This is a winding residential alley hidden among high-rise buildings. Even in today's bustling and dazzling capital, it still retains the tranquility and comfort unique to the alleys of old Beijing.
There is no hustle and bustle of traffic or noise of people. Wutong Lane stands there quietly, like a gentle camellia girl who suddenly appears among a group of fashionable girls. Even the flow of time here seems to be much slower.
Zuo You, carrying his schoolbag, turned into the alley as if he knew the way, and stepped into a courtyard whose gate had already been opened.
"Stop right there, you little bastard!"
As soon as he entered the door, he heard the clanging of pots and pans from the house to the east, followed by a middle-aged woman's unyielding roar. A little boy in dirty overalls, with two long lines of snot running down his nose, ran out and hid behind Zuo You.
"Sister Yuzu, save me!" The little boy hugged Zuo Yu's thighs with his greasy little hands.
"Li Xuanxuan, even the Lord can't save you today!" A middle-aged woman kicked the door open with a feather duster in her hand. She looked extremely powerful. If it weren't for her messy curly hair that looked like a chicken coop, the scene just now would have been comparable to that of a heroine.
Li Xuanxuan refused to accept this and clung to Zuo You's thighs, crying loudly, "Ahhh, murder! Someone, come! The biological mother murdered her own son! Ah no, no, no, the stepmother murdered her son! My biological mother is not this tigress!"
The boy's deafening cries pierced the sky and startled the sparrows perched in the trees.
At this time, the people living in the south and west were startled by the noise and rushed out of the doors.
Wen Tong, wearing a plain sweater, came out from the south gate, and a little girl, about the same age as Li Xuanxuan, peeked out from the west. When the little girl saw Wen Tong coming out, she ran over and hid behind him, looking over here.
"Xiao Cui, don't get angry so early in the morning. Xuanxuan is still young, don't get angry with Xuanxuan." An old voice came from behind Wen Tong, and an old man with white hair and beard walked out slowly with a cane.
The old man was thin and gaunt, like a dried fish strip. Although he used crutches, he was in good spirits. He walked with his back straight, not stooping. His small eyes, nestled in deep sockets, were bright.
Wang Cuilian was so furious at Li Xuanxuan's outrageous words that she was fuming. She was bastardly talking, "Listen to what this bastard is saying! If I don't beat your ass to pieces today, I'm not your real mother!"
Li Xuanxuan was very clever. As soon as he saw the old man, he immediately let go of Zuo You's thigh and ran behind him: "Grandpa Wen, save me!"
In a flash, Wen Shouren waited for the boy to run over and grabbed his palm with such force that Li Xuanxuan couldn't struggle. Wen Shouren picked up his crutch and hit him several times, with obvious force, causing Li Xuanxuan to howl in pain.
Wen Shouren put down his crutches after beating him and leaned on his subordinate again: "Xuanxuan, what you said this morning really hurt your mother's heart. You should apologize to your mother. Grandpa taught you a lesson on your mother's behalf."
Then, Wen Shouren shouted at Wang Cuilian again, "Xiao Cui, I've already taught Xuanxuan a lesson for you. You're still angry now, so don't argue with a child. Let Xuanxuan stay with me first. I'll have him go back and apologize to you at noon."
Wang Cuilian was Li Xuanxuan's biological mother after all. Seeing Li Xuanxuan being hit, her anger subsided a lot. She said politely, "Then I'll trouble Uncle Wen to teach this brat a lesson. It really pissed me off."
The lively Li Xuanxuan made the courtyard a mess in the early morning, and it was only now gradually quieting down.
Zuo You followed Wen Tong into the small house on the south side. The narrow house was barely divided into four rooms: two bedrooms, a living room and kitchen, and the remaining room was a study.
After the final exams, Wen Tong took the initiative to invite Zuo You to study at his home. Zuo You also didn't want to stay at the Zuo family's house. It was really suffocating to stare at the two top students at home all day.
Except for the evening, Zuo You stayed at Wen Tong's house all day long to study with her.
Wen Tong lived with his grandfather in a small courtyard house in Wutong Lane. To the south was the house of Wen Tong and Wen Shouren, to the east was a married couple, and to the west was a single elderly man raising his granddaughter.
Wang Cuilian, one of the couple, is a big talker with a warm heart. She became familiar with Zuo You in just a few days. She didn't treat her as a junior at all and kept chatting with her about gossip all day long.
From Wang Cuilian, Zuo You learned that the grandmother to the west had a tragic fate. Her surname was Yang. Her husband and son were both dead, and her daughter-in-law had run off with someone else, leaving behind a tiny, still-weaned baby girl. The elderly woman was well past working age and could only rely on a small insurance payout to support herself and her granddaughter.
Old Mrs. Yang’s granddaughter is called Lin Xuan’er, the little girl who poked her head out from behind Wen Tong in the morning. This morning, she was playing with Li Xuanxuan at Wen Shouren’s place.
"Girls, would you like some fruit? I bought it at the morning market, it's very fresh." The study door was pushed open, and Wen Shouren walked in, trailing two little ones. The two children's faces were flushed, and each of them was happily munching on a plump strawberry.
Wen Tong nodded lightly and picked a big strawberry from the plate and gave it to Zuo You.
Wen Shouren put the plate on the table, picked up the test paper that Zuo You had been working on all morning, and looked at it for a while. Finally, he put it down and sighed, "Zuo girl, why are you doing this? Your grades are good enough to win a prize in the competition."
Zuo You had been eating and drinking for free at the Wen family for more than half a month, and she could no longer pretend to be a "bad student".
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