Outside the community gate.

Chen Yihao stopped Chen Yinuo.

"Big sis, can you calm down and listen to me for a moment?"

"Mom may speak recklessly, but her intentions are good!"

"With your situation, even if it's a second marriage, you can still find someone a thousand, even ten thousand times better than that beast!"

"Think about how much you've suffered in his hands over the years. A man like him—if you don't divorce him now, then when?"

Chen Yinuo brushed back strands of her hair disheveled by the wind.

She shook her head and said, "It's not that I don't want to divorce him; he refuses to sign the papers! He asked me to give him another month. After that, if I still insist on divorcing, he'll sign."

"What a joke! A month? Even if you give him a hundred months, a leopard can't change its spots! He refuses to sign, huh? Don't worry, leave this to me. I don't believe I can't make him sign!" Chen Yihao gritted his teeth.

However, upon hearing this, Chen Yinuo immediately furrowed her brows.

She said sternly, "What are you planning to do? Let me tell you, no matter how terrible he is, you are not allowed to do anything reckless or foolish! What's another month? I've endured this long; I can endure one more."

"Big sis!!!"

"Will you listen to me or not?"

Chen Yihao eventually nodded, "Fine, one month. I'll give him one more month! But if he still refuses by then, don't blame me for what happens next!"

Chen Yinuo didn't continue the conversation.

She took Ye Youyou's hand and hailed a taxi.

Half an hour later.

Exhausted to the point where words could no longer describe her state, Chen Yinuo brought Ye Youyou back to the rented apartment.

The moment the door opened, she instinctively thought she had entered the wrong place.

Inside, the apartment was transformed and spotless.

It would be an exaggeration to call it immaculate, but not a single trace of trash could be seen anymore.

Gone were the cigarette butts and beer bottles that once littered the floor.

The once grimy, stained tiles now gleamed brightly.

Every corner was clean and tidy.

The foul stench that used to pervade the air was gone, replaced by a faint lemony scent from an air freshener.

"This... was cleaned by that beast?"

"Impossible!"

"Mom, is this really our home? Did we come to the wrong place?"

Ye Youyou looked up at Chen Yinuo and asked.

If not for the familiar furniture, even Chen Yinuo would have thought they had entered the wrong apartment.

"No, Youyou, we didn't. It's very late now. Mommy will take you to bed."

With that, Chen Yinuo was about to lead Ye Youyou to the bedroom.

Of course, it wasn't the one Ye Chen slept in.

Despite the apartment being small, with only two bedrooms and a living room, she and Ye Chen had been sleeping in separate rooms for a long time.

In fact, every night before bed, she would make sure to lock her bedroom door tightly.

Because a drunken, late-night Ye Chen was terrifying—so terrifying that many times, she had thoughts of taking him down with her.

But before she could take a step, the apartment door banged open.

Ye Chen walked in.

"Daddy!"

The moment Ye Youyou saw him, she was wide awake.

Excited, she ran straight toward Ye Chen.

This time, Chen Yinuo only frowned slightly but didn't stop Ye Youyou.

After all, no matter what, Ye Chen was still her father.

Yoyo, Daddy hugs you!

It wasn't just Ye Yoyo who was excited.

Ye Chen was too!

Sixty years. A whole sixty years!

In those sixty years, he had thought about his daughter every single moment.

How many times had he woken up from a dream in the middle of the night, curled up, crying as he recalled those regretful moments from the past?

How he longed to hold Yoyo again, to pinch her adorable little cheeks.

Now, heaven had given him a chance to start over.

At this moment, as he lifted Ye Yoyo into his arms, his eyes reddened, and tears welled up.

He fought hard to keep himself from crying.

Ye Chen forced a smile and said, "Yoyo, didn't you go to Grandma's house with Mommy? Why are you back?"

"Daddy, Grandpa and Grandma are bad. They scolded Mommy, and they scolded Yoyo too. Mommy even cried!"

The child blurted it all out, unaware of the consequences.

This left Chen Yinuo unable to stop her in time.

Anxiously, she said, "Yoyo, don't talk nonsense!"

It wasn't without reason that Chen Yinuo was worried. Ye Chen had been notoriously difficult to handle in the past.

Every time he heard that Ye Yoyo had been scolded by her grandparents, he would threaten to kill her family.

Though it was always just empty talk, someone like Ye Chen, who occasionally let alcohol get the better of him, might actually do something crazy.

"Your parents are bullying you and Yoyo again, aren't they?"

Holding Ye Yoyo, Ye Chen raised an eyebrow and asked.

"No one bullies us except you!" Chen Yinuo replied with a cold laugh.

"Stop relying on others. It's not like the house we're renting doesn't have enough rooms!"

No one knew better than Ye Chen what kind of people her parents were.

So, even if Chen Yinuo didn't say anything, he knew how suffocated she and Yoyo must have felt staying there.

"Let me correct you—it's my rented house, not our rented house!" Chen Yinuo sneered. "But don't worry. Even though I rented it, Yoyo and I are only staying one night. Tomorrow, I'll take Yoyo elsewhere!"

Had it not been for the high cost of hotels, or the fact that it was too late to rent another place, she wouldn't have come back here, even though she was the one paying the rent!

"Yoyo doesn't want to leave. Yoyo wants to stay with Daddy!"

Hearing the coldness in Chen Yinuo's tone, Ye Yoyo immediately exclaimed.

Then, she playfully scratched at Ye Chen's stubbly chin and said in her sweet little voice, "Daddy, what were you doing tonight? Why are you only coming home now?"

"Daddy went to sell flowers!"

Ignoring Chen Yinuo's sharp words, Ye Chen knew it would take time to change her perception of him. Winning her over wouldn't happen overnight.

However—

Chen Yinuo scoffed at his claim of selling flowers.

No one knew Ye Chen better than she did.

He was a complete dreamer with grand ambitions!

The phrase eyes higher than the sky, but life as thin as paper described him perfectly!

Someone like him, putting aside his pride and selling flowers? Impossible!

Even though he had no reason to hold onto such pride, he had never truly seen himself clearly, not once!

"Wow, Daddy, you sold flowers? Where are the flowers? Yoyo loves flowers! Yoyo wants some too!"

Snuggling in his arms, basking in his fatherly love, Ye Yoyo blinked her big, glistening eyes.

"There aren't any left. Daddy sold them all!" Ye Chen replied with a smile.

"All of them? Then Daddy must have made a lot of money!" Ye Yoyo exclaimed.

"Mm-hmm. Daddy made 2,800 yuan—almost 3,000!"

Pressing his forehead gently against his daughter's, Ye Chen spoke with contentment.

"Wow, 3,000 yuan? Daddy is amazing!"

Perhaps Ye Yoyo didn't truly understand what 3,000 yuan meant, but she had grown up hearing adults argue about money. To her, the word "thousand" sounded like a lot!

Little did she know, beside them, Chen Yinuo could no longer stand it.

"Ye Chen! Haven't you lied to me enough? Now you're lying to Yoyo too? Do you want her to grow up to be like you—full of lies and completely unaware of her own reality?"

Her icy reprimand cut through the room.

Then she turned to Ye Yoyo and said, "Yoyo, come down! Go to your room with Mommy and sleep!"