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

She mentally reviewed the plans for that home once more.

The first step is to create chaos and unrest.

It will start tomorrow.

Inside the main room, Lin Guozhu, with a bowl of rice in his hand, asked without looking up, "Have you all eaten?"

"I ate," Ding Yuxiang answered smoothly.

She wasn't lying—she ate some herself, and her daughter ate some too. As for whether the two little brats in the woodshed ate any, what did that have to do with her?

It's better to be hungry. After a few meals of hunger, they'll know who's in charge of this house.

Lin Guozhu didn't ask any more questions. After he finished eating, he put his bowl on the stove, wiped his mouth, and heard the sound of the courtyard gate outside.

"Are Mom and Dad back?"

No sooner had she finished speaking than Lin Xiaohua's voice boomed in: "This road is so hard to walk on! I've twisted my ankle!"

"Hua, let me help you, take it easy." It was Old Mrs. Lin's voice, sounding like she was in a lot of pain.

"You just keep spoiling her!" Old Man Lin muttered as he followed behind.

Lin Guozhu put down his bowl, went to the main room to say a few words to his parents, and then went back to his room to rest.

From beginning to end, no one mentioned the siblings in the woodshed.

No one knew that Lin Qianqian, with strips of cloth wrapped around her head, was lying on a straw mat, so hungry that her stomach was churning with acid.

"Gurgle—"

My stomach growled.

Lin Yulong, with his sharp ears, immediately heard: "Sis, are you hungry? I'll go find you something to eat."

Lin Qianqian grabbed him: "Don't go. If you get caught, you'll get beaten up again."

"But you..."

"Just hang in there, it'll pass." Lin Qianqian interrupted him, "Ah Long, are you hungry?"

Lin Yulong shook his head rapidly: "Sister, I'm not hungry."

He lied.

He only had a bowl of thin porridge in the morning, so thin you could see your reflection in it. Nothing at noon, nothing at night. His stomach was completely empty.

But he couldn't say he was hungry. If he did, his older sister would have to give him the food.

The woodshed fell silent. A breeze blew outside, and the pigs in the sty grunted twice. After a while, a meowing sound suddenly rang out.

Lin Qianqian listened intently: "What's that noise?"

"Perhaps it's the cat meowing," Lin Yulong said.

The cat's meows were strange, sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes high, sometimes low, and it wouldn't leave even after meowing for a long time. Lin Yulong sat up: "I'll go check and chase it away."

The woodshed was pitch black. As he stood up, he tripped over the firewood on the ground and almost fell.

"Slow down," Lin Qianqian instructed.

Lin Yulong reached the doorway and poked his head out.

Under the moonlight, the yard was empty. Where did the cat come from?

Just as he was wondering what was going on, someone called out to him in a low voice from under the wall, "Ah Long! Over here!"

Lin Yulong looked closely—it was Ding Xiaohu, crouching in the shadows, waving at him.

"Brother Tiger? What brings you here so late?"

Ding Xiaohu crouched down and ran over, pulling two dark objects from his pocket and shoving them into his hand. He then opened his other hand, revealing an egg in his palm.

"My mother was worried you'd be hungry, worried that Ding wouldn't give you any food. Here are some flatbreads, and this too—"

Lin Yulong stared at the egg, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets: "An egg?"

"My mother said that Sister Qianqian was seriously injured and needs to be nourished." Ding Xiaohu also stuffed the eggs into his hands.

Lin Yulong clutched the two pancakes and the egg, his hands trembling slightly. "Thank you, Auntie... We'll definitely pay you back sometime."

"What are you saying!" Ding Xiaohu punched him. "Hurry up and take it! I've been pretending to be a cat for ages, and you still haven't come out."

Lin Yulong was taken aback for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh: "Was that stray cat you just now? I was thinking it was causing trouble!"

"You little brat, you're asking for it!" Ding Xiaohu pretended to hit him, then quickly withdrew his hand. "I'm just afraid your stepmother will find out! Alright, I'm leaving, go back now."

He crouched down and slipped away along the base of the wall.