“Big Sister, don’t walk so fast!”
Chen Siyin ignored her sister and pushed open the basement storage room door.
A faint musty smell drifted into her nose.
“What the hell is this smell? Is this a place people can even stay in?”
Chen Qingya was a high-profile celebrity. How could she step into such a filthy place? She immediately retreated.
“Big Sister, how can anyone live here? It smells so strange I feel like throwing up. You take your time searching. I’m leaving first!”
The fifth sister, Chen Mushi, also frowned.
She was a doctor, graduated from a prestigious university, and had become the chief surgeon at her hospital after only 2 years of work. In recent days, she had been performing surgeries one after another and had no time to come home to accompany her parents and younger brother Chen Zixuan.
This time, hearing that they were going to seek justice for Zixuan and look for evidence against Chen Zimo, she had followed along.
She did not expect the storage room to smell so bad.
She had always had an innate obsession with cleanliness, which was one reason she had resolved to become a doctor since childhood.
It was also because Chen Zimo often went out to work part-time, coming back smelling unpleasant and trying to get close to her, that she felt strong disgust toward him.
Faced with the stench-filled basement and the task of finding evidence for Zixuan, Chen Mushi chose to follow Chen Qingya back to her room.
However, the fourth sister, Chen Shuting, stayed.
She was a lawyer.
Although she had not handled many cases over the years, she had seen dead bodies many times. What was this little bit of smell to her?
Besides, collecting evidence was something she was the most professional at in this family.
But as soon as Chen Siyin and Chen Shuting stepped inside, they froze.
The room was far too shabby.
It was relatively clean, but there was only a small bed less than 1 meter wide, a table propped up with bricks, and a simple canvas wardrobe.
Seeing that her younger brother Chen Zimo had been sleeping in such an environment every day, Chen Siyin’s tears nearly burst out.
Guilt deepened in her heart.
“Zimo, I will definitely bring you back and make up for everything I owe you.”
Chen Shuting’s expression was also unpleasant.
Although she had cut off ties with Chen Zimo because of that incident and even written a letter severing their relationship, this place… how could it be a place for a person to live?
And it was so crude.
Even an orphanage probably would not be this harsh.
Yet this was happening in the Chen family, a household worth over 10 billion yuan.
In her eyes, that desk built from bricks was like a slap in the face of the Chen family.
And that canvas wardrobe, with a large stain that could not be washed off, clearly looked like something someone had thrown away and Chen Zimo had picked up like a treasure.
The only thing the family had provided him was this narrow folding bed. Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
She could not help but wonder if the Chen family was going bankrupt.
How could a mansion worth over 100 million yuan contain such a place?
It was simply unimaginable.
Chen Siyin turned and asked, “Shuting, how long has it been since you came to Zimo’s room?”
“Why is his room so… shabby?”
She hesitated for a long time before saying the word “shabby.”
This was beyond shabby. A storage room was not meant for living at all.
Chen Shuting frowned. “Big Sister, to be honest, this is my first time here.”
“I didn’t know he has been sleeping in a place like this every day.”
After thinking for a moment, she continued, “If not for that incident… seeing this, I might even feel some sympathy for him.”
“Compared to him, Zixuan has indeed been raised far too well by our parents and us.”
After saying that, Chen Shuting opened the wardrobe. Inside were more than a dozen hangers in different colors and styles. She did not know where Chen Zimo had managed to gather so many mismatched hangers.
Yet there were only a few pieces of clothing.
Chen Siyin walked over. Aside from the red tracksuit, which looked relatively new, the rest were worn and shabby.
“Shuting, have you ever bought clothes for Zimo?”
Chen Shuting thought briefly and sighed. “I really haven’t bought him any clothes. What about you, Big Sister?”
Chen Siyin took out the red tracksuit, her voice choking. “Shuting, were we too unfair to him? Did we treat him too badly?”
“I remember this outfit. It was originally bought for Zixuan. He said it was a bit long, so I casually gave it to Chen Zimo.”
“I didn’t expect that the only time I, as the eldest sister, gave my biological younger brother clothes, it was second-hand.”
“I owe him too much.”
Hearing this, Chen Shuting frowned. “Big Sister, our family may have been somewhat harsh on him, but it’s just that we didn’t buy him clothes. There’s no need to think so deeply.”
“Besides, he never gave us gifts either. Why should we buy him clothes?”
“Given the wrong things he did, he didn’t deserve new clothes.”
“No, he shouldn’t have been brought back home at all.”
“Look at how chaotic things have become since he returned.”
“And if it weren’t for Zixuan needing a kidney transplant, I would never have looked for him.”
“Even if he comes back, I’ll still deal with him properly.”
After saying that, Chen Shuting glanced around, found nothing, and left.
Indeed, the room was too oppressive. Not only was it underground, but it also had no windows.
She felt suffocated after staying there for just a short while.
Chen Siyin paid no attention to her and instead looked at the photo frame on the table.
Inside were two photos combined together.
The first photo was taken 1 year ago during a family trip to the Maldives, a picture of the whole Chen family smiling together.
Originally, their parents had planned to take Chen Zimo on that trip as well. But on the day of departure, Chen Zimo had “made another mistake,” and Lin Jiangxue had left him at home. Find the original chapter at NovelPing.
The second photo showed Chen Zimo holding a small teddy bear.
Chen Siyin remembered that bear. It was a free souvenir from the trip. She had casually thrown it to him when she returned, and Chen Zimo had held it in his palms as if it were a precious treasure.
She recalled Director Zhang from Cixiang Welfare Institute saying, “With parents, he’s no longer drifting duckweed.”
Tears slid down instantly.
“Wuwu… How could I be this kind of person?”
“As family, we never gave Zimo even a little warmth.”
“Mom and Dad said that when Chen Zimo left, the wound on his head was still bleeding. He didn’t pack anything before leaving, as if he didn’t want to stay in this home for even a minute. How desperate must he have been to leave so resolutely without taking anything?”
“But even if he had packed, what would there have been to take?”
“Other than some broken things, what had the Chen family ever given him?”
“Nothing!”
“In the 2 years since he came home, he never even had a single family photo taken with us!”
“Zimo! I’m sorry! It’s Big Sister who failed you!”
Then Chen Siyin discovered a diary hidden beneath the pillow.
Snap!
When she opened the notebook, a bank card fell to the ground.
She picked it up, and her eyes reddened again.
She recognized this type of card. All the Chen family children used this card to receive their pocket money.
Turning it over, she saw the name “Chen Zimo” written on it.
The card looked brand new, without a single scratch.
“This… he never used this card?”
Chen Siyin was overwhelmed with sorrow.
This card, which deposited 300 yuan each month as pocket money, had never been used by Chen Zimo.
He left home without taking the bank card or the diary. How desperate must he have been toward this family?
“What exactly did he go through in this home? And what did he ever gain from it?”
Holding the diary, Chen Siyin cried for a long time before opening to the first page.
“Hahaha! I found Mom and Dad!”
“I even have 5 extremely beautiful sisters!”
“I especially like Big Sister. She’s my idol!”
“Starting today, I am the happiest person in the world!”
After reading just the first page, Chen Siyin did not dare to continue. With tears streaming down her face, she ran out…