The two paused for a moment, their eyes met, and Xin Ying could see the cunning in Lin Leyao's eyes. Sure enough, Lin Leyao's next words shocked Xin Ying on the spot.
Lin Leyao said slowly, "Actually, I'm your stepmother."
A crack appeared on Xin Ying's calm face: "Stepmother?"
"Yes." Lin Leyao nodded affirmatively.
Xin Ying's eyes flickered, and she said uncertainly, "But my father is already seventy years old this year, and you are..."
Lin Leyao explained earnestly, "Your father is still very vigorous in his old age. I think he will live to be 150."
"Hmm, it seems my father..."
Xin Ying paused at this point, finally unable to continue acting, her eyes revealing a clear smile.
Lin Leyao couldn't help but smile, laughing along with Xin Ying.
Xin Ying reached out her hand, and Lin Leyao walked over and sat down next to her.
Xin Ying asked, "How did you figure that out?"
Lin Leyao replied, "You smiled as soon as I came in."
"That's so simple?" Xin Ying exclaimed in surprise.
Lin Leyao nodded and explained, "You're not the kind of person who would smile at a stranger you've just met."
Xin Ying asked, "Didn't I smile when we first met?"
"..." Xin Ying did smile at him that day, although it was just a slight upturn of the corners of her mouth that vanished in an instant.
But this clearly contradicts what he said.
To avoid contradicting myself, am I supposed to make up a story and say that we've met before, so wasn't the day she visited my grandfather after he was discharged from the hospital the first time we met?
After just thinking about it, Lin Leyao skipped the topic and didn't answer.
The two then chatted in the ward.
Xin Ying asked, "Why are you here?"
Lin Leyao: "How could I not come when you're in this state? Besides, you haven't given me the big diamond ring you promised."
Xin Ying joked, "You think you can be fooled by a diamond ring? If I really die, all my property will be yours. My estate is worth countless diamond rings."
Lin Leyao retorted, "If you're still alive and can continue to make money, then the money I have will be much more than the inheritance you leave behind now that you've had this accident. Of course, that's more worthwhile!"
"Mmm." Xin Ying nodded, indicating that Lin Leyao was right.
Lin Leyao changed the subject and asked, "Who was that man just now?"
Xin Ying's smile faded noticeably, and she said, "It's my third brother."
Third Brother? Lin Leyao was taken aback.
She knew nothing about the secrets of the Xin family. In her interactions with the Xin family, she had never heard of this third brother, and the Xin family had never mentioned him. Judging from their attitude, it was as if this person did not exist at all.
Lin Leyao was still thinking when Xin Ying's words broke her train of thought.
"Where are you filming? How come you're here so quickly?"
Lin Leyao replied, "I took three days off."
Xin Ying hummed in agreement and said, "Then you can stay here for one more day. You'll have to take a plane back the day after tomorrow."
"Yes." Lin Leyao asked, "Did you contact your family after you woke up?"
Xin Ying shook her head: "Third Brother came over as soon as I woke up."
Lin Leyao took out her phone: "Your phone was broken in the explosion, I'll have An Qing buy you a new one later. Now use my phone to let your family know you're safe and sound, so they don't worry."
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Author's Note:
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 00:00:09 on February 16, 2022 and 00:00:00 on February 17, 2022!
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine: a little bell (-^〇^-) 1;
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: 30392217 (10 bottles);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 29
Lin Leyao stayed in the ward all day.
That night, the hospital ward was quiet. Xin Ying sent out the email and then closed her laptop.
On the sofa not far away, Lin Leyao was nestled on her side with her eyes closed, resting.
Xin Ying threw off the covers and got out of bed, holding onto the table next to her.
The hotel explosion did not cause Xin Ying any major harm. She was just knocked down by the force of the explosion and fell to the ground, hitting her head on the steps outside. She also had several abrasions.
He's awake now and is mostly fine, but his muscles are sore all over.
Having barely gotten out of bed all day, Xin Ying stretched her legs and gently walked towards the sofa.
Lin Leyao flew to Australia overnight and didn't sleep at all. She only rested for a while at the hotel arranged by Kong Anqing after arriving here, but she only slept for a total of two hours.
Seeing Xin Ying wake up at the hospital, her tense nerves finally relaxed, and she couldn't help but fall asleep on the sofa.
Without waking Lin Leyao, Xin Ying took the blanket from the hospital bed and covered Lin Leyao with it. Then she opened the door to the ward and quietly left.
On the rooftop balcony of the VIP ward, Xin Ying stood in the darkness, wearing an oversized hospital gown. Her dark gaze was fixed on a point in the void, as if she were recalling something.
A strong wind blew in gusts, making the hem of my clothes flutter loudly.
Footsteps sounded behind her, and Xin Ying turned around abruptly.
When Lin Leyao saw the gloomy expression on Xin Ying's face and her cold, piercing eyes staring straight at her, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.
She blinked and saw that the expression on Xin Ying's face had vanished, replaced by a faint smile as she looked at her and asked, "What's wrong?"
The scene just now seemed like an illusion. Lin Leyao slowly walked to Xin Ying's side and said, "I woke up and found you weren't here."
"Yeah, I've been cooped up in my room all day, so I came out for a stroll."
Xin Ying looked out from the balcony at the street outside the hospital.
Following her gaze, Lin Leyao saw a giant billboard of a large supermarket flashing continuously in the darkness a hundred meters away.
The wind was blowing very hard, and the trees in the yard below the balcony were rustling loudly.
Lin Leyao handed her the coat she had brought and asked, "What are you looking at?"
Xin Ying draped her coat over her shoulders and said casually, "The scenery in this hospital hasn't changed much from what it was a decade or so ago."
More than ten years ago? Lin Leyao looked up at her in surprise.
Xin Ying's eyes were deep and dark as she slowly recounted, "I fell ill in Australia more than ten years ago and stayed here for a while at that time."
Her expression remained unchanged, and Lin Leyao couldn't fathom what she was thinking.
"At that time," Lin Leyao paused, "was the illness serious?"
"It's alright." Xin Ying replied lightly. She glanced around the area around the hospital and said slowly, "But there are still some differences. Almost all the shops outside the hospital have changed."
Lin Leyao hummed in agreement.
Xin Ying pinched the warm, heavy coat on her shoulder with her fingertips, feeling her body warm up slightly. She turned her head and met a pair of bright, beautiful eyes.
Her eyes flickered, and a hint of surprise appeared on her face. She said, "It's past eleven o'clock. You should go back to the hotel and rest. You've been working so hard since last night and into the day. You won't get proper rest here."
Without refusing, Lin Leyao replied, "Okay."
It was already midnight when she got back to the hotel. Lying on the soft, comfortable bed, Lin Leyao closed her tired eyes, but all sorts of images flashed through her mind, making it hard for her to fall asleep.
She recalled Xin Ying's lonely and thin figure on the hospital balcony more than an hour earlier.
She recalled the cold and sinister expression on Xin Ying's face the moment she turned her head.
These scenes are neither real nor unreal, yet they truly existed. What was Xin Ying thinking at that time?
With these unanswered questions in mind, Lin Leyao slowly drifted off to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning, the sky outside the window was overcast. It had rained the night before, and the weather outside was quite cool.
Worried that Xin Ying wouldn't be used to the food in the hospital, Lin Leyao took some specially purchased Chinese snacks and drove to the hospital.
Inside the hospital ward, a foreign girl wearing a pink sleeveless sports dress and with her hair in a high blonde ponytail was sitting on a chair by the bed, leaning forward and squeezing herself against the edge of the bed.
Seeing Xin Ying staring intently at her computer screen, the girl pouted unhappily and said in a spoiled tone, "Ying—why are you still looking at this computer screen now that I'm here?"
"I need to work."
"No, you have to talk to me, you can't work." With that, the girl snatched Xin Ying's computer.
With her office tools stolen, Xin Ying reluctantly took off her glasses, looked at the delicate-faced, lively girl in front of her, and said, "Iris, did you come here just to disturb my work? White shouldn't have told you I was here."
"If he hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known you were in the hospital! Why didn't you tell me about something so serious? You know I was very worried about you!"
Xin Ying answered directly: "Well, I'm afraid of seeing you like this, so I don't want to tell you."
Iris puffed up her cheeks in anger, but she quickly calmed down, picked up the food she had brought, and said, "The food in the hospital isn't good. I brought you grilled steak from a famous Spanish restaurant. I'll feed you!"
Lin Leyao stood at the door for a while and saw a cheerful foreign girl inside trying to feed Xin Ying with a fork.
The two chatted and laughed. Although Xin Ying sometimes looked helpless, she mostly had a doting smile on her face.
It's clear that Xin Ying and this foreign girl are quite familiar with each other.
Lin Leyao placed the snack box in her hand against the wall by the door and turned to walk towards the attending physician's office.
More than an hour later, Lin Leyao returned to the ward door and saw the foreign girl standing a few meters away, looking displeased.
Upon seeing Lin Leyao suddenly appear, Iris looked straight over. Lin Leyao gradually approached, and the two stared at each other.
As we approached the door, the girl reminded us in broken Chinese, "There are guests inside."
Lin Leyao glanced through the glass and saw that Xin Ying's third uncle had appeared in the ward again today.
Noticing a gaze lingering on her face, Lin Leyao looked back.