The end of a blue duckweed (7)
Lin Youyuan retorted, “What did I do wrong? I just like a woman. It’s consensual. No one can interfere. But that kid didn’t know his place and wanted to fight me. Naturally, I won’t let him get away with it!”
As he spoke, he kicked at the stones on the road, rolling into a corner.
Lin Youyuan followed the gaze and saw two figures standing in the shadows of the second floor of the police station.
The officer delivering the reprimand was simultaneously tapping his head while scolding him, while the patrol officer stooped over, his hat had even fallen off.
“Do you have any idea who the two individuals you brought back tonight are? One is the second son of the mayor, the other is the young master of Xinhui Industries. If they have any trouble catching their breath, the whole city of Jiangcheng will shake!”
“You’re all talk and no action. You, a little nobody, always causing trouble for me!”
His scolding intensified, causing the patrol officer to shrink back. He picked up his fallen hat from the ground, brushing off the dust from the national emblem.
“But… they engaged in armed fighting and violated…”
Another slap from the superior officer.
The young patrol officer turned his head away, his eyes reddened.
“Let them fight then. It’s just dogs biting dogs. As long as we clean up the mess, that’s all we need to do. Why are you poking your nose into this? You’re causing trouble for nothing. Couldn’t catch a fox and ended up with a mess!”
Lin Jueshui halted, waiting for him. “What are you looking at? Mother cooked dinner at home, waiting for us to return.”
Lin Youyuan lost interest and withdrew his gaze, mentally labeling this person: either crazy or foolish.
“It’s nothing, let’s go.”
As the two walked to the car, the secretary opened the door for them. Just as Lin Youyuan was about to get in;
The rich second generation limped out from inside. His gaze was fierce and malicious, sticking to the two brothers like a venomous snake.
“Lin Youyuan, your arrogance won’t last long. Sooner or later, you’ll kneel before me and call me ‘master’.”
Lin Jueshui furrowed his brow, feeling that the other’s gaze held deep meaning, causing his heart to skip a beat at his words.
As he was about to speak, Lin Youyuan began to whistle. “Hey, Mr. Rabbit? Are you good at massage or singing?”
The other person became furious, shot him a fierce glare, then stormed off and got into his own car.
The Lin family’s car slowly drove away.
Lin Jueshui turned to look at his brother, who spent his days idly, not focusing on his work, and frowned slightly. “Why did you have to provoke him? Just for a woman…”
Lin Youyuan shrugged off his coat, sat up straight with a lick of his lips, and spoke animatedly.
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“You have no idea, that Xinhui young master is a pervert, not only…”
Lin Jueshui’s gaze became more severe.
Lin Youyuan cleared his throat lightly, swallowing back the words that were about to come out, which were inappropriate, and instead gestured.
He held up three fingers with his left hand to indicate a number, then with his right hand, he slapped over and caught the finger, kneading and shaping it.
“What kind of woman would end up in his hands and have a good ending?”
Lin Jueshui chuckled, then turned away. “But it’s none of your business.”
Lin Youyuan leaned forward and climbed onto the front seat. “Sigh, I don’t want to meddle either, but when a beauty sheds tears, looking so pitiful, I can’t help but…”
Lin Jueshui shot him a glance. “You better think about how to explain this to father when we get back.”
The thought of this gave him a headache. Lin Youyuan gritted his teeth in frustration. “Why bother explaining to him? He’s hardly ever home anyway, not for weeks on end.”
Lin Jueshui playfully tapped his brother’s forehead again, this time much lighter than before.
“Don’t talk nonsense. When we get back, Dad will scold you for backtalking.”
Lin Youyuan still had his mind on what he had just said about their mother having cooked dinner and waiting for them at home.
“Forget about that. What delicious food did Mom make?”
Lin Jueshui smiled faintly. “I don’t know. I just got back from school and hadn’t even reached home when I received your call.”
Lin Youyuan grumbled, “So, you didn’t go home? I thought you might bring me something to eat.”
“Hungry?” Lin Jueshui pulled out a bag of lotus seed pastries wrapped in a handkerchief from his coat pocket and handed it to him.
“Here you go, brought it back from the gate of the Polytechnic University.”
Lin Jueshui attended university in Shanghai. During his enrollment, Lin Youyuan had accompanied him, and they had once tried lotus seed pastries at the entrance, which Lin Jueshui loved ever since.
Despite the long queues and limited availability at the renowned pastry shop, Lin Jueshui never failed to bring back lotus seed pastries whenever he returned. For so many years, he had never missed a chance.
At that time, he was still a half-grown child, and now his height was almost as tall as his.
Lin Youyuan complained with his mouth, but his eyes were looking: “I’m not a child anymore…”
Lin Jueshui folded the handkerchief: “Fine, if you don’t want to eat.”
The person sitting in the backseat snatched it over with a swipe of his hand: “I’ll eat, I’ll eat, thanks bro!”
At that time, the Lin brothers still didn’t know that what awaited them at home was not their mother’s sumptuous meal or their father’s stern criticism, but a disaster.
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Lin Youyuan paused here, his hands gripping the armrests of the wheelchair, trembling slightly.
Lin Yan noticed him closing his eyes, seeming reluctant to recall the scene from many years ago.
“That night when I returned home…”
“Mom, Mom, I’m back! What delicious food have you made this time?” Lin Youyuan swung his coat over his shoulders, excitement filling his eyes, and pushed open the intricately carved iron gate of his home with a bang.
Lin Jueshui smiled and shook his head, following behind him.
What they saw made both brothers’ blood run cold.
Soldiers filled the courtyard, their arms adorned with red armbands, turning their heads in unison, each holding a long rifle.
Kneeling before them were the servants and maids of the household, clutching their heads, their faces ashened, many of them in tears.
The teenager’s blood boiled, throwing off his coat and rolling up his sleeves, ready to charge forward. “F*ck, dare to touch our people!”
The opponent’s rifle butt struck him on the head.
Lin Youyuan staggered back two steps, feeling the blood on his head, gritting his teeth, and wanting to charge forward again, but Lin Jueshui grabbed him tightly.
He held onto his brother’s arm tightly, his face as calm as water.
“Brother, don’t pull me back. Who are they? How dare they come to our house and act recklessly, even daring to hit me?!”
Lin Youyuan spat on the ground with contempt.
“What are you? This isn’t over today!”
The other person replied in a strange tone, “We’re dealing with counter-revolutionaries.”
“I…” Lin Youyuan felt a surge of anger rising to his head, about to charge again, when the villa door opened.
Several military police officers escorted his father, who was tied up, out of the villa, followed by his mother stumbling and crying.
As she was about to run down the stairs, several rifles blocked her path.
In Lin Youyuan’s memory, his mother had always been dignified and elegant; he had never seen her cry so heartbreakingly before.
His heart was also torn apart by such crying.
With youthful spirit and blood boiling, Lin Youyuan pushed aside the people blocking him and rushed over. “Mom, Dad! Let them go!!!”
Lin Jueshui also rushed over, raining punches on the two of them like a storm.
The mother’s crying became increasingly hysterical.
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Lin Youyuan was beaten to the ground, blood dripping from his lips, his face bruised and swollen.
Through the puddle of water in front of him, he saw his father, who had always been dignified and majestic in their hearts, kneel down and beg for mercy.
“Stop, please stop! I beg you to spare my family. It was all me, I admit it. They knew nothing. Please don’t hurt my family.”
The pounding sound echoed in his heart.
Lin Youyuan’s head was being stepped on, tears rolling down his face.
The leader, having beaten and cursed enough, glanced over the gold and silver jewelry they had found, picked up a string of pearl necklace, and stuffed it into his own pocket.
“Alright, I believe Secretary Lin’s words are all true. Let the others go.”
Only then did the person holding him release his grip.
Lin Jueshui crawled over and helped him up. “Dayuan, are you alright? Are you hurt?”
Dayuan was his childhood nickname, called that since he was young.
Lin Youyuan, with a hoarse voice and a shifting gaze, said, “Brother, Dad, Mom…”
Father Lin’s gaze turned over, his lips trembling. “I beg you, please have mercy, let me say a few more words to them.”
The man wiped the snuff bottle he had found while ransacking, held it up to the streetlight, and said, “Alright, anyway, your family is coming with us tonight. If the women can’t go, then the men will. If the older ones can’t go, then the younger ones will. We have plenty of time to spare.”
This meant that besides Father Lin, one more person had to go with them for questioning.
Father Lin turned his face, looking at his two sons.
The elder son was studying in Shanghai, about to graduate from a top university with a promising future.
The younger son was a wastrel, indulging in drinking, whoring, and gambling, doing nothing useful, just waiting to die.
It was a choice both easy and difficult to make.
Lin Youyuan finally opened his eyes. “It should have been me, but Lin Jueshui volunteered to go. This was the first thing I did wrong by him.”
“After that, Father was imprisoned, he went for questioning, and we were not allowed to visit him. There was no news, and our house was ransacked, leaving nothing behind. Mother and I barely survived, finding shelter in a shabby hut.”
“Mother’s health was poor, worsened by the shock. I sold everything valuable on me to buy medicine for her, but she still passed away in the midst of hunger and cold.”
“Before Lin Jueshui left, he said that if it was short, he would be back after he finished his lotus seed cake. If it was long, it would be three months, and by then, he would take me and Mother to Shanghai to live near the university and eat lotus seed cakes every day.”
“But he broke his promise. Until the day I wrapped Mother’s rotting corpse in a broken straw mat and threw it into a mass grave, he didn’t return to see her one last time.”
“That was the first thing he did wrong by me.”
“After that, I met two people, one was your mother, and the other…”
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He paused slightly, as if he could see through the lens who was sitting next to Lin Yan.
“You must have guessed it, he was Song Yuhang’s father.”
Song Yuhang shuddered, recalling what Feng Jianguo had said when he handed her the gun.
“The ballistic comparison results are out. This gun is exactly the same as the one your father lost back then.”
Lin Youyuan continued, “Looking back now, though we were in dire straits, those were still happy days. In a street fight, I was seriously injured and was taken to the hospital by Song Yuhang’s father, Song Yiwu. There, I met your mother, who was an ordinary nurse at the Central Hospital…”
“Bed 13, the stitches are removed. Remember not to get the wound wet for three days. Come back if you feel uncomfortable.”
The nurse said, gently pressing his head and removing the gauze wrapped around it.
From this close, Lin Youyuan saw the simple name on her badge: Su Yue.
He could also smell the faint fragrance on her.
Since the Lin family fell from power, all the women who used to flock around him had vanished, and he hadn’t been near a woman since.
The young man swallowed, his mind wandering, and said a few lewd words, making the young nurse blush and throw the gauze into the tray before turning away.
“Head nurse, the patient in bed 13 again…”
“Sigh, that guy is a notorious rascal, even the police can’t handle him. Just discharge him quickly.”
Listening to the whispered complaints of the medical staff behind the curtain, Lin Youyuan proudly whistled, putting the wallet he had just swiped from the young nurse into his pocket.
Soon, the young nurse came back.
“The discharge procedures are done, you can leave now.”
Lin Youyuan limped out of the room, but before leaving, he remembered something and asked.
“What about my medical fees?”
The young nurse replied angrily, “The officer who brought you in paid them.”
Lin Youyuan felt a sharp pain in his molars.
“Look, it’s that officer.”
Song Yiwu, still in his yellowish-green uniform, was walking over with a notebook in hand.
Lin Youyuan brushed past him, leaning on the wall. “Don’t think I’ll be grateful just because you paid my medical fees. You did it willingly, so I won’t repay you.”
Song Yiwu stopped, shaking his head with a bitter smile, remembering the scene in the police station where he had been so arrogant.
He had been reprimanded for it, but the young man didn’t take it to heart. He was open-minded and cheerful.
“I don’t want you to repay me, but the people you fought with haven’t been caught yet. We need your cooperation in the investigation.”