Actually, when Ding Ding was little, his parents had treated him very well.
People who fished for a living depended on heaven's mercy to eat. If the Dragon King of the Sea so much as sneezed, the families on shore would go hungry for three days.
During typhoon season, the winds blew for months. With the sea so rough, there was naturally no place for a tiny fishing boat.
Ding Changyuan had at least some conscience and had paid for each of the girls in the family to attend some school.
But schooling cost a fair amount, so life was especially hard for Ding Ding's family during typhoon season.
His older sisters scrimped and saved, and even his parents did not always get enough to eat. The whole family put feeding Ding Ding first.
Still just a little kid then, Ding Ding understood none of this. When food was brought to his mouth, he opened up and swallowed it.
Only later, when he was old enough to understand, before he could even feel grateful, he learned that the special treatment he had received was solely because of his sex.
And so the warmth filling his heart turned cold, finally becoming a lingering ache that kept him from wanting to go home all these years.
He did not go back, and no one in the family tried to persuade him. They even had a new son the following year to replace him.
More than a decade of days and nights together had come to nothing in an instant, and that ache turned into resentment.
Now, as Ding Ding signed his name on a gift agreement, he felt not the slightest ripple inside.
"Ding... Ding?" Ding Changyuan examined the paper in his hand. "You changed your name!?"
Ding Ding glanced at him