"Get out of my house, you freak!"
A harsh, shrill voice rang out from inside the house.
Immediately afterward, a heavily cracked suitcase was thrown out.
Outside the gates of the Ye Family villa, a thin, frail teenage boy silently watched as his few belongings were tossed out like garbage.
"Get lost, Ye Qiuli! We've raised you until adulthood, and whatever happens to you from now on has nothing to do with us! The Ye Family doesn't keep monsters!"
The boy raised his head to look at the lavishly dressed man standing before him, and just as he opened his mouth to say something, he was grabbed by the security guards who had rushed over.
"Throw this monster and his suitcase out together! Don't let him stay here and taint my Ye Family!"
The man ordered the security guards nearby in a cold voice.
"Yes!"
Before long, the boy was carried out by four strapping guards. Throughout the entire process, the boy put up no resistance at all, maintaining his silence as he let the guards drag him outside the gates.
"Ye Qiuli, you'd better leave the Ye Family quickly. We've dealt with you for over a dozen years, and all I can tell you is that you aren't a child of the Ye Family. Now that the real young master has been found, there's no room for you here!"
Among the four guards, an older, veteran man spoke in a low voice close to Ye Qiuli's ear.
He couldn't bear to watch. For over a decade, Ye Qiuli had treated them—the security guards—exceedingly well, never once treating them like servants. He genuinely wanted to help Ye Qiuli, but unfortunately, he was powerless to do so; he still needed this job to feed his family!
"Thank you, Uncle Li!"
The boy remained silent for a long moment before nodding in gratitude.
The evening wind blew the leaves down, and night had already fallen.
The boy picked up the suitcase from the ground and slowly walked away into the distance. No one knew where he was headed.
...
"Hello, boss! Are you hiring here?"
"Not hiring, not hiring! A kid like you should hurry home this late instead of bothering me with my business!"
Dragging his suitcase, Ye Qiuli nodded with a desolate look and turned to walk out of the shop.
This was already the ninth shop he had looked for tonight, and every single one of them had given him the exact same answer!
"Young man, I've noticed you wandering around this neighborhood for quite a while. How about this? You help me do some heavy lifting, and I'll pay you fifty a day, room and board included. How does that sound?"
Seeing Ye Qiuli's retreating back, the middle-aged man suddenly remembered that he needed to stock up on goods before school started in a few days. Since the wages for loaders weren't cheap nowadays, he might as well find some sucker to do the work on the cheap!
"Really?"
"Of course! I'll take you to where you'll be staying right now!"
Seeing that Ye Qiuli had agreed, the middle-aged man was overjoyed. He eagerly led Ye Qiuli upstairs, calling him "little brother" every step of the way!
"By the way, little brother, are you an adult? We don't hire child labor here!"
Looking at Ye Qiuli's height, the middle-aged man suddenly remembered the boss of the bubble tea shop next door who had been cursed out terribly for employing underage workers, and hurriedly asked!
"I'm an adult! Just turned eighteen. If you don't believe me, look at my ID card!"
Ye Qiuli quickly handed his ID card over to the middle-aged man!
"How about this, little brother? Leave your ID card with me as a deposit, and I'll return it to you when the time comes!"
Taking the ID card, the middle-aged man thought of something and said with a grin.
"O... okay!"
Ye Qiuli thought about it for a moment before answering the middle-aged man.
He didn't have a single penny to his name right now, and other than working here, he had no other choice. At least tonight, he wouldn't have to sleep on a park bench like he had last night!
"You'll be staying in this attic. It's a bit small, but I won't charge you for rent. Is that alright with you?"
Holding his nose, the middle-aged man fumbled in the dark to switch on a dim, yellowish light and spoke.
"Mm-hmm! Thank you!"
Ye Qiuli quickly expressed his gratitude.
"Then you can tidy things up yourself, and tomorrow morning you need to get up and come downstairs to help with work!"
Terrified that Ye Qiuli might change his mind, the middle-aged man dropped those words and scurried back down.
The attic was tiny, furnished with nothing more than a wooden board serving as a bed, and a toilet that could barely fit two people!
Fortunately, Ye Qiuli found a rag by the small window, which he could use to wipe down the little bed.
By the time Ye Qiuli finished cleaning up and struggled through a cold shower, it was already late into the night.
...
At around five-thirty in the morning, Ye Qiuli was shaken awake by the middle-aged boss. Without giving Ye Qiuli any time to wash up, the man dragged him downstairs!
Downstairs, a nine-and-a-half-meter-long freight truck had already dropped its tailgate at the warehouse entrance. Standing at the rear of the truck was a gray-haired old man, neatly arranging the goods in groups of five!
"Go help him unload the cargo from the truck and move it into the warehouse. That's your job for today!"
"Got it!"
Looking at the massive nine-and-a-half-meter vehicle, Ye Qiuli felt a deep sense of shock; the sheer workload seemed almost enough to work him to death!
After finishing his instructions on what to pay attention to, the middle-aged man left, leaving behind just the old man and the youth.
Ye Qiuli didn't speak. Whenever the old man arranged the goods, he would carry them inside, and within a short while, sweat had completely soaked through his clothes.
"Young man, you should take off your mask. There isn't much dust on these goods! It's too hot out to suffocate yourself like this."
Pausing for a moment, the old man interrupted to remind him.
"Thank you, old timer, I'm fine! If you're tired, we can slow down a bit!"
Ye Qiuli touched the already drenched mask on his face, paused for a second, and smiled.
If it weren't for the strange illness on his body, he wouldn't want to wear a mask all day long.
As Ye Qiuli reminisced, bits and pieces of the past floated up into his mind.
When Ye Qiuli was fourteen years old, he contracted a strange disease. Countless black spots appeared all over his skin, terrifying every student in the school at the time. Because of this, Ye Qiuli had even transferred schools.
The Ye Family had spent a fortune having Ye Qiuli undergo all sorts of examinations, and even mobilized their connections in the medical world to find numerous top experts, yet none of them could figure out what kind of illness Ye Qiuli had contracted.
It was also because of this bizarre disease that Ye Qiuli's status within the Ye Family plummeted lower and lower. During this period, the Ye Family's stock prices even took a massive dive, and very quickly, the Ye Family eldest young master—once born with a silver spoon in the mouths of all the great families—became a liability everyone avoided like the plague.
Right at that critical juncture, someone leaked the news that Ye Qiuli was not the biological son of the head of the Ye Family. Bowing to pressure from various external rumors and gossip, the adoptive father had a paternity test done with Ye Qiuli, and predictably, the results made the gossip a reality.
In a fit of fury, the adoptive father picked up a flower vase and smashed it hard against the back of Ye Qiuli's head. That very night, Ye Qiuli was officially moved into the tiny room where the Ye Family's maid lived.
Overnight, Ye Qiuli transformed from a deeply respected young master of the Ye Family into a bastard child whom anyone could bully at will!
And not long after that, the Ye Family's real young master, Ye Tian, was found and brought back, making Ye Qiuli the primary target of Ye Tian's hostility!
...
"What are you daydreaming for, Ye Qiuli! Get back to work!"
Just as Ye Qiuli was lost in the revolving lantern of his memories, a harsh voice rang out! It was none of other than the middle-aged boss!
"Right away, boss!"
Ye Qiuli murmured in a low voice and threw himself into the work with even greater vigor!