Chapter 66: In That Case, She Might As Well Be Dead!
At midnight, Lin Xin opened her eyes.
She turned her head to look at the soundly sleeping Lin Nan, then quietly got up and went to the courtyard, staring blankly at the entire house.
She only knew that the things were dug up from beside the foundation, but the area around the foundation was not small at all! Where should she start looking?
After worrying for a while, she suddenly had an idea and took out a green seed from the space. She stepped back a few steps, threw it on the ground about five steps away from the house, and placed one hand over it to output supernatural ability.
Underground where no one could see, that seed was growing rapidly. Its massive root system gradually burrowed into the soil around the foundation bit by bit, yet nothing could be seen on the ground surface.
In the apocalypse, to allow ordinary people to hide from zombies, experts developed underground cities. This seed was specially cultivated to protect underground cities. It excelled at burrowing, and its roots were extremely sturdy. When intertwined, they could make the walls of the underground city withstand intense vibrations without collapsing.
Out of curiosity, Lin Xin had swapped a few and stored them in the space, and unexpectedly, they came in handy today.
Soon, Lin Xin received feedback from the root system and found what she wanted at the northwest corner of the house.
Withdrawing her supernatural ability, she picked up the hoe and began digging a pit.
Soon, a wooden box with metal wrapped around its corners was dug up by her.
Without checking what was inside, Lin Xin started filling the pit. In a few days, they would be working on the house, and she didn’t want this dug-up spot to be exposed under everyone’s watchful eyes. To make a fortune, she had to keep it quiet!
After finally restoring the ground surface to its original state, Lin Xin rubbed her sore waist. She circulated wood element ability through her body for a circle to relieve the soreness and fatigue, and couldn’t help sighing that she had really become decadent—doing this little work made her feel utterly exhausted.
However, having another source of income still made her very happy. After a simple wash, she returned to the room, hugged Lin Nan, and fell asleep.
The next morning early, Lin Xin was awakened by noise and banging on the door.
Already grumpy from lack of sleep, when she heard that it was actually Lin Zhi and Lin Laosan outside, her anger skyrocketed to the peak. She grabbed the thick stick used to bar the door, opened it, and without a word, swung it horizontally. After two “ouch, ouch” cries, there were two more dull thuds of heavy objects hitting the ground.
“Ouch, Lin Xin, you little bitch, you actually dared to hit me. Ouch, I can’t take it anymore, my waist is broken. You have to compensate with money.” Lin Laosan lay on the ground, clutching his lower back and grimacing.
Lin Zhi lay beside him, her little face pale, looking as if she had been scared badly.
“Compensate with money? You sure?” Lin Xin tapped the thick stick in her right hand against her left palm, a smile playing on her lips as she walked step by step toward Lin Laosan, looking at the hand he was clutching his lower back with.
Seeing the smile on her face, Lin Laosan’s heart skipped a beat. He nervously scooted back a bit and said sternly but weakly, “You injured my waist. What’s wrong with me asking you to compensate with money? With my waist hurt, I can’t work anymore. The whole family at home still relies on me to eat! Don’t you think you should compensate with money?”
The more he spoke, the more fluent he became, and in the end, he even convinced himself that it was exactly like that.
“Heh! Fine! Isn’t it just compensating with money? I’ll pay it,” Seeing the joy on Lin Laosan’s face, Lin Xin continued, “But I’ll compensate only if you’re really injured. If you’re not, then I won’t give you the money. Not only that, I’ll sue you for trying to extort me.”
“I······” Lin Laosan swallowed, “Of course I’m really injured. My waist hurts so much I can’t even straighten up now. Ouch, look, even moving a bit hurts like hell. Quick, give me the money so I can go find a doctor.”
“How can that work?” Lin Xin raised the stick in her hand, “Anyway, I can’t confirm if you’re really injured or not. How about you let me hit you once more? I know how hard I hit since I did it myself. After that, I’ll give you the money, okay?”
With that, she swung the stick with one hand, pretending to aim at Lin Laosan’s lower back.
Lin Laosan was so scared his eyes bulged. Seeing the stick about to land on him, he could even hear the whoosh as it swung. With a “waa” yell, he rolled to the side, got up, and hid away.
“Haha, looks like my stick is way more useful than a doctor. Such a serious injury was cured with just one swing from me!” Lin Xin shouldered the stick and laughed so hard she doubled over.
“You!” Lin Laosan then realized he had fallen for Lin Xin’s trick, but with so many villagers watching, even if he was shameless, he couldn’t just lie down again and claim he was injured.
“Dad~” At this moment, Lin Duo, lying on the ground, called out to her dad tremulously, drawing everyone’s attention.
The little child was lying sideways on the ground, her small face deathly pale, curled up in a ball, looking at Lin Laosan pitifully with teary eyes that she was holding back from crying, truly looking extremely pitiable.
Lin Laosan hurriedly ran over and squatted in front of Lin Zhi, flailing his hands as if he didn’t know what to do with her, mumbling nonstop, “Zhi’er, daughter, where do you feel bad······”
The villagers watching nearby started whispering again. Some said Lin Xin was too heartless, some urged Lin Laosan to quickly take Lin Zhi to find a doctor, but most said Lin Zhi was pitiful.
Lin Xin sneered coldly. It seemed that the smartest and most daring person in the Old Lin Family was this usually unassuming Lin Zhi!
She just stood there quietly holding the stick, not speaking, staring straight at Lin Zhi.
Being stared at like that by her, Lin Zhi lying on the ground felt as if all her little thoughts had been seen through, and she couldn’t help shrinking back a bit more.
She told herself firmly not to be afraid. Although her mother at home had been saved by Lin Nan’s master, her body was already ruined, and she couldn’t have another younger brother in the future. Her father, who desperately wanted a son, had stopped caring for her mother and might even hope she wouldn’t live. If not for her and her older sister feeding her mother the saved rice soup every day, her mother might have starved to death already.
Her older sister’s face was completely ruined. Zheng Tuhu came to see and said he didn’t want this daughter-in-law, demanding they return the betrothal gift money. If they couldn’t, he would take her back to raise for a few years and then make her his wife, and surprisingly, her grandparents and father agreed.
She absolutely didn’t want to be sent to that Zheng Tuhu. In two days, he would come to pick her up. In her panic, she suddenly remembered what her older sister had said: Lin Xin’s home had money. As long as she was willing to lend money, she wouldn’t have to marry Zheng Tuhu.
So, she thought about it all night and still decided to try her luck at Lin Xin’s home.
Her original plan was to come to Lin Xin’s home to cry and beg, but she never expected that she wouldn’t even get a chance to speak before Lin Xin swung the stick and knocked her over.
In the instant the stick hit her arm, she thought of the same idea as her dad—to pretend to be injured and make Lin Xin compensate with money. But after seeing her dad’s fate, she didn’t dare.
So, she used her older sister’s method—pretend to be pitiful. She thought her older sister failed because first, she didn’t pretend thoroughly enough and soon revealed her true colors, and second, she didn’t act pitiful enough.
Lin Zhi felt she was different from her older sister. First, she was young, which gave her an innate advantage. Plus, she could endure enough; she was confident she wouldn’t curse or throw a tantrum in front of Lin Xin.
This way, even if she couldn’t win Lin Xin’s sympathy, the villagers would think she was pitiful and might persuade Lin Xin to lend her the money.
Lin Xin’s place was her last hope. If she couldn’t succeed······ then she might as well die!
Thanks to Mengmomo, Poluguangxiaoxiao, Mmy Dang, caroletu, Fuze, Qingchen Shuidaijue, Wuxingqian768, Luoyezhqiu-Ad for the votes, thanks to caroletu for the tip, thanks to everyone for the support, thank you!
