Reincarnated as a Poor Little Green Tea, Am I Destined to Be Bullied? - Volume 1 Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Past Events

***

Xia Mujin’s casual grumbling was coincidentally overheard by Lin Yueye.

If she had walked just a bit faster earlier, she might have missed this last unintentional remark.

Lin Yueye doubted if she had misheard.

But Xia Mujin’s way of speaking, every word and sentence clearly audible, each character distinctly heard, made it difficult for Lin Yueye to convince herself that she had misheard the situation.

But if she hadn’t misheard…

Could there possibly be such an outrageous coincidence?

Lin Yueye stopped and turned back, showing a hint of surprise, an expression that seemed unexpected to Xia Mujin.

“Hm? Has Lin Yueye changed her mind?”

“No…” This time, Lin Yueye actively stepped back, driven by a certain urgency to know something.

After all, it might concern herself.

“Class… no, Classmate Xia, could you please elaborate on what you just said about your family’s recent situation?”

“My family’s situation…? Oh my? This is truly rare… why would Lin Yueye be interested in my family affairs?”

“I…”

She was momentarily at a loss for words.

Indeed, from any perspective, Lin Yueye seemed to have no standing to inquire about Xia Mujin’s family matters.

Just as she was struggling to think of an excuse to continue extracting some information…

She saw Yuebing standing on tiptoes, raising both hands crossed, desperately pointing Lin Yueye towards the window outside.

Outside the window…?

Thinking about the direction, it should be towards the playground.

What did she see along the way when she crossed the playground to get here earlier?

— Food safety in mind!

I see! Yuebing, it’s still you who comes through in crucial moments!

【Human human! Do you see the rising smoke over there! The school cafeteria is starting to cook!】

“……”

An unintentional act bears fruit, a cat’s guidance surpasses that of an immortal, well, anyway, this matter, unrelated to the original intention, I’ll credit you for it.

In just an instant.

Lin Yueye, who was originally frowning and pondering a strategy, immediately changed her demeanor after clarifying her approach.

Very sincere, very humble, with light circling in her eyes, she hesitated for a moment before gently opening her cherry lips, every move making her look like a harmless little angel.

“Classmate Xia, it’s like this, I now… already know how weak my former self was, I want to try to return to normal life, I know it will be very difficult… but I will try my best.”

“That’s good, of course I support it~” While saying “support,” the suddenly gloomy look in Xia Mujin’s eyes didn’t seem to match her words.

Before she could say anything else, Lin Yueye quickly organized her thoughts and continued.

“On my way here just now, I saw many banners. I also heard many students saying that recently a student died of food poisoning in our school. I just feel… I don’t know anything now, it’s like I’m not even studying at the same school as everyone else, so I just felt… uneasy, I guess. When I heard Classmate Xia mention this matter earlier, I just wanted to know… if what you’re talking about might be the same incident?”

“Ha.” Xia Mujin, as if deliberately, or as if competing, suddenly asked back, “If Classmate Yueye is so eager to know, why not ask our classmates? Aren’t you always keeping your distance from me?”

“Because the one willing to talk to me… might only be you.”

“……”

This would be, the killing blow.

Lin Yueye just said what she could think of saying.

She was still quite nervous inside, so she lowered her head while saying these words. Now that she finished speaking, she looked up.

— Xia Mujin’s hand was slowly raising towards the front of her head, with only a hair’s breadth of distance.

“Uh…”

What… what are you doing!

Are you going to hit me again!

When she looked up directly at Xia Mujin behind the beautiful wrist, the other’s eyes widened slightly.

But her expression didn’t change at all due to this unusual action.

She calmly withdrew her raised arm, unable to suppress the curve of her lips, trembling, suddenly turning her head to one side, and finally burst into laughter.

“Pfft… Lin Yueye is really cute~ Ah ah, I can’t… This really sounds like something friends would say… It feels quite nice, mm-hmm, since Lin Yueye trusts me so much, if I don’t tell you anything, it would seem lacking in ‘sincerity’, right~”

No no no… So what exactly is this ‘sincerity’ you’ve been talking about from the beginning.

The process was a bit tortuous.

But fortunately, Lin Yueye still successfully heard the information she wanted to hear.

Xia Mujin supported her right elbow with her left hand, winked her right eye, seeming to remind Lin Yueye — she could tell, but only once.

“Everyone says I’m the only child of the Xia family, but that’s not really the case.”

“Is it the one you mentioned earlier…?”

“Mm, it seems I once had an older brother. Because the Xia family’s business wasn’t doing well in earlier years… we went through a turbulent period. From the time I was born, my parents weren’t very harmonious. At that time, I was with my mother, and that older brother was with my father. Logically speaking, we should have met again when we started kindergarten, but unfortunately, this brother I had never met, doesn’t seem to have been very lucky.”

“Did something happen…” Lin Yueye’s heart was racing nervously, she wouldn’t miss a single word now.

“Yes.” Xia Mujin slightly raised her head to look at the not-so-high ceiling, squinting her eyes, “When he was very, very young, he was kidnapped. It seems the kidnappers were trying to take advantage of the Xia family’s decline at that time? They didn’t expect it would take the Xia family so long to raise the ransom. Many unpleasant things happened in between. By the time the Xia family negotiated with those people, my poor brother had already disappeared. These things, I’ve only heard about, you know?”

“Is that person… the student who recently died in our school? Even though you were all in the same school…” It was hard to notice, but Lin Yueye’s already low voice seemed to have dropped a few more notches at this moment.

“You all?”

“Us. I haven’t been… coming to school recently, right?”

“Ha, that’s true.”

Although it was a blood-related brother from her family who had died, judging from Xia Mujin’s state, there was no sadness to speak of.

Just as she said.

Since they had never met, why bother feeling sentimental and disturbing oneself?

“This is really a case of missing what’s right under your nose… The Xia family searched for him for many years. At the time he was abducted, the city was actually far from Qihai, and the Xia Group’s headquarters wasn’t in Qihai either. The city where he was taken to was also very, very far away. The Xia family later moved here, never imagining he would also end up in this city.”

Xia Mujin sighed and shook her head, continuing.

“According to the methods of those kidnappers, the Xia family guessed he was probably sold to some family. But the problem is… he actually appeared in an orphanage, and it was an orphanage in Qihai city. The people who visited at that time also went there, but it was just a cursory look. After all, it wasn’t their own child, and they didn’t think there would be any discoveries there. Ha… I don’t know how he ended up there, it’s really many, many coincidences entangled together. If it wasn’t for the DNA test done as part of the procedure after he died because he was an orphan, perhaps even now we wouldn’t have been able to discover that he, alone, had been living in Qihai city for so many years.”

Originally, Xia Mujin had no need to tell Lin Yueye so much.

But perhaps she also had some feelings she wanted to express.

To say she didn’t care at all, although there was no sadness, he was after all someone connected to her by blood.

So rather than telling Lin Yueye.

Some words seemed more like talking to herself.

“And… we never expected that he would change his name completely, not even keeping the surname ‘Xia’, but instead was called ‘Ling Qingyue’.”