Chapter Thirty-One: Lynn Lynn

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After agreeing to go to the hospital for an examination the next day, I returned to my room and sat down on the edge of the bed.

My face, reflected on the phone screen, still looked pale and sickly. I could only hope the medicine would work.

I sprawled out on the large bed and began searching for information about Changshui Village on my phone.

Nearly every video showed firefighters and rescue workers dealing with several landslides along the mountain road.

One section had suffered an especially massive collapse, with the road itself giving way completely.

Only then did I realize how close we had come to disaster. The section shown in the video was not far from where Xu Zhixia had been buried.

If we had been even a little slower that day, we probably would have been swept down the slope by the landslide.

I searched through footage from every possible angle, hoping to find something about Changshui Village, but came up empty-handed.

The calls I made still would not go through. Communications on the mountain had not yet been restored.

If things had come to this, the village had probably lost power as well.

I would wait a little longer. If we still could not get through after a couple of days, I would return and ask the firefighters and rescue workers to make an exception. Even if I had to walk, I would go up there myself.

The rain had passed over Tianhai, leaving the sky clear. I stood on the open-air balcony of the thirtieth floor and looked up at the night sky.

Even the bright moon seemed dim beneath the dazzling lights of this thriving megacity.

The stars, some twinkling and others faint, were likewise obscured by the light reflected from the clouds above the city.

Tianhai was a sleepless city that never stopped shining. I could not help sighing inwardly.

I had lived in Tianhai for so many years, transforming myself from a dirt-poor boy into a company owner who had achieved a modest measure of success. Yet I had never truly experienced the city's glamour, debauchery, and luxurious excess.

Then I suddenly remembered the countless stars that had once filled the night sky above Changshui Village. Back then, my younger self and the other village children would lie on the rooftops, gazing at the stars and imagining our future lives, each of us adding our own thoughts to the conversation.

Was the life I was living now really what I had wanted back then?

So many years had passed since my carefree youth that, even after racking my brains, I could no longer remember.

“After driving all day, aren’t you tired? Why aren’t you asleep? What are you doing out here, pretending to be some brooding young man?”

“Oh, wait. You should be called a brooding middle-aged man now.”

“Lin Xingfan, just because you don’t say anything doesn’t mean people will mistake you for a mute. What did you smear on your lips, rat poison or insecticide? You’re poisonous.”

“If you keep this up, you’ll poison your future partner to death when you kiss them.”

I looked toward the neighboring balcony. Lin Xingfan held a mug in one hand and took a sip.

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“It’s this late and you’re still drinking coffee? Aren’t you afraid you won’t be able to sleep?”

“I’m sick, not stupid. I’m not drinking coffee before bed. This is just boiled water. Tomorrow, ask Ji Leqing to take you along for a brain scan.”

Lin Xingfan rolled his eyes. “I knew you’d still be awake, so I came to see whether you’d sneaked out onto the balcony to smoke again.”

I smiled and spread my hands toward him. “Disappointed? I didn’t smoke.”

“I actually hope you’ll keep disappointing me when it comes to things like that.”

“Speaking of which, what are you brooding about out here?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking about how we used to lie on the roof together and look at the stars when we were kids. After spending so long in Tianhai, sometimes everything in front of me feels unreal.”

Lin Xingfan gave a dismissive grunt. “That’s normal. People like us are like duckweed, floating weightlessly wherever we go.”

“But since you brought up our childhood, do you remember Lin Lin?”

“Lin Lin?”

I searched my memory. One young face after another flashed through my mind until I finally settled on a dark-skinned little tomboy.

“You mean Lin Lin, your second uncle’s tomboyish daughter?”

Lin Xingfan nodded. “When my second uncle and his wife divorced, wasn’t Lin Lin taken away by my second aunt?”

“Sometimes fate is impossible to explain. I was working the emergency shift last night, and she happened to be brought in after a car accident. I was the one who treated her. If I hadn’t seen her patient information and matched both her name and date of birth, I wouldn’t have dared believe it was her.”

“A car accident? Was it serious?”

“Her knee was badly scraped, but there were no internal injuries or broken bones. I’m telling you, she’s changed completely!”

Seeing Lin Xingfan’s astonished expression, I became interested as well. “How completely?”

“I have a photo. Take a look.”

Lin Xingfan set down his mug, pulled out his phone, opened his photo album, and handed it to me.

“Be careful not to drop it. Throwing objects from a great height is illegal.”

“Don’t worry. Holy shit—are you telling me this is Lin Lin?”

The photograph showed Lin Xingfan in a white coat standing beside a graceful young woman in a modern Chinese-style dress.

The woman had arranged her hair in a slightly old-fashioned bun with a silver hairpin. Her side-parted bangs fell along one side of her face, while the other side was tucked behind her ear. Her brows curved like distant mountains veiled in mist, and her eyes rippled like autumn waters.

She had a classic oval face, fair skin, a finely shaped nose, and softly red, slightly thin lips. The gentleness of her features was tempered by a trace of coolness and aloofness.

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That damn woman didn’t look anything like Lin Lin. If someone had told me she was Lin Daiyu, I would have believed them!

“Are you sure you didn’t mistake her for someone else?”

“I thought the same thing at first. Then she saw my name badge and called me Second Brother. I was completely stunned.”

That unreal feeling grew even stronger. I simply could not connect the elegant woman in the photograph with the tomboy I remembered—the girl who used to wear a wicked grin, imitate the village’s troublesome uncles, and nearly yank down my trousers in front of a whole crowd of children while announcing that she wanted to see what I had down there.

Even now, thinking about it made me instinctively tighten my belt.

I had nearly lost my dignity back then, and the experience had left a profound shadow over my young heart.

Lin Xingfan had been one of the witnesses. When he saw my little gesture and realized what I was thinking about, he burst into laughter.

“You’re still afraid of her whenever you think about her, aren’t you?”

“Stop talking nonsense. I don’t know where she got that much strength, but she pinned me right to the ground. Half my ass was hanging out!”

“If your second aunt hadn’t come and dragged her away, I would have died of embarrassment!”

Whenever I thought of that childhood humiliation, I still wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground.

“Oh, right. Lin Lin asked whether you and I were still in touch. I told her you were also in Tianhai and suggested that we all have dinner together sometime.”

“Let’s not. I’m afraid I’ll turn around and run the moment I see her. She may look different now, but who knows whether her personality has changed.”

I had a feeling the childhood trauma Lin Lin had inflicted on me would follow me for the rest of my life.

Lin Xingfan clicked his tongue. “I was planning to visit her place in the next day or two and bring her some fruit or something. Come with me.”

“We used to play together when we were kids, after all. She’s also a close relative of mine by blood, and she’s alone in Tianhai without a single familiar face. How could I, as her Second Brother, not look after her?”

“You’re her Second Brother. I’m not.”

“I never realized you were this vindictive. And Lin Lin even took the initiative to ask how you’ve been lately.”

“She cares about me? That’s like a weasel paying its respects to a hen. She must be up to no good. What she did back then wasn’t limited to that one incident. I can’t even be bothered to list it all!”

Although he continued to complain about all the mischief Lin Lin had caused in the village back then, meeting an old acquaintance in a distant place was still something to be grateful for.

In the end, I relented. “Fine. Call me when you go.”