Chapter 767 So it really was Liu Fang? Ma Hongxia, with her fiery temper, had seen that beggar standing at the door for several days in a row.

Especially early in the morning, when he was given food, he didn't even say thank you, and just hid to the side and wolfed it down.

"No, we can't let this menace stay."

She threw the rouge in her hand into the basin and said to Aunt Yuan, "I think he's up to no good. Who knows what he's plotting."

With that, she grabbed a broom from the corner of the wall, her face stern, and went out.

She walked up to the huddled beggar and poked the broken bowl on the ground with the broom handle.

Ma Hongxia's loud voice drew the attention of a few passersby: "Hey, I'm talking to you. What's the point of hanging around here all day? This is a restaurant, not a charity. Get out of here and stop blocking our business."

The beggar trembled with fright, lowered his head even further, and made a muffled sob in his throat, as if begging for mercy or trying to explain, but the words were indistinct.

Seeing that he didn't move, Ma Hongxia became even angrier and was about to shoo him away with a broom: "Didn't you hear me? I told you to leave, there's no leftover food, hurry up and get out of here!"

The beggar panicked and raised his face, which was so dirty that it was unrecognizable.

He seemed to have used all his strength to shrink back, using both his hands and feet, but behind him was a cold wall, with nowhere to retreat.

Just as Ma Hongxia's broom was about to hit him, he suddenly lunged forward.

He knelt upright on the frozen, hard ground, his hands clasped together, repeatedly bowing to Ma Hongxia, pleading in a tearful voice:

"Please... don't send me away... please give me something to eat... I... I really have nowhere else to go..."

Ma Hongxia's broom hand froze in mid-air.

That voice...that tune...

She bent down abruptly, ignoring the pungent odor, and swept aside the greasy, tangled hair on the man's forehead, staring intently at the filthy face.

Those wide-open eyes filled with terror, the contours of that nose, the trembling curve of those chapped lips.

blurted out:

"Liu Fang?!"

The broom in Ma Hongxia's hand fell to the ground with a "clatter".

Liu Fang cried out in a panic, "It wasn't me, it wasn't me, you've mistaken me for someone else."

"How could I possibly be wrong!" Ma Hongxia reacted quickly, grabbing his arm tightly under his tattered cotton-padded coat.

"Before, your hair covered your face like a pot lid, but now that we're constantly seeing each other, with your eyebrows and eyes, and that whiny, cowardly way of talking, who else could it be but Liu Fang!"

During the tug-of-war, Liu Dong, noticing something amiss at the door, lifted the thick cotton curtain and peeked out: "Hongxia, what's all this commotion about? Like a beggar..."

Upon seeing his brother, Liu Fang was struck dumb, his body stiffening instantly. Then, he unleashed astonishing strength, managing to break free from Ma Hongxia's grasp and turning to dash across the street.

"Hey! Still trying to run away!" Ma Hongxia reacted quickly, not caring about getting dirty, and pounced on him, grabbing him from behind and hugging him around the waist.

Although Liu Dong hadn't fully reacted yet, seeing that the man was about to run away and hearing Ma Hongxia's tone, he instinctively took a step forward and grabbed Liu Fang's thin, bony shoulder with his iron-like hand.

Liu Fang was like a rat cornered against a wall; he was no match for Liu Dong, who was used to physical labor.

With one arm around the waist and the other twisting the arm, the two men quickly subdued the struggling beggar, rendering him immobile.

"Run. Try running again." Ma Hongxia gasped for breath, still holding him tightly around the waist.

Only then, by the light, did Liu Dong take a closer look at the person he and Ma Hongxia were holding down.

Despite his filthy face and gaunt appearance, those brow bones clearly belonged to his younger brother, who had run away from home and disappeared without a trace.

Liu Dong, who had been holding his younger brother's shoulders, suddenly loosened his grip, no longer using a grappling technique but more like a support.

He stared blankly for a long time before finally asking, "Little...Little Fang? Is it really you...how...how did you get into this state?"

Liu Fang immediately felt extremely ashamed and didn't want his family to see him in his current state.

Although he had severed ties with his younger brother before, he was still his own brother, and Liu Dong still felt sorry for him.

"I...I'm ashamed to face you all. I wanted to make something of myself, but I've ended up like this."

Looking at Liu Fang's disheveled appearance, Ma Hongxia sighed and didn't ask any more questions.

She led him quietly into the house through a small gate in the backyard, so that the guests eating in the front wouldn't see his disheveled state.

The fire in the stove wasn't completely extinguished yet, so Ma Hongxia quickly added some firewood, boiled water, and then hurriedly rolled out noodles.

Before long, a steaming bowl of clear broth noodles, sprinkled only with chopped green onions and salt, was served to Liu.

Liu Fang didn't care about the heat; he practically buried his head in the bowl, shoveling food into it with his chopsticks at lightning speed, the slurping sound echoing throughout the kitchen.

The bowl of noodles was devoured in no time, and not a drop of soup was left.

He put down the bowl, wiped his mouth haphazardly with his relatively clean sleeve, and finally his face regained some of its liveliness.

"Sigh..." He sighed heavily before recounting his experiences over the years in fits and starts.

"Back then... after leaving the production team, I was ambitious and thought I could make a living anywhere. But when I got outside, I realized that without a letter of introduction or any acquaintances, finding a job was harder than climbing to heaven. The little money I had in my pocket was gone in just a few days."

He rubbed his hands, which were covered in chilblains and calluses, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

"I slept under bridges and squeezed into roadside inns with other people... Later, I could only... beg for food along the way."

He spoke vaguely, but the bitterness and humiliation in his words were clearly written on his face.

It's not that I haven't thought about coming back, but when I think about the way everyone looks at me... I... where would I put my face...?

He buried his head even deeper, his shoulders trembling slightly.

"I just drifted along like that, eating one meal a day or another, until half a year ago, I couldn't take it anymore and secretly slipped back to the production team. I peeked over the wall and looked... home... there was only my father left, sitting in the yard smoking his pipe. The house was pitch black. My mother... my mother was gone. My older brother and the others were gone too. The people in the production team thought I was a beggar passing by. They told me that the production team had prospered over the years. Before Captain Qingyang left, he had made arrangements for everything here. No one had to worry about food or drink anymore. My relationship with Qingyang was so bad, so I... sigh."