11th Break: Scumbag

Lin family.

"Hm? Cousin, what's wrong with you?" Lin Yao asked when he found Lin Ze in the garden looking absent-minded as he blankly stared at the snacks on the table in front of him. The tea has already gone cold.

Lin Ze raised his head when he heard Lin Yao's voice. "Why are you here?" he asked.

Lin Yao grinned. "I am looking for you." He answered and sat across from Lin Ze.

"For what?" Lin Ze asked and drank the cold tea.

"I heard the women gossiping again about you and Meng Ruyan." Lin Yao answered. "This time, with more fervor since today was supposed to be you two's wedding day!" he said.

"Pppt!" Lin Ze immediately turned to the side so as to not spray his cousin with the cold tea mixed with his saliva. "You…" he looked at his cousin before he heaved a sigh. "What are they talking about?" he asked. He also heard their family's servants whispering today, but of course, they were more restrained, especially in front of him when he passed by them earlier.

Lin Yao looked at him. "This is what's surprising – " he said and leaned over to whisper to him. " – they are denouncing you, cousin!" he told Lin Ze.

Lin Ze's eyes widened in shock. "Why?!" he asked. Even if he doesn't care about gossip and rumors, he cares about his reputation, ah! Wasn't this why he went to jianghu five years ago and made his name?!

Lin Yao's brows knitted. "Do you still remember that rumor that we heard last time when we came to eat at the Xu family's restaurant?" he asked. "About Meng Ruyan as a great beauty, and about you not as good as his white moonlight?" he said.

Lin Ze's face was covered in black lines.

"The women's hearts were bought by these rumors!" Lin Yao told Lin Ze. "They were talking about you as the third party for getting in Meng Ruyan and his white moonlight's way… and today, your supposed wedding day, they are talking about you as a scumbag for forsaking Meng Ruyan!" he said and slapped the table.

Lin Ze's face darkened and he almost crushed with his hand the favorite tea set of his mother. "I am a third party…?" he muttered. "And… I am a scumbag?!" he asked as he gnashes his teeth.

Lin Yao grimaced. He looked at his cousin with sympathy in his eyes. How can his cousin be the third party when it was the Meng family themselves who proposed an engagement between their families?! And now, how can his cousin be a scumbag for breaking the engagement, when five years have already passed, and his cousin and Meng Ruyan still haven't seen each other, even just once! And even a week away from their wedding day, the two still never saw each other!

If he should say it, it is very abnormal! So, how can his cousin not break the engagement? His cousin, in fact, should have broken the engagement years ago! (A/N: yet he didn't, so he was in the wrong, duh! *eye roll) 

"... why do you look more agitated than me?" Lin Ze asked when he saw Lin Yao's puffed-up cheeks. Shouldn't it be him, one of the protagonists in the gossip, who should be angry? He was wronged! He felt aggrieved, damn it!

Why am I a third party?! He doesn't like Meng Ruyan. Heck, he never even saw the other's shadow! And I am a scumbag? It was the Meng family who pulled me into this marriage! I am already a gentleman to accept their engagement five years ago. Don't I have the right to break the engagement? Even just expressing my opinion?!

Lin Ze rubbed his face with both hands. He felt that starting when he broke the engagement with Meng Ruyan last week, his life became unlucky. It had been fine these past five years, so why is Meng Ruyan's ghost* making a fuss now? Does he actually like me? Then why did he not approach me these past five years? Was he shy? Then, he could just send me a letter, right? But he didn't. (A/N: and you ALSO did not! LZ is the 'stronger' one in the relationship here, considering MRY is the one marrying into the Lin family, so LZ has the bigger responsibility in taking the initiative)

*figuratively

So, he doesn't like me? Lin Ze's expression is complicated. Why did his family propose an engagement with the Lin family five years ago, then? If he doesn't like me, he could just have stopped his family from proposing an engagement. Even if he was unfavored in his family, engagement is a big matter, so his family would hear him out. Yet, he didn't. So now, both of them lost their face (reputation) in the capital.

Though Meng Ruyan had no reputation in the first place, thus it was just me who suffered. Thinking this, Lin Ze frowned. If he just didn't know that Meng Ruyan is unfavored in the Meng family, Lin Ze would think that this gossip was Meng Ruyan's doing, borrowing his family's power. Yet since he (MRY) is unfavored, so it is impossible. (A/N: you are one step closer to the truth... with 99 steps left XD LZ: ... *speechless) 

"Do you know who is behind these gossips?" Lin Ze asked Lin Yao.

Lin Yao shook his head. "No." He answered. "I investigated it after I heard it, but I can't find the real source." He sighed.

Lin Ze's brows are knitted. But, he didn't pursue it. "Leave it. It is not as if I will die from these gossips." He said.

"You will not die, but your reputation (will die) - " Lin Yao muttered. He shut up after he saw his cousin glared at him. "Ehem. Cousin, why did you look despondent earlier?" He asked. He thought that it was due to the gossip in the capital, but he knows that his cousin doesn't care about gossip.

Lin Ze looked at him. "I met Meng Xing this noon." He spoke.

Lin Yao's eyes widened in surprise. "You did?!" He asked, looking excited. "How is he today? Did he look more beautiful?" He asked.

Lin Ze paused and suddenly recalled those pair of soul-hooking eyes paired with the light green clothes Meng Xing was wearing today... Mn. Meng Xing really looked more beautiful today.

He shook his head, erasing the thought. "I found out that he was an orphan." He told Lin Yao.

Lin Yao was shocked. "What?! Orphan?!" He exclaimed.

"En." Lin Ze nodded. "I also knew why he went to Huichen…" he continued. "His friend went missing." He told Lin Yao.

Lin Yao was surprised. Then, suddenly, he looked suspiciously at his cousin. "How did you know this?" He asked. He recalled that his cousin couldn't find Meng Xing's origin.

"Didn't I tell you that I met him today?" Lin Ze asked back. "He told me himself." He answered.