Inside an Old-School Tragic Romance Novel
Smack—
A heavy slap landed on Lin Xi’s face.
“How can you be so vicious at such a young age?”
“She’s your younger sister! How could you bear to hurt her? You didn’t dare bully her at home, so you ran to school to bully her instead, is that it?”
Xu Jiaofeng gripped Lin Xi’s arm tightly with one hand, while her other hand struck her body hard.
“She fell into the lake by herself. What does that have to do with me?” Lin Xi endured the pain and denied it with all her strength.
Xu Jiaofeng grew even angrier. “If you hadn’t done something wicked, would Xinxin have fallen into the lake for no reason?”
“Who knows how she fell in? In any case, it has nothing to do with me. There were people watching at school, and there are surveillance cameras too. If you don’t believe me, go check it yourselves.”
“What a sharp tongue! Still making excuses!”
“I said I didn’t do it, so I didn’t do it.”
Lin Xi looked past Xu Jiaofeng at Lin Anxin behind her.
At that moment, Lin Anxin had already changed out of her wet clothes. Wrapped in a blanket, she was being protected in Song Kexin’s arms, sipping the ginger soup Song Kexin fed to her mouth.
This matter had started just before school ended.
That afternoon, Lin Xi had come out of the library and seen many people heading toward the artificial lake. She also heard someone say that Lin Anxin seemed to have gotten into a conflict with others and had fallen into the water.
When Lin Xi got closer, Lin Anxin was floundering in the artificial lake, which was less than one person deep. The teacher had not arrived yet, and nobody around dared to intervene.
Lin Xi did not sympathize with her, but after thinking for a moment, she still went down and fished her out, then carried her on her back to the car waiting for them at the school gate.
Yet as soon as they got home, Lin Anxin fearfully pulled away from Lin Xi and hid in Xu Jiaofeng and Song Kexin’s arms. When asked what had happened, she only stammered vaguely.
With Lin Anxin acting like that, plus the driver who picked them up and dropped them off giving an unclear account of the situation, Xu Jiaofeng naturally concluded that Lin Xi had deliberately pushed Lin Anxin into the lake.
Lin Xi glared angrily at Lin Anxin and said, word by word, “Lin Anxin, say it yourself. Was I the one who pushed you into the lake?”
When her eyes met Lin Xi’s, Lin Anxin seemed to be frightened. She turned her head and shrank into Song Kexin’s arms, sobbing, “Mum, I’m so scared. Wuwu, I thought I was almost going to die and never see you and Dad again, or Grandma and Maternal Grandma.”
Her aggrieved appearance made Song Kexin and Xu Jiaofeng’s hearts ache even more.
“What, are you trying to scare her now?” Xu Jiaofeng forcefully pulled Lin Xi away.
Lin Xi gritted her teeth and cursed inwardly: *What an act.*
Could a man-made lake less than one metre deep really drown someone?
Lin Xi despised her inwardly, then looked at Song Kexin—her own mother.
But when Song Kexin met her gaze, there was only coldness in her eyes, even a trace of blame and resentment.
“Apologise to your sister,” Song Kexin said coldly.
Hearing that, Lin Xi suddenly wanted to laugh.
What had she even been expecting? Hadn’t it always been like this? Whenever she and Lin Anxin had a conflict, she was always the one who got scolded. Even the servants at home would only say that she was jealous of her younger sister, Lin Anxin.
Lin Xi held back the sting in her eyes and refused to let the tears fall. Looking at Song Kexin, she asked, “So no matter what Lin Anxin does, she’s always right, and no matter what I say, I’m always wrong?”
Lin Xi’s question was met only with Song Kexin’s silence.
“I won’t apologise.” Lin Xi clenched her fists tightly. “As for what happened today, whoever lied shall die a miserable death. Choke to death while drinking water, get crushed by the ceiling while sleeping, get hit by a car the moment they step outside!”
Hearing this, Lin Anxin trembled in Song Kexin’s arms.
She was the one who had lied.
At school, she had provoked a group of thugs. That afternoon, Yan Xueqi had brought a group of people to make trouble for her and called her over to the artificial lake. At first, Lin Anxin thought the other party was just bluffing. She had not expected them to actually try to cut her hair and pour paint on her. Terrified, Lin Anxin had kept backing away, only for her foot to slip and for her to fall into the artificial lake.
Lin Anxin did not dare tell the truth at this moment. If she did, her mother and grandmother would definitely ask what had happened. In front of her family, she had always been a well-behaved and sensible child. She did not want them to know that she had gotten into a conflict with other students at school—and for that kind of reason, no less.
—
On this side, Lin Xi received another slap across the face, the blow leaving half her head buzzing.
This time, the one who hit her was Song Kexin, who had stood up.
“Lin Xi, what kind of words are those!” Song Kexin’s eyes were stern.
Xu Jiaofeng also snorted coldly. “So young, yet so vicious.”
“Who exactly is the vicious one?!” Lin Xi shouted, then turned and ran upstairs.
“How rebellious! Li Ma, stop her.”
Xu Jiaofeng ordered the servant to stop Lin Xi, but Song Kexin called out, “Mum, forget it.”
“Let her reflect on herself properly. As for Xinxin, I think we should call a doctor to check on her.”
At the mention of Lin Anxin, Xu Jiaofeng immediately shifted her attention and nodded. “Yes, she should be examined properly. The weather has turned cold. If she really gets sick, that would be troublesome.”
Xu Jiaofeng walked over and touched Lin Anxin’s head. “Our Xinxin has suffered. If you feel unwell, you must tell Grandma, understand?”
Lin Anxin nodded obediently.
“What a good girl.”
Xu Jiaofeng glanced in the direction Lin Xi had left and snorted coldly again. “Our family provides her with good food and drink, yet somehow we raised such a heartless, vicious thing!”
“As expected, she isn’t of good stock. No matter how you raise her, nothing good can come of it!”
Those words made Song Kexin’s expression turn somewhat awkward.
“Mum, enough!”
Seeing Song Kexin’s face darken, Xu Jiaofeng awkwardly stopped and turned to instruct the servants to contact the family doctor.
—
On the other side, Lin Xi returned to her small room and raised a hand to wipe away the tears hanging in her eyes, the ones that had not yet fallen.
Her cold, soaked school uniform scraped painfully against her skin. Only then did Lin Xi numbingly change out of the uniform that was already drenched.
At that moment, she took a neatly folded but completely soaked piece of paper from the pocket of her school uniform.
It was the report card for this month’s exam.
Lin Xi opened the report card and carefully spread it flat on the desk. She stared blankly at the grades on it.
First in the year.
She had originally been full of anticipation, wanting to bring it home and show them.
But they probably would not care anyway.
Lin Xi had never understood. From childhood until now, no matter how hard she worked or how outstanding she became, she could never gain her family’s approval. In Lin Xi’s memories, her father had barely ever spoken to her. Her grandmother’s double standards toward her and Lin Anxin were even more severe. As for her mother, the way she looked at her was strange and complicated, as though Lin Xi were a defective product.
In this family, she was always like an outsider, while Lin Anxin and the others were the real family.
Lin Xi did not understand.
Didn’t everyone say people liked outstanding children?
She had clearly already worked so hard.
…
A sneeze interrupted Lin Xi’s thoughts. She shivered, wrapped her pyjamas tighter around herself, and ran in small steps to the bed, burying herself under the quilt.
Only after a long time did her ice-cold body finally feel a trace of warmth.
—
That night, Lin Xi began to develop a fever.
In her haze, Lin Xi felt as though she had been placed over a fire and roasted. There were even people constantly turning the roasting rack and brushing chilli sauce over her.
It felt awful.
She thought she might be about to die.
In her drowsy state, chaotic images began flashing through Lin Xi’s mind.
Later, however, they unexpectedly became clear.
Lin Xi had a very strange dream.
In the dream, she discovered that the world she lived in and the family she lived with were part of a novel.
It was an old-fashioned abusive romance novel with utterly warped values. Her mother, Song Kexin, was the female lead of this abusive romance, and her father, Lin Yize, was the male lead.
Like the openings of many old-school novels, the female lead had a father who was addicted to gambling and had racked up a massive amount of debt. To repay her family’s debts, the female lead had no choice but to become the male lead’s substitute lover.
Before the male lead fell in love with the female lead, he humiliated and tortured her in every possible way. He even handed her over to a group of scumbag business partners and let them do whatever they wanted with her. Although the female lead narrowly escaped from those people’s clutches, she had drunk a special beverage and could not escape properly. In the end, she accidentally had a muddled relationship with a strange man.
It was only after something happened to the female lead that the male lead suddenly realised he had already fallen deeply in love with her.
Facing the female lead, who had lost her chastity, the male lead was overwhelmed with regret and begged for forgiveness.
Under the male lead’s sincere repentance and humble pursuit, the female lead—who had secretly loved him all along—chose to forgive him. The male lead also said he was willing to accept the child in the female lead’s belly.
Everything seemed perfect.
But as time passed, both the male lead and the female lead began to mind the child’s existence. That child was like a thorn deeply lodged in their hearts; the longer time went on, the more painful it became.
Especially after the crystallisation of their love was born, that child became even more like an unavoidable stain.
Unfortunately, Lin Xi was that child who should never have been born.
…
Countless words, accompanied by fragmented images, flashed rapidly through Lin Xi’s mind.
Gradually, the words in her mind began to distort again.
After a long time, Lin Xi finally opened her eyes with difficulty on the bed.
A splitting headache followed. Lin Xi tried to open her mouth. Her throat was so dry it felt as though it had been burned by fire, and her body felt as though it were being crushed by a heavy weight, making it hard to breathe.
Lin Xi struggled to reach out and pick up the phone on the table beside her. She glanced at the time and was shocked to discover that she had actually been unconscious for an entire day and night.
Her head was terribly dizzy.
However, her eyes were clear, and upon closer inspection, they even carried shock.
Lin Xi repeatedly recalled the content of the novel from her dream. If it was all true, then her current situation and her family’s attitude toward her did not seem so difficult to understand.
After all, to this family, she was indeed only an outsider. More than that, she was the dark history on the road of Lin Yize and Song Kexin’s love.
Lin Xi wrapped her small quilt tightly around herself.
Her ending in the novel was not good either.
In the novel’s extra chapters, “Lin Xi” became jealous of her younger sister. She was jealous that Lin Anxin had stolen the love of the family, stolen everyone’s attention at school, and stolen the male god she secretly admired. She continuously turned darker, smearing Lin Anxin’s name in front of outsiders and using all kinds of methods to frame her.
After her vicious schemes were exposed, “Lin Xi” became hated across the internet. Every day, she received large numbers of abusive and threatening messages from strangers. At school, everyone also despised her. In the end, she reaped what she had sown. Her plan to scheme against Lin Anxin failed, and instead, she was raped to death by the group of thugs she had hired in a dark and filthy alley.
Lin Xi frowned.
Would she really turn evil out of jealousy toward Lin Anxin? Would she really resort to schemes to deal with her?
No matter how Lin Xi thought about it, she could not understand this point. She was not that bored. Besides, the methods “she” used in the novel were, to be honest, far too low-level in Lin Xi’s eyes.
—
In addition, there was another extra chapter in the novel.
Lin Yize finally gained enough power and found the man who had caused his beloved woman to lose her chastity back then. He spared no effort in taking revenge, making the other man lose his entire fortune and reputation.
With the disappearance of “Lin Xi” and that man, the last trace of estrangement in the male and female leads’ hearts finally vanished.
—
“It really is Gu Shao…?” Lin Xi murmured to herself.
Barring any accidents, that person should be her biological father.
What surprised Lin Xi, however, was that her biological father was actually Gu Shao!
Lin Xi’s gaze fell on the latest issue of *Huaxia Technology Journal* on the desk. The cover figure of this issue was Gu Shao.
An outstanding figure in Huaxia’s electronic technology field.
A big shot among big shots.
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