“Mmph… Mmph… Mmph!!!”
The boy’s eyes were covered by a black cloth, leaving him unable to see his surroundings, but he could clearly feel that his limbs were tightly bound!
Had he been kidnapped?!
But… why bind him? He clearly had nothing left!
At that thought, he slowly gave up struggling. An inexplicable sense of misery welled up in his heart. His parents didn’t want him anymore; he had been abandoned…
But… he really didn’t hurt Jiang Yu!
He desperately wanted to tell his parents that he didn’t push Jiang Yu down the stairs, he didn’t frame him for stealing, and he certainly didn’t hire people to bully him at school!
The cloth over his eyes grew damp with tears, sticking to his skin uncomfortably.
“Sister…”
He called out to her silently in his heart. His sister hadn’t appeared in a long time—was she busy? If she knew… if she knew he had been kicked out of the house, would she be sad? Would she come looking for him? Would she know he’d been kidnapped?
He didn’t know, and he didn’t dare to think about it.
Time ticked by. At first, he hadn’t even realized he was afraid, but as the minutes stretched on, fear slowly began to seep in. Why did these people kidnap him? For money? Or something else?
He had no money. As for something else… No, he didn’t want to be treated like that.
No, it can’t be…
They must be after money. They must still think he was the Young Master of the Ye family. That had to be it.
But if they found out he was no longer a member of the Ye family, what would they do? His mind became a chaotic mess. He tried to tell himself not to think about it, but he couldn’t help it. The more he thought, the more terrified he became.
He didn’t know when the kidnappers would return, or when they would discover his true status.
I’m going to die, aren’t I?
Maybe he’d die a horrible death—first played with, then sold for parts. He wondered if they would give him anesthesia before they killed him.
His thoughts spiraled further into darkness until, suddenly, a large hand rested on his body. He flinched violently, wanting to struggle.
“Don’t move!”
A familiar voice rang out, causing him to instantly stop resisting.
“Mmph!”
Ye Moran reached out and tore the tape off Ye Jin’s mouth. Because it was stuck so tightly, a red welt immediately appeared around his lips. Ye Moran’s eyes held an unreadable, dark glint, yet a smile played on her lips as her fingers slowly brushed against the red mark.
“Does it hurt?”
“Sister, are you here to save me?”
Ye Jin’s voice was filled with joy. In his innocence, he believed his sister hadn’t abandoned him—that she still cared and had come to his rescue!
However, Ye Moran quickly shattered his illusion.
“No, I’m not here to save you. I’m here to…”
She didn’t finish the sentence, but the smile on her face deepened. Her large hands began to wander restlessly over the small boy’s body.
Finally, he was hers! No one would fight her for him anymore. From now on, he belonged only to her; he would have nothing to do with anyone else!
“Sister? What are you doing? No… please don’t touch me like that…”
Ye Jin’s body went rigid, his voice trembling. He finally sensed that something was wrong.
Ye Moran didn’t speak. Her fingers trailed slowly over his skin, sliding across his neck. His neck was so slender and fair that she could wrap her hand entirely around it; a gentle squeeze would surely leave a flush of pink.
His soft face was covered in tear stains—he must have been crying for a long time before she arrived.
Finally, her hand moved to the cloth covering his eyes. She carefully pulled it away, revealing the boy’s large, watery eyes. Those eyes, bright as stars, were now filled with nothing but fear and unease. His long eyelashes trembled as tears pooled in his eyes, ready to spill over at any moment.
“Why are you crying? Are you not happy to see Sister?”
“I…”
Ye Jin didn’t know what to say. The sister before him looked familiar, yet her smile felt like that of a stranger, and her eyes reflected emotions he couldn’t understand. For some reason, he was afraid of this version of her.
“From now on, this is your home. You can only stay here. You aren’t allowed to go anywhere else, do you understand?”
Ye Moran gently stroked Ye Jin’s smooth hair, as if soothing a troublesome child.
“But… I have to go to school…”
“Pfft… Have you forgotten, my silly brother?” she chuckled. “When you hired those people to bully Jiang Yu, our parents already canceled your enrollment. You have no school to go to.”
“I didn’t! I didn’t do those things! I didn’t!” Ye Jin’s lip quivered, and tears finally burst forth as he shouted his defense.
He really hadn’t done those things! Why didn’t even his sister believe him?
“Alright, alright, don’t cry. I know it wasn’t you.”
‘Because I was the one who did it.‘
She didn’t say that last part out loud. It was better the little guy didn’t know such things; knowing wouldn’t do anyone any good.
Ye Moran pulled his head onto her lap, stroking him gently to comfort him. Eventually, Ye Jin’s emotions stabilized. He shifted his body, but his bound limbs made movement uncomfortable. He hesitated before speaking.
“Sister, I’m so uncomfortable. Can you untie me?”
“Hmm… not right now. I’m going to make dinner for you. I’ll untie you once I’m done, okay?”
“Oh… okay.”
Ye Jin lowered his head, resting it on her lap. He couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t untie the ropes, where the kidnappers had gone, or exactly when she had rescued him.
As Ye Moran went to cook, Ye Jin was left alone on the bed. He couldn’t figure out the answers to his questions, so he stopped trying. He had always been slow—his grades were always at the bottom of the class, and he couldn’t even grasp simple math problems, let alone a situation this complex.
Lying on the bed, he began to look around the room. He felt like he had been here before. When he was eight, his sister said she wanted to give him a gift and brought him here. Back then, he didn’t understand the significance of a house; he just wanted to live with his family, so he only visited once and eventually forgot about it.
He remembered it now only because his sister had ignored him for days when she realized he’d forgotten the place. He’d had to buy her a gift to coax her back into a good mood.
“Dinner is ready. Let me untie you first.”
Ye Moran approached him slowly, holding a pair of scissors. Ye Jin blinked his innocent eyes, watching intently as his sister personally snipped away the ropes that bound him.
He thought happily that he was finally free from the restraints. He hoped that after dinner, he could ask his sister to let him stay for a few days. She would surely agree… right?