After the family split up, my stepmother and scumbag father begged me to come home.

Lin Qianqian lost her appetite and decided not to eat. She wasn't hungry at all, and as for the egg, she would find a place to cook it for Ah Long when no one was around.

Thinking of that bowl of porridge, Lin Qianqian felt a soreness in her teeth—the sand in that porridge would probably break her teeth if she ate it.

Lin Qianqian carried porridge, while Ding Yuxiang carried wild vegetable soup and flatbread, entering the house one after the other.

The atmosphere in the room remained tense. Ding Yuxiang forced a smile and said, "The food is ready, Dad. Here's a bowl of porridge for you."

Old Man Lin nodded without saying a word. Old Mrs. Lin, however, glanced at Ding Yuxiang sideways with her eyelids.

She glanced at her silent second son beside her, and her anger flared even more—this second son was so quiet, he didn't know what kind of spell Ding Yuxiang had cast on him, that he was always protecting that stepdaughter who wasn't related to him by blood.

Ding Yuxiang called Lin Yuanyuan over to eat, serving her a bowl of thick porridge and handing her a flatbread. When it was Lin Qianqian and her brother's turn, only two bowls of thin, watery porridge remained.

Lin Qianqian pulled Ah Long aside and whispered that he couldn't finish the porridge, so she would give him something else later.

Old Mrs. Lin didn't bother looking at the second branch of the family; out of sight, out of mind. She lowered her head and shoveled the porridge into her mouth, not caring that it was too hot.

"Click—"

"Ah... my tooth!" Old Mrs. Lin covered her mouth and spat out a mouthful of bloody water, which was mixed with porridge, pebbles, and a tooth.

She slapped Ding Yuxiang across the face with a sharp crack: "You put so many pebbles in the porridge you made, didn't you?!"

Ding Yuxiang covered her face, looking aggrieved: "It wasn't me... it was that brat..."

"Second sister-in-law, you really know how to shift the blame," Lin Xiaohua interjected coolly. "Didn't you just say you cooked the meal? How come you're blaming Qianqian now? Oh—is it because she said you stole the eggs, and you're holding a grudge?"

"I didn't..." Ding Yuxiang's voice trembled.

"Second son, are you dead?" Old Mrs. Lin covered her cheek, pointing at her second son and scolding, "Look at the troublemaker you married! She never stops causing a moment of peace! I've lost all my teeth!"

"Mother, Yuxiang didn't do it on purpose..." Lin Lao Er stammered, "Perhaps she didn't pick out the rice properly when washing it, and there were just a few pebbles that you happened to eat..."

As he spoke, he shoveled a mouthful of porridge in an attempt to demonstrate, but suddenly stopped, his expression changed, and he spat it all out with a "pfft".

"There must be half a pound of pebbles in your porridge!"

The room fell silent for a moment.

Old Mrs. Lin's face turned ashen: "What else do you have to say? You never let a person eat in peace, not even once a day!"

She divided the few remaining pancakes on the plate: one for the old man, one for her daughter, and one for herself. Then she reached out and snatched the one from Lin Yuanyuan's hand, giving it to Lin Lao Er.

"That's mine!" Lin Yuanyuan stood up abruptly.

"What do you mean, 'you'?" Old Mrs. Lin didn't even lift her eyelids. "I'm the one who calls the shots in this house. Drink more of the porridge your mother made."

"I...that porridge..." Lin Yuanyuan angrily slammed down her chopsticks and turned to run away.

Ding Yuxiang hurriedly chased after her.

"They have no respect for elders or juniors at all, and they're even fighting." Old Mrs. Lin sneered.

"That's right, Second Brother, you need to keep a closer eye on him," Lin Xiaohua chimed in.

Lin Lao Er put down his bowl, said, "Mother, I'm done eating," and got up to leave. Before leaving, he didn't forget to put the steamed bun on the table into his hand.

"Put it down!" Old Mrs. Lin slammed her chopsticks down. "Eat it here if you want, otherwise put it down. Who are you going to give it to?"

"Mother...why are you doing this..."

"Eat or not is up to you. There's no lunch anyway, so if you can stand being hungry, go to work on an empty stomach."

Lin Lao Er remained silent for a moment, then sat down again and ate the pancake bit by bit. Throughout the entire process, he didn't ask once if his two children were hungry.

Lin Qianqian watched all of this with a cold eye.

That's just how her father is—incompetent, selfish, and unable to distinguish right from wrong.

He cared more about a stepdaughter with whom he had no blood relation than his own biological children.

If someone unaware of the truth saw this, they might think that Lin Yuanyuan was his biological daughter.