Chapter 152: Too Late

Chapter 152: Chapter 152: Too Late

"Get back to your classrooms. School’s about to let out, so I can’t be bothered to lecture you any more. You’re all practically adults, yet all you know how to do is fight all day. I told you to stand by the door, and you still managed to cause trouble and fight? Final exams are coming up, so I’ll let you off the hook this time and won’t call your parents. However, tonight when you get home, each of you will copy the sentence ’I will not fight anymore’ five hundred times and turn it in to me tomorrow. If I don’t see it tomorrow morning, you can wait for me to call your parents."

In the faculty office, Teacher He gave Chen Zhuang, Lin Jiayi, and Lin Jia Bao the cold shoulder. She made them stand there until she had nearly finished grading the homework in her hands. By then, it was almost time for school to let out. Only then did she pack up her things and, once she was done, snap irritably at the three of them.

Even after they left Teacher He’s office, the siblings Lin Jiayi and Lin Jia Bao still looked dazed and hadn’t snapped out of it.

The siblings had no idea that the moment they left, the faculty office erupted into chaos.

"Old He, was that pair the Lin family’s boy-girl twins from your class? Tsk tsk, they’re certainly good-looking. They don’t look a thing like Mr. Lin or his son, do they? It seems those rumors are true after all," Mr. Xiao, a fellow teacher from the Chinese language department, leaned in and asked.

"That’s right. They seemed fine before. A bit spoiled, maybe, but they were barely acceptable in other respects. Only now do I realize... heh, it’s true what they say: dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes, and the son of a rat will know how to dig a hole."

Teacher He nodded, her voice filled with anger as she described the scene where the two siblings had just talked back and refused to listen to her. The other teachers in the office shook their heads in succession as they listened. Everyone knew that the most detested students were the disobedient ones—the problem students who argued and refused to listen quietly when told what to do. This was especially true for Mr. Xiao, who knew the two students’ backgrounds and felt Teacher He’s words even more deeply. "It’s true. Like parents, like children."

"What are you two being so cryptic about? What rumors? How come I haven’t heard anything?" A less-informed teacher, hearing them speak, grew curious and quickly pressed for details.

"The news has spread all over town, and you really don’t know?" another teacher exclaimed in surprise before Teacher He or Mr. Xiao could answer.

"Should I?"

...

After leaving the school and walking some distance, the once-orderly lines of students broke apart. Everyone began to pair off or form small groups, going their separate ways.

Standing at a crossroads, Lin Jiayi bit her lip and asked her brother, "Jia Bao, was what Chen Zhuang said true? Are we really going to go back and ask Grandpa and Grandma?"

"Yes, why wouldn’t we? He must be lying to us. I’m going to have Grandpa expose his lies," Lin Jia Bao said fiercely, gritting his teeth.

"But..." Lin Jiayi anxiously twisted the corner of her shirt. "Let’s just go back to Grandma’s house."

"No, let’s go find Grandpa and Grandma first. We haven’t been home in days. I miss my room, and I don’t want to share a bed with someone anymore. Sis, don’t you want to go back?" Lin Jia Bao grabbed Lin Jiayi’s arm. "Let’s go back to our own home. I don’t like it at Grandma’s. Lately, the way Grandma and Uncle look at me isn’t like before at all. It’s scary."

"B-but what if what Chen Zhuang said is true? Th-that... maybe they really aren’t our real grandpa and grandma." Lin Jiayi stammered, her face turning a little pale. "Have you forgotten? Mom used to always take us to the city to see our godfather. He would buy us fun toys and good food. One time, we ran into one of our godfather’s friends, and he even said that I look a lot like him. Maybe Chen Zhuang was right. Maybe Mom really was cheating, and we’re not Dad’s biological children. How else can you explain why we’ve been living at Grandma’s for so long, and Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma haven’t come to see us even once? That’s something that would have been completely impossible before."

Lin Jiayi ignored her brother’s increasingly pale face and continued speaking her mind. "Before, if we stayed at Grandma’s for even one night, Dad and Grandpa would rush over to pick us up. They would even bring lots of nice things for Grandma’s family. But this time, did you see Grandpa bring them anything when he dropped us off? You didn’t, did you?"

"Impossible. I’m Dad’s son. I must be Dad’s son. People used to say my nose and mouth look just like Dad’s." Lin Jia Bao began to tremble all over.

"Jia Bao, calm down. Let’s go back and ask Mom first, okay? Actually, it’s better if we’re not Dad’s biological children. Didn’t Chen Zhuang already say that Dad’s in prison? He’s a convict now. Do you really want a convict for a father instead of one who has a clean record and is especially good to us?" Lin Jiayi held her brother’s hand, patiently trying to guide him.

’The son of a convict?’

Lin Jia Bao’s face grew even paler. He shook his head forcefully. "No, I don’t want to be the son of a convict." ’If I were, I’d never be able to hold my head high again.’

"Exactly. So let’s not go looking for Grandpa and Grandma. We’ll go back to our maternal grandmother’s house. Once we’re there, we can secretly ask Mom, and then we’ll figure out what to do next." Lin Jiayi made the final decision, and the two siblings headed toward the Tao family home together.

「Meanwhile, at the Tao family home.」

Tao Jianren was sobbing in front of Mrs. Tao. "Mom, I don’t want a divorce! I want to see... I know I can convince him! He has a place for me in his heart. As long as I beg him, he’ll soften up and forgive me. I don’t care that he’s been to prison. I’ll wait for him to get out, and we can live a good life together."

Now that disaster had truly struck, Tao Jianren finally realized that if she left the Lin family, she would have to say goodbye forever to the good life she had, like that of a young mistress. The Lin family’s circumstances were among the very best in town. The Gu family, compared to the Lin family, was like the difference between heaven and earth. Gu Lihui might be handsome, but so what? He was just a doorman at a newspaper office. When they used to fool around, she was the one spending money most of the time. A man like that was fine for a bit of fun now and then, but if she actually married him, would she have to live on a meager salary, haggling over every last dime? Would she not even be able to afford high-end skincare products anymore?

She would rather die than live that kind of life.

Hearing her daughter say such things, Mrs. Tao felt an overwhelming urge to follow her heart—to first chew Tao Jianren out until she was half-dead, then slap her a few times and give her a vicious beating to vent her anger. ’Listen to the nonsense she’s spouting! Does she really think she’s some kind of goddess? Ptooey! Even a goddess who committed such a shameless act would have been drowned in a fish pond back in the old days.’

’So now she knows regret? Now she knows the Lin family was a golden nest?’

’Too late—’