Chapter 81#

The Disabled Big Shot’s Stepson#

Watching the IV bottle shaking incessantly like a candle in the wind, Lin Pei took a deep breath, unable to bear it any longer.

He frowned deeply and asked sternly, “What do you want to do?”

If anyone else had seen the gloomy expression on the man’s face, they would have turned pale with fright and apologized tremblingly, wishing they could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

But Lin Xiaodong didn’t pay any attention to him at all.

The youth was busy sticking his head out to listen to the movement below, and as if he felt Lin Pei’s voice was too loud, he turned his head and made a “shh” gesture at him, truly showing no courtesy at all.

Lin Pei’s brow twitched, and he narrowed his eyes with an unfriendly gaze.

Hearing the footsteps downstairs getting closer and closer, Lin Xiaodong knew in his heart that he certainly wouldn’t be able to hide tonight. He folded his hands and bowed piously to Lin Pei, revealing a pleading expression.

That eager look was like worshipping Maitreya Buddha in a temple.

Lin Pei: “…………”

The man remained silent, sitting in his wheelchair and looking at him with an indifferent gaze, his expression unmoved.

Seeing him like this, Lin Xiaodong also knew there wasn’t much hope. He muttered “truly stingy” and let out a sigh, preparing to push Lin Pei back, just in time to bump into the supervisor halfway.

“Head of the family!?” The supervisor looked at him, then at Lin Pei sitting in the wheelchair, and said in disbelief, “How did you two…”

Lin Xiaodong was just about to admit his mistake of his own accord when he heard Lin Pei say flatly, “Couldn’t sleep, came out for some fresh air.”

“I see.” The supervisor didn’t dare ask why Lin Xiaodong was there either, and after greeting them hurriedly, he went down to handle Lin Qi’s matter. After he left, Lin Xiaodong immediately thanked Lin Pei solemnly: “A great kindness cannot be expressed in words! Benefactor, tell me, what do you need me to help with?”

Lin Pei tapped the armrest and asked back, “This whole castle is mine. What can you help me with?”

“Well…” Lin Xiaodong thought for a moment, his gaze falling on his legs covered by a blanket, and said slowly, “Well, there’s certainly something. You’re disabled; if you want to go out for a stroll, you’ll need someone to help push your wheelchair.”

At these words, Lin Pei’s curved finger paused.

To be honest, he had already forgotten how long it had been since he heard the word “disabled.”

Ever since the incident, everyone who came to visit him and the subordinates around him, even including the doctors who treated him, had avoided mentioning this fact. They always comforted him, saying his legs just temporarily couldn’t move, and as long as he did rehabilitation exercises properly, it was still possible to stand up again… such things, blah blah blah.

The former Lin Pei believed this firmly. He was not someone who yielded to fate easily; knowing there was still a ray of hope, he would never give up. Thus, enduring heart-piercing pain, he repeated the process of standing up, falling down, falling down, and standing up again and again.

During this period, how many times had he failed in total?

He couldn’t remember clearly either.

Lin Pei had once calmly asked the doctor if he would never be able to stand up again, but what he got was always encouragement, comfort, and vague answers like “perhaps there’s a miracle”… But the fact that he could lead the Lin family to build today’s huge foundation was never dependent on that illusory and remote miracle.

The first half of his life was spent cold and sharp, like a piece of refined iron that had been hammered a thousand times. He hadn’t not experienced even more desperate situations. In the final analysis, what the man wanted was just a definite answer, a judgment that was even cold and almost cruel, to help him recognize reality.

But one day, when Lin Pei found that even his most loyal subordinates did not mention any words about “legs,” “disabled,” or even “running” in front of him, he understood that he would probably spend the long rest of his life in this cautious care and the eyes of loathsome sympathy.

Seeing that Lin Pei hadn’t answered him for a while, Lin Xiaodong thought he was in a daze and even waved his hand in front of the man’s eyes: “Hey, what’s wrong with you?”

The man came back to his senses and took a look at him.

“Send me back to my room,” he said coldly, in an imperative tone.

The man’s attitude made Lin Xiaodong very unhappy, but considering that Lin Pei had helped him once before, he endured it.

“Since you’re still on an IV drip, don’t wander around aimlessly in the middle of the night,” the youth said while pushing the wheelchair, also nagging incessantly, “and also, you were the one making all that noise that night, right? If it was because of illness, you should have just said so; it’s not like I can’t understand. Why did you have to find some reason like a wild boar coming down the mountain? Only a ghost would believe that.”

“I never said that; it was them looking for trouble for no reason.”

Lin Xiaodong gave an “um,” looked at Lin Pei’s sarcastic expression, and gave a light cough, saying, “Alright. But Mr. Ye and the others also care about you…”

Here it came again.

Lin Pei was extremely annoyed hearing this.

Did he not know these things? But this self-righteous “care” always made the man loathe it from the bottom of his heart.

He was just about to tell Lin Xiaodong to leave when the youth behind him suddenly stopped and asked him very seriously, “Where’s the bathroom on the second floor? I drank too much chicken soup tonight.”

Lin Pei stared at him.

“You plan to leave me alone in the corridor?” he asked in disbelief.

“How can you say that?” Lin Xiaodong defended himself righteously. “I’m just going to the toilet. You wait for me at the door for a while; you have a wheelchair to sit on, so it’s not tiring.”

This was not a question of whether it was tiring or not at all!

Since Lin Pei became the head of the family—no, even before he became the head of the family—no one had ever dared to treat him so lightly.

Moreover, although he had difficulty moving now, he was still the head of the Lin family, and others treated him with even more caution. Where had he ever seen a brat like Lin Xiaodong who would just leave him at will, but only for the purpose of going to the toilet?

“Turn left, the third room has a bathroom.”

But in the end, Lin Pei still told Lin Xiaodong the location of the nearest bathroom.

“Thanks~” The youth waved his hand at him with a smile. “Don’t wander off; I don’t know the way on the second floor, and I won’t be able to find you then. I’ll be back right away!”

Lin Pei was almost laughed into anger by him.

He was in a wheelchair; where else could he go?

A few minutes later, accompanied by the sound of splashing water, Lin Xiaodong finally came out of the bathroom.

“Alas, such a good garden, yet no flowers or grass are planted.” He pushed Lin Pei back again, looking at the desolate garden under the moonlight outside the window, and couldn’t help but sigh, “Mr. Lin, you’re the head of a large family; don’t be so stingy. If it really doesn’t work, buy some sunflower seeds for me, and I’ll help you plant them for free.”

“Stingy…” Lin Pei gritted his teeth, clutching the armrest until it creaked, and a trace of flush even appeared on his pale face.

No way around it; it was from anger.

But Lin Xiaodong, behind him, couldn’t see the raging fire in the man’s eyes at all and was still talking incessantly: “Sunflowers are so good; they grow beautifully and are edible, economical and practical…”

“Shut up!” Lin Pei shouted coldly.

Lin Xiaodong was startled by him and felt a bit aggrieved: “I didn’t say anything; why are you so fierce?”

The youth stopped, simply let go of his hands, stood in front of him with arms crossed, and gave a smug chuckle: “Apologize. Or I won’t send you back.”

Lin Pei gave him an expressionless look.

“Why are you looking at me?” Lin Xiaodong felt a sudden chill for some reason. He shook his body and said in a low voice, “Forget it, since you helped me just now, I won’t hold it against you.”

But as he was about to reach out to grab the armrest of the wheelchair, Lin Pei took out a remote control from his pajama pocket in front of him. After the man pressed the on/off button, the wheels of that wheelchair actually moved by themselves!

“Damn,” Lin Xiaodong was stunned for quite a while, then flew into a rage, “it’s electric, and you didn’t say so earlier?”

This ghostly thing was heavy as hell!

The wheelchair Lin Pei sat in was not like those types on the market that focus on being lightweight. Although it didn’t look electric, the various tools, weapons, and emergency medical supplies it was equipped with were not a bit few. Lin Xiaodong even suspected that the seat was simply a small warehouse; otherwise, how could it be so heavy?

Lin Pei curled the corner of his mouth, and the sarcasm in it was very thick.

As if intentionally playing a trick on Lin Xiaodong, he even adjusted the speed of the wheelchair to the highest gear—this gear, with a top speed of 38 km/h, was fast enough to rival an electric bike galloping on the road. Probably even the designer himself hadn’t thought that it could be used one day.

“You’re freaking… wait for me!”

Lin Xiaodong chased behind, out of breath. After finally waiting for Lin Pei to have a burst of kindness and stop, he panted while supporting his knees, staring at the man half with gnashing teeth and half with amusement, asking, “Are you sick? I’ve seen many people who don’t sleep at night and come out to race cars for excitement, but I’ve never seen anyone racing a wheelchair!”

Lin Pei’s face was also a little flushed; he hadn’t engaged in such intense “exercise” for a long time.

But facing the youth’s questioning, for some reason, the man inexplicably didn’t want to show weakness in front of him.

He gave a cold snort and said, “That’s because you’ve seen too little.”

“Then why don’t you continue?” Lin Xiaodong thought to himself that he shouldn’t be fooled again this time; he wouldn’t do the thing of being a sucker.

“Out of power,” Lin Pei said very candidly.

“…………”

So Lin Xiaodong could only pinch his nose and continue to push his wheelchair with a face full of bad luck.

“Where exactly is your bedroom?” He had never felt this castle was so big; his calves were sore from exhaustion. “I’ve gone in a whole circle!”

“Right where you bumped into me just now.” Lin Pei curled his mouth. “I told you just now, I just couldn’t sleep and wanted to come out for some fresh air.”

Lin Xiaodong’s eyes widened, and he took a deep breath tremblingly.

He used all the self-cultivation of his life to keep himself from flipping this guy off the wheelchair on the spot.

Looking at the aggrieved expression on the youth’s face in the glass window, Lin Pei’s gloomy mood was instantly swept away.

He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had chatted with someone so easily and happily. When Ye Shiyuan proposed this successor selection, he was afraid Lin Pei would misunderstand that he wanted to choose another wise master, but in fact, Lin Pei didn’t care about these things at all.

The position of the head of the Lin family was nothing more than icing on the cake for him.

As for the successor, Lin Pei had no interest in teaching a wolf cub. A true wolf king is carved out from cruel actual combat and doesn’t need anyone’s teaching. After the next generation’s wings are full, if he wants this position, he will naturally take the initiative to grab it.

But if the one he adopted was Lin Xiaodong, making the youth stand in front of everyone and, unwillingly, walk up to him and call him “father”…

Lin Pei imagined that scene, and the index finger placed on the armrest slowly curved up, a flash of interest crossing his eyes.

One had to say, it felt quite interesting.