Chapter 20

Ling Mo stretched out his arm to block it, and the soup splashed onto his arm. It was bone broth, freshly served!
With a clatter, the bowl fell to the ground and shattered.
The soup dripped down Ling Mo’s body.
His arm immediately turned red.
Li Yuanhang, holding his chopsticks, watched this scene with glee.
Chen Li immediately panicked and rushed to find a towel to wipe Ling Mo: “Does it hurt? Your uncle didn’t mean to, don’t be angry! Don’t be angry! Aunt will take you to the doctor right now!”
But Ling Mo, as if he didn’t feel the pain, looked up and asked Li Hao, “Last month, I heard Li Yuanhang bragging in class that you bought him a house in Longxin. The average price there is 3,000 yuan per square meter, so 80 square meters would be 240,000 yuan, paid in full, registered in Li Yuanhang’s name. Where did that money come from?”
Chen Li immediately explained, “That… that was bought with the money we had left over from selling our house. Why are you so suspicious?”
“Your house and my uncle’s house are only 60 square meters, and it only sold for 150,000 yuan back then. That was just enough to cover his lawsuit, right?”
Speaking of the lawsuit, Li Hao became even more restless.
“Alright! Stop eating! Get back to your room!”
“Didn’t you just say you were going to take good care of me? I haven’t had dinner yet.” Ling Mo said calmly.
“Dinner? We can’t afford to feed you!”
Li Hao grabbed Ling Mo and dragged him towards his small room. He was still angry and kicked him in the back.
Ling Mo lost his balance and fell to the ground.
Li Yuanhang held his bowl and watched the scene, chuckling. Chen Li thought, “Oh no, oh no! He’s hitting this little ancestor, there’s no good outcome!”
Ling Mo didn’t get up. Li Hao was dissatisfied and went forward to grab his collar, “You’re pretending, you…”
A creak… the door opened.
Li Hao looked up and saw several people standing outside the door. They had been listening for an unknown amount of time.
Chen Li went around the table and rushed over, looking at the people outside, completely stunned.
Standing outside were not only Jiang, the columnist from the Morning News upstairs, but also Auntie Chen from the neighborhood committee and her daughter-in-law.
“Director Jiang, Auntie Chen… why are you here…”
Chen Li finally understood that when Ling Mo came home from school, he hadn’t closed the door properly.
Director Jiang’s face was cold. He just walked in and helped Ling Mo up.
Li Hao, who was still in a rage, actually pushed Director Jiang: “This is my house! When did I let you in?”
Chen Li quickly stood in front of Director Jiang, constantly winking at her husband.
“This is Director Jiang from the Morning News! Husband, control your temper! Director Jiang, don’t misunderstand, my husband has a straightforward temper, and the child doesn’t know how to speak properly. He just wanted to argue with the child, and it ended up…”
“I don’t misunderstand. I saw it with my own eyes, I heard it with my own ears. His foot kicked Ling Mo in the back. If even that can be misunderstood, there’s nothing in the world that can be understood.”
Director Jiang lifted Ling Mo’s arm. It was red all over.
“I’m taking the child to the hospital. You can do whatever you want to do.”
After saying that, Director Jiang took Ling Mo away.
Auntie Chen from the neighborhood committee was still surprised.
She had heard Chen Li say how difficult she was, how difficult it was to take care of Ling Mo, and how he was always hostile towards them.
Auntie Chen saw that Chen Li was usually tactful and good at taking care of them, the elderly. But today…
“This house clearly belongs to Ling Mo’s parents, but you let the child live in the storage room? I didn’t hear wrong?”
“Auntie Chen, don’t misunderstand!” Chen Li finally understood that if Ling Mo wanted to, the image of her being hard-working and struggling that she had created could collapse instantly.
“The child asked where his parents’ money went, you just had to answer him properly! Isn’t there a record of the passbook? Just take it out and have a look! The child asked, and you yelled loudly and even hit him. The neighbors upstairs and downstairs heard it, and they thought you two were guilty!” Auntie Chen continued.
“Auntie Chen, that’s because we were afraid that the child would know that his parents left money and wouldn’t study hard, and would just rely on the money his parents left behind. So we kept it from him. We will definitely return the money to him when he goes to college!”
Chen Li wanted to appease Auntie Chen. After all, she was from the neighborhood committee. If she knew, the whole building would know!
Auntie Chen thought that she had seen through Chen Li’s true nature, so she turned around and patted her daughter-in-law’s shoulder, saying, “Let’s go.”
But Auntie Chen’s daughter-in-law sneered. She worked in the same unit as Chen Li. Chen Li was good at talking and was smooth, often throwing things she didn’t want to do to her department. As a result, she did the work, but it was always Chen Li who got praised.
“I’m telling you, Chen Li, we all know about you buying a house for Yuanhang. We work in the same unit, your income is about the same as mine, right? Plus your old Li, if he didn’t eat or drink all these years, could he afford a house in Longxin?”

Chen Li heard this and thought that this matter shouldn’t be spread to the unit. She immediately went forward to say something to the other party, but the other party didn’t care at all. She held Auntie Chen’s arm and went upstairs.
“It’s over… it’s over…” Chen Li looked at Li Hao.
“What’s over! Stop nagging in my ear!”
“Why can’t you control your temper! Now you’ve made the people from the newspaper know, the neighborhood committee knows, and my colleagues know! How are we going to live in this house?”
“Isn’t that good? When Yuanhang’s house is renovated, we’ll move in. Doesn’t Ling Mo think we’re taking his house? He can live here alone, however he wants!”
“Good!” Li Yuanhang almost clapped his hands.
Hearing his son say that, Li Hao felt a strange sense of superiority.
“Good your ass! That’s a shell, it will take half a year to renovate! And where will you get the money for the renovation?”
Chen Li asked this, and Li Hao fell silent.
“You better think about how to explain to the columnist upstairs and bring Ling Mo back!”
“Bring him back?” Li Yuanhang was reluctant.
“Not only do you have to bring him back, but thanks to you two, I have to treat him like an ancestor!”
Chen Li pressed her hand against her eyes and let out a long sigh.
She finally understood why Ling Mo kept provoking Li Hao, why he didn’t fight back when Li Hao kicked him… Ling Mo had deliberately left the door open. He had lived in this building for so long, and he knew when Auntie Chen and her daughter-in-law went for walks. He had deliberately let them hear how his husband and wife treated him.
Ling Mo was taken back to his own home by Director Jiang. Director Jiang pulled Ling Mo to the tap to wash him, and seeing his arm red all over, he couldn’t help but sigh.
“Director Jiang, thank you.”
“What are you thanking me for? I’ll take you to the hospital later to get a certificate, for evidence.”
Ling Mo lowered his head and watched Director Jiang apply medicine to him, then asked, “Thank you, Director Jiang… You usually don’t come back until after eight o’clock. Why did you come back so early today?”
“Do you really want to know?” Director Jiang sat opposite Ling Mo, looking at him.
“You… you came back so early for me? But you didn’t know…”
“You didn’t know your uncle would come back from the factory today? Or didn’t you know he would hit you?”
“So you did know.” Ling Mo’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.
“Actually, I haven’t finished my work at the newspaper. I came back early because that little fatty called me.”
“Mo Xiaobai?” Ling Mo looked up.
“Yeah. He said that after he got home, he was worried about you all the time. He said your uncle was home and he was afraid your aunt would persuade your uncle to teach you a lesson. He found the phone number of our editorial office in the Morning News and asked me to keep an eye out. If I heard something wrong, he asked me to come and knock on the door. He also said that I didn’t need to come in, just stand at the door and ask, and your aunt wouldn’t dare to do anything to you.”
Ling Mo’s fingertips trembled. He lowered his head, and no one could see his expression.
“You definitely couldn’t go back tonight.”
Ling Mo looked up, about to refuse, but Director Jiang seemed to know what he was thinking. He smiled, “If you don’t want to sleep here, you should at least call that classmate who’s worried about you, right?”
“I know.”
Ling Mo got up and went to the phone. Mo Qing had given him his home number, and he remembered it at a glance.
That night, at ten o’clock, a car drove to the bottom of Ling Mo’s building under the cover of night.
Mo Qing, with a stern face, knocked hard on Ling Mo’s door. Liang Ru stood beside him, arms crossed.
Chen Li kicked Li Hao and said, “It’s so late… go and see who it is.”
“Maybe that little bastard is back. I don’t care!”
“If you don’t open the door, he’ll knock all night, aren’t you afraid of the whole building talking about it tomorrow?”
Chen Li said this, and Li Hao reluctantly got up and went to the door, muttering under his breath, “You little bastard, you dare to come back?”
He looked through the peephole and saw that it wasn’t Ling Mo outside the door, but Mo Qing’s expressionless face.
Li Hao was startled and quickly opened the door, “Mo… Mo, Chief Engineer… Why are you at my house? Come in! Come in!”
Mo Qing narrowed his eyes, “You know me?”
“You were the technical supervisor at our factory! I’m just a small fry, you wouldn’t remember me. But how could I forget you!” Li Hao turned around and shouted to the bedroom, “Chen Li! Chen Li, get up quickly! Our boss is here, you quickly make some tea!”