At night, Ruan Chen tossed and turned in pain, unable to sleep.
Fu Jianzhi clumsily filled a basin with water and wiped her wounds, tears streaming down his face.
"What did Cao De ask you to do?"
Fu Jianzhi shook his head. "He didn't ask me to do anything, he just told me to get lost."
Ruan Chen nodded and said, "Cao De wants you to do bad things, but we can't do them, understand?"
Fu Jianzhi, however, did not listen this time.
“I’ll do anything as long as he lets my sister go,” Fu Jianzhi said in a small voice, her voice trembling with tears. “Anyway, my family doesn’t want me anymore, so no one will care if I do bad things.”
In Fu Jianzhi's mind, Ruan Chen was a very, very good older sister to him; if it weren't for Ruan Chen, he would have died.
Ruan Chen stared at him blankly for a long time, then suddenly laughed and ruffled his soft hair. "Silly girl, aren't I family?"
She made up her mind at that moment.
Cao De died.
From now on, Fu Jianzhi will be her younger brother.
Both she and Cong Rao are able-bodied and can survive without Cao De.
They heard snoring coming from next door, so Ruan Chen and Fu Jianzhi secretly turned on the TV.
They kept switching channels, but only one channel had no static. So the two of them sat side by side on the floor and watched it with great interest.
The television is replaying today's news.
"The Fu family, with total assets exceeding trillions, held a press conference at 10:00 AM to announce that the successor has been finalized, with their second son, Fu Lin, taking over all family affairs..."
"Mr. Nguyen Chinh Duc, on behalf of the Nguyen Group, extends his congratulations to Mr. Fu Lin..."
Under the flash of the camera, the moment when the two outstanding entrepreneurs shook hands was captured.
One of them was surnamed Ruan, and the other was surnamed Fu.
Ruan Chen wanted to tease Fu Jianzhi, so she leaned close to his ear and whispered, "I'll tell you a secret. That Ruan Zhengde inside is my biological father, but he doesn't want me anymore."
Fu Jianzhi wasn't scared. "Sister, the Fu Lin next to your father is my father. He doesn't want me anymore either."
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Ruan Chen wanted to live to a ripe old age, so she wasn't foolish enough to point at Cao De's nose and say, "I want you dead."
Cao De is her stepfather, so he must hold considerable power.
Therefore, she carefully planned a way for Cao De to die.
The Pleasure Hall was not only a place for men to relax, but also a place for gambling.
Ruan Chen collected the toys that Hu Wanglong had left behind and exchanged them for twenty yuan at the scrap collector.
The scrap collector twirled the money between his yellowed fingers, his cloudy eyes roaming brazenly over Ruan Chen's budding body. When he laughed, he revealed a set of crooked, tartar-covered teeth. "Little sister, Uncle will give you five more dollars to buy candy. Will you come to see Uncle tonight? Uncle will take you to catch loaches."
Ruan Chen grabbed the money from the scrap collector without saying a word.
A dirty, large hand grabbed her slender arm.
This wasn't the first time the man who collected recyclables had lured young girls like this. In his eyes, the virginity of a girl growing up in a slum was only worth five yuan.
Ruan Chen's face was expressionless. She glanced at the pregnant woman sorting through recyclables in the inner room and asked with a maturity beyond her years, "Your wife? Boy or girl?"
"Just like you, a money-loser."
Ruan Chen nodded and said in an extremely indifferent tone, "You will be childless."
After saying that, she pulled her hand away, took the twenty yuan, went to the ecstasy hall, and exchanged it for two ten-yuan chips.
That night, the scrap collector, for some unknown reason, became possessed and said that his wife's womb was useless, unable to even conceive a boy. He beat his wife until she miscarried, and her wailing could be heard throughout the slums. Who knew it was a fully formed male fetus?
The next day, the burn on Ruan Chen's back, which had started to scab over, inexplicably worsened, oozing pus and causing excruciating pain.
Ruan Chen knew why; this was the price to pay.
It's just that the life that died was as insignificant as a blade of grass, so she could bear this price.
She threw two chips at the door.
When Cao De returned from working at a nearby construction site, he saw the two chips and picked them up.
Cao De doesn't gamble at the Pleasure Hall, where the smallest bet is ten yuan. He goes to the mahjong parlor downstairs, where a game can be started for five mao.
But since he'd gotten twenty dollars' worth of chips for free, he was naturally going to the Pleasure Hall to broaden his horizons; maybe he could double his winnings.
As he tossed his chips into the Bliss Hall, Ruan Chen, holding Fu Jianzhi's hand, stood at a corner not far away, coldly watching him.
That evening, he brought home two bottles of liquor and two jin of pig's head meat.
The twenty yuan I found turned into five thousand yuan in just one day, through wins and losses.
Cao De, drunk, thought to himself that the chosen one was nothing more than this.
After Cao De started snoring while cuddling Cong Rao, Ruan Chen carefully washed herself clean, changed into the new clothes Cao De had bought for her that day, and woke up the drowsy Fu Jianzhi, "Come with your sister to take care of something, okay?"
Children are prone to drowsiness, but Fu Jianzhi had that kind of perseverance. He got up with his head bobbing and followed Ruan Chen, who was dressed like a rose covered in morning dew, into the Hall of Bliss.
This was Ruan Chen's first time visiting a place like this.
She was scared, otherwise she wouldn't have called on eight-year-old Fu Jianzhi to back her up.
The air was damp and humid, filled with the smell of smoke mixed with an indescribable fishy odor. Fu Jianzhi said uncomfortably, "Sister, I feel like throwing up."
Ruan Chen gently coaxed, "It's okay, it'll be quick."
Regardless of her age, attire, or appearance, Ruan Chen was completely out of place here, and quickly attracted the attention of others.
A woman yawned, a half-smoked cigarette between her fingers, and asked, "Little sister, have you come to the wrong place?"
She spoke in a loud, high-pitched voice, "I am Cong Rao's daughter. I want to find Brother Le. I want to ask him if he wants to spend 30,000 to buy me."
In the deep, smoky room, Ruan Chen finally met Brother Le.
The bald, tattooed man, around thirty years old, owned several entertainment venues and was the leader of the local thugs.
Upon seeing Brother Le, Ruan Chen, whose legs had been trembling with nervousness the entire way, calmed down.
Le Ge looked at the meticulously dressed, budding girl with a half-smile and said, "I did say that, so what?"
Ruan Chen pretended to be mature and said, "I only need 10,000, and I would like to ask Brother Le for a favor."
Brother Le—whose full name is Yu Le—was almost laughing out loud. "You're the one who decides?"
Ruan Chen said calmly, "If Cao De dies, then my word is law."
Yu Le was taken aback by the indifference and murderous intent in those words. He stubbed out his cigarette and looked at Ruan Chen with a more serious expression.
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