Chapter 16: I Have a Question

Xu Heng still appeared on the surface like that twenty-year-old greenhorn; he did this so that he would not seem too "strange" in the eyes of his parents and younger sister.

In fact, the moment his sister opened her mouth, Xu Heng had already understood what she meant.

【If you don't bring this up, I'll pretend nothing ever happened.】

A woman's thoughts are complex, but that does not mean a young girl's thoughts are also complex; Xu Ruoxi's little secrets were too easy to guess.

Since she was not going to dwell on this matter, Xu Heng naturally followed her lead and used the "urine escape" technique.

When he pulled up his pants and returned to his room, he found Xu Ruoxi fiddling with that Inspiron 1420 laptop at his desk.

Seeing that the person who entered was Xu Heng, Xu Ruoxi asked, "Brother, is this the new computer you bought?"

"Yeah."

"Dell's new computer, it must be quite expensive, right?"

"Three or four thousand yuan."

"Where did you get the money?"

"Earned it from a part-time job." Xu Heng walked over to her side and tapped her on the head, "How many times have I told you, don't always mess with my things."

Xu Ruoxi immediately replied with disdain: "Well, I've also told someone many times that the bathroom belongs to me for half an hour before dinner, and that someone doesn't remember either."

"Ahem... your wings have gotten stiff, haven't they." Xu Heng feigned a fierce glare at her, "Go, go, go, go play somewhere else, I still have important business to do."

"I don't believe you have anything on your computer more important than me."

Xu Ruoxi wasn't angry at being squeezed out of the chair; instead, she turned and sat on Xu Heng's lap, her lotus-root-like jade arms wrapping around his neck, and said with a smile: "I am your own sister, after all!"

"Heh, that's hard to say, what if you were picked up from a trash can~"

Xu Heng spouted nonsense casually, but after a long while, he didn't get a retort. He stopped clicking the mouse, looked down, and found his sister curled up in his arms, saying nothing.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Xu Ruoxi shook her head like a rattle-drum, then stopped and stared blankly into Xu Heng's eyes, "Brother, you broke up with Ying Ziyun, right?"

"Broke up."

"Are you going to get back together?"

"This sort of thing isn't something you can just get back together whenever you want."

"So that means you aren't getting back together?"

"Yeah." Xu Heng nodded, "Not getting back together."

"Good! I've always felt that woman wasn't right for you. I heard from my classmates that people like her are frigid." Xu Ruoxi gestured with her palms and said exaggeratedly, "Brother, do you know what frigid means? Frigid is the kind of person where, even if you get married later, you might not be able to have children..."

Xu Heng was between laughter and tears: "Yes, yes, yes, you're the one who's known so much since you were little."

Perhaps realizing that Xu Heng was brushing her off, Xu Ruoxi pursed her lips in dissatisfaction: "I'm serious. In the future, if you want to find a girlfriend, you must tell us first. We'll help you vet her. Only when our whole family agrees can she be your girlfriend."

Although Xu Heng really wanted to ask if she thought dating was like an ancient emperor choosing a concubine, he still promised her with a mix of coaxing and deception.

Once a person gets older, they don't really want to bicker with a little girl anymore.

Xu Ruoxi hummed, sitting in his lap without saying anything more. The room returned to silence, leaving only the click-clack sound of the mouse.

There were some things that neither of them had made clear.

Xu Heng was not the biological child of Father Xu and Mother Xu.

Xu Heng only found this out when he went to get his marriage certificate. Before that, there was no such person as Xu Heng in the Xu family's household register; he was just an adopted son in name.

On the day he got married, Mother Xu told him about the past.

He was originally the son of Father Xu's good friend, but that man was a police officer who sacrificed himself in an operation, and his family was also implicated, with only Xu Heng surviving.

It just so happened that Father Xu and Mother Xu were over thirty at the time and hadn't yet given birth to any children. To ensure Xu Heng's safety, they adopted him when he had just turned one. Their original intention was to let him return to his ancestral roots after he grew up safely, but as time went on, they truly came to regard Xu Heng as their own biological son, and naturally, they couldn't bear to let go of the child they had raised for over twenty years.

But Mother Xu was a woman of principle; she insisted on telling him this when Xu Heng got married, letting him decide for himself whether to return to his biological father's ancestral home or stay with the old Xu family.

Upon learning the truth, Xu Heng wasn't too moved. Feelings between people are cultivated over time. He respected his biological father, but the old Xu family had raised him for over twenty years, and his feelings for them were certainly stronger than for the biological parents he had never even met. After all, the two elders of the Xu family had sold their old house for his wedding, and the new house was also written in his name. This was equivalent to giving their lifelong assets to an outsider with no blood relation, yet they had not a shred of regret or hesitation.

So after getting married, Xu Heng decided to stay with the old Xu family and move his household registration to their book.

Xu Heng knew that if the timeline flowed normally, he would still become a member of the old Xu family in the future.

But now, looking at the way his sister treated him, it seemed a bit abnormal.

Xu Heng was not a blockhead, it was just that chasing Ying Ziyun for all four years of college meant he hadn't had many girlfriends.

In reality, his emotional intelligence was quite outstanding after being tempered by society; he could grasp about seventy or eighty percent of the mental activity behind any of Xu Ruoxi's casual little movements or expressions.

This girl clearly wanted to help him move his household registration over in advance!

Xu Heng was startled.

To be honest, he also liked his sister, but that was truly just a brother's affection for a sister, unrelated to romantic love.

And this behavior of his sister was nine times out of ten an affection for him that went beyond that of siblings.

When did she find out he wasn't her biological brother?

Regarding this, Xu Heng hadn't noticed at all; in his previous life, he didn't even know that his sister had feelings for him at this time.

Perhaps because he didn't know about their blood relationship before and always assumed they were biological siblings, the Xu Heng of his previous life subconsciously ignored his sister's overly intimate attitude toward him.

Now, back at twenty, knowing his own background and knowing they weren't biological siblings, he could "see" much more than before.

But this was wrong; at least in his view, it was wrong.

Even if they had no blood relationship, they were siblings who grew up wearing the same pair of split-crotch pants; it shouldn't develop in other directions.

Having figured this out, Xu Heng found an excuse to chase his sister out of the room, and after closing the door, he sat alone in the chair, dazed.

What is going on?

Isn't it supposed to be about making a fortune after being reborn?

How come he hasn't made any money, and is instead starting to act out a family ethics drama here?

Xu Heng clutched his head, feeling his scalp tingle.

He still had to find an opportunity to confess the truth to his sister. What if the child was just acting out of admiration for him and hadn't developed into romantic feelings yet?

While he was deep in thought, a piece of software in the bottom right corner of the computer suddenly began to Flash.

"Beep, beep, beep!"

It was the notification sound for Penguin; Xu Heng clicked it open, and it was a message sent to him by his editor.

【You there?】