Ten seconds later, the phone started ringing again.
Jin Chonglin thought of ignoring it but thinking of the consequences, he still decided to answer the phone. If he ignored Fan Luo's call, she would likely call him nonstop. Worse, she might decide to storm his house.
When he picked up the call, he hadn't even said anything yet before hearing her crying loudly.
"Big Brother Lin, I'm so sorry! I just feel so upset about what's happening to my family. Please don't be mad at me!" She sobbed hard.
His heart softened a bit. Although she frequently got on his nerves, he couldn't just discard the fact that he watched her grow up from a little girl to a woman.
Sighing, he told her in a gentler voice, "Alright. Don't cry anymore."
She cried some more before calming down. The she asked, "Can I ask a favour?"
"What favour?"
"It's like this… Can you speak to Elder Brother Liwei? My dad, brothers and uncles don't mind the proposals he rejected anymore. Honestly! It's just that…there's this business project that our company really wants to participate in. My father says that we need this project to grow our company to the next level."
"Is it a Jin Corporation project?" he asked.
He frowned, confused. "Then why do you need me to talk to my brother when it's not even his business project?"
"It's because ever since Jin Corporation rejected our last proposals, other companies started snubbing us. Even though Jin Corporation is not directly involved in this upcoming business project, the ones involved have connections with Jin Corporation. All we need is a good word from Elder Brother Liwei. Although he doesn't want to work with us anymore, that doesn't mean that he'll stop us from working with others, right? Please, Big Brother Lin! Can you talk to him? This is really important to my family!"
Jin Chonglin hesitated. "I need to think about this first."
"Big Brother Lin, please! I'm begging you!"
"Have you talked to my mother about this yet?"
"We did. Both Mom and I talked to Auntie. She said that she already tried talking to Elder Brother Liwei but he won't do anything. That's why I'm asking you, Big Brother Lin. Please do this for me! Or even just for the sake of our dead baby!"
He immediately scowled. "Xiao Luo! We already talked about this. I told you not to use the child you miscarried like this."
She started crying again. "I know. I'm sorry. I'm just still so depressed over my miscarriage. Big Brother Lin, I want a baby!"
His lips pressed together into a thin line. "We're not going to talk about this right now."
"Xiao Luo!"
"Fine. I'll stop but I hope that you won't forget that we have a dead baby. Even if you don't want to talk about it, you can't erase that part of our past."
Jin Chonglin massaged his temples. Lin Dong poured him a cup of orange juice. He nodded his thanks to his manager before drinking.
"Alright," he said, sighing. "I'll try talking to my brother."
"Really? Thank you!"
"But don't get your hopes up. If even our mother can't persuade him, there's even less chance that he'll listen to me."
"Please just try!"
He sighed again. "Okay."
"Thank you, Big Brother Lin! I love you so much!"
"Why don't you break up with her?" Lin Dong asked, patting him on the shoulder. "You're so miserable now. You're clearly not happy. This is not the Jin Chonglin that I know."
Jin Chonglin sighed deeply. "You think it's that easy to break up? If it's just her, I would've broken up with her long ago. But there's our families that I need to consider. I personally don't care about the Fans, but my mother adores them. With my brother suddenly distancing Jin Corporation from the Fans, if I break up with Xiao Luo, there's no doubt that our two families will immediately turn hostile and become enemies. My mother will become heartbroken if that happens. I shouldn't have proposed to her in the first place."
"What a pain in the a**," Lin Dong commented. "I often envy you for being born into such a prestigious and rich family but in a situation like this, I'm glad that I'm from a normal household. You can't even break up with your girlfriend, I mean your fiancée, without triggering a war between families. Hai! So complicated."
"Yeah, unfortunately."
They were interrupted once again by another phone call.
"Is it her again?" Lin Dong asked.
Jin Chonglin checked, his eyes widening in surprise.
Curious, Lin Dong peeked and saw "Big Bro" on the caller display. "Whoa. Is that who I think it is?"
"Yeah."
Jin Chonglin gave him a side-eye. "He's just my brother, you know. Why are you acting so starstruck?"
"Are you kidding me?! I know he's your brother, but he's also THE Jin Liwei! Hurry up and answer! I wanna hear his voice."
Jin Chonglin rolled his eyes, and then answered the phone. "Hello?"
"It's me," Jin Liwei's cold voice said as a greeting.
"I know. It's so rare that you're calling me, Big Bro."
"I need to talk to you."
"Alright. What is it?"
"Are you alone?"
Jin Chonglin glanced at the excited Lin Dong. "No, my manager is with me."
He immediately felt curious. "Alright. Wait." Turning to his manager, he told him, "Sorry, can you go to the living room for now? My brother has something important to tell me."
"Oh. Okay," Lin Dong was disappointed but respected the request. He left the kitchen to give the brothers privacy.
"He's gone," Jin Chonglin said.
"Good." Jin Liwei hesitated for a couple of seconds before asking, "Do you really want to marry Fan Luo?"
Jin Chonglin was surprised. "Why do you ask?"
"Answer me. Yes or no."
"I…"
Jin Chonglin was indecisive but Jin Liwei waited for his reply patiently. More than a minute passed before he finally answered.
"No, I don't want to marry her."