Chapter 152
This was a 100-hectare golf course that ran through a few greens, the scenery was very unique, with large tracts of green lawn giving people a comfortable and refreshing feeling. The man’s home was located on the south side of the golf course, a European-style villa with a garden and a fountain pond. The garden was filled with a variety of expensive flowers and trees and colorful butterflies, beautiful scenery that made onlookers feel like they were in a dream world.
If Zhou Yun Sheng was truly an orphan coming from the poor countryside to the capital, he might be frightened by this scene. But he was not a naive orphan, so his heart was very calm, but he still put on a stunned expression, and when the car pulled to a stop, he immediately jumped off and ran to the man, tugging his white gloved hand to express his fear and hesitation.
Because the system had issued a task to please the man and his family, he had done this kind of thing in the last life too.
“Don’t touch me, this is the first rule you must comply with.” The man immediately shirked him off, his voice full of disgust. Even if it was separated by a layer of fabric, he didn’t like the touch of strangers, so he took off the glove and casually threw it on the ground.
Zhou Yun Sheng staggered and almost tripped, but the man ignored him and walked straight towards the entrance, his assistant following him, hauling two boxes of luggage, also indifferent to the teenager. Their reaction was the same as in the previous life.
Zhou Yun Sheng walked behind the two, lowering his head to cover his sneer. The man still disdained to wear a mask, but even without it, he was only dealing with an ignorant hick teenager, he didn’t need to spend his efforts just to deceive him. As long as he brought the other side into an excellent environment, who could bear to leave?
A gray-haired, black-clad old man opened the door for the man and bowed, “You’ve returned, dinner is ready, you can go take a hot bath first.” The words fell and he glanced at the boy, his indifferent eyes like watching a dead man.
Last life, as soon as Zhou Yun Sheng stepped through the doorway, he immediately knew that here was not his paradise, but his hell. The sinister intentions from this family was too obvious, it might’ve been able to deceive the ignorant of the ways of the world Huang Yi, but it absolutely couldn’t deceive him. As he walked into the living room, his heart had constantly dialed 110, but his face had shown a cowardly and humble expression, then he was shocked to see a young girl sitting on the sofa, her appearance exactly the same as his.
Deeply reliving that past scene, when he returned to paying attention to the present, the old man had brought him into the living room. There, he saw a middle-aged lady and a young girl awaiting him, the current image completely overlapping with the previous scene.
The girl’s eyes suddenly widened, her too white cheeks flushing, she wanted to stand up, but the lady pulled her back down, then said in a gentle tone, “Don’t be overly excited.”
“Hello, I’m Xue Jing Yi.” The girl extended one hand, the other hand pressed to her chest.
Zhou Yun Sheng stared at the hand. The other side’s skin was very white, sickly pale, and her fingernails were tinted light purple, a sign of severe heart disease. Taking just a few steps resulted in breathlessness, and the constant need for a family nurse showed that the girl’s physical condition was very bad.
Zhou Yun Sheng never lacked a rich imagination, and he was used to using the most sinister intentions to judge human behavior. In the last life, realizing that he and the girl had a 100% chance of being twins, his heart had thudded, suddenly understanding why the man was so disgusted with him yet still wanted to take him back.
There was no better organ donor than a twin. It would be alright if the girl had leukemia, donating bone marrow a few times was no problem for him, but the girl obviously looked like she had heart disease, so this family wanted his life.
The first day he came to Xue house, Zhou Yun Sheng saw himself standing at the edge of a bottomless abyss. But he was unable to fight back, he could only perform the system’s given task to please Xue, setting up the girl in jealously, and then of course, being exposed and hated. Until he ‘accidentally’ discovered the truth of his adoption, and began planning how to kill the girl.
Of course, as the villain, he was absolutely not successful. He still remembered how in his last life, he was chasing the girl around the house to kill her, when she accidentally pushed him from the second floor. His head was knocked on the coffee table, and he suffered severe brain damage, his body completely paralyzed. Xue Jia wanted to immediately remove his heart, but the girl stopped them.
She took care of him, and did not wish to use her brother’s life in exchange for her future, even if he cruelly wanted to kill her. But the next time she once again relapsed because of the heart disease, Xue Jia’s loyal old steward pulled out his oxygen tube.
Even now, he still remembered the slow, heavy pain of suffocating.
The bad memories spun in his mind, roaring and screaming, he desperately wanted to send this family to hell, but Zhou Yun Sheng’s face didn’t show his hate. He gripped the girl’s slender hand, his voice trembling, “Who are you? Why do you look like me?”
The two had inherited their parents’ best genes, ever facial feature exquisite. They looked even more attractive placed together, but one had a gentle and eye-catching atmosphere, noble and elegant, while the other was humble and cowardly, they were clearly distinguishable.
“I’m your older sister… or maybe younger sister?” The girl was also very distressed, she turned back to the middle-aged lady to look for help.
The middle-aged lady was also a person who disdained to wear a mask, she walked forward a few steps before coldly saying, “You are twins, sixteen years ago your parents abandoned Jing Yi, we adopted her. No need to distinguish an older brother or older sister, just call each other by name.” To avoid emotional attachment.
“I’m called Huang Yi.” Zhou Yun Sheng kindly introduced himself. At present, the girl had just experienced a serious heart attack and they had almost failed to rescue her. So her body was very weak, she couldn’t bear any ups or downs. Until the girl’s body was back in a state capable of undergoing surgery, Xue Jia would keep him, like raising a pig to be slaughtered.
Bullshit! Zhou Yun Sheng cursed loudly in his heart, but his expression was only that of happy realization. He pretended to have an ‘I have a lot to ask, but I’m inexperienced to the world, so I’m afraid to ask’ look, scratching his hair, awkwardly shifting in place.
The lady glanced at him with contemptuous eyes, then said in a gracious tone, “Sit down.”
“Thank you.” Zhou Yun Sheng, like he had received amnesty, dared not sit down fully, occupying the edge of the luxurious leather sofa with only half his buttocks. The girl had a lot of things to ask, but just as she opened mouth she saw her older brother walk downstairs with wet hair, and quickly walked over to hold his arm. Her emotional attachment was palpable.
When she had learned that she was not Xue Jia’s natural daughter, she’d felt miserable, but was also secretly happy. Her hidden feelings that must not see the light of day had finally found shelter.
The two siblings’ feelings were very good, although the man was usually silent, he would always patiently respond to his sister’s inquiries with a sentence or two, and he didn’t exclude her physical contact. The middle-aged lady’s indifference also faded, she concernedly inquired about the man’s flight, worried about any hardships.
The living room was filled with people, tenderness surging in the air, but it had no relationship with Zhou Yun Sheng, and even now, the man had never even thought to introduce himself. Perhaps in his view, this humble and cowardly teenager would die soon, so he was wasting his time by paying attention to him.
Zhou Yun Sheng silently adjusted his buttocks, finally found a comfortable posture to sit, and drooped his head. He seemed to be shyly hanging his head, but he was just taking a nap. Ten minutes later, the house owner, Xue Rui, came back.
In Zhou Yun Sheng’s eyes, Xue Rui was the only normal person in Xue Jia. He was slick and sly, cautious, and even though his bones were rotten to the core, he masked himself as philanthropist as they come. He expressed his warm welcome for Zhou Yun Sheng’s arrival, and said that he wanted to adopt him to be his daughter’s companion.
Zhou Yun Sheng was naturally flattered and grateful.
“However, the residence permit and procedures still need to be sent in. Xiao Yi should live here first, after the procedures are done, uncle will send you to school.”
“Thank you uncle.”
“We’re family after all, no need for these polite words.” Xue Rui added some vegetables into Zhou Yun Sheng’s bowl, heard his wife’s loud snort, and gave her a fierce look.
Xue Jing Yi and the man were seriously eating, they didn’t say a word.
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After dinner, Xue Rui called Zhou Yun Sheng to the study for questioning, he was concern if he truly had no relatives, once he heard that he was really alone, his eyes revealed a satisfactory look. If it wasn’t for the sudden death of his daughter, resulting in his wife suffering from depression, he would have never adopted a girl with no blood relationship with himself.
However, on the first day Xue Jing Yi came to his family, his company had received a huge client, and his wife’s depression started rapidly fading until she was back to normal, so he believed Xue Jing Yi was Xue Jia’s lucky star. Even later when she was diagnosed with congenital heart disease, he didn’t think to abandon her.
After being raised for sixteen years, even a kitten or puppy would become beloved family, let alone a person. In order to save his beloved daughter, Xue Rui found many heart donors, but because of her special blood type, they couldn’t find a successful match. Then he vaguely recalled, the intermediary who’d delivered Xue Jing Yi to Xue Jia seemed to have said that Xue Jing Yi had a twin brother, so he hastily sent people to find out.
It was a human life, so he didn’t dare hand the duty to others, he could only let his son go. Although his son had an antisocial, cold personality, he really did love his sister, so he didn’t hesitate to bring the boy back.
Xue Rui described a lot of scenes, drawing out a happy future for Zhou Yun Sheng, then sent him back to his room to rest.
Passing by the top of the stairs, he saw the man walking up with a glass of water, and Zhou Yun Sheng couldn’t help but provoke him a bit, “Brother, what’s your name?”
The man spoke without turning to face him, “I’m not your brother, so don’t let me hear this address again.”
Zhou Yun Sheng shrunk his neck and hugged his shoulder, a ‘so scary!’ look. After the other man’s footsteps faded away, the door behind him quietly opened, Xue Jing Yi stuck her head half out and exclaimed, “Huang Yi so it’s you. Come in, let’s chat.”
The old butler stepped out from some unknown corner, his eyes bitingly cold.
Zhou Yun Sheng only glanced at him and entered the girl’s room. In front of the girl, Xue Jia wouldn’t expose their sinister intentions, so he could act unbridled. Of course, he wouldn’t hold back his aggressiveness from the kept-in-the-dark girl, in this lifetime, he wouldn’t stop until he sent the entire Xue family to hell.
The old butler stayed in the room, his worry about the small miss’s recent heart attack as the reason. He stood in the doorway, every wrinkle spelling out ‘strict’.
“Big brother is called Xue Zi Xuan, it’s strange that you don’t know. Brother is very powerful, he was a child prodigy. I’ll show you brother’s photos.” Xue Jing Yi’s tone was full of worship as she told him everything about Xue Zi Xuan, from the first time he leaned the piano to his first award, then to his first concert, her eyes filling with more and more intense love as she continued. She pulled out one album after another from under her bed, and heaped them all over the floor.
Currently, Xue Zi Xuan’s feelings for Xue Jing Yi was only brotherly love, but after past Zhou Yun Sheng started setting traps for Xue Jing Yi, putting her in distress again and again, Xue Zi Xuan rescued her again and again, and the two gradually developed a more intimate relationship. However, this Zhou Yun Sheng wasn’t under the villain system’s control, he didn’t have any interest in being their matchmaker. Xue Jia sees him as a dead man, what does he see them as?
But what about Xue Jing Yi? She seemed to be innocent.
Zhou Yun Sheng glanced at the girl immersed in fond memories, some hesitance slipping into his gaze. As he said before, he usually used the most sinister intentions to judge human behavior, even if Xue Jing Yi looked pure and kind on the surface, he couldn’t completely trust her.
After Xue Jing Yi took his heart, she seemed to be reborn, gaining a different understanding on life, which made her piano skills leap in quality. After only three years of hard training, she became a pianist of equal skill to Xue Zi Xuan. This showed that she was a clever, and richly spiritual girl.
When Xue Jia took Huang Yi home, they hid him, dismissing the housekeepers, only leaving behind the loyal old butler and the nurse. They also made Huang Yi grow out his hair and wear ambiguous clothing, dressing like Xue Jing Yi. And they often took him to the hospital to get medical examinations… … all these behaviors were very unusual, so Zhou Yun Sheng refused to believe that Xue Jing Yi had never noticed.
Xue Jia tried to erase Huang Yi’s existence, and because he was a humble boy new to the capital, except for Xue Rui, they hated showing him even a little bit of false warmth. They cleaned up any outside clues, but were too lazy to cover up the inside clues, treating Huang Yi as a stupid, oblivious livestock to be slaughtered.
They were so obvious, yet the central figure Xue Jing Yi had no clue until Huang Yi chased her around with a knife, don’t be ridiculous.
So Zhou Yun Sheng had reason to suspect that Xue Jing Yi was also an insider, but he wouldn’t convict her for the crime just on speculation. He intended to give her a clear chance, if she took it, he’d let her safely leave Xue Jia.
When he finished pondering, Xue Jing Yi also finished gushing over the last photo, she took the water the steward handed her and drank a few mouthfuls.
“You’ve lived a very happy life these years.” Zhou Yun Sheng sighed.
“How about you? Did you do well?” Xue Jing Yi tilted her head.
“Me? I’ve only seen my parents a few times in my 16 years, you know, they were too busy working hard. We were very poor, we lived in a small loess cave, dressed in old clothes, and only got a chance to eat meat on the New Year. The school I went to was four mountains away, so I had to get up at 3:30 every morning to get ready. The spring and autumn weren’t so bad, thank God, but during summer and winter, if you ran into heavy rain or a blizzard, you could accidentally slip off a precipice and fall to your death … …”
Zhou Yun Sheng laid out his country life in a flat tone. If others suffered his experiences, they might be unbearable for them, but for him, they were his precious assets. The strongest heart was often polished in the most painful torment, like extremely hot lava refining a dazzling diamond.
He even wanted to thank the Lord God for his suffering, otherwise, he wouldn’t be standing here today, he would be a dead man like Orr Assai.
Xue Jing Yi’s eyes flushed red, using a handkerchief to dab at non-stop tears.
Zhou Yun Sheng didn’t comfort her, he knew that these tears were just for appearance. In fact, Xue Jing Yi simply didn’t care about her real relatives, otherwise, she wouldn’t have waited until now to ask. But he didn’t blame her for this, after all, they were strangers to her, people who’d abandoned her.
The old butler immediately stepped forward to gently pat her back, then scowled at Zhou Yun Sheng with cold eyes, “Miss is not in good health, please don’t stimulate her in the future.”
“Really? What illness does she have?” Zhou Yun Sheng pretended to be surprised and worried.
“Nothing serious, but her body is very weak, her mood cannot fluctuate too much. You should return to your room.” The old butler left a notice to leave, then added when Zhou Yun Sheng reached the door, “Your parents voluntarily abandoned the Miss because they couldn’t support her. Miss’s outcome has nothing to do with you. In this way, the suffering you had to bear has nothing to do with the Miss. What a person should lose and should gain is already long destined, if someone covets things that shouldn’t belong to them, beware that the losses outweigh the gains.”
Is this a warning? He thinks I deliberately stimulated her because I was jealous of Xue Jing Yi’s good life? Do these people really think Huang Yi is a stupid, short-sighted, spring chicken?
Zhou Yun Sheng sneered, but when he turned around, his expression was very sincere, “You’re right, so if she’s destined to lose something, it’s also God’s arrangements. If she insists on going against God’s plans, defying natural order to alter her fate, the things that originally belonged to her will also be lost. I don’t think of my former days as suffering, and I also don’t think I would’ve had a better life if I’d been brought to Xue Jia. But I still want to thank you for bringing me out.”
With a slight nod, he gracefully walked away.
When the old butler heard the words ‘defying natural order to alter fate’, his pupils had contracted drastically for a moment, his heart wandering if the boy had detected something, but he quickly denied it. He would never believe that a boy who’d spent his whole life in a rural backwater village would have such terrible insight, it must be a misunderstanding.
Xue Jing Yi slowly recovered from her sadness and walked up to pull the old butler’s sleeves in imploration, “Fu Bo, Huang Yi didn’t intentionally stimulate me, don’t be angry with him. He really suffered for 16 years, please treat him better.”
“I know Miss, go lie down and rest.” Fu Bo helped the little miss pull up her quilt, then cautiously said, “If he asks what illness you have in the future, you must not tell him.”
“Why?” Xue Jing Yi’s eyes flashed.
“Although he is your brother, after all, this is the first time you’ve met, you’re virtual strangers. If he sees Xue Jia’s wealth and it raises bad thoughts, I’m afraid he’ll treat you badly. You know Miss, Xue family are not common people.”
Xue Jing Yi nodded after a moment of pondering, the joy of meeting a lost relative beginning to fade, leaving behind only restlessness.
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Zhou Yun Sheng only met the whole Xue family on the first day, except for the ill Xue Jing Yi, the others disappeared. Xue Rui was Xue Group’s boss, very busy. Xue Li Dani was a famous violinist, flying all day, performing constantly. Xue Zi Xuan, like Xue Li Dani, basically had no spare time.
The house had only the twin brother and sister, old butler, family nurse and Xue Zi Xuan’s assistant. The assistant had won Xue Jia’s trust, and was specifically responsible for monitoring Zhou Yun Sheng.
Zhou Yun Sheng tried to talk the old butler into giving him a laptop, and the other side unexpectedly immediately agreed, he even sent one up to his room right away, plugging it in. In his view, Zhou Yun Sheng was thoroughly a country bumpkin, it’d be good if he could even learn to play Solitaire.
Zhou Yun Sheng really spent all day playing Solitaire under his observation, and from the next day, no one watched when he went online.
Xue Jing Yi found that he was very quiet, sitting in a daze and playing games all day, so she gradually put down her alertness. Unconsciously, two months passed, and Zhou Yun Sheng’s hair had grown to the shoulder, he looked for the steward and asked him to cut his hair.
“No, you have to have the same hairstyle as the Miss, you are twins.” The steward said while hanging a bunch of new clothes in his closet.
Zhou Yun Sheng picked one out, held it in front of his body, and frowned, “This looks like girls clothes.”
“The Miss wears this style of clothes too, you are twins, you’ll look good in it too. Ambiguous styles are very popular now, you can go online to check.” The old steward explained with rare patience.
Zhou Yun Sheng sneered inside, but his face reddened in shame, as if his lack of knowledge on trends embarrassed him. He put on the outfit and walked into Xue Jing Yi’s room, shyly pulling at his shirt, “The steward makes us wear the same hair style and the same clothes. Although we’re twins, I’m male, and you’re female, so doesn’t it seem strange? And he won’t allow me to go outside, like he’s trying to lock me up.”
Xue Jing Yi, whose long hair had just been cut shoulder-length short by the hair stylist, was feeling melancholy, after hearing these words, she couldn’t help but freeze for a moment. She was aware of the steward’s poor attitude with Huang Yi, he hardly showed him even the basic respect, so why would he bother with styling him? And they had indeed put him under house arrest, even sending someone to watch him 24 hours, as if afraid he would escape or be seen by outsiders.
This move alone was very strange.
Huang Yi was wearing a white crop-shirt, it felt like a mirror image when he stood near her, anyone who didn’t live with them wouldn’t be able to tell who was who. Xue Jing Yi stared at the teenager’s slightly feminine face, her eyes filling with uncertainty.
Upon seeing this, Zhou Yun Sheng causally said a few words and left.
That night, Xue Jing Yi dialed Xue Li Dani’s phone, but wanting to question yet not knowing how to ask, she ultimately gave up. She tossed and turned, sleepless, then in the middle of the night, she walked to Xue Rui’s study and rummaged in his file cabinet. She knew that her father had saved all of her medical records, and if they really had that kind of plan, they would’ve brought Huang Yi to the hospital to do a match test, so the medical records would leave clues.
When this thought crossed her mind, her heart shook, and she almost fell limp to the ground. She remembered that Fu Bo had taken Huang Yi to the hospital the day after he’d arrived, saying it was a comprehensive physical examination, did they perform the match test at that time?
Her hands trembling, she pushed the documents back in place, reluctant to continue looking. But she accidentally knocked into the table, shaking the mouse, and the computer screen lit up. On it was a medical report, the lower left corner marked with eye-catching red font – Match Successful. Shockingly, the name of the test subject was Huang Yi.
Almost screaming in terror, she hurriedly shut off the computer and ran away in a daze. The next day, she started a high fever, and Zhou Yun Sheng accompanied her with careful care, his gentle attitude making even the family nurse sigh.
“Drink some hot water.” Zhou Yun Sheng padded the pillows behind Xue Jing Yi’s waist.
“Thank you.” Xue Jing Yi took the cup, then paused hesitantly.
“What’s the matter? You have something to say to me?” Zhou Yun Sheng encouraged.
Xue Jing Yi was just about to nod, when a sharp pain bit into her heart. This pain had been with her since the age of three, and the doctor had declared that she could live to 25 at most. 25, that was a woman’s most beautiful year, her dreams, her love, all withered in the beginning stages of life.
Was she resigned? Of course not! How could anyone be willing to die?
Forcefully pressing down on her painful chest, Xue Jing Yi slowly shook her head.
Zhou Yun Sheng relaxed into the back of his chair with a slight smile. Oh well, he’d given her a chance, but she didn’t take it. As long as she’d warned him to quickly leave Xue house today, even if she didn’t supply a reason, he would’ve let her go.
Selfish people tended to live longer, he could understand Xue Jing Yi’s pain, but never forgive her.
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T/N:
Jia- 家 home / family. Sometimes I have trouble deciding which one to use, so I’ll leave it like this.