From that point on, the most favored child in the Ye family became Ye Yingyao, treated no differently from the two boys.
Old Madam Ye firmly believed she was the Ye family’s lucky star and would not allow anyone to speak harshly to her. Seeing her like this today broke her heart.
With reddened eyes, Ye Yingyao said softly, “Grandma, I just feel it isn’t worth it for you all. Why can’t my older sister see how good you’ve been to her? She insists on causing trouble for the family before she’ll stop. I… I think it’s time for me to return to my biological parents. As long as I’m still here, my sister will definitely never come home.”
Hearing this, Ye Wenbin slammed his chopsticks down hard. “Then let her starve outside. Our Ye family doesn’t raise children with no manners. Beating her parents, talking back to her grandmother. I say her conscience has been eaten by dogs. If she wants to suffer outside, let her go. If she ever wants to come back to the Ye family, she’ll have to see whether I agree.”
Ye Wenbin was truly furious. Recently, several of his friends had already been investigated. That was why he had moved the whole family to this small courtyard where no one knew him.
Now it was ruined. There was no one in the neighborhood who did not know the name Ye Wenbin.
A whole family living in one large courtyard was already eye-catching, but that was the bottom line he could accept. This small house made him extremely uncomfortable.
Still, when he thought of the goods he had prepared to ship to Hong Kong, his mood eased. That was all his capital. Next month, he could leave with the ship.
Once the entire family emigrated to Hong Kong, they would no longer have to live in constant fear.
As for that unfilial daughter Ye Cai’e, if she were willing to come back and properly apologize, he might magnanimously accept her. After all, she carried his blood. But if she stubbornly refused, then he would not be blamed for being ruthless.
Ye Yingyao did not respond. She finished her meal as quickly as possible and, citing discomfort, hurried upstairs.
Her heart was racing. She was terrified that something might go wrong. While eating, she had deliberately kept her left hand under the table so no one could see it.
She had to make this space hers immediately. Only then could she truly relax.
The Ye family’s two-story Western-style house had five bedrooms and one storage room.
Upstairs were three rooms for Ye Yingyao and her two brothers. Downstairs, one room belonged to the old madam, and the larger one was for Ye Wenbin and his wife.
As for the storage room, that was naturally Ye Cai’e’s place.
When Ye Yingyao said she would give up her room to her, she was not lying. Originally, that storage room had been meant for Ye Yingyao. But after going back and forth, it ended up with Ye Cai’e, the biological daughter, living in what should have been the maid’s small storage room.
Ignoring the Ye family’s concerned questions at the table, Ye Yingyao hurried into her room, locked the door, and began studying the bracelet.
When she died in her previous life, it was only the 1990s. She had not seen much of the world. She only knew the bracelet was extraordinary, but she had no idea how to activate it.
Soaking it in water did nothing. Reciting incantations brought no response. She tried every method she could think of.
Just as she began to suspect she had mistaken the bracelet, she suddenly remembered something she had overheard in her previous life when she last went to beg Chen Yumei for money.
Blood. It was blood.
Ignoring the pain, she clenched her teeth and bit a deep wound into her finger.
She did not waste a drop, pressing her finger directly against the bracelet.
Watching as the blood was slowly absorbed by it, Ye Yingyao’s face showed an almost crazed joy. This miraculous treasure was about to become hers.
Only when her face gradually turned pale did the bracelet stop absorbing blood. Then the room was suddenly flooded with an intense white light. When the light faded, the bracelet on her wrist vanished as well.
The air remained still for a full minute. Ye Yingyao felt no change at all. No space. No ability to preserve items. She saw nothing.
But she had clearly witnessed the bracelet’s power just now. It had to be it. The method was not wrong.
Ye Yingyao grew frantic in the room, completely unable to understand what had gone wrong.
Meanwhile, Ye Cai’e, who was strolling toward the Ye family’s secret storeroom, suddenly felt her mind go blank. A flash of light passed before her eyes and vanished.
Then the Duoduo Space began to change in her mind like a film playing.
She saw a jade bracelet identical to the one Ye Yingyao had been wearing earlier. After it merged in, the space split into two parts. One was black soil under sunlight and clouds, like a compressed piece of farmland of about one mu, the soil so rich it was obvious at a glance. The other part remained a storage space like before, except it had doubled in size.
Ye Cai’e now understood. Her guess had been correct. By deliberately dripping blood on it, the bracelet had acknowledged a master early. She just did not know why it had taken so long to fully become hers.
She also did not know that activating the bracelet required a large amount of blood. She had purely picked up a bargain. In her previous life, Chen Yumei had nearly lost half her life over it.
Now that the space had doubled, it could easily hold the contents of ten Ye families. Ye Cai’e, who had originally planned to be selective, decided on the spot to take everything she saw, leaving the Ye family not even scraps.
The secret room where Ye Wenbin hid his things was in a relatively remote villa. One had to pass through dense woodland to reach it. There were hardly any households nearby, and few people ever came this way.
After confirming there was no one around, Ye Cai’e grabbed the gate, climbed up in one or two steps, and leapt inside.
She clapped her hands and sighed. “This body may not have trained in martial arts, but its physical condition isn’t bad. You can tell it’s done plenty of labor. With more practice, it’ll definitely recover to my previous level.”
In her previous life, one of Ye Cai’e’s side jobs had been a martial arts instructor. She had been wild as a child, and her parents, unable to control her, sent her to learn martial arts. She trained for over twenty years.
At that level, even now, dealing with four or five adult men alone would not be a problem.
Following the descriptions in the book, she quickly found the basement.
Who would have thought that Ye Wenbin, that old bastard, had built another basement beneath the basement, a basement within a basement.
Thanks to Ye Yingyao planting the tree, she got to enjoy the shade. She first pushed aside the cabinet blocking the door, then pressed a button near the basement stairs. With a harsh sound, the hidden door opened.
She had no flashlight and fumbled around for quite a while before finding the light switch. When the lights came on, she was stunned by the rows of large crates filling the room.
She knew these people had a solid family foundation, but she had not expected it to be this substantial.
This was only one of the storage locations, yet there were already twenty large crates, along with countless smaller boxes.
Ye Cai’e opened the twenty large crates one by one. Five were filled with large gold bars, four with gold ornaments, and one with palm-sized gold ingots. Three crates held jewelry, and the remaining seven contained antiques and calligraphy paintings.