A small farce is unfolding in a tiny village in Long'an County, Qiping City.

At the end of Dilong Village, there are three newly built tile-roofed houses. The houses are surrounded by a courtyard built with stones, which is quite large, covering nearly an acre. Except for the area used as a vegetable garden, the ground is paved with bluestone slabs, making it look quite impressive.

On the bluestone pavement in the middle of the courtyard, a handsome and tall young man was kneeling. His eyes were filled with anger, as if flames were burning inside. Beside him, a short and thin figure was kneeling. She was a frail girl.

The courtyard was surrounded by villagers, who pointed and talked amongst themselves.

"Mud Boy is a fool. He used all his despicable money from his demobilization to build a house for his father, and he didn't get a penny for himself. Now look what's happened, the house is built, but that scoundrel won't let him live there. Instead, he let that widow Shen and her fat son move in... I don't know what that scoundrel is thinking. He doesn't want his own son or daughter, but insists on raising someone else's son... Will someone else's son take care of him in his old age?... Mud Boy has gone crazy from being a soldier. He has absolutely no sense of caution towards his father, who is a gambler, womanizer, and drug addict..."

"If Mud Boy's mother had died early, otherwise, he'd probably be fighting dog life to the death today..."

"Did Niwa's demobilization pay really go to the dog? That's 15,000 yuan, enough for us to save for ten or eight years."

“It’s been given. Widow Shen bragged about it at the village entrance yesterday, so she probably wasn’t lying. Besides, this house must have cost a lot of money. Look at that bluestone floor, how clean and bright it is…”

"Muddy Boy is retired from the army and has no job. Dog Sheng didn't even allocate him any land. How is he going to support Xiaxia?"

"Xiaxia is 19 now, she's graduating high school this year, she's old enough to get married, she doesn't need this little mud-dweller to support her anymore..."

Han Li stared at the empty hall, a chill spreading from the depths of his heart, bitterness being suppressed.

Not long after Xiaxia returned from military service, her father, under the pretext of building a new house so that Xiaxia could find a better match, took most of her discharge pay. He picked out the best of everything. Less than a month after the house was built, while Xiaxia was out running some errands, her father got married and brought in the widowed woman and her child, Shen, from the village. But bringing her in was nothing special; he made Xiaxia sleep in the livestock shed and even stole the jade bracelet that their mother had left behind, giving it to the widowed woman, Shen.

He argued and made a scene, but the man who usually bared his teeth and claws at them hid behind Widow Shen, not uttering a word, letting the shrew throw a tantrum.

He's kneeling here now, not for any other reason than to sever that last thread of family ties. As long as his father returns the bracelet, he'll take Xiaxia and leave, making room for the widow and her son.

“Muddy boy, Xiaxia, stop kneeling. Your father is just senile. Kneeling like this won't change his mind. That widow has him bewitched. He's beyond saving…”

“Yes, Mud Boy, Uncle Village Chief is right, your father is heartless…”

Han Xia's eyes were red and swollen as she turned to look at her brother's cold, hard profile, feeling a pang of pain in her heart.

Her brother was truly heartbroken this time, but her heart had grown cold even earlier than his.

Less than a year after her mother died, her father started sleeping with that widow Shen. She was only twelve years old at the time and didn't quite understand. Later, she understood why her father never let her have enough to eat. It was because he had a family to support. If it weren't for her brother mailing her tuition fees to the village chief, who would personally deliver them to the school, she probably wouldn't have been able to go to school.

"Brother, let's leave here and go to another city." A tree dies when transplanted, but a person thrives.

She and her brother could live well anywhere as long as they left this suffocating home.

Han Xia stood up, staring coldly at the empty hall, her eyes filled with a deathly stillness.

Han Li stood up, his bloodshot eyes filled with indifference. "Alright, let's go. But before we leave, there's something I need to do."

Han Xia watched her brother stride into the living room, and soon after, she heard Widow Shen's scream and their father's curses. Soon, her brother came out with something in his hand.

"Brother?" It wasn't until Han Li got closer that Han Xia saw that what he was holding in his hand was his mother's only keepsake, a jade bracelet.

Two figures finally rushed out of the living room: a disheveled yet fierce old woman, and Han Jian with a gloomy face, who looked as if he wanted to devour the brother and sister alive.

"You little beast! Give me back your mother's jade bracelet, or I'll report you to the army!!" Han Jian's thin face was full of anger and disgust, as if the person in the yard was not his newborn daughter, but his enemy.

"I've retired from the military," Han Li said with a smile, his eyes filled with extreme coldness. "This apartment is Xia Xia and I repaying your kindness in giving us life. From now on, we are no longer family."

...

The train was noisy and chaotic, filled with the cries of children, the shouts of vendors, and the chatter of groups of two or three. The sounds mirrored Han Xia's mood at that moment—a mix of sadness and inexplicable relief.

That invisible shackle disappeared without a trace the moment she boarded the train heading north with her brother.

Han Li looked at his sister's undisguised joy and smiled helplessly, "Are you that happy?"

He thought his sister would be heartbroken when he made the decision to sever ties with his mother, after all, he knew how much she longed for her father's attention after their mother passed away.

“My father wasn’t good to us, so I don’t need him anymore. I’m all grown up now. Once I’m settled, I’ll save up some money so I can continue my studies, graduate, and earn even more money…”

"You're obsessed with money."

"Money is a good thing, who doesn't like it? By the way, brother, does that Yuan's Security really pay such a high salary?" She saw the notice her brother brought back from his comrade's house. The security team's salary was really high, 1800! In a year, she could earn back all of her brother's demobilization pay, and there would be more. In the city, making money is not difficult at all. She was sure she could earn a lot too, and then work hard to learn new knowledge so that she could become a rich person in the future.

“That should be right, my comrade has already gone there ahead of time.” They were all comrades who were discharged in the same batch and often kept in touch by letter. Last time he went out, he received a letter from his comrade asking him to come over.

They originally planned to go south together to work, hoping to look out for each other as comrades. However, when they arrived in the provincial capital, they went to a job market and stumbled upon a recruitment event for Yuan's Security. Many people wanted Yuan's Security's job offer letter, but they only wanted veterans. They met the requirements, registered, and received interview invitations. However, the job location was in the north, and the comrade hesitated, thinking he would go and see what happened first. After all, he was getting on in years, his family was urging him to get married, and the job was in another city.

He wasn't in a hurry to settle down, but he was eager to make money, so he came here for the high benefits and high salary.