Chapter 9#

The Self-Deceiving Liar#

Watching Zheng Li being sent into the ambulance, Lin Xiaodong turned to look at Manager Hu.

Seeing the terrified looks of the group, he gave a light smile, waved his hand, and said easily, “Goodbye. If I ever get kicked out one day, remember to save a private booth in Wanxiao for me to stay overnight.”

Lin Xiaodong left at noon, and the sunlight on the street was at its peak.

Humming a song, he unwittingly wandered near High School No. 1.

Walking to the bulletin board at the school entrance, as expected, he saw Lin Xiamian’s photo.

Taking another look at the column title: “Outstanding Student in Morality, Intelligence, Physical Fitness, and Art.”

Good heavens.

In the photo, this simpleton was smiling brightly, and the message he wrote for himself was:

“Hope I can have a bit more frank courage.”

“I used to be a regular here,” Lin Xiaodong watched for a while longer and said proudly to the students nearby.

Those two girls gave a look of both disdain and fear at his tattooed arms and quickly walked away.

Lin Xiaodong looked down at his own arms.

The tattoo stickers on them had actually mostly fallen off, but when he worked at Wanxiao before, he wore long sleeves, and Gu Xi didn’t seem to care if he had tattoos, so they had been kept until now.

Speaking of which, why did Gu Xi take a fancy to him in the first place?

Lin Xiaodong thought for a moment; after all, it was still because of Lin Xiamian.

He looked up and saw his reflection in the glass of the bulletin board.

His facial features were almost identical to the youth in the photo, but the temperament was worlds apart.

No wonder Gu Xi looked at him last night and the name that blurted out was Lin Xiamian.

Lin Xiaodong didn’t connect Gu Xi’s mistake with his new hair color at all. In his view, the man’s behavior was already thoroughly infatuated with his cheap younger brother.

The phone in his pocket vibrated, and Lin Xiaodong looked down to find that Gu Xi had transferred four thousand yuan to him via WeChat.

Note: Buy a set of pajamas.

Thirty thousand last time, four thousand this time.

It seemed the big boss intended to fight a long-term battle.

The clothes were torn by him anyway, so Lin Xiaodong happily accepted it.

“White moonlight~ somewhere in my heart~”

He hummed a song, thinking that since he had taken the money, he should be more professional as a substitute.

These days, a substitute who doesn’t fight or grab and is available at any time is a good substitute.

“Tell me, what excuse should I use?” Lin Xiaodong pondered. “If I rush to Gu Xi now and tell him I love him to death and don’t mind even if he treats me as a substitute for my brother, he definitely won’t believe it.”

System: “Gu Xi has a large mansion in this city. It’s said that no outsider has ever been able to enter. If you can get him to take you there, the first stage should be considered successful.”

The system was very calm now. Anyway, as long as it collected all the Good Person Cards to complete the task, the rest was none of its business.

In this “insane showdown,” it wanted to see just how far Lin Xiaodong could go.

After going back, Lin Xiaodong asked the system to open Lin Xiamian’s character biography.

The so-called character biography was, to put it bluntly, the memory of this person from a first-person perspective. Actually, he originally wanted to choose Gu Xi, but the words Lin Xiamian wrote on the bulletin board at High School No. 1 made him a bit concerned, so he eventually changed his mind.

“Open ‘Lin Xiamian’ character biography?”

“Yes.”

Lin Xiaodong lay on the bed according to the system’s instructions and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the scenery in front of him had changed into a dilapidated small building.

This was Lin Xiamian’s memory.

Before Lin Xiaodong could figure out what year it was, he heard a loud cry coming from “his” throat. A curse came from the next room, and a woman with disheveled hair, wrapped in a bedsheet and barefoot, opened the door and shouted toward this side: “Lin Xiaodong! Didn’t I tell you to take good care of him?”

As her words fell, a small, thin child emerged from the kitchen.

He looked only four or five years old, not even as tall as a table. Hearing his mother’s words, the child silently walked to “his” side, skillfully changed a diaper, and with difficulty, took the baby into his arms and stuffed a pacifier into his mouth.

The woman complained a few more times with a face full of annoyance, then turned around and returned to the room with a guest.

The moment the door closed, the child stopped moving.

With an expressionless face, he stretched out his hands and placed them loosely on “his” throat, his fingers tightening bit by bit.

The suffocating feeling of extreme oxygen deficiency gradually rushed to his brain. Lin Xiaodong looked at the child above him through Lin Xiamian’s eyes, and even his heartbeat stopped for a moment.

But in the end, that child slowly lowered his hands.

The scene changed.

Lin Xiamian had grown up and started primary school, following his brother to and from school every day.

Walking on the way home from school, he carried his schoolbag and held his brother’s hand. With a child’s tender voice, he told his brother, who was only two grades higher than him, about the interesting things that happened at school today. His chirping was just like a sparrow perched on a roadside telephone pole.

“None of the classmates in my class have a brother,” he said very proudly. “Only I do!”

“Is that so?”

“Yes,” Lin Xiamian thought for a moment and suddenly realized he had missed someone. “Wait, Da Wang also has a brother, but he told us he hates his brother because he bullies him at home every day and steals his snacks.”

As he spoke, he showed a sympathetic expression: “So pitiful. Fortunately, I have a good brother.”

The youth holding his hand laughed.

“None of my classmates have a younger brother either,” he said from the bottom of his heart. “I really envy them.”

“…Brother, what did you say?”

Lin Xiamian’s attention was completely attracted by a roadside stall selling chicks and didn’t hear the youth’s words.

“Nothing.” The youth’s expression was slightly unnatural, but it was soon covered up by him.

He looked down at the brother beside him and smiled: “What do you want to eat tonight?”

“Braised pork!”

Lin Xiamian cheered and jumped into the youth’s arms, giving him a big “smack” on the cheek: “Long live Brother!”

The screen changed again.

This time, both brothers had grown up.

Lin Xiamian was in the second year of junior high, and Lin Xiaodong had entered High School No. 1 with the top grades in the district from a junior high that was at the bottom of the district.

“Xiaodong, did the school give you a scholarship when it opened?”

In the middle of the night, Lin Xiamian clumsily climbed out of bed, rubbing his eyes to go to the bathroom, but unintentionally overheard the conversation between his mother and his brother.

Probably because the sons had grown up, the woman’s temper gradually softened. When Lin Xiamian came home from school, he could occasionally see his mother busy in the kitchen.

But facing his mother, whose attitude was rarely gentle, his brother just kept his head down and gave a soft “Mm.”

“Then can you lend me two thousand first?” The mother’s expression was slightly cramped, and she said in a low voice, “Xiaodong, you also know Mom’s health is poor. The medicine now is too expensive, I can’t afford it at all.”

“…I don’t have money.”

“Nonsense, I clearly saw a pile of money stuffed in the gap of your bed when I was tidying up the other day!” The mother raised her voice, but soon noticed her attitude was too severe and lowered her posture to plead, “Xiaodong, Mom knows it’s not easy for you. It’s Mom’s incompetence that failed you. But I am your mother after all. Can you just watch me die?”

“That’s tuition for me and Xiamian,” his brother looked up and said hoarsely. “Mom, don’t say these things anymore. I’m tired of hearing them.”

“You! You unfilial son, ungrateful wolf…”

Lin Xiamian slipped away before he could finish listening.

The rental house was not big; he and Lin Xiaodong had always slept in one bed. Returning to the room, he flipped through the gap of the bed and counted the money inside—not a cent more or less, exactly eight thousand.

These were all saved bit by bit from his and his brother’s scholarships.

The door closed, and Lin Xiamian suddenly looked up.

It was his brother who had returned.

“What are you counting?” His brother walked over with a weary face and slumped onto the bed. “Didn’t we agree? This money must never be given to her, or else the two of us will be ruined for a lifetime.”

Lin Xiamian didn’t speak.

Listening to the sobbing from the next room, after a while, he said in a low voice: “But Brother, don’t you think we’re being too unfair to Mom? We are the children she gave birth to; we really can’t just ignore her…”

“But did she ever care about us!”

Lin Xiamian was startled by his brother’s suddenly raised voice, kneeling on the bed in a daze, not daring to move an inch.

After an unknown amount of time, his brother sighed long and hard, rubbed his head, and stuffed the money into his hand.

“Forget it, give this money to her,” he said calmly. “As for the tuition, I’ll find a way.”

Only then did Lin Xiamian regain his composure.

He was really scared by his brother’s expression just now.

“Brother, you’re so good.”

He showed a big smile and ran out of the room with the money.

The mother, weeping with joy, gave him a forceful hug: “Xiamian, as expected, you are the one who loves Mom the most…”

The next part of the memory was in the hospital.

Lin Qiaoqiao was seriously ill and hospitalized, requiring constant care. To treat her illness, the family owed a large amount of money. Creditors came to the door every day, and Lin Xiaodong and Lin Xiamian couldn’t even leave the house, let alone go to school.

In desperation, the two brothers decided to draw lots. The one who drew the red lot would drop out of school to work and take care of their mother.

“Mom, I…”

The youth walked into the bedroom, only to see that there was an extra lot box, which should have been kept in his mother’s hand. He widened his eyes, and just as he was about to say something, the woman leaning on the head of the bed “shushed” him: “Be quiet, don’t let your brother hear.”

He watched with his own eyes as his mother swapped the lot boxes, so that no matter how he drew, he would definitely not draw the red lot.

“Your brother is soft-hearted; he won’t say anything,” his mother told him. “Lin Xiamian, when you grow up, you must repay your brother well, hear me? He only has you left.”

Lin Xiamian stared at the lot box in her arms and was silent for a long time.

But in the end, he still didn’t say anything.

The final memory occurred in the future of the original world line.

“Brother, do you really like him that much?”

The adult Lin Xiamian stood in the kitchen, staring obsessively at the figure in front of him.

As they grew older, the gap between the two brothers became wider and wider, not only in education, status, and living environment but even in appearance, very obvious changes had occurred.

Now, no one would mistake them for each other again.

Because of long-term dealing with people in gray areas, his brother had become increasingly silent and gloomy-eyed, like a skeletal fierce dog, only occasionally showing a submissive expression when beside Gu Xi. Lin Xiamian, after graduating, stayed at the school. With his excellent academic ability and extraordinary looks, he was now a male god-level associate professor popular on campus.

The person who was killing a fish stopped moving.

“Lin Xiamian,” his voice was hoarse. In an attack against Gu Xi not long ago, his vocal cords were accidentally damaged to protect the man. “I rarely come back. Let’s not talk about these unpleasant topics anymore.”

But Lin Xiamian acted as if he didn’t hear. Instead, he took another step forward and reached out to hug his waist.

“Brother,” he pressed his face against the man’s back, taking a lingering deep breath of the scent on him. The words he spoke, however, made the body in his arms tremble uncontrollably. “Give up. The person Gu Xi likes is me. No matter how much you try to please him, even if you give your life for him, he won’t look at you directly.”

“Shut up!”

The man leaned his hands on the chopping board and roared in despair.

“Why won’t you just admit it?” Lin Xiamian laughed in a low voice as he saw him pushed to the limit. He reached out, wanting to cup that face that was similar to his own, but was avoided by the other with a face full of loathing.

“Lin Xiamian,” he said coldly, “I should have strangled you in your swaddling clothes back then.”

Lin Xiamian’s movement paused.

Immediately, instead of getting angry, he laughed. He picked up the blood-stained boning knife on the chopping board and forcefully stuffed it into his brother’s hand.

“You can do it now too,” he said softly in an encouraging tone. “As long as you kill me, there will be no more ‘Lin Xiamian’s substitute’ in this world. From now on, you will be Gu Xi’s only one…”

The man’s breathing gradually became rapid.

“Kill me, Brother!” Lin Xiamian suddenly tightened his grip on his hand and commanded in a tone excited to the point of madness.

A pulling force came from the wrist, and the man subconsciously thrust the knife handle forward.

The tip of the knife pierced the abdomen. Lin Xiamian let out a muffled groan and slowly knelt on the ground. At the end of his consciousness, he saw his brother kneeling down in a panic and holding him, just like when they were young, during those beautiful times when they only had each other…

Lin Xiamian closed his eyes contentedly.

Because he knew Lin Xiaodong would come to accompany him soon.

In this life, he only allowed his brother to look at him alone.

The character biography ended here.

The system was silent for a long time.

Although Lin Xiaodong had reminded it several times before, after watching this memory, the system was still deeply shocked by the degree of Lin Xiamian’s “yandere” nature.

Even it felt that living in such a distorted family environment, wanting to be a pure and kind-hearted good person… was simply impossible, right!?

But Lin Xiaodong couldn’t help but laugh in a low voice.

System: “What’s so funny?”

“Don’t you think it’s very interesting?” Lin Xiaodong asked back with a smile. He could even imagine Lin Xiamian’s expression when he learns that he is together with Gu Xi in the future; it must be very exciting.

“My younger brother really hasn’t disappointed me.”

The author has something to say:

Personally, I don’t think this is love from Lin Xiamian. It’s more like a spoiled child’s paranoid possession of his own property. Of course, everyone’s understanding is different. Welcome to leave a message in the comments section~