If Mu Yiran hadn't already witnessed this family's shamelessness, she would have been sobbing. Back when Wen Zaosi first entered the Wen family, he took over her mother's things in the same way, and even made her grandmother sick.

She gave a mocking laugh: "Ha...it seems my aunt has taken good care of herself these past few years, and her skin has become so thick."

"Mu Yiran!"

Mu Yiran didn't want to argue with this crazy woman. "Whether it counts as plagiarism or not is not up to me. You can go to the committee and ask them to make a new rule for your daughter."

Mu Yiran shook off her hand, turned and left, behind her came Jiang Wen's curses and Wen Qingyu's hypocritical words of comfort.

"Mom, don't blame my cousin. She is her mother after all. I acted on my own initiative. I thought Aunt was already dead... I was being unreasonable."

"He's already dead, and you're treating a pile of scraps of paper like treasure! Even a dog wouldn't eat it if you threw it in the trash!"

Mu Yiran said in an icy tone, "Your daughter seems to be enjoying her meal very much."

Jiang Wen realized that she had accidentally hurt her precious daughter, and her face turned embarrassed and twitched.

"That's enough, Ranran."

"Auntie, calm down. Everyone's watching. Qingyu, why don't you and your auntie go back to the car?"

Jiang Wen noticed the growing number of onlookers in the parking lot, glared angrily at Mu Yiran, and got into the car with Wen Qingyu.

She was still muttering, "That unlucky thing, she's cursed her parents to death. Tingyi, ignore her and come up here quickly."

"......"

Looking at the girl who froze instantly, Lu Tingyi felt a pang of heartache and helplessness, and said, "Ranran, you've come all this way, why make things unpleasant for each other?"

Mu Yiran: "Was it me who caused this?"

Lu Tingyi smiled and said, "You know your aunt's temper. Just bear with it and it will pass. Why argue with her?"

Tolerate?

Mu Yiran felt a chill run down her spine upon hearing those words.

When she was 13, she knelt alone in her parents' mourning hall. It was Lu Tingyi who fed her, coaxed her to sleep, and knelt with her for the seventh day after their death.

She was incredibly naive in her youth, mistaking temporary reliance for genuine affection. Over the years, every time she suffered oppression and insults at the Wen family's hands, Mu Yiran always listened to him and endured it.

Endure, endure, endure.

She was enjoying the warmth of Lu Tingyi's heater until she realized that he was just a central air conditioner and still regarded the brainless Wen Qingyu as her ideal woman.

Out of gratitude for his seven days of companionship, Mu Yiran has always regarded him as family.

Occasionally, when I think back to those darkest and loneliest seven days, it's not so unbearable.

But she doesn't want to put up with it anymore.

"Besides, we're all family. We can't talk about things in private. Why do you have to slander Qingyu for plagiarism on such a big stage? She loves design so much. How will she be able to continue on her design path in the future?"

"Whether she crawls on her knees or crawls, she can walk however she wants; it's none of my business."

"Also, Lu Tingyi, it's only slander if you didn't do it, but it's acting on behalf of Heaven if you did." Mu Yiran looked at the stunned man and said word by word, "Sometimes I think you and her are quite a match, one trash and one trash can."

Mu Yiran turned around without looking back, and as she got into the car, she heard Lu Tingyi's low, hoarse voice: "Ranran, you know perfectly well that's not what I meant... Aren't we family? Why do you have to do this?"

Mu Yiran rolled up the car window, and the driver, with his keen eye, smeared Lu Tingyi's face with exhaust fumes.

family?

She had no family left long before her parents lay in the car covered in blood.

The driver chuckled awkwardly, "Oh ho, it's snowing! As expected, it snows in the capital, and it snows in Shanghai too. This winter is really cold. Are you here for tourism, young lady?"

Mu Yiran looked out the window and smiled: "I'm not."

She went home.

Snowflakes were falling outside the window, but Mu Yiran suddenly calmed down.

It's not like I have no family left...

She also has a family member who was given to her like a gift, an unexpected and precious one.

*

The capital of China in 2016.

The tall, leaning boy walked into the dressing room and picked out the most colorful shirt from a pile of brightly colored shirts.

In the middle of the walk-in closet was a large glass cabinet filled with various jewelry pieces.

The boy's pale fingers swept across the mirror, picked up the red lapel pin at the back, tidied it up, and stood in front of the mirror.

Shi Youxi looked at herself in the mirror, with curly hair, narrow phoenix eyes, and a flashy shirt.

He turned his head and smiled at the doll on the sofa, "Sister, is it pretty?"

Doll: "....."

Shi Youxi walked over and kissed the doll's hand, her voice gentle: "Sister is waiting for me at home, I'll be back soon."

Downstairs, the butler saw the young man walking down slowly. He hesitated for a moment, then finally said, "Young Master, it's snowing. Please put on a coat."

Shi Youxi knew what he meant, smiled, and said, "Okay."

Shi Youxi got into the car and looked out at the snow-covered landscape. The scar hidden under the watch strap on her wrist felt a little itchy.

It has been more than a year since he returned to China. Because Bai Shengsheng's condition was serious, she occasionally regained consciousness a few times while receiving treatment in Liguo, and each time she asked Shi Yan to take her home.

Shi Yan eventually compromised.

For more than a year, Shi Youxi continued to live separately from his parents, but this also made it easier for him to expand his influence within the Shi Clan, allowing him to search for traces of his sister within the country.

The dishes his sister knew how to cook were all southern cuisines, so he sent people to search every city in the south, down to the smallest inch of ground.

We found nothing.

Sometimes, Shi Youxi would also feel dazed.

For a split second, he almost woke up from the dream, and then he would slash his wrist.

The pain will make him sink deeper into despair with a clearer mind.

Bai Shengsheng and Shi Yan were still living in a sanatorium in the capital. This was the third time Shi Youxi had visited Bai Shengsheng since returning to China.

As soon as I got out of the car, I saw the man with the full-arm tattoo smoking in front of the villa. His hair had grown a bit longer, covering the tattoos all over his arm, so no one would immediately think he was a gangster.

"Young Master, you've arrived."

The man with the tattooed arm stepped forward and took off the boy's jacket, revealing the shirt underneath. When he saw what Shi Youxi was wearing, the man's eyes widened in surprise.

A pink floral shirt with a red lapel pin.

It can be as bright as you want, and as flashy as you want.

"Young Master...you..." The tattooed arm didn't know how to subtly describe ugliness, so he frowned and said indirectly, "The master is here today."

Shi Youxi asked to herself, "Isn't it beautiful?"

Tattoo on the full arm: #PupilEarthquake#

"Ah... okay, look."

The tattooed man forced a smile and said, "Young Master, you have fair skin, you look good in anything."

As if just to hear those words, Shi Youxi smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners.

"My sister picked it out for me."

After uttering this explosive statement, Shi Youxi headed straight for Bai Shengsheng's room.

The tattooed man looked at the boy's slender yet powerful back with a complex expression. The once thin boy had grown rapidly in the past few years, and his height was approaching 1.8 meters.

The boy changed not only in appearance but also in his heart. No one knew when it started, but Shi Youxi, who had always been obedient and compliant, began to rebel in some things.

These changes he made completely touched the sore spot of Shi Yan, who had an extremely strong desire for control.

He looked up and saw Shi Yan standing on the second floor, his expression indifferent. "Come out and let him come over."

Tattooed arm: "...Yes."

As soon as Shi Youxi stepped out of the room, he was greeted by Bai Shengsheng's sharp scream. His face was pinched and lifted up: "Amo, what's wrong with you? You like white the most. You said I look best in white. Why are you wearing someone else's clothes?"

"My Cheng Mo wouldn't do this, wouldn't do this..." Bai Shengsheng started tugging at Shi Youxi's clothes, and when she saw his other red lapel pin, she grabbed it and tried to tear it off.

This time, however, Shi Youxi did not stand obediently and let her go crazy as before.

The boy easily grasped Bai Shengsheng's wrist. "This won't do. This was a gift from my sister."

Bai Shengsheng couldn't hear her, so she used both hands instead, scratching and pulling at the boy in front of her, yelling, "Throw it away! Throw it away! This isn't something I gave you, it's someone else's! Amo can only have me, why did Amo change? Doesn't Amo love me anymore?!"

"Yeah, I don't love it."

The boy's casual remark made Bai Shengsheng freeze instantly. She abruptly looked up and slapped him hard across the face, her fingers digging into his skin before being pulled back.

"You love me! Say you love me! Cheng Mo loves me, Cheng Mo loves me!"

Shi Youxi looked down at his mother in his arms. When did his mother become so petite and frail? Bai Shengsheng used to hold him like this, clinging to him tightly and calling him "Cheng Mo".

"But I am not Cheng Mo."

Shi Youxi clasped his hands together and pulled Bai Shengsheng into his arms. The woman stared wide-eyed in his arms, her mouth agape but unable to speak, something shattering in her eyes.

“I have never been Cheng Mo, Mother.”

"No...you are, you are Cheng Mo, you are! You are Cheng Mo! Cheng Mo has come to see me! Cheng Mo will take me away!!!!"

Bai Shengsheng screamed uncontrollably, and the next moment, her slapping stopped, and she fainted.

Shi Youxi silently picked her up and placed her on the bed, then turned and left.

Upon hearing about the tattooed arm, Shi Youxi was not surprised and headed upstairs to Shi Yan's room.

"Kneel down."

Shi Yan turned his back to him, took out a whip from the cabinet, and lashed the boy before he could kneel properly.

Why do this?

"Smack!"

Shi Youxi's back trembled, and he lowered his head in silence.

"Why do you keep provoking your mother?"

"Smack!"

"Disrespectful, unfilial, and lacking in filial piety. Shi Youxi, is this how you rebel?"

"Cough cough." Shi Youxi coughed softly, then looked up and smiled, "Yes."

Shi Yan narrowed his eyes: "Just because of your sister? Is she taking revenge on me and your mother?"

Shi Yan felt a piercing pain down his spine, but his smile widened: "How could this be? Isn't this what you wanted, Father?"

Shi Yan tacitly approved of his actions.

They are all trapped in their own illusions; someone has to experience the pain of facing reality, doesn't he?

Just like he used to be...

Shi Yan's eyes turned cold and fierce as he raised his whip again. Amidst the whistling sound of the whip, Shi Youxi heard the man's complex and indifferent sneer: "So stupid."