Zhao Xiaoli has lived with her grandfather since she can remember; he picked her up from a trash can.

Grandpa has no wife or children, and is left with no one to rely on in his old age. He can only make a living by receiving a minimum living allowance and collecting garbage.

Now that I have to support her, it's even harder. Zhao Xiaoli has grown up a bit and is of school age.

Although her grandfather was very poor, he gritted his teeth and sent her to school.

He always said that only by studying can one change their destiny and achieve success in the future.

Zhao Xiaoli studies very hard and cherishes this hard-won opportunity.

She hopes to achieve academic success in the future, so that her grandfather can live a good life and repay his kindness in raising her.

Zhao Xiaoli was very frugal at school, which often made her look down on and bullied. However, she was very sensible and endured the discrimination to pick up bottles and take them home to supplement her family's income.

When she was ten years old, her grandfather suddenly fell ill. He became confused and often forgot things.

Not only that, he got lost several times, and each time Zhao Xiaoli went to find him.

Grandpa forgot many things, but he would always bring home the food that kind people gave him and save it for his granddaughter.

One afternoon, Zhao Xiaoli was walking home from school, carrying her schoolbag and holding bottles and waste paper she had collected from school.

She was overjoyed and wanted to get home quickly because she had scored 100 on her test again today, and she wanted to tell her grandfather the good news as soon as possible.

As she reached the village entrance, she noticed that the villagers were looking at her strangely, not with pity as before, but with compassion and sighs.

Her heart skipped a beat. Could it be that Grandpa had gotten lost again?

She quickened her pace and ran home. As she passed the large banyan tree in front of her house, she saw a large crowd gathered there.

Her heart was pounding. She glanced over there and saw a familiar shoe lying alone on the ground.

She didn't care about what she was holding; she threw it on the ground and ran over there.

People automatically made way for her, and what she saw was her grandfather's hunched body, curled up on the ground.

His body was covered in mud, and his exposed skin was covered in bruises.

His clothes were disheveled, and his pants were torn in several places; it was clear he had been beaten.

Zhao Xiaoli rushed over and nudged her grandfather.

"Grandpa, what's wrong?"

But Grandpa didn't move. Zhao Xiaoli kept calling out, wanting Grandpa to call her Xiaoli.

But Grandpa kept his eyes tightly closed and remained silent.

The elderly woman next to her felt sorry for Zhao Xiaoli and tried to help her up, but Zhao Xiaoli refused to get up at all.

The old woman had no choice but to squat down and touch her hair.

"Xiaoli, be good. Grandpa is too tired. Let him sleep."

Zhao Xiaoli cried and shook her grandfather, but he never woke up again.

She didn't know what had happened and was crying so hard that she kept hiccuping. She kept asking her neighbors what was wrong.

But the people around them were all stammering; they didn't know what had happened either.

From their fragmented conversations, Zhao Xiaoli learned that her grandfather was already in this state when they found him.

Something must have happened, and she had to find out the truth; she wanted to avenge her grandfather.

But she asked many people and couldn't find out anything. Then the village chief came and suggested that she arrange her grandfather's funeral first.

In those days, there were no cameras, and Zhao Xiaoli was too young to know that she could call the police.

She was at a loss, but when the village chief spoke, she agreed.

Everyone in the village brought gifts, and Zhao Xiaoli wrote them all down in her notebook.

Although she was intelligent from a young age, she was too young to understand many things and could only follow the advice of her elders to hastily bury her grandfather.

After the funeral arrangements were completed, Zhao Xiaoli began her investigation. After several months of covert inquiries, she finally learned what had happened.

It turned out that Grandpa had met a kind person on the street that day who gave him a big apple. He happily sat under the banyan tree with the big apple in his hand, waiting for Zhao Xiaoli to come back.

He wanted to save the apple for his granddaughter, but three mischievous children in the village spotted him and asked him for the apple, which the grandfather naturally refused to give.

They started grabbing it; at first, they just pushed Grandpa down and took the apple.

Later, when they saw their grandfather get up and chase after them, the three of them tied him to a tree, poked him with sticks, whipped him, and even kicked him.

The three of them were terrified when their grandfather fell to the ground and lay motionless. They ran home and were too scared to come out.

By the time someone found Grandpa, he had already stopped breathing.