【This book is purely fictional; any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental!】
Brain storage place~ Kids, come and catch some lucky koi luck!……
“Ye Li, I’m telling you! This is just to inform you, not to ask for your consent!” Ye Jianguo shouted angrily, his face red, and forcefully kicked the door in front of him.
“Old Ye, don’t yell at Li Li! She’s your sister, she’ll definitely give in to Zhi Zhi,” Liu Hongmei said while holding Ye Zhirou, seemingly trying to mediate but actually fanning the flames.
“Hmph, that damn girl.” Ye Jianguo cursed again in anger, then turned to sit down and looked at Ye Zhirou, his expression softening: “Zhi Zhi, don’t worry! Dad will definitely side with you.”
Inside the room, Ye Li stared blankly at the familiar yet unfamiliar furnishings, ignoring the shouting and scolding outside. This… isn’t this her room before she turned twenty? She tightly closed her eyes, then slowly opened them again, her gaze landing on the calendar on the desk by the window.
1975, August 15th, Mid-Autumn Festival!
After a while, Ye Li covered her face and laughed, tears streaming through her fingers. Heaven has eyes—she has actually been reborn! She casually wiped away her tears, a flash of bone-deep hatred in her eyes.
In her previous life, just half a month after her mother passed away, her father Ye Jianguo brought Liu Hongmei and her three children into their home. Liu Hongmei even happily changed her children’s surnames to Ye. With a stepmother came a stepfather! From then on, she never had a single good day.
What shocked her even more was that Liu Hongmei’s son, Ye Zhilei, only five years younger than her, was actually her father’s biological child. Before her mother passed away, Ye Jianguo had already been entangled with Liu Hongmei.
Before her mother died, she was friends with the daughter-in-law of the steel mill director and had helped her arrange a marriage with Jiang Bowen, the director’s son.
On this very day in her previous life, all this commotion was because her beloved stepsister had her eyes on her fiancé. Later…
Ye Li clenched her fists, her fingertips piercing her palms but feeling nothing. When she refused, her own father personally helped send her down to the countryside. And the place she was sent to was precisely the hometown of Liu Hongmei’s distant relatives.
Liu Hongmei bribed the local hooligan Liu Gousheng to destroy her purity and, using public opinion, forcibly married her. She was hastily sent to the countryside and schemed against, spending ten bitter years there. During those ten years, Liu Gousheng beat and scolded her constantly, never treating her as human.
After enduring countless hardships, she finally returned to Haishi, only to be falsely labeled mentally ill by her father, Liu Hongmei, and Ye Zhirou, and forcibly sent to a mental hospital.
The East City Mental Hospital was a hellish place. The director, doctors, and nurses enjoyed abusing and beating patients. Her final sight before dying was her fiancé, Duan Jiamu, whom Ye Zhirou looked down on.
Hatred surged in Ye Li’s heart, her eyes bloodshot as she stared intently at the door. The people outside were her mortal enemies. Since she has a second chance at life, she will take revenge.
Thinking of this, Ye Li’s mind moved. Surely now Ye Zhirou wouldn’t expect that the crippled fiancé she despised would rise to a high position in the future, becoming someone she would look up to. Since she wants to swap fiancés, she will let her. Jiang Bowen, who always flirted with Ye Zhirou, must have already been involved with her. Disgusting scumbag—she has no interest.
But now, there is one important thing to do.
Ye Li got out of bed and tidied her slightly messy hair. She suddenly opened the door and faced Ye Jianguo’s furious gaze. Seeing Ye Li step out, he slammed the table so hard that the teacup jumped, pointing at her as he scolded: “You damn girl! Getting married is just wearing clothes and eating food. You’re being picky! If you keep being stubborn, I’ll beat you to death!”
Ye Li looked at her father with a sarcastic, half-smile, her heart ice-cold: “Since getting married is just getting married, then let Ye Zhirou marry my fiancé.”
“You…!” Ye Jianguo got up from the stool and raised his hand to slap Ye Li, but she nimbly dodged and ran out like a flash.
Once outside, she slapped herself, quickly ruffling her hair. “Dad, I beg you, don’t hit me! Zhi Zhi likes Jiang Bowen and wants to marry him, I’ll give him to her, please don’t hit me!” she shouted, running down the street, tears streaming. Soon, a crowd gathered around.
“Hey, Li Li, what’s wrong?” Aunt Zhou from the alley, seeing Ye Li covering her face and running out tearfully, hurriedly asked. She had been close with Ye Li’s late mother and always liked Ye Li, such a sensible girl.
Ye Li let go, showing the clear slap mark on her face, looking pitiful: “Aunt Zhou, Zhi Zhi despises her fiancé because he’s crippled and wants to swap fiancés with me. I don’t want to, and my dad hits me because of it.”
She was naturally fair-skinned, and the slap mark on her face was shocking.
“What? Ye Jianguo must be out of his mind! Swapping fiancés between daughters—what a ridiculous thing to do.” Aunt Zhou looked at Ye Li with concern, muttering curses.
“Exactly. As the saying goes, with a stepmother comes a stepfather! Ye Jianguo really doesn’t treat his own daughter as a person, only protecting the children he brought from outside.”
Next door, Li Chunyan came out, munching on sunflower seeds. She had clearly heard everything from inside the house—how the whole family was forcing Li Li to swap fiancés. Ye Jianguo really loved playing the cheap father.
“Hahaha… I bet those two kids Liu Hongmei brought are actually Ye Jianguo’s own. Otherwise, what man wouldn’t protect his own children?”
“Brother Chen, what you said makes a lot of sense. It’s only been half a month since Li Li’s mom passed away, and Ye Jianguo already brought Liu Hongmei and her three children into the house. From what I see, those two have been involved for a long time.”
Ye Jianguo, Liu Hongmei, and Ye Zhirou chased outside. Seeing the scene, their faces changed.
People around immediately started gossiping, with many criticizing Ye Jianguo for being unfair. How could a father force his eldest daughter to give her fiancé to his younger daughter?
Ye Zhirou’s face flushed red with both embarrassment and anger. She wanted to argue back but didn’t know where to start.
Liu Hongmei inwardly panicked, wiping her tears and whining: “Li Li, your dad only said a few words. How can you ruin Zhi Zhi’s reputation like this? I know being a stepmother is hard, but since I came to the Ye family, I’ve always treated you as my own daughter.”
Her own daughter? Ye Li sneered coldly in her heart. She tugged at her washed-out white coat and glanced at Ye Zhirou’s brand-new cashmere coat. Liu Hongmei was the best at putting on a show in public—sweet and gentle in front of people, but sharp and cruel behind closed doors. Ye Li realized how many times she had suffered in silence under her hands before. It was as if she thought only she could act pitiful in this world.
Thinking this, Ye Li pretended to shrink back, hiding behind Aunt Zhou, and cautiously said, “Aunt Liu, I… I didn’t do it on purpose. My dad hit me, and I got scared and accidentally let it slip.”