âIâve asked them to get the guest room ready, youâll be sleeping here tonight, just let me know if you need anything!â Lin Zhiya said, with an air as if she was afraid Rong Yan would run away, immediately grabbing Rong Yanâs hand with a beaming smile, âSince youâre staying here tonight, letâs not rush into acupuncture right away. Come, come, try the fruit tea we made earlier. Taste it and see if itâs good. If you like it, next time Iâll teach you how to make another kind. The roses in the garden have bloomed; we can make rose tea too.â
ââ¦Okay.â Rong Yan had never been treated so warmly by any elder. In the Rong Family, Jiang Meiqi acted as if she didnât exist, and Rong Nanfeng was out of the house on 360 of the 365 days in a year. Even on the rare occasions he did come back, he would only pay her lip service with a few words of concern before burying himself in his study. As for Old Madame Jiang, she saw Rong Yan as a thorn in her side and never hid her dislike.
Compared to the coldness of the Rong Family, Lin Zhiyaâs enthusiasm overwhelmed her. That kind of warmth, like that of the sun, was something she had never experienced before.
It made her sometimes feel at a loss, unsure how to respond.
Lin Zhiya didnât need her to respond; she liked her genuinely from the bottom of her heart. During the fruit tea, she kept Rong Yan engaged in conversation from start to finish, bringing up topics that Rong Yan would find interesting.
Eventually, she even brought up Shen Siyuan on her own initiative, seemingly to reassure Rong Yan not to take Shen Siyuanâs earlier provocation to heart, pouring her a cup of fruit tea and saying, âOh, and about Siyuan. Siyuan didnât play with Shengxiao and the others when she was a child. It was only later when her brother took her with them to play once, and since then she always nagged her brother to bring her along. Later on, when Shengxiao went abroad to study and Jiangjing and others also went overseas for further education, they seldom met with Siyuan. After that, even though Shengxiao and the others returned, she reached the age to study and went abroad too, hardly seeing them.â
âThese past years sheâs been overseas, I havenât even heard Shengxiao mention her. If it werenât for her sudden visit today, I wouldnât have known that this girl came back to the country.â
Rong Yan was intelligent enough to detect that Lin Zhiya was clarifying Li Shengxiaoâs relationship with Shen Siyuan for her. She blinked her eyes and said calmly, âI see.â
Lin Zhiya could tell she was smart, so she spoke even more straightforwardly, âShengxiao just sees this girl as a sister, caring for her occasionally out of respect for his friend. Donât take to heart what Siyuan said at dinner. I know Shengxiao; when he likes someone, heâs committed and wonât waver or become entangled with someone else. You can rest assured, if he dares to do something wrong behind your back, Iâll be the first to not let him off the hook!â
Rong Yan had not expected her to be so direct, and she felt embarrassed, âMrs. Lin, Li Shengxiao and I are just dating, actuallyâ¦â
Lin Zhiya immediately cut her off, with a firm and commanding tone, âEven if itâs just dating, no one should be two-timing. If he dares to wrong you, Iâll still break his legs!â
Pfftâ¦
Rong Yan really wanted to know what it would look like for that man to have his legs broken and chased.
After summarizing Shen Siyuanâs situation briefly, Lin Zhiya moved on to other topics. Rong Yan glanced at the time, set down her cup, and stood up from the sofa, âItâs about time. Mrs. Lin, let me give you a check-up first.â