Prejudice
Lin Yueru said so many wrong things just now that Ling Yeli didn't even know where to begin refuting her.
For instance, Ling Lu wasn't actually sullen. When she first returned to the Ling Family, she was still a minor, full of curiosity about everything in the Ling Family, and quite talkative.
It was just that whenever she spoke, no one listened. Gradually, she stopped talking, grew quiet, and became taciturn.
Or take another example: Ling Lu had actually told him that she wasn't the one who caused the car accident, but he hadn't believed her at the time.
Why hadn't he believed her back then?
Ling Yeli asked himself in his heart.
He knew the reason very well in his heart: he held a prejudice against Ling Lu.
Because Ling Lu had a past record of harming Linlin, he hadn't listened to Ling Lu's explanation and instead prejudged that she must have done the bad thing.
Ling Yeli raised his head and looked at the empty living room, recalling the frail figure of the young girl in the wheelchair back then, her straight spine nevertheless carrying a sense of unyielding defiance.
It was as if Ling Lu's voice was echoing in his mind, clear and resounding.
"For the past three years, you brought me back but never cared for me at all. The Ling Family doesn't even have a room for me."
"Every time something happens to Ling Lin, the only thing you people ever do is put the blame on me."
"No matter how I explain, nobody listens. It's been like that every single time."
"In the three years since I came back, the only things I've felt from you people are endless cold violence, curses, and reprimands."
"I've had enough."
Every single word the young girl spoke carried the weight of pearl and jade. At this moment, those words flew back like boomerangs, traveling through time to strike Ling Yeli right between the eyebrows in the present.
Thinking of this, Ling Yeli's heart suddenly panicked.
This time, regarding the car accident, he had been self-righteous and blinded by his own bias; could the previous matters have been the same way as well?
His mind recalled the few tear-streaked scenes Ling Lu had displayed before the Ling Family over the past three years.
The heart hidden within Ling Yeli's chest seemed to be struck invisibly by a heavy hammer, beginning to beat violently.
A moment later, he seemed to have made up his mind.
It was time to investigate the past events as well...
When Ling Xuancheng received Lin Yueru's call, he was just following the staff to the garage to retrieve the car.
Right before getting into the car, a backstage staff member suddenly called him over and handed him the mobile phone kept by the production team.
Ling Xuancheng glanced at the caller ID, took the phone, and walked away from the cameras to a corner to answer it.
The staff member waited for a moment, only to see that Ling Xuancheng had already hung up and returned the phone.
His expression, compared to just a moment ago—how should he put it?—had inexplicably gained a bit of displeasure.
The staff member was somewhat suspicious. He had just glanced at the caller ID and it seemed to be Mother Ling; could he have been arguing with his family?
Yet it didn't really look like it?
The staff member pondered for a moment, then was called back to his senses by a colleague, quickly putting away his curiosity to focus on work.
In their line of work, the most taboo thing was having too many crafty ideas; it was better to be honest and reliable.
Ling Xuancheng was indeed displeased, and extremely so.
Lin Yueru had called him precisely to ask him to persuade Ling Lu to come home?
You've got to be kidding me!
Ling Lu leaving the Ling Family was something he was more than happy to see.
Ask him to tell Ling Lu to come home? Whether she wanted to return or not was her own business, and good riddance if she didn't!
However, not only did Lin Yueru demand that he go persuade her, but she also wanted him to have a good attitude, and ideally convince Ling Lu within the next few days.
That was what displeased him the most.
Ling Xuancheng's cold expression persisted until he was in front of the camera, where he finally reined it in. He let out a deep breath, recalling his mother's repeated instructions, while somehow conjuring up the image of Ling Lu sitting in her wheelchair from earlier.
Her complexion actually looked fine, a rosy white, but her figure was excessively slender, making her look even more frail as she sat in the wheelchair.
Looking at her, she really was quite pitiful...
"Looks like she hasn't been living very well after leaving the Ling Family, huh? If you knew this would happen, why act the way you did back then?"
Ling Xuancheng said mockingly in his heart.
Seeing that Ling Lu was not doing well now made Ling Xuancheng feel somewhat comforted; this was her punishment for harming Linlin, let's see if she dared to do it again in the future!
This realization improved Ling Xuancheng's mood, and with it, more than half of the resentment he held toward Ling Lu in his heart dissipated. Since she had already received her punishment, this matter could now be considered closed.
"I suppose I'll reluctantly play the role of my mother's lobbyist."
Given Ling Lu's personality, as long as he spoke up, Ling Lu certainly wouldn't dare disobey him.
Having made up his mind, Ling Xuancheng resumed his usual smiling face, picked up the car keys, and drove Linlin to the nearest surrounding supermarket to purchase food for tonight.
Meanwhile, the production team had already moved the barbecue utensils and charcoal to the courtyard outside the house.
Ling Lu glanced at the items placed on the ground and turned to ask the production team, "Do you have rice here?"
The staff member was momentarily stunned by the question. "We do have rice, but aren't we having a barbecue tonight? So we didn't prepare a rice cooker."
The program Travel Chronicle primarily focused on travel journeys. In the production plan, they were only going to stay at this current stop for one day, and today's filming content could at best be considered a preview trailer, which wouldn't even be edited into the main episode.
The location the guests would fly to together tomorrow would be the official filming site for the first episode of the show.
Since the guests were staying for only one day, the production team had only prepared the planned barbecue equipment and no extra cooking utensils.
"It's fine. As long as there is rice, we can cook it even without a rice cooker."
Ling Lu said with a smile.
As long as there was a container with decent airtightness and some hot water, the rice could be cooked.
As soon as this action of hers came out, the other guests present showed varying degrees of confusion on their faces.
Bai Tongtong walked over and asked.
"Lulu, can't you eat barbecue?"
"I can."
"Then why did you ask the production team for rice?"
Ling Lu offered a mysterious smile and said no more.
Bai Tongtong stopped asking.
One had to have a sense of boundaries in life. Today was only the first day she and Ling Lu had met, and prying relentlessly was impolite.
However, the live comments section had already gathered a chorus of curses because of Ling Lu's actions.
"Ling Lu, what kind of drama is she stirring up again? Can they kick her out of the show? I get annoyed just looking at her."
"Does she really think she can gain attention by being so unconventional? It's just obnoxious, alright?"
"I bet she's trying to build a foodie persona. That kind of persona has been quite popular lately, so she's putting on an act!"
In fact, Ling Lu was simply very clear about the temperaments of the two Ling siblings—they were reckless with money and lacked any sense of restraint.
Especially Ling Lin, who was so used to being a spoiled young lady that she hadn't suffered a single day of hardship in all these years.
If you wanted her to talk about luxury stores, she could rattle off names and details like an expert.
But a place as full of everyday life and hustle and bustle as a supermarket was probably somewhere she was entering for the very first time; she probably couldn't even tell scallions and garlic apart.
Ling Xuancheng and Ling Li were cut from the same cloth.
Ling Lu guessed that as for tonight's barbecue, nine times out of ten, they wouldn't get to eat it.
However, even if they couldn't eat barbecue, they couldn't go hungry.
Since the production team had rice, making a few small side dishes later to go with the rice would also have a unique flavor of its own.