Qiao Ying came out of her room.
"Little Ying, come quickly to eat." Qiao's father had set out her bowl and chopsticks for her.
The completely bare living room didn't have a single valuable item, only a dim light bulb covered in dust.
The family of five gathered around a small, worm-eaten square table in the corner. The place left for her was in the corner.
Qiao Yi lowered his head to eat his meal. When Qiao Ying came over, he silently slid his chair over to make more room for his obese sister, sitting himself at the head of the table.
"You must feel much better after sleeping. Eat up," said Qiao's father as he added meat to her bowl. "I'm sorry our family doesn't have good conditions and doesn't have money for you to stay a few more days in the hospital. Just rest well at home and go back to school when you've recovered. Tomorrow Dad will buy a chicken and make soup to build up your health."
"With her grades, it makes no difference whether she goes to school or not. The teachers would be happy if she didn't show up," sneered Qiao Lingling mockingly.
"Lingling! She's your sister, how can you talk like that?" Qiao's father angrily scolded her.
"Why are you yelling at me? What did Lingling say wrong? I really don't know what's in that pig brain of hers. She gets scores of 5 and 10 points, bringing shame on me. And at such a young age she's shamelessly dating." Li Lilian was getting more angry the more she spoke.
After scolding Qiao Ying it wasn't enough, so she turned her anger towards Qiao's father: "Do you know how your relatives laugh at me? How could I have married a useless thing like you? Back then each of your brothers was as poor as a church mouse, but now they each have their own cars and houses, only you still have your wife and kids living in this old house, collecting your brothers' hand-me-down cars, TVs, refrigerators that they don't want anymore. If you had any ambition at all your son's foot wouldn't be crippled, but even after so many years, now even if you had money it couldn't be cured."
"I was really blind to have seen you."
Facing his wife's complaints, Qiao's father silently lowered his head, only holding his wine glass, his face much older than his peers flushed red with shame.
Qiao Yi ate his meal with indifference, long numb to this. But when he heard about his lame foot, his chopsticks gripped tighter.
"You really are shameless. Mom and Dad are fighting like this because of you, but you just keep watching TV. You're hopeless." Qiao Lingling angrily glared at Qiao Ying, pouring oil on the fire.
Sure enough, it brought Li Lilian's nearly hateful dagger-eyes towards Qiao Ying.
However, Qiao Ying only moved her eyes away from the TV to look expressionlessly at Qiao Lingling.
Her gaze was as cold as a blade.
"What's with that look? Did I say something wrong?" Qiao Lingling felt something was off about Qiao Ying since she came back from the hospital. If this were the past, she would only dare to lower her head and cower, too scared to even eat her meal, much less dare to look back at her like this.
She must have been possessed or hit her head and damaged her brain.
"Damn girl, you even dare to glare at your little sister? Hurry up and eat, just looking at you pisses me off." Li Lilian scolded Qiao Ying, then started eating her own meal.
Qiao Ying's gaze swept past Li Lilian. She didn't intend to dwell on this with them at the moment.
She returned her eyes to the television.
The TV was very old, after who knows how many years of use. The style had long been phased out.
At the moment, it was reporting the news - a big explosion on a southern island.
Qiao Ying watched quietly until the news finished reporting.
She put down her chopsticks and got up to return to her room.
"Wow, you're eating so little today? Don't you usually eat three bowls to be full?" Qiao Lingling looked at Qiao Ying's bowl and mocked.
"Wash your dishes before going back to your room." Li Lilian threw out to Qiao Ying.
"Little Ying just took such a bad fall yesterday, how can she wash dishes? Lingling and Yi, you two wash them." Qiao's father said in a low, coarse voice.
Qiao Lingling: "But I don't know how to wash them." She mumbled softly: "She just fell and hit her head, not her hands. She's the one who always washes them."
"Lingling and Yi still have homework to do. What if your grades slip? Every New Year when we sit with your relatives, our family only has Lingling and Yi's grades to show off." Li Lilian impatiently finished speaking, then urged Qiao Ying to wash the dishes again.
Qiao Ying stood in the doorway to the living room, looking back at Li Lilian. Her eyes narrowed slightly, as if restraining something.
She wasn't easygoing, and the outside rumors about her being ruthless weren't exaggerations or baseless claims.
If Li Lilian and Qiao Lingling dared say another word, Qiao Ying couldn't guarantee she wouldn't get violent.
Just then, Qiao Yi silently cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks after finishing his meal.
"Put those down, are those yours to wash? Go back and do your homework." Li Lilian wouldn't let her son do this work, as household chores were always left to Qiao Ying.
Qiao Ying worked herself to exhaustion every day, so she didn't eat much.
Qiao Yi ignored Li Lilian and brought the bowls and chopsticks to wash.
Qiao Lingling wrinkled her brows, somewhat unable to stand watching this, but was too lazy to say anything to her taciturn brother. She got up and returned to her room, still unaware that she had narrowly avoided a "storm".
Li Lilian shot an incensed glare at Qiao Ying, then went to the kitchen to chase her son back to his room so she could wash the dishes herself.
After sleeping for a day, Qiao Ying's mental and physical state had recovered somewhat. She walked to the courtyard to inspect the place where this family lived.
This old house had been passed down from two generations ago. Although dilapidated, it was spacious with a courtyard and surrounding walls, and a separate kitchen.
There was an osmanthus tree planted in the courtyard.
The house had several rooms, originally for a large family to live in. Later when Qiao's father's brothers had earned some money they moved out, leaving just their family.
Qiao Yi came out from the kitchen, glanced into the courtyard at Qiao Ying. Their gazes met for a moment before he turned and limped back to his own room.
Qiao Ying watched his retreating figure, then followed after him.
Qiao Yi took out a difficult math problem he had copied from the internet yesterday and sat at his desk, frowning as he continued thinking about how to solve it.
He suddenly sensed something and looked up to see Qiao Ying inexplicably standing in his doorway, arms crossed and leaning against the doorframe.
A huge lump of flesh completely blocking his doorway.
This was the first time Qiao Ying had come to his room. Usually no matter day or night, she would shrink back to her own room after coming home from school, aside from doing housework.
Qiao Yi discovered his sister seemed a little different today.
Qiao Ying walked over, glanced down at Qiao Yi's notebook, and raised her brows, asking, "Can't figure it out?"
Qiao Yi looked at her: "......"
Qiao Ying took the pen from his hand and started swiftly writing in his notebook without even a thought process.
By the time Qiao Yi reacted, the notebook was already filled up. This extracurricular difficult problem was perfectly solved!
The steps were clear and logical, with skilled techniques.
Qiao Yi was enlightened after looking it over, the confusion lifting entirely.
After checking against the online answer, this was even more concise and essential than the online answer. He couldn't help getting excited, his face flushing red.
After the shock wore off, he looked at Qiao Ying in complete disbelief: "How do you know how to do this?"
This was the first sentence her cheap little brother had said to her.
"This kind of idiot problem, anyone can do it if they have hands?" Qiao Ying answered sincerely.
Qiao Yi: "I copied this from a university problem online."
Qiao Yi was in 10th grade, one grade below Qiao Ying and Qiao Lingling.
Qiao Ying: "So?"
Qiao Yi stared suspiciously at the abnormal Qiao Ying: "You usually get scores of 5 or 10 points. The highest you ever got was 25 points. On math tests other than circling ABCD for multiple choice, for everything else you just write 'solution'."
With his sister's intellect, how could she possibly do this?
Xue Ying, who had inherited the original owner's memories, knew well how stupid the original was.
Qiao Ying didn't even think before disdainfully saying: "Just writing 'solution' is giving them face. Wasting time and ink on these kinds of problems is pointless."
Qiao Yi couldn't believe it: "You were faking it the whole time?"
