The Fake Daughter is a Max-Level Green Tea [Transmigrated into a Book] - Chapter 65

Chapter 65: Past Events (2)

Inside the hospital ward, which reeked of disinfectant, a little girl who had always been sensitive to the smell coughed repeatedly until an adult noticed and led her outside.

At that time, Lin Chumu had not yet formed her later decisive personality. Her clear eyes were filled with the natural dread a child of a few years has for the unfamiliar word “death.” Especially when she heard the muffled, intermittent sobbing from inside the ward, she felt as if something was being unraveled from her being, piece by piece, gradually leaving her.

A woman she barely knew—someone who usually had almost no contact with the family—patted her shoulder. Though Lin Chumu was unwilling, the woman pulled her forcefully into an embrace, burying the small head against her chest and patting her. It wasn’t until she saw Lin Chumu “calm down” and heard those inside discussing something that she hurriedly released the child and rushed back in.

A hospital ward is not a suitable place for negotiation, especially when the patient still has a final breath left. The first to emerge was her maternal uncle, his face full of sorrow, though the emotion was clearly superficial. Lin Chumu was not truly a typical little girl; while she appeared to be a pitiful child weeping quietly in a corner, she was actually straining her ears to listen.

The group’s voices were very low, but Lin Chumu still vaguely caught blurred phrases like “how to divide it”, “there’s a share for me”, and “she’s not that Lu family princess”. Later, the two sides of the family seemed to reach an impasse. A tall, burly uncle grabbed her short uncle by the collar in frustration and shook him hard: “I put so much effort into this, don’t you d*mn well try to take all the credit. If it comes to it, we’ll all go down together and end up at the station—let’s see who blinks first!”

“Don’t be so hasty. In the end, it depends on who Chumu wants to go with. Do you think a child this small has no say? Who she ends up with is a matter of fate, alright? I’ll go ask her.”

Seeing them turn red in the face from arguing, an aunt seemed to realize how inappropriate this looked. She quickly changed the subject and walked toward Lin Chumu, who was crouching in the corner. Seeing the girl’s face streaked with tears, she patiently wiped her clean with a wet wipe. But when she asked in a soft, gentle voice which of the people present Lin Chumu liked best, she was met with a fierce punch.

“Little” Lin Chumu began to wail. The massive commotion attracted a passing doctor, who ordered them not to make noise in front of a patient’s room, forcing them to stop for the time being. But afterward, no matter the occasion, anyone who asked was met with Lin Chumu’s irritability, kicks, and punches. Although the little girl’s fists lacked strength, they were enough to instill a deep sense of resentment in everyone.

Until the moment the Lin couple breathed their last, these people crowded forward one by one to ask about the events of the past, even going as far as telling them directly that Lin Chumu was not their biological child. However, the couple truly seemed to know nothing about those matters. Even though they became very emotional upon learning Lin Chumu’s true identity, they were unable to say anything definitive.

The final will specified that Lin Chumu should go directly to an orphanage rather than stay with any relatives. When they realized the clues had been cut off and all their efforts would come to nothing, the relatives’ attitude toward Lin Chumu naturally soured.

As for why the couple decided to send her to an orphanage at that time, a true child might not have understood, but the Lin Chumu of then understood perfectly and was grateful for what they had done.

If they had handed her over to those greedy relatives, a young, defenseless child would only have become a tool to be bled dry; once they realized no profit could be gained, abuse and bullying would surely have followed. The parents had already scouted a decent orphanage for her, doing their utmost to provide a stable environment for a young child.

Although Lin Chumu was mentally in her twenties, after becoming a child again, she was inevitably affected by the physical age on a psychological level. Excessive grief combined with limited capability meant she had no way to squeeze the truth out of those relatives at the time. Yet, she had known from the beginning that her parents’ deaths were inextricably linked to them.

“Now they want you to go back. I expect it’s the same as back then—they want to see how much value they can squeeze out of you.”

The production van sped along the city’s outer ring highway. Lin Chumu slowly poured the latte into the empty cup in front of Lu Chaoqing, her expression colder and sharper than ever before.

Lu Chaoqing likely didn’t know that in the original plot of this book, this family did visit her once. However, the “female lead” at the time detested both that family and Lu Chaoqing. When they made financial demands, the female lead, who controlled the conglomerate, cut off Lu Chaoqing’s source of income. Unable to give them a large sum of money, Lu Chaoqing became the target of their resentment.

Later, when Lu Chaoqing completely fell from grace, that family came to kick her while she was down, showing absolutely no regard for the “blood ties” they had previously touted so loudly.

That kind of thick-faced betrayal of kin was nauseating in the extreme.

And after trying to get Lin Chumu’s attention without receiving any response, they could only use the events of that year to lure them in. After all, in their eyes, both Lin Chumu and Lu Chaoqing were now huge pieces of “fatty meat”—it would be a pity not to suck a little blood.

Listening to Lin Chumu’s summary, Lu Chaoqing’s face gradually darkened. Her tightly clenched fists revealed her turbulent state of mind. But as the vehicle moved from the highway to local roads, approaching the toll station, a woman’s warm hand rested on her shoulder.

Even though the air conditioning made the car comfortable, Lin Chumu had brought some heat packs after checking the local weather forecast for the next few days. She remembered that in the original plot, Lu Chaoqing was very sensitive to the cold. Since joint protection is crucial for a singer-dancer, under the girl’s somewhat confused gaze, Lin Chumu half-knelt and gently rolled up her pant leg, her fingertips brushing against the fair skin.

“I knew you weren’t wearing long johns.” The scolding was gentle. Lin Chumu lightly flicked her finger against Lu Chaoqing’s knee. “Put your long johns on first, then we’ll stick on the heat packs. It’s going to be nearly ten degrees below zero here these next few days, and you’re still daring to play around like this.”

Lu Chaoqing deliberately made a pained face, but such exaggerated acting could no longer fool the other woman. Nevertheless, as the car drove smoothly, she got her wish as Lin Chumu picked her up horizontally and placed her on the small sofa, handing over a pair of pants retrieved from a suitcase.

“Let’s go see Mom and Dad later,” Lin Chumu said suddenly in a low voice. “I want to bring them to see you, and… to properly introduce my girlfriend.”