The twentieth juicy secret: What juicy secret? Take twenty bites...

"Urgh!"

A few seconds later, Ye Zhipeng's expression stiffened, and he couldn't help gagging. He spat out what was in his mouth. "What is that strange taste? Why does it taste so awful?"

Ruan Xianyue held her grilled meat without eating it and said helplessly, "I told you it didn't look good and might not taste good either..."

Yet Ye Zhipeng had been brimming with confidence. Who knew where that confidence had come from.

Ye Zhipeng said, "...I didn't think it would taste this awful."

He looked at Ye Baozhu and said, "Baozhu, why didn't you say anything when it tasted so bad? Spit it out! Don't eat it."

"..." Ye Baozhu spat out the meat in her mouth and apologized aggrievedly. "I'm sorry, Mom. I only wanted to make you and Dad happy..."

Ruan Xianyue handed her water to rinse her mouth. Hearing this, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Why are you apologizing to me? If anyone should apologize, it's your dad, for giving you something so awful to eat."

Ye Zhipeng nodded with an awkward laugh. "I didn't think it would taste this bad either."

He stared at what he held, utterly baffled. "How could it taste so awful?"

"Baozhu, I know you're a good girl and want to make your dad and me happy, but don't do something like this again, all right?" Ruan Xianyue said, reaching out to stroke Ye Baozhu's head. "Mom doesn't want Baozhu to be unhappy either."

Ye Baozhu nodded obediently. "I understand. I won't do it again."

She stood beside Ruan Xianyue, with Ye Zhipeng next to them. The three looked like an utterly happy, perfect family.

Watching this scene, Ye Lin instinctively looked at Ye Mo, only to see her patting her chest in relief and murmuring, "I nearly ended up being the one turning green..."

Ye Lin: "..."

He had thought the sight would upset Ye Mo, but now it seemed he really had worried for nothing.

But...

On second thought, Ye Lin suddenly realized: wasn't this precisely because Ye Mo didn't care about any of them? Only because she didn't

care could she remain unmoved by all of this.

At that thought, Ye Lin sighed inwardly.

After his failed attempt at grilling, Ye Zhipeng finally stopped "wreaking havoc" and obediently waited for the food the family chef grilled.

Ye Baozhu, on the other hand, enthusiastically tried grilling some food, and it actually tasted quite good. After trying it, Ye Zhipeng and the others couldn't help praising her.

Ye Baozhu said bashfully, "I grilled before when I went on picnics with my classmates, so I do have some experience... As long as you all think it tastes good, Mom! I was worried it would taste terrible since I haven't grilled in so long."

"It doesn't taste terrible at all!" Ye Zhipeng said with absolute certainty. "Your grilling is delicious!"

Ye Baozhu looked relieved at his words. "That's good! As long as you all enjoy it, Dad, my effort wasn't wasted."

"What do you think, Ye Mo?" She suddenly turned to Ye Mo. "It tastes all right, doesn't it?"

Ye Mo nodded. "It's all right."

Ye Baozhu asked, "Do you want to try? Grilling is pretty fun. You could grill something for Mom and Dad, and Eldest Brother and Third Brother too. Mom and the others would definitely be happy to eat something you grilled yourself."

Ye Lin frowned at this and was about to say something, but Ye Mo spoke first.

"No," Ye Mo said, crisp and decisive. She raised her eyes to Ye Baozhu and said coolly, "You're the one who finds grilling fun, not me. I don't find it fun at all!"

"I hate the smell of cooking fumes." Her eyes turned cold. "So I'll never cook for the rest of my life."

Ye Baozhu blurted out a question. "...Why?"

Looking puzzled, she asked, "Not even for Mom and Dad?"

Ye Mo suddenly laughed, then answered without the slightest hesitation, "Not even then."

Not even Ye Zhipeng and Ruan Xianyue would make her make an exception.

"Well? Are you satisfied with my answer?"

Chapter 20: The twentieth juicy secret: What juicy secret? Take twenty bites...

"No one is an exception for me..."

Ye Mo's answer was far too crisp and decisive, without even a second's hesitation, as though even Ye Zhipeng and Ruan Xianyue, her biological parents, weren't enough to warrant an exception from her.

Everyone present reacted differently to her words.

Ye Lin frowned, Ye Miao looked disapproving, and a flicker of secret delight flashed through Ye Baozhu's eyes. As for Ye Zhipeng and Ruan Xianyue, their expressions were complicated, and they looked at Ye Mo as though they wanted to say something but held back.

Watching this, Shen Yan and Zhou Xiaoyu both grew anxious. Shen Yan wanted nothing more than to rush over, grab Ye Mo by the shoulders, and shake her hard to see whether her head was full of water.

This is when you should say yes! Why would you say no? Aren't you making Mr. Ye and Madam Ye read too much into this?

Shen Yan was going crazy inside.

Yet faced with everyone's differing reactions, Ye Mo remained perfectly composed, her expression open-she didn't think she had said anything particularly extraordinary.

She merely lifted her eyelids and looked languidly at Ye Baozhu, who was trying hard not to smile, then suddenly asked, "Are you satisfied with my answer?"

Ye Baozhu hadn't expected her to turn toward her suddenly, much less say something like that, and she was startled.

"...I-I don't understand what you're saying," she stammered. "What does your answer have to do with me?"

But Ye Mo said, "You deliberately asked those questions because you wanted to hear me answer like that, didn't you?"

Ye Baozhu panicked. She turned to Ye Zhipeng and Ruan Xianyue and hurriedly explained, "That wasn't what I was thinking. I just said it casually. I really didn't mean anything else!"

Ye Mo stood, walked over to her, and reached out to pick up a skewer of cooked mid-joint chicken wings from the grill.

The moment she drew close to Ye Baozhu, she lowered her voice. "Do you think I don't know what you're thinking? You want them to think I'm cold and heartless, to think I don't care about them at all!"

She gave a derisive chuckle. "Ye Baozhu, I simply can't be bothered to compete with you. But that doesn't mean I can't win. If I wanted to, I could make Mom and Dad turn all their attention to me immediately..."

With a smile on her lips, she stared straight at Ye Baozhu. "Do you believe me?"

With the two of them standing here, Ye Zhipeng and the others couldn't see their expressions clearly. Ye Baozhu stopped putting on an act and, for the first time, revealed her true feelings in front of Ye Mo-she looked at her with anger and loathing.

"I don't believe you!" she forced out through gritted teeth. "I'm the one who's lived under the same roof as Mom and Dad for twenty-three years. I'm the only one they could love most!"

Ye Mo looked at her with a smile, not getting angry. Instead, she said, "You're much more pleasing to look at like this than when you were putting on that act."

Ye Baozhu was stunned.

After saying this to Ye Baozhu, Ye Mo had already stepped away. Carrying her skewer of chicken wings, she returned to her original spot and said, "There's actually a reason I dislike cooking fumes and kitchens."

Under everyone's puzzled and curious gazes, she began talking coolly about her childhood.

"As you know, I grew up in the countryside. As the saying goes, children from poor families learn to shoulder responsibilities early. Lots of children in the countryside start working when they're very young. As for me, I was already puttering around the kitchen as soon as I could walk."

Although children from poor families learned to shoulder responsibilities early, ordinary families wouldn't make a child who had only just learned to walk do anything too strenuous. But it hadn't been like that for Ye Mo. She hadn't had good parents, so for as long as she could remember, from the moment she could walk, she had already been ordered about and made to cook in the kitchen.