Chapter 39

On the fifth day of the holiday, Lin Dad specially cleared out a morning to accompany Lin Mom and Lin Yuewei to sign the home purchase contract.

Before they set out, Lin Yuewei tried to talk him out of it, lowering her voice as she said, “Can Mom stop buying me a house? I already have plenty of houses. They’re all sitting empty, and nobody’s living in them.”

Lin Dad laughed. “You can rent them out. If I remember right, you’ve got two smaller ones, don’t you? Collect some rent as pocket money; even a sparrow’s leg is meat.”

“No. That would still be spending your money.”

“You can save it,” Lin Dad said. “Being independent and self-reliant is a good thing, but there’s really no need for family to split things so clearly. It’s not like you’ve been kicked out.”

“That’s not right.” Lin Yuewei suddenly realized something and looked at Lin Dad. “Didn’t you say before that if I entered the entertainment industry, you wouldn’t give me a single cent? And now you’re telling me to collect rent? Isn’t that going back on your word?”

“Did I say that?” Lin Dad laughed heartily. “I must’ve forgotten. Fine, then just leave the houses alone. Or have your mom find an agent to rent them out; the money can all go to her. A few months’ rent would be enough for her to buy a cheap bag.”

Lin Yuewei immediately seized on his words and started acting cute. “Dad, Dad, then don’t buy me this new house. Or put it in both your names instead.”

“No way. Your mom said it’s for you. We’re getting old anyway; it’ll still have to be put in your name eventually. That’d just be making extra work.”

Lin Yuewei couldn’t convince him, so she complained casually, “Dad, don’t you think Mom’s getting more and more dramatic lately? The other day when she said she was buying a house, she insisted on putting my name on it. I said no, and she cried her eyes out like it was the end of the world.”

“She cried?”

“Yeah, she acted just like it was real.” Lin Yuewei noticed her dad hadn’t replied for a while, so she looked up at him and saw that Lin Dad’s expression was a little strange. “Dad?”

“Mm?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Lin Dad returned to his usual gentle expression.

“Go give her a good talking-to already. Tell her not to cry at the drop of a hat. Every time I see that, I’m scared to death.”

Lin Dad smiled. “I’ll tell her.”

“Say it quickly. If she polishes her acting skills for a while longer, nobody’ll be able to rein her in. I swear she’s just bored.” Lin Yuewei clicked her tongue and turned back to call to her mom, “Comrade Ran Qingqing, are you ready yet? Do you really have to take this long to change clothes?”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Lin Mom came out in a long dress with delicate light makeup on; on her wrist was the Van Cleef & Arpels Lover’s Bridge watch Lin Dad had given her last time.

Lin Dad went to her and praised her sincerely, “My wife looks beautiful today.” As he spoke, he took her hand and lightly kissed the back of it.

Lin Yuewei covered her cheeks nearby and teased, “Could you two spare a thought for the single dog’s feelings?”

Lin Dad put one arm around his wife and took his daughter’s hand with the other, and the family of three left home laughing and chatting.

Lin Dad read through the purchase contract and had the manager answer each of the questions he raised; then he passed the contract to Lin Yuewei to sign. Lin Yuewei’s signature was bold and flowing, and she quickly signed through the cumbersome paperwork. By lunchtime, the family was considering finding a place to eat.

Lin Yuewei thought her mom’s watch was novel. Lin Mom told her she’d bought it several months ago but had never worn it. All morning, Lin Yuewei kept sneaking glances at it, waiting for noon so the man and woman on the dial would kiss. She also told her mom to let her know when the time was close.

At the sales office entrance, Lin Yuewei suddenly remembered and hurriedly called out, “Mom, the watch.”

Lin Mom glared at her. “Who are you cursing?”

Lin Yuewei said, “I’m asking about the watch. Let me see it. I’m not cursing anybody.”

She walked around in front of her mom and lifted her wrist to look. At quarter past twelve, the couple who had painstakingly moved together one second at a time to the center had already separated, drifting farther and farther apart.

Lin Yuewei complained, “I told you to call me before twelve. Now I can’t see it anymore.”

Lin Mom said, “Weren’t you signing the contract just now? I was busy checking the clauses for you. How could I have paid attention to that? If you really wanted to wait and watch it, I can give you the watch.”

“I don’t want it. It was Dad’s gift to you. I’ll buy my own.”

Lin Dad came out to smooth things over. “Next time I see one, I’ll buy one for Weiwei. It’s just a watch; nothing rare.”

“I don’t want it. It’s flashy and gaudy; only little girls like my mom, who’s still barely sixteen at heart, would like it.” Lin Yuewei quickly refused in advance so her dad wouldn’t decide on his own, while subtly flattering Lin Mom at the same time.

Lin Mom’s eyes curved with a smile. “All right, let’s go eat.”

She took Lin Yuewei’s hand first, then turned back to take Lin Dad’s.

***

After hearing about how the family was insisting on buying a house for Lin Yuewei, Jiang Congbi was so jealous her eyes nearly turned red. Sitting with one leg crossed over the other in her office chair, she said, “You really don’t know how good you’ve got it. Your mom and dad are famous in their circle as the model couple; business is booming; at meetings here, we even use your family as a case study for excellence. And then you go off and become a celebrity and make a decent job of it too.”

“Then give me your good fortune,” Lin Yuewei said, leaning against a pillow in the bay window nook, sounding disgusted while actually very pleased with herself.

“I’m telling you, showing off your happiness gets you struck by lightning.”

“Haha.” Lin Yuewei laughed. “You saw right through me.”

“What’s my relationship with you? How could I not see through you?” Jiang Congbi said sourly as she took a phone call, then put on her headset and absentmindedly flipped through the documents in front of her, marking them here and there.

“I’m able to find south at all; that’s already pretty good.”

“Then I have to admire you.”

“You’re too kind.” Lin Yuewei played along.

After Jiang Congbi finished one file and set it aside, she capped her pen for the moment and said, “Do you know what’s been happening at Tianrui lately?”

“Tianrui?” Lin Yuewei knew it was Gu Yanqiu’s company. “What about it? Something happened?”

“Nothing major. But there is a bit of news about your wife.”

“……”

Jiang Congbi said, “See, the second I mention your wife, you go quiet. Can you be a little more honest?”

Lin Yuewei said gloomily, “How am I not being honest? I’m waiting for your next line.”

“Fine.” Jiang Congbi thought to herself that she was stubborn as a mule, and changed her wording. “Then let’s call her my target. My target spent the week laying off a few people from one department. Very decisive.”

“What would happen if you just called her by name?”

“What was it again?”

“Gu Yanqiu!” Lin Yuewei raised her voice.

“Okay, Gu Yanqiu. Gu Yanqiu now has five percent of the company’s shares and is joining the shareholders’ meeting next Monday with the others.”

“What? What shares? You’re moving way too fast.” Lin Yuewei was baffled.

“Surprised? Delighted?” In business circles, aside from a few confidential matters, things like this couldn’t really be hidden; especially since Jiang Congbi was the Jiang family’s heir, she had gotten the news in advance from her father.

Jiang Congbi said, “The shares she has were left to her by her late mother. Her inheritance? I think that’s how you’d say it.”

She went on and on about the Gu family’s company, interspersing it with her own remarks, while Lin Yuewei listened in fragments, her long fingers tapping rhythmically on her knee.

Jiang Congbi sighed and finally said, “Tianrui’s upper management is basically gods fighting; the little ghosts below are the ones suffering. My dad said that if Tianrui keeps messing around like this and still can’t reach a unified position, he’ll goad your dad into setting a trap and swallowing Tianrui whole, dividing it up and eating it piece by piece. Don’t tell Gu Yanqiu that; it’s a business secret.”

Lin Yuewei pondered. “My dad hasn’t mentioned that to me.”

Jiang Congbi suddenly went, “Oh! I just remembered your family and the Gu family are in-laws. Not helping at all is already hard to justify. Swallowing them whole, though, isn’t that a bit unseemly?”

“You can keep the name,” Lin Yuewei said. “Just let Gu Yanqiu stay on as general manager of the company.” Then she wouldn’t need to compete with that cheap brother, Gu Feiquan, over some absurd inheritance. The inheritance would all belong to the Lin family; as long as she kept being the Lin family’s live-in son-in-law, she could have whatever she wanted.

Lin Yuewei came back to herself abruptly and pushed the thought away.

“You and your dad really are cut from the same cloth. At least she’s your wife,” Jiang Congbi said, clicking her tongue.

“I’m giving you a chance to take back those three words.”

Jiang Congbi complied readily and lightly slapped her own mouth. “Right, Gu Yanqiu.”

Lin Yuewei ran a hand through her hair, the back of her head resting against the wall. Her gaze drifted far past the window, and no one knew what she was thinking.

Two seconds later, Jiang Congbi started pestering her again with all her “ohs” and “ahs,” gossiping mysteriously. “Did anything happen last week when Gu Yanqiu stayed over at your place?”

“How do you—” Lin Yuewei couldn’t help raising her voice, then lowered it again and asked in a calm tone, “How do you know she stayed over at my place? I don’t remember telling you that.”

Did Gu Yanqiu tell her herself? Had their relationship already progressed that far behind her back? What else had Jiang Congbi done while she wasn’t paying attention? Lin Yuewei didn’t believe that possibility. Most likely Jiang Congbi had looked into it herself, but that kind of exhaustive digging felt way too underhanded to Lin Yuewei. She was already leaning toward that guess, about to tell her not to do things like that.

Who would have thought Jiang Congbi would say something astonishing: “Your mom posted it herself. You didn’t see it?”

Lin Yuewei: “???”

Lin Yuewei: “……”

Lin Yuewei: “!!!”

She nearly passed out on the spot. “Wait a second. Let me look.”

Given Lin Mom’s usual habits on social media, Lin Yuewei had blocked her long ago, so she had no idea what new nonsense her mother had pulled this time. She opened Lin Mom’s homepage album and saw that there had been an update a few days ago.

【Daughter and son-in-law came home for the weekend. Daughter couldn’t find the spare toothbrush for her son-in-law and ran over to ask me for one. She’s such a big kid already and still so scatterbrained. I really don’t know what she’d do without me. Everyone help me pick out which electric toothbrush is good? Son-in-law will be staying over often from now on [covered-mouth smile]】

Below that, Lin Mom’s friends were all expressing envy and showering her with compliments. From Lin Mom’s pretentious modesty, Lin Yuewei could already imagine how brilliantly her mother must have been smiling.

“I’m not talking to you for now.” Lin Yuewei hung up on Jiang Congbi, rubbed her face, opened the door, and bellowed down the stairs in a clear, powerful voice—

“Ran! Qing! Qing!”

Author’s note:

Lin Yuewei: I thought I was secretly drawing a line, and it turns out the whole world knew???

Lin Mom: Feels like the red scarf on my chest is even brighter now ╰(*°▽°*)╯