69: Let’s have less contact in the future!

“Hmph, what an ill-mannered fellow,” Su Qingxue’s mother said, her voice filled with undisguised disdain. “Qingxue, stay away from him in the future. Don’t let him lead you astray.”

“Exactly,” her aunt immediately agreed. As she pressed the elevator’s down button, she pursed her lips. “He used to look decent, but now? He’s like a street punk, freeloading at home, utterly useless.”

The elevator doors slowly opened, and the group stepped inside.

In the cramped space, the complaints became even clearer.

“The Lin family really has terrible luck,” her uncle said, pushing up his glasses, looking as if he had seen through everything. “Such a talented genius, just went mad. Now his sister’s awakening failed. This family, their luck has run out.”

Listening to these words, Su Qingxue’s mother felt much more at ease. She took Su Qingxue’s hand, changed the subject, and began to boast.

“Speaking of which, our Qingxue is truly blessed. She’s capable herself, and her boyfriend is excellent.”

Her aunt’s attention was immediately drawn, and a smile spread across her face: “Oh, yes, my dear sister-in-law, isn’t Qingxue’s boyfriend Chen Rui? My husband mentioned him; he’s young and promising!”

“Ah, a young and promising child is mostly due to good parenting!” Su Qingxue’s mother’s chin lifted a few degrees. “His father is the director of Fengxing Technology’s logistics department, and he himself is a key talent. His future is limitless. Once they get married, our Qingxue will be a rich madam, even more blessed than me, her mother.”

“That’s truly remarkable!”

“Qingxue, this child, has always had good taste!”

The elevator was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. Her aunt and uncle’s flattery made Su Qingxue’s mother’s pride almost overflow.

Only Su Qingxue stood in the middle of the crowd, feeling as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.

A rich madam?

A limitless future?

What echoed repeatedly in her mind were Chen Rui’s two arms, twisted into grotesque angles, and his face contorted in pain in the underground parking lot.

And Lin Yu.

The Lin Yu who stood motionless, yet, solely through the recoil, crippled Chen Rui.

If Chen Rui, like this, was considered “young and promising” and had a “limitless future”...

Then what about Lin Yu?

What was the Lin Yu who could summon lightning with a flick of his finger, capable of destroying the entire parking lot?

A monster?

Or a god?

Su Qingxue dared not think further. She felt her perception being torn apart, enveloped by a vast sense of absurdity.

“Ding.”

The elevator reached the basement level, and the doors slowly opened.

However, outside the door was not the familiar parking lot, but a yellow “Maintenance” caution tape, with a sign next to it.

“Underground Parking Lot Temporarily Closed Due to Circuit Malfunction and Accident. Residents, please use the first-floor lobby for entry and exit.”

They had instinctively come to the basement, forgetting that the community’s parking lot was undergoing major repairs.

“What’s going on?” her uncle was the first to complain impatiently. “This lousy community, why are there problems every day? Can’t even park a car properly.”

“Exactly, the management is terrible,” her aunt also grumbled. “We pay property fees every year, but there’s no service whatsoever.”

Su Qingxue’s mother frowned even more deeply: “I should have told the Lin family to move out long ago. Living in a place like this, how can they have good luck?”

As she spoke, she pressed the button for the first floor again.

Su Qingxue looked at the “Accident” sign, feeling a chill shoot from the soles of her feet straight to her head.

Accident?

Circuit malfunction?

She had witnessed it with her own eyes.

It was no malfunction at all.

It was the sky-filling electric light summoned by a flick of Lin Yu’s finger! It was the terrifying sight of purple lightning snakes instantly engulfing the entire parking lot!

He only used one move.

And caused destruction that required the authorities to cover up as an “accident.”

This man... after five years, what exactly had he become?

Su Qingxue’s heart pounded incessantly. She didn’t even dare to look in the direction of Lin Yu’s home, as if a primordial beast, ready to devour people, lived there.

“Ultimately, it’s still Lin Yu’s fault,” her aunt brought the topic back as the elevator ascended. “If he hadn’t gone crazy, with his epic-level profession back then, the Lin family would have bought a large flat in the central rich district long ago. Why would they still be stuck in this rundown place?”

“Who can say it isn’t so?” her uncle sighed, shaking his head. “One wrong step, and every step is wrong. Even if he’s back now, look at him, half-dead. His life will be like this; what future can he have?”

“It’s a pity about that child Yaoyao; she was doing so well, and now she also…”

Su Qingxue’s mother didn’t finish her sentence, but the meaning was clear.

In her opinion, the Lin family was finished.

The older brother was a useless man who had been insane for five years, and the younger sister’s awakening had failed.

Their parents were also old, and their family fortune had probably been squandered by Lin Yu long ago.

Even if Lin Yu was back now, what good would it do?

A young man who had wasted five years and was out of touch with society, what use could he be other than adding a burden to an already precarious family?

Su Qingxue listened to her mother and relatives discussing, her lips moving, wanting to refute, but she couldn’t utter a single word.

How could she say it?

Say that the useless man in their eyes had just crippled her promising boyfriend?

Say that the “accident” in this dilapidated community was caused by his single move?

If she said it, who would believe her?

They would only think that she, like Lin Yu, had also gone mad.

An unprecedented sense of powerlessness gripped Su Qingxue.

For the first time, she realized that she and her mother, and these relatives, seemed to live in two completely different worlds.

“Alright, enough said,” her uncle waved his hand, delivering the final summary.

“Everyone has their own destiny; you can’t force it.”

“The only thing that’s certain is…”

“The Lin family, it’s over.”

“Ding.”

The elevator reached the first floor.

The metal doors slowly slid open to both sides.

“Hmph, the whole family is a bunch of useless people,” her uncle adjusted his glasses, making a final summary of the elevator small talk, and was the first to step out.

“Exactly, their luck has run out,” her aunt followed closely.

Su Qingxue’s mother pulled Su Qingxue, still muttering: “Qingxue, you must remember, don’t mind my nagging, but interact less with their family in the future; it’s bad luck.”

However, the next second.

The footsteps of the three froze simultaneously at the elevator entrance.

The entire first-floor lobby was brightly lit, as if it were broad daylight.

But the light didn’t come from the ceiling lights; it came from the fill lights of countless cameras and the furiously flashing strobe lights.

A dense crowd packed the small lobby to the brim.

Long and short lenses, microphones emblazoned with various media logos, and countless raised cell phones formed an impenetrable jungle of steel.

A cacophony of sounds mixed with sweat, dust, and the heat of electronic devices washed over them.

“Oh my goodness!”

Her aunt was the first to let out a short shriek, instinctively stepping back and almost bumping back into the elevator.

“What... what is this?” her uncle was also stunned, his hand, which was adjusting his glasses, stopped mid-air.

Su Qingxue’s mother was even more shocked, her mouth wide open, unable to utter a single word for a long time.