Chapter 14#
The Self-Deceiving Liar#
The atmosphere during the meal was so eerie that it was practically indigestible.
After it ended, Brother Long secretly found Lin Xiaodong and asked with a frown: “Xiaodong, what’s the deal with you, your brother, and this guy surnamed Gu? You aren’t being coerced by him, are you?”
“No,” the youth shook his head but let out a soft sigh. “Brother Long, don’t think too much. I’m with Gu Xi voluntarily.”
Brother Long stared at him with a face full of suspicion.
“Xiaodong,” as expected, he spoke up on his own initiative, “A big boss like Gu Xi, I, Meng Jinlong, truly can’t hold a candle to him. But having been in society for so many years, if nothing else, I can say that in terms of loyalty, I’ve never been inferior to anyone. If you have something to say, just say it; we brothers will always be your backup!”
The other yellow-haired thugs also nodded.
“Alright,” Lin Xiaodong pursed his lips and said softly, “Actually… the person Gu Xi truly likes is my brother, Lin Xiamian.”
Brother Long drew in a cold breath, then flew into a rage: “Then why the hell did he mess with you for no reason!?”
“Because I love him,” Lin Xiaodong said.
Brother Long: “…………”
“Wait,” he said, rubbing his temples, his expression complicated and exactly like Lin Xiaodong’s when he first learned the plot. “Let me slow down. So the situation now is that you like Gu Xi, but Gu Xi likes your brother, and your brother…” He recalled seeing Lin Xiamian waiting on Lin Xiaodong hand and foot at the dinner table and said with difficulty, “And your brother has an excessive dependence on you. Is that right?”
Lin Xiaodong nodded.
The youth lowered his eyes, let out a long, faint sigh, and said despondently: “I know, I’m not as good as Xiamian in any way. I…”
“That’s not true!”
Lin Xiamian, who had been eavesdropping nearby, finally couldn’t hold back. He suddenly stepped out and loudly interrupted Lin Xiaodong: “Brother, you are the best!”
Saying that, he strode to Lin Xiaodong’s side, grabbed his wrist, and pleaded once more: “Come home with me, Brother, I beg you.” He choked up. “I really can’t live without you…”
Lin Xiaodong’s expression seemed somewhat wavering.
He sighed, held Lin Xiamian’s hand in return, and his eyes shimmered with guilty tears: “I’m sorry, Xiamian, it’s all Brother’s fault for letting you suffer alone during this time. I indeed need some time to calm down. The person Gu Xi loves is you. If you agree to be with him, I will take the initiative to withdraw and fulfill your happiness.”
Lin Xiamian’s lips moved.
He originally wanted to say who gives a damn about that guy surnamed Gu, but then he thought, if being with Gu Xi would make his brother give up, wouldn’t that be quite good too?
So he just lowered his head and tightened his grip on Lin Xiaodong’s hand.
He neither agreed nor disagreed.
Brother Long and his group of yellow-haired thugs watched, dumbfounded and their teeth aching.
I don’t understand, but I’m greatly shocked.jpg
Also facing life—no, system-life—confusion was a certain system.
It asked in a puzzled tone: “Why did you agree to go home with Lin Xiamian again? Weren’t you unwilling before?”
“Before was before, now is now,” Lin Xiaodong said. “I’ll live wherever I want. If I’m unhappy living at the Gu house, I’ll change locations to change my mood. Is there anything wrong with that?”
System: “But Lin Xiamian is mentally ill. Giving him hope like this—aren’t you afraid that if you leave again later, it will trigger a psychotic break?”
“How could that be,” Lin Xiaodong giggled. “I’m the softest-hearted ‘good person’ in this world. Whether it’s Gu Xi or my dear brother, I can’t bear for either of them to be hurt. Haven’t you heard that saying? ‘I’m not here to break up this family; I’m here to join it.’ Since I’m doing good deeds to accumulate merit, I might as well play the ‘good person’ to the end~”
System: I think you’re severely lacking in virtue.
But it could do nothing about Lin Xiaodong because, just as Lin Xiaodong said, everything he was doing now conformed to the headquarters’ regulations, even going above and beyond, enveloping everything in a halo of a “Holy Father.”
Before parting, Brother Long once again confirmed what Lin Xiaodong had said privately: “Xiaodong, were you serious about what you said just now? If Lin Xiamian and Gu Xi are together, you’ll take the initiative to withdraw?”
Lin Xiaodong: “Yes.”
“Sigh, Xiaodong, you…” Brother Long hesitated to speak, and in the end, he just patted his shoulder and said earnestly, “You’re too kind, really. Although I don’t understand why you’d fall for that kind of man, sometimes, you should consider yourself appropriately too.”
“Ding! Good Person Card +1.”
The system was stunned right after reporting. It asked Lin Xiaodong in disbelief: “Did you know all along that this Good Person Card was with Meng Jinlong? Is that why you put on that show just now?”
“It was just a guess, not certain,” Lin Xiaodong raised an eyebrow. “As for the acting, it can only be said to be going with the flow.”
System: “…………”
“How about it? Don’t you think I’m particularly witty and ingenious?”
The system let out a reluctant hum. Lin Xiaodong immediately became happy; it wasn’t easy to one day get the stubborn system to admit he was great!
“I’ll pack my things and come back tonight,” he said to Lin Xiamian. “Wait for me at home, be good, hear me?”
Lin Xiamian suppressed his inner ecstasy and nodded obediently: “Mm.”
After parting with his cheap brother, Lin Xiaodong went back to work as usual. When it was time to get off work, he went to the underground garage, opened the passenger door, and lowered his head to fasten his seatbelt as usual, only to find the man in the driver’s seat with a darkened face, making no move for a long time.
“What’s wrong?” he turned and asked. “Aren’t you going to drive?”
“You’re going home?”
“Mm,” Lin Xiaodong admitted openly.
“…Why?”
Gu Xi truly couldn’t understand. What was so bad about the Gu family mansion? There were people to clean, people to help with cooking, and a butler available at any time. Why was Lin Xiaodong still unwilling to stay?
“It’s nothing, I just want to go home and live for a while,” Lin Xiaodong said casually.
The man tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
In his memory, the cold body of the little wild cat lying in the garden and the silhouette of the youth in the passenger seat merged for a moment. Gu Xi’s throat bobbed as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he just said coldly: “Get out.”
Lin Xiaodong was stunned for a moment.
However, he was sensible enough not to ask anything or apologize. Without waiting for Gu Xi to say a second word, he proactively unfastened his seatbelt and got out of the car.
The car stopped in front of him for half a minute.
Lin Xiaodong was expressionless: Motherfucker, you’re the one who kicked me out, why haven’t you left yet?
Fortunately, just as his feet were about to go numb from standing, the car finally drove away.
Lin Xiaodong quickly called a Didi (ride-share).
He had no choice; his things were still at the Gu family mansion.
But when Lin Xiaodong arrived in front of the manor, he found the butler already standing at the door with his packed luggage.
“What,” the youth rolled down the car window and asked with a half-smile, “he won’t even let me inside the house anymore?”
The butler lowered his brows and said politely: “Mr. Lin, these are the things you brought and bought while staying here. The Master said to have you take them all away, leaving nothing behind.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll have to trouble you to help me load them into the trunk.”
The butler frowned. Seeing that he wanted to say something more, Lin Xiaodong suddenly interrupted him: “Gu Xi sent you, right? Help me pass on a message while you’re at it. I really like the scent of that bottle of shampoo he just finished using two days ago. Don’t change it before I come back.”
After staring at the smiling youth for a moment, the butler finally yielded.
True, he hadn’t known the cause and effect before, but when he heard Gu Xi tell him to pack all of Lin Xiaodong’s luggage and take it away, the butler had indeed been happy for a while. But after that conversation just now, he finally realized:
Lin Xiaodong’s words clearly implied that he would be coming back!
After working up a sweat moving the luggage into the trunk, the butler returned to the mansion with a black face.
“Where is the Master?” he asked, stopping someone in the hallway.
The maid quickly replied: “The Master is in the second-floor bedroom.”
The second-floor bedroom…
The butler’s first reaction was that the window of the second-floor bedroom faced directly toward the manor’s main gate.
He sighed: “I understand. Go about your business.”
Going upstairs, the butler found that the bedroom door was not closed. Gu Xi was indeed standing in front of the window, silently gazing at the scenery outside the manor.
“Master, the person has left,” he said.
“Mm.”
“Mr. Lin also asked me to pass on a message to you,” after some hesitation, the butler still spoke. “He said he really likes the scent of the shampoo you finished using two days ago. Don’t change it before he comes back.”
This time, Gu Xi was quiet for a moment before answering:
“…Understood.”
The butler probed: “Then should I instruct them to change it…?”
Gu Xi: “Change it.”
“Alright.” A look of “just as I thought” appeared on the butler’s face.
This was clearly a case of lingering feelings.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Lin Xiaodong didn’t see anyone come out to greet him when he returned home. He placed his large and small bags at the door and followed the sound to the kitchen, finding Lin Xiamian busily cooking.
The sound of the range hood covered the sound of the door closing. Not until he heard movement behind him did he suddenly turn around: “Brother!? You’re back!”
Lin Xiamian’s breathing hitched. Seeing the youth he had been yearning for for so many days return home, standing within reach and smiling at him, he dropped the spatula, turned around, and lunged into Lin Xiaodong’s arms, his two arms tightly encircling the other’s waist.
Lin Xiaodong was almost suffocated by his grip. He coughed and patted the youth in his arms, who was already two centimeters taller than him at some point: “Alright, how old are you now?”
“Even when I’m eighty, I’ll still be Brother’s younger brother,” Lin Xiamian said in a muffled voice, buried in his chest.
But soon he proactively let go. He had to; the food in the pan would burn if left alone. Lin Xiamian smiled while stir-frying: “Brother, I specifically made fish for you. I know you love braised fish most!”
Lin Xiaodong praised with a smile: “Mm, Xiamian is so great.”
But in reality, he didn’t like eating fish at all.
The one who loved eating fish was Lin Xiamian.
Lin Xiaodong still remembered that in the character biography, even after the two brothers had completely fallen out years later, the older brother still firmly remembered the younger brother’s tastes and wanted to go home and cook a hot meal for him.
Unfortunately, that knife used for killing fish eventually became the murder weapon for fratricide.
Staring at Lin Xiamian’s busy figure, he thought calmly.
What a pity.
The only person in this world who truly loved you was killed by your own hands long ago.