Chapter 92#

The Disabled Big Shot’s Stepson#

Early in the morning, Lin Xiaodong was awakened by the commotion outside the door.

The youth, with a bad case of morning grumpiness, sat up. He thought the noise would be temporary, but after waiting for almost ten minutes, it seemed to be getting worse.

—The crucial thing was that he was wearing earplugs.

Having no choice, Lin Xiaodong got up. As he passed the living room, the few people who had been sitting on the sofa, chatting intimately, simultaneously fell silent and looked up at him. Among them, his aunt’s expression was the most displeased.

But Lin Xiaodong merely glanced at them indifferently, his gaze pausing for a moment on the slightly older man in the white coat in the middle, giving him an almost imperceptible nod as a greeting. However, he still said nothing, picked up his toiletries, and walked towards the bathroom.

This doctor had also been to the castle before; he was Lin Pei’s exclusive physician. Because of Lin Pei, they had become acquainted over time. Upon seeing Lin Xiaodong, the doctor also smiled slightly while sipping his tea, proving Lin Xiaodong’s guess was correct—this was indeed the “famous doctor” Ye Shiyuan had mentioned earlier.

Given the doctor’s relationship with Lin Pei, it was clear that he was another person arranged by the man. Although Lin Xiaodong didn’t show it, he was indeed a little happy inside.

“Stop right there.” Seeing him about to leave, his aunt immediately spoke up. “These are all relatives who helped you in the past. You see them and don’t even greet them. Where are your manners?”

She raised her eyebrows, her voice stern, seemingly intending to assert her authority as the mistress of the house in front of this large family.

Unfortunately, Lin Xiaodong didn’t fall for her act.

“You and Uncle raised me since childhood, so my manners were naturally taught by you,” the youth smiled and retorted unceremoniously. Without waiting for his aunt, whose face suddenly flushed red, to speak again, he turned and walked away, giving her no further opportunity to speak.

“You see, I really…” His aunt glared fiercely at his retreating back. Her face, twisted with anger, immediately changed into an expression mixed with sorrow and helplessness when she noticed the gaze of the relatives beside her. “I really tried my best, but this child is grown up, and not my own. I don’t dare to educate him as strictly as I do Qiqi, and he’s turned out like this… Alas, my husband and I are just too soft-hearted.”

Hearing these words, the surrounding relatives comforted her one after another, and some genuinely sympathized with her, thinking Lin Xiaodong was truly an ungrateful wretch.

Having gained everyone’s approval, the aunt was very pleased. However, the doctor, who knew all the inside information, simply drank his tea silently throughout, occasionally giving perfunctory “mm-hmms,” which made the aunt, who had him as her primary target, somewhat displeased.

After finally enduring this period of polite exchanges, the doctor finally found an excuse and intercepted Lin Xiaodong in front of the bathroom door.

“Long time no see, Dr. Lin.” Lin Xiaodong saw there was no way to hide and could only give him a smile. “How have you been recently?”

“Alright.”

Dr. Lin wasn’t foolish either. The house was only so big. Lin Xiaodong clearly saw him but kept hiding in his room, so he naturally knew the youth was deliberately avoiding him.

As for the reason… combining it with Lin Pei’s recent situation, he could probably guess some of it.

It was probably because of pride and his physical condition during this period that he hadn’t contacted the other party at all.

As a doctor who had specialized in psychology to help patients recover, Dr. Lin had naturally noticed the abnormality in Lin Pei’s and the youth’s interactions. However, this discovery was too shocking. Whether out of respect for the Head of the Family or professional ethics as a doctor, Dr. Lin would not casually speak of it.

However, all of this was predicated on his patient maintaining a healthy mind and body.

Thinking of the medical report he had just received this morning and the man’s demeanor when talking with Lin Pei recently, Dr. Lin couldn’t help but say to the youth in front of him: “Xiaodong, if you have time, come with me to the castle to see the Head of the Family? Everyone misses you very much.”

“No, I still have to go to school,” Lin Xiaodong refused verbally, but his eyes sharply scrutinized Dr. Lin’s troubled expression, asking pointedly, “Are you saying this because something happened to Lin Pei?”

“No,” Dr. Lin immediately denied it.

However, under the youth’s piercing gaze, he eventually relented and reluctantly revealed a little bit of information to Lin Xiaodong: “The Head of the Family recently underwent a major surgery. His recovery… can’t be said to be bad, but it’s not ideal either. You know, a patient’s mood has a lot to do with their recovery, so I hope you can go see him. Just sitting by the bed and chatting briefly is fine too.”

Lin Xiaodong originally wanted to say, if that’s the case, why hasn’t he replied to my messages? But remembering Lin Pei’s inexplicably stubborn pride, he silently swallowed those words.

Unlike the night they spent in the tree hole, facing a predicament that even Lin Pei himself wasn’t confident about, enduring alone and refusing to show weakness in front of him was indeed something the man would do.

“Alright then,” he agreed, “but I have to deal with things here first. Dr. Lin, do you need my help with anything this time?”

Hearing Lin Xiaodong agree to go back with him, Dr. Lin also breathed a huge sigh of relief, his expression visibly much more relaxed. But hearing footsteps on the second floor, he quickened his pace, whispered a few words into Lin Xiaodong’s ear, then straightened up with a natural expression, brushed past the youth, and walked towards the weeping woman surrounded by people.

Lin Xiaodong had no interest in participating in the farce not far away. He was just pondering what was wrong with Lin Pei’s body. Why was he perfectly fine when he left, but suddenly needed surgery? And the information didn’t mention anything related to this…

“Doctor, please, save my Qiqi!” In front of everyone, his aunt made a gesture as if to kneel before Dr. Lin, holding a combination lock box in her hand. “This contains all our savings, my husband’s and mine. If you can cure Qiqi, we’ll give all of this to you!”

“Don’t do this, please get up first…” Dr. Lin didn’t dare let her kneel to him. Fortunately, his aunt was only putting on a show and was quickly helped up by the people around her. The woman pretended to faint from low blood sugar. Lin Xiaodong coldly watched his good uncle quickly glance at him, deliberately placed the suitcase next to the living room TV, and then, along with others, helped his wife up to the second floor.

He knew that before long, these two would find an excuse to kick him out of the house.

Lin Xiaodong simply packed his things himself and, taking advantage of no one being on the first floor, left the house with his bag. His uncle, who had planned to use the excuse of guests needing rooms to make Lin Xiaodong move out, came downstairs only to find the former storage room already empty—this instantly threw him into disarray.

They had already planned for Lin Xiaodong to stay at a guesthouse tonight. Anyway, there were no surveillance cameras or security guards outside the small guesthouse. All they had to do was secretly place the money box on the boy’s windowsill in the middle of the night, and then call the police directly the next morning.

But now they didn’t even know where Lin Xiaodong had gone, so how could they frame him?

Although the man prided himself on being the head of the family, he was always indecisive. After panicking, he immediately ran upstairs to secretly discuss with his wife, who was lying in bed. His wife glared at him, and fearing being discovered by people outside, she lowered her voice and cursed: “What good are you! I told you to keep an eye on him, and you can’t even do such a simple thing!”

“How was I supposed to know he would run out? He usually just stays in his room and doesn’t come out,” the man also felt very wronged. He said impatiently, “And is the focus now on blaming me? It’s already like this, hurry up and think of a solution!”

“Truly unreliable!”

The woman cursed, then frowned tightly and said: “Now you can only find an opportunity to avoid them, and secretly hide the money. Remember to mess up the living room a bit more. Anyway, that brat has no evidence. Then we’ll insist he stole it, and just let the police arrest him as a suspect first for a few years!”

“This… won’t it be discovered?” The man still had some doubts.

“If you don’t say it, and I don’t say it, and the guests at home don’t know, who will discover it?” His wife pinched him hard. “Coward! Your son has been messed up like this, and you’re still such a coward!”

The man’s face twisted in pain, but he didn’t dare to cry out. He could only curse a few words, found a random excuse to let the guests outside go in and see his wife, and then quickly ran downstairs to hide the money.

It certainly couldn’t be placed inside the house. The man carefully placed the suitcase under a pile of debris in the corner of the yard. After thinking about it, he still felt uneasy, so he simply covered it with plastic sheeting and buried it in the dirt.

After disguising the scene, the man endured the pain and picked up a brick from the yard, smashing it against a living room window with a “bang.”

The crashing sound quickly attracted all the guests on the second floor. Seeing the mess in the living room, they all cried out in alarm.

“What happened?”

“Why did the glass break for no reason?”

“Could it be a thief?”

“What a sin!” The man stood at the door, his sudden wailing startling everyone. “This was your brother’s life-saving money! How could you bear to steal it? What a sin!”

“Stealing money!!??”

The guests walked into the living room in disbelief and indeed found that the suitcase, which had originally been placed next to the TV, was long gone. Lin Xiaodong, who lived in the storage room, had also disappeared—even his luggage was neatly packed, so no one would believe it wasn’t him.

“This is too bad!” Someone immediately said indignantly, “Even if he’s not your biological child, you’ve raised him for so many years. He’s truly an ungrateful wretch!”

“Exactly! Even stealing his brother’s life-saving money, he truly has no conscience!”

“Call the police! We must call the police!”

His aunt was still “weakly” trying to dissuade them: “Forget it, Xiaodong is just a child after all…”

“A child shouldn’t do such a thing either!” A middle-aged woman supporting her immediately retorted, “You, you’re just too kind, too soft-hearted! This kind of young person, if let loose in society, would also be a menace. You absolutely cannot let him off lightly!”

Her suggestion received unanimous agreement from everyone present.

So, under “extreme reluctance,” his aunt, suppressing the triumphant smile at the corner of her mouth, dialed 110…