Chapter 4 This is all we have at home

Yu Qing said, and she also gave Ye Nai some pocket change for the grocery money for the next few days, in case she forgot about it in her busyness.

Unlike other parents who are stingy with their children's allowance, she was an accountant and had trained her eldest daughter to act as a cashier from an early age. Ye Nai got into the habit of keeping track of money spent, money received, and the remaining balance. It was all clear in the ledger and could be easily checked at any time. After years of this practice, she naturally felt comfortable leaving some money with her eldest daughter.

After Ye Nai received the money, her parents sent her back home; her younger brother and sister would be out of school soon, and someone needed to be at home.

Shortly after returning home, her twin brothers who were in the sixth grade and her second-grade sister arrived together. Taking advantage of the time they lined up to shower, Ye Nai prepared dinner, so it would be ready by the time her little sister finished bathing.

"Wow, big sister, such a fancy meal today?" The siblings surrounded the dining table, faces full of surprise.

"Is it just us eating dinner tonight? Where are mom and dad?"

"Dad was working on the site today and broke his leg. He's in the hospital now, and mom's staying with him. I had just returned from delivering their dinner before you guys got home," Ye Nai said as she opened the rice cooker and served their meals.

"Ah?! Is dad's injury serious?" Upon hearing this, the siblings stopped reaching for their bowls.

"Not terribly serious; the doctor said he could be discharged in two days if everything looks fine."

"But with both legs fractured, it sounds quite severe."

"If the doctor said that, then the injury itself must not be that bad. The trouble is with both legs fractured, he can only recuperate at home until the injury heals. After dad is discharged, you guys need to behave at home, don't run around and bump into dad's injured legs."

"Mmm, okay."

"Let's eat."

Ye Nai was already planning to buy ribs today, but due to her father's fracture, she bought even more meat. The dinner was exceptionally lavish, like a feast during the New Year, and the three youngsters ate until their faces were greased, looking utterly content.

After dinner, Ye Nai cleaned up the kitchen, tossed the dirty clothes into the washing machine, while her elder brother wiped the dining table clean, and the three siblings did their homework there.

When Ye Nai had finished tidying up, the younger siblings called out to her as she passed by the dining table.

"Big sister, you had your Awakening test today, right? How did it go?"

"I didn't Awaken," Ye Nai shrugged. Without that Awakening Certificate, she was naturally not an Awakener; ordinary citizens only recognized that piece of paper.

"How many in your class Awakened?"

"3."

"That few?"

"Yeah, Awakening depends on probability, you can't force it."

"So, are you not going to continue studying?"

"I won't. My grades aren't good enough to be certain of getting into a university in another city. Probably only those three top students in my class will continue with their education, while the rest of my classmates will likely stop as well. You guys should study hard, and strive to produce a college graduate for our family."

Her twin brothers, five years younger than Ye Nai, disagreed with this and shook their heads.

"We'd prefer to become Awakeners, it's more impressive."

"Alright, I hope both of you can become Awakeners."

The younger sister who had just entered the second grade of elementary school eagerly raised her hand.

"I want to go to college."

"Good, study hard and get into college."

Ye Nai smiled and pinched her little sister's cheek, then walked over to the corner of the living room next to the balcony where a foldable wire bed was placed, with three plastic storage bins stacked beside it. She opened the topmost one, took out a set of underwear, and went to the bathroom to shower.

One could judge the living conditions by looking at the length of a woman's hair. Ye Nai sported a boyish haircut—her hair was cut very short in the back like a man's, rather than simply trimmed, to better dissipate heat in the summer. She was the one with the shortest hair among the three women in the family. Coupled with her height of 1.7 meters, she was mistaken for a man from behind more than once.

The advantage of short hair was that it saved water and shampoo. She could wash her hair and body in fifteen minutes. Ye Nai hand-washed the underwear she had just taken off and hung the freshly laundered clothes from the washing machine to dry on the balcony.

As soon as the clothes were hung up, the sound of a key turning could be heard at the front door. All four children turned their heads simultaneously—their mother, Yu Qing, was back.

The three younger children hopped and jumped around their mother, while only Ye Nai took the things from her mother's hands, giving her clean clothes and urging her to take a shower, before going back to the kitchen to clean the empty thermos.

The family was busy with their own tasks. There was no TV in the house, and only the parents had mobile phones. As usual, Ye Nai borrowed her mother's phone to check the weather forecast for the coming days.

Late in the evening, the three younger siblings finished their homework one after another, washed their hands and faces, and prepared for bed.

In their two-bedroom home, the parents and four children—two boys and two girls—were crammed in. The twin brothers, who were about to graduate from elementary school, occupied a small 6-square-meter bedroom, furnished like a dorm room with two sets of bunk-bed-and-desk combinations and a small wardrobe, leaving just a little space to move around. However, the twins preferred not to do their homework in their room, finding the large dining table outside more comfortable.

The second-grade sister had no choice but to do her homework at the dining table because her small bed was set up in the parents' master bedroom. In the room, a bit over 10 square meters in size, with one large and one small bed along with a large wardrobe, there was only enough space left for a narrow walkway—there wasn't room for an extra dressing table.

Ye Nai slept in the living room. In the corner connecting the living room and the balcony stood a foldable wire bed with four large and one small storage bin stacked beside it and a cardboard box for her current semester's books right next to them. Her backpack lay on the floor; this was her entire possession, including clothes for all seasons.

The bed was purchased because she was getting older and would always roll off the couch onto the floor. The dining table was originally for her and her sister to do homework, but their brothers loved to join in, using the excuse that they could ask their elder sister questions whenever they did not understand something.

The living room flowed into the balcony without any walls or curtains in between, and on the other side, it connected to the kitchen and bathroom—the largest open area in the house. It was manageable in the summer, but truly cold in the winter when the chill breeze constantly found its way through the gaps of the balcony windows. Her feet would remain icy cold all night long.

Due to years of sleeping in the living room, Ye Nai had grown accustomed to sleeping late and rising early. She hadn't enjoyed a lazy morning since elementary school because her parents, fed up with their twin sons who had a knack for restless sleeping, decided not to let the children sleep with them anymore. Consequently, the small bedroom that was once exclusively hers was given to her brothers.

She unfolded the wire bed and brought over her bedding from her parents' bed, checked the doors and windows, and turned off the water and electricity before going to sleep. Every night before sleep, she would routinely pray that she could move out and rent an apartment to live independently soon—she'd had enough of sleeping in the living room.

The next morning, Ye Nai got up at the usual time, made breakfast for the whole family, and, as usual, made a digestible soup-noodle dish for her dad, which she packed in a thermos to give to her mother before she left for work.

After making sure her younger siblings ate their breakfast, she watched them leave to play with friends and then hurried to the market. She bought several days' worth of groceries and upon returning home, busied herself with making lunch. She packed it in a lunch box to take to the hospital, where she would wait for her parents to finish eating before taking the morning's thermos back with her to wash, keeping it ready for dinner.

Her father, Ye Yu's condition was stable, and the doctor had already mentioned that he would be discharged normally the next day. When the nurse came to deliver the midday medication, Ye Nai inquired and found out where to buy second-hand wheelchairs around the hospital.

Her father would need to use a wheelchair for at least a month, and it was not cost-effective to buy a brand-new one. She opted for a second-hand basic model that they could sell again when they no longer needed it.

Her mother, Yu Qing, took on this task. Since she was going to be at the hospital anyway, it was better than being bored. Confident that her mother was on it, Ye Nai left with peace of mind.