novelraw Chapter 898 - 607: Understanding
Chapter 898 - 607: Understanding
Before dawn
-----------
"You’re upset with Auntie after all." Lin Zhiling chuckled as she held Chuxia’s hand, looking her up and down, "You look even more beautiful after a few months. Not bad, not bad. It seems the Zhou family has taken very good care of you."
Chuxia rolled her eyes internally. Were they really that close?
As for her, she was the kind of person who originally accepted others, so she got along with everyone. Now disappointed, she found it hard to get along with anyone...
"Seems like you’re still quite upset, not even willing to talk to me." Lin Zhiling chuckled, patting her head, "Silly girl, is it really something so significant that you’d dismiss the entire family?"
Chuxia: "..."
Zhao Yulan and Lin Baohe anxiously signaled their daughter from the side, but unfortunately, she sat there like she was under a spell, her head hanging down, not even glancing at Lin Zhiling.
"You think I’m siding with Huang Suai, right?" Lin Zhiling smiled as she sat beside her, "We look the most alike, so of course, we’re the closest. Isn’t that right?"
Finally, Chuxia looked up at her, the disapproval in her eyes quite obvious. She didn’t want to hide her emotions at all. Having been forced to watch such a drama, she felt awful. If they genuinely respected them, would they have done this? Because of this, her admiration for Lin Wenbin also waned slightly. It’s just acting, how was she supposed to know whether to believe it or not?
"Whether or not I’m your closest person, among the younger generation in this family, I consider you the closest..." With a light sigh, Lin Zhiling scooted over to sit beside Chuxia and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "Everything was orchestrated by me because I wanted to know your attitude towards this matter. Now that I know your attitude, naturally, I know what to do."
"What do you mean?" Miss Lin finally spoke up.
"Your uncle is Huang Suai’s second uncle. Although we don’t see each other that often, we’re on good terms. Wenbin came to us, hoping we’d reduce contact with Huang Suai, saying he was worried she’d use her connection to you through us to get close, and really harm you.
To be honest, both your uncle and I felt he was overreacting. But seeing how insistent he was, we agreed. Then your second brother came to us, saying not to actually distance ourselves from Huang Suai simply because Wenbin was making a fuss. That would be childish.
During that period, your uncle and I felt driven crazy by them both, so we went to ask the elders for advice. They didn’t really offer any, just said we should make our own decision.
We didn’t have any good ideas. After thinking it over, I decided to see your attitude. If you cared, I’d follow Wenbin’s advice. If you didn’t, I’d follow Wenhang’s."
Chuxia felt exasperated. Was all this drama really necessary right off the bat? It wasn’t like time was running out, and couldn’t they just ask her nicely?
"If I asked you directly, you probably wouldn’t say it so straightforwardly. What I wanted was your most direct reaction. Just now, I saw everything clearly here." Lin Zhiling smiled at her, pointing to a glass wall beside the main hall, "From behind that, I could see your expressions clearly, but you couldn’t see me."
"Thank you." Chuxia finally expressed her gratitude, although she still didn’t fully agree with their approach. But considering it came from genuine concern for her, she couldn’t be too ungrateful.
However, seeing the skeptical expressions of her parents still made her feel uneasy.
If she and her parents weren’t in this position, would they really dare to test her like this?
"Though your intentions were good, the way you went about it didn’t leave us feeling pleased." Zhou Mikang looked at Lin Zhiling, "If you trust someone, you don’t use this way."
"I’m sorry, we haven’t spent enough time together to really understand each other, so this was the only method I could use..." Lin Zhiling said with a bitter smile, sighing again, "To be blunt, the funding for our research lab is controlled by Huang Suai’s father. If we really distanced ourselves from her, I’d probably have to apply for funding all over again."
"No need to distance yourselves." Chuxia looked seriously at her, "Auntie is doing her job, there’s no need to worry about these trivial matters between us younger ones at the cost of getting things done.
If she truly has the intention of sabotaging my relationship with Zhou Mikang, with her cleverness, she’d find a way to get close to us.
If she doesn’t intend to do that, then making such a big deal out of it is a bit silly. Besides, I’m not scared of her. She’s smart, but I’m no idiot, right?"