Wang Jianye hadn’t even sat down yet when he saw that more than half the dishes on the table had already been eaten. He was just about to explode when Zhao Meihua shot him a glare from the side, forcing him to sit down in anger.
Seeing the whole Zhao family finally gather around the table, Han Ying sighed inwardly—what a pity. If they had come even a few minutes later, she could have finished the entire table by herself.
“Mom, can you buy me a tablet? All my classmates have one. Yesterday, Zhao Song and the others even bragged about it right in front of me. They said our family is so poor we can’t even afford a tablet, and that they won’t hang out with me anymore!”
Here we go, Han Ying thought.
The moment he sat down, Wang Mingliang noticed that the dishes were almost gone. Although unhappy, he didn’t forget why his mom had insisted on calling Han Ying home for dinner today.
He put on a pitiful face, speaking to Zhao Meihua, but his eyes kept darting toward Han Ying—hoping to see her reaction.
Unfortunately for him, all Han Ying saw in front of her were ribs, chicken wings, and braised shrimp. She didn’t spare the boy a single thought.
“Buy what? Tablets are expensive. Xiaoying, I remember yours cost seven or eight thousand, right? How could our family afford that?” Zhao Meihua nudged Han Ying with her elbow.
“Eight thousand five. There are cheaper ones though—hundreds of yuan,” Han Ying replied, unable to pretend she didn’t hear after being poked.
“I don’t want some cheap brand! How will Zhao Song and the others look at me? I can’t afford to lose face! I want one like Cousin’s—I want that one!”
Hearing that, Wang Mingliang threw down his chopsticks, knocking a large prawn off the plate and straight into the trash bin.
Seeing that prawn fall into the trash, Han Ying silently mourned it. If the person flicking food away weren’t this family, she would have picked it up and eaten it herself.
Picking food out of the trash was nothing. After the apocalypse, even trash wasn’t available to eat.
She wondered—when Wang Mingliang starved after the apocalypse, would he remember this prawn he tossed away today?
“Eight thousand five! You say that so casually—how could we afford it?”
“We’re not rich like Cousin. Mom should just buy you a cheap one. If people laugh, then so be it. Our family conditions are like this. Right, Cousin?”
Wang Shiqi, a senior in high school, was always jealous of Han Ying—her looks, her figure, even though her parents were dead, they had left her a sizable inheritance. She didn’t know how much, but her mother often said that both her uncle and aunt were artists—one a painter, the other a dancer—surely they earned a lot. Millions, probably.
More than once, she had seen Han Ying dancing beautifully in her room. She secretly recorded it and tried copying at home, but her limbs couldn’t coordinate at all.
“A few months ago I bought you a tablet for more than five thousand, didn’t I? Since you’re taking the entrance exam next year, you should focus on studying. Let your brother use yours for now.”
Han Ying burped contentedly, then put down her chopsticks, smiling as she said, “Just focus this year. When you get into a good university, Uncle will definitely buy you one even better than mine. After all, didn’t his salary increase? He even got a big bonus too!”
At that, Zhao Meihua paused, turning to look at her husband suspiciously. When had he gotten a raise? A bonus? Why didn’t she know? And how did Han Ying know?
“What nonsense are you talking about? When did I get a raise? What bonus?”Wang Jianye froze, then saw the suspicion in his wife’s eyes and snapped at Han Ying loudly.
“Yesterday was Saturday. I went out with my classmates. At the lobby of Sanxin Hotel, I heard Uncle mention it while he and a female coworker were checking in. I didn’t go over because I figured you were busy with work.”
Han Ying scratched her head innocently, then lowered her voice just enough for everyone to hear, sounding uncertain:
“Did I mistake someone? But… it really looked like Uncle. How could I mistake him?”
The moment she mentioned Sanxin Hotel and checking in, Wang Jianye’s brain exploded. He raised his hand, ready to slap her to shut her up—
But when he saw Zhao Meihua’s eyes turning red with fury, her whole body trembling, he froze.
She was about to erupt.
In truth, Han Ying hadn’t gone anywhere yesterday—she had been studying her spatial ability in her rental. The information came from her previous life, from the moment Wang Jianye’s mistress confronted her. She didn’t know the exact time or whether the woman was really a coworker—but the affair was real and Zhao Meihua would find out soon enough.
She didn’t need to do anything more.
The food was gone, the fire was lit.
Her stomach was full, and she did not want to stay another second with these people. She wiped her mouth, dragged her suitcases to the door, and left. No one tried to stop her—they no longer cared. The tablet dispute no longer mattered.
After closing the security door, she turned for one last look.
If the neighborhood hadn’t been in a low-lying area and her apartment only on the fifth floor, she would never have chosen to leave.
What she didn’t know was that the moment she stepped into the elevator, the household had already erupted into war.
Seeing her husband’s guilty expression, Zhao Meihua could no longer suppress her rage. She lunged at him, scratching his face bloody.
Wang Jianye kept shouting that Han Ying was lying, stirring up trouble! He really had gone on a business trip yesterday—he never went to any hotel!
But Zhao Meihua refused to listen. She snatched his phone and began checking. That was when she discovered —he had a private folder hidden on his phone.
When she threatened divorce, he finally unlocked it.
Inside were chats with that vixen so explicit they made her blush with fury. There were also photos and videos of the two of them in hotels—stomach-turning evidence.
Enraged beyond reason, she grabbed the kitchen cleaver, ready to chop off the “root of the problem.”
Meanwhile, Wang Shiqi and Wang Mingliang acted like they couldn’t even see their parents fighting to the death. The siblings were in Wang Shiqi’s room, fighting over the tablet Han Ying had bought for her before. They even came to blows.
Han Ying didn’t see any of this, but she could easily imagine it.
After living through the apocalypse once, she knew exactly what kind of trash each member of that family was.
Han Ying’s parents died when she had just turned eighteen. She used to resent them, blaming them for leaving her alone while they went mountaineering for their own enjoyment—only to be buried alive in a snowstorm.
As for her “aunt” Zhao Meihua—they didn’t even share a surname. She was the daughter that Grandpa’s second wife brought with her after Han Ying’s grandmother passed away.