Hong Ye to me always read as a bundle of anxiety wrapped in a shell of projected self-confidence and strength, hiding behind the illusion of being completely competent and in control at all times, which - if she was a tiny girl child living homeless on the street and then picked up and taken into a gang family with literally not a single other female character in sight, strong, nurturing, healthy, unhealthy, or otherwise - one could see how that might develop. She's educated and smart enough to be running the business with efficiency but also ruthless enough (survival mechanism? maybe? literally?) to try to protect Tang Yi from what she sees as a threat but making bad choices about how to do that. I look forward to the eventual Hong Ye character discussion post and thread :D