Chapter 1 [Please add to your favorites]

A middle-aged man nearing fifty walked briskly across the construction site, because today was payday.

A joyful smile spread across his dirty face as he walked towards his dormitory. Before he even arrived, his phone rang. "Hello...Mom?"

"Xiao You, did you get paid today?"

Lin Leyou smiled. He was about to go to the bank to transfer money back home. His parents and younger brother all needed money, especially since his brother got married and the family always ran out of money.

Despite the exhaustion over the years, he was happy to help his family, after all, they were his family.

He never gives his heart to outsiders, but his family is his weakness and his support, and his hometown has always been his safe haven.

"Yes, Mom, it was just sent. I was just about to..."

"Since that's the case, then hurry up and transfer the money. Things have been really tight at home lately. Your sister-in-law gave birth to a big, healthy grandson for the Lin family, which is wonderful news. We're having a full-month celebration soon. Oh, and by the way, we've been spending a lot of money lately, including baby formula..."

Lin Leyou, whose face had just been beaming with joy, was stunned upon hearing these words, as if he had been hit on the head with a sledgehammer.

The voice on the other end of the phone kept talking, but he couldn't hear anything. He just asked softly, "Little nephew?"

"Yes, my chubby grandson! You're happy too, aren't you?"

Lin Leyou's name sounds friendly and sunny, but his personality is completely opposite to his name. He has a bad temper, doesn't go out of his way to cause trouble, but isn't afraid of trouble either. He's the type who won't bother others unless they bother him.

Of course, if someone deliberately causes trouble, he's the type to retaliate in kind.

He reserved all his gentleness and kindness for his family.

When he heard about his chubby grandson and the money for milk powder, he seemed to be transported back to that summer more than 20 years ago, when his parents asked him not to go to university after graduating from high school, but to go out and work to earn money.

The reason given was that the family had a second child, a younger brother, and the father was too old to work, while the mother had to take care of the child and didn't have time to go out and find work.

As the older brother, he had to shoulder the responsibility of the family and go out to earn money to buy milk powder for his younger brother!

As a result, he did this for nearly thirty years!

As a result, after all these years of hard work, he hasn't gotten the family affection he wanted; all he's gotten is another cycle of reincarnation.

I need to buy baby formula for my younger brother's son.

My nephew has a father, so why should I, his uncle, have to earn money to support him?

"Xiao You, are you listening? Are you even listening?!"

Lin Leyou's mind was buzzing, and he couldn't hear what was being said on the other end of the phone at all. He asked coldly, "Where's my brother? Is he unemployed?"

The voice on the other end of the phone was hesitant and stammering.

"Oh dear, why are you asking this?"

"The baby has just been born, and everything costs money. Your brother's meager salary is far from enough. Things will get better after this period."

"Besides, I'm your mother. If the family is short of money, is it not allowed for me to ask you for money? Hurry up and send the money back."

Lin Leyou sneered. All those years of anticipation and effort had ultimately yielded nothing of the affection she desired.

"After this period, the child will go to kindergarten, then elementary school, middle school, high school, and then university. In order not to be outdone by the other students in the class, we will have to buy all kinds of nice clothes and shoes."

"After graduating from university, you'll need to find a wife, buy her a house, a car, and pay a bride price, right? Is this my nephew? Is this my son? This is how you raise a son!"

The person on the other end of the phone was probably hearing Lin Leyou refute him so fiercely for the first time, and didn't react for a moment, so he didn't say anything.

Lin Leyou didn't want to hear their voices at all right now, and regardless of her thoughts, she interrupted and hung up the phone.

Just a second before the call ended, extremely sharp and piercing insults came through the phone.

"You little brat, you unfilial son of a bitch..."

Lin Leyou listened for half a minute, then exclaimed, "Ha!"

I've dedicated nearly thirty years of my life to this family, and all I did was vent my anger a little, and now I'm being called a bastard and a piece of trash.

It seems they often talk about themselves like that in private, otherwise how could they say those insults so smoothly?

Lin Leyou gripped his phone tightly, then scratched his hair hard before finally uttering a curse: "Damn it!"

He looked at his rough, dark, and cracked hands, then at his dirty clothes, his eyes dangerous and sharp.

His phone was ringing, and he knew who it was without even looking. In the past, he would have answered the phone immediately, but now... he didn't even want to look at it.

Anyway, he was just criticizing himself. When his younger brother was little, he was always the one who needed money. From the cost of baby formula when he was born to the tuition fees for kindergarten, and then to all sorts of other things when he went to school, even after graduating from university, he asked him for money for a dowry, wedding, house, and car.

He didn't say anything, after all, they were all family. Although he had occasionally expressed dissatisfaction before, he had suppressed it. But now that his younger brother's child had been born, the child had started asking him for money for baby formula again.

It wasn't until his mother asked him for money to buy milk powder for his grandson that he finally realized that all the money he had worked so hard for the past thirty years had been used to support a bunch of bloodsuckers.

These family members he cherished never treated him like family; they were just machines to make money. He felt hurt, but even more so, he was furious.

He's almost fifty, middle-aged but has nothing. Is it too late for him to realize this now?

The phone rang for an unknown amount of time before he reluctantly gave up dialing and switched to texting, probably realizing he really didn't want to answer.

Lin Leyou looked at her phone; the missed calls showed 26 from her father and 32 from her mother.

They stopped making phone calls and started sending text messages instead. My parents took turns sending them, and they were so fast! How could two old people type so fast?

It must have been his own good younger brother who sent the message according to what his parents said, calling him an unfilial son, an ingrate, a piece of trash, a bastard, and saying that he was raised for nothing, etc.

In short, all the foul language was thrown at him at once.

He sends at least 100,000 yuan home every year, and over the years it must have been 3 million yuan. But all that money can't buy him a simple "good son, you've worked hard."

Lin Leyou smiled sarcastically, knowing that his younger brother was also cunning. He knew that most of the money was spent on him, but he never asked his older brother for money.

All the jobs that required money were given to his parents, after all, they were Lin Leyou's parents, and he could ask for money with his head held high, saying it was only natural.