stand back, let me come

Chapter 1259: Siblings at odds (Part 1259) [Seeking monthly pass]

The young man finished his last stitch.

“Who can live without hardship?”

The young man’s reply left Lin Feng stunned for a long time.

In her impression, her brother was not a playboy, but he also had the arrogance of a child from an aristocratic family. On the surface, he was polite to everyone, but only those who really knew him knew that beneath his politeness was an extremely restrained and distant attitude. Like many other children of wealth and privilege, he divided people into different classes from the bottom of his heart.

This class division did not come from his heart, but was influenced by the environment. He naturally believed that maintaining peace and governing the country was their innate responsibility, and it was also a mercy and charity from the superiors to the inferiors.

It really surprised Lin Feng that someone who grew up in such an environment would also say, "Life is hard for everyone."

She could tell that these words came from her brother's heart rather than a false pretense: "Brother, I am even more heartbroken when you say this."

The young man took out Lin Feng’s dirty clothes.

Although Lin Feng was the head of the family, she was also a single person who was busy with work. The housekeepers could not control her too much. She could not see her great-grandfather for ten days or half a month, so it was inevitable that she would miss some details in her life. Now there was a war, and her life was even rougher.

If the young man hadn't told her, she wouldn't have known when her clothes were torn.

Lin Feng scratched his face awkwardly and thought carefully.

"It should be because the soldiers were too close to each other during training."

This kind of thing happens frequently, and Lin Feng has long been accustomed to it.

"The conditions of marching and fighting are poor and difficult. Maintaining basic dignity and not being disrespectful in front of others is considered careful." Watching the young man carefully sew up the hole, Lin Feng lay on the table, holding his chin and looking at his brother sewing under the lamp, "Brother, how have you been these years?"

The reunion between the siblings was hasty, and Lin Feng had no time to ask about his father and brother's experiences over the years. Now that he had some free time, he naturally wanted to ask for details. The young man did not hide anything and explained in a calm tone: "...We went south to seek refuge. There was chaos along the way. We encountered several warlord extortion attempts. My father spent a lot of money to avoid disaster. We finally arrived at our destination smoothly after stumbling along the way..."

If Lin stayed in Lingzhou, she would die. Going south to seek refuge with her relatives was a way out. After weighing the pros and cons, they decided to send the men to go south with some of their property to investigate first. When the road was safe, they would let the women follow. But man proposes, God disposes. The unfamiliar environment was more dangerous than Lingzhou. They were inevitably blackmailed by the greedy warlords.

What's more, they didn't expect that a group of family servants would be tempted by the wealth and murder the weak women on the way. When they received the bad news, it was less than half a month away from their relatives, and returning now would be useless.

Their retreat was cut off and they could only stumble forward.

At first, the distant relatives were quite welcoming.

But when they learned that most of the Lin family's wealth was in the women's team and that they were betrayed by the servants, they immediately changed their faces, changing their initial enthusiasm and revealing their coldest and mercenary side. The young man also knew why. They didn't have enough family wealth to buy a house to stay in, let alone land and shops. They even borrowed a place to live from relatives. It was just because of the relationship that the relatives did not completely break up.

It's really unpleasant to live under someone else's roof.

Not to mention maintaining a standard of living, even studying and cultivation were affected. The young man also learned needlework by himself during that period. There was no female family member to take care of him, so he had to rely on himself for food, clothing, housing and transportation. The young man also had an elder brother, and the few resources in the family also depended on him. When it was the young man's turn, even the tuition fees for the famous private school were a bit difficult. Even so, as a newly arrived foreign "aristocratic family", the Lin family had to have interpersonal relationships if they wanted to be accepted. This was a respectability that had to be maintained.

In the eyes of young people, this is just a pretense.

[We have to charge, or they will swallow us up. ]

Under the dim candlelight, my brother's words were bitter.

Lingzhou is a place they can’t go back to, and a foreign land they can’t blend into. The more desolate and lonely they are, the more they need to maintain their only facade. If they lose even this little facade, they won’t even be qualified to interact with the local noble families, and their hope of prosperity in the future will be even slimmer.

Unable to climb up, but unwilling to fall down, being neither up nor down is the most uncomfortable. The young man spent his teenage years in such an embarrassing and oppressive environment, and Lin Feng's most familiar character had long been polished: "The hardship of life is bearable... Think about the famine years when starving people were lying side by side and corpses were everywhere. It is a blessing from heaven that the Lin family can take root in a new place."

What makes them uncomfortable is the exclusion and ridicule from local forces.

"If the Lin family wants to prosper, they can only take the path of official career."

The young man let out a sneer: "It's just not easy to walk."

"When my father contacted them, both families had agreed on it. The family should have given all the gifts, right?"

Young man: "A promise is only true when it is made."

The Lin family had brought nothing with them, so it was not an exaggeration to say that they were poor relatives begging for money, so the other party was naturally unwilling to continue to suffer losses. In addition, due to the conflicts in the past few years, not only did they fail to fulfill the promises they had made in the beginning, but the two sides almost became enemies.

They create obstacles everywhere and suppress people openly and covertly.

The local prominent families were also not happy about Lin, an outsider, getting a piece of the pie, and tried several times to annex Lin. As long as the children of Lin agreed to become their subordinates, all difficulties in life and setbacks in official careers would be solved.

Lin had no choice but to find another way out.

Just a few words made Lin Feng smell the bitterness in his words.

She asked, "Brother, if that's the case - why didn't our great grandfather want to come back when he contacted you in the first year of Yuan Huang?"

If you can't integrate into a foreign place, then just don't do it and go home.

The two branches were separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, and the great-grandfather could only rely on letters from home once or twice a year to ease his longing. Lin Feng didn't mind his father and brothers coming back, because the prosperity of the Lin family still depended on the number of people. If his brothers assisted her, she would be more successful in the court.

There was a hint of strangeness in the young man's eyes.

"Isn't coming back difficult for you?"

Since it has been divided into two branches, both are orthodox.

With Lin Feng as the leader, how can others respond?

  With Lin Feng as the assistant, can King Kang and Chu Yao agree?

Can Lin Lingde agree to this?

The continuation of a family is based on shifting the focus to whichever branch is more prosperous. There has never been a single branch that is passed down from the beginning to the end.

It's like a tree. The trunk will transfer nutrients to the branch that is growing well. The branches that are not growing well will either be forever shrouded in the shade or try to stretch out to absorb sunlight.

The decision we made back then could only be swallowed with gritted teeth.

Lin Feng frowned at this: "Brother, you should know that I don't mind these. How can a country as big as Kangguo not accommodate two branches of the Lin family? I have lived in Fengluo for a long time, so it's okay to call us the Fengluo Lin family in the future."

The original Lin family can still return to Lingzhou.

The young man sewed up what could be mended and smiled bitterly: "Jiaojiao really won't mind, but Jiaojiao ignores the human heart. If we leave so easily, we will be as dejected and miserable as a stray dog. What will the tragic deaths of our grandmother, mother, aunt and sisters mean? What will the suffering and humiliation we have endured along the way mean..."

Do they deserve it?

Once you take that step, there’s no going back.

My father and brother also knew this, and they would remain silent every year when they received the letters from my great-grandfather. No matter how heartbroken they were, they could only bite the bullet and continue on. Moreover, there was no turning back at that time.

Lin Feng could only remain silent.

She didn't know what her brothers had gone through over the years to make them so twisted and extreme, but she knew that a few words alone would not solve the problem. All Lin Feng could do was end the topic.

The brother and sister both tacitly agreed not to mention the young man's purpose.

At the critical moment of Kangguo's expansion, the young man's intention might not be what Lin Feng wanted to hear. The young man also said that the separated Lin family could not come back, and as a member of it, it was naturally impossible for him to come back easily. He must have a purpose for coming.

The young man finished sewing and seeing that Lin Feng had no intention of resting, he also took out a yellowed and old booklet. This was a Taoist scripture.

Only then did Lin Feng notice that the young man's hair crown looked like a lotus crown.

"When did you become interested in the Daoist scriptures?"

The young man said, "Evening class."

Lin Feng sat up straight: "Evening class?"

The young man then told her, "I was just interested in it in my early years. At that time, my family was in a difficult situation and it was difficult to continue my studies through normal channels, so I thought about converting to Buddhism. Taoism is popular in that place. There are Taoist temples everywhere. Some Taoist temples are even family schools, gathering a large number of talented children from aristocratic families... Because of some things, I was delayed for two years, but finally I got my wish."

The young man laughed at himself and said, "It's just neither fish nor fowl after all."

His body is already otherworldly, but his heart is still in the secular world.

Lin Feng subconsciously didn't ask for details.

Her intuition told her that the experience was not a pleasant one.

The young man was reading the Taoist scriptures in the evening class, and Lin Feng looked at the map for a long time by candlelight. This map was drawn by her herself, with simple and clean lines, marking the trends of nearby rivers and mountains, and even the locations of many reefs. While Lin Feng was studying, the young man's attention was always on the Taoist scriptures in his hand, and even his breath was not disturbed.

It was not until the middle of the night that Lin Feng went to bed.

She pressed the map under her pillow.

The young man slept next to her.

In the dead of night, a dark shadow slowly crossed the corridor.

His footsteps were light, like a ghost.

Until a hand was on the bolt to open the door, a sharp sword came through the air, and the tip of the sword pierced the shadow's vital point. The shadow had to avoid the sword's edge, and his foot was wrong, and the shadow's facial features were clearly illuminated by the slanting moonlight.

The owner of the sword, Lin Feng.

And this dark shadow was the young man who was supposed to sleep next door.

Lin Feng was not surprised by the young man's actions. She said calmly, "Brother, you look very interested. Are you planning to go out and enjoy the moon at night?"

If it weren't for the sword in his hand, it would sound like a normal greeting.

The young man said, "Yes, to admire the moon."

Lin Feng taunted, "A moon-watching adventure that you'll never return to?"

Her sharp questioning did not stir up the young man at all. In fact, under the moonlight, his eyebrows and eyes looked softer: "Seeing that Jiaojiao is doing well, it is time for me to leave so as not to affect you."

Lin Feng responded by pointing his sword at the young man.

"I didn't know that my brother left without saying goodbye for my own good!"

The young man stared at the sword in Lin Feng's hand for a long time without blinking.

He let out a sigh and stopped trying to hide his feelings: "Jiaojiao is suspicious that you are imitating Jiang Gan to steal books?"

Lin Feng said: "I never doubted it. You are not that stupid."

The young man didn't know whether to cry or laugh at this comment.

  Is this considered a compliment?

"I did come here with a purpose, but after spending the past few days with Jiaojiao, I know your temper and your determination. If I bring it up, not only will it be boring, but it will also hurt the only brotherly love between you and me, so I simply didn't mention it." The young man's tone was as calm as usual, "I left without saying goodbye because I didn't want to add to the sadness of parting..."

The real purpose of his trip was to incite Lin Feng to rebel.

This mission seemed a bit unrealistic to him. If Lin Feng could be persuaded to defect, the Lin family would not be unable to return...

When we received the letter from my great-grandfather, some of our clan members actually wanted to go back home. It was hard to make a living in a foreign land, and if we went back, we could still have the clan land to support us. If we stayed there for one or two generations, we might still be able to prosper. But we couldn't bring up this idea directly, and could only hint at it, but this thought couldn't be hidden from smart people.

Lin Feng understood it at a glance.

She politely declined the suggestion that she should return to the Lin family and decided to split the clan.

When the father was still the head of the family, his unmarried daughter proposed to split up the clan and live separately. The father, who had always been old-fashioned and conservative, could not accept it. After hearing the reply, the other clan members were silent.

The young man realized that the sister he had not seen for many years was no longer the soft and sweet little girl she used to be.

Those who have a firm mind are not easily swayed by external factors.

The young man did not intend to explain his purpose.

Lin Feng said: "This is not an excuse."

She said coldly: "To prove my brother's innocence, please bear with me for a few days. After the war, I will bear the responsibility for you."

In short, you can't step out of this door.

The young man looked at Lin Feng who was blocking his way, and his originally relaxed expression became visibly serious: "Lingde!"

This was the first time the young man formally addressed Lin Feng by his courtesy name after the siblings recognized each other. The air was stagnant, and there was a hint of a storm coming. In the darkness, the young man put his right hand on the sword at his waist. He said, "If I must leave today, what will you do?"

Lin Feng said without hesitation: "I can only take offense."

The young man could only hold the hilt of the sword and whispered to Lin Feng: "A gentleman has six arts, and I am best at swordsmanship. Be careful!"

Lin Feng's swordsmanship is not really outstanding.

  The young man also knew this, but what he didn't know was that except for this shortcoming, Lin Feng had other strengths, which was why there were almost no guards patrolling the courtyard where she lived. It wasn't that she didn't care about her own safety, but there was no need for it!

At the base of the wall, dozens of slender black shadows were crawling along the ground.

The young man recognized that this was the mysterious Corpse Vine. It had been seen in several wars in Kangguo, but there was no information about its controller. For a moment, he did not think of Lin Feng: "How long has Lingde been preparing for this day? Is it worth it for you to kill your brother just because he left without saying goodbye?"

"Just leaving without saying goodbye?"

The young man smiled and asked, "Brother, have you done anything else?"

Lin Feng said calmly: "Dream!"

Just one simple word made the young man's expression change suddenly.

Lin Feng: "People are least alert in dreams. The Ministry of Justice of Kangguo is good at interrogating spirits, and one of them is interrogation in dreams. Although I am not from the Ministry of Justice, my close friend is in the Ministry of Justice and knows about this. If my guess is correct, this is your way of being a scholar, right?"

Seeing Lin Feng noticed, the young man sighed.

"Then guess what this is?"

  ()

"In the past, Zhuang Zhou's dream was a butterfly, and the butterfly's dream was like a butterfly. It was a self-explanation for his ambition! He didn't know Zhou. Suddenly he realized that he was like a Zhou. I didn't know that Zhou's dream was a butterfly, and the dream of a butterfly was Zhou Yu? Zhou was bound to be a butterfly. There are differences. This is called materialization."