Chapter 14: Parents

“Sigh~”

The girl let out a helpless sigh.

“Ye Jinyi is still obsessed with those trivial, unnecessary things?”

Trivial… unnecessary things?

Do you hear yourself?

You don’t make money, you don’t support a family, you don’t even care, do you?

“Actually, money isn’t that hard to obtain… Ye Jinyi, if you can just acknowledge something.”

“Acknowledge what exactly?”

The moment money was mentioned, Ye Jinyi had to pay attention.

If there was money to be made, then that meant a shot at a better life.

Ye Jinyi understood this dead-simple truth more than anyone.

“It’s easy—you just have to go to a place called…”

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo~

“Waaah!!”

A sudden noise startled Ye Jinyi so much she fell right off her chair, head smacking the floor.

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo~

The noise continued as Ye Jinyi rubbed her head and slowly came to.

Clutching her forehead, she quickly got to her feet.

She realized the sound was coming from Yingmeng.

Ye Jinyi walked over, placed a finger under Yingmeng’s nose—she was still breathing.

Relieved, she gently lifted the blanket and reached into Yingmeng’s pocket, pulling out the phone that was vibrating like crazy.

Ye Jinyi glanced at the screen.

It was a call, and the contact name read “Mom.”

She could guess—Yingmeng hadn’t come home in so long, her parents were probably worried sick.

Ye Jinyi answered the call and, with her free hand, gently pulled the blanket back over Yingmeng.

The moment the call connected, a panicked voice came from the other end.

“Hello? Mengyi, where are you now? Why did you take so long just to go to the supermarket? Daddy and Mommy are really worried about you.”

“Sweetie, why aren’t you saying anything?”

Ye Jinyi hesitated for a moment, then finally decided to speak.

“Auntie, Huimengyi encountered a calamity at the supermarket today and got hurt. She’s resting at my place right now.”

“I hope you can come get her and take her to the hospital for a check-up. I don’t have any money and can’t really help.”

“…Huh?”

The other end of the line went silent for a long time.

“Then… little girl, who are you?”

“Ye Jinyi.”

“And where are you now?”

Ye Jinyi gave them her address.

She wasn’t sure if it was the right decision, but at the very least, it might save Yingmeng’s life.

After a brief exchange, the call was disconnected.

Ye Jinyi could tell they were already rushing over.

She placed the phone back by Yingmeng’s side, then walked back to her computer chair.

She set the fallen chair upright and sat down.

With nothing else to do, she pulled out her phone and started scrolling through short videos.

She didn’t know how much time had passed.

Knock knock knock~

There was a knock at the door, followed by the voice of a mature woman.

“Excuse me, is anyone there?”

“Coming~”

Ye Jinyi paused her video, put away her phone, hopped off the chair, and ran to open the door.

When it opened, she saw a middle-aged couple standing outside, faces showing faint but unmistakable worry.

“Please, come in.”

Ye Jinyi led the couple into the room.

The woman scanned the space in one glance—just one bed, a computer desk, and a small bathroom.

“Little girl, is this your home?”

“Mm.”

Ye Jinyi wasn’t sure what the woman was getting at, so she kept her response simple.

The woman continued, “Don’t you find it crowded living here with your parents?”

“I don’t have any family.”

…

The room fell into a heavy silence.

Ye Jinyi said nothing more and simply brought the couple to Yingmeng’s side.

“She’s very weak right now. If you have a stretcher…”

“Don’t worry, we’ve already called an ambulance—it should be here soon,” the man offered the only reassuring news at the moment.

…

There wasn’t much any of them could do now besides wait.

With nothing else to occupy herself, Ye Jinyi sat down on the floor near the edge of the bed and started scrolling through her phone.

She casually reminded the couple:

“There’s still space to sit by the bed, and the computer chair’s free too. If you don’t mind, make yourselves comfortable.”

“Oh, thank you, little girl,” the man said.

He added, “But are you really going to sit on the floor? That’s not good for your health.”

“It’s fine. Just for a bit—it doesn’t matter.”

The couple exchanged glances and seemed to understand something unspoken.

The man sat at the corner of the bed, while the woman took the chair.

The household power dynamic was instantly obvious.

The man gently brought a finger close to his daughter’s nose—thank goodness, she was still breathing.

He gave a small nod to the woman, silently reassuring her that things weren’t too bad.

Now that her worry had eased, the woman couldn’t help her curiosity about the owner of this cramped little apartment.

“So, little girl, what’s your name?”

“Ye Jinyi. ‘Ye’ as in dark night, ‘Jin’ from fire with the character for ‘effort,’ and ‘Yi’ with the standing radical plus ‘feather.’”

The woman typed the name into her phone.

“What a beautiful name. Did you come up with it yourself?”

“Kind of.”

Ye Jinyi, now playing a MOBA game on her phone, picked a support role and started wandering aimlessly in-game.

“Back at the orphanage, I used to be called Ye Jinyi—meaning the only child who arrived tonight.”

“Later, I left the orphanage. That name got me too many nicknames, so I applied to change it.”

The woman began to understand.

This was a child born under misfortune—a child whose very sense of self had been stepped on without hesitation.

“By the way, my name is Xiang Yujie. Just call me Aunt Xiang. The man over there is Hui Feng. You can call him Uncle Hui.”

“Okay.”

Ye Jinyi gave a brief reply, her focus not really on the couple.

She buffed teammates, landed some crowd control, watched them throw, and then gave up and ran.

At that moment, Xiang Yujie felt the more she asked this child questions, the more she sensed there were countless secrets waiting to be uncovered.

“Come to think of it, did you buy this apartment yourself?”

“No, I’m renting. I don’t have a home.”

“So you’ve already started working, right?”

“I worked at Tianting Group for a year. Just quit recently.”

Huh?

Xiang Yujie suddenly felt like she’d heard something utterly intolerable.

That heartless corporation was recruiting child labor now?

“What are you going to do now?”

“Wait to die.”

Hearing Ye Jinyi’s answer, the words “wait to die” made Xiang Yujie unconsciously tighten her grip on her jade ring.

Hui Feng, scrolling through videos beside her, flinched so hard his phone nearly slipped from his hand.

Just two simple words—yet they weighed so heavily they felt suffocating.

They weren’t words that should ever come from someone so young.

Nor thoughts that should belong to a life like hers.

Should they keep asking?

Xiang Yujie was starting to feel afraid.

This girl felt like a bottomless abyss—the deeper they probed, the more stifling it became.

“But… life can be beautiful too, right? And besides, Auntie believes that God placed us in this world for a reason, don’t you think? Even if we’re going to die… shouldn’t we die with some meaning?”