Chapter 486: Chapter 486: The Arrogant Third Aunt Si Bows Her Head
Although Third Aunt Si was vicious toward others, she always spoke to her own daughter in a soft, gentle voice.
This was because she’d had an unfortunate childhood. Her father didn’t dote on her, her mother didn’t love her, and her grandparents favored boys over girls.
Her childhood had been miserable, so after she married and had children, she became especially doting on her daughter.
She truly preferred her daughter to her sons, especially since she’d had three boys before finally having a girl.
She naturally treasured her daughter like the apple of her eye. But when it came to herself, her daughter still came second. To put it bluntly, the person she loved most was herself.
When she heard the Young Master of the Si Family say her sons couldn’t take her daughter’s place, she knew this nephew of hers was deliberately making things difficult for them because he couldn’t stand the mother-daughter duo.
If she helped her daughter clean the floor, the Young Master of the Si Family surely wouldn’t say anything, but she didn’t want to clean the floor!
It wasn’t as exaggerated as her second sister-in-law claimed—that if a mop fell over in their house, she’d just kick it away.
But it was a fact that she would never stoop to pick up a fallen mop or broom.
Let alone actually mopping. That was why she had told her daughter to clean the floor. Who would have thought that her daughter wouldn’t just refuse to move, but would even offer a contemptuous smile?
"Mom, don’t you always say you love me more than anyone? So why won’t you clean the floor for me?"
Third Aunt Si’s face flushed with embarrassment. She put on a serious expression and said, "Your eldest cousin said that no one can take your place."
"His meaning was obvious. He just didn’t want my brothers to clean the floor for me. He never said *you* couldn’t help, Mom."
Stunned by her daughter’s bluntness, even someone as thick-skinned as Third Aunt Si was taken aback.
She never expected her daughter to publicly humiliate her at such a critical moment. ’All that doting on her was for nothing!’
Her two sisters-in-law in the Si Family were always calling her an ungrateful wretch behind her back, but she’d always thought they were making a mountain out of a molehill.
But today, she felt a strong urge to call her own daughter an ungrateful wretch. Just as Third Aunt Si was about to find another excuse...
She heard Si Jinghao’s seven-year-old son say in a high-pitched, childish voice, "My daddy didn’t say Third Grand-aunt can’t help clean the floor. Eighth Auntie, you stink. You should hurry up and go take a bath."
"You..."
Si Yan pointed at her nephew, about to let loose a stream of curses, but when she heard her eldest cousin on the sofa give a heavy cough, she immediately fell silent.
Seeing the stalemate between Third Aunt Si and her daughter, Si Jinghao found he didn’t want Si Yan lingering in the living room either. After all, she reeked of urine.
Since his son had spoken up, he patted the boy’s head and said, "I only said you can’t *force* someone to take your place. If Third Aunt insists on helping her, that’s fine."
"Mom, my eldest cousin said you can clean the floor. I’m going upstairs to change. Grandpa and the others will be out soon, so hurry up."
After speaking, Si Yan shot a vicious glare at her younger brother, snorted, and turned to head upstairs to change.
Third Aunt Si could only resign herself to cleaning the floor. Her daughter had publicly offended that fake Divine Doctor today.
That bitch had scared her so much she’d wet herself. The urine stain on the living room’s wooden floor was her daughter’s mess. If she refused to clean it and continued to cause a scene, her mother-in-law would certainly be furious.
Since she was doing it against her will, she cursed Gu Jiaojiao and eighteen generations of the Si Family’s ancestors as she scrubbed the floor.
’Her father managed to ruin the Ye family back then, so she could ruin the entire Si Family too. You all just wait and see.’
Even though her father-in-law and mother-in-law had always treated her well, her determination to destroy the Si Family would not waver.
Her father had joined an organization back then, which gave him the power to ruin the Ye family. After the Ye family fell, she and her father became vagrants.
It wasn’t until the last couple of years that the organization found them again and gave them a mission: kill all the men of the Si Family.
If they failed, both she and her father would die. That was why for the past two years, her father had not only neglected to treat her father-in-law properly but had also been feeding him a slow-acting poison.
Although Third Aunt Si’s grandfather was the son of a Ye family concubine, he still grew up in the lap of luxury.
The Ye family had good genes; their descendants were all handsome men and beautiful women. Even in middle age, her grandfather was still a dashingly handsome man.
When a matchmaker tried to arrange a marriage for her father, the young lady he’d taken a liking to instead fell for his own father—her grandfather—at first sight.
She became utterly infatuated with him, preferring to become his concubine rather than the young mistress of the Ye family married to his son.
This dealt a devastating blow to her father’s psyche. He became dark and twisted, and when he eventually married, he cruelly tortured his wife.
According to her mother, her father’s torture caused her to have countless miscarriages. Finally, after a monumental effort, she managed to give birth to her.
Her great-grandfather named her Ye Xi, with the meaning "to cherish."
However, her grandparents, seeing she was a girl, never treated her well.
Her father was even worse. His eyes held nothing but hatred, and he was single-mindedly obsessed with destroying the Ye family.
Her mother hated her with a passion. The curse most often on her lips was: "Why wasn’t the child I risked my life for a son!"
She had "ended the family line," because giving birth to her had completely ruined her mother’s body, leaving her unable to have any more children.
Her mother could never have a son. How could she not hate her for that?
As far back as Third Aunt Si could remember, she was either being beaten by her father or cursed at by her mother. She had tasted the cruelest hardships the world had to offer.
Even though the Ye family was incredibly wealthy back then, she was a child raised on bitterness.
Her childhood also built up her resilience to beatings. As a result, when the Ye family later fell from grace, the other pampered members couldn’t survive, but she tenaciously pulled through.
Her mother died before the Ye family’s downfall. At the time, even though her mother’s health was failing, she still had the energy to curse her. In a fit of rage, Ye Xi pushed her, and the fall killed her.
After the Ye family was annihilated, she and her father struggled, begging on the streets, until they finally met her future father-in-law. Only then did the pair find a stable life.
She had started as a beggar, so to find her sense of balance, anyone she hated had to be reduced to begging as well.
It wasn’t that Third Aunt Si didn’t know how to clean a floor. She had done far more grueling and exhausting work in her past. It was just that in recent years, she had grown accustomed to the life of a wealthy socialite.
It’s easy to go from frugal to lavish, but hard to go from lavish to frugal. That’s why the task of cleaning the floor was so unacceptable to Third Aunt Si.
Second Aunt Si watched from the sidelines, an indescribable sense of satisfaction welling up inside her. She knew her third sister-in-law was fuming, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Her own family had fallen into decline, leaving her with no one to back her up, so she usually had to endure her third sister-in-law’s unreasonable antics.
Time and again, she had been so furious with her that her teeth itched with rage, but she’d been powerless to do anything.
She’d always known that no matter her background, her third sister-in-law still had a father who was a Divine Doctor to back her up.
Especially in the last two years, her father had taken on countless disciples, like some kind of ancient martial arts sect, all of whom looked to him as their leader.
The mother-daughter pair had grown increasingly arrogant. At home, they didn’t lift a finger, and outside, they’d break someone’s legs over the slightest disagreement and tell them to go beg for a living.
Even their eldest sister-in-law didn’t dare to provoke her third sister-in-law, so how could she?
But things were different now. Their father-in-law no longer needed her third sister-in-law’s father for treatment.
So from now on, they no longer had to walk on eggshells around her or give in to her whims.
’So what if she’s fuming now? What can she possibly do?’
Thinking of this, Second Aunt Si couldn’t help but steal another two glances at her third sister-in-law, who was still scrubbing the floor.
The sight was as refreshing as eating a popsicle on a hot summer day. Still, she didn’t dare to laugh, fearing her sister-in-law’s retaliation.
