It was at this moment that Wang Yue came in.
Ye Hong had finished cooking and brought the dishes out, calling Wang Hui to come eat.
Ye Qingyang walked straight to the table without waiting to be invited and picked a favorable seat.
Ye Hong snapped, “You still have the nerve to eat? Get out!”
Ye Qingyang didn’t budge. “I’m part of this family too.”
“You little thief!”
“I didn’t steal! I left a note for my sister!”
“What did your note say?” Ye Hong’s anger flared. “I was so hungry, and I thought you’d let me have these snacks. Thank you.”
Ye Hong scoffed. “Your sister would never let you eat them.”
“But I was hungry,” Ye Qingyang said with a pitiful tone. “Aunt, you never let me eat, you don’t give me money, and I’m still a minor. No one will hire me to work outside, so I have to sneak my sister’s snacks just to survive. I don’t want to do it.”
He put on the full act, even adding a quivering voice. “I’m your only nephew! How can your conscience allow this? I don’t get enough food, can’t sleep well, can’t keep warm. Aunt, how can you treat me like this?”
“Bah!” Ye Hong snapped. “Ye Qingyang, I tell you, if I hadn’t taken you in out of kindness, who knows where you’d be right now! If it weren’t for the fact that you’re my nephew, I would’ve kicked you out a long time ago!”
“But this is my home,” Ye Qingyang said sadly. “Aunt, didn’t you move in to take better care of me?”
Ye Hong sneered. “Who says this is your home? This is my home now. This house is Wang, not Ye. And don’t I take care of you enough already? You’re living here, aren’t you? You’re way better off than a kid left on the street with no one to care for them.”
“That doesn’t mean you can hit me, scold me, and starve me every day!”
“That’s what you deserve! You’re born shameless—taking eggs and ham today, stealing your sister’s snacks tomorrow. How can you be so brazen? How could my brother father such a thief? I almost want to hit you again!”
Ye Hong slammed one hand on the table and reached across to strike him.
Ye Qingyang lazily leaned back, avoiding her short reach, and quietly turned off the recording on his phone.
OK—Ye Hong’s testimony was ready.
Wang Hui was pregnant, Ye Hong was a woman, and both were his aunt and sister in this family—the socially “protected” ones.
And now, he had recorded proof of everything they had done to him.
Anyone who tried to defend them? He had the recording. Case closed.
After all, he was still a student, a bullied, orphaned minor.
Everything was set—human witnesses, physical evidence, and now the recording. Ye Hong’s family wouldn’t be able to turn things around for the rest of their lives.
Ye Qingyang stopped pretending to be pitiful and smiled. “Enough with the hitting, Aunt. Let’s eat.”
Wang Yue, sitting nearby, spoke up: “Alright, Xiao Hong, go get Xiao Hui to eat. Yangyang hasn’t eaten properly in days—let him have a meal.”
“He’ll wash the dishes later,” Ye Hong said smugly, chin lifted.
Ye Qingyang nodded calmly. “Fine.”
Ye Hong, satisfied like a triumphant hen, strutted over to Wang Hui’s room.
Wang Hui, seeing her, remembered the morning’s scolding and the evening’s fall. She shouted without holding back.
Seeing Wang Hui pregnant, Ye Hong softened, coaxing her gently.
Ye Qingyang listened to their back-and-forth, finding the rice on his plate even tastier.
Finally, Wang Hui came out. Four people at the table. Ye Hong barely touched her food before remembering something. She paused mid-bite and asked, “Has anyone seen my earring recently? I lost one.”
Ye Qingyang lowered his head to eat.
Wang Hui ignored him.
Only Wang Yue answered: “No. Didn’t you keep it yourself? How could it go missing?”
“How should I know?” Ye Hong looked at Ye Qingyang. “Ye Qingyang, did you take it?”
Ye Qingyang looked stunned. “I don’t even remember what your earring looks like.”
Ye Hong, seeing him usually silent and gloomy but now candidly confessing to other small things, decided not to suspect him further.
She turned to Wang Hui. “Huihui, did you see it?”
Wang Hui slammed her bowl down. “What are you implying? That I stole your earring? Do I need to? You’re so careless, probably just lost it somewhere yourself. How dare you accuse me?”
A daughter snapping at her mother—disrespectful, but Ye Qingyang liked it.
Ye Hong, losing face in front of the family, frowned. “How can you talk to me like that? I’m just asking a question!”
“You can. Or do you want to ask my son too? See if he took it and hid it in my belly?” Wang Hui gestured at her stomach.
Ye Qingyang almost laughed. Dog bites dog—keep tearing at each other!
Ye Hong clearly couldn’t fight back against Wang Hui’s pregnancy advantage, so she relented, trying to recall if she had lost the earring somewhere.
Little did she know, under her own instructions, Ye Qingyang had already swept it into his pocket and exchanged it for money.
After dinner, Ye Qingyang washed the dishes.
Ye Hong stood at the doorway supervising. “Wash properly. Clean them well.”
Ye Qingyang rinsed a bowl under the faucet and squeezed in some detergent.
“Use less!” Ye Hong called. “Don’t—”
Before she finished, “crash!” A bowl slipped from his hands and shattered on the floor, pieces flying everywhere.
Ye Qingyang looked at the shards, then at Ye Hong. “Aunt, don’t shout so suddenly—you’ll scare people. See? You just hit me.”
Ye Hong: …
She took a deep breath. “You did that on purpose.”
Ye Qingyang feigned indignation. “Then I won’t wash. You do it.”
“Wash properly while I watch!” Ye Hong came closer.
Ye Qingyang reluctantly picked up another bowl. Ye Hong swept the broken pieces into the trash.
But just as she finished, “crash!” Another bowl slipped from Ye Qingyang’s hands.
Ye Hong: …
Clenching her teeth, she seethed.
Tears in his eyes, Ye Qingyang said, “Aunt, you don’t know. I hurt my wrist today but didn’t tell you because I was afraid you’d worry. I can’t hold the bowls properly, that’s why I keep dropping them. I know you care about me and the bowls—why not wash them yourself?”
He extended his arm, showing the bandaged wrist. “See?”
Ye Hong was furious. “I don’t believe your nonsense!”
“It’s true!”
She raised the broom to strike, and Ye Qingyang dodged, accidentally toppling the stacked plates.
Crash! White porcelain shards flew and fell, creating a chaotic, beautiful scene.
Ye Hong nearly blacked out from anger.
Hearing the noise, Wang Yue ran in. Seeing Ye Hong chasing Ye Qingyang, he intervened: “Enough, Xiao Hong. If you break more things, you’ll get mad again.”
“But look at what he’s doing!” Ye Hong felt wronged, tears nearly spilling. “All these bowls and plates are broken—he did this on purpose!”
Ye Qingyang denied it. “I didn’t. At first, I couldn’t hold the bowls. Then, when you tried to hit me and I dodged, it happened accidentally. I didn’t mean it.”
“You did it on purpose! You’re so annoying! Are you trying to make me furious?”
Well… she was right about that.
“I didn’t.” Ye Qingyang continued feigning innocence.
Wang Yue glanced at him, dissatisfied. “Alright, go back. You’ve been impossible the last couple days. Your aunt is strict, but it’s for your own good. You should understand her intentions and be grateful.”
Ye Qingyang nearly laughed out loud. What a joke—he wasn’t even living in their house, technically.
Disgusting.
He ignored him, washed his hands in the bathroom, and sat on the sofa eating an orange.
Wang Yue frowned, deciding to comfort his wife first.
But no amount of comfort could outweigh the mess of broken bowls in the kitchen. Ye Hong wiped her tears and began cleaning.
The more she cleaned, the worse she felt, wishing she could tear Ye Qingyang apart.
How did she end up with such a troublesome child? Her brother and sister-in-law were gone—why didn’t they take this kid too? Leaving him behind was just bullying!
Tears flowed again.
Wang Yue, seeing himself as head of the household, tried to maintain composure.
He sat beside Ye Qingyang, watching him eat the orange, and lectured: “Don’t always talk back to your aunt. She works hard for this family. You need to be sensible.”
“Okay.” Ye Qingyang replied.
“I know kids your age can be rebellious, but you don’t have the privilege to be, so behave. Don’t always make your aunt angry.”
“Okay.”
“And your grades are terrible. If you don’t improve and fail the college entrance exam, you’ll have to work. By then, you’ll be an adult, and your aunt and I won’t cover your tuition or living expenses anymore.”
Ye Qingyang looked at him. “Uncle, I remember my tuition is fully waived by the school.”
After his parents died, Ye Hong had begged the school for Ye Qingyang’s tuition, saying how pitiful he was, an orphan with no money. The kind-hearted school leaders waived the tuition, letting him continue attending.
Wang Yue frowned. “That was your aunt’s hard work. You should be grateful to her.”
Inwardly, Ye Qingyang cursed. The original boy’s fragile, sensitive psyche—forcing him to beg teachers about his dead parents and lack of money—no wonder he was gloomy and insecure.
All their fault.
“Uncle, speaking of living expenses… could you give me some? You haven’t this month.” Ye Qingyang changed the subject.
“You’re a student. What living expenses do you need?”
“Students need to eat and drink, don’t they? No breakfast at home, no one makes lunch, sometimes even dinner is missed. I’m still growing—starving every day.”
Seeing Wang Yue frown, he continued, “Yesterday, I was so hungry, I ate leftover food from our class monitor. The monitor asked why, and I had to explain that you and Aunt didn’t feed me. Then he asked why I lived with my uncle and aunt, so I told him about home.”
“Don’t know why, but the class monitor looked at me strangely, like I was pitiful. He even said if I’m still like this in a few days, he’d tell the head teacher and his parents. Uncle, you don’t understand, in our second year, the class monitor’s parents are impressive—a cop and a lawyer, all respectable careers.”
Wang Yue: …
“Don’t casually tell others about home,” Wang Yue admonished. “There are rich kids at school. Our family’s poor; if others hear, they’ll just laugh at you.”
“I don’t care. Being poor isn’t my fault. When my parents were alive, we were a middle-class family, right, Uncle?”
“But now your parents are dead.”
Ye Qingyang smiled slightly, eyes curved, half-smiling, half-serious, like spring blossoms. “Some who are dead are still alive; some alive are already dead.”
Wang Yue: …
Ye Qingyang calmly finished the last piece of orange. “We learned this in Chinese class—pretty reasonable, right?”
Wang Yue felt he was speaking in riddles, yet Ye Qingyang looked innocent, as if just reflecting on how his parents lived on in his heart.
Wang Yue looked at his delicate, harmless-looking face and found him irritating.
Wang Yue stood to leave, but Ye Qingyang grabbed his sleeve. “Uncle, you haven’t given me my living expenses. If not, tomorrow I’ll have to eat leftover food at the class monitor’s place again.”
Wang Yue didn’t care about him eating leftovers, but he didn’t want family matters spread recklessly.
Ye Qingyang’s parents were dead. An orphan, what could he do? He survived only thanks to their care.
They had already been very good to him.
He pulled out two hundred yuan. “Here. Spend less on others’ meals and talking.”
“But 200 isn’t enough.” Ye Qingyang took it. “200 won’t last a month.”
“Can’t you save?”
Ye Qingyang sighed. “Uncle, you know prices. One portion of porridge at a stall is 2 yuan; a bowl of cold noodles is 6. Even if I’m frugal, 200 won’t last a month. I’ll still need to mooch meals.”
Wang Yue angrily added another hundred. “Now it’s enough. If it’s still not, you’re just spending recklessly.”
Three hundred yuan—for breakfast and lunch, sometimes dinner too—and he calls that reckless?
Ye Qingyang didn’t even bother mocking him.
Wang Yue strode into his bedroom.
Sitting on the bed, he suddenly realized—wait, wasn’t he supposed to lecture Ye Qingyang and demand apologies to Ye Hong and himself?
How did it end with him handing Ye Qingyang 300 yuan?
What kind of logic is this?
Wang Yue finally understood—he had tried to discipline him but ended up losing money. Trying to grab the chicken, he had ended up with rice in his pocket. Ye Qingyang had come out ahead.
But it was too late. Ye Qingyang had already pocketed the money, stretched, drank some water, and gone to lie down on the balcony.