"Damn it! Don't yell!"
Startled, Lin Fei immediately sat up and clamped a hand over Liu Chunting's mouth.
If she screamed out loud, the sister-in-law in the next room would definitely be woken up.
"Mmph, mmph..."
Seeing that Lin Fei had actually sat up, Liu Chunting was so shocked her eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets!
She struggled to pry Lin Fei's hand away, but no matter what she did, she couldn't budge it, letting out muffled noises from behind his palm.
To her, this was no different from seeing a corpse come back to life!
"Don't yell! I'm better, completely recovered! The whole village knows, how do you not know yet?"
Lin Fei whispered to Liu Chunting.
"Mmph, mmph..."
"I'll let go, but don't scream, or if you wake my sister-in-law up, nobody's getting any sleep tonight."
Liu Chunting hurriedly nodded, and Lin Fei loosened his grip.
"Oh my god! You—you're better?! How are you better?!"
Liu Chunting stared with her dark, round eyes, looking at Lin Fei as if he were a monster, and let out a low, shocked cry.
"You bad guy! Huge bad guy! You got better and still pretended you weren't to trick me... I'm going to bite you to death..."
She couldn't believe it at all. Astonishment, joy, and excitement all rushed over her heart at once, making her throw her arms around Lin Fei and burst into tears.
Crying as she spoke, Liu Chunting actually bit down hard on Lin Fei's shoulder.
"Agh! Damn it, you're actually biting! Are you a dog?"
Stung by the pain, Lin Fei shoved Liu Chunting away.
"Yes, I am a dog, your little puppy! Can I follow you for the rest of my life?"
With that, Liu Chunting lunged at Lin Fei again.
"Hey, hey, hey! Stop right there! Get down off here immediately!"
Lin Fei dodged at once, pointed at her, and scolded sternly.
"I won't get down! I'm going to latch onto you! I'm going to pester you!"
Liu Chunting still lunged stubbornly at Lin Fei, and the two of them started playing cat and mouse on the small brick-bed.
"Liu Chunting! Will you ever quit? What are you doing? Stop messing around! If you keep acting up, I'm not going to be nice to you!"
Annoyed by the willful Liu Chunting, Lin Fei pulled a long face and glared at her with a warning.
"Not going to be nice to me? Hmph! Just how are you going to be not nice? You ungrateful wretch, my pure devotion to you is as clear as the sun and moon, why can't I melt your stony heart?"
Seeing that Lin Fei looked genuinely angry, Liu Chunting's pretty face fell as she rebuked him indignantly.
"Tch, Chunting, I've told you countless times, I don't like you. Why must you pester me to death? As the saying goes, a forced melon is not sweet. Why put yourself through this?"
Lin Fei spread his hands and assumed an expression of utmost helplessness.
"What do you mean a forced melon isn't sweet? The melon I want to eat is sweet! I'm going to force it, so what?"
The more Lin Fei said things like that, the more stubborn Liu Chunting became, and as she spoke, she reached out to put her hands on him again.
"Hey, hey, hey! Here you go again, huh? Don't you know what you're doing is illegal?"
Lin Fei hurried to the corner of the brick-bed, glaring at her with a warning.
"Pfft! Look at you! If you've got the guts, go report me! Let's see if people believe you molested me, or me molesting you?"
"Chunting, I'm begging you! Stop messing around. What time is it? Hurry up and go back! If you wake my sister-in-law up in a minute, you two are bound to start fighting, and it'll get out to the whole village. Can your dad afford to let you off? Stop fooling around, will you?"
With no other options left, Lin Fei had no choice but to plead for mercy from this persistent nuisance.
"Hmph, you ungrateful wretch! You might as well not have recovered! When you were paralyzed, I could do whatever I wanted with you, but now? You won't even let me lay a finger on you! It makes me furious!"
"Lin Fei, let me tell you, whether you're paralyzed or a normal person, dead or alive, I, Liu Chunting, like you, I love you, and I'm going to pester you for the rest of my life! Even as a ghost I won't let you go! Hmph! I'm leaving! Go to sleep early! I'll come find you to play tomorrow. Mwah!"
Liu Chunting finally quieted down. After saying this, she stealthily climbed out through the window again with practiced ease.
Sigh!
How did I end up stuck with such a freak?
Watching Liu Chunting's agile, cat-like figure vanish out the window, Lin Fei couldn't help but sigh bitterly in his heart.
In truth, Lin Fei wasn't genuinely angry with Liu Chunting.
He knew this girl's feelings for him were completely sincere, even reaching a pathological degree.
As the saying goes, a woman chasing a man is separated by only a veil.
Over the years, Liu Chunting's reckless pursuit of him had taken its toll; Lin Fei's heart wasn't made of stone, and it was impossible for him not to feel a shred of softening or a flutter of emotion.
Yet Lin Fei still didn't have any very clear feelings for Liu Chunting at the moment, not to mention she was the daughter of his arch-enemy.
If he accepted her, how would she manage to position herself between her father and her boyfriend?
Lin Fei felt that accepting her would be ruining her.
Besides, Lin Fei believed that his deceased parents and older brother would never agree to him being with Liu Jinshan's daughter either.
"Xiaofei? Are you alright?"
As soon as Liu Chunting left, his sister-in-law suddenly called out to Lin Fei through the door.
Startled, Lin Fei quickly lay down and kept quiet.
"Must have been talking in his sleep."
Seeing that Lin Fei didn't reply, Mo Xinlan muttered to herself and went back to her room to sleep.
Clearly, the commotion in Lin Fei's room just now had woken her up after all.
Just as the sky was turning pale at dawn, Mo Xinlan got up to tidy up the tricycle and head to the market to purchase vegetables.
"Sister-in-law, I'll go. I need to go to work at the hospital anyway, and once I drop off the vegetables, I can head straight to work. From now on, you don't need to worry about delivering vegetables to the hospital cafeteria."
Just as Mo Xinlan was about to push the tricycle out the door, Lin Fei suddenly hurried out after her.
"That won't do at all. You've just recovered, your body is still weak. Just stay home and make breakfast," Mo Xinlan objected.
"Sister-in-law, I'm well now. Providing for the family is what a man is supposed to do. Give me the cart. From now on, you just stay home and take good care of Bao'er."
As he spoke, Lin Fei placed the fleeceflower root he had dug up yesterday onto the tricycle.
"Is your body really alright?"
"I'm truly fine. Look at these muscles, completely solid! Hehe!"
Lin Fei smiled honestly and even flexed his bicep for his sister-in-law to see.
"Hehehe, alright then, here is the grocery list. Also, this is the phone number for Master Huang at the hospital cafeteria. Once you've finished buying the vegetables, just give him a call, and I'll drop him a word later."
Mo Xinlan didn't stand on ceremony anymore; she knew Xiaofei's temperament.
"Got it! Don't worry, I know Master Huang. Sister-in-law, I won't be coming back for lunch. If there's anything happening at home this morning, give me a call," Lin Fei said, taking the grocery list and nodding.
"What could possibly happen at home?" Mo Xinlan blinked.
"Uh, I'm just saying. There shouldn't be anything, though," Lin Fei replied casually.
In fact, based on yesterday's divination, he inferred that Liu Jinshan would definitely use Liu Er to stir up trouble today.
"Xiaofei, what are those two big clumps of dirt you dug up from the mountain? I forgot to ask you yesterday."
Mo Xinlan pointed at the fleeceflower root in the back of the tricycle and asked.
"Hehe, these are great treasures. I'm going to take them to sell," Lin Fei replied with a smile.
"Great treasures?"
"Yeah, this is fleeceflower root, you must have heard of it. I happened to run across it yesterday while visiting the graves."
"Fleeceflower root? Oh, it really does look like a little person. How much can a thing like this sell for?" Mo Xinlan asked in surprise and curiosity.
"If I can find a good buyer, I figure it can sell for at least one hundred thousand yuan," Lin Fei said, holding up a finger.
"What? One hundred thousand?! You brat, are you still asleep, having dreams?" Mo Xinlan's eyes widened in shock; she simply couldn't believe it.
"Haha, sister-in-law, this thing is really valuable. Just wait for me to come back from work and count the money! I'm heading out."
With a hearty laugh, Lin Fei mounted the tricycle and rode off.
Watching the vigorous, high-spirited retreating figure of his brother-in-law, Mo Xinlan smoothed back the hair by her ear. A gratified smile appeared on her face, while tears of joy glistened in her eyes.
She knew the days of hardship were finally coming to an end.