Are They Lacking
Chapter 4/5 of the week.
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In the evening, Lin Ruoxi went home after getting off work. Upon entering the house, she saw a strange young lady wearing a pair of fluffy house slippers who was carefully holding a pot of steaming-hot braised noodles as she walked out of the kitchen. It was exactly Hui Lin.
Hui Lin put the pot down and raised her head before noticing Lin Ruoxi who was standing at the entrance.
The moment their gazes met, both of them got some kind of weird feeling. Although it was their first time seeing each other, they felt familiar at the same time, or even… intimate.
“Elder… Elder Sister, you’re back…” Hui Lin subconsciously opened her mouth and said something faintly.
Lin Ruoxi thought about something, and asked, “You are… the fellow’s distant cousin?”
Hui Lin was rather nervous. She panicked for a while before remembering that Yang Chen brought her into the house using the identity as his cousin. As a result, she nodded and said, “Yes.”
Lin Ruoxi was a bit shocked. Is it possible that she doesn’t know the marriage between Yang Chen and I? Logically speaking, she should refer me as ‘Sister-In-Law’ or something. Although she didn’t necessarily want the title, Lin Ruoxi didn’t know why she felt extraordinarily intimate when the girl called her ‘Elder Sister’.
“Since you’re here, please enjoy your stay. If there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to voice them out.” Lin Ruoxi couldn’t bear malice towards a girl like that, who so obediently helped out the first day she arrived. Even if she was the ‘despicable man’ Yang Chen’s cousin, Lin Ruoxi had to accept her after all.
When Yang Chen finished bathing, he came downstairs and saw that Lin Ruoxi and Hui Lin were already seated and prepared to have lunch, like they had a natural affinity towards each other. Although he didn’t want to admit, at the end of the day, it was hard for things like blood relations to fade. When the two women sat together, they were both so cold and quiet, even their auras were very similar, but Lin Ruoxi held more coldness.
When Lin Ruoxi saw Yang Chen, she felt a heartache and simply acted like she didn’t see him. Silently, she started eating herself after she finished serving rice.
Yang Chen expected her reaction. He sat beside Hui Lin and said, “Treat yourself at home and eat more. You’re very skinny already, if you return being even skinnier next time, your grandma would certainly think that I’m torturing you. At that time, she won’t restrain from coming over to slaughter me.”
“Grandma doesn’t simply go around and kill,” Hui Lin explained in a naive manner.
Yang Chen coughed a few times and signalled Hui Lin to think before she spoke. Casually saying things like ‘go around and kill’ wasn’t something a lady of her age would say.
Expectedly, Lin Ruoxi looked at the two weirdly and wondered if she misheard Hui Lin or not.
“Of course your grandma doesn't kill. She’d be locked in the prison otherwise.” Yang Chen helped Hui Lin cover what she said.
Hui Lin noticed that she said something inappropriate. Using her big, black eyes, she glanced at Lin Ruoxi who didn’t seem to have any reaction, before finally relieving herself.
As they were having their meal, intentionally or not, Lin Ruoxi asked, “What’s your name?”
Hui Lin was rather nervous. Awkwardly, she said, “Hui Lin…”
Yang Chen felt relieved. Luckily, the kid didn’t stupidly state her name as ‘Lin Hui’.
“Hui Lin…” Lin Ruoxi frowned slightly. Although she felt that the name was a bit weird, she didn’t put too much thought into it. “How long are you coming here for, is it for work?”
When Yang Chen wanted to help Hui Lin answer ‘no’, Hui Lin suddenly nodded.
“Oh yeah, Elder Sister, can you help me find a job?” Hui Lin looked at Lin Ruoxi with high hopes
Yang Chen violently turned his head to look at Hui Lin as he stunned. This kid still wants to look for a job in Zhonghai? Is she not planning to go back to Mount Emei already?
Lin Ruoxi didn’t think too much. To her, a girl of Hui Lin’s age was around when someone would start working, not to mention that she came from afar to rely on Yang Chen. Although she felt weird that Yang Chen had a cousin, since he had lived mostly abroad in the past and had a complicated background, she thought that Hui Lin was merely an ordinary girl, judging from how gentle she looked and how naively she behaved. Lin Ruoxi. Finding a job and looking for a man to marry should be what her seniors hope for her.
It had to be said that Lin Ruoxi behaved rather heartily toward Hui Lin, since Yang Chen said that she was his distant cousin. Since they started knowing each other, none of Yang Chen’s relatives or friends appeared before. When one finally came, who was also a girl that Lin Ruoxi liked, she was willing to give her a hand.
“Finding a job will depend on what skills you have. Are you a university graduate?” Lin Ruoxi asked.
Yang Chen smiled secretly. This kid had followed her grandma in Shushan since young, how would she get a chance to enroll in a university? I bet she only had one-on-one lectures on knowledge and culture at best, since Lin family musn’t lack the funds for the upbringing of their only granddaughter.
Unexpectedly, Hui Lin nodded really quickly. Blinking her bright and big eyes, she said seriously, “I have a university diploma, I’ll go get it for Elder Sister to take a look.”
When she finished speaking, before Yang Chen could say anything, she directly put down her bowl and chopsticks before rushing upstairs.
Yang Chen was astonished. Why is it different from what I thought?! How does this little nun have a university diploma?!
Lin Ruoxi noticed Yang Chen’s look. Frowning, she asked, “You don’t even know that your cousin graduated from university? How are you even her brother?”
“Erm… I don’t actually know,” Yang Chen said as he smiled bitterly.
Lin Ruoxi snorted coldly and didn’t plan to treat Yang Chen politely. “Luckily I’m here, otherwise the naive girl would definitely suffer, should she depend on you.”
Yang Chen pouted and felt rather displeased. Didn’t you agree on our divorce six months later? Even if you bumped into me with another woman, do you have to behave this badly towards me? I even talked about it long ago, I never planned to hide it from her. Furthermore, we haven’t made any vows, but agreed upon not stepping into each other’s lives. It can’t even be considered as a betrayal, he thought. Actually, Yang Chen knew that it wasn’t the right time to further irritate Lin Ruoxi, so he minded his own business as he ate silently.
After a short while, Hui Lin skipped down from upstairs before placing a stack of red certificates and some unknown documents in front of Lin Ruoxi. Her white loose T-shirt made her look like a ball of cotton candy floating its way down. Blushing, she said, “These are my certificates and diploma. Elder Sister may take a look.”
Lin Ruoxi didn’t expect Hui Lin to take so many things down. When she started looking through them, her facial expression turned wonderful.
For some reason, she raised her head and looked at Hui Lin from head to toe, causing Hui Lin’s face to redden so much that it looked like it would drip blood.
Wang Ma advised, “Miss, don’t look at Miss Hui this way anymore. Look at how embarrassed she is.”
Lin Ruoxi withdrew her gaze and sighed slightly. “It’s not that I want to look at you that way intentionally, I just feel very surprised. You look so young but you already have two master’s degrees from Tsinghua University.”
Yang Chen almost spat out the steaming-hot soup in his mouth. He turned his attention to the certificate in Lin Ruoxi’s hands, Isn’t this the case!
It seems like Abbess Yun Miao used her connections to get different types of identity documents and certificates for her granddaughter, Yang Chen thought.
Although Lin Ruoxi felt rather odd, she was indeed holding genuine diplomas and certificates in hand, so there wasn’t much she could say. After she simply flipped a page, her expression turned even weirder. She asked, “You’re even the champions for the national pipa and guqin competitions?”
[TL note: The pipa (Chinese lute) and guqin are both Chinese musical instruments.]
In the stack of Hui Lin’s documents, there were indeed two pieces of certificates for the grand prizes of pipa and guqin national competitions!
This time, Hui Lin didn’t keep quiet. Smiling, she said, “Yeah, I got them when I was seventeen in the competitions Grandma enrolled me in.”
These two certificates were certainly genuine. After all, Abbess Yun Miao brought her granddaughter up using traditional education methods. Other than martial arts, Hui Lin also excelled in traditional musical instruments, chess, calligraphy and drawing.
Soon after, Lin Ruoxi looked more and more surprised. In the huge stack of Hui Lin’s materials, there were also the grand prize for the third Chinese Sword Dancing Competition, champion for the Second National Go Chess Competition for Youth, honorary member of Chinese Calligraphy Association, honorary member of the council in Chinese Art Association, champion for the Seventh National Dance Competition for Youth…
At last, Lin Ruoxi didn’t flip to the front to look at the master’s diplomas for economics and advertising media from Tsinghua University, as they weren’t significant compared to Hui Lin’s other achievements. The girl standing made even the usually proud Lin Ruoxi feel ashamed. In her tiny body, there hid so much impressive power, she could do so many things at once!
When Hui Lin saw that Lin Ruoxi remained silent, she got rather worried and afraid. She asked, “Sister Lin, are they lacking? I… I still have a few more certificates, but they’re all second place. Do you want me to take them over as well?”