It was past normal mealtime, and Ye Linbei and Ye Linnan had been waiting for Meng Xueyun for ages. Now, smelling the fragrant chicken soup, they were even more tempted and immediately buried their heads in the soup, slurping it down.
"Mom, this soup is so delicious, it tastes so fresh!" Ye Linbei took a big gulp and smacked his lips in satisfaction.
Ye Linnan nodded in agreement.
Meng Xueyun watched her two sons drinking heartily, a satisfied smile appearing on her face.
This is exactly the effect she wanted.
She stirred the remaining soup in the pot with a spoon and sighed with heartache.
"Is it delicious? I made extra and packed a thermos for your sister."
"After you finish eating, take this to her. Sigh, the last time I saw her at the police station, she was so thin and emaciated. She lives alone outside, she must not be eating well. It breaks my heart to see her like this."
The moment she said those words, the atmosphere at the dinner table changed instantly.
"Snap!"
Ye Linbei dropped the chopsticks from his hand onto the table.
He and Ye Linnan both stopped drinking their soup, looked up, and stared at Meng Xueyun in disbelief.
The two saw the thermos Meng Xueyun was carrying when she returned and assumed she was bringing chicken soup to Meng Xuejun.
But then I thought, now that Meng Xuejun is imprisoned, can Meng Xueyun's chicken soup still be delivered?
The two never expected that they would actually be delivering chicken soup to Ye Linchen.
Even Ye Zhenghua, who was struggling to drink the soup with a spoon, frowned, not understanding what Meng Xueyun was up to this time.
Others may not understand Meng Xueyun, but surely he does?
Meng Xueyun utterly loathed Ye Linchen, her daughter.
She often regretted not aborting Ye Linchen when she was pregnant with her, which led her to oppose her in every way.
Ye Linchen, having come from the countryside to Jiangcheng, felt even more uneasy.
I wish she would disappear from the world immediately, without leaving a trace.
Now you're actually concerned about Ye Linchen?
Something's not right.
They're definitely up to something again.
Why didn't you discuss it with him?
Ye Zhenghua couldn't understand it no matter how hard he tried.
Meng Xueyun, seemingly oblivious to their reaction, continued with a guilty expression, "Why are you all looking at me? I just... I just figured it out."
“I was fooled by Xiaohan before! Now I understand, Xiaochen is the one who is truly good to our family. Mom didn’t treat her well before, and now I want to make it up to her and get along with her. No matter what, we are all family, isn’t it good to be together as a family?”
As she spoke, she turned her gaze to the twins and said earnestly, "You two are closest to Xiaochen. Go see her more often and try to persuade her. It's not easy for a girl like her to work so hard out there. She should stay connected with her family so that they can help her if she needs anything. You both want your sister to come back, don't you?"
After hearing her words, the twin brothers frowned even more deeply.
The two brothers exchanged a glance, and Ye Linbei couldn't help but speak first.
He put down the soup bowl in his hand and looked at Meng Xueyun: "Mom, you said... you feel sorry for my sister?"
"Of course! She's flesh and blood of mine!" Meng Xueyun nodded quickly.
"Then why didn't you feel sorry for her before?" Ye Linbei retorted without any politeness. "To save money for the family, you made my sister drop out of school and come back to work in a factory. Didn't you feel sorry for her then? She was living alone outside during her senior year of high school, having to study for exams and work part-time. You even went to her part-time job and made a scene, demanding that the company pay you your wages. Didn't you feel sorry for her then?"
"Now that you see she's doing well and we're not as well off as her, you suddenly feel sorry for us?"
Ye Linbei's words were exactly the same as Ye Linchen's.
But Meng Xueyun's attitude was much softer towards Ye Linbei.
“I know that Mom did a lot of bad things in the past, but didn’t your books also say that it is the greatest virtue to admit one’s mistakes and correct them? You can’t not even give Mom a chance to correct them.”
Ye Linnan disagreed with Meng Xueyun's statement: "Mom, when it comes to feelings, once they're hurt, they're hurt. It's not something that can be fixed by making up for it later. What you're doing will only make her feel worse, and it's not fair either."
Ye Linbei chimed in, "Yeah, Mom, we're not going to deliver this chicken soup anyway."
"Just ignore your sister and let her be."
Meng Xueyun's face flushed red as her two sons countered her words in unison.
She never expected that her two beloved sons would openly contradict her for Ye Linchen's sake!
Her anger flared up instantly, and she almost slammed her chopsticks on the table.
But she ultimately held back.
In the past, she could throw tantrums and act recklessly in front of Ye Linchen without any restraint.
Because at that time, Ye Linchen was just a tool she could manipulate at will.
But she couldn't do that with her two sons.
If Ye Linchen refuses to come back, her two sons will be her only hope for the rest of her life.
Meng Xueyun composed herself and forcefully suppressed the urge to rage.
"Mom knows...Mom knows she was wrong before." Meng Xueyun's voice was full of remorse. "But look at your sister. Last time at the police station, her face was smaller than the palm of your hand, and she was as thin as a bean sprout. She looked like she would fall over in the wind. Don't you two brothers feel sorry for her?"
She avoided the sordid things she had done in the past and instead tried to appeal to her two sons' emotions.
Although Ye Linbei and Ye Linnan are smart, they are still students and have little experience in the world. How could they be a match for Meng Xueyun, a seasoned veteran?
The two immediately jumped into the pit that Meng Xueyun had dug.
Ye Linbei was the first to speak: "It hurts to see you like this..."
"That settles it then!" Meng Xueyun immediately seized the opportunity and hurriedly asked, "Since you're worried about her, don't you all want your sister to eat better, drink some nutritious soup, and get healthy and strong?"
This question left both Ye Linnan and Ye Linbei speechless.
Of course they wanted the best for their sister, but they knew their mother too well and always felt there was some kind of trap hidden in her words.
A moment of silence fell over the dinner table.
All that remained was Ye Zhenghua, suffering from the aftereffects of his stroke, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a spoon, making a faint "scratching" sound.
Seeing that the two remained silent, Meng Xueyun assumed that they had been persuaded by her, and secretly felt pleased with herself, thinking that her strategy was indeed correct.
She pressed on, softening her voice even more, with a hint of coaxing.
"Think about it, you're closest to your sister. If you visit her more often, bring her some treats, and talk to her more, wouldn't your relationship become even closer? Don't you want to be as close to your sister as you were when you were little?"
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