Volume One, Chapter Seventeen: Homeless

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Lin Yuxia was deeply shaken. Hugging a cushion, she pretended to watch television.

That night, she stayed at Shen Yan’s Hillside Villa, but she did not sleep as well as she had imagined.

She tossed and turned, plagued by absurd dreams. The most outrageous was one in which she wore a wedding gown and walked toward Shen Yan.

Smiling, Shen Yan reached out to her—but his hand passed through her body and took hold of another woman instead.

In the dream, Lin Yuxia no longer pretended to be strong. She collapsed onto the train of her wedding dress and burst into tears.

When she awoke, she found the pillowcase soaked through.

At the first hint of dawn the next morning, she went downstairs and prepared breakfast for Shen Yan: a sandwich she had learned to make while abroad.

She also left a note beneath the plate.

“Brother, I’ve gone to work at the law firm. Here’s a loving breakfast from your little sister. I hope you like it.”

But she did not actually go to the law firm.

Director Wu had readily granted her a week’s leave after hearing of her father’s death. She did not need to work that day at all.

With nothing else to do, Lin Yuxia wandered slowly along the morning streets by herself.

After walking for about half an hour, she received a message from Shen Yan.

“Out so early for work?”

Lin Yuxia answered beside the point: “Brother, the sandwich has gone cold. Heat it in the microwave before you eat it.”

More than ten minutes later, just as Lin Yuxia was about to ask whether he had liked it, a message appeared in the chat window:

“It tastes wonderful. My little Yu has grown up.”

Lin Yuxia stared at those few words, standing by the curb and grinning foolishly for a long while.

Suddenly, a muffled rumble of thunder rolled across the horizon, followed almost immediately by rain.

Only then did Lin Yuxia remember that she had apparently received a severe-rain warning that morning.

Unable to continue wandering the streets, she hailed a taxi and returned to her own home.

The rain grew heavier and heavier, pelting the car windows with a sharp, percussive clatter.

The driver turned on his hazard lights and complained, “The one thing I hate about Shanghai is the rainy season. Once it arrives, it’s as if the sky has sprung a leak.”

Lin Yuxia dabbed at her hair with a tissue and murmured in agreement. “Exactly.”

“You brought an umbrella, didn’t you, miss? You have to carry one when you go out this time of year.”

She really had not brought one. Smiling, she said, “Luckily, I’m going home. It’s nothing to worry about.”

She had spoken too soon.

The taxi could not enter the luxury villa compound, so Lin Yuxia got out and had to walk the rest of the way.

Holding her bag over her head, she ran to her front door—only to be stunned by the sight before her.

The villa’s iron gate was shut tight.

Scattered outside it were clothes, shoes, books, daily necessities, and more.

When Lin Yuxia stepped closer, she realized that every last item belonged to her.

There was no need to wonder what had happened. Someone had thrown all her belongings outside.

Furious, Lin Yuxia placed her finger against the biometric lock. A prompt sounded.

“Fingerprint error.”

She tried entering the passcode.

“Incorrect password.”

Even a fool could see what had happened. The moment Lin Muheng died, her stepmother and stepsister had rushed to drive her out.

The rain showed no sign of stopping. Instead, it came down harder, mercilessly soaking Lin Yuxia from head to toe.

Her fingertips trembled with rage, yet she refused to believe it and entered the password again and again.

“Incorrect password.”

“Incorrect password.”

“Password locked.”

At last, she kicked the iron gate.

“Jiang Lan! How dare you do this?”

With a clang, the villa’s front door swung open. Jiang Lan’s voice came through the curtain of rain.

“I dare because I am the head of this family now.”

In truth, Jiang Lan and Lin Hanyan had been “enjoying” the spectacle through the surveillance cameras for quite some time. Only after they had had their fill of watching Lin Yuxia’s miserable state did they finally open the villa’s front door.

The two of them stood beneath the eaves, shouting at Lin Yuxia, who was still being drenched outside the iron gate, with an entire garden between them.

“You still have the nerve to come home?” Jiang Lan said.

“Lin Yuxia, you caused a scene at your own father’s memorial service and made our family a laughingstock in front of everyone!

“You good-for-nothing bastard. You were born to bring trouble. Our Lin family cannot afford to support a pampered young lady like you.”

Lin Yuxia’s lips had turned pale. Her body had not yet fully recovered, and after being drenched by the rain, she was trembling violently.

She gripped the iron gate with all her strength, forcing herself not to collapse.

Thunder boomed. Rain poured down in torrents.

Water streamed over her lovely face and into her mouth, bitter and acrid, drowning out her already faint voice.

“Jiang Lan, you know perfectly well what you’ve done. You’re the parasite who hollowed out the Lin family. How dare you—”

Beside her, Lin Hanyan suddenly began shouting arrogantly.

“What is there to be afraid of? Lin Yuxia, aren’t you so capable? Don’t you have the Shen family backing you? Why aren’t you running to Brother Yan now? Go on, go find him!”

Lin Yuxia’s heart sank.

Lin Hanyan had deliberately jabbed at her deepest wound. But if this vicious mother and daughter had not schemed against her all those years ago, how could the Shen family have come to despise her?

Her ten slender fingers clung tightly to the iron gate. Lin Yuxia shook it futilely twice.

It did not move an inch.

Under the eaves, Lin Hanyan burst into laughter. The contempt in her eyes made it seem as though she were looking at a stray dog with nowhere to go and nothing left to lose.

Jiang Lan wrinkled her nose in disgust and said coldly, “Pick up your junk and get lost.”

“Come back to dirty my eyes again, and I won’t be this polite.”

The door slammed shut.

Lin Yuxia’s hands fell limply to her sides. The web between her thumb and forefinger had split from the strain, and blood still seeped from the wound.

She crouched down and began searching through the chaos.

Rainwater mixed with mud, soiling everything that belonged to her. Many of her books had already been ruined by the downpour.

Desperate, Lin Yuxia finally pulled a finely bound English book from the pile of clothes: The Republic.

It was a book Shen Yan had given her. On the title page, her brother had written:

“For Little Yu.”

Beside it, she had secretly added a line of her own:

“A world with you is the ideal republic.”

Carefully wiping the dirt from the cover, she tucked the book inside her clothes and ran.

She did not think of herself as a miserable stray fleeing in disgrace. On the contrary, she felt that she was severing all ties with her enemy.

In this life, she wanted nothing more to do with Jiang Lan and her daughter.

Unfortunately, she did not know that they would meet again—and in the manner she could least accept.

*

The rain passed, and the skies cleared.

Lin Yuxia found an inexpensive hotel and checked in.

Her washed clothes dried completely after an hour beneath the sun.

Her wretched mood gradually settled as well.

This was not the first time Jiang Lan had stabbed her in the back, and Lin Yuxia was no longer an innocent, inexperienced girl. This small difficulty could not bring her down.

Curled up in her hotel room, she carefully went over everything that had happened in recent days.

All the scattered clues indicated that Lin Muheng’s death must have had something to do with Jiang Lan. The problem was that she had no evidence. Mere suspicion was not enough to bring Jiang Lan down.

A sudden chime from her phone interrupted her thoughts.

When she picked it up, she realized that it was already nine in the evening.

Then she noticed that her salary had been deposited: five thousand yuan.

Whether one had graduated from a top university or returned from studying abroad, an intern lawyer’s income in China amounted to no more than a handful of coins.

Still, it was enough to ease Lin Yuxia’s immediate financial crisis.

She glanced at her bank balance and suddenly remembered something else: the five million yuan Fei Xun had given her as emergency funds was still sitting in her account.

Now that he was dead, she naturally could not continue holding on to his money. Lin Yuxia made a few taps on her phone and transferred the five million back.

Her bank balance instantly plummeted from seven figures to four.

After thinking it over, Lin Yuxia transferred another three thousand yuan to Fei Xun.

The next second, Fei Xun called.

“Miss Lin, what’s the meaning of that three thousand?”

The moment Lin Yuxia heard his flippant tone, she could not resist giving him a few sharp words.

“I have money now. Don’t I still owe you two hundred and fifty-eight thousand? I’m paying you back three thousand first. Take it and spend it.”

Fei Xun could not help laughing on the other end of the line. Just listen to that tone—was she really paying him three thousand, rather than bestowing three thousand upon him?

Fine. These days, the debtor was the one who acted like the boss.

The corners of Fei Xun’s lips curved slightly as he said to his “lady boss”:

“Agree to do me one favor, and you won’t have to repay the rest. How does that sound?”

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