She won't clear her name; she'll throw away all the scum.

Chen Xiangbei's lips curled down in a sarcastic tone. "Oh, so now you realize you're my dad? When you were raising someone else's son and ignoring me, why didn't you remember you were my dad? I thought you weren't planning to be my dad anymore, so I had to call you Brother Chen. I even wondered if calling you dad was useless, and that I could only get you to listen if I called you Brother Chen?"

Old Chen was furious with Chen Xiangbei. This kid had been disobedient since he was little. He used to be good but forgot how to be punished, and now he only remembers being punished. These few words made it sound like he, the father, was abusing him, but wasn't he standing right there holding a machete and very strong? He was being raised quite well. "What do you want? Aren't you supposed to be with your mother every day? Why did you come back? You only come back to make me angry. If you don't want to acknowledge me as your father, then don't come back at all. When you weren't here, there wouldn't be so much trouble at home."

Chen Xiangbei fell silent. He suddenly realized that his father had really changed a lot. He would never have said those words to him before, not even if his father got into trouble outside. But ever since he married Yang Su, his father... no, perhaps his father had never changed. Before, his mother had always been in charge of the household and his siblings. His father, besides going to work at the factory, would stay at home silently, doing nothing and not giving any money. His favorite saying was "harmony in the family brings prosperity," but he did nothing himself, leaving all the pressure on his mother.

For years, his mother had been exploiting herself to maintain the facade of peace in the family, until last year when she could no longer bear it and tried to make them all take on the responsibilities they should bear in the family.

But his children are disappointing; they only think of themselves. As for his father, he's still the same old peacemaker, only now he has to do it himself instead of having his mother handle things. Everything he does isn't really about making things better for the family; he just wants the family to look harmonious. As long as it looks harmonious, that's enough.

He may not actually like Yang Su, that old woman, but she created a false impression of a harmonious family for him, making him feel that living with her was what he wanted, even if the son wasn't his own.

Ultimately, his father was the most heartless and least sentimental person in the whole family.

Forget about decades of marital affection, decades of father-son relationship, whether they were biologically related or not, blood ties or not—his father didn't care about any of that. All he cared about was his own reputation, as long as outsiders saw their family as harmonious, and as long as people mentioned Chen Weiguo as a good comrade.

Whoever can make him a good comrade in the eyes of outsiders is his true family, the person he is willing to truly protect; otherwise, he can abandon anyone.

Seeing Chen Xiangbei fall silent, Old Chen assumed he was scared and left him alone, saying to the Wang brothers, Wang Ming and Wang Xian, "You two, don't worry about him, go back to your room and eat. Your uncle trusts you."

Yang Su was not happy. His son had been slapped for no reason. Why should Chen Xiangbei be let off so easily? "Brother Chen, the slap Xiangbei gave Xiaoming just now really scared me. It was such a hard slap. I was afraid he would get seriously injured."

Old Chen didn't seem to care much. He comforted him, saying, "It'll be fine. It's just a few slaps. What harm can it do?"

What he didn't say was that he had been beaten by Old Lady Xia countless times before, and he was never hurt.

He was experienced in getting beaten up.

Yang Su glared at Chen Xiangbei, but the old man Chen didn't think there was anything wrong with what Chen Xiangbei did. He didn't even apologize, and he even thought that his son was completely innocent.