Meng Xueyun's performance, which she thought was touching, only made Ye Linchen feel physically uncomfortable.
This affected, insincere sentiment successfully gave her goosebumps all over.
Ye Linchen raised his eyelids and looked directly at Meng Xueyun.
She suddenly spoke, asking a question that couldn't be simpler:
What do I like to eat?
"..."
Meng Xueyun's smile vanished instantly.
She opened her mouth, let out a soft "uh" sound, and her mind raced.
What does Ye Linchen like to eat?
I love to eat...
What?
She tried desperately to recall that from the time Ye Linchen returned to the Ye family until she ran away from home, only a few days had passed.
Although she had cooked a few meals.
But no matter how hard she racked her brains, she couldn't remember which dish Ye Linchen had taken more bites of at the dinner table.
She only remembers the preferences of her own family members.
Meng Zihan loves sweet and sour pork ribs but dislikes fatty meat.
Ye Zhenghua enjoys a little wine, and he drinks two cups every night.
So she has to prepare cold dishes to go with the drinks.
My two sons are growing, so they need to eat more meat and vegetables.
As for Ye Linchen...
What she eats, and what she doesn't eat, seems...
It seems she never cared.
She was like a shadow in the house, silent and unnoticed.
They have no right to speak.
She eats whatever you give her, and you've never heard her say whether she likes it or not.
Of course, Meng Xueyun was also impatient to listen.
To be honest, I would only say that Ye Linchen is hard to compromise with.
Thinking about their previous interactions, Meng Xueyun's face flushed red instantly.
Feeling guilty, she lowered her head, somewhat afraid to look into Ye Linchen's cold eyes.
Why would this child ask such a question!
Isn't this making her lose face in front of everyone?
She glanced at the Ye brothers, Ye Linnan and Ye Linan, who were staring at her, and stammered, trying to make amends.
"Xiao Chen, Mom... it's just... getting old, my memory isn't what it used to be."
She also took the opportunity to play the victim.
"I've been so busy taking care of your dad lately that I've almost forgotten my own name."
"Why don't you tell Mom what you like to eat, and Mom will go and buy it for you right away, and I promise I'll make it to your satisfaction!"
She thought that by saying that, she could turn the page on this awkward situation.
Ye Linchen just looked at her coldly, and then softly uttered three words.
"No."
These three words were like three buckets of ice water poured over her head, extinguishing the tiny, illusory flame that had just ignited in Meng Xueyun's heart.
The refusal was swift and decisive, leaving no room for negotiation whatsoever.
"Xiao Chen, you..."
Before Meng Xueyun could say anything more, a young policeman in uniform walked out of the office.
"You are all related to Meng Xuejun, right? Come over here for a moment to give your statements. The four of you will split into two groups. This comrade, you come with me. The three of you, go next door with my colleague."
The arrival of the police averted this suffocating standoff.
Almost the instant the police officer finished speaking, Ye Linchen was the first to take a step forward, following one of the officers into the office without looking back.
"Hey, Xiao Chen! You..." Meng Xueyun instinctively wanted to chase after him.
Before she could even take a step, her arms were grabbed by two hands, one on each side.
"mom!"
"Mom, let's hurry up and go. The police officers are waiting. We need to get this done quickly, otherwise Xiao Nan and I will be late for class this afternoon."
It is Ye Linnan and Ye Linbei.
The two brothers, one on each side, half-supporting and half-forcibly restrained Meng Xueyun, making up plausible excuses as they led her in another direction without explanation.
Although they didn't fully understand the exchange between their sister and mother, they understood what was happening.
The older sister looked very unhappy; her mother's nagging was making her very impatient.
Instinct told them they had to stop their mother from causing trouble for their sister again.
Meng Xueyun was stopped by her two sons, and when she heard that it would delay their afternoon classes, she couldn't bother to chase after Ye Linchen anymore.
My two sons are in the crucial final year of high school, with the college entrance exam just a few months away. I can't let their studies be delayed.
As for Ye Linchen, she can't just run away. She's at Jiangcheng University; she can't just fly away.
She'll have plenty of time to find her later, to slowly work things out and talk things over. She won't believe that Ye Linchen is really heartless.
Let's deal with what's in front of us today and not let it interfere with our sons' classes.
With this thought, Meng Xueyun suppressed her impatience and resentment.
She even patted her two sons' hands in return, putting on the appearance of an understanding mother.
"Okay, okay, Mom won't go. I'll go with you to give my statement first. Your studies are the most important thing."
With that, Meng Xueyun obediently followed another policeman and her two sons into the small interrogation room next door.
The interrogation room was small, with a peeling wooden table and a few creaking chairs.
The wall was covered with a sign that read, “Confess and you will be treated leniently; resist and you will be punished severely.” The light bulbs overhead emitted a dim yellow light, and there was a faint smell of smoke and moldy paper in the air.
The policeman in charge of taking their statements was a man in his early thirties with a square face and a serious expression, but his tone of voice was relatively calm.
He first asked for my name, age, and address as per procedure before getting to the point.
“Tell me in detail about your specific relationship with Meng Xuejun and the ins and outs of this incident.”
Meng Xueyun cleared her throat and spoke before her two sons could.
She tearfully recounted, embellishing her story, how her younger brother was a good-for-nothing, how he went to Hong Kong to do business, how he mortgaged the company because of gambling debts, the total amount of gambling debts he owed in these two instances, and how he even swindled the family's meager severance pay.
She portrayed herself as a pitiful older sister who was betrayed by her shameless younger brother and felt disappointed in him. When she got emotional, she even shed a few tears.
"Officer, you have no idea, my younger brother has been spoiled rotten by my parents since he was little. I'm his older sister, and I said a few words to him, and now he hates me. This time he came back like a madman, demanding money from us, or he'll make our whole family suffer..."
Ye Linnan and Ye Linbei sat beside their mother, listening to her sobs without saying a word.
They knew that most of what their mother said was true, but something still felt off.
The police officer was very patient. He waited until she had finished crying before slowly taking notes in his notebook.
Then, he raised his head, looked at Meng Xueyun, and asked.
"Comrade Meng Xueyun, according to what we learned from your daughter Ye Linchen, Meng Xuejun came to you before contacting her. You were the one who gave Meng Xuejun Ye Linchen's address at Jiangcheng University, right?"
Meng Xueyun's crying stopped abruptly, and her expression froze.
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