Jiang Yicheng was already angry because he didn't keep his red envelope. When the whole family was watching the Spring Festival Gala together, he happened to receive a call from his grandmother and uncle asking him for money.

On New Year's Eve, he stood in the living room corridor, feeling the cold wind, listening to his grandmother crying heart-wrenchingly on the other end of the phone, saying that his uncle owed a loan shark, and if he couldn't pay the money back within a week, the loan shark would chop off one of his hands. His grandmother begged him to use the money to save his uncle.

Jiang Yicheng listened expressionlessly for a moment, then said coldly, "Then call the police."

"How can we call the police? They won't do anything. Yicheng, this is your uncle, you can't just stand by and watch him die! Your mom must have left you some money, right? Just use it to help your uncle first. It'll be two hundred thousand, just two hundred thousand! Two hundred thousand is nothing to you, your last name is Jiang! Jiang Yicheng!"

Jiang Yicheng turned around and looked through the glass at the bustling scene in the house. He walked a few steps down the corridor and sat on the steps. The hot air he exhaled turned into white mist, blurring his eyes and making his eye sockets sore.

He tried hard to suppress his sobs and lowered his voice, "I don't know what my last name is. I can't come up with the money. Grandma, have you forgotten that my father is dead, my mother is disabled and can't get out of bed for the rest of her life, and I'm also living under someone else's roof. Where can I get you two hundred thousand? Should I ask my brother to borrow it? You and your uncle were taken advantage of by others and he was hurt so badly. Why do you expect him to lend you money?"

"Yicheng, go beg him, kneel down and beg him, you can't just watch your uncle lose a hand!"

"He deserves it!"

"Your mother has been in the Jiang family for so many years, managing the family business and giving birth to you. Even if she has no merits, she has worked hard. The Jiang family can't treat us like this!"

"These words are useful to me, but not to Jiang Yiyu. It was my mother who destroyed his family and angered his mother to death. Moreover, he left the Jiang family the day my mother and I entered their gate. We have no personal relationship with him. Anyway, I really have no money, and I can't beg anyone for your sake. The money is owed by my uncle, and it is only natural to pay back debts. So whether they chop off one hand or both of his hands, I can't do anything about it, and it has nothing to do with me."

Jiang Yicheng finished speaking and hung up the phone.

But less than two minutes later, the phone rang again. After this happened five or six times, he answered it again in a somewhat annoyed manner.

The grandmother on the phone had changed her pleading tone and turned harsh. She sneered and asked, "No money? How can you let your mother afford such an expensive nursing home without money? Jiang Yicheng, you are such an ungrateful person!"

Jiang Yicheng took a deep breath and clenched his hands: "Uncle is your son, but my mother is not your daughter? Grandma, your brain is entangled with foot binding, right?

Sons are favored over daughters, and you still haven't figured it out: which is more useful, a son or a daughter? The house you live in, the clothes you wear, the money you spend, all these years, which one wasn't given by my mother?

Your son is a piece of trash. He can do nothing but eat, drink and have fun. He came out of the womb without his brain fully developed. He is a scumbag!

Except for you, no one treats him as a treasure. The old one is a burden, and the young one is also a burden. There are so many wonders in this world, and the earth is so tolerant. The species diversity can develop to the level of garbage like you. I really have nothing to say.

Anyway, even if you call me like crazy today, I'll still say the same thing: no money! My mom is in a nursing home. She's your daughter. If you don't want her to receive treatment and want her to die, then go pick her up, remove her oxygen tube, and force her to pay anyway you want. You've done a lot of similar things over the years.

I don't care. You can't threaten me with her because she said she doesn't want me anymore. Do you understand what that means? She and I have severed our mother-son relationship, so there is no blood relationship between you and me, and we have no relationship at all.

As for this half-blood relationship, if you want it, I'll give you half my blood someday. I'm not my mother, so I'm not bound by these constraints. You won't get a penny from me. I can barely protect myself, whether I live or die, so how can I have time to care about you? Also, I'm really an ungrateful person. Say what you will. Go to bed early. Happy New Year, my dear grandmother."

…

Jiang Yiyu and Song Shengsheng leaned against the door of the living room, listening to him say these words with a smile. They looked at each other. Coincidentally, Jiang Yicheng had also sorted out his mood, with a smile on his face, and turned to go into the house. When they met, he flattened his mouth a little awkwardly and lowered his head: "You... all... heard it?"

Song Shengsheng hummed: "Little brat, you're quite eloquent!"

Jiang Yicheng sighed, walked up to them, and was pulled by Song Shengsheng by his sleeve, walking to the other side of the corridor.

Jiang Yiyu asked him, "Did your grandmother ask you for money?"

Jiang Yicheng nodded. "They are ridiculous. They think I'm a money printer. They ask for two hundred thousand without even considering where I can get it. I'm just a student. How can I have so much money? Besides, even if I did, I wouldn't give it to them."

Jiang Yiyu tilted his head, folding his arms and leaning against the pillar. "You don't have two hundred thousand?"

Jiang Yicheng looked up at him: "Is this the point? The point is that I can't give them money. They are like a bottomless pit. My mother hasn't been able to fill it for more than ten years. How can I fill it? And my grandmother once said something very unpleasant. She said that my mother laid a golden egg, which was me. What am I? I am the dog that jumped out of the golden egg and can guarantee their prosperity and wealth. I remember it all."

Jiang Yiyu and Song Shengsheng fell silent together.

Jiang Yicheng clutched the corner of his sleeve and sighed, "Let's just leave it at that. I can't even take care of myself, let alone them. Just do whatever you want, whatever you want."

"What if they do something to your mom?"

"Whatever. My mom just needs someone to rant about. Let them argue. In the end, my mom won't be able to pay. It's not a bad thing to let her see clearly about the leeches she raises."

…

Before going to sleep, Song Shengsheng was still thinking about Jiang Yicheng's restrained yet inexplicably excited expression and tone. Jiang Yiyu was not in a good mood either. The two of them leaned against the head of the bed, daydreaming.

After a moment of silence, Song Shengsheng asked Jiang Yiyu, "Do you think we should take Jiang Yicheng to see a psychiatrist? I feel like there's something wrong with him."

Jiang Yiyu sighed softly: "After the New Year, let's send him to see a doctor. It would be good to relieve his stress."

Early in the morning on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Jiang Yicheng left for the sanatorium where Zhao Rong was staying and did not return until the evening. However, according to Jiang Yiyu's bodyguard who stayed in the hospital, apart from Zhao Rong scolding Jiang Yicheng like crazy, nothing else happened.