118: Chapter 118 Superficial Kindness

Watching Feng Rui's pitiful appearance, Su Xiumei felt like she was about to snap.

Coming from a wealthy family, what kind of grudges and entanglements had she not seen?

What kind of people had she not encountered?

She never expected that at her age, she would still encounter such a fake innocent act right in front of her.

Su Xiumei felt a sense of revulsion toward Feng Rui in her heart.

But for the sake of her eldest daughter, she couldn't say anything.

She could only keep telling herself that, as an elder, she needed to be tolerant...

"Huh? What's going on?" Lin Qingshan came down from upstairs, and seeing Feng Rui's on-the-verge-of-tears appearance, he asked in confusion.

Lin Chuge also walked out of the study, looking at her mother with confusion.

"It's nothing, Feng Rui just brought some gifts over and is worried we might not like them!" Su Xiumei maintained a polite smile as much as she could.

Lin Qingshan was a man who was usually quite rough around the edges. He glanced at the items and quickly reassured her: "Ah, what's there not to like? You bought so much; you truly have a heart."

Lin Chuge was more observant and sensed that the atmosphere was a bit off; furthermore, her mother's tone sounded different from usual. She curiously looked at the gifts and quickly understood.

She didn't expect that after so many years, Feng Rui truly hadn't changed a bit. She remembered that in the past, for the sake of so-called face, Feng Rui loved to puff herself up to look bigger than she was. Many times, it was she who had to go and clean up the mess.

She didn't expect that after staying abroad for so long, she was still like this. When they were young, she always felt that Feng Rui was just insecure due to her poor family background, but that she was kind at heart. But thinking about it now, it didn't seem to be the case.

Feng Rui studied music abroad, majoring in violin performance. Her talent was decent, and combined with the resources The Lin Family helped find, she heard that she had been doing quite well in recent years, frequently attending various concerts.

Logically speaking, she should be earning quite a bit of money. Even if they didn't expect her to repay them, she was using so many fakes to fool them. And to still use her poor family background as an excuse here was a bit inappropriate.

"Chuge, I know you like this brand of perfume the most, so I brought it back especially for you. You wouldn't dislike it, right..." Feng Rui took a box out of her bag and handed it to Lin Chuge, looking aggrieved.

Her expression was as if she would burst into tears the moment Lin Chuge showed even the slightest dissatisfaction. Lin Chuge was used to Feng Rui always having that look of a punching bag even when no one was bullying her, so she calmly took the box.

She did indeed like this brand of perfume, but that was back when she was in school. To put it bluntly, items of this grade were fine during student days. But now, it was no longer appropriate to give as a formal gift.

To avoid making Feng Rui look bad, Lin Chuge had to pretend to be very happy. She took out the perfume and sprayed it twice on her wrist. Just as she was about to politely express how much she liked it, her expression stiffened.

Because the scent of this perfume was wrong! Even though Lin Chuge hadn't used this particular one for many years, relying on her previous familiarity with it, she still detected a difference in the scent.

Could it be that this perfume, which only cost three or four hundred yuan at most, was also a fake?

"Chuge, how is it? Do you not like it either?"

"No, I like it, I like it." Lin Chuge didn't want to cause a scene, so she could only smile very reluctantly.

Lin Ran stood to the side, looking frustrated at the situation. She had been grinding in the entertainment industry for so long that she had long since seen through the current situation. Coupled with hearing Lin Xiao's inner voice, she wished she could just kick this pretentious Feng Rui out immediately.

Who would have thought that her mother and eldest sister would protect Feng Rui's face so much, preferring to play along with the act rather than expose her.

Even as slow as Lin Qingshan was, he could feel that the atmosphere was off. He quickly greeted everyone, "Alright, alright, let's sit down first. Feng Rui, have some fruit, don't be polite, just treat this like your own home."

"Mm, sit, sit."

Seeing Lin Ran's expression, which looked like it was about to explode, Lin Chuge gently tugged at her clothes and shook her head at her. Lin Ran felt helpless and had to sit down silently as well.

She knew that her mother and eldest sister were so tolerant of Feng Rui because Feng Rui had once saved her eldest sister's life. When they were little, the school organized a spring outing, and her eldest sister fell into the water and almost drowned; it was Feng Rui who jumped in and fished her out.

But even if it was a life-saving grace, their family had taken care of Feng Rui for so many years; surely it should have been paid off by now? And who knew if everything back then was a deliberate design by this scheming woman just to get rewards from The Lin Family!

Thinking this, Lin Ran picked up an apple and took a fierce bite! Everyone chatted sporadically, and the atmosphere gradually eased up a bit.

But just at this moment, they suddenly heard Lin Xiao's inner voice.

[Sigh, Eldest Sister is so pitiful, being played for a fool by Feng Rui for so many years.]

[Maybe it's a side effect of choking on water and suffocation, but Eldest Sister has actually forgotten that back then, it was Feng Rui who led her away from the group to play by the river alone, and then tricked her into believing her bracelet had fallen into the middle of the river, causing her to fall into the water when she took the risk to retrieve it.]

[If someone hadn't happened to pass by and discover them back then, Feng Rui probably would have left on her own long ago and wouldn't have cared about whether Eldest Sister lived or died.]

[The reason she jumped in to save her was just to plan on using this incident to feed off The Lin Family for a lifetime!]

[This lotus flower Feng Rui only pretends to be on good terms with Eldest Sister on the surface, but in her heart, she is jealous of her to death. She believes that everything Eldest Sister possesses should rightfully be hers.]

[Oh right, even that scumbag Young Master Bai Feng is part of Feng Rui's design! Heh, if I hadn't interfered early on to sow discord, I'm afraid Eldest Sister would have soon been deceived by this pair of scumbag and bitch, and had her heart and kidneys dug out!]

...Hearing this, the expressions of The Lin Family members present all darkened.

Lin Chuge even felt a chill on her lower back and subconsciously reached out to touch it.

They all still remembered that when Lin Xiao was first brought back, there were similar words in his inner voice. This made them instantly alert.

They didn't care about being cheated out of some money; they had plenty of money anyway. But if this Feng Rui still wanted to take Lin Chuge's life, then they wouldn't blame themselves for not giving her any face!

The previous warmth and the atmosphere that had been struggling to be maintained were also gradually collapsing.