Xia Lu no longer had to go back to the Xia family. Qin Jiangke would occasionally ask someone to buy things for her.

Because of him, other people in Qinhuai Street also took good care of her. Even though she had a bad reputation, they would bring her food and drinks, and take her to do any manual work so that she could earn some money. She

stayed away from the Xia family.

Xia Lu's temper was much lighter. There was no oppression, no insults, and no contempt.

She was a normal person, and also someone who could be cared for, loved, and praised.

Every morning when she woke up, she would not be beaten or scolded for being lazy, and there would be no quarrels between her parents. Instead, the children would come to her and pull her to play in the fields, help with harvesting, or do some work.

Xia Lu could read and her grades were OK. She found that these children basically didn't study and there was no condition at home. She didn't know when she started to teach them to write their own names. Then she taught them more and more. Seeing that they could do addition and subtraction, write their names, and some of them could even go to school, Xia Lu seemed to have found her own value and was accepted by other adults.

No matter what they did, they would call her to join them, and Qin Jiangke would come over from time to time, sometimes teaching her homework together.

But Xia Lu found that this person was not good at being a teacher. He was careless and easily led by the children.

In such days, Xia Lu's personality gradually became cheerful. The turning point was the second year after she left the Xia family. There were many troubles in front of the widow's house. One day when Xia Lu returned home, she found that the widow's door was closed when she should have been in the yard in broad daylight. She called a few times, but no one was there. She thought she had gone out, but she heard some noise in the house. She ran in to see what was going on.

The widow was beautiful and a man who was a factory manager on the street fell in love with her. He went out to drink in the middle of the night and ran into the widow's house in broad daylight to do something indecent.

Xia Lu came at a good time. It was just a little bit away that the widow would be in trouble.

She chased him away -

the widow begged Xia Lu not to make it public, and Xia Lu agreed. However, the man was still determined and tried to make trouble several times. In this era, a person's spit can drown a person. Slowly, the news that the widow and the man had an affair spread, and everyone was talking about it. One night, the man sneaked in, not to the widow's place, but to Xia Lu's place -

Xia Lu beat him hard, and he fell to the ground and couldn't get up.

The next day, the news spread in Qinhuai Street, and the man's wife cried and wanted to beat Xia Lu to death.

She said Xia Lu seduced her man and was shameless.

She wanted her to pay for medical expenses and so on.

Xia Lu said she didn't do it, and he broke in.

Captain Zhou asked the widow.

The widow held the child and shook her head, saying that she didn't know and she didn't have an affair with the man. She avoided Xia Lu's eyes while speaking.

At that moment, Xia Lu felt the despair of being betrayed again. No one believed her. All the words were condemnation. The vicious words stabbed at her - she thought, it was going back to the past. If that moment could be seen, she could see that her originally open heart was slowly closing, and she seemed to fall into the abyss little by little. At this time, the man was kicked to the ground.

It was Qin Jiangke who rushed with Zhou Datu and others.

He kicked the man down, then came over and hugged her in his arms without saying a word, and said: "I'm sorry, I'm late."

This man -

took advantage of her without any explanation, and was inferior to so many people.

Xia Lu felt that she should hit him, but tears suddenly flowed out. She felt embarrassed and rubbed Qin Jiangke's shoulder, "I didn't cry."

Qin Jiangke: "Yeah, you didn't cry." Qin Jiangke

untied the rope for her, and rarely looked at the couple with a frown, and said to the chattering woman, "I don't hit women, but it doesn't mean I won't hit women."

"Qin Jiangke, are you still talking about reason?!"

"Reason is for people who understand. There is no need to reason with you two."

"I know what my sweetheart is like. She wouldn't fall for a pig, no matter who she falls for. I've called the police. Let's wait for them to investigate. Breaking into someone's house in the middle of the night and trying to do something indecent to a woman, you should go to jail."

Then, the police came to inquire about the situation. The man insisted that it was Xia Lu who seduced him. They usually just made do with it.

Then Qin Jiangke beat him again.

He screamed and Xia Lu couldn't stop him. She was so scared that she thought he was crazy. This happened in front of the police.

However, the police only pulled Qin Jiangke for the sake of courtesy, and had no intention of keeping an account.

Finally, the question was asked to the widow - the widow said she didn't know, that she didn't know the man, and asked if Xia Lu had any grudges with the man, she refused to mention it and said she didn't know.

At this moment, her daughter spoke up, "My mother lied."

"Teacher Xia has a grudge against this man."

"She broke into my house and wanted to beat my mother, but Teacher Xia beat her away. He hated Teacher Xia..."

"She also threatened my mother."

"My mother was afraid that he would come looking for her, so when the man said he wanted to destroy Teacher Xia, my mother opened the door for him..."

The seven or eight-year-old girl shed tears and said sorry to Xia Lu, then said to her mother, "Xiao Qin and Teacher Xia are good people. They have helped us a lot. We can't let them down."

The widow burst into tears and finally confessed that she was entangled by this man, but she was afraid that her reputation would be ruined if it got out, so she didn't dare to tell anyone. In desperation, she thought of pushing Xia Lu out.

"I'm sorry, Xia Lu..." she apologized.

Xia Lu couldn't say it was okay, but she looked at the little girl and said, "Thank you."

Obviously, that was her mother, but she stood up bravely and told the truth.

At that moment, she also re-examined Qin Jiangke -

this man said he could protect her, Xia Lu didn't believe it.

But he proved with facts that whenever she needed him, he could come like a god.

No matter when and where, he stood in front of her and smoothed out all the wind and snow.

Including when she got married, her mother-in-law did not approve of this marriage, especially the 2,000 yuan thing. When he brought her home, the Qin family closed the door, and then when Qin Jiangke came out again, his face was obviously injured, and he was beaten.

He also pretended to be indifferent and said that my mother agreed.

This time, Xia Lu did not choose to leave or mock him. Instead, she reached out and touched his wound and asked him if it hurt.

After applying the medicine to him, she held his hand and told him: "Although my family background has destined me to not be a cheerful girl, for you, I am willing to enter your world and live with you, but there is a premise. I don't like betrayal, regardless of family and friendship. If one day you betray me, I will drag you down with me even if I die. So are you still willing to be with me?"

How did Qin Jiangke answer at that moment?

He said, silly Xia Lu.