As soon as Liu Chunting left, Lin Fei immediately got out of bed, took a quick shower, and started making breakfast.
His sister-in-law worked extremely hard every day, getting up at the crack of dawn to sell and deliver vegetables. In the past, he hadn't even been able to help share the burden.
Now that his health had recovered, how could he possibly wait around for her to come back and make breakfast?
Before long, smoke was rising from the kitchen chimney, and the aroma of white rice porridge filled the small courtyard.
Huh?
What's going on?
Why is someone cooking at home?
Could it be... that Xiaofei is really better?!
How could that be possible?
For two years, this was the first time Mo Xinlan had rushed home in the morning to see smoke coming from the kitchen chimney.
Shocked beyond measure, she stepped on the gas and raced straight for the front gate.
When she rushed into the courtyard and saw that the person cooking in the kitchen really was Xiaofei, she froze in her tracks!
"You're back, Sister-in-law."
Lin Fei walked out of the kitchen with a bright smile on his face.
Seeing Lin Fei standing before her looking full of vitality, with a ruddy complexion and a sturdy build, he looked nothing like a man who had been paralyzed for two years.
"Oh heavens! Xiaofei, you're really better! Is this real? Am I dreaming?"
Mo Xinlan stared dazedly at Lin Fei in exclamation.
"Hehe, I said it this morning, I really am better. I find it pretty strange myself, Sister-in-law. Maybe the heavens are finally taking pity on me," Lin Fei said with a grin, reaching up to rub the back of his head.
"You're really better, it's not a dream. Thank goodness, the heavens have finally opened their eyes! Our hard days are finally coming to an end..."
As she spoke, Mo Xinlan started wiping away tears, then clasped her hands together and silently thanked the heavens in her heart.
However, Lin Fei's gaze landed straight on her lower back, causing Mo Xinlan's cheeks to flush instantly.
"You rascal, the moment your eyes get better you start peeping around! Haven't you seen a woman in two years? Are you starving or what? Hehehe!"
Mo Xinlan shot Lin Fei a sideways glance, subconsciously turning her body slightly as she teased him with a smile.
"Uh... No... Sister-in-law, you've misunderstood. I, I noticed there's something wrong with your lower back. Do you usually have lower back pain? Does it hurt terribly, especially when you do physical labor or sit for long periods?"
Lin Fei's old face turned red, and he waved his hands hurriedly in embarrassment as he explained.
He wasn't lying. He had indeed seen a wisp of sickly Qi lingering around his sister-in-law Mo Xinlan's waist.
With the Tongtian Divination Formula having entered the first level of the Gen Realm, his eyes could perceive Qi. Sickly Qi, spiritual Qi, Yin Qi, and malevolent Qi that ordinary people could never see were all visible to him now.
Armed with ancient medical heritage, miraculous Heaven-Reaching Spiritual Qi in his dantian, and eyes that could see illness-causing Qi, Lin Fei was already a natural practitioner of medicine. To call him an peerless divine doctor now was no exaggeration at all!
"Eh? How did you know that?"
Mo Xinlan was extremely surprised; all the symptoms Lin Fei described were spot on.
"Hehe, Sister-in-law hasn't forgotten that I'm a doctor, has she? You have a lumbar disc herniation. But it's not too serious yet; acupuncture and Tui Na massage will clear it right up."
Lin Fei chuckled and said.
In truth, his heart ached for her.
For his sister-in-law to suffer from a lumbar disc herniation at such a young age—she had worked herself to the bone.
Shortly after the two of them finished a rather late breakfast, Mo Xinlan saw two familiar figures walking up outside the courtyard gate.
"Ma Guiqin and Yang Qiulian are here again," Mo Xinlan frowned, her delicate brows knitting together.
"Sister-in-law, I'm going back to lie down in the room. Don't tell them I'm better."
With a dark expression, Lin Fei went straight into the bedroom.
"Then... now that you're well, this marriage..."
"There is no marriage!"
Lin Fei cut off his sister-in-law, his words carrying unmistakable anger.
Yang Qiulian was Lin Fei's ex-fiancée. The two of them had been engaged before the car accident, and the Lin family had even paid the bride price.
However, after the Lin family suffered their misfortune, the Yang family demanded to call off the engagement.
And Yang Qiulian, who had been in a relationship with Lin Fei for two or three years, also revealed her fickle, realistic, and snobbish nature.
Discarding all past affection without a second thought, she made no effort to hide her disgust for the paralyzed and blind Lin Fei, adamantly insisting on breaking off the engagement.
In this regard, Yang Qiulian fell far, far short of Liu Chunting.
Actually, Lin Fei had never wanted to drag Yang Qiulian down with him, and he had intended to dissolve the engagement himself.
Yet for such a demand to come from the Yang family first was deeply hurtful.
It dealt a heavy blow to Lin Fei, making him feel as though Yang Qiulian had turned into a completely different person, leaving him utterly disillusioned with her.
In the end, the uncle and sister-in-law reached a consensus: as long as the Yang family returned the two hundred and eighty thousand bride price, they would agree to annul the marriage.
However, the Yang family refused to return the money, brazenly claiming that the two hundred and eighty thousand was compensation for Yang Qiulian's lost youth.
Consequently, the two families had been locked in a stalemate for the past two years.
This wasn't the first or second time the Yang mother and daughter had come over to cause a scene.
Therefore, the moment he saw the Yang family women arriving at his doorstep, Lin Fei felt rage flare up inside him.
"Mo Xinlan, this engagement must be called off today! Otherwise, we're taking you to court for extortion!"
As soon as she stepped into the house, Ma Guiqin slapped the dining table like a fighting cock and threatened them angrily.
Yang Qiulian crossed her arms and leaned lazily against the door frame, casting a sideways glance into Lin Fei's bedroom with eyes full of utter revulsion.
"Extortion? You're the ones extorting us! Isn't it completely reasonable to return the bride price when calling off an engagement?"
Mo Xinlan knitted her brows and retorted unyieldingly.
Though she had a gentle temperament, it didn't mean she was a pushover; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to hold her ground against the Yang family with no way out for the past two years.
"Don't you dare mention the bride price to me again! My Xiulian wasted three whole years being delayed by your useless Lin Fei, and she gave him everything short of getting in bed with him! Shouldn't you pay compensation for her youth?"
Hearing her mother say this, Yang Qiulian felt not a shred of embarrassment. Instead, she chimed in, "Exactly! Plenty of second-generation rich kids were chasing me. If I'd just hooked up with any of them, I could've easily made a few hundred thousand in three years!"
Shameless!
Lying on the heated brick bed, Lin Fei cursed angrily in his heart as he listened to the words of the Yang mother and daughter.
"Those two were in a relationship back then of their own free will, so why bring up lost youth? Didn't my Xiaofei lose his youth too?" Mo Xinlan continued to counter.
"Bah! Look at him now, a lump of rotting flesh that's neither dead nor alive—what youth does he have left? Mo Xinlan, hurry up and sign the engagement annulment agreement! I don't have time to bicker with you!"
Ma Guiqin spat on the floor, then pulled a piece of paper from her handbag and slapped it onto the table.
"If you don't return the bride price, I am definitely not signing!" Mo Xinlan's face hardened as she took a resolute stance.
"What's this? Is your family really planning to cling to our Qiulian? With Lin Fei in this half-dead state, let alone marrying our family's Qiulian, he's not even qualified to carry her shoes!"
Ma Guiqin unceremoniously disparaged Lin Fei, not caring in the least that he was lying right in the next room and could hear every word.
"Lin Fei! You might be blind and paralyzed, but you aren't mute or deaf, are you? Say something! Do you seriously expect me to marry you? Don't you think that's pathetic and absurd? At worst, I, Yang Qiulian, am the belle of the surrounding villages; how could I possibly marry a blind paralytic?"
"You've reduced yourself into this freakish, ghost-like piece of trash, and yet you still want to latch onto me for the rest of my life? Do you have any conscience left at all?"
"Even if you lost your memory, everything that needed to be said over the past two years has been said—you must know it all by now! Are you going to keep playing dumb? I must have been truly blind back then to ever fancy a cold-blooded, ungrateful wretch like you!"
Seeing that Mo Xinlan was completely impervious to reason, Yang Qiulian walked up to the door of Lin Fei's bedroom, pulled open a gap in the curtain, and shouted angrily inside.
As she spoke, she even waved a hand in front of her nose, acting as though Lin Fei's room smelled worse than a pigsty.
"Don't talk nonsense! My Second Uncle is better! He can get off the bed, and his eyes can see again!"
Little Bao'er stood nearby, looking at Yang Qiulian with dead seriousness as she spoke.
"My, aren't you something else, even teaching a little brat to lie! Shameless, utterly shameless!" Ma Guiqin glared at Lin Bao'er and scolded her.
"Stop spouting your foul breath in here! Unless you return the bride price, even if we die, we won't sign!"
Hearing the Yang mother and daughter insult Lin Fei and even a child, Mo Xinlan was consumed with fury. She pointed right at them and yelled back angrily.
"Sister-in-law, forget it. Just sign. Consider that two hundred and eighty thousand bride price tossed to the dogs."
Suddenly, a cold voice came from Lin Fei's bedroom.
Immediately after, a tall and handsome figure pulled aside the curtain and stepped out.