeng just stared at her blankly, his eyes filled with a dazed disdain as if Lin Yi was the one who was mentally unstable.
She sighed softly.
Lin Yi's first few days studying medicine were incredibly exciting. With the system's cheat code, the standard answers were right in front of her. For all the cases she had read about in books, as long as the symptoms were correct, she didn't need to think at all; the prescriptions would appear out of thin air. It wasn't even as satisfying as when the teacher forgot to tear up the answer key when assigning summer homework.
Of course, she also tried to cure Xie Chengfeng, but perhaps because she hadn't read enough medical books, the answer to curing Xie Chengfeng didn't appear. Later, she specifically sought out books on treating dementia, but all to no avail.
She had inquired with Cang Xie and learned that Xie Chengfeng's condition was something he had since birth. If it was caused by a traumatic event later in life, it might be possible to recover, but congenital deficiencies are too difficult to cure.
Come to think of it, if there really was a way, the old Marquis would have cured him long ago, why has it been delayed until now?
Xie Chengfeng was a few years older than Xie Chengnan.
As brothers, they did share some resemblance, but unlike Xie Chengnan's youthful and spirited demeanor, Xie Chengfeng's appearance was actually softer, with slightly drooping eyebrows, making him look more well-behaved and scholarly. However, because he was always acting crazy and mischievous, this aura was not immediately apparent; only careful observation could reveal its true nature.
Such a person should be like a jade tree or a water lily, enjoying calligraphy and painting, or leaning against a painted railing, appreciating the beauty of nature. Yet, he can only rely on others to live, listening to and watching the ridicule of others without understanding its meaning. It can only be said that the vicissitudes of life are lamentable, and the same is true in this story.
Lin Yi genuinely wanted to cure him, not only out of pity for him, but also for Xie Chengnan.
With Xie Chengfeng cured, the Xie family will have one more person in charge, which will reduce Xie Chengnan's burden.
Lin Yi hoped that he could really be as carefree and relaxed as he appeared.
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