Chapter 14: Memories of Ye’s Mother

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“If none of you likes me, why are you so unwilling to sever ties with me?” Ye Siran asked with a frown after seeing her mother lose control and even spit out the word “bastard.”

“If we cut ties with you, who’s going to cook for us? You can’t marry Hongwen anymore, so what do you have to be arrogant about? I’m hungry. Hurry up and make dinner.”

Ye Weiguo pointed at Ye Siran rudely, speaking with obvious impatience.

“You say I’m arrogant? Ask yourself honestly—haven’t I treated you well enough from childhood until now?” Ye Siran asked in disbelief.

“I’m your younger brother. Isn’t it only right that you treat me well? What, do you expect me to be grateful to you?”

Ye Siran gave Ye Weiguo a long, searching look. She had raised this younger brother from the day he was born, tending to his every need.

And in his eyes, she was an arrogant and overbearing person?

When had she ever been arrogant?

After he grew up, he often drank, stayed out late, and played cards with his worthless friends. By the time he was thirty, he had ruined his health.

She had prepared medicinal meals to nurse him back to health. Some of those dishes required at least two hours just to boil the herbs, and the preparation itself was extraordinarily complicated.

In her previous life, she had taught herself traditional Chinese medicine for a long time in order to learn how to make medicinal cuisine. Yet Ye Weiguo had always favored Ye Ruyue.

Looking at her younger brother, now healthy and pleasantly plump, Ye Siran no longer felt like arguing.

She glanced at her stepfather, then at her mother, who was still sprawled on the floor, and said expressionlessly, “Dad, I’m tired. I’m going back to my room to rest for a while. You can all discuss among yourselves whether you need my help.”

After catching her husband’s warning look, Ye Siran’s mother sobbed, “Ranran, you’re the flesh that fell from my body. How could your mother possibly not love you?”

“Good girl, Ranran. Hurry and make dinner. Your brother is waiting to eat before going to school, and your father and I still have to go to work.”

Ye Siran turned back to look at her own mother, who was still lying on the floor and gazing at her pitifully, as though the person who had just struck her had not been her at all.

If she had not lived through a previous lifetime, Ye Siran would certainly have been won over by that pitiful expression and would probably have blamed herself terribly.

Her mother was truly formidable. In her previous life, she had been manipulated into ruin by all kinds of emotional abuse from that woman.

Ye Siran had always thought her mother was pitiful and that she needed to do more, and do it better, so that her mother could hold her head high.

It was only at the moment she was angered to death that she finally realized, too late, how much her mother hated her. That vicious look in her eyes still haunted Ye Siran even after her rebirth.

In her previous life, Ye Siran had been the one to marry He Hongwen, so Ye Ruyue had never had anything to do with him. That was why she had never realized just how horrifyingly biased her mother could be.

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She had already exercised considerable restraint. She merely wanted to let go and stop concerning herself with them; she had not tried to retaliate or bring them down.

More precisely, although Ye Siran hated He Hongwen and Ye Ruyue, she hated her own weakness even more.

Ye Ruyue had dared to move into her home with her son and arrogantly turn her household upside down.

Wasn’t that only because Ye Siran herself had granted her such power? No excuses were necessary. A sycophant was destined to live a life of humiliation.

All the sorrow in her life had nothing to do with anyone else. It had come from her own blindness—from being so pure and stubborn in matters of both family and love.

As expected, people blinded by love truly had no eyes. What, exactly, had He Hongwen ever possessed that was worthy of her affection?

And what had Ye Ruyue, that insincere little hypocrite, ever done to deserve her gratitude?

What, exactly, about her own mother had been worthy of her sympathy?

And what had her pretentious, sanctimonious stepfather ever done to deserve her respect?

“I already ate outside with Uncle He. I’m not cooking today, and I won’t be cooking from now on either. If you want to eat, make something yourselves.”

“Waaah, waaah… Dad, Mom, I’m hungry! I want food!”

When Ye Weiguo realized that Ye Siran truly was not going to cook, he dropped onto the floor and began wailing.

His mother had made that horribly disgusting breakfast. He absolutely did not want to eat a second meal like it.

“Ye Siran, were you only good to us because of Brother Hongwen?” Ye Ruyue, who had remained silent until then, suddenly shouted furiously.

“What do you mean?” Ye Siran asked, puzzled. What did her refusal to cook have to do with that bastard He Hongwen?

“Back when you and Brother Hongwen were engaged, you cooked for us on time every day. Now that you can’t marry him, you’ve immediately stopped cooking?”

“So you’ve decided to ruin everything just because you’ve lost hope! Second Sister, someone like you deserves to be disliked by Brother Hongwen.”

“Sister, why didn’t you and Brother Hongwen get your marriage certificate this morning? Uncle He said that as long as I was willing—”

Before Ye Siran could finish, Ye Ruyue cut her off sharply. “So it was you scheming behind the scenes? Dad, Mom, wasn’t she asking to sever ties with us? What are you hesitating for? Hurry up and write it! I must marry Brother Hongwen.”

Ye Ruyue shouted anxiously. Until yesterday, she had thought He Hongwen was far beyond her reach and that she could never marry him.

Now she was only one marriage certificate away from becoming his wife. How could she possibly give up?

“You ungrateful wretch want to sever ties with us? Keep dreaming. I will never—” Ye Siran’s mother said with a twisted expression, but Ye Ruyue interrupted her with a tearful whine.

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“Mom, do you not love me anymore? If you hurry and write the severance agreement, then I’ll be your real daughter from now on. I’ll take good care of you and be filial to you.”

As she spoke, Ye Ruyue stepped forward to help Ye Siran’s mother up. Looking at the daughter of the man she loved, Song Chunhua was torn beyond words.

More than twenty years earlier, she had been living in a village beside a military base in a small county town. Driven into a corner by her elder brother and sister-in-law, she had been on the verge of throwing herself into a river.

By sheer coincidence, someone had rescued her. When she learned that he was from the capital, she decided to cling to him.

But the man already had a fiancée, who was said to be the most beautiful woman in the military arts troupe.

He would rather die than abandon his fiancée, so Song Chunhua’s mother had thrown tantrums and spread rumors everywhere, claiming that her daughter was pregnant.

She went around saying that the man had seduced and abandoned her daughter, gotten her pregnant, and then refused to give up his well-connected fiancée.

The man was not even afraid of death, yet for some reason he was intimidated by Song Chunhua’s mother and actually agreed to marry her.

He imposed only one condition: he would not consummate the marriage, but he guaranteed that he would hand over his entire salary after they wed.

Her mother wanted nothing but money. At that time, Song Chunhua herself understood nothing and wanted only a life of peace, so she agreed without hesitation.

After the wedding, she continued living at her parents’ home. But because she received his salary every month, her brother and sister-in-law no longer dared force her to work.

Eight months later, the man suddenly appeared at her home and said he wanted to take her away to live with him.

Only after she went with him did she learn why he had agreed to marry her. He and his fiancée had secretly consummated their relationship, and she had genuinely become pregnant.

If Song Chunhua’s mother made a scene, his fiancée’s reputation would be ruined and she would face severe punishment. For the sake of his fiancée, he was willing to sacrifice himself.

Eight months into the marriage, Song Chunhua became a mother without ever suffering through pregnancy, but the child was not brought to her. Instead, the baby was sent back to the Ye family in the capital to be raised by his grandparents.

That daughter then vanished from her life as well, and Song Chunhua spent three carefree years with the man.

He kept his word. He was often away on assignments, and even when he occasionally returned home, he would rather sleep on the floor than share a room with her.

Later, she wanted to have a child, so she drugged her former husband with something for which there was no antidote. Unexpectedly, he ran away. Ten months later, he returned carrying a baby girl.

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