"Don't be afraid, Fourth Miss." At the critical moment, Lychee spoke up and helped Lin Jinyu out of the predicament. She quickly brushed against Lin Jinyu's shoulder and chuckled: "It's okay, I've brushed away the bug for you. You can move now." Her movements were extremely natural and relaxed, as if Lin Jinyu had indeed been frightened by a bug.

  Lin Jinyong bit her tongue sharply, and her mind suddenly cleared. She patted her chest with a still stiff hand and sighed: "Scared me to death." The bloody taste in her mouth... She felt that this voice was not hers, as if it came from a very distant place, with something in between, dull but empty, hard to penetrate.

  The Taos and the Wus' eyebrows finally relaxed, Wu Xiang smiled lightly: "Fourth sister has not made any progress in all these years? I remember when I first saw you as a child, you were squatting alone in the garden crying. When I went over to take a look, I found that an insect was crawling on your body and had almost crawled onto your neck. Your eyes stared at the insect and you just wailed loudly, not daring to stretch out your hand to brush it off, nor even dare to move."

  "Hmph..." Lin Sheng was the first to laugh, rubbing his fingers on his face and teasing Lin Jianrong: "Coward, Fourth Sister is a coward. Look at you still mocking me!"

  She's still alive, and this time she took the lead. She didn't believe that heaven had brought her back to life just to suffer again! The blood slowly flowed back in, pouring into Lin Jianrong's icy heart, which beat strongly, pumping blood and warmth, as well as courage, through her limbs. Her hands and feet gradually warmed up, and her face grew hotter, with Lin Jianrong's face flushing red as she gritted her teeth: "That didn't happen, Wu Ergou, you're mistaken!" She didn't know why her flushed face was so hot, but in any case, her tone and expression were perfectly fitting at this moment.

  "This child! How shy!" Wu and Tao both burst out laughing, and the atmosphere suddenly became relaxed and casual.

  Wu Xiang blinked and continued, "Don't deny it. I caught the bug for you to step on and vent your anger, but instead, you had two gold beans stuck on your face and stopped me from doing so. You insisted that I put the bug on a leaf and watch it crawl away before considering it over. I've never seen you being so soft-hearted."

  "Wu Ergou has a great memory, I think even if I wanted to deny it, I couldn't." Lin Jinerong let out a helpless and bitter smile, but in her heart, she was feeling extremely sorrowful. Look at her, she's just so weak and kind-hearted to the extreme, like an ignorant insect...but as a person, she's also someone who remembers favors but not grievances...no wonder others bully her to this extent.

  Mrs. Tao smiled proudly: "My daughter has always been so gentle and kind." She herself had a fiery temper, but subconsciously she also believed that women who were gentle and kind could win men's favor, and thought it was great that her daughter had this quality.

  Lin Jinyong felt another wave of dizziness, and Mrs. Tao still called her by her milk name in front of outsiders. She was already so old, yet she still used the childish terms "囡囡" to address her. From under her eyelashes, she glanced over at Wu Xiang, who was winking at her with a sly smile on his face. Then, from the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Lu Dian, who was also quietly watching her, wearing that faint, shallow, and hypocritical smile that she used to think was the most handsome but now found disgusting.

  Lin Jinyong suppressed the urge to spit in his face, forcing herself to look away and gaze at Guigui instead. Guigui was staring straight at Lu Xian, her eyes fixed on him without blinking.

  "I've heard that the two brothers are the twin stars of Pingzhou, I suppose your chess skills must be equally impressive, and it's hard to say who will win?" Lin Jingrong smiled lightly, just like Lu Xishan, and after saying this, she quickly turned her head, pulled Lin Shen, and followed Tao's family towards the front.

  Pingzhou's twin treasures? The bird's Pingzhou twin treasures! Lu Xuan is about to lose, and someone who just came back with nothing to show for it is going to be tied with him? Pingzhou's divine youth Wu Xiang smiled slightly and raised his hand towards Lu Xuan: "Brother Lu, the outcome is not yet decided, why don't we continue?"

  Lu Xian faintly glanced at Lin Jianrong's back and nodded slightly: "Brother Wu, I had the same intention." The two of them, one in front of the other, passed through the maple trees again, rushing straight to the pavilion where they fought until the sky grew dark.

  After walking a long way, Wu asked Tao, "Is this the young master who was carefully selected by your aunt?"

  Tao nodded: "Exactly."

  Madam Wu smiled: "Really a talented and handsome young man, looking refined and steady. I was taken aback when I saw him, no wonder your aunt chose him at first." As she spoke, she glanced at Lin Jianrong, who was walking with his eyes downcast. Lin Jianrong's unusual expression, even with the reasonable explanation of the lychee incident and Wu Xiang's intervention, couldn't escape Madam Wu's discerning eye as a seasoned mistress of the house.

  Tao, however, was careless and thought nothing of what had just happened, merely smiling slightly and saying: "Yes, I also think that among the younger generation of the Lin and Lu families, he is the most outstanding talent." Looking at Bi Shao, who was equally talented and handsome, Wu Xiang was slightly better, but Wu Xiang was Wu's nephew, so she was afraid that Wu would not be pleased, and skipped over the Wu family.

  The despicability of human nature is also rarely seen. Lin Jinyong secretly added another sentence. If you ask her, who does she hate the most in this world? She would definitely answer without hesitation, it's Lu Xuan.

  Her thoughts drifted back to that day, the so-called bandits were actually a group of soldiers who had been oppressed and killed their officers in a mutiny at first, only dozens of people, plus they quickly fled into the mountains, no one took them seriously, but later this group of rebels quietly broke into Pingzhou, mixed with a large number of refugees and mountain bandits, treating these wealthy families like wolves seeing sheep.

  At the time of the incident, Lu Xian was not at home and did not know where she had gone. The whole Lu family only took care of themselves to escape, the servants scattered and ran away, everyone only took care of themselves, her husband's parents didn't even say goodbye before disappearing. She and Li Zhi, two weak women, supported each other in a panic-stricken escape, it was truly miserable. When she heard Lu Xian calling her name, she was overjoyed, thinking that he had been thinking of her after all, otherwise why would he come back to look for her?

  She followed him to the supposedly safe Jiangshen Temple, where he had her and Lychee wait for him while he went in search of his biological parents, and then they would leave together. She waited there for two days and two nights, worried sick about his safety. It wasn't until the day she died that she found out he had long since taken his biological parents and escaped down a different road.

  She stood there, as if fallen into an ice cave — he wasn't even looking for her at the time, but was turning back to find his biological parents, and just happened to run into her. How ridiculous that she still had a happy heart, still harbored illusions about him, still believed in the promises he made to her with one-sided passion, is there anyone more ridiculous, more foolish than her?

  Then she was discovered by the bandits, and Litchi died. She jumped into the river. The icy cold water pouring into her mouth and nose at that moment, along with the feeling of despair and self-loathing, as long as her spirit did not perish, she would never forget. Because of her foolishness, she killed herself, and also killed Litchi.

  Originally, after many years of marriage, she knew that he didn't like her, the daughter-in-law who was forced upon him by his mother. Even if he had treated her well for a period of time, it was probably just because he was under pressure and pretending to be affectionate with her. Otherwise, since she hadn't done anything wrong and had been devoted to him wholeheartedly, how could they have ended up like this - their child dying young, him leaving her at home to travel alone, even when they were at home, they lived in separate rooms and barely spoke, like strangers.

  Such days, she herself felt was torture, for him, it was probably even more torture - he was a man, so young, and a double champion scholar, with plenty of opportunities to marry the one he liked, originally shouldn't have wasted his whole life with someone like her who couldn't give him anything. With such deep thoughts, having such an opportunity to easily get rid of himself and remarry, achieving his goal without tarnishing his reputation, how could he not make full use of it?

  She was abandoned by the Lu family, and although she hated it extremely, she never despaired. Instead, she hated herself for being useless when disaster struck, wasn't everyone looking out for themselves? However, being abandoned by her own husband, who had pushed her to the brink of death with his own hands, left her feeling cold and hateful all over again. Even if he had simply pretended not to see her from the moment he ran into her, she would have understood his intentions. No matter how thick-skinned she was, she wouldn't have dared to approach him, so why did he give her a glimmer of hope for survival only to treat her like this? He must have been secretly mocking her foolishness all along.

  They say that when you see a pig, don't eat three points of sin, she is that pig. Lin Jian's half-drooping eyelashes covered his eyes, and a thin layer of mist quickly rose up, the corner of his mouth curved, smiling with an indescribable sarcasm.

  She lifted her head and gazed at the clear blue sky, forcing herself to swallow all those self-pity and bitterness.

  There was originally no antidote for regret in this world, but she had gotten it somehow.

  From now on, she will never do such a foolish thing again!

  Huang Niangniang peeked at Lin Jinyong's expression from the side, and was completely confused. Which one of these four girls did she really like? Looking at her dazedly, it seemed that she liked Lu Xian, but then looking again at how she coquettishly and adorably treated Wu Xiang behind his back, while being lukewarm towards Lu Xian, and even seeming to provoke a quarrel between Wu Xiang and Lu Xian, it seemed like she extremely disliked Lu Xian. Now, one moment she was sorrowful, the next moment joyful, what was going on? The four girls' abnormal behavior only started after seeing Lu Xian, could it be that the four girls had actually been trying to attract Lu Xian's attention all along?

  Lin Jinyong would have been furious if she had known Huang Niang's thoughts, and might have vomited blood in anger. However, although she knew what big things were going to happen next, she couldn't know other people's thoughts, and at this moment, her mind was all about how to take advantage of the opportunity to get the greatest benefit for herself, and if convenient, trample Lu Xian a few more times.

  ——*——*——*——

  Longing for pink tickets, PK votes, and recommended votes, haha

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