CH 27

Luo Qin had said before that Luo Yao didn’t live at home anymore, so Lin Zhixia never thought that he would see her again. Now, suddenly confronted with this person, Lin Zhixia didn’t know what to do. He had no idea how to respond to her impolite greeting.

“How strange,” Luo Yao sneered. She was wearing very little clothing and was freezing to death, standing in the doorway. Lin Zhixia was still dumbfounded and stood there stiffly, blocking her way. She reached out and pushed Lin Zhixia aside and walked in, “Didn’t you divorce my brother? How can you still have the face to come back?”

After all these years, she still spoke unselfconsciously, her words blunt and rude. Lin Zhixia used to be afraid of her but now, no matter how ugly her words were, Lin Zhixia didn’t care. He didn’t bother to quarrel with her. All he wanted to do was to bring Lin Keai inside who was rolling in the snow. He didn’t have the patience to argue with Luo Yao.

Luo Yao didn’t pay any attention to how Lin Zhixia was trying to leave. She stretched out her hand to pull him back around, “Hey, are you deaf? Can you hear me talking to you? I thought you had grown a conscience and finally left for good. Why did you suddenly come back? I really admire your bravery! My brother isn’t stupid enough to fall for your games again. Amazing! You think you can just come back, Lin Zhixia!?”

Lin Zhixia shook off her hand and looked at her quietly, “Luo Yao, do you always talk to everyone like this?”

Luo Yao raised an eyebrow, “Like what?”

“It’s hard to listen to. You’re uncultured, rude and annoying.”

“Pfft,” Luo Yao acted like Lin Zhixia had told a ridiculous joke and laughed several times, “Lin Zhixia, what qualifications do you have to judge me? It’s so funny that someone whose parents are unknown thinks he can teach others about class.”

“Luo Yao.”

Luo Qin and Lin Keai were building a snowman in the small garden at the back of the house so they didn’t see Luo Yao arrive. Only halfway through the snowman, Lin Keai wanted to go back inside to get a small scarf for their new friend.

Luo Qin walked back to the house with Lin Keai in his arms, just in time to listen to the conversation between Lin Zhixia and Luo Yao. He covered the little guy’s ears and scolded Luo Yao coldly, “What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Brother, why is he…”

Luo Yao pointed at Lin Zhixia and complained loudly to Luo Qin but when she turned her head, she found that there was a child in Luo Qin’s arms. The child’s facial features were the same as Luo Qin’s…

They looked identical and her heart sank. Just as she was about to ask Luo Qin who this child was to him, she saw the little radish-like head pop up and open his arms towards Lin Zhixia, “Dad, hug!”

Luo Yao’s jaw dropped open and her voice broke as she yelled, “Dad!?”

Lin Zhixia ignored Luo Qin’s anger and Luo Yao’s dismay. He frowned slightly at the little guy.

Lin Keai’s mouth twitched and his cold red nose scrunched up. He tilted his chin down and shrank his neck, revealing a pitiful appearance.

“Dad, I…I was wrong.”

Lin Zhixia hugged him and as soon as he hugged Lin Keai, the little guy sneezed. Lin Zhixia’s relaxed brows furrowed again. He glared at Luo Qin and Luo Qin touched his own nose, his eyes shifting around guiltily.

Luo Yao, who was being ignored, was stunned. Was she hallucinating? She was shocked to see Lin Zhixia and the child who came out of nowhere. But what made her feel like she was in a trance the most was Luo Qin’s attitude towards Lin Zhixia.

No way! This isn’t right. In the past, Luo Qin didn’t even look at Lin Zhixia and when he was forced to, he showed only disgust for Lin Zhixia. But just now, Luo Qin actually let Lin Zhixia scold him without a fight and even looked a little intimidated??

Is she crazy or is her brother crazy??

“I’m going to get some cold medicine and ask Sister Li to make some ginger tea,” Lin Zhixia turned and walked upstairs. Luo Qin followed closely behind Lin Zhixia.

“Zhixia, you should also drink some. Just in case.”

Lin Zhixia kept walking, complaining,  “If you don’t take him outside in the snow, we wouldn’t need to worry like this.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it over carefully.”

Left behind, Luo Yao could only listen to their banter. It made her angry and, feeling dissatisfied, she shouted after Luo Qin, “Brother, why do you care if he drinks the tea? If he can’t take care of himself, then he should just get sick!”

“Luo Yao!”

Lin Zhixia ignored the siblings and carried the little guy back to their room.

Luo Qin turned around and looked at Luo Yao impatiently, “Didn’t I tell you not to come back home for a while?”

Luo Yao was a little hurt. She admired Luo Qin as a brother very much in her heart. Although Luo Qin was not as close to her as the other brothers and sisters, Luo Qin had never been so openly fierce with her.

She just said a few words to Lin Zhixia but Luo Qin actually yelled at her like that.

Luo Yao sullenly explained, “My friend and I happened to be nearby. It was snowing and it was hard to drive on the road. So I didn’t go back to school and instead came here…”

Luo Qin’s tone softened, “Then you rest early.”

Luo Yao didn’t seem so upset anymore and leaned forward, “Brother, what’s going on? Why is Lin Zhixia back? And that child, he looks exactly like you! Also, he called Lin Zhixia’s ‘Dad’ and he looks like he’s only four years old. Is he…”

Luo Qin said directly, “He’s the child of Zhixia and I.”

‘Zhixia’. Even the name had changed. The intimacy was grating on her ears.

Luo Yao raised her voice, “Brother, have you been fooled by him? Why did a child suddenly appear? Lin Zhixia is planning something bad again! I know he doesn’t have good intentions just by looking at him!”

“Luo Yao,” Luo Qin interrupted her, his eyes darkened, “Go back to school.”

“Okay, brother, I won’t say anymore,” Luo Yao pouted. The look on Luo Qin’s face clearly meant that he didn’t want to listen to this so she shut her mouth, “It’s still snowing so much. Who would dare to drive?”

Luo Qin left Luo Yao and went to find cold medicine. Then he brought the medicine and the ginger tea made by Sister Li up to Lin Zhixia’s room.

Lin Zhixia was feeding Lin Keai noodles. After the little guy took a bite of the noodles, he rubbed his head on Lin Zhixia chest. Lin Zhixia was still angry but the feeling of the soft little dumpling rubbing against him was pleasant. Even though he was still upset, he felt happy that this little guy was showing him affection.

Luo Qin put down the cold medicine and ginger tea and stood leaning against the wall. The little guy was very cute. Lin Zhixia, who was still acting angry, couldn’t hold back the smile at the corner of his eyes. He was also very cute.

It was still snowing outside the window but it was warm inside the house. Luo Qin’s heart was as gentle as spring water, soft and soothed by the sight in front of him.

“Just eat your noodles,” Lin Zhixia was still being overly serious, “There’s no use trying to act spoiled. Acting like this won’t make me let you outside in the snow.”

“Just a little longer, Dad. The snowman…”

Lin Zhixia ignored him, “Open your mouth,

“Ahh–” the little guy muttered and opened his mouth.

Luo Qin said quickly, “Keai, When the snow stops tomorrow, I’ll continue building the snowman, okay? If you go out again, you’re going to be sick and hospitalized like last time.”

As soon as Lin Keai heard the word ‘hospital’, his face immediately wrinkled, “Okay.”

Lin Zhixia face shifted expression, “How do you know about Xiao Ai’s hospitalization?”

Luo Qin was caught off guard and he was faced with Lin Zhixia’s suspicious eyes. Cautiously, he told the truth, “Cheng Xuan, the doctor, is my friend. He remembered you and guessed that Keai was my son.”

Luo Qin paused before finishing his words, “So he contacted me. I’m sorry, I really didn’t intend to pry into your life.”

Lin Zhixia recalled that at that time, Dr. Cheng did have a bit of a strange attitude. But Lin Zhixia’s attention was on the sick Xiao Ai, so he ignored some strange things. Like how a single patient ward had conveniently been given to them. Obviously, for such a busy hospital, there was no way that a private room would be available to someone like Lin Zhixia and his son. And once they were moved to that room, the way the staff treated them was definitely different.

It made sense that Luo Qin happened to appear right after that.

Lin Zhixia looked at him for a moment and then said, “You got us that private room.”

Luo Qin made a low “En.”

Luo Qin looked a little nervous. In fact, he looked similar to Lin Keai just now, shrinking back as if expecting Lin Zhixia to be angry.

It seemed that Luo Qin was also afraid of his anger.

Why? Lin Zhixia couldn’t figure it out. Just like Lin Zhixia couldn’t understand why Luo Qin was doing all these things for him.

“Brother, it’s time for dinner.”

Luo Yao watched secretly at the door for a while, although she couldn’t hear what the people inside said.

Luo Qin kept looking at Lin Zhixia’s face and found that he didn’t seem to be angry. So he asked tentatively, “Zhixia, are you going to eat as well?”

Lin Keai finished sucking up a noodle and when he heard the word ‘dinner’, his little arm waved, “Keai wants to eat, too. Pineapple meat!”

The last time Luo Qin took them to dinner, he found that Lin Keai was very fond of pork with pineapple. He loved the sweet and sour taste.

Although Lin Zhixia said that Luo Qin didn’t need to worry about their dinner, Luo Qin still asked Sister Li to prepare the dishes that the two of them liked.

Luo Qin said with a smile, “There will be pineapple meat.”

Xiao Ai’s eyes lit up and he struggled to get up with his little legs.

Lin Zhixia touched Keai’s chubby belly and looked at the half bowl of noodles he had eaten. He said in shock, “Xiao Ai, you have eaten so many noodles, can you still eat pineapple meat?

Lin Keai opened his arms to be lifted, “I can eat it.”

Luo Yao couldn’t bear to see such a peaceful scene. She was really disgusted by Lin Zhixia. She had always felt that the person who should be standing by Luo Qin’s side was Qiao Ruxu. He was the only one worthy of her brother but Lin Zhixia ruined their lives!

Luo Yao let Lin Zhixia go after they divorced. She was too lazy to look for him and she never expected that he would be back one day. And now, Luo Qin was treating Lin Zhixia so gently. He had never treated his own sister like this, let alone Qiao Ruxu. The more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she felt.

Having had enough, Luo Yao knocked on the doorway, interrupting, “If you want to go down, hurry up! Why are you messing around?”

Immediately, Luo Qin’s cold gaze fell on Luo Yao. She curled her lips down and said in a low voice, “The food is getting cold.”

Luo Qin walked over and picked up Lin Keai and said to Lin Zhixia, “Let’s go eat.”

Lin Zhixia made a low “En”.

“Brother, I just found out that Wang Ma has gone back to the main house,” Luo Yao asked Luo Qin as they went downstairs, “She has been working here for so long, why did she leave so suddenly?”

Lin Zhixia raised his head and glanced at Luo Qin. Luo Qin smiled lightly at him and then turned back to Luo Yao, “I had her go back because I felt that her being here was inappropriate.”

“Inappropriate?” Luo Yao glanced at Lin Zhixia, and muttered, “Isn’t him being here inappropriate…”

Lin Keai was carried by Luo Qin as they followed Luo Yao down the stairs. He stared at Luo Yao’s dreadlocks for a long time, feeling that it was novel and fun. Suddenly, he stretched out his small hand and softly touched them.

“It’s all twisted!”