Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu-Chapter 1216: No point

The chaos didn’t seem to end, especially after Zhong Sihan’s declaration of adopting Lin in the future, which only further confused Hou Fa and Hou Luli. But Lin didn’t care. Instead, he turned towards Shui and said,

"I...will bring you here some other time if you don’t mind," he pursed his lips.

He only loathed himself for cancelling out on their date like this, but he felt he had no choice - not when seeing his parents had disturbed his state of mind.

Shui didn’t show even a moment’s hesitation. "Of course. Let’s go."

Hou Luli quickly tried to stop him but You Fa pulled her back. "Let him go. He was already dead for us when he left home. We kept telling him chasing that street kid would doom his life and look! We were right. He spent six years in prison because she roped him in her revenge plot! He went to jail because of her for God’s sake! He became a criminal and what little reputation we had left was flushed down the drain because of him!"

Lin slowly turned to face him, facing his fury with his own cold gaze.

"What? You still have the nerve to glare at me like that?" Hou Fa clenched his jaw. "What part of what I just said is wrong? Zhan Yahui ruined your life and you went along with it like some damn puppy following his master! So what if you are out of prison? How are people looking at you right now? No matter where you go to work, you will be only met with disdain and ridicule. You will have to live the rest of your life hanging your head low every single time! This is the life you got by following her!"

Shui had almost stepped in between to give Hou Fa a piece of her mind, but Nuo pulled her back. She quietly shook her head.

"But sis..."

"I understand your anger, Shui," she whispered back. "And you are right too. But the tension is between Lin and his parents. We can defend him all we want, but first, let Lin face them. Let him decide if he wants to even engage in this conversation at all."

Lin’s decision was simple. He wanted to leave. But not without facing his father one last time.

"And...what kind of life would I have lived by staying with you?"

They froze.

"Where in those eighteen years that we lived together under one roof did you see that I was happy with you?"

Hou Luli’s eyes brimmed with tears. "Lin, we were-"

He didn’t give her the chance to speak.

"Sure I went to prison because I helped Yahui, but would my life have been different at all if I had stayed by your side? Your kind of prison would have been invisible to the eye, that’s all."

Hou Fa’s gaze darkened. "This is the kind of nonsense you spout after meeting us-"

"I didn’t intentionally meet you. We crossed paths today by coincidence. Clearly, you loathe me and my choices to this date, so I fail to understand why you ran after me? You are the one who started this conversation in the first place. So if you are disappointed in me, you should have ignored me and looked the other way around."

"No, no Lin!" Hou Luli burst into tears. "That’s not what we mean. Just ignore what Fa said. He is out of his mind."

"Luli!"

"Shut up. Why do you have to spill poison every time? We met after so long and the first thing you can do is criticize him?"

She quickly held his hands in hers, tears wetting her eyelashes. "Lin, please don’t listen to him. Th-This is not how we wanted to meet you. I..." she pressed her lips, not knowing how to put forth her thoughts, "I know there have been a lot of misgivings between us, but..please. Can we just sit down and talk? Please. Fa will behave, I promise!"

Lin stared at her in silence for a long time. Quietly, he withdrew his hands from her trembling grasp and took a step back.

"I don’t have anything to talk to you two."

"Lin, do-don’t say that. We-we just want to..."

"I don’t understand why you care about us now? Neither of you ever met me in prison in these six years."

The air turned still.

"You only tried meeting Cai over these years - that’s what he said to me. I was clearly out of the picture. Always. So why do you want to talk to me now? I don’t think there is anything left to talk about between us."

"No, Lin. Th-That’s what we wanted to talk with you..."

"You couldn’t say those things when I was in prison? Or were you simply too ashamed to see your son at such a place?"

"No..." tears slipped down her eyes and she sobbed. Everything she would say would only feel like an excuse was what she thought.

"It’s okay. I don’t resent you for your choices. But keeping those choices in mind, I don’t see a point in having any conversation either. I think we are living fine the way we are now," his plain expression didn’t crack with any emotion as if he was stating a fact.

"So just like before, let’s...not meet again."

He turned towards Shui and apologized. "I am sorry for this mess. I will drop you home."

Shui took a thoughtful pause, then smiled lightly. "Is it okay if we go back to your cafe? I am starving. You can make me those sandwiches again."

He nodded. "Of course."

—

"Hey, where did you disappear all of a sudden?" Jin glared at her. "You weren’t picking my calls either. You had me worried!" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

He was slightly breathless while Alix was seated on a bench, calmly slurping on her ice-cream softie.

She looked up. "I just lost my way."

"Which is why I was calling you."

"My phone was on silent."

He joined her on the bench, then stared at her. "Did something happen?"

Alix glanced at her right, towards Jin and looked straight ahead again.

"It’s frustrating when some stupid people you don’t care about talk sense for a change."