Xing Bi stared at him, wide-eyed. She then looked around the whole dilapidated house once again but this time with the perspective that it belonged to Hou Lin.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
Her immediate reaction was to feel ashamed and embarrassed. "I am sorry for talking so rudely."
"Doesn't matter," Hou Lin said expressionlessly, "We don't live together anyway."
"Oh are they in a different city?"
"They are in Beijing. But we don't live together anymore."
Her face was such an open book of curiosity that Hou Lin understood she wanted to know more but was trying hard to contain it.
"I left home when I was eighteen."
Her lips parted in surprise as this was quite unexpected. "Oh. Was it a rebellious phase? Or was there a fight?"
"No. Yahui told me to leave home. So I left."
Xing Bi almost slipped from the couch, her jaw dropped. "Huh? How come Zhan Yahui is suddenly in the picture?"
"It's not sudden. She had been there with my family for the last seven years or so. It was around the time her mother died that we met. I had found her collapsed in an alley when I was returning home after spending some time in a cyber cafe. My house was nearby so I took her there."
Xing Bi rubbed her chin. "Then later your family adopted her?"
"They had to when she pointed a knife at my neck."
"..."
Xing Bi couldn't point her finger as to the reason she felt dumbfounded more was whether the fact that Zhan Yahui threatened his family to adopt her or that Hou Lin said it in such a monotonous manner as if he was the least bothered, despite being her target at a knife point.
"You…sound very relaxed," she refrained hard from twitching her brows.
"It was her plan. I went along with it," he plainly said.
"You went along with such a dangerous plan with no qualms at all!? You could have gotten hurt or somebody else in your family."
"She said she would be careful."
Her jaw dropped once again. "And you believed an eleven year old girl's words who you met only recently and who already wanted to point a knife at your neck? That's crazy! I know you were young yourself, but a knife should have triggered alarm bells all over your mind."
"Why? She said that was the only way she had to survive."
"But that was the wrong way."
"So what was the right way?" He tilted his head.
Xing Bi was about to say 'Obviously to talk to your family instead of threatening them' but she stopped and thought back to some few minutes ago when he was talking to Jun about Ouyang Haitao.
'I don't know if he was right, Sir.'
She blinked at him and asked, "Do you…usually have trouble understanding people's intentions?"
Hou Lin stared at her, pondering over her question.
"I mean do you feel that the line between what is right and what is wrong is blurred to you?"
"I don't know," he simply replied. "But it's indeed hard for me to decide for myself without relying on somebody else."
She widened her eyes. "What about your parents? When a child grows, don't the parents begin to teach their child about the right and wrong ways of the world?"
"Is that so? From what I remember, they were quite in a predicament themselves on deciding who is supposed to be right in their arguments."
*Flashback*
"I am telling you we should go to a water park. The kids will love it there," Hou Lin's father, Hou Fa, was far too annoyed with his wife, who just refused to budge on their trip's destination.
Hou Luli said, "No way! Amusement park is way better! I don't like getting wet and you know it. Swimming pool's water is not good for our skin either."
"It's not like we have to settle there forever! It's just some playing around and splashing water in a pool. That will hardly make anyone sick. Also it's damn hot outside! Getting wet in a swimming pool's water sounds more refreshing than getting soaked in our sweat walking miles and miles through an amusement park."
She gritted her teeth. "Why don't you just admit that you want to check out women in their bikinis and go gaga over them?"
"Are you nuts!? I am just suggesting a place which is more appropriate for this hot season."
"And you got this amazing trip idea just at the right time to hit the pool?" She snorted. "When I had been chasing after you for so long to take us out somewhere, you chose to shut yourself in your office meetings instead."
"How many times should I tell you that I just got promoted! You know how hard I have worked to reach this position with all the ugly politics going around in the office. Naturally, my work will increase, won't it? You should support me instead of throwing shades at me!"
"Oh, like you supported me all this time by dumping the two boys on me and forcing me to figure out everything by myself when you were busy burying your head in the presentations!?"
"Because it was way better than hearing your constant complaints about our financial situation every time! Now that we are doing well off, you are putting all the blame on me?"
Hou Luli lashed out with tears in her eyes. "I didn't mean that you should overwork and forget your wife and children in the process! It is so hard for me when they get sick or when it's the parents' teacher conference and you are nowhere near in sight to help me out! Did you ever try to understand that?"
Hou Fa grimaced. "Sure. It's always me who should try to understand you, right?"
"You…" she trembled but then shut her eyes. She opened them a moment later and said, "Fine. Let's ask Lin himself."
Hou Lin, who was quietly standing at a side and listening to his parents argue, stiffened upon suddenly feeling their gazes at him.
She smiled as she asked, "Tell me, Lin. Where would you and Cai like to go? The amusement park or the water park?"
Hou Lin, nine at that time,
blankly alternated his gaze between his parents. His mind spun with the feeling of indecisiveness because he didn't want to make either of them angry.
"I..." He looked left and right, feeling panicked and eventually said, "Let's go to a park."
Hou Fa asked, "Which park? Amusement park or the water park?"
"...Normal park. There...are some new rides opened...in the park..." He fidgeted with his hands, "Mom will like those. They have also made a big fountain at the center for us to play in it...Dad will like it there in this hot weather. So...l-let's go to that...normal park."
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