"Dad, I have been wronged to death regarding this matter! Except for this one time, where I had no choice but to take another path after what happened, I have never done anything that will make you worry. And in fact, if not for what Yang Jiangming and Ziyan did, I wouldn’t have taken that path either. Don’t even talk about contacting hooligans; with the amount of work that I have to do—from outside to household chores—I don’t even have the time to breathe. You saw it yourself. When I return home, I cook, clean and wash the laundry of the entire family. Where will I get the time to date? I am not like Han Ziyan, who is doted on by mom. I don’t even have the time for myself."

Han Ruochen’s words startled everyone in the room. Especially Han Jianyou. He thought that his second sister was living a good life, as she was treated better than the rest by their mother, but it turned out that she was just free labour in the eyes of their mother.

Whether Han Ruochen was busy or not, Meng Yunhan knew the best.

As Han Ruochen said, she had little opportunity to go outside. Because Meng Yunhan wanted Han Ziyan to spend more time with Yang Jianming, she would push all the household chores onto Han Ruochen whenever Han Ruochen returned home. At most, Meng Yunhan would place the dishes on the table to make it look like she helped around the house.

Every time Han Ruochen wanted to go out, Meng Yunhan would stop her because she was worried that Han Ruochen would go and look for Yang Jianming. She knew that, other than not being able to speak sweetly, Han Ruochen was better than her precious daughter in every way. If she spent time with Yang Jianming, that man would have started liking Han Ruochen. Where would her daughter go then? Anyway, Yang Jianming and Han Ruochen were betrothed.

If Yang Jianming refused to stay with Han Ziyan, then there was nothing she could have done.

Thus, for the entire day, other than the eight or nine hours when Han Ruochen was sleeping, she was right in front of Meng Yunhan’s line of sight. Where would Han Ruochen get the time to get close to the leader of the hooligans when she didn’t even leave the house?

Once again, Han Yichen was shocked by the truth of the matter. So, Han Ruochen was the one doing all the household chores? Then why did Meng Yunhan complain to him that she was too tired after doing the cooking and cleaning? What cooking or cleaning was she doing if everything was done by Han Ruochen?

While Han Yichen was trying to stomach all the information that was passed onto him all of a sudden, Han Ziyan was livid beyond comprehension. She never thought that Han Ruochen would bring up the old matters. She glared at her, and even though it was not easy for Han Ziyan to keep finding fault with Han Ruochen now, she did not want to give up now that she had finally gotten the opportunity. "Don’t tell me that this matter sprang out of nowhere?"

She did not believe that Han Ruochen had done nothing. If she was really as innocent as she claimed to be, then why did such a rumour start spreading? And why were the people talking about it so vividly as if they knew what happened?

"Ruochen, what do you have to say about this?" Han Yichen had completely different reasons than Han Ziyan for questioning Han Ruochen. He trusted his daughter and just wanted to get to the bottom of the matter. He wanted to know how his daughter’s name was entangled with those low-class hooligans.

"That’s right, you have to explain this matter properly to us. If not, there is no need for you to continue working anymore. What if you go even more astray?" Meng Yunhan added as she snapped out of her daze. Regardless of what the truth of this matter was, this was the perfect timing for her to not only make Han Ruochen transfer her job to Han Ziyan but also send her away.

"Old Han, I think you’d better listen to me. There is no need to let Han Ruochen work anymore. Her character has gone to shambles. We might as well marry her off to someone, as she has come of age. And she needs to also apologise to the Yang family’s son. She is the one who is in the wrong after all; she cheated him first and yet she cried wolf. You wretched girl, you’d better come with me to the police station tomorrow and apologise to Yang Jiangming; make sure that you kneel down when you are apologising. It’s bad enough that your moral character has been ruined; you are even making others your scapegoats. And you better hand all your money over; who knows what you might do with that money?"

Han Ruochen was so angry that she laughed out loud. She said, "Mom, do you mean to say that regardless of this matter, you won’t let me work? Then are you going to force me to transfer my job to Ziyan? And what do you mean by I cheated? Mom, I know that you love Ziyan but to make her wash her hands off, you are willing to say anything? What proof do you have to say that I cheated first? I caught Han Ziyan and Yang Jianming red-handed. Where is your evidence?"

She paused and added, "And Mom, I am really puzzled. I have handed years of my salary to you, and so has Dad. Even my elder brother and elder sister send you some money every now and then. You didn’t even pay Jianyou’s school fees for more than six months. With all of this, I don’t think that you don’t have enough money in your hands. So, why are you so desperate to get the money I earned from selling the mantis shrimp? It’s as if you don’t have any money left, but that’s not possible. Our family didn’t face an emergency where you had to take out all the money, right? So, what is going on?"