Ye Xunmei was taken aback and stared at Ye Susu in disbelief, stammering, "You...you're only 22?"

How is that possible?

Twenty-two is the most beautiful time of a girl's life. If girls are likened to flowers, then a girl in her early twenties is in the prime of her life, but Ye Susu is like this now...

They don't look like fresh flowers with dew in the morning; they look like they've been baking in the sun all day and are almost wilted.

What has his granddaughter been through?

Ye Susu felt a sharp pain in her heart. Ever since that incident and the abortion, her health had deteriorated significantly. Her once fair and delicate skin had become dull, and most frighteningly, her spirit was completely different from before.

Therefore, the first thing she does when she gets up in the morning is to put on makeup; otherwise, she wouldn't dare to go out at all.

"I was born in the Year of the Tiger, and I just turned 22," Ye Susu said with a forced smile.

Ye Xunmei did some quick calculations and realized that Ye Susu was indeed born in the Year of the Tiger and was 22 this year. However, this was the first time he had ever heard that Ye Susu was born in the Year of the Tiger, so he frowned and gave Ye Susu a strange look.

Although he acted in a dissolute and unrestrained manner, he was quite traditional in some ways, or to put it simply, superstitious.

Women born in the Year of the Tiger are considered unlucky for their husbands.

This was passed down from the elders and was especially popular among the common people. Ye Xunmei believed it wholeheartedly because he had personal experience with it.

His mother was born in the Year of the Tiger.

Back then, the Ye family was considered a well-off family in the area. In Ye Xunmei's memory, the family had a large number of servants and vast fertile land. They didn't live in luxury, but they never had to worry about making a living.

But everything changed after his mother came in.

His father and mother were a rare example of free love at the time. His mother's family were small landlords, not as wealthy as the Ye family, but she was as beautiful as a lotus emerging from the water, a famous beauty for miles around. Ye's father had long admired her, and later, by chance, he met Ye's mother, and the tide of love surged forth, unstoppable.

However, Ye Xunmei's grandparents firmly opposed the marriage, not because they disliked Ye's mother's poor family background, but because Ye's mother was born in the Year of the Tiger.

The Ye family elders firmly believed that marrying a woman born in the Year of the Tiger would bring bad luck to the Ye family, and they preferred that Ye's father marry a farmer's daughter.

But Ye's father, who was usually weak and indecisive, was particularly vehement about this matter, even going on a hunger strike. His already weak body finally collapsed after a week of starvation, and he was on the verge of death.

This greatly worried the Ye family elders, because Ye's father was their only son, and if he died, the Ye family line would end.

After that, Ye's father started making a scene about swallowing gold, taking medicine, and hanging himself, etc., which finally forced Ye's parents to relent and agree to let Ye's mother enter the family.

If he still disagrees, Ye's father might really mess himself up and die.

Before Ye's mother entered the family, Ye's parents even went to ask a high monk for help, but Ye Xunmei guessed that the two elders had been fooled by a fake high monk and it was of no use. After Ye's mother entered the family, her belly was quite fertile and she gave birth to Ye Xunmei in less than half a year.

The Ye family elders were overjoyed and relieved, thinking that the high monk had finally come in handy.

However—

Ye Xunmei was not even a month old when the head of the Ye family, Ye's grandfather, accidentally tripped and fell while inspecting his vast fields. He was already dead when he was brought home, turning a joyous occasion into a tragedy.

After that, the Ye family seemed to have offended a plague god, and not a single happy event occurred; they were plagued by bad luck.

Three days before Ye Xunmei's first birthday celebration, Ye's grandmother, who had been bedridden for a long time, finally breathed her last with her eyes wide open, but managed to hold on until her beloved grandson's first birthday celebration.

Then, when Ye Xunmei was three years old, her father contracted tuberculosis from opium addiction and also succumbed to the disease.

From then on, the once-great Ye family was reduced to nothing but an orphan and a widow, along with a vast fortune.

It attracted a pack of wolves!