She clearly sounded accusatory, but Lin Ziyan was using Ye Xingmian’s phone. How could she not know who she was?
Lin Ziyan was silent for a moment.
“I’m Lin Ziyan. Is my brother with you, Liu Yinuo?”
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Liu Yinuo held the phone to her ear, glanced at Ye Xingmian, who was silently watching her, then covered the receiver and said:
“I’ll take this outside.”
Liu Yinuo walked to the door. Noticing that the other person still hadn’t hung up, she felt a little disappointed.
“Mm.”
Ye Xingmian nodded.
“She’s not here. Where did she go?”
“Don’t try to fool me…”
Lin Ziyan gritted her teeth.
“Why would I fool you? She’s not here, period.”
Liu Yinuo’s tone was utterly indifferent.
“Just you wait. I’m coming to your place right now. I’m bringing my brother back!”
“Do you know where I live?”
That was as good as admitting Lin Ziyan’s suspicion, but Lin Ziyan froze at the words.
She actually didn’t know…
“Ha. Anything else? If not, I’m hanging up.”
“Wait… wait! My brother… will he come to school tomorrow?”
“How would I know? Thanks to you people, she had a high fever today. She’s in rough shape.”
“What? That… please, can you take good care of her? And tell her I’m sorry? Yesterday was my fault. I shouldn’t have done that…”
“Oh. Anything else?”
Liu Yinuo’s voice was ice-cold.
“Don’t hang up yet! Wait… I’ll send you some money. Can you buy her fever medicine? I still have a little meal money left this month…”
“No need. I’ve already got it ready for her.”
“No, you… just take it… Buy her anything you want. Say it’s from me. I… I don’t expect her to come back, but… please take care of her, okay? I… I wronged her.”
“Ha…”
Liu Yinuo sneered inwardly. ‘If you knew this was coming, why did you do it in the first place?’
This time she didn’t bother asking again. She hung up resolutely.
And then she blocked that number.
She turned off the screen and let out a long breath, feeling an indescribable sense of relief.
Just as she was about to head back to the bedroom, her phone screen lit up again. She frowned.
[You received a money transfer: 300 yuan]
Three hundred?
So this was Lin Ziyan’s so-called last bit of meal money?
Liu Yinuo initially wanted to ignore it, but her eyes flickered, and she changed her mind.
She opened VX and accepted the money.
Then she typed on the virtual keyboard.
“I took the money. I’ll do what you asked, but whether Ye Xingmian forgives you and goes back to the Lin family is up to her. I won’t interfere.”
After sending the message, she turned on Do Not Disturb and stuffed the phone into her pocket.
Her voice hadn’t been loud enough for the person inside to hear her conversation with Lin Ziyan.
She opened the bedroom door. The soundproofing was decent.
But the sight before her made her frown.
Ye Xingmian had quietly slumped over the desk, fast asleep.
She seemed to be sleeping soundly, breathing evenly.
Maybe it was because of the illness, but her performance today had been terrible. In the entire morning, she’d barely made any progress.
A wave of irritation washed over Liu Yinuo.
At this rate, could she really boost Ye Xingmian’s grades?
Probably not.
She had to hurry.
So she walked over and patted Ye Xingmian firmly on the back.
“…Yi…nuo…?”
Ye Xingmian lifted her head groggily, struggling to open her eyes. She looked exhausted.
Liu Yinuo was also sick, but she was in much better shape. Except for the first day when she ran a fever and went to the hospital, she was mostly recovered by now.
But Ye Xingmian’s condition seemed serious. Was it because of her constitution? Or the cold she caught yesterday?
“How did you fall asleep? Are you that tired? Forget it. I’ve counted the days—winter vacation isn’t far off. We don’t have much time, so we have to cram. Wake up, okay?”
Liu Yinuo was firm, as if there were no other option.
Ye Xingmian was silent for a long time, staring blankly at her.
Strange…
She didn’t say that feeling out loud. She just lowered her head slightly.
“Mm. Let’s continue.”
By adding each other’s phones as friends—a left-hand-right-hand trick—Lin Ziyan transferred all her remaining meal money to Liu Yinuo.
Now she was staring at her phone, waiting for a message from Liu Yinuo.
What did she send?
Just some useless words. Things she would never have said in the past.
She waited, trying not to look at the zeroed-out balance on her phone.
She waited a long time. Not a single reply came from Liu Yinuo. Her hope gradually faded.
When she finally gave up, what she felt was an ever-thickening emptiness.
She had given so much, and once again, she got nothing in return.
So she silently turned off her phone, lay down for a while hugging her stuffed bear, and then got ready to go downstairs.
She hadn’t eaten breakfast yet.
Her hair was a little messy. She rarely let it be this unkempt, but today she felt unusually tired.
Come to think of it, if her elder sister were still here, she wouldn’t have to do any of this.
Whether cooking, cleaning, or braiding her hair, Ye Xingmian did it all for her.
That frail little body seemed to hold boundless strength, keeping everything in perfect order.
But when she was still around, no one noticed a thing.
They just took it for granted.
She reheated the food and brought it to the dining table.
But when she stepped into the dining room, she couldn’t help stopping.
Scattered across the floor were many liquor bottles, and the table was coated with a film of grease and grime.
Thankfully, the weather was cold, or it would have attracted bugs.
Even after a whole night, she could still faintly smell the alcohol.
She quickly realized that her father had been drinking again last night—and quite a lot.
Eating in such an environment was unbearable.
She remembered how Ye Xingmian used to clean up. She found a rag, wet it with water and detergent, wiped the table, then picked up the bottles and cleaned the floor.
To her surprise, it took a very long time.
When she finally sat down, exhausted, the food had already gone cold.
She picked up her chopsticks, ready to eat.
But then there was a noise from outside the door.
Her parents were back.
Her mother unlocked the door, but more than two people entered.
Her father, dead drunk, was slumped like a sack of mud over some man’s shoulder. They carried him in and laid him on the sofa.
Her mother was thanking the man.
“Thank you so much. If you hadn’t helped, I wouldn’t have known what to do.”
“No trouble. Is this your daughter? She’s very pretty.”
The man noticed Lin Ziyan, but she didn’t look up. She just ate in silence.
“Ziyan! Come over and thank your uncle.”
Lin Ziyan ignored her.
“Oh, don’t mind her. Please don’t take offense. She’s been in a mood lately.”
“Haha, I get it. Kids her age are like that. Well, I’ll be going.”
“Take care! I’ll see you out!”
As the door clicked shut, Xu Ming’s face immediately fell.
“Ziyan, you’re this old now, and you still don’t understand anything. Tsk. Look at your father—drinking so much tonight. It’s all because of you.”
“Cough! Bullshit! I’m not drunk! Say that again, and I’ll slap you dead! Cough!”
Lin Cheng flopped around like a fish before quickly going still again.
Xu Ming rolled her eyes at him.
“Did you clean all this? And cook the food yourself? Not bad. If Ye Xingmian doesn’t come back, and we don’t have time, you’ll have to handle all the housework. Ziyan, you’ll have to tough it out and understand your parents.”