"...The first time I cooked, I was about six, or maybe five. It was so long ago that I can't remember anymore. Back then, I still had to stand on a stool to cook. If I wasn't careful, I could have plunged headfirst into the pot."
"I only remember the kitchen in summer. There was no air-conditioning in the countryside, and the summers were so hot. The smoke and grease fumes in that wood-fired kitchen smothered me until I wanted to throw up. But even if I wanted to throw up, I still had to finish cooking, or I'd get beaten and go hungry. I wouldn't get anything to eat!"
"I started cooking when I was six and kept doing it until I was fourteen."
"I don't know when it started, but one day I suddenly became disgusted by the smell of cooking fumes. That was when I swore that as long as I could get out, I would never cook again for the rest of my life!"
"I wanted other people to cook for me! I wanted to be the one who ate!"
Ye Mo's voice wasn't particularly agitated. It could even be called calm, so listening to her tone gave the impression that all these things were long past.
But in reality, time could pass, yet the hardships she had endured hadn't disappeared. That was also why Ye Mo still found the smell of cooking fumes repulsive even now.
None of them had expected this to be the reason behind Ye Mo's remark... She had started cooking at six. How tiny must she have been at six years old?
Just imagining little six-year-old Ye Mo standing on a stool to cook for others made Ruan Xianyue feel as though knives were twisting in her heart.
"...It's all my fault." Tears streamed from her eyes as she sobbed, "If I hadn't been careless back then, how could someone have carried you away? How could you have suffered so much?"
"I failed you! I'm the one who made you suffer so much."
Ruan Xianyue's tears fell like rain, her voice choked with sobs. Ye Zhipeng reached out and put an arm around her, his expression heavy too-he had read Ye Mo's records and naturally knew what she had experienced, but how could those thin words on paper strike as hard as hearing Ye Mo say it herself?
"Your mother and I failed you!" he sighed.
As parents, they had let their child be carried away and abandoned, and hadn't even discovered the truth until twenty-three years later. No explanation could conceal their failure in their responsibilities.
The others weren't as emotional as Ye Zhipeng and his wife, but they too were deeply moved. For a moment, their expressions grew complicated as they looked at Ye Mo-they had never known she had suffered so much before.
As for Ye Baozhu, she nearly ground her teeth to pieces.
The moment Ye Mo had begun talking about her past, she'd had a bad feeling. Now, that premonition had come true.
After everything Ye Mo had said, there was no telling how much Ye Zhipeng and Ruan Xianyue would ache for her in the immediate future. No matter how much Ye Baozhu did, it all looked so laughable in the face of her tragic past.
Ye Baozhu couldn't help looking at Ye Mo with eyes full of jealousy and resentment. As it happened, Ye Mo was looking at her too, and when she caught her gaze, she gave her a faint smile.
Ye Baozhu: !!!
Provocation. This was absolutely provocation!!
Ye Lin, silently watching the exchange of looks between them
Ye Mo's account of her past had left Ruan Xian unable to stop crying.
Ye Mo sat beside her and said with a smile, "I used to hear people say that artistic people were generally
sentimental. I didn't believe it before, but now it looks like it's really true..."
She smiled at Ruan Xianyue and said, "It looks like you really are an artist, Mom."
Ruan Xianyue didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that. "Being sentimental makes someone an artist? Where did you pick up that idea?"
Ye Mo giggled and reached out to hug her. "Please stop crying. I didn't tell you all that to make you cry. I wanted you to feel for me... You're so busy crying that you're not even feeling for me anymore."
"Nonsense," Ruan Xianyue said with a laugh.
She took Ye Mo's hand, only to find that the hand in hers wasn't soft at all. Feeling it carefully, she could even make out the thick calluses on the palm, and tears nearly spilled from Ruan Xianyue's eyes again.
"How am I not feeling for you?" she said, her voice a little hoarse. She sighed. "I just think you've suffered far too much... I'm crying precisely because my heart aches for you."
Ye Mo smiled. "If your heart really aches for me, then give me some more pocket money. You know my greatest hobby is saving money... I'm a money basket!"
-When it came to asking for money, Ye Mo had always been perfectly open and unabashed.
Ruan Xianyue laughed outright at her words. She reached out and pinched Ye Mo's cheek, saying helplessly, "All right, all right, I'll give you more pocket money!"
After that, however, Ruan Xianyue stopped crying, and the atmosphere, which had grown somewhat heavy because of Ye Mo's words, finally began slowly returning to its previous
warmth
and liveliness.
Everyone sat on the stools set out on the lawn, eating the barbecue the chefs had prepared. Each bite of glistening meat was wonderfully fragrant and spicy, and the vegetables were rich in flavor. Add a bottle of soda or beer, and it was thoroughly satisfying.
The household chefs' barbecue naturally couldn't compare to that of an amateur like Ye Zhipeng. Any chef capable of working as a private chef for the Ye family would be a five-star chef elsewhere. Every skewer they grilled was so delicious it made people want to swallow their tongues.
The barbecue lasted two and a half hours. By the time everyone had eaten and drunk their fill and the gathering broke up, it was already late.
Shen Yan and the others were all a little tipsy from drinking, so Ye Mo simply asked them to stay the night. There were plenty of guest rooms in the house anyway.
Shen Yan and the others naturally declined at first, but they couldn't hold out against Ye Mo urging them to stay, with the rest of the Ye family chiming in. Besides, they had been drinking, and it really wasn't a good idea to travel back now, so they eventually all agreed.
With Shen Yan and the others staying, Secretary Huang couldn't very well insist on going home either, so she stayed as well.
The Ye family's servants led Shen Yan and the others to the guest rooms to rest. It was late, and everyone still had work tomorrow, so they dispersed and returned to their own rooms. As for the mess left by the barbecue, the household servants would naturally clean it up.
Ye Mo, however, couldn't quite sleep. Perhaps because she'd had a little alcohol and had also passed the audition for "Chase," her mind was somewhat excited.
After lying in bed for a while, she finally got up and went downstairs, planning to take a stroll outside.
By now, the household servants had cleaned up the mess on the lawn outside. To the left lay the Ye family's garden. With professionals tending it, it was always lush and verdant, with flowers blooming in abundance.
Ye Mo strolled into the garden, smelling the fragrance of flowers in the air and feeling very good.
"...Hasn't this happened before?"
Ye Mo suddenly found the scene very familiar.
She remembered that on the day she'd first come to the Ye family last time, she'd also taken a stroll through the garden after seeing Shen Yan off. Back then, she had run into Ruan Xianyue and Ye Baozhu in the garden and heard them talking about her.
Just as Ye Mo was recalling this bit of the past, she suddenly heard faint sobs drifting through the air. "Sob, sob, sob!"
Ye Mo: ???
Surely it couldn't be that much of a coincidence?
And yet things really were exactly as Ye Mo suspected. It was that much of a coincidence.
As soon as she passed along the little path, she saw Ye Baozhu's familiar face. Fortunately, the person beside her this time wasn't Ruan Xianyue but Ye Miao. Otherwise, Ye Mo would have had to take out her phone and check the date carefully-to see whether time had turned back.
Seriously, why did everyone in this family like talking things over in the garden?
Ye Baozhu and Ye Miao were talking.
Ye Baozhu was crying, and her voice drifted on the wind into Ye Mo's ears.
"...She's the Ye family's real flesh and blood, the real heiress, while I'm the fake!"