Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Ye Ping smiled and hugged her, "Good girl. You'll support whatever mom wants to do, right?"
"Mm-hmm." Yu Shu nodded.
"Even if I want a divorce?"
Yu Shu looked at her in surprise. Ye Ping calmly returned her gaze.
A few seconds later, Yu Shu nodded firmly, "As long as you're happy, I'll support whatever you do."
Ye Ping looked at Yu Yang. Yu Yang let go of Yu Feng and came to her side, "Me too."
Everyone else started talking all at once, saying pretty much the same cliches.
"There's a saying, marry young, grow old together."
"The kids are so big already, what's the fuss about?"
"Life is good nowadays. Just close one eye and let it go. Every family has some headaches."
"Think carefully now..."
...
Ye Ping smiled and brushed them off, not taking their bait, "I'm sorry I didn't entertain you properly today. I'll host you all another time at a nice restaurant."
Everyone had their own thoughts and didn't want to overstay their welcome. They left in twos and threes. Yao Jinhua was also dragged away by some aunties. Only the family of four remained.
Yu Feng seemed to have just come to his senses. He asked why, why she wanted a divorce from him.
Why? How dare he ask why?
Ye Ping was extremely weary. She didn't want to say another word to this man.
"Yu Feng, I only have one question for you. All these years, have you been giving your mother a monthly allowance?"
Before Yu Feng's accident, the Yu family lived pretty well, often with surplus money. Yu Feng gave his mother 500 yuan each month, with a couple hundred extra on holidays.
Ye Ping never begrudged that money. No matter how Yao Jinhua acted, she was still Yu Feng's birth mother. Ye Ping had no right to stop a son from fulfilling his filial duty.
But later, when the Yu family fell on hard times, how difficult was it?
Ye Ping supported the whole family with a snack stand, selling kebabs, pancakes, cold noodles... Whatever sold well, she sold. Working from dawn to dusk all year, as long as she could get out of bed, she never rested.
She racked her brains thinking of ways for the family to live a little better, dress a little warmer.
In the end, she couldn't prevent a traitor in the house.
Yu Feng was crippled with no income. Where could he get money to provide for his mother?
From Ye Ping's cash box.
500 yuan - not enough for Auntie No. 2 to buy a necklace, nor Auntie No. 3 a coat, but enough for their family's meals for a month.
Yu Feng didn't answer. His expression already gave away the answer.
Yu Feng lowered his head under the gazes of his wife and children. "I'm... I'm sorry..."
Ye Ping turned her face away. Her tone was extremely calm, "I believe I've never done anything to wrong you or this family, yet you treated me this way."
"Yu Feng, I don't want to see you again. We'll divorce tomorrow. Today, please leave this house." After saying that, Ye Ping returned to her room, unwilling to look at him another second.
Yu Shu said, "Yu Yang, take Dad back to the old house."
"I'm not leaving. This is my home. I'm not going anywhere!"
"Or you can go to Yao Jinhua's place?" Yu Shu tilted her head, speaking tonelessly.
When sending Yu Yang and Yu Feng out, Yu Shu leaned on the door frame, "After the divorce, you'll still be my dad. I'll fulfill my duties, not lacking in any way. Stay at the old house for now. When I find a suitable house, I'll buy one for you."
"It's not that I don't like the old house!" Yu Feng's face flushed red. Timid and inarticulate by nature, he had things to say but couldn't express them. "I just... As long as you're here, even a grass shack would be home."
Yu Yang felt his pockets. "I didn't bring the keys. Wait a second while I grab them..."
"What keys? I'm not going out. I'll let you in later." Yu Shu pushed him out.
She just wanted Yu Yang to hurry up and take their old man away. Looking at him was aggravating.
"You'll let me in, right?" Yu Yang glanced at his dad, blinking at Yu Shu like a puppy. "I'm your brother after all."
Yeah right. With that other one as my dad?
"Seeing as you behaved today, I'll let you in."
Yu Yang was reassured. He took his dad and left.
Yu Shu raised her sore neck and heaved a long sigh - vexing!
Yu Shu tidied up the kitchen, dining table, living room, exhausted from the effort. She'd just collapsed on the sofa to rest when the doorbell rang again.
That jinx Yu Yang was back.
"Not spending more time with Dad?" Yu Shu walked back, kneading her waist.
Yu Yang diligently massaged her back and shoulders. "Heaven knows I'm innocent! I'll always support the two wise and martial women of this family! I'm not cut from the same cloth as that wretched old man!"
"Sis~ Is this force okay?"
"A bit more pressure."
"Mom's not out yet?"
"Nope."
"How come there's no sound at all? Do you think she might..." Yu Yang trailed off meaningfully.
"Might want to end it all?" Yu Shu finished for him. "Don't joke around. Our mom is so tough. She's trudged through so many valleys and crossed so many knives. How could she do something to gratify her enemies?"
Yu Shu knew very clearly - the fierce Madam Ye was not one to seek death.
Back then, she'd dared to brandish a watermelon knife against hoodlums.
Tsk, it happened the second winter after Yu Feng's accident, when Yu Shu had just started college. Ye Ping's snack stand business was gradually taking off. She was always a good cook. After working out tricks of the trade for snacks, the taste got better and better, with endless streams of customers.
At night, Ye Ping would push her cart to the only vocational school in the county to sell midnight snacks outside the gates. There was another snack stand there, owned by a middle-aged couple about her age. They were polite to Ye Ping at first, but grew envious as her business boomed.
So they found some distant relatives involved with gangs to intimidate Ye Ping. Ye Ping was scared, but couldn't bear to lose that income source from the school gates. She dragged Yu Feng along for courage.
The fourth time those hoodlums came to cause trouble, they directly overturned Ye Ping's stand and threatened to cripple her if she set up there again.
Ye Ping also had a fiery temper. She threw caution to the wind, brandishing the watermelon knife she kept hidden in her cart.
The hoodlums feared her recklessness too. They fled from Ye Ping's wild slashing. Only after chasing them several hundred meters did Ye Ping stop pursuing with knife in hand. When she returned to her overturned stand, Yu Feng hadn't budged an inch off the stool.
The man she thought would support her, who she brought for courage, was useless.
Dammit! The more she thought about it, the more she felt her dad was worthless!
A wretched old man and scumbag!