“Xinyuan… I need to go to Lei City for a while to handle something. Make sure to eat well at home. I’ve bought all the groceries for you.”
The woman couldn’t help but reach out and gently stroke her head.
Silently enduring Lin Mother’s touch, Lin Xinyuan nodded lightly, looking as if nothing was wrong. But the moment she lowered her head, her gaze became somewhat blank.
The girl’s emotions were very subtle, and with Lin Mother’s mind full of all sorts of matters, she didn’t notice anything amiss.
“It’s getting late… Mom’s going now, I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay.”
Watching Lin Mother leave, Lin Xinyuan returned to her own room.
She locked the door, sat on her bed, drew her knees up, and unconsciously hugged them.
Though she didn’t cry this time, she felt even worse than ever before.
These past few nights, almost every evening, Lin Mother would come home and they would start arguing. She would eavesdrop and manage to catch fragments of their words.
She more or less understood.
Her parents seemed to have finally fallen out for good, and it seemed it was because of her…
She knew all along that this day would come…
She knew she was just the spark, so why did it still hurt so much?
Lin Xinyuan was afraid of being completely abandoned by them…
Even her mother, who seemed to care about her now, felt no different.
She didn’t have much faith in Lin Mother either, even though she saw all the things she’d done these days. She was only grateful, but her resentment couldn’t just vanish so easily.
Even though Lin Mother had tried to comfort her before leaving, she still felt abandoned…
Lin Xinyuan didn’t want Lin Mother to leave, but she didn’t dare ask her to stay. Her memories told her it wouldn’t help anyway.
Besides, that would be too willful, too annoying…
She’d said she’d be back soon, but it didn’t turn out that way.
Two days passed. Lin Xinyuan didn’t wait for Lin Mother to return, but instead, someone else showed up.
Her cousin had come back…
On the living room sofa, the girl sat with her head down uneasily, her gaze wandering, her pale feet in slippers fidgeting nervously.
“You… You’re Lin Xinyuan?”
The young man opposite her was bewildered. When he first saw the beautiful girl, he thought he’d come to the wrong house, or that his uncle’s family had moved away.
“…”
Lin Xinyu simply couldn’t believe it. He pointed at Lin Xinyuan, turned to his own mother, stammered for a while, but couldn’t get another word out.
His little cousin! Suddenly turned into a beautiful girl. Wouldn’t you be shocked too if it happened to you?
When he saw his mother nod, Lin Xinyu turned back and looked Lin Xinyuan up and down, growing more and more astonished.
It was only after careful scrutiny that he realized the girl really did look just like his cousin—she was practically his cousin’s female version.
After a long while, Lin Xinyu finally managed to calm himself down.
When he first got back, he’d wondered why his mother wanted him to find his cousin…
After all, the two of them rarely contacted each other. Even during holidays, his cousin preferred to stay home, so they only met on rare occasions.
They couldn’t really be called close…
If there was a time when they got along best, it would have been when they were little.
Back then, the two of them played together in the countryside, and this “little tail” was always following him around.
But later, his family moved to the county, and they lost touch.
The next time they met was in high school, after his uncle’s family also moved to the same neighborhood by coincidence, becoming next-door neighbors.
But with so many years apart and busy high school schedules, then attending different universities, even as neighbors, their relationship was distant.
Pseudohermaphroditism…
Lin Xinyu had heard of this kind of illness, but this was the first time he’d seen it in real life.
He was shocked, but he quickly accepted the truth.
A pretty little sister was so much better than a cousin…
No wonder Grandpa always praised his cousin for being the best-looking of their generation…
So that’s why…
Lin Xinyuan felt uncomfortable under Lin Xinyu’s gaze, her hands gripping her sleeves tightly. She said in a soft voice, “Yu-ge.”
The girl’s gentle and timid voice made Lin Xinyu’s heart skip a beat.
He forced himself to stay calm and scratched his head. “Um… Xinyuan…”
“Your sister’s name is Xinyuan now!” Aunt Yi reminded at just the right moment.
“Uh…” Lin Xinyu nodded, thought for a moment, and tentatively said, “Sister?”
“Mhm.”
Seeing her nod, Lin Xinyu felt a wave of relief…
A strange feeling bloomed in his heart—he finally had a little sister!
And such a pretty one! In a generation full of boys!
Thinking about it, he couldn’t help but feel a bit happy…
Before leaving, Aunt Yi invited her over for dinner that night. With such kindness, Lin Xinyuan felt it would be rude to refuse.
After all, they were family, and Aunt Yi had always been good to her. She had to give her some face.
Bored, she sat on the sofa, the TV playing a classic Xiyouji drama.
Lin Xinyuan didn’t watch, instead staring intently at her chat screen. She typed and deleted messages over and over, never sending them out.
Suddenly, a notification sounded—but it wasn’t from Lin Mother, it was that annoying yellow-haired guy…
Though a bit disappointed, she couldn’t help but smile faintly.
Troublemaker.
He sent a dog-head holding a rose emoji: “What are you up to?”
Lin Xinyuan typed back: “Nothing much, just writing or lazing around, so bored…”
“I see… It’s fine, school’s off tomorrow. Once I’m done with work, I’ll head to Zhannan.”
“For real? Not kidding?”
She was surprised. She’d thought he was joking last time, but now, was the yellow-haired guy actually coming over?
“Oh… Is that how unreliable I am in your heart, Xiaoyuan?”
“Ugh… You’re so gross! How many times have I told you not to call me that? It gives people the wrong idea!”
“What’s there to misunderstand? Friends call each other like this, right?”
“Whatever, whatever, go curse at your own neighbor! Just don’t call me that in front of people I know.”
Tianbei City.
In the conference room of Fengxing Game Company, Qin Nanfeng sat in his seat, looking at the messages from the girl, and couldn’t help but chuckle. Ever since the girl had become like this, she rarely cursed outright anymore. It showed just how annoyed she was right now. But for Qin Nanfeng, the more embarrassed and flustered she was, the happier he felt.
He really wanted to see her…
He really wanted to tease her…
The more he thought about it, the itchier he felt inside…
Seeing the boss staring at his phone and laughing, everyone in the meeting room exchanged glances.
They were all curious what good news had made the boss smile, but this was a company-wide meeting—no one dared ask.
After all, the operations manager up front was speaking; only the boss dared to slack off like this…
At the front of the conference room, Operations Manager Su Feng stood beside the PTT projection, feeling a bit helpless.
He deeply admired his boss Qin Nanfeng, who had started his own business early. Even though he was only a sophomore, he already owned a medium-sized game company.
Fengxing Game Company!
Founded just two years ago, thanks to the creativity of its founder—and the hot new game they’d just released—they’d made a name for themselves in the gaming world with only three games.
They were well-known among domestic Single-player Game enthusiasts, becoming one of the few famous domestic Single-player Game studios.
All this, and they’d never taken investment from giants like Xunteng.
At this rate, maybe in just two or three years, they’d be a mid-sized game company.
The company culture was great, and the benefits were good, attracting many students from the nearby university town…
But even for a company like this, the boss had one flaw: he liked to daydream.
But then, it was his own company—he could do whatever he wanted…
“Well? Not going to continue?”
Seeing Qin Nanfeng finally put down his phone and look at him, Su Feng breathed a sigh of relief before continuing as if nothing had happened. “Ahem… Whether our game is on the Steam platform or Xunteng, its performance has far exceeded expectations… Next quarter… we…”
The cousin has a similar name as the protag, it’s super confusing.