130 He Wants to Celebrate My Birthday
Even if Lin Yi racked his brains he could not even imagine something like this happening.
For a moment, he did not know how to react.
He really did not like Lu Ning. He despised all forms of coercion, and from the moment he found out that he was going to marry into the Lù family he had always resisted. He kept thinking of ways to turn them down, but it was all useless. At that time, as he was young and impetuous, he hated the Lù family and, with it, Lu Ning as well.
Hence, he had never treated Lu Ning well and never spoke much to her. Later on, when he saw that his resistance was ineffective, he simply went overseas for a few years—out of sight, out of mind.
However, at that time, he had hoped that Lu Ning would also resist that arrangement together with him; perhaps, then, this matter would be turned around, so that he would not have to marry her, nor she him.
However, Lu Ning never had any objections to it. And if she did not object, it meant that she accepted it.
At that time, not only did he detest Lu Ning, he also looked down on her. He felt that she was uninteresting, seeing how she did not resist at all.
But now, the person he had to marry was not Lu Ning, but some other girl.
He did not know how to feel, nor could he elucidate what it was he was feeling.
In the end, he was still being manipulated like a puppet, without the freedom to decide his own marriage partner for himself.
Zhao Junli looked at him with concern.
“Son, are you alright?”
Lin Yi returned to his senses; within a few seconds he had returned to his lackadaisical self.
He stood up and walked upstairs with the clothes.
“I’m fine. I’ll try on the clothes.”
He disappeared at the top of the stairs. Zhao Junli could not help but sigh again.
Auntie Zhang looked at her and comforted her. “Madam, Young Master doesn’t seem angry.”
Zhao Junli raised her head and looked upstairs. “I’d rather he get angry and quarrel with me like before, but now he’s simply resigned himself to it.”
“Isn’t that good, Madam?”
“It can be good, and it can also not be.”
Zhao Junli knew Lin Yi’s personality too well. When he returned this time, outwardly there was little change, but she could tell from his way of doing things that he had changed and become more sensible.
However, one would inevitably lose something in exchange for becoming sensible. Lin Yi had accepted it and became more sensible because he knew it would be futile to resist; therefore, he no longer resisted, and had resigned himself to it.
Zhao Junli was afraid that he would only submit and no longer resist from now on.
She did not want her son to become such a tragic and deplorable person, but there was no way to change this. Back then, the Old Master, with his dying breath, arranged this in order to protect the Lin family; how could they then not consider the Lin family’s future?
For the sake of the Lin family, nothing must go wrong with this marriage.
If the Lin family wished to enter into marriage with the Lù family, they would have to arrange a marriage with the young lady of the Lù family. And, so long as this young lady was from the Lù family, it did not matter who she was.
——————
On her birthday, Lù Yue’an was all dressed up beautifully, and went downstairs early in the morning.
Shi Qingyue looked at her elegant and charming daughter and happily gave her a hug.
“An’an, why are you up so early? The banquet doesn’t start until tonight. Don’t you want to rest more?”
Lù Yue’an tugged at Shi Qingyue’s arm coquettishly. “Mommy, I made an appointment with Brother to go to the amusement park; he wants to celebrate my birthday.”
Hearing this, Shi Qingyue furrowed her brows slightly. “Brother? You mean Lu Qing? You know that your grandfather doesn’t want you to continue interacting with their family.”
Lù Yue’an pursed her lips and looked at her with teary eyes. “But I’ve lived with my brother for eighteen years. If he wants to celebrate my birthday, I have to go.”
Shi Qingyue sighed. “It’s good that you value your relationships, but…”