Chapter 453: – Are there any hotels here? I want to stay outside…
Lin Jin's old family home was one of those brick bungalows. Three to five family’s buildings would be connected together to form a rectangle, with each family's backyard merging into one big space. Of course, they were now all separated by brick walls.
Lin Jin’s hometown was under a county level city it was said to be one of the wealthier areas in Fujian. Lin Jin had never felt it before, but later, when she went to the city for school and her classmates found out where she was from, they all started calling her the rich kid and stuff.
Of course, Lin Jin didn’t refute it back then. Her family was indeed pretty well off at the time.
The other people in the hometown were also relatively wealthy. Many either invested in factories or had family members who had snuck out to a foreign country years ago. Especially in recent years, her hometown underwent major renovations. Although the houses were still the same bungalows from over a decade ago, the surrounding buildings weren't much different from those in the city.
With Aunt Chen leading the way, Lin Jin and her mom arrived in front of their old house.
Their old place was just an ordinary two-story bungalow. The first floor wasn't decorated at all, and the second floor had a layer of floor paper. But now, the house that once brought Lin Jin so much childhood joy was occupied by another family.
The tenants didn't recognize Lin Jin or her mom. Seeing the two of them standing outside, they blankly looked back into the house, thinking something inside had caught the two’s attention.
"Mom lived here for nearly ten years. Back then, your grandpa and grandma didn’t agree to me marrying your dad because he was super poor back then. It was whatever if it was just the house that was bad, but he didn’t even have a job and I even had to go work in a factory.” With a gentle smile on her face, she slowly reminisced to Lin Jin. "Then didn’t we give birth to you? Back then, you were even born prematurely and went into the box right after birth. It was a long time before we could hold you."
"Your dad was worried about your health because of your premature birth, so he didn't let me go back to the factory. He wanted me to focus on taking care of you at home while he went out alone to other places to work. Every year, he only comes back for your grandpa’s birthday and the New Year’s…" Her mom's face was full of nostalgia, seemingly lost in memories from eighteen or nineteen years ago, showing a warm smile on her face. "Then your little brother came along and your dad worked even harder. Sometimes he wouldn't come home all year and just desperately worked outside. Occasionally, I'd take you two to visit him and see him sitting at the construction site, even seeing him eating steamed buns while his face was covered in dust."
"How did dad finally make it later?" Lin Jin was curious about her dad's glory days.
"Later, he saved up some money and started a cleaning company. There weren’t many cleaning companies back then and your dad was quite successful." Her mom was clearly lost in her memories, but just as she was about to continue, she noticed someone familiar approaching.
"Wu Juan?" The person looked stunned to see her mom, blankly staring at her. "What brings you back?"
Lin Jin squinted slightly. This man was her dad’s brother, so her uncle.
In her dad’s generation, including him, totaled seven people. Three brothers and four sisters. Naturally, the sisters had all married out long ago and Lin Jin wasn't very familiar with them.
This uncle was a chubby middle aged man with a big beer belly. But his wife was actually a slender and beautiful looking woman.
This uncle was a good person. Although he normally looked quite fierce, he was actually a really nice person. He was well liked in the village and was known for being loyal.
"Where's Cheng Chang? He didn’t come back?" Her uncle walked over with a smile. He glanced at Lin Jin and saw it was an unfamiliar girl, so he just assumed she was a kid from a neighboring village and started chatting with her mom.
"I divorced him long ago." Her mom said with a wry smile. "Didn’t he even sell the house this time? Originally, I was still thinking of reconciling with him."
The uncle's face darkened immediately: "He's really too much, all he knows is gambling."
Her mom shrugged. She still didn't know that her dad had opened a milk tea shop and was currently struggling.
"Mom." After taking a look at the place she once lived, Lin Jin walked over to her mom, held her hand, and looked at her uncle together.
Letting her mom face her grandpa alone earlier made Lin Jin feel uneasy inside. It was clearly her own matter, but she actually had her mom face it. Now, she wanted to face things together.
"This is?" Her uncle frowned. "I didn't hear about you finding someone new in Guangzhou."
"This is Lin Jin." Her mom patted Lin Jin's head and warmly smiled.
Lin Jin?
Her uncle was completely baffled. Even though Lin Jin was really cute as a kid, cute to the point you couldn’t tell if she was a boy or a girl, and her mom often dressed Lin Jin in girl’s clothes, making him suspicious if Lin Jin really was a girl. But, he had seen little Lin Jin right after she was born.
"You dressed Lin Jin in girl’s clothes again?" Her uncle immediately thought of his sister in law’s weird taste.
Her mom expressionlessly pursed her lips, not knowing how she got this reputation of being someone who liked to dress their son in women’s clothing.
"That’s true. Your mom probably hasn’t seen you in years so her urge to dress you up was probably restless." Her uncle laughed looking at Lin Jin. After a closer look, he did see the resemblance to his nephew in this girl's face. So he laughed even more heartedly, teasing Lin Jin’s mom, "Look, dressing Lin Jin in girls' clothes when he was little was one thing, but now you're still making him wear stuff like this. What if Lin Jin starts thinking he's a girl?"
No, I’ve already been a girl for a while now, not just thinking.
Lin Jin and her mom had no idea how to explain everything. The two exchanged a confused glance and helplessly decided to just go with her uncle's misunderstanding for now rather than correcting him.
"Lin Jin, since you and your mom are back, you can't just leave without staying over. I have a guest room at my home for you two women." Her uncle enthusiastically grabbed Lin Jin’s hand, completely oblivious that anything was amiss with Lin Jin at all. He said with a smile: "There's only one guest room. You’re so big now, it’s not good to continue sleeping with your mom. How about you sleep with your cousin? He’s on summer vacation from college and also just came back a couple of days ago."
"Let’s just have Lin Jin sleep with me." Her mom refused her uncle’s suggestion without any hesitation.
After all, Lin Jin was a girl now. If she slept together with a boy, god knows what problems there would be.
"Sure, sure. The child’s so big now but you still can’t let go? Also, didn’t Lin Xin and Lin Jin get along quite well? What’s wrong with sleeping together for a couple of days?"
The times you're talking about... I can barely remember them now, okay?
Lin Jin also had a classmate called Lin Xin. At the time, when she saw the name on the attendance after school just started, she had mistakenly thought it was her cousin. But after she saw the person, she immediately knew it wasn’t.
How was it possible her cousin was like that other wimpy Lin Xin? He wasn’t even 1.7m tall, how embarrassing.
So... are there any hotels here? She wanted to stay outside…