It had only been about a week since she became a girl, yet she already seemed quite accustomed to being treated as one. Just like… right now.
To be honest, having lived for so long, she actually didn’t know the name of the street where the Lin family lived. Perhaps she had known it before, but because she rarely used it, she had gradually forgotten.
“Miss, haven’t you decided where to go yet? We charge by the kilometer here. If we take a detour and charge you extra, you can’t blame me.”
“Hmm…”
She nodded, her mind searching for the home address.
After thinking for a moment, she gave the name of the school.
“Can we go to City No. 1 Middle School first? I’ll give you directions from there.”
“Alright.”
With a clear destination, the car quickly picked up speed.
The scenery outside the window flew by. The return journey passed through a suburban area, with dried-up tree trunks and endless wheat fields lining the road.
Under the dim, blood-red glow of the setting sun, only the black silhouettes of trees could be seen swaying in the strong wind, somewhat reminiscent of scenes from certain horror movies.
Sitting in the car seat, the girl spaced out. After returning to the Lin family, she didn’t know what kind of harsh reprimands or punishments she would face.
Her gaze grew somewhat dim, and she hugged her own shoulders tightly.
Having been confined by Qin Haiyue for nearly four days, she felt her mind was starting to get a little hazy. Her head was always filled with random thoughts.
Yesterday, around afternoon, she even thought she heard someone singing. Pulling back a corner of the curtain to look outside, there was only a single dried-up old tree. She was even starting to have auditory hallucinations.
This discovery made her feel a bit uneasy, but it didn’t overly affect her mood. After all, it wasn’t happening frequently. It was probably just due to too much stress. She just needed to relax a bit, she thought to herself.
The car drove for a while longer, and she could see the school buildings in the distance. The surrounding roads also became familiar.
“Turn left at the intersection ahead.”
She spoke up abruptly, startling the driver.
“I’m telling you, miss, could you speak a bit louder? Don’t be so… quiet.”
“What’s wrong?” Ye Xingmian tilted her head, puzzled.
The driver gave a helpless smile.
“It’s nothing. It’s just that hearing it suddenly, combined with the darkening sky and this road being so deserted, I thought for a moment there was a female ghost clinging to the back of my seat!”
“Heh…”
The conversation didn’t flow, and the car quickly fell back into a deathly silence.
When the car reached the middle section of that familiar Old Street, still some distance from home, Ye Xingmian got out early.
“I’ll pay here. How much is it?”
“Forty-eight. VX?”
So expensive…
Fortunately, the money Qin Haiyue had sent her was more than enough, so she wasn’t faced with the embarrassment of not being able to pay.
After clumsily scanning the code to pay, Ye Xingmian got out of the car. A cold gust of wind brushed her face, clearing away more than half of the fog in her head.
It’s a bit cold…
She instinctively tightened her collar, her body trembling slightly.
She remembered hearing the weather forecast playing in the car on the way here, saying there was a cold wave tonight and the temperature would drop.
In this city during winter, the nighttime temperature usually hovers around minus ten degrees Celsius. If there’s no wind, it’s bearable, but once the wind picks up, it’s damp and piercingly cold, enough to chill one to the bone.
Knowing this, why did she get out of the car early instead of having the driver take her directly to the Lin family’s doorstep?
It was mainly out of fear of being seen. If the cellphone was discovered, who knew if she could keep it? To be safe, even if it meant suffering a bit more from the cold, she couldn’t take that risk.
It wasn’t far from home now, just two or three hundred meters. She could walk it in a bit, but this wind was really quite miserable to endure.
Walking on the road, she was the only one. This scene felt familiar, as if she had seen it on that snowy night.
Street lamps along the road lit up one by one, casting pure white light onto the trash cans by the street. For some reason, against the pitch-black night sky, it seemed a bit eerie.
Finally, Ye Xingmian arrived home. She knocked on the door.
Footsteps sounded from inside. She didn’t know who was coming to open the door, and her heart tightened with nervousness. Perhaps as soon as the door opened, she would be met with a torrent of scolding, then immediately ordered to do chores?
That was the standard procedure in her memory. But having been away for so long, she couldn’t help but feel extremely tense.
After waiting a moment, the door opened. The light from inside was a bit blinding, and she instinctively squinted.
It was her foster mother, Xu Ming.
Her heart tightened. She instinctively lowered her head, expecting to be scolded again. But the scolding didn’t come. Instead, she was met with only a weary sigh.
“Xingmian, you… you’re back?”
She looked up, somewhat surprised. She saw Xu Ming had already turned around, her black hair mixed with a few stark white strands.
“Yes.”
She tilted her head, puzzled. She felt something was off about her foster mother today. Of course, it wasn’t that she was concerned about her.
It was just a simple confusion because the situation was different from the usual immediate, harsh scolding or being assigned a pile of chores.
The atmosphere in the Lin household today felt particularly lifeless and heavy.
“Well then… come have dinner.”
Holding onto her confusion, she followed Xu Ming to the dining table.
Lin Cheng sat in his seat, frowning and gloomily scrolling through his phone. A few dishes were set on the table.
However, there was no sign of Lin Ziyan.
Is this… a conflict?
A guess formed in her mind. Ye Xingmian obediently sat down on a chair.
“Wait a moment, Auntie will get you some rice.”
“Huh?”
“What’s wrong, Xingmian?” Xu Ming turned her head with a kind expression.
“Nothing, it’s just… a bit confusing. Why is Auntie suddenly being so nice to me today?”
“Oh, it’s just because you came back from outside today. Where did you go? Why were you away for so long?”
“A classmate’s house.” Ye Xingmian turned her face away.
“Auntie has… had a bit of a change of heart recently. You see, it’s almost time for you to leave our home, so I thought I’d be nicer to you from now on.”
“You don’t have to do any of those chores anymore. Uncle and Auntie will handle them all. How does that sound?”
“Ah, really? Thank you, Auntie.”
Putting on an obedient and happy expression, Ye Xingmian hid her suspicion deep in her eyes.
For some reason, she had an intuition that Xu Ming was lying.
The reason for her change in attitude was definitely not as simple as she claimed.
Whether it was due to the habitual mindset developed from being scolded since childhood, or because her personality was overly sensitive, able to detect even the slightest hint of something off.
In any case, she guessed correctly. Xu Ming did have ulterior motives regarding her.
***
After dinner, Xu Ming brought a tray from the kitchen with several reserved dishes on it.
“Xingmian, you’re finished eating, right? Auntie has a favor to ask. Could you take this tray to Ziyan’s door and call her to come out and get it?”
Why don’t you do it yourself?
Visibly, Xu Ming’s brows furrowed, but they quickly relaxed again as she patiently said:
“Ziyan has been in a bad mood these past couple of days. She won’t even come down to eat. She won’t open the door for Auntie either, so I wanted you to try.”
“Alright.”
Ye Xingmian took the tray.
It wasn’t anything particularly difficult anyway.
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