Sixty-Seven Pages: Past Stories
My shoulder was stuck with a magic battery, just like that fool from the Ying Alliance who could go anywhere he wanted.
This was the last one that Cherry Sauce had secretly installed, and the liquid magic inside glowed with a strange purple light.
But this time, I didn’t need to replenish my magic power; it was Cherry Sauce’s divine power that was lacking. The consumption of the portal was greater than expected, and she needed it to open a new portal… What was that? Her divine power capacity wasn’t much better, huh?
“You can directly return to the main hall by going in. The seal here won’t be lifted. After the coming-of-age ceremony, you’ll have to come back here. Don’t have any unnecessary thoughts. Normal means can’t deal with us.”
Lin Yuhuang’s brows were knitted into a tight knot. He glanced at Ling Shaojie and Aunt Lin, then looked at his son who had returned to his male form but was still wearing a maid outfit and grinning foolishly. He sighed deeply.
After changing clothes, Lin Ziyè followed Lin Yuhuang through the portal. Xia Lu hesitated for a moment, didn’t follow, and decided to stay and listen to the story.
Cherry Sauce hummed telepathically: “No wonder he wanted to keep this secret. From what Aunt Lin said, Ling Shaojie is Ling Ximí’s child, but her father isn’t him Lin Yuhuang. The birth certificate still has his name on it. How could Ling Shaojie look at him favorably?”
…Looking at it this way, Lin Yuhuang seemed quite pitiful.
“No, it doesn’t add up!”
Ling Shaojie shouted herself, asking Aunt Lin, “If I am mother’s child, then what about Ziyè? We should have been born on the same day, right? Could it be that we’re fraternal twins… two different fertilized eggs…”
Her overly terrifying conjecture was interrupted by Aunt Lin.
“No, no, no, where did you get such ideas? Ziyè isn’t Ling Ximí’s child.”
“…Huh? Eh!”
The overwhelming information made Ling Shaojie shout loudly.
“After all this time, he’s not my brother!”
I finally understood that Lin Yuhuang and Ling Ximí were actually a fake couple who were cuckolding each other.
Love is a ray of light, turning green with envy.
I asked again, “So the lady beside Uncle Lin now is Ziyè’s biological mother, right?”
Aunt Lin nodded affirmatively.
“Yes, Ling Xiang is Ziyè’s biological mother. As for Shaojie’s father… sorry, none of us know. We only know he’s an unpredictable man, and we don’t even know his name.”
Another mystery added.
Ling Shaojie couldn’t accept this result, her face twisted as if she had eaten a fly.
“I heard that Uncle Lin was in a political marriage, for the benefit of both families, and had to marry against his will. It’s normal for him to have someone he likes secretly.”
Xia Lu offered an explanation and raised another question.
“But how do we explain Xiao Ye’s appearance?”
Ling Xiaoye and Ling Ximí looked similar, whereas Ling Shaojie didn’t resemble them much.
Aunt Lin looked at me and asked, “Miss Lingmeng, you understand those strange powers very well, right?”
“…At least better than most people.”
“Do you know about a special item that allows one to split into multiple forms?”
It sounded like a bookmark for splitting, so I asked, “…Could Ling Ximí be Lin Yuhuang’s split form?”
“Yes, they are actually the same person, which is why Ziyè looks so much like Ximí when she transforms into a woman.”
“Wah, self-marriage? How disgusting!” Xia Lei imagined something and rubbed her arms nervously.
Lin Hua pressed further, “Can you tell us about that item… what happened back then?”
“Don’t rush, I’ll tell you everything.”
Aunt Lin finished her last drag of the cigarette, extinguishing it in the ashtray on the table.
“That year, Yuhuang met a female Taoist fortune-teller on the street. I haven’t seen her, but she probably looks like Miss Lingmeng.”
I explained, “I already know about this incident. We are not the same person.”
“Of course, who could stay young for over twenty years?”
“So what did the female Taoist do?”
Aunt Lin shook out another cigarette from the box, but before she could put it in her mouth, Ling Shaojie snatched it away.
She pouted and answered, “She asked Yuhuang if he was interested in changing the old generation’s views in the Lin family.”
“Referring to the sexist views?”
“Yes, Yuhuang agreed, and thus he got that ring…”
Xia Lu exclaimed, “Eh? Uncle Lin has a ring too?”
“Wearing the ring would cause a female split form to emerge from his body, and removing the ring would make the split form disappear… However, the split form has independent consciousness. Removing the ring means erasing the existence of the other, so after wearing it once, Yuhuang never took it off again.”
“Aunt Lin, you know this clearly?”
“…I saw Ximí crawl out from behind him, the scene of flesh separating.”
This description sounded quite horrifying. Compared to that, Xia Lei emerging from Zhao Zhao was much cleaner.
— “Your master gave you a mature version of the split bookmark, while what Lin Yuhuang got was likely an experimental version before that, capable of functioning but not very user-friendly.”
Not to mention, the original form could unilaterally eliminate the split form, which was quite unreasonable.
Aunt Lin continued, “Then Yuhuang started acting out his charade. Ximí was adept at pleasing the older generations and knew how to change their attitudes. Although the process was slow, it was effective.”
Xia Lei squinted and complained, “…And then they got married? To themselves?”
“There was no choice, because Ximí was already pregnant at the time. Though the child wasn’t Yuhuang’s, they were lovers in public, and with the pressure from the elders, even though he knew of Ning Xiang, he could only choose to marry himself.”
This relationship was really complicated.
Aunt Lin continued, “But Yuhuang soon found out that Ning Xiang was also pregnant, and the timing was almost the same as Ximí’s, leading to the plan of swapping the crown prince for a cat.”
Ling Shaojie narrowed her eyes.
“Oh, so I’m the cat?”
“No, if you were a boy, the one left behind might have been you… At least, that’s how Yuhuang decided. He believed that Ximí and he were equal in personality, not primary or secondary.”
“I agree with this view,” I affirmed.
Ling Shaojie suddenly realized something, lifting her head to stare at me suspiciously.
“Little Lingmeng, you and your sister are also in this kind of relationship, right?”
“…Yes, but we’ve been separated for a long time, making re-fusion almost impossible.”
“I think Chairman and Cherry Sister don’t need to merge if they don’t want to. You don’t have to force yourselves.”
Xia Lei said this, not knowing that we had to do it anyway, but Lin Hua remained silent.
“Is gender so important in the Lin family? Being treated as a bastard just because I’m a daughter… nothing has changed! If the Lin family’s thinking really changed, Aunt Lin wouldn’t have left to seek her own path.”
Ling Shaojie’s accusation left Aunt Lin speechless, but she still said, “If your mother were alive, and Ximí were still around, they definitely could change these things…”
Mentioning the senior student’s mother, Aunt Lin’s usually stern brows softened with sorrow. Her close relationship with Ling Ximí must have been significant, and the estrangement from Lin Yuhuang might have been for the same reason.
“So, what exactly happened in the past?”
“You’ve investigated it yourself, haven’t you? It was a car accident.”
Ling Shaojie pursued, “Is it really that simple? Didn’t you say it was Father… Lin Yuhuang who killed my mother?”
“You little girl, did you leave something behind in the attic?”
Aunt Lin fiddled with the lighter in her hand, looking sideways at the ground.
“The accident was real. Saying Yuhuang caused Ximí’s death isn’t wrong either, since he was driving and Ximí was in the passenger seat, while I was in the back… At that time, I hadn’t left the Lin family yet, but that incident was the catalyst.”
“Then there was a car crash, leading to my mother’s death?” Ling Shaojie asked.
“We collided with an oncoming vehicle in the tunnel. The other driver was drunk, but the cause of the accident was irrelevant… The female Taoist said that the split form and the original form share the same soul. If anything happened to one, the other would die too. It’s cruel, but that’s the risk and price of using a split form.”
I interjected, “That’s true… But since Uncle Lin is still alive, it means he removed the ring before dying, right?”
“The passenger seat collision was the worst. Compared to me and Yuhuang, Ximí was already in critical condition when she arrived at the hospital. Not removing the ring could have cost two lives, so we had no choice… Yuhuang took off the ring. He had no other option.”
Was it just for his own survival?
That’s why Aunt Lin said Lin Yuhuang was responsible for the senior student’s mother’s death. By taking off the ring, he essentially gave up on saving Ling Ximí.
—”In other words, she’s neither dead nor truly alive.”
“How selfish! Given that, he should take responsibility as the senior student’s father, since Ling Ximí’s soul has returned. He’s not only Ziyè’s father but also the senior student’s father.”
Aunt Lin sighed, “I think so too, but Yuhuang doesn’t see it that way. After years apart, they”
When the split form was removed, the other half of the soul should return to the original body, right? So shouldn’t Lin Yuhuang have memories from the split form during those years?
Does he have no feelings for Senior Shaojie at all?
—”That’s not necessarily true. I’ve explained the reasons earlier. A prototype may not have the complete functions as today’s versions… Just like at the end of the trial, my soul will eventually return to yours, but that doesn’t include my current independent personality.”
In other words, Ling Ximí’s personality has disappeared?
—”No, it hasn’t completely disappeared. The maid Ling Ziyè encountered as a child might be a manifestation of Ling Ximí’s personality.”
Is that a ghost?
Or a spirit?
—”Neither. Ling Ximí’s personality is still with Lin Yuhuang, but her actions are limited due to the critical state of the split form. As for how she appeared alone in front of Ling Ziyè… it must have some subjective reason.”
Then bring the ring to the master.
Even if she isn’t the female Taoist Lin Yuhuang met, she should know the principle behind the ring. If it can be repaired, Ling Ximí could be revived, right?
