Chapter 406 - 399: Unfit to be Parents

“Yuxin, how old is your little brother? Why is he so fond of these snacks? My brother never touches them.” Li Jia grabbed a bag of Bubbly Star snacks and started munching away. She used to love these as a kid, and they tasted just as good now. Its classic taste was something she could never forget.

“My brother just loves these,” Tang Yuxin replied as she opened a small bag. Little Fatty also seemed to understand the value of saving stuff now, but he was smart enough to know he should save some for his sister too.

“He’s not even four yet.” Tang Yuxin popped a Bubbly Star into her mouth. Three-year-olds love to play and be noisy. Still, Chengcheng was a lot more well-behaved than other kids his age. He even washed his socks! Of course, this was something Tang Yuxin trained him to do.

Ignoring the housework part, we should at least wash our clothes, right? How else would we manage when we go to college? Would we take our moms with us?

“Your little brother is just over three?” Li Jia was shocked.

“Yuxin, do families in your region have two kids? How old was your mother when she had your brother?” Given that Tang Yuxin was now 20, did her mother had her second child when she was close to 40?

“My dad and my aunt remarried,” Tang Yuxin leaned against the pillows, “My little brother was born to my aunt. She was pretty young when she had him, in her early 30s.”

“And, your mother?” Li Jia asked cautiously, hoping it wasn’t a case of a missing mother.

“She…” Tang Yuxin smirked lightly. “She gave birth to me but never took care of me. My father raised me. When I was three, she married another man. They already had a two-year-old child who supposedly looks like her.”

The beginning wasn’t so alarming, but the last sentence was loaded. Any girl would understand the implications here. What Tang Yuxin insinuated was that her mother had an affair within the marriage. But what mother could abandon her child so heartlessly? But then again, if she could bear a child with another man, what wouldn’t she do?

Tang Yuxin sure was unfortunate. How did she end up with such a mother?

“You didn’t acknowledge them, did you?” Li Jia pulled a chair in front of her. “If it were me, I wouldn’t.”

“Why would I?” Tang Yuxin had never thought of acknowledging Sang Zhilan. How could she, when she refused to acknowledge Sang Zhilan herself? As a child, when Sang Zhilan tried to claim her, her father let her go, feeling sorry for her lack of a mother.

“Then…” Li Jia quickly intervened. Other roommates had also gathered to listen to Tang Yuxin’s story. Only Wei Jiani felt her face burn hot like a pot cover. Hiding her head under the cover, she still heard every word clearly.

“I went to their house,” Tang Yuxin continued her story as if recounting the past incidents, some of which she would never forget.

“Was she kind to you?” Li Jia asked.

“Yes, pretty much,” Tang Yuxin grabbed the box Gu Ning sent her and hugged it in her arms. It seemed to carry the warmth of Gu Ning’s hands. It was comforting.

“They didn’t have extra room, so they cleared out the storeroom for me. Apparently, it used to belong to their pet dog.”

Li Jia covered her mouth, and the others were equally shocked. Could this really be happening? How could anyone force a person to live in a doghouse? Even if it’s a stepmother, it’s inhuman to mistreat a child like this. Especially when it’s their own mother.@@novelbin@@

“I was just seven or eight then, pretty small,” Tang Yuxin continued in a quiet, steady tone. “I did all their housework, cooked, standing on a stool to wash dishes, polished their shoes, did their laundry, and took care of their daughter, who was two years younger than me. In the doghouse, I was alone at night. The winters were chilling, so I hugged my school bag to sleep. My father, afraid of me being mistreated, bought me lots of shoes and clothes. But my mother took them all for her daughter.”

“Their daughter, two years younger than me, enjoyed pulling my hair, hitting and scolding me. One day, they went to work, and their daughter fell sick. I was too young then, how would I know the girl was ill?”

“What would you guys do if you were in my shoes?”

Li Jia shook her head. The story tore at her heart, and the other girls were on the verge of tears.

It had been a long time since Tang Yuxin talked about these incidents, but revisiting them, she couldn’t fight back the sour feeling in her heart. She sat up, covering her face.

“When they returned, my mother beat me till I was all bloody and bruised for not taking care of their daughter, and threw me out in the middle of the night. It was cold, and I didn’t dare to go home. I didn’t even know where my father lived. All alone, I sat under a flyover, barely surviving the freezing night.”

“Then, a kind-hearted guy gave me food and water, and I found the bun-selling aunty in the village. The kind aunty took me home. Funnily enough, they didn’t even know I had gone back to my father’s house. They thought I was still living in that doghouse, starving myself out of fear.”

With a loud slap on the bed board, Li Jia exclaimed, “How can there be such an evil mother in this world?”

“Indeed, such people don’t deserve to be parents.”

“Their daughter must be a rotten apple too.”

“Yuxin, it’s alright. All that is in the past,” Li Jia hugged Tang Yuxin, “Though you don’t have a mother, your father is amazing. Look, you have an adorable brother who loves you so much. He’s far better than your mother. We don’t need mothers like that.”

Everyone else was also consoling Tang Yuxin. Meanwhile, listening to people trash talk about her family, Wei Jiani’s face was burning up. It was as if countless slaps were being thrown on her face. The pain was almost unbearable.

How could she admit now that the sister Tang Yuxin referred to was her? That they shared the same mother?

Why was she so unlucky to have such a mother?

Li Jia was filled with sympathy for Tang Yuxin.

It was unfortunate for Tang Yuxin to have such a mother. Because of her, their lives were marred for a lifetime. And she seemed intent on causing more trouble.