Tianxin Road is located on the southern edge of Canglan City.

It is said to belong to Canglan City, but in fact... it is much more remote than the Dapu Village where the members of the End Cult lived before...

It is a place that completely belonged to the urban-rural fringe in the past.

Qin Jinnian...or rather the original owner's home, lived here.

'Wholesale of brocade and cotton'...is the family's livelihood.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a store that sells bedding or anything like that...it's just an ordinary grocery store.

The reason for this name is that my son is called Jinnian and my daughter is called Xiaomian. I just took one character from each of them and gave them this name.

The grocery store is on the first floor of the self-built house, the second floor is the living room and the parents' residence, and the third floor is the room for the son and daughter...

Xia Panlan prepared dinner and went to the first floor to look after the store. It could be seen that she was also a beauty when she was young, and her facial features were still very delicate.

But the pressure of life over the years has made her look a little older, her skin looks a little sallow, and there are more wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.

At this moment, she was sitting behind the cigarette cabinet on the first floor, watching TV for a while, then turning her head to look outside the door, looking a little worried.

She didn't know how much time had passed when she heard footsteps. She quickly stood up and saw two people walking in from outside.

Seeing the two, Xia Panlan's eyes lit up and she quickly went to greet them: "You're back? What's wrong? What happened? Xiaomian, Xiaomian..."

A middle-aged man walked in, it was her husband Qin Taiping.

Qin Taiping looked to be in his forties. He was handsome but also looked a little old. He frowned and said nothing.

And behind him, there was a girl.

The little girl was about fifteen or sixteen years old. Although young, she was already very beautiful.

It’s this outfit…it’s a bit hard to describe.

Her long black hair was dyed purple and blue, and her face, which should have been as pure as a lotus in clear water, was painted with heavy smoky makeup.

It was already late autumn, but she was wearing a short skirt and short shirt, revealing her slender thighs and flat belly.

She looks like a spirited little girl...

It was her daughter Qin Xiaomian.

Qin Xiaomian pouted when Xia Panlan called her. Seeing her mother holding her arm and looking up and down, as if she was afraid that she would get hurt, Qin Xiaomian pouted and said impatiently, "Mom, I'm fine..."

"Of course you're okay!"

Qin Taiping, who had been patient all the way, finally couldn't bear it anymore when he heard his daughter's voice. He turned around and said angrily: "But the child you beat today is in the hospital!"

Qin Xiaomian raised his head and said, "He deserves it! Who told him to touch Xiaohua? He was lucky that he wasn't beaten to death!"

"you!……"

Seeing that his daughter was still talking back to him, Qin Taiping flew into a rage. He looked around, ready to find something to beat her with.

"Okay, okay, what are you doing? What's going on?"

Xia Panlan became anxious and quickly stopped Qin Taiping, asking what was going on.

Just this afternoon, Qin Taiping suddenly received a call from his daughter's class teacher, who asked him in a serious tone to go to school immediately.

Then he hung up the phone.

But from the tone of voice, it was clear that Qin Xiaomian was in trouble at school again.

Qin Taiping then rushed to the school in a hurry.

Although Xia Panlan was anxious, someone had to look after the store at home, so she could only cook at home while waiting for them to come back.

So I don’t know what happened yet.

"Ask your good daughter what she did!"

Qin Taiping was furious, but was stopped by his wife. In fact, he couldn't bear to hit his own daughter, so he took advantage of the situation and pointed at Qin Xiaomian and said viciously.

"Xiao Mian, what happened?" When Xia Panlan heard someone coming into the hospital, she knew it was a serious matter and asked seriously.

Qin Xiaomian curled her lips. Although she was unhappy, she still hummed and told the story.

There was probably a pretty girl named Xiaohua in the school, who had a very good relationship with Qin Xiaomian, and they were considered best friends. This morning when she went to school, Qin Xiaomian saw her crying at her desk.

She knew that this best friend had a completely different personality from hers and was very weak, so she asked what was wrong.

Xiaohua was reluctant to say it at first, but couldn't stand Qin Xiaomian's constant asking, and only later did he find out... On the way to school in the morning, Xiaohua met a few guys in the school who usually did nothing. They were staggering towards the school, and it was obvious that they had been drinking secretly.

This kind of thing is very common. After all, the oldest junior high school students are about 15 or 16 years old, which is the age when they are curious about everything.

Alcohol is something that boys naturally yearn for. Therefore, in order to show that they are independent, boys often call their friends to drink secretly, thinking that they are very handsome...

When Xiaohua saw these drunkards, he was a little scared, so he quickened his pace and wanted to leave quickly.

Who knew that they would still be discovered by these drunken kids? At the moment, they were drunk and the young boy Mu Aishi started to flirt with Xiao Hua. Some of them were even drunk and made physical advances...

Xiaohua was so scared at the time that he escaped after struggling hard, but he was also terrified and kept crying at school.

When Qin Xiaomian found out what was going on, she was furious, so she gathered a group of friends with whom she had a good relationship, and blocked one of the leaders during the lunch break.

Originally, it would have been enough for the other party to apologize, but who would have thought that when they saw that it was a few girls who came, not only did they not apologize, but they continued to verbally provoke Qin Xiaomian, which completely infuriated her... and she started fighting with the other party.

Although Qin Xiaomian looks thin and weak, her vitality is among the best in the school. Once she started fighting, she was furious and didn't care about the severity of the situation. She just chopped off the person's head.

The blood was seen and the matter became a big deal. Soon the teacher intervened and learned what had happened.

The teacher's handling of the matter was actually quite fair. He first severely criticized the students who bullied Xiaohua... But because they didn't do it on purpose, they were drinking secretly and having sex after drinking, so he only gave them a warning.

Then he criticized Qin Xiaomian... This kind of thing should be reported to the teacher. How can you gather friends to fight in private? And Qin Xiaomian is still a girl, this behavior is really inappropriate.

What's more, they broke their classmate's head... Although they should be punished, it shouldn't be Qin Xiaomian who should take the lead. So they asked Qin Xiaomian to apologize to them.

Who knew that Qin Xiaomian would get angry and directly confront the teacher.

"The teacher didn't punish this scumbag who dared to tease girls at such a young age, but instead criticized and educated the person who bravely stood up for justice? Apologize? Bullshit! I didn't do anything wrong!"

This sentence made the teacher feel stuck.

Afterwards, because the students were injured, it was reasonable to notify their parents, so the mother of the student whose head was opened came to the school.

One can imagine that behind a boy who dares to tease girls there must be bad parents... When the family tutor saw that their precious son's head was broken and bleeding, he would not give in even if the school doctor said it was just a skin injury.

Then things get complicated.

What's more, Qin Xiaomian even confronted the other parent in front of the teacher. When the other parent called her a "little bastard", she immediately flew into a rage and called him an "old bitch"... The middle-aged woman was so angry that her face turned crooked and she almost hit him.

Qin Xiaomian didn't tolerate it at all. She picked up the brick that had hit her son just now, and looked cold and arrogant. It seemed that if the middle-aged woman dared to scold her again, she would directly hit her with the brick in the face...

The teacher had no choice but to notify Qin Taiping to go to school to deal with the matter...

"So, is everything settled now?"

Xia Panlan was also dumbfounded after hearing the whole incident. She looked at her daughter and didn't know whether to praise or criticize her for a moment, so she could only ask Qin Taiping.

"What the hell! Now they insist that it was Qin Xiaomian who got a group of people to beat them up for no reason! It's nonsense to say that he molested a girl. He totally denies it and says that we can only get away with it if we can produce evidence!... This is a shabby place with broken street lights. Where is the evidence? They've already called the police!"

Qin Taiping roared angrily, his eyes turning red.

"ah!"

Xia Panlan didn't expect that things would become so serious, and she became anxious for a moment.

"Well, what should we do then?"

"ah?"

Xia Panlan was dumbfounded again and was at a loss for a moment.

She was just an ordinary woman. When she heard what the police said, she started to panic.

Not to mention...

One hundred thousand?

"Dad, who told you to promise to pay them money? What are you going to pay for? You're not allowed to pay! At worst, I'll just be locked up! Humph, I'll just break his head. The school said it was just a minor injury and I'm still a minor. At most, they'll lock me up for fifteen days. I'm not afraid! I'll keep beating him when I get out, until he doesn't dare to call the police or apologize!"

Qin Xiaomian spoke at this moment, and she was very dissatisfied and angry.

"You, are you trying to piss me off to death?! You're a girl, a girl! I haven't even had the chance to ask you... What's wrong with your face? What kind of messed-up makeup is this? And where's your school uniform? Whose clothes are you wearing?!"

Qin Taiping became furious and stood up. He was determined to beat up this rebellious girl this time.

When I went to school in the morning, I was fine. Except for my hair, everything else was not so exaggerated.

When he saw her at school today, he almost didn't recognize her... This spirited little girl was actually his daughter? Seeing her still acting like she didn't know whether to live or die, he was so angry that his liver ached and felt that he had to teach her a lesson.

"It's no use hitting me... that's right!"

Qin Xiaomian did not answer her father's question. She stiffened her neck and looked as if she was ready to sacrifice herself. Qin Taiping was almost angry to the point of having a heart attack.

"You damn girl, can't you say less? Do you really want to get beaten?"

Xia Panlan hurriedly calmed the furious Qin Taiping, then turned her head and glared at her daughter fiercely.

Qin Xiaomian just turned her head away and ignored him completely.

Xia Panlan was extremely depressed...

What kind of sin did she suffer? People said that she was blessed to have a son and a daughter, which formed a good word.

But who knows... her son has been weak since childhood, so he developed an extremely withdrawn personality and is usually extremely dull... which makes her worry a lot.

And the daughter...and son's personalities are completely different!

This girl has been rebellious since she was young, just like a boy! She is even tougher than the average boy... Beat her? You can beat her if you want, but she will calm down for a day or two and then do it again...

It really exhausted her both mentally and physically.

Now that such a big incident has happened, I have to pay a hundred thousand in compensation...

This, this...

Seeing her husband angrily about to beat their daughter, and her daughter still arguing with her father, Xia Panlan finally couldn't help but burst into tears.

"Go ahead and hit me, just beat me to death first! There's no point in living! There's no point!!"

Xia Panlan sat down and burst into tears, which stunned the two men.

Qin Taiping was anxious: "Hey, mother, what are you doing? Don't cry, don't cry, I, I won't hit you."

Qin Xiaomian saw her mother crying. She, who was fearless, panicked and ran over quickly: "Mom, I was wrong. You, please stop crying. I was wrong."

Xia Panlan couldn't stop crying and completely ignored the comfort of the father and daughter...

Life is too stressful. Business hasn't been good recently, and she's barely making ends meet. Her son and daughter's personalities have always been a big problem, which has exhausted her mentally and physically. Now this has happened again...

One hundred thousand.

For their family, this is a huge sum of money! But is it okay not to give it?

Do we really want Qin Xiaomian to have a criminal record at such a young age?

That would affect her whole life! The pressure from the past few days suddenly came to her mind, making Xia Panlan cry breathlessly.

Even many neighbors heard the crying and looked over here.

Qin Taiping knew exactly why his wife was crying, but he opened his mouth and sighed helplessly...

What can he do?

He was just an ordinary person, and he had put all his energy into trying to prevent his family from starving to death.

Qin Xiaomian pursed her lips tightly. It was not that she was ignorant, nor was she unaware of the situation at home.

But...because of this, she can't be weak in school.

Her parents didn’t know what her brother had experienced in school, but she knew it because she had attended the same elementary school as him.

There will always be some people who think bullying the weak is a skill.

Qin Xiaomian once thought about living a quiet life and not causing trouble for her parents.

But when the first person who looked down on her because of her brother and even because of her family appeared, and even began to frequently play pranks on her... the precocious girl realized that no one could protect her.

Except herself.

She had to be stronger and tougher than anyone else, and harder to mess with than anyone else, in order to survive relatively quietly in this school...

Xia Panlan's crying lasted for a long time before slowly stopping.

Qin Taiping and Qin Xiaomian helped Xia Panlan up and let her sit down. Xia Panlan sighed deeply and asked Qin Taiping with red eyes: "How much money do you have at home now?"

"Adding it all together, we can probably make up 50,000 or 60,000 yuan." Qin Taiping said in a deep voice, "But there are still some debts outside... I'll call and urge them later. One hundred thousand yuan... shouldn't be a problem."

Xia Panlan was silent, and finally looked at Qin Xiaomian. She rubbed Qin Xiaomian's head, then smiled bitterly and said, "Xiao Mian, Mom knows you are a good child, but there are some things that you really can't let your temper take you. Mom and Dad are getting old, and their abilities are limited. Not every time you make a mess, Mom and Dad can share the burden for you... Do you understand?"

Not many people can tell their children so frankly about their weaknesses and shortcomings.

But Xia Panlan had no choice. Their family was so fragile that it could fall apart if they were not careful.

She could only let Qin Xiaomian face the stark reality... although, this was actually a bit cruel for the child.

Qin Xiaomian was calmer than Xia Panlan had imagined. After thinking about it, she nodded gently: "Mom, I understand..."

"Okay, go wash your face and change your clothes. You're not cute like this..." Xia Panlan rubbed Qin Xiaomian's head lovingly and finally reminded her.

After a moment of silence, Qin Xiaomian nodded and went upstairs.

When she reached the third floor, facing the room with no lights on, Qin Xiaomian looked towards her brother's room inexplicably.

It was pitch black over there, and so quiet that it seemed like water could seep out of it...

Qin Xiaomian was silent for a while, she bit her lips and held back her tears.

Walked to my room...

…

Downstairs had returned to silence, Qin Taiping was smoking one cigarette after another, and Xia Panlan was also silent.

One hundred thousand yuan, like a mountain, suddenly fell.

It was not until the phone rang that Xia Panlan looked up and looked at her cell phone.

When she saw the incoming call on her phone, her eyes lit up slightly, then she coughed a few times to clear her hoarse throat before answering the phone.

"Hello, is this Xiaonian?"

(End of this chapter)