In the three-room house, Lin Xuan was currently sitting in the flower hall with a pair of siblings. Lin Wan was beside Lin Xuan, sometimes moving from left to right, sometimes from right to left, sometimes pulling Lin Xuan's sleeve, and sometimes kicking Lin Xuan's stool. Several times she wanted to speak to Lin Xuan, but each time was stopped by Lin Xuan.

  Lin Ya looked at her siblings, Lin Chenggang was looking down at his toes, Lin Ya estimated that he had been in this posture for at least a minute, it's rare for him to have such good concentration. As for Lin Yu, she was rubbing the handkerchief in her hands and then picking up the teacup to take a sip, repeating this cycle over and over again. Neither of them spoke a word.

  Compared to other siblings, Lin Xiao's relationship with her brother and sister has always been somewhat too cold. It's not because they are half-siblings that Lin Xiao has any prejudice or estrangement towards them, but rather it's probably due to their personalities, Lin Xiao just can't get along with them.

  Lin Xiao, since childhood, preferred to play with Lin Wei together. Lin Chenggang was a introverted person, three sticks couldn't get a sound out of him. Lin Yi also felt it, they had a sense of vigilance and rejection towards these legitimate siblings. In this world, no one likes to put their own hot face on someone else's cold buttocks. Over time, Lin Yi was happy to maintain a "respectful" relationship with them.

  Actually, Lin Yi didn't think that the relationship between legitimate and illegitimate children was naturally hostile. For example, her elder sister from the second branch of the family, Lin Yan, was born to her second uncle's concubine, but Lin Yan had a good relationship with her aunt since childhood, and also got along well with her cousins Cheng Sheng and Cheng Zhi, who were born to Aunt Qi. Even Lin Yi herself liked her gentle and caring elder sister since she was young.

  And she and Lin Chenggang Lin Yu couldn't be as close to the siblings of the second house, probably also because her older sister Lin Yan's birth mother was a maid who accompanied the Qi family, and was also taken in as a concubine with the consent of the Qi family. The birth mother of Lin Chenggang Lin Yu was his father's concubine. She didn't know what happened before she was born, and from the time she remembered things, her father and mother were already a loving couple like Jin Se and Ming E. But from the mouths of her grandmother and two aunts, their mothers had not been short of stirring up trouble between her parents in those years. Her father had returned to his wife at that time, and their mothers had been sent far away to the Zhuangzi.

  Due to her bias towards the Zhuang family, Lin Xuan naturally didn't have a good impression of Lin Chenggang and Lin Yu's birth mother, even though she had never seen her. But people are all about closeness and distance, if she was biased towards the Zhuang family, would Lin Chenggang and Lin Yu also harbor resentment towards them because of their bias?

  Lin sighed and said that the relationship between people is a complex problem.

  Lin Chenggang couldn't understand why Lin Yan was staring at him for a whole minute, and he didn't know what she wanted to find out from him. He originally intended to pretend not to notice, but now he really couldn't take it anymore, so he raised his head, glanced outside the door, and said to Lin Yan: "Mother hasn't come back yet? I think we should go back first and come again tomorrow morning to pay our respects."

  Lin Xiao finally withdrew her gaze from him, not embarrassed by her sudden rudeness earlier, and smiled: "I think it's soon, Grandmother won't keep Mother for long."

  Lin Chenggang didn't say anything else and continued to lower his head to look at his toes again.

  Lin Dai'er opened the window and asked him, "After I returned, I was ill for a long time. Even on ordinary days, I didn't see Fourth Brother often, so I forgot to ask about his well-being in the manor over the past few years."

  Lin Chenggang said in a light tone, "It's fine." He paused for a moment, feeling that his words were somewhat too perfunctory, and added, "My grandmother is good to me, and my two aunts are also good to me."

  Lin Xiang smiled and nodded, then asked: "I heard that brother is now helping second brother with the preparations for next year's Wu Ju, and it's going very well. Congratulations to fourth brother, if father knew how capable fourth brother has become, he would definitely be delighted." Lin Chongsheng, the second brother of the Lin family, was currently the eldest among the third generation of the Lin family and the eldest son of the Qi family, the heir of the Wu Guo Gong Fu. He was currently serving as a Lang Zhong in the Ministry of War's Wu Xuan Qing Yi Si, a fifth-grade official position.

  Lin Chenggang's mouth corners curved sarcastically, had he ever really cared about him? He was probably long gone from his heart as a son.

  Lin Xuan, who had been restless and unable to sit still, finally found an opportunity to speak, tugging on Lin Yan's sleeve, pushing her while whispering to her: "Sister, let's go out, let's hurry, we don't want to talk to them."

  Lin Xiang was still young, but she already had her own sense of closeness and distance. Perhaps it was the atmosphere at home that made her feel this way, although she didn't fully understand the relationship between them, but she vaguely knew that this brother and sister were not close to her, and even made her a bit disgusted.

  Lin Xiao raised her eyes and took a glance at Lin Xuan, then quietly lowered her head, clenched the left hand on her knee into a fist, and bit her lip forcefully.

  But Lin Xiao felt that Lin Yu's personality, which disliked and hated things in such a way, was unbearable. She scolded her in a low voice: "Yu'er, don't be so unruly, if you continue like this, I'll tell Grandmother."

  Li treated Lin Xiang as a spoiled child, but when she was strict, she was also very strict, and Lin Xiang still had some fear of her.

  Lin Yun pouted, glared at Lin Xiao, and sat back in her chair with a huff, turning her back on her and refusing to speak.

  Lin Yan said apologetically to Lin Cheng and Lin Yu, "Fourth brother, second sister, Youyu is young and doesn't understand things, I hope you won't take her words to heart."

  Lin Chenggang moved his mouth slightly without speaking, while Lin Xiao had no expression throughout, as if what she said was irrelevant to her.

  Lin Tan sighed and was about to pull over Youyu to coax her into apologizing, but at this moment, the familiar footsteps of Zhuang Shi were heard from outside.

  The maid opened the curtain at the door, and Zhuang Shi walked in from outside. First, she saw her two daughters sitting on the left, with a gentle expression on their faces. Then, she saw Lin Chenggang and Lin Yu sitting on the right, and her eyebrows furrowed slightly again.

  "Here."

  Lin Chenggang and Lin Xiao stood up together, bowed to Zhuang Shi, and said "yes".

  Zhuang walked up to the main seat and sat down, her furrowed brow never relaxing as she looked at them, wanting to speak but with an expression of not knowing where to start, ultimately leaving her only able to let out a deep sigh.

  For these two illegitimate children, Zhuang Shi has always been unsure of what attitude to take towards them. Should she be warm and considerate? She didn't want to, but treating them coldly made her feel like she was unfairly transferring the resentment she had for their birth mother onto the two innocent kids...