Chapter 921 - 274: [Mental Realm Shift]
[Posting a big Chapter, the extra word count is to make up for previous ones.
More big Chapters will be posted later when I’m in a good state, to make up for some more.]
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Chapter Two Hundred Seventy-Four [Mental Realm Change] (8200)
It was already the season of late autumn.
The weather in Jinling Prefecture was quite hot just a few days ago, with temperatures reaching around thirty degrees, but after a sudden heavy rain a few days ago, accompanied by a whole night of wind,
the temperature suddenly dropped.
When Lu Sisi got out of the car, the wind brushed against her, and she felt a hint of autumn’s chill, subconsciously tightening her jacket around her.
Of course, it wasn’t really cold; it was just a habitual action.
Immediately following her out of the car were her mother Lu Xiuting and her brother.
Driving the car was her father Yang Jiaming, who, after everyone got out, drove the car to a nearby parking lot.
This was a restaurant famous for its Cantonese cuisine, and its pigeon dishes were said to be quite good.
It was yet another "family happiness operation," a family dinner, deliberately arranged during this period.
Though Lu Sisi’s face carried a calm and gentle smile, inwardly, she felt a bit helpless.
Yang Jiaming had rushed back from the company after work, and Lu Xiuting was dressed beautifully, her hair styled for more than two hours in the afternoon.
Her brother had been picked up right after school.
A family dinner, family happiness...
In truth, Lu Sisi already found it subtly amusing.
Many such family activities had been arranged during this period.
The family going out together, eating, shopping. Yes, they even watched a movie together.
These experiences were novel to Lu Sisi and, at first...
She couldn’t deny that, at the start, she had held some expectations.
Because she had never experienced such warm family happiness from childhood to adulthood.
She had seen families in shopping centers, couples with children.
The wife trying beautiful clothes on the child, and the husband happily going to pay the bill.
In restaurants, the whole family eating together, the couple with their children. The child sitting next to the father or mother, acting coquettish or clingy, saying they wanted this or that, and the parents, with indulgence or pampering, fulfilling the child’s reasonable or unreasonable desires.
Happily sharing dishes with each other, the whole family in harmony, filled with laughter and joy...
Lu Sisi had envied that!
She really had envied it!
She even had some dark thoughts in her heart—for this, she had secretly been jealous of her brother.
She thought that the beautiful "family in harmony" scenes she saw and imagined, which she had never experienced, were enjoyed many times by her brother!
However, after she truly experienced the "Yang Family’s family happiness," she changed this perspective.
The slight jealousy she once had towards her brother quickly dissipated.
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Lu Sisi remembered the first time the family of four went out to eat together.
It was also in a restaurant.
Her brother merely sat there with a calm expression, serving himself dishes, hardly even looking at his parents—rather this brother occasionally showed a hint of closeness to Lu Sisi, a closeness tinged with curiosity and novelty.
But the dining table was actually silent.
There was almost no communication between Yang Jiaming and Lu Xiuting, and certainly no familial atmosphere.
The laughter and noise around the restaurant seemed naturally incompatible with the atmosphere at the Yang family’s table.
It was as if an invisible aura isolated the Yang family’s table from the joyful atmosphere in the restaurant.
Yang Jiaming would also serve dishes to Lu Xiuting and his brother, but it was with a task-oriented attitude.
He was merely fulfilling an obligation.
There was hardly any effective communication at the table.
At the beginning, maybe he would ask a couple of questions, like how his brother was doing at school.
The brother would respond blandly with a "fine" to such questions.
And that would be the end of it.
Yang Jiaming would almost never speak proactively to Lu Xiuting either.
Nor would Lu Xiuting to him.
To be honest,
experiencing this so-called "family happiness" for the first time made Lu Sisi feel like she was sitting on pins and needles.
She was very uncomfortable, yet she found her brother surprisingly calm, even as if he was accustomed to this mode.
He would habitually take out his phone, open a short video or novel app by himself, holding it in his hand, watching while eating.
Occasionally, if he found an interesting short video, he would lean towards Lu Sisi and share the video with this sister.
Yet he rarely said a word to his parents.
Lu Sisi was quite willing to get closer to this brother. So, at the dining table, the sibling’s exchanges appeared relatively more normal.
However, it also revealed some estrangement.
Then, they quietly ate the rather expensive dishes, occasionally exchanging a few words in low voices.
Unexpectedly, at some point, a quarrel broke out at the table.
Yang Jiaming and Lu Xiuting somehow seemed to have entered a combat mode, glaring at each other with dark faces.
Lu Xiuting’s face was full of resentment and anger, her eyes full of dissatisfaction.
While Yang Jiaming sighed, but his sighs revealed not helplessness, but impatience.
Subsequently, the two began to blame each other, argue, and shift responsibilities.
The entire process left Lu Sisi noticing that her brother was surprisingly calmer than she was.