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"Mom and Dad both pity her and feel sorry for her. You didn't see how heartbroken they were tonight when she talked about what happened to her. Even you, Third Brother-you looked at her with eyes full of sympathy!"

Ye Baozhu suddenly turned to Ye Miao and demanded, "Are you just like Mom and Dad? Do you think she's pitiful, think she's good? Are you going to stop caring about me?"

Suddenly called out, Ye Miao instinctively denied it. "I don't! Since when have I pitied her?"

Ye Baozhu stared at him in silence, her meaning clear without words.

Ye Miao's gaze shifted, and he said awkwardly, "Fine, I do pity her a tiny bit... but that's perfectly normal, isn't it? Because she really is pitiful!"

He argued his case with Ye Baozhu. "Think about it. What were you doing when you were five or six? What was she doing?"

As he spoke, he muttered, "What was wrong with those adoptive parents of hers, making such a little kid cook? That's outright child abuse!"

Ye Baozhu said, "See! You do feel sorry for her... boo-hoo, sooner or later, you'll be just like Mom, Dad, and Eldest Brother and like her more than me!"

She grabbed Ye Miao's arm. "Third Brother, I'm so scared. What if all of you stop liking me? Will you kick me out then?"

Ye Miao felt a headache coming on and said firmly, "No. Mom and Dad still like you very much. They wouldn't kick you out, no matter what! And as for me, I promise, no matter how much I pity her, I won't like her..."

Knock, knock, knock!

Suddenly, the sound of fingers tapping lightly on wood rang out. Startled, Ye Miao and Ye Baozhu instinctively turned to look.

Then they saw Ye Mo standing there.

Ye Miao: "..."

Ye Baozhu: "..."

Ye Mo smiled and walked over. "Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but..."

Looking at Ye Miao, she said gently, "I've known for ages that you don't like me, so there's no need to shout it so loudly."

At that, Ye Miao's face immediately flushed red, then turned livid, going from red to livid and back again-a truly colorful display.

"I wasn't..." He instinctively tried to explain, but the moment he opened his mouth, he caught himself-why should he explain? It was a fact that he didn't like Ye Mo.

At that thought, Ye Miao suppressed the guilt rising in his heart and tried to look at Ye Mo with righteous confidence.

Unfortunately, Ye Mo was no longer looking at him. She was looking at Ye Baozhu.

Ye Baozhu felt guilty under her gaze too-just like Ruan Xianyue, she inexplicably felt afraid in Ye Mo's presence, always feeling guilty and cowed, as though she had encountered her natural predator.

"Wh-what do you want?" she stammered, her words lacking force. "I didn't say anything bad about you. Why are you looking at me like that?"

Ye Mo hummed. "You certainly didn't say anything bad about me, but I'm rather sick of always hearing you talking about me to other people... does my existence bother you that much?"

She remarked, "It seems you really are terrified that I'll steal the rest of the Ye Family's attention!"

Ye Baozhu reflexively retorted, "I'm not scared!"

She gritted her teeth and said bitterly, "I'm the one Mom, Dad, and my brothers love most. I'm the one who's spent twenty-three years with them. You can't possibly compare to the bond I have with them."

Ye Mo raised an eyebrow. "But at the end of the day, I'm their biological daughter and younger sister, while you have no blood relation to them at all... otherwise, why have you been on high alert, as though facing a formidable enemy, unable to sit still ever since I stepped through the Ye Family's door?"

She hit the nail on the head. "It's because you know that perfectly well, isn't it?"

Ye Baozhu: "..."

What did it mean to kill someone and strike at their heart? That was exactly what Ye Mo had done. She knew what mattered most to Ye Baozhu. The instant she said those words, the color drained from Ye Baozhu's face like an ebbing tide, leaving her deathly pale, even her lips trembling.

"Ye Mo!" Ye Miao couldn't stand watching anymore. He stepped forward, shielding Ye Baozhu behind him, and glared at Ye Mo. "Why do you have to say such nasty things? Baozhu didn't even say anything!"

Ye Mo folded her arms and looked coldly at the person before her. "My question is still the same. In what capacity are you questioning me? As my older brother?"

She asked, then shook her head in denial. "No. You're only Ye Baozhu's older brother, not mine."

When Ye Miao heard her

words, he felt somewhat humiliated and couldn't help saying, "What nonsense are you talking? When did I ever say I wasn't your older brother?"

Ye Mo said, "You don't need to say it. I can see for myself..."

She spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. "You've never treated me as a younger sister. Otherwise, why would you be standing in front of me like this now? Between me and Ye Baozhu, you've always taken her side unconditionally, haven't you?"

Ye Miao's gaze flickered. "That's because..."

"You don't need to explain anything to me," Ye Mo cut him off decisively. "Anyway, to me, you're only a little more familiar than a stranger. I don't care how you treat me."

Her words only made Ye Miao indignant, and he retorted, "Even if you say that and don't want me as your older brother, we're still brother and sister connected by blood. That's an absolutely irrefutable fact! Isn't it?"

He looked at Ye Mo defiantly, failing to notice how Ye Baozhu's face behind him had suddenly turned deathly pale at his words.

Ye Mo gave Ye Baozhu a meaningful look, then said, "I came over just to tell you that if you're going to talk about people behind their backs, don't do it in the garden at home anymore. I really don't want to be strolling through the garden next time and hear someone shouting things like 'I don't like her, and I don't think of her as my younger sister' again..."

She looked at Ye Miao with a smile. "Isn't that right, Third Brother?"

Hearing her call him "Third Brother" for the first time, Ye Miao: "..."

"Oh, one more thing." Something suddenly occurred to Ye Mo. She strolled over to Ye Baozhu and said softly in her ear, "I don't care what you want to fight for or what tricks you use, but whatever you do, I hope you'll keep me out of it! Otherwise, I'll be very unhappy."

"And when I'm unhappy, there's no telling what I might do. For instance, tell Mom and Dad what you did at the Blue Bar on the night of July thirteenth, or, for another example%"

Ye Mo lowered her voice further, almost murmuring into Ye Baozhu's ear. "You have a red rose tattoo on your left buttock."

Ye Baozhu immediately looked at her in terror. "How do you know these things?"

She fought to suppress the urge to reach out and touch the rose tattoo on her right buttock. Her mind was already in complete turmoil. She couldn't understand why Ye Mo knew these things,

Ye Mo smiled. "Have you forgotten? I told you, I'm a divine fortune-teller. I can divine anything, and that naturally includes those shameful secrets of yours, Sister Baozhu..."

Ye Baozhu trembled.

Ye Mo straightened up and smiled. "Sister Baozhu, let's get along from now on, all right?"

Her smile was extraordinarily beautiful, her lovely, radiant face looking harmless and approachable. Yet in Ye Baozhu's eyes, she looked like a hideous evil ghost, chilling her heart with fear.

"...Y-yes, I understand. I understand." Ye Baozhu murmured, looking at Ye Mo with something close to shock and terror.

A satisfied expression immediately appeared on Ye Mo's face.

Ye Mo had said she had only come to say something, and after those few remarks, she really did leave, leaving Ye Miao and Ye Baozhu with different expressions on their faces.

Ye Miao said, "That girl really knows how to make people angry!"

Then he muttered, "That was the first time she's called me Third Brother..." Although she had said it sarcastically, it had sounded rather nice. If only she would say it a few more times.