Smash the Window

"What about you? You'll catch a cold." Seeing water still dripping from Ye Chen onto the floor, Robin asked worriedly.

"I'm fine. But what's going on with your house? It's leaking." After standing there for a while, Ye Chen suddenly felt a chill on his head. Looking up, he was stunned—the roof was soaked, and rain kept dripping through it.

Robin bit her lip and curled herself up tightly. She had built the house herself. Even when it leaked, no one ever cared. Her uncle had wanted to help repair it once, but her aunt had grabbed him by the ear and driven him away.

In this household, her aunt had the final say. Her uncle could decide nothing. Even though the house was so shabby, Robin had no way to change things. At only eight years old, her frail body was simply powerless to improve her situation.

"Hmm." Ye Chen glanced at Zoro, his eyes shifting as if he had figured something out. "Are you alone too?"

"No, I have a mother. But she went out to sea when I was two. I live with my uncle now." Robin bit her lip and answered firmly. She had always believed that her mother would return someday. Even when people said her mother had long since died out at sea, that belief had never wavered.

Perhaps her mother was Robin's only hope, the reason she could survive alone and stay strong.

Even if all the children on the island called her a monster and refused to play with her, even if her aunt beat and scolded her every day, as long as she remembered that she still had a mother, Robin could endure anything.

"Your uncle? You live with your uncle?" Ye Chen looked doubtful. Stroking his chin, he glanced around. "Where is your uncle? Why haven't I seen him?"

Robin pointed toward the lit domed house outside the window. Ye Chen pushed open the door and looked behind the house, his eyes widening in fury. Robin's uncle clearly lived well. He resided in a domed house, renovated to resemble a small castle in a Western style. It had three stories and looked beautiful, with spotless walls and grand paintwork. There was even a flower bed and fishpond in the yard. Looking closely, Robin's house near the gate resembled the doghouse of some wealthy household.

Though that comparison was unfair to Robin, it was the truth. Her house was cobbled together from only a few broken boards. With the raging wind and torrential rain, the boards looked ready to collapse at any moment. Compared to that, leaking rain hardly seemed worth mentioning. Ye Chen seriously doubted whether the house might suddenly fall down.

"Your uncle lives in a fancy house while you live in this broken shack." Ye Chen gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. No matter what, that was still her uncle—her mother's own younger brother. He had never expected him to be so heartless toward Robin.

"You must be hungry..." Robin seemed unwilling to mention her uncle and aunt. She pointed to the bread on the table. "Eat if you're hungry. It'll help warm you up."

"What is this?" Ye Chen circled the bread on the table several times, unable to recognize what it was. He sniffed it, and it had already gone sour. A foul stench constantly wafted from it.

If Robin had not treated him so well, Ye Chen would have cursed long ago. In his previous life, he had been a young master from a wealthy family, dressed in fine clothes and fed rich food. When had he ever eaten something that smelled this foul?

"Bread," Robin replied.

"Bread? I've seen and eaten Western bread before, but is this black lump really bread?"

Ye Chen curled his lip and instinctively stepped back twice, as though he wanted to stay farther away. The bread looked far too disgusting.

But he truly was hungry. On top of that, it was cold, and before long his stomach began growling disobediently.

"I only get two pieces of bread a day. Don't waste it."

"Only two pieces a day, and they're stale bread?"

Ye Chen did not need to think to guess that her uncle's family treated her terribly. It was practically inhuman.

"Wait here. They can't bully people like this." With that, Ye Chen shoved open the door and ran angrily into the rain.

The room in the middle of the second floor of the fancy house was still lit. Rich embroidered curtains hung over the window. Ye Chen knew quality goods; those curtains alone were worth more than everything in Robin's broken shack.

"Heartless bastards. Why hasn't lightning struck them dead? Heaven really must be blind." Cursing under his breath, Ye Chen scanned the yard and finally found a brick. He picked it up, used all his strength, and hurled it at the lit window.

"You useless thing! You're done already? No, you're not getting away until you satisfy me!"

Inside the lit room, Robin's aunt was straddling her uncle, her plump body swaying only a few times before there was no movement below. Luo Ji's expression immediately darkened in displeasure.

Robin's uncle wore a miserable expression, crushed beneath her until he could barely breathe. He had lived under Luo Ji's shadow all his life, bullied every day by this domineering woman. The fact that he could still perform his marital duties on schedule meant he was already near his limit. If he displeased Luo Ji even slightly, she would throw a tantrum like a shrew. Just as Robin's uncle was about to beg for mercy, bang! Something suddenly smashed through the window. A brick flew in right after it. "Aah!" Luo Ji clutched her head and fell onto the bed. Blood streamed down her forehead as she howled in pain. Before long, she was wailing at the top of her lungs, her piercing cries making one's skin crawl.

"Who was it? Which heartless bastard threw that brick?" After a while, Luo Ji climbed up from the floor clutching her forehead. Still cursing, she stormed angrily to the window. In the light, she saw a boy standing in her yard.

Ye Chen stood ramrod straight, his cold face brimming with overwhelming fury. Luo Ji had barely finished one curse when another brick flew upward.

"Aah... That hurts!" Luo Ji's face was struck again, and she immediately tumbled to the floor.

"Hmph, serves you right!" Ye Chen dusted off his hands as if nothing had happened, then turned and returned to Robin's wooden shack.

Seeing Robin standing at the doorway, staring at him wide-eyed, Ye Chen smiled at her. "Don't worry. They won't dare bully you again. I'll protect you."

Ye Chen spoke with conviction and masculine resolve. But not long afterward, Robin's aunt and uncle charged out of the fancy house, angrily carrying mops.

"Who are you? Where did this wild brat come from?" When she came close, Luo Ji planted her hands on her hips and pointed angrily at Ye Chen as she cursed.