Am I a Kamen Rider or the real young master who was switched at birth?

(Comrades, the author has to go to the exam at 9 o'clock and won't finish until 10:40. After posting this, the author is off to the battlefield (╥_╥). The author will update again after the exam (つ﹏＜。). No seats available, the author also has an exam tomorrow (•‿•).)

The day Lin Yumin was able to walk, she woke up before dawn.

After changing her clothes in the ward, she neatly folded her hospital gown and placed it at the foot of the bed. Then she sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for the doctor to come and do a final check-up.

For the past three days, Ye Yang has come every morning to adjust the needle placement for her. Each time he finishes adjusting, he tells her, "Today is a little better than yesterday."

She didn't know if Ye Yang could genuinely see that the Gu worms were receding, or if he was simply trying to comfort her.

After the doctor finished the examination, he looked at the films several times with an incredulous expression.

The worm had moved from the back of her neck to near her shoulder blades, its size had shrunk by almost half, and its vitality had clearly decreased.

When the doctor asked her what treatment she had received, Lin Yumin didn't answer. She simply bowed slightly, said thank you, and then turned and left the ward.

Ye Yang was already waiting in the parking lot.

He sat in the driver's seat of Lin Yumin's silver-gray SUV, one hand on the steering wheel and the other adjusting the angle of the rearview mirror.

He saw Lin Yumin walk out of the hospital through the rearview mirror.

Today she wore a dark blue long-sleeved shirt with a light gray light jacket over it, and her hair was tied in a low ponytail as usual.

Her walking pace returned to its usual ease, but if you looked closely, you could notice that her back was straighter than usual, as if she was using all her strength to prove something to herself.

Lin Ying followed behind her, carrying a paper bag containing a change of clothes. She jogged a few steps to catch up and handed the bag to her older sister.

Lin Xingran leaned halfway out of her red supercar and shouted towards the SUV, "You guys go first, we'll catch up right away," before pulling back inside to search for something.

Lin Yumin opened the passenger door, got in, and fastened her seatbelt.

She placed her hands on her knees and then turned to look quietly out the window.

Her profile looked serene in the morning light, her deep brown eyes gazing at the receding street scene outside the window, lost in thought.

Ye Yang started the car.

The SUV's engine emitted a deep roar as he steered the car steadily out of the parking lot with one hand on the steering wheel.

There weren't many cars on the road after I left the hospital. The morning light slanted in from the east, turning the whole road into a pale gold.

Ye Yang glanced at the passenger seat every now and then. Lin Yumin had been staring out the window for several minutes, completely motionless like a statue.

"Big sister, how are you feeling?" Ye Yang's cheerful voice sounded particularly clear in the quiet carriage.

Lin Yumin turned to look at him and said in a steady voice, "I feel much better."

Then she lowered her head, her voice much softer than before. After a long silence, she finally mustered the courage to say, "Thank you."

Ye Yang smiled and said casually, "No need to thank me, this is all I should do."

Lin Yumin shook her head. She gently clenched her fingers on her knee, her knuckles pressing shallow wrinkles into her dark blue trousers.

"Thank you for speaking up for me. In the hospital room. I'm very grateful for what you said to my father."

Ye Yang turned to look at her and said in a calm tone, "I'm just telling everyone what I wanted to say."

The car turned a corner, and ahead was a small commercial street.

The roadside shops had just opened for business; steam rose from the steamers of the breakfast stalls, and a string of colorful balloons hung outside the milk tea shop.

Ye Yang glanced at the rearview mirror. It was completely silent in the mirror; his second sister's red supercar hadn't even appeared in the distance yet.

Lin Xingran is probably looking for her sunglasses in the parking lot again.

Ye Yang's lips curled up, and then he slowly turned the steering wheel to the right, parking the car in a temporary parking space on the side of the road.

He turned to look at Lin Yumin, a slight smile on his face: "They don't seem to have followed yet. Would you like something to drink, Big Sister? I just finished working at Aunt Chang's place today and I'm really thirsty. Is it alright to buy you a glass of water?"

Lin Yumin looked at him, her deep brown eyes lingering on his face for two seconds before finally nodding gently.

Ye Yang smiled and then gently pushed open the car door.

After closing the car door, Ye Yang jogged across the road and walked into the Mixue Ice Cream shop on the side of the road.

The milk tea shop had just opened, and the speakers at the entrance hadn't started playing music yet. Behind the glass counter stood a staff member wearing a red apron.

Ye Yang stood in front of the counter, looking up at the menu. He tilted his head and thought for a few seconds, then gestured "two cups" to the clerk.

A few minutes later he came out of the shop, holding a cup of mango pomelo sago in each hand.

He bent down and got into the driver's seat, then handed one of the glasses to Lin Yumin: "Here, this is for you."

Lin Yumin accepted the cup with both hands.

Her fingers trembled slightly when they touched the side of the cup.

She held the cup in her hands, lowered her head, and gently stroked the water droplets on the cup with her fingers.

The liquid in the cup had a soft, milky yellow hue in the sunlight, with mango and grapefruit pieces at the bottom, and the straw was still held between the fingers of her other hand.

Ye Yang had already inserted the straw into the cup, taken a big gulp, made a loud slurping sound, and then squinted his eyes and let out a satisfied sigh.

"Try it. This shop's mango pomelo sago dessert is very generous with its ingredients, and the mangoes are all freshly cut today."

Lin Yumin inserted the straw into the cup and took a small sip.

The sweetness of coconut milk melts on the tongue, the mango pieces are soft, sweet, and fragrant, and the grapefruit pieces have a refreshing hint of bitterness.

She couldn't remember the last time she drank something like this; it was probably a long, long time ago, maybe in junior high, or maybe even earlier.

No one in the Lin family would buy such a thing. Lin Yuanshan only drinks plain tea, Su Wanqing occasionally drinks flower tea, and Lin Xingran likes to drink cola, but she probably thinks that a place like Mixue Ice Cream is not classy enough.

Lin Yumin placed the cup on her lap, wrapped her hands around the cup, and let the cool temperature spread throughout her body through her palms.

She opened her mouth, as if to say something. But her lips only moved slightly before she closed them again.

She took another small sip of mango pomelo sago, her gaze falling on the tiny water droplet ring on her knee.

Ye Yang took the straw out of his mouth, turned to look at her, and asked with a hint of concern, "What's wrong? Is there something you want to say, big sister?"

Lin Yumin looked up at him.

Her eyes were slightly red, and some emotion that had been bottled up in her heart for too long was suddenly gently pried open.

She lowered her head and said in a very soft voice, "I just—feel incredibly worthless."

Ye Yang placed the mango pomelo sago in the cup holder on the armrest and turned to look at her. He didn't interrupt, but listened quietly.

Lin Yumin's fingers gently traced circles on the inside of the cup, leaving a few crooked water marks.

"From a young age, I was the pride of my father and mother. Every time there was a family gathering, relatives would say, 'Yu Mian is so sensible,' 'Yu Mian is so outstanding,' 'The Lin family has a worthy successor.'"

"I'm used to it. I'm used to always being in the spotlight, used to everyone watching me, used to any small mistake being magnified into a big problem."

"I can't become worse. I don't have the right to become worse. Because I'm in the spotlight, everyone can see my every move. I'm my father and mother's pride, and my sisters' role model. So I—"

She paused. Her fingers stopped on the side of the glass.

"I dare not show weakness. Miss Lin shouldn't act like this."

She looked up at Ye Yang, her dark brown eyes already glistening with tears.

"So whenever I encounter difficulties, I keep them to myself and don't want to talk to others. The most memorable one was a national competition. In the final of that team competition, there were five members on our team, and in the second half, I was the only one left, while the opposing team still had three people."

"I am the team leader, carrying the expectations of the school and the honor of the Lin family on my shoulders. I cannot lose, and I dare not lose. I dare not imagine what would happen if I lost."

She took a deep breath and began to rub the glass again with her fingers.

"When I finally won the match, everyone gathered around me, laughing and celebrating. The coach was giving me a thumbs up, Lin Xingran was screaming in the stands, and Lin Ying was clapping. Logically, I should have been smiling at that moment. But I couldn't smile."

Her voice trailed off. The carriage was quiet for a few seconds, broken only by the low whirring of the air conditioning vents and the distant calls of the breakfast stall owner.

Then her voice rang out again, softer than before.

"Later, I went alone to the empty stairwell behind the training hall, sat on the ground, buried my head between my knees, and cried for a long time."

"I really thought about giving up back then, and wanted to go somewhere where no one knew me and hide for a while. But when I woke up the next day, I still had to stand at the front of the line, still had to smile at everyone, and still be Lin Yumin who could do anything."

Her tears finally fell; she probably didn't even realize she had started crying.

The first hot tear fell onto the back of her hand holding the mango pomelo sago dessert, and then the second slid down her cheek, dripping onto her dark blue trousers on her knee, leaving a small dark dot.

She raised her hand to touch her wet cheeks, then looked down at the watermarks on her fingers, her expression somewhat blank.

Ye Yang looked at her and remained silent for a few seconds. Then, without saying anything, he reached into the storage box, took out a pack of tissues, and handed it to her.

Lin Yumin took the tissue and gently pressed it to the corner of her eye. The tissue quickly became damp in a small area.

She kept her head down, and the fingers of the hand holding the tissue were trembling slightly.

Am I really that bad?

Ye Yang looked at her calmly. Then he leaned back in his seat, rested his arm on the steering wheel, and tapped his fingertips lightly twice.

"I don't think so. Everyone has their own troubles, don't they? We can't truly empathize with everyone."

"Those who live in the spotlight yearn to hide in the darkness, while those who are in the darkness yearn to stand in the spotlight. Each of them has their own inner troubles."

He took his hands off the steering wheel, turned to look at Lin Yumin, and lowered his voice.

"I know this is a huge blow to you, sister. Being betrayed by someone you trusted, being stabbed in the back, that's a very painful feeling."

"But that's life, isn't it? We all eventually have to slowly get back up and keep moving forward. You don't have to keep going through the pain. You can cry, you can cry out in pain, you can stop and rest. The road will get smoother, and the scenery ahead will get better and better. Let's all be well together."

Lin Yumin looked up at him with red eyes and wet tears still clinging to her eyelashes.

She gently pressed a tissue to the corner of her eye, then clenched the tissue in her hand, sniffed softly, and nodded.

Ye Yang picked up his mango pomelo sago dessert from the armrest box, took a big sip, and mumbled:

"Hurry up and drink it—if Lin Xingran catches up and sees you holding mango pomelo sago, she'll definitely be angry that we didn't bring her along to buy it."

"You know her temper. She can nag us all day long, and she might even pick out all the food from our cups and eat it herself."

Lin Yumin looked down at the half-finished mango pomelo sago in her hand, then at Ye Yang. She put the straw back in her mouth and took a small sip.

Ye Yang started the car again. The car slowly pulled away from the roadside and onto the main road leading out of the city. In the rearview mirror, a familiar red figure finally appeared in the distance.

Lin Xingran's supercar was turning from the street corner, its headlights flashing twice, probably saying, "Why didn't you wait for me?"

Ye Yang smiled at the rearview mirror, then stepped on the gas, and the SUV steadily drove forward into the morning sunlight.