"Who started it?"
I walked over with three candied hawthorns in hand, my voice gentle as I planted my hands on my hips, yet somehow carrying an aura of authority that made people lower their heads.
Ye Zhaoxuan lowered her head. "Mother, it was me."
"Why?" I asked, keeping it brief.
"She provoked me." Ye Zhaoxuan puffed out her cheeks.
I was beginning to understand. Neither of my daughters was easy to handle.
Ye Zhaoxuan might usually seem like a well-behaved girl, but when someone made her angry, she'd chase her little sister and beat her, too.
And Ye Ranxing went without saying. She was always running her mouth.
I cast a Purification Technique to clean both girls' shoes. "All right. No more fighting."
"Have some candied hawthorns."
Ye Zhaoxuan looked at me and suddenly blurted, "Mother, you're biased. Every time my little sister does something bad or says something nasty, you just pretend you didn't hear."
Ye Ranxing glared at her older sister and shouted back, "You're the one nobody likes."
Ye Zhaoxuan gently tugged at my clothes, her eyes growing misty for the first time. "No, you're just biased, Mother."
"You're the one nobody likes."
"I'm not..." Ye Zhaoxuan grew flustered, on the verge of tears.
No matter how sensible a baby was, she hadn't even been born a month ago.
"That's enough, both of you." This time, I was genuinely angry.
"You're either fighting or arguing. Are you trying to anger me to death?"
Ye Zhaoxuan clutched my hand. "Mother, it's all my fault. Please don't be angry."
Ye Ranxing turned her head away, her voice stiff. "If you know I'm a nuisance, hurry up and throw me away." This was the new tactic she'd just come up with. As long as she made Ye Xiaoyao furious