Chapter Thirty-Four: Co-Rental Fate

  After hearing Liu Li's words, Lin Shuang was suddenly struck by lightning. She shook her head speechlessly: "You really can associate, but sorry, you guessed wrong, I didn't plan to keep or support you."

  Upon hearing this, Liu Li visibly breathed a sigh of relief: "So that's it, you scared me to death. Since you're not going to **me, why offer such generous terms? Not only are you waiving my rent, but you're also giving me money? When has the world ever had such good fortune?"

  Lin Shuangshuang heard the doubt in Liu Li's words, looked at Lin Ting who was watching TV beside her, and sighed: "Alas... I did all this for Tingting." Then, Lin Shuangshuang told Liu Li the reason.

  It turned out that when Lin Shuangshuang was in college, because of her good looks, many boys pursued her, including some with a deep background or from rich families. However, Lin Shuangshuang didn't take a liking to these people and instead started dating a boy named Zhao Zhi from her class.

  Zhao Zhi didn't have a prestigious background, his family was very ordinary. However, Zhao Zhi studied extremely hard and his grades were always among the top in class. In his free time, Zhao Zhi often helped students who were falling behind with their homework, Lin Shuangshuang being one of them.

  Lin Shuangshuang's family runs a catering business, so they are relatively wealthy. To thank Zhao Zhi for tutoring her, she sends money to Zhao Zhi's family every month in his name. At first, Zhao Zhi was unaware of this, but later he accidentally discovered the truth.

  At that time, Zhao Zhi borrowed some money from his classmates and made up the amount of money Lin Shuangshuang had sent to her hometown. Then he found an opportunity to return it to Lin Shuangshuang. After receiving the returned money, Lin Shuangshuang not only didn't dislike him but felt that Zhao Zhi was a man of noble character who wouldn't forget his debts for the sake of wealth. From then on, Lin Shuangshuang had some inexplicable good feelings towards Zhao Zhi.

  Because of Lin Shuangshuang's superior family conditions, many people had designs on her. One weekend evening, when Lin Shuangshuang went out to dinner with her dormitory classmates and was on the way back, she encountered four thugs who robbed them.

  The hooligans took away Lin Shuangshuang and her classmate's money and mobile phones, and suddenly had a lustful thought, planning to drag the two into the nearby woods for an indecent act. Just then, Zhao Zhi, who was working part-time as a tutor outside, happened to pass by here.

  After hearing Lin Shuang and Er's cries for help, Zhao Zhi rushed up to fight against the four of them alone. However, the difference in strength between the two sides was too great, and after a few moves, Zhao Zhi was beaten to the point where he was no longer recognizable as human.

  However, Zhao Zhi was beaten until he spat out blood and air. Although he knew he was no match for them, he still charged at the four men time and again. Later, he was stabbed by the thugs' dagger and his abdomen's fresh blood kept flowing outwards. But Zhao Zhi didn't care about this and continued to charge at the thugs.

  Finally, the thugs were intimidated by Zhao Zhi's momentum. Seeing Zhao Zhi covered in blood, the thugs feared that things would get out of hand and threw down Lin Shuangshuang and Er's money and mobile phones before turning to flee.

  After the thugs ran away, Zhao Zhi couldn't hold on due to excessive blood loss and fainted. Lin Shuangshuang quickly called 120 and sent Zhao Zhi to the hospital.

  Another girl dialed 110 to report the police and told them about the robbery they had just encountered. Because of the timely report, the police set up roadblocks and tracked down the suspects through surveillance cameras, and caught the four thugs that night.

  When the hoods were removed from the robbers' heads, their identities shocked the police. The four robbers turned out to be college students, and two of them were even classmates of Lin Shuangshuang.

  They knew that Lin Shuangshuang's family had money and wanted to rob her, so they followed her when she went out with her roommate on the weekend, waiting for an opportunity to rob her. Unexpectedly, a program appeared halfway, and Zhao Zhi, who was desperate to protect Lin Shuangshuang, collided with them.

  After learning that the culprit had been caught, Lin Shuangshuang did not feel a single bit of joy, because her attention was all focused on Zhao Zhi. If it hadn't been for Zhao Zhi appearing that night, Lin Shuangshuang didn't dare to imagine what would have happened to her.

  After the doctor's treatment, Zhao Zhi was out of danger. During that time, Lin Shuangshuang took care of him in the hospital every day. It was from then on that they gradually developed feelings for each other and started dating.

  Lin Shuangshuang's parents learned about Zhao Zhi's behavior and did not disdain the poor or love the rich, supporting their daughter's choice. After examining Zhao Zhi for a period of time, they also accepted this son-in-law.

  After graduating from college, Lin Shuangshuang gave up the opportunity to take the exam again and chose to marry Zhao Zhi. She was 22 years old that year, while Zhao Zhi continued to apply for graduate school. A year after their marriage, Lin Shuangshuang gave birth to a daughter, who is Tingting.

  Seeing his daughter safely delivered, Lin Shuangshuang advised Zhao Zhi to give up his studies and help her father manage the hotel, but at that time, it was a critical moment for Zhao Zhi's academic pursuit, he didn't listen to Lin Shuangshuang's words and insisted on completing his studies.

  During the time Lin Shuangshuang was sitting for her month, Zhao Zhi only showed up once when his daughter was 12 days old and then locked himself in the study to study every day, ignoring Lin Shuangshuang and their daughter.

  Three months after Tingting's arrival, Zhao Zhi suddenly ran over to find Lin Shuangshuang. He looked at Lin Shuangshuang with a excited face and told her that he had been admitted to graduate school and would be going to M Province next month to study for his master's degree.

  After hearing the news, Lin Shuangshuang did not feel a bit happy. She begged Zhao Zhi not to go for further studies and stay at home with her to take care of their daughter, but Zhao Zhi would not listen and was determined to pursue his studies.

  After that, Lin Shuangshuang chatted with Zhao Zhi several times, hoping he would stay at home, but Zhao Zhi refused every time. Helpless, Lin Shuangshuang had to let him go. On the day Zhao Zhi left home, Lin Shuangshuang felt a sense of foreboding that once he walked out the door, he might never belong to this family again.

  Things turned out to be just as Lin Shuang felt, at first Zhao Zhi would still call Lin Shuang every day to ask about Tingting's situation, but as time passed, Zhao Zhi's calls became fewer and farther between, sometimes even going a whole month without making a single call.

  After living such a life for more than a year, in the second year after Zhao Zhi left, he made his last phone call to Lin Shuangshuang. Zhao Zhi told Lin Shuangshuang on the phone that he no longer loved her and had met a junior sister at school who he liked, and this junior sister also liked him. For the sake of this junior sister, he chose to divorce Lin Shuangshuang and hoped she would agree to it.

  Finally, Zhao Zhi entrusted a lawyer to come and find Lin Shuangshuang to discuss the divorce. Zhao Zhi did not make any demands or fight for custody of Tingting. After paying eighteen years' worth of child support for Tingting, Zhao Zhi disappeared without a trace.

  Lin Shuangshuang was so devastated by the blow that after completing the divorce proceedings, she fell seriously ill. After her condition recovered, Lin Shuangshuang asked her father for the management rights of a hotel and then brought Tingting alone to Guhong County.

  When she came, Lin Shuangshuang sold her and Zhao Zhi's marital home and bought a house here. She took care of Tingting alone while helping her father manage the hotel. In this way, more than two years have passed in the blink of an eye.

  Just as Lin Shuangshuang was gradually getting used to this life, she found that Tingting had become a bit off. When she was young, she was very lively and active, but after Tingting went to kindergarten, she became more and more silent and introverted, and her personality also became more and more lonely.

  Recently, Lin Shuangshuang took Tingting to see a psychologist in the city. The psychologist told her that Tingting's life lacked paternal love and care, while Lin Shuangshuang was busy with work and had less communication with Tingting.

  In addition, when Tingting saw other children being picked up by their fathers at kindergarten, she felt a sense of rejection and avoidance in her heart. If this emotion is not corrected in time, Tingting may be prone to autism.

  Worried that Tingting would develop social withdrawal syndrome, Lin Shuangshuang had no choice but to follow the psychologist's advice and hire a surrogate father for Tingting to fill the void of paternal love in her heart.

  After Lin Shuangshuang posted a recruitment ad online, four or five men came to apply for the agent father position. Among them were doctors and teachers with good education and temperament, but Tingting showed abnormal rejection towards those people, crying and making a fuss as soon as they entered the door.

  There was no other way, so Lin Shuangshuang could only let those people go back. Today, she saw that Tingting and Liu Li got along well, and coincidentally, Liu Li was also renting a house. Adding to the fact that Liu Li was a police officer, after some thought, Lin Shuangshuang wanted Liu Li to be Tingting's surrogate father.

  After listening to Lin Shuangshuang's words, Liu Li felt a little touched in his heart. He didn't expect that Lin Shuangshuang still had such a story. Looking at Tingting sitting on the sofa, Liu Li scratched his head: "This life is not bad, but... how can I be this agent dad? You won't really let that girl call me Dad, will you?"