"Chen Yue, do you see what we have created?" Bai Yu muttered. "We've put him on a pedestal and now look at how he thinks about the world."

  How entitled and disrespectful.

  "Don't worry," Bai Ye Qing said with a sarcastic lift of his lips. "I won't be living under the same roof as you. I guess you would tell me that as long as I am living under your roof, I will have to follow your rules. I have been staying here for your own benefit. I didn't want to abandon my old parents." He laughed.

  "Yu, please. Don't let him leave."

  Bai Yu turned to his wife. "He's leaving the main house to go to the apartment he brought. He brought it using money he skimmed from the company. He used embezzled money to buy an apartment." He pointed at Bai Ye Qing. "Think about it carefully. The same person who just lectured us on being terrible parents is saying that he wanted to watch over us. Do you think he is telling the truth?"

  "I don't understand," Chen Yue whimpered.

  "He's been living under our roof because he gets free food. He doesn't need to do chores and he can also keep an eye on our movements. He only aims to control the company, that's why he stayed here and used you to talk on his behalf."

  Bai Ye Qing laughed. "And who has forced me to do this?" he yelled. "Who treated me like an idiot ever since I was a child?" He pointed wildly around the room. "Everyone in the family and in the locality kept pointing out how I wasn't as good as older brother. You didn't refute. You planned on giving him everything. What about me?" he asked.

  "You've really lost your mind," Bai Yu said. "Everything was equally divided between the family. You never understood what sharing meant. Even as a child, you would go into your brother and cousins' rooms and take their things indiscriminately. If someone protested, you would cry until everyone got tired and gave you what you wanted. Do you think the same thing applies when you are an adult?" he said slowly.

  "Wenxi was the older child. He knew what hardship was. When you asked him for something, he gave it to you without question. But you… you would always take his pieces of food and keep it in your plate. At the end, you would not eat the pieces and we would have to throw it away."

  "Why are you bringing this up?" Chen Yue said. "That's all in the past."

  "It was all the indication I needed. He is a usurper. He wants everything for himself and he will go to great lengths for it to happen. Think about it. He kept bothering people, thinking they would give in to his whims. When he didn't get his way, he harassed and threatened those people more. Even when he didn't need something, if he saw someone else having it, he would take it from them and exploit it. He would discard it, too. He doesn't care for anything but getting what he wants… immediately."

  There was silence in the room. Words had been spoken and no party had been polite.

  "I will go live in the apartment I bought with money I embezzled, then," Bai Ye Qing stated with a huff. There was a hint of pride in his eyes.

  "Ye Qing, son, please… don't leave. Your father is just angry. You don't have to leave," Chen Yue pleaded. She clutched onto Bai Ye Qing's arm as he brushed past her. "You just went through a big change, it's not good to stay alone."

  He shook her off and stormed out.

  Chen Yue remained rooted to the spot, dazed and confused.

  She finally snapped out of it and turned to Bai Yu. "Did you have to be that harsh? He is a child!" she said.

  "A child? He is twenty-six years old… going on twenty-seven. He was supposed to be married. He still gambles away his salary and spends lavishly on meals with friends, debtors, and women. Now, he doesn't have a salary. What do you want me to do?" he asked. "I will not allow him to use my hard-earned money to indulge in illegal activity."

  He turned around and walked away, leaving Chen Yue in the office without a clue of what to do. She looked towards the mess in the room and sighed. She went behind the table and started to neaten up the papers and putting them back inside the password protected vault.

  She closed it and looked around the room. The pain in her lower back intensified and she rubbed the spot after getting up.

  Suddenly, a wave of anger overcame her.

  Yun Qian Meng.

  That bitch.

  She was tearing their family apart. Ever since she came into their lives, nothing had gone right for them. At first, the Yun family approached them for a married with Wenxi and he passed away shortly after. Then the marriage prospect fell on Ye Qing. He, too was ruined like this in her hands. The girl was hellbent of ruining them. Or disaster followed wherever she went.

  She needed justice for her family. There was only one person responsible, and there was little to no way to get back at her for the grief Qian Meng had caused her.

  She walked back to the kitchen and picked up the phone. After a few rings, the phone was picked up.

  "Chen Yue, why are you calling all of a sudden?" the person on the other side asked. Jiang Xin spoke sarcastically into the phone. "You haven't called me in a while. I thought you were offended by my daughter's behavior and didn't want anything to do with me."

  Chen Yue sighed. She didn't understand these plots and acts. "Sister, that step-daughter of yours is still causing our family trouble. She stormed the family company's and expelled my son from his position." She barely held back her anger.