Rebirth: A Cinderella's Counterattack

Chapter 185: Chapter 173: Lin Jiayou Moves into the Luo Family (Part 2)

Just like the doctor said, Lin Jiayou was in good physical shape and recovered quickly. In just three days, he was discharged from the hospital. At Luo Qianqian’s insistent request, Lin Jiayou moved into the Luo family’s home, sharing a room with Luo Shufan. The single bed in Luo Shufan’s room was replaced with a bunk bed, and Luo Shufan slept on the top bunk.

The Pei family also sent various nutritional supplements and nutritious meals every day. At the request of Luo’s mom, Luo Qianqian and Luo Shufan had taken a few days off. Neither Pei Yuhao nor Pei Yutian revealed to their classmates why Luo Qianqian hadn’t attended school.

”Brother, let’s go back to school on Monday,” Luo Qianqian said. She had been at home for a few days and was feeling stifled, but Luo’s Mom, worried about the safety of not just the two of them, but rather three people, wouldn’t let them go out, so they could only watch TV and do some exercises.

”I need to go out tomorrow,” Lin Jiayou said, chuckling as he watched Luo Shufan cooking in the kitchen and Luo Qianqian sprawling motionless on the sofa. With such a sister, no wonder Luo Shufan was considered ’someone else’s child,’ but soon he would be his own brother.

Luo Qianqian frowned, ”Your wound hasn’t healed yet. Don’t go out, or it might split open again and you’d be in real pain.” She then touched her own arm; when she had watched them change his bandages, she had seen the wound with more than a dozen stitches. It was terrifyingly horrendous, like a centipede winding its way along Lin Jiayou’s arm, and as for the wound on his abdomen, she didn’t even have the courage to look at it.

”If I don’t show up, Brother Tiger is going to go crazy,” Lin Jiayou shook his head. ”This minor injury is nothing; I’ve had worse in the past and I made it through those, didn’t I?”

Luo Shufan came out of the kitchen carrying a dish, sighing, ”There really are a lot of injuries on his back.” He had accompanied Lin Jiayou to change his bandages twice, and even as a boy, he found it quite unnerving.

”By the way, what were you doing over there so late at night?” Luo Qianqian asked Lin Jiayou curiously. Luo Shufan was also curious to know. If Lin Jiayou hadn’t arrived in the nick of time, they wouldn’t have known what might have happened to them.

A hint of red swept across Lin Jiayou’s face, conspicuously noticeable under the bright incandescent light, ”Oh, it was nothing. I just went to a friend’s house for dinner.” In his heart, he thought that even among peers, he shouldn’t be a bad influence on children.

Seeing Lin Jiayou’s ears turning red, Luo Shufan figured out what was going on. Although Luo Qianqian was young, her soul was that of a twenty-something monster, and although they had little interaction, he knew.

”Is the sister-in-law pretty?” Luo Qianqian’s curiosity flared up.

The usually secretive Lin Jiayou was rendered speechless, and even Luo Shufan, who claimed to know his sister like the back of his hand, was taken aback.

Seeing the looks on her brothers’ faces, Luo Qianqian stuck out her tongue and explained, ”It’s always like this in TV shows. Just now, there was a scene where young men and women suddenly blushed—it must have been because they thought of boyfriends or girlfriends.”

Luo Shufan skeptically watched Cherry Maruko on the TV. Luo Qianqian, are you serious? Maruko is only in third grade. But thinking about Maruko’s story, he understood—Miho likes Hanawa, Tomita likes Sasayama, Midori likes Tomita, a whole bunch of unrequited and requited loves. How did he know about the plot? Of course, he learned by watching the cartoons with his sister.

”Pretty good,” Lin Jiayou’s face grew even redder, his eyes fixed on the TV though he was clearly not focusing.

Luo Qianqian, with a look of ’I know, I understand all,’ watched as Lin Jiayou failed to lose his blush even during dinner, and Luo Shufan secretly considered whether he should ban his sister from watching cartoons.

”Tomorrow, I want to go out too,” Luo Qianqian announced after dinner.

”No way,” Luo Shufan and Lin Jiayou exclaimed in unison.

”What are you going out for? To buy food? Let mom bring it back,” Luo Shufan frowned, as if ready to tie up his sister if she dared to step outside.

Although Lin Jiayou didn’t say anything further, the meaning in his eyes was clear: absolutely not.

”I tried contacting Bai Yixian last time, but his phone was off. These past few days, all my calls went unanswered, and nobody responded at his home phone either, just busy signals. I’m worried something might have happened to him,” Luo Qianqian said, furrowing her brows.

Luo Shufan was startled, ”Is that why you didn’t reach out to Big Brother Bai that day? There was such a thing? Why didn’t you say it earlier?”

”Talking about it earlier wouldn’t have helped you get out anyway,” Luo Qianqian pouted, but she was certain that Bai Yixian was alright, just missing for unknown reasons.

”Then I’ll check it out tomorrow, you stay home,” Luo Shufan nodded, still refusing his sister’s idea of going out.

”You’re leaving me at home alone?” Luo Qianqian glared. ”What if someone breaks in? Aren’t you afraid that someone might kidnap an adorable child like me?”

Luo Shufan pressed his hand to his forehead. ”Our neighborhood has really good security, okay?”

”Bai Yixian will be fine,” Lin Jiayou said. ”You don’t need to go. It would be strange if something actually happened to a person like him.”

But no matter how much Luo Qianqian and Luo Shufan pressed him, Lin Jiayou didn’t reveal another word, effectively vetoing the siblings’ idea to leave with the biggest vote in the house at the moment.

However, Lin Jiayou did leave, and the siblings couldn’t stop him. On one hand, Lin Jiayou’s actions were for revenge, and on the other, he was standing up for them both. Rationality, reason, and personal feelings meant the siblings couldn’t go or find it in themselves to stop him.

”Alright, I’ll come back and buy you some fried skewers,” Lin Jiayou said, who had learned during these past few days that the siblings loved this snack but due to being splashed by hot oil, Luo Shufan just couldn’t overcome his fear to fry anything himself; previously, it was He Wenyu who did the cooking.

”Your body hasn’t recovered, you can’t eat junk food,” Luo Qianqian refused without hesitation.

”What about those little pastries you love? That should be okay, right? Just two portions, I won’t eat any,” Lin Jiayou smiled as he looked at Luo Qianqian, who looked serious but eager, feeling good about having a sister.

”Luo Qianqian, I just remembered, haven’t you something you’ve not confessed?” Luo Shufan thought about Lin Jiayou going to confront those thugs tomorrow, suddenly realizing this issue. His sister had offended someone, and she hadn’t clarified things in so many days.

Luo Qianqian guiltily looked at the tips of her shoes. She couldn’t just say that a lot of people disliked her, could she? The girls were down one, Sun Xuan, and the boys still had Wang Wei. Thinking about how fast gossip spreads, she realized she was really quite unpopular.

”Luo Qianqian, don’t tell me you don’t know,” Luo Shufan eyes blazed. ”You’re being bullied at school and you didn’t tell me? What were you thinking? Want to fly high? Or do you have to wait until Big Brother and the others confront you to force it out of you?” He squinted at his sister, then widened his eyes as Luo Qianqian sensed danger but couldn’t steer clear of the storm’s center.

”Brother, can’t I handle it myself? You’re making it seem like I’m bullying others with your support.” But then she thought, Pei Yuhao had offered to back her up and she hadn’t taken it, which showed that being low-key was important.

”Being bullied in school and your brother doing nothing about it, what next? Waiting for you to come home battered and crying before I seek revenge for you?” He squinted his eyes again. ”It seems you know very well who was behind it.”

”I have an idea,” Luo Qianqian muttered, her head down, unable to hide the obvious answer.

”Speak honestly, and I, being very generous, might spare you from my wrath,” Luo Shufan snorted coldly, his face full of dissatisfaction. He had narrowly escaped harm, and even Big Brother Lin had been injured, yet his sister still refused to speak.

Luo Qianqian frowned. ”You can seek revenge if you find out, but you can’t make him drop out of school. I have my plans, and I’m not going to tell,” she said, turning her head away, refusing to look at the two glaring at her.

”Luo Qianqian, do you believe I’ll hit you?” Luo Shufan was burning up inside, still not allowing him to force the boy out of school? What if something like this happened again and he wasn’t around to help his sister handle it alone?

”Then hit me,” Luo Qianqian said dejectedly, her head still lowered, not looking at Luo Shufan.

”Fine, I’ll check it out tomorrow and we can talk later. Let’s not ruin the mood over this little thing,” Lin Jiayou patted Luo Shufan’s shoulder.

”This is a little thing?” Luo Shufan exploded. ”If something like this happens again, whether she can get out unscathed is a problem!”