(195)
What? Lin Tingxuan kept urging her to leave Lin Tingfeng's side. Before, he said "leave him." Now, before "leave him," he added the word "escape," as if Lin Tingfeng were a man-eating beast and she would be eaten if she didn't hurry up and escape.
In reality, Ye Wenyu recalled all the little things Lin Tingfeng had done for her. He was so good to her, spoiling her like a little princess. He even helped her with her homework, tutoring her like a responsible parent.
Ye Wenyu raised one eyebrow and sat there quietly, unmoved. She did not believe Lin Tingxuan's one-sided story.
Seeing Ye Wenyu sitting upright without sitting down, Lin Tingxuan coughed anxiously. He clenched his fist slightly and coughed violently. Even when a man coughed, he did so with such elegance.
After his coughing subsided, Lin Tingxuan gasped for breath and said through gritted teeth to Ye Wenyu, "You don't believe me, but I'm like this today entirely because of him!"
"What?" Ye Wenyu looked up at Lin Tingxuan, puzzled.
This is the first time I've ever seen two brothers who evoke such deep-seated hatred.
Lin Tingxuan gritted his teeth and said to her, "Do you think I wanted to come to our last gathering? He forced me to!" At this point, Lin Tingxuan stood up nervously, his body trembling, his eyes red, like a caged beast, and angrily said, "I'm like a puppet, controlled by him my whole life!"
Ye Wenyu was stunned, her heart pounding wildly. She had always been curious about Lin Tingfeng and the Lin family, feeling that Lin Tingfeng was like a huge secret. Now, she hadn't asked anything, but Lin Tingxuan had taken the initiative to come to her, and he was going to tell her!
She felt herself standing on the edge of a secret. She held her breath, pressed her lips tightly together, and her ears rang. At that moment, Ye Wenyu felt like a poor girl in a fairy tale who, by chance, married a wealthy castle lord. The lord gave her a princess-like life but warned her not to open the twelfth door of the castle. However, she couldn't resist her curiosity and opened it. Then her wealthy life vanished, and she was brought to her death.
A strange, sickly flush suddenly appeared on Lin Tingxuan's originally pale face. He smiled slightly, but the smile was like blood on a wound, carrying a poignant pain. He gazed at Ye Wenyu and said softly, "When I was your age, I was just like you, full of vigor and optimism. I was healthy, handsome, young, and a graduate of a prestigious university. I was very interested in business. I was my parents' favorite child. My father repeatedly mentioned to my mother and me that he would hand over the Lin family business to me in the future. But then one day, my brother came back—"
Ye Wenyu was stunned. Had Lin Tingfeng returned to the Lin family from outside?
What does this mean? Does Lin Tingxuan mean that Lin Tingfeng has returned to China after completing his studies?
Ye Wenyu stared wide-eyed at Lin Tingxuan, who was immersed in the past. She was learning about Lin Tingfeng little by little, just like developing a photograph in a darkroom. Through a special solution, the human figure on the film gradually appeared. She was finally going to know Lin Tingfeng's true face!
She mustered her courage and asked, "What do you mean by saying your brother is back?" Her voice trembled like the shadows of trees in the wind.
Lin Tingxuan gave a bitter laugh, as if talking to himself but also to Ye Wenyu: "He didn't tell you, did he? These dark, ugly, and shameful past events, how could he tell you? He wanted to lure you into falling in love with him and then following him wholeheartedly, how could he let you know his disgusting side!"
As Lin Tingxuan spoke, he gritted his teeth, his face turning ashen. Ye Wenyu watched him quietly, wondering what Lin Tingxuan meant. He said, "His brother is back." Judging from his words, it certainly didn't mean he had returned from his studies abroad, but rather something else entirely.
Lin Tingxuan said dismissively, "Lin Tingfeng and I are not blood brothers."
What? Another earth-shattering secret! Like a bomb exploding, Ye Wenyu's eyes almost popped out of their sockets, and the shock in her heart was beyond words.
Lin Tingxuan gritted his teeth and said, "Back then, my father was busy with business and neglected Lin Tingfeng's biological mother, so she had a man outside. Lin Tingfeng is that woman's bastard child with that man! My father found out about their affair and, in a fit of rage, kicked that woman out of the house. Lin Tingfeng was five years old at the time."
What?
Ye Wenyu stood up abruptly as if burned, then slowly sat down again. She finally understood what Lin Tingfeng had said about the many hardships he had endured as a child.
His parents divorced, and he and his mother were kicked out of the house. Because his mother had cheated on him, he probably didn't get any property. Also, perhaps because his mother wasn't particularly good at managing money and didn't have much money, the two of them probably had a very hard life.
Lin Tingxuan was lost in memories of the past and slowly said, "Later, my father married my mother and had me and my sister, Tingyue, whom you have met. The four of us lived happily together for more than ten years until my father became seriously ill. My mother took care of him day and night. But one day, Lin Tingfeng came back. We all knew that he came back to fight with us for the property, so we were all on guard against him."
Ye Wenyu sat there blankly, her heart filled with indescribable turmoil. The Lin family's story was too complicated, almost like a revenge drama. Lin Tingfeng returned back then to seek revenge, and now Lin Tingxuan came to find her and persuade her to leave Lin Tingfeng, also to seek revenge for himself, because Lin Tingfeng had taken everything that should have belonged to him.
Lin Tingxuan said painfully, "But none of us are a match for him. My father no longer trusts my mother, my sister, or me. Lin Tingfeng has somehow bewitched my father, and in the end, he brought Lin Tingfeng and his mother back, and gave all the inheritance rights of the Lin Group to Lin Tingfeng. As for me, I originally had no talent for painting and no interest in it, but Lin Tingfeng said I loved painting since I was a child and was good at it, so he made me a painter. And then, I became what I am now, a painter that makes people laugh. Have you seen my paintings? Haha, even I find them disgusting, hahaha, hahaha. But he controls me, and I have to live according to his will, otherwise—"
Ye Wenyu snapped out of her daze, looked at Lin Tingxuan, and asked him nervously, "Otherwise what will happen?"
Lin Tingxuan shook his head painfully. The long explanation had left him breathless. He sat weakly in the pavilion, holding his head in his hands, and after a long while, he finally murmured, "I don't know."
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