Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu-Chapter 1183: The blossoming flower

The hum of the song lifted a certain spirit in the air that Lin couldn’t decipher. Or perhaps he did but the part that he couldn’t decipher was the taste of sweetness and the mood of calm as the music kept playing. It evoked the memories of his innocent childhood with Cai and Yahui.

The music that played was their favorite song and he remembered that they would keep playing it on and on and on repeat until Yahui would finally lose her patience, throwing a glare at them and forcibly shutting the song off. Cai would try to snatch the player from her hands, but only got beat up in the end.

The song and those times were the only source of comfort for the brothers, whose parents didn’t quite care about them, especially Lin, who showed autistic tendencies when he was young. Climbing the corporate ladder was far more important than their children at home. Their lack of attention had practically left the brothers to fend for themselves. Whenever they would feel lonely, they would play this song and Cai would perform his silly dance, making Lin smile.

It had been years now since either of them heard this song so as the notes played in the air, Lin - and also Cai, who was still shopping on their conversation - couldn’t stop their eyes from being filled with tears.

"Th-The gift is supposed to make you happy...!" Shui panicked. "I’m sorry if you didn’t like it."

Lin clutched the music box closer to him and tried to shake his head.

"It’s a beautiful gift, Miss. Han. Listening to the song after so many years just made me choked up a little. It reminded me that..." A strange light flicked in his eyes, "the childhood days with Cai weren’t so bad after all."

Shui watched him staring at the music with a well in his eyes she couldn’t quite explain.

"Actually..Alix told me about this song when I asked her about your birthday gift."

"Oh." 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

She then glanced left then right once and asked, "If you don’t mind..can you tell me more about this song? With the way Alix mentioned this song, I got a feeling that your past was a little...tough. I mean only if you are comfortable though! I am not forcing you or anything."

Lin looked down at the box, brushing his fingers against the wood.

"It’s fine, Miss. Han. The song does remind me of the past, but they are happy memories."

He asked Shui to take a seat in one of the chairs while he sat opposite to her, still holding the box.

"It was hard for my parents to have a child on the autism spectrum. I wasn’t an extreme case that needed complete dependency, but it was still difficult for me to navigate through social interactions."

Shui’s lips slightly parted. "Then isn’t it awesome that you run a cafe now? I mean, being an owner is not easy if social communication doesn’t come naturally to you."

Lin looked up, taken aback. "I..don’t know. It’s not that awesome-"

"Yes it is!"

Shui and Cai exclaimed unanimously, though the latter expressed his strong feelings mentally.

"You should give yourself credit!" She nodded hard. "Doing business means talking to a lot of people, especially customers and getting into all kinds of uncomfortable situations. If you are doing it so flawlessly despite your difficulties in childhood, then you have come a long way along. And now look? Your cafe is flourishing far and wide! You should be proud of yourself!" Her nostrils flared.

Lin slightly clenched his teeth, an ache passing across his jaw. Those were the words Hou Fa and Hou Luli had barely ever said to him. Pride was something he had never seen shine in their eyes for him.

Shui’s passionate countenance lifted a smile on his lips. "Thank you."

His fingers pressed the box firmly. "But I won’t take the credit. It’s because of the people around me, who helped me find my voice. It was my brother first, who turned out to be the exact opposite of me. He used to pelt stones at the bullies who made fun of my stammering. Even though he was smaller than me, he stood stronger in front of me every single time."

Cai felt extremely pleased with his honorable mention, though he inwardly snorted.

I should have pelted huge rocks at them instead! Better that their useless brains would have been crushed to a pulp!

"Cai is so innocent," Shui nodded. "If it had been Bro Jian and Nian, they would have personally dug a hole in the ground, stripped the bullies of their clothes and buried them after throwing rats on their naked bodies."

Both - "..."

"You cannot mess with their siblings," Shui nodded again.

Cai let out a frightful shudder.

You fools! Be thankful that I just wanted to hurl rocks at you instead of burying you with rats! Praise me for being kind! He mentally spoke to the bullies.

Lin cleared his throat. "...Continuing on. After Cai came Yahui in my life."

Shui thought that her mention would bring some complicated feelings within him, but his gaze strangely looked peaceful.

"She is also confident like Cai but in a different sense. It was her who taught me to decide for myself. I always stood at crossroads in the past. What is right and what is wrong...?" His voice trailed off at the end.

"I always needed someone to tell me that distinction - which she slowly taught me to figure it out by myself. If Cai always stood in front of me to face the world, then Yahui.. taught me to start taking that turn around my brother and stand tall by myself."

He smiled. "She neither spoon-fed me nor completely abandoned me. That’s why it feels perfect that she is a teacher now. She has that knack of showing the way as to how to think and stand for yourself."

More than love towards Yahui, Shui felt a distinct sense of respect in his eyes as he talked about her as a good friend. There didn’t seem to be the trace of longing and sorrow in his voice that the woman he loved was far away from where he might have wanted her to be.

Shui didn’t know why but...it oddly eased her heart.