"Phew~ Brother, Uncle Ye is so scary."
Ye Jinmeng breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Ye Junwen leave with a gloomy face.
"Mengmeng, let me tell you, even though your uncle and Shichen are archenemies, why are you afraid of your uncle? I think he genuinely cares about you."
Shi Shuan felt that the war between men should not involve girls, and he also felt that Ye Junwen did not see Ye Jinmeng as an enemy.
In fact, Ye Jinchen couldn't figure it out either.
He did have a strained relationship with his uncle, but Ye Jinmeng was different.
Ye Jinmeng had always been friendly to everyone since she was young, showing respect to her elders, and she held great affection for her brothers, including him.
She used to pester her uncle often before, even more than she did with her own older brother.
He wondered when Ye Jinmeng started to distance herself from her uncle, what had happened between them, and Ye Jinchen wanted to know.
"Do you guys not find our uncle's gaze terrifying?" Ye Jinmeng weakly asked.
"Terrifying? It's more like..." Obvious!
However, Shi Shuan didn't say those words explicitly.
"Anyway, you are not allowed to spend time alone with Uncle Ye in the future. He doesn't have good intentions towards you!"
He Junting narrowed his eyes upon hearing this. "Are you suggesting...?"
"A man's intuition..."
Shi Shuan pointed at his own head with his index finger, emphasizing each word.
Ye Jinchen instantly understood Shi Shuan's words and his face gradually darkened with disbelief.
No wonder their usually calm and composed uncle would become so irritable when he saw the interaction between Mengmeng and Shunan.
That would explain it.
But he was Mengmeng's uncle after all!
Ye Jinmeng was oblivious to these implications and couldn't discern the meaning behind the words, but she wholeheartedly agreed with Shi Shuan's statement.
"Don't worry, I'm scared to death. I wouldn't dare to be alone with him."
Just a while ago, Xu Wanwan also felt that something was off about Ye Junwen's gaze, and his attitude towards Ye Jinmeng didn't seem like that of an uncle towards his niece...
Especially after Shunan's blatant provocation...
Now upon hearing Shi Shuan's words, Xu Wanwan thought of a possibility. After all, in her previous life, Ye Jinmeng was indeed not a child of the Ye family, but she had a good relationship with Ye Junwen.
But in this life, she didn't dare to confirm Ye Jinmeng's origins, but if Ye Junwen did indeed have feelings for Ye Jinmeng beyond that of an uncle, then there could only be two possibilities.
Either Ye Junwen had a twisted personality, or he might know that Ye Jinmeng was not a child of the Ye family.
However, Xu Wanwan was more inclined to believe the first possibility.
After all, Ye Junwen was only 25 years old this year, and even her parents had never doubted the identity of their daughter, let alone a younger uncle who was only seven years older than her.
Xu Wanwan looked at Ye Jinmeng with some sympathy and sighed in her heart: "Ah, it seems being too likable is not a good thing..."
Meanwhile, Ye Junwen had returned to the luxurious villa they were staying in after leaving the hot spring resort.
Back in his room, he thought about the tightly held hands of Ye Jinmeng and Shunan just now, and his anger surged. He punched the nearby wall in frustration.
"Damn it! How could Mengmeng be with someone else!"
At this moment, Ye Junwen's mind was filled with the image of Ye Jinmeng blushing and revealing a sweet smile, a genuine expression of her blossoming affection.
But when she looked at him, it was as if a cat had been stepped on its tail, wary and afraid.
"She... She wasn't like this before!"
Ye Junwen leaned against the door, slowly sitting on the floor, muttering to himself.
Clearly, she used to show him sweet smiles and playfully call him "Uncle" before.
When did she become afraid of him?
When Ye Junwen was in primary school, every time the exam results were announced, he would be compared to his younger nephew, Ye Jincheng, who was a year younger than him.
Even though he studied hard every day and diligently completed every assignment, his exam scores were always much lower than Ye Jincheng's.
Especially later on, while Ye Jincheng skipped grades, Ye Junwen continued to progress step by step.
His classmates and friends around him would mock him, saying, "As an uncle, you can't even surpass your own nephew. How embarrassing!"
Even at the dinner table, his parents would only praise, "Our grandson is amazing," but they never said, "Our son is excellent."
The ridicule from his surroundings added to the pressure on Ye Junwen, to the point where he felt that even when the teacher praised his progress, it was a sarcastic remark directed at him.
Then, one day, probably on a weekend when Ye Junwen was in junior high, his grandfather asked him to play chess with Ye Jincheng, who was in high school at the time.
Ye Junwen was actually reluctant, but he didn't want to refuse his grandfather's face, so he reluctantly agreed.
As one would expect, Ye Junwen was repeatedly defeated, and his grandfather only comforted him, saying, "Failure is the mother of success. Keep working hard and strive to win next time."
Then he praised Ye Jincheng repeatedly, saying, "Truly worthy of being my grandson! Your chess skills are on par with this old man."
As a result, Ye Junwen couldn't take it anymore and shouted at Ye Jincheng, "I hate you!"
Then he ran out of the house and cried under the phoenix tree in the backyard.
Ye Junwen had never cried so openly before. Perhaps this incident was just the final straw that broke the camel's back, releasing all the humiliation and mockery he had endured before.
Meanwhile, in the small garden in the backyard, Ye Jinmeng, who had been playing with her SpongeBob SquarePants doll, was startled by the crying. She held her doll even tighter out of fear, but she still followed the sound of crying and found her uncle sitting under the phoenix tree, sobbing.
Ye Jinmeng thought only children like her would cry, but her uncle had grown into a big child, and she had never seen such a big child cry before.
Unaware of Ye Junwen's heartbreak, a child holding a SpongeBob SquarePants doll carefully approached him, until he felt something soft poking his earlobe.
Ye Junwen was startled, thinking it was a big caterpillar from the tree that had fallen onto his ear, so he instinctively raised his hand and hurriedly brushed it away.
"Ah... Ouch... Uncle, that hurts."
Ye Jinmeng's little hand was red from being slapped, and tears of grievance streamed down her face.
Hearing this tender voice, Ye Junwen lifted his head and discovered that it was Ye Jinmeng's small hand that had just poked his earlobe. He felt a tinge of guilt in his heart.
Seeing Ye Junwen's tear-streaked face, Ye Jinmeng forgot about the pain and tilted her head, gazing at her uncle.
Realizing that his embarrassing state was witnessed by his niece, and moreover, the sister of that annoying person, Ye Junwen's guilt towards his niece vanished. He turned around in embarrassment, hugging his knees and deciding to ignore her.
