Their petty theft didn't even take long to be discovered with the two siblings sitting opposite their parents in front of a table full of rabbit food and no meat courtesy of Wen Qinxi who had robbed the kitchen blind.
Madam Lin was not so upset about it but Master Lin was so angry he nearly flipped the table reprimanding his sons. "Do l look like freaking bunny to you? Answer me!" he said slamming the table while Madam Lin tried to appease him.
One might ask why not kill another chicken but by the time the cook realized all the roasted birds had somehow grown a pair of legs and disappeared, Master Lin had already arrived hangry ready to eat dinner.
The two boys shuddered in fear at the loud bang made by Master Lin while throwing a fit. 'Dads are fuckin scary,' thought Wen Qinxi suddenly grateful he didn't have one.
"You two were in cohorts with one suddenly wanting to go shopping which he absolutely hates and the other locking himself in kitchen doing god knows what. What happened to all my chickens?" said Master Lin boiling with rage.
"Wuwuwuwu dad don't be angry, l ate all of them l was so hungry," said Lin Mingxu with crocodile tears that would make anyone believe him. Hell, even Wen Qinxi was convinced, if he didn't know the truth he would have believed him. 'Sick acting skills bro,' he thought with obvious admiration in his eyes.
"Do you think l was born yesterday? Stop crying otherwise l will make you go shopping with your mother for the rest of your life!" he yelled instantly putting Lin Mingxu in check but Madan Lin was seriously offended.
"How is that a punishment, am l that horrible that you don't want to go with me?" she asked with a pained look.
"No!"
"Yes!" answered both Master Lin and Lin Mingxu at the same time and of course the yes came from Lin Mingxu. Madam Lin was an undecisive penny pincher who would make you go around the entire market and circle back to the first vendor after she was sure it was the lowest price.
With the Lin family fortune, she didn't have to be a penny pincher this explained why they were less roasted chickens in the first place.
"Mingxu do you have to be so mean to your own mother wuwuwuwuwu!" she cried thus explaining where Lin Mingxu's acting skills came from.
"Mingxu quickly apologise to your mother, you made her cry!" yelled Master Lin glaring at Lin Mingxu.
"But she's faking it," complained Lin Mingxu but his father wasn't messing around, "fine, l will apologize. Sorry mum for making you cry."
With the two reconciled, Master Lin's attention went back to the case of the missing roasted poultry. During their squabbles, Wen Qinxi had contemplated on slipping away but judging from Master Lin's reputation, he gave up on the idea deciding to ride it out.
"Jin-er, if you don't confess now l will confine you to your quarters for an entire month. Go on, choose to lie to me and see if l won't do it!" he said glowering at his son who was as quiet as a mouse but as guilty as sin.
'Crap! Why doesn't he just work as a full time investigator. He would make a successful detective,' thought Wen Qinxi siding with the statement 'the truth shall set you free'.
"Ahem.....l saw some boys hungry on the street and couldn't bare seeing them go hungry when we have food. So l gave them the chickens," confessed Wen Qinxi looking so pitiful you would think he was being bullied.
Master Lin wanted to yell but seeing his son helping others he didn't have the heart too but the boy still had to be punished. "Okay, l see. Your heart is in the right place but your method is wrong. You could have asked me first, l wouldn't have refused your request," replied Master Lin with a meaningful expression.
"How could we have asked when we both had split lips from fight-," stupidly confessed Lin Mingxu to an offense they had already gotten away with. Wen Qinxi elbowed him straight on to the bruise on his abdomen.
He instinctively covered his mouth all wide-eyed but it was to late. The loud mouth had sold them out now they had to bare the consequences. "Is that why you have a bruised lip? Who did you fight with?" asked Master Lin bristled with anger.
"Him," replied Wen Qinxi with a downcast expression pointing at Lin Mingxu and of course, Lin Mingxu wasn't that dense nodding his head in agreement.
"You are brothers but have the audacity to lay hands on each other! No dinner for the both of you, go kneel and reflect on what you did wrong!" he yelled as he personally led the two young masters to different rooms before placing a long incense stick in front of a kneeling Wen Qinxi.
"Kneel till that incense stick finishes! No one is allowed to leave till its all burnt out," commanded Master Lin.
"But thats at least six hours?" complained a long faced Wen Qinxi pointing at the incense stick.
Master Lin scowled but didn't say anything as he led Lin Mingxu to the other room. Wen Qinxi didn't move until he was certain Master Lin had left. Since no one was watch>ing him he decided to lie down thats when he heard someone speaking in the shadows.
"Ahem young master Lin, you are supposed to be on your knees," said a creepy voice in the dark.
Wen Qinxi was scared stiff yelling, "What the fuck!" while scanning around to see were the voice came from. 'Is it some type of ninja or something? Master Lin is bad shit crazy,' he thought getting back on his knees. Master Lin knew his sons too well that he had guards watching them to keep them in line.
A bored Wen Qinxi knelt down feeling so drowsy with his head drooping to the side while adding on to his expected reparations. 'I will fuckin charge a hundred thousand more for this,' he thought with heavy eyes, struggling to keep them open.
'I think the CEO would give you five hundred thousand more just for this,' spoke the M.I.A system that suddenly showed up out of the blue.
Wen Qinxi was jolted awake hearing the rogue system finally making it's appearance. 'Why the fuck are you here?' asked Wen Qinxi recalling how the system had been ignoring him ever since he got a beating.
'I am here to make amends, we all truly underestimated you. So does it mean the rumours are true, you and Qie Ranzhe sitting in a tree K-I-S-'
'Fuck no! If you are here to slander me then you might as well go back where you came from!' yelled Wen Qinxi flipping the table in anger.
'No judgement here, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to survive, right?' said the system teasing Wen Qinxi who didn't seem to be taking it well.
'Go fuck yourself Jolie!' he yelled deciding to ignore the annoying system.
'Shesh, l was just teasing you besides if the CEO liked guys he wouldn't pick you," replied the system taunting him but Wen Qinxi couldn't refute that.
'I wouldn't want him to pick me anyway. I want to find a goddess l can spend the rest of my life with. A kind hearted beautiful loli, you know what l mean?' replied Wen Qinxi entranced with a gorgeous image of his ideal future wife.
'Haha yeah sure,' said the system in a sarcastic tone, 'that type of goddess would only have eyes for Qie Ranzhe,' observing the image Wen Qinxi conjured up in his head.
'Jolie just get the fuck out of here if you are here to dampen my mood,' said Wen Qinxi hoping to be rid of the annoying system.
'No don't chase me away, l brought you a series to keep you entertained. See l can be really considerate, ride out your punishment in style,' said the system showing him all the options available.
'Wow, how nice of you,' he said picking one series to watch while applauding the system for finally doing something right but soon regretted it. Jolie only brought over gore filled horror series and once started, he couldn't switch it off and had to watch it till the very end.
'AHAHAHAH! Jolie you are a fucking psycho,' yelled Wen Qinxi ten minutes in the first episode while the system was having a good laugh.
***
Qie Ranzhe currently lying on his mat suddenly lightly chuckled stunning Manchu who was lying on the other side of the room.
"Ran-ge what is it?" curiously asked Machu as this was a rare occurrence to see him laugh.
Qie Ranzhe was just thinking about how Lin Jingxie stuffed his face like a squirrel with both cheeks puffed up with food causing him to chuckle out loud.
"Do you think Lin Jingxie is still the old Lin Jingxie?" asked Qie Ranzhe turning to his side to face Machu.
"Dage to be honest, l would rather you keep your guard up. One near death experience can't change a person this much, right?" said Machu mulling over Lin Jingxie's behaviour today.
He was so sure the food had been poisoned but it turned out that wasn't the case. Maybe that was Lin Jingxie's plan, for them to let their guard down so he could poison all of them.
Qie Ranzhe sighed heavily and turned to face the wall. "You are right, keep an eye on him," he said with a scowl on his visage vowing to never let his guard down no matter how comfortable he felt around Lin Jingxie.