Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu-Chapter 1225: Mind games

"You look fine to me."

Lin said pointedly, standing near Zhong Sihan’s bed. The said patient was lying with a pale complexion - or at least that was what Zhong Sihan wanted Lin to believe.

"You shameless son. Don’t you..." he coughed, "see me so weak and pathetic? You should be serving me like a filial son, but here you are accusing me."

"Because you don’t look sick to me."

He glared. "For your information, I am older than your real mother, okay? I have every right to feel sicker than her!"

He stared hard. "...How do you know about Mom?"

"They told me themselves yesterday. I had an inkling you will come to know today because I learned your brother knew. I was sure he wouldn’t have kept quiet for any longer."

Silence.

"So why did you call me here?"

"You blind brat. Can you not see that I am sick?"

"I know you are not sick. You used to pull similar tricks back in prison. You like making a fool out of others," his voice held a tinge of cold.

His chillier gaze toned down Zhong Sihan and he looked away with a snort.

"Fine then. Clearly, you don’t want to be here but somewhere else. So go wherever you want to go. What’s the least that would happen? You are not going to get the millions worth of my awesome property. You can live like a beggar for your whole life. Also, you won’t get the amusement park anymore."

"You bought the amusement park now?"

"The deal is in process."

"Why?"

"Won’t you be going on more dates with that Han girl?"

"She is your friend’s granddaughter and her name is Han Shui. Also, we won’t be going to the amusement park everytime."

"Whatever. You are not getting the park anymore."

Lin sat beside him and asked, "Why are you acting so strangely?"

"Don’t I always act strange for the world?" He scoffed.

"You are being extra annoying today."

"Oh did I disturb your sweet time with your family?" He sneered. "Am I being a bone in the chicken?"

"I didn’t say that."

"But you exactly mean that!" He gritted his teeth. "Fine! If you want to be so ungrateful, then go crawl back to that family who raised you like two good-for-nothing parents! You are so gullible. Now that one of them is sick, your heart is melting into a puddle. You remind me of that idiot dead brother of mind, who didn’t use his own brain whatsoever!"

The atmosphere turned even more tense as his cutting words reached Lin. His already bad mood worsened.

"If you are not in the mood to talk like a decent human being, then I am leaving. We have nothing more to talk about."

Zhong Sihan thought that Lin would return but the door remained closed.

"That brat! Nobody respects elders here anymore!" He shouted at thin air.

The door slowly opened and Zhong Sihan stiffened. His gruff expression mellowed, thinking that it was Lin, but instead, it was Zhong Anrui who came walking in.

"Why are you here?"

"I was passing by and saw him leaving. He looked in a bad mood."

"I am in a bad mood, not him."

Zhong Anrui said nothing for a moment. "I heard what happened. He must be devastated."

"Wow, now we are throwing a pity party," he rolled his eyes.

Zhong Anrui looked unfazed. "You have to fix that attitude of yours if you are even a grain’s worth of serious about adopting him."

"There is nothing wrong with my attitude."

"Sure, that’s why your future son left in a foul mood just now while his father is being bedridden. Clearly, everything is going fantastic."

He said nothing.

Zhong Anrui stayed where she was and said, "I know why you are acting so childish and grumpy. You are afraid that Hou Lin would waver and let his parents step back into his life. Then you won’t have a son to adopt anymore. Then you won’t have your own family anymore and eventually you will be left alone. And Zhong Sihan is terrified of being lonely."

"Excuse my memory, but did I call you in here?"

"Like always, you don’t like listening to the truth when it doesn’t suit you. But keep going like that and he will only slip further and further away from you. Whatever problems might be between him and his parents, his mother is still his mother - who is dying. She is dying, Sihan. We have lost one such important person in our life too, so you know what it means."

His gaze hardened.

"Whether he forgives his parents or not is a different matter, but right now his mother needs him. And probably, he needs her too. He needs to see her because a few months from now, he won’t ever see her again. Time is that short for them. The past misgivings sometimes become irrelevant when death is so near."

"They were absolutely selfish parents. What’s there to feel bad about?"

"They had their own shortcomings, but they were not vile or evil. He might resent them but not hate them. So you need to give him space. There is no need to feel threatened if he would choose to spend these months with his mother."

"And then what? Then he would start accepting his father too? Oh why not? Because after the death of his wife, he would be left all alone. So who would take care of an aging, widowed parent?"

Zhong Anrui shook her head. "I know you don’t really mean those harsh things. But trust me. Hou Lin is not going anywhere. On the contrary, if you keep acting like that, then yes, he will start putting up distance between you two. He needs all the support he could get, not your mind games and manipulation. Think about it."

She quietly closed the door behind her. Silence returned to the room, leaving Zhong Sihan in a trance. He looked outside the window and watched a swallow perch upon a tree’s branch. He himself didn’t know what thoughts trailed in his mind.

But he felt tired after a while. He rested his head on the back of the bed and gently closed his eyes.