Brother! This is the adoption certificate. I don't want your sister-in-law!

Su Xiao held the Nokia phone in her hand, looking at it from left to right.

The boss said it was 99% new, but it's actually at most 80% new.

The casing has a few fine scratches, and the navigation keys are worn shiny, but the motherboard is clean and the screen has no dead pixels.

Second-hand goods are indeed rare in this year.

He put his phone in his pocket, nodded to the boss, and accepted the favor.

After leaving the stall, he wandered around several parts stalls on the second floor, picking out a few sets of high-quality replica casings, assembled batteries, and button cables.

I also bought a simple screwdriver, two disassembly tools, and a small bottle of alcohol cleaning wipes, and stuffed them all into my backpack.

It was almost dark when we left the Guochu Computer City.

As soon as the streetlights came on, strips of orange light spread across the road.

Su Xiao hailed a taxi and asked the driver to drop him off at the food street near his home.

He planned to grab a quick bite here before heading back.

The food street was quite crowded, with smoke from the charcoal stoves mingling with the sizzling sound of grilled squid, and the air filled with the aroma of cumin and chili powder.

As he walked, he pondered how much he could earn from refurbishing each phone when he got back.

As I was calculating, I suddenly saw a group of people gathered in front of me, with a man and a woman arguing in the middle.

He wasn't really paying attention and turned to leave.

Then I saw the girl's pigtails.

It's Wu Mengmeng again.

Compared to the morning, her pigtails were a bit loose, and her JK skirt was wrinkled, as if it had been ripped.

A middle-aged man with a square face stood opposite me, and his voice was so loud that it could be heard halfway down the street.

"What are you doing out there, a young woman like you? You don't study, you don't work, I've raised you for over ten years for nothing! Boss Wang from the next village has already sent over the bride price, you have to marry him whether you like it or not!"

Wu Mengmeng raised her head, her voice shrill and filled with a defiant, reckless arrogance: "If you want to get married, go get married yourself! Have you ever cared about me for even a day? What have you done besides hitting me?"

The man, his face turning ashen from being talked back to in public, grabbed her arm.

Wu Mengmeng struggled for a moment but couldn't break free. The man raised his other hand to slap her.

She was so frightened that she closed her eyes, hunched her shoulders, and turned her head to the side.

The slap didn't land.

A hand grabbed the man's wrist.

The man paused for a moment, then looked in the direction of the hand.

A sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy, who looked like a scoundrel, with his hair a bit messy from the wind, didn't look like a good person.

Su Xiao flung his hand aside, causing the man to stumble back two steps, nearly knocking over an electric scooter parked on the side of the road.

Who are you?

The man steadied himself, looked the boy up and down, his face full of anger.

Su Xiao took a step forward, shielding Wu Mengmeng behind her.

Who do you care who I am?

His voice wasn't loud, but every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, "And who the hell are you?"

The man was taken aback by his fearless attitude.

He glanced at the growing crowd around him, feeling utterly humiliated. His face flushed crimson, and he pointed at Wu Mengmeng, yelling, "Look at yourself! You shameless wretch, just like your mother..."

"You old bastard, you're still pretty stubborn." Su Xiao raised an eyebrow, rolled up her sleeves, and was about to go up to him.

Wu Mengmeng quickly reached out from behind and grabbed him.

Her fingers gripped his arm tightly, so tightly that her nails almost dug into his skin.

"Don't……"

Her voice trembled; all the ruthlessness she had shown moments before was gone, replaced by a panic he had never seen before. "He...he's my dad."

Su Xiao was stunned for a moment, then slowly lowered her hand that had been rolled up.

Seeing that he was silent, Wu Shan assumed he was scared and put on that smug expression again.

"You brat, you're Mengmeng's boyfriend, right? You dare touch me? You'll never be with her for the rest of your life!"

Wu Shan had barely finished laughing when Su Xiao spoke up calmly.

"He's your dad, not mine."

Wu Mengmeng was stunned.

Wu Shan was also stunned.

He looked at Su Xiao's face, which showed no attempt to hide her recklessness.

He subconsciously took a half-step back, drawn by that reckless look that only sixteen or seventeen-year-old hooligans have.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but looking into Su Xiao's eyes, which held no hint of a smile, he swallowed his words back.

"You just wait."

He said those words, turned around, pushed through the crowd, and walked away without looking back.

The figure quickly disappeared at the end of the snack street without even stopping.

"What a coward, he ran away after saying just a few words."

Su Xiao pursed her lips and looked away.

Turning around, Wu Mengmeng stood there, head down, hands hanging at her sides.

Half of her pigtails were undone, the hair ties had come off at some point, and a strand of hair clung to her face, wet and sticky, it was hard to tell if it was sweat or tears.

The neckline of the JK skirt was also torn crooked, revealing a section of the collarbone, and there was a patch of dust on the hem of the skirt.

She didn't say anything, but just used the back of her hand to wipe the tears off her face. After wiping them off, new tears would fall, and she couldn't wipe them off completely no matter how many times she wiped them.

Su Xiao sighed inwardly as she looked at her like this.

He genuinely didn't want to meddle in other people's business.

He was busy all day, and there were still eight cell phones waiting to be refurbished in his backpack. He didn't even have dinner.

He should have turned around and left.

But I couldn't move my feet.

"Alright, stop crying."

His voice wasn't exactly gentle, just a little softer than usual.

Upon hearing this, Wu Mengmeng paused with the back of her hand on her face, then suddenly let out a self-deprecating laugh.

The laughter was short and soft, as if something was blocking his throat. After he finished laughing, the tears fell even more heavily.

Do you think I'm pathetic?

She didn't look at him; her gaze fell on a crushed aluminum can on the ground. "My dad doesn't care about me, and my mom doesn't want me anymore. The new man my mom found thinks I'm in the way and tells me to stay away from home."

She wiped her face with the back of her hand again. "My dad just wants to marry me off for a dowry. Fifty thousand. He raised me all these years just to sell me for fifty thousand yuan."

After she finished speaking, she smiled again. That smile, hidden beneath her red, swollen eyes, was even more heart-wrenching than her crying.

"I'm already pathetic enough. Su Xiao, you're such a scumbag, don't pretend to comfort me. Just leave."

Su Xiao didn't leave.

The two of them just stood there.

After a while, Wu Mengmeng sniffed and pulled out a piece of candy from somewhere. The candy wrapper was wrinkled, as if it had been in her pocket for a long time.

She reached out her hand.

"Do you want some?"

Su Xiao stared at the candy for a long time, a little lost in her train of thought.

"Have you eaten?" Su Xiao asked.

Wu Mengmeng paused for a moment, then shook her head.

"Let's go eat then."

Wu Mengmeng lowered her head, withdrew her hand, and said in a muffled voice, "I have no money left."

"No money?"

Su Xiao felt a mix of emotions. "You bought me water when you had no money?"

She didn't answer, but just kept turning the candy over and over in her hands.

"Let's go, it's my treat."

Wu Mengmeng raised her head.

His eyes were still red, but they brightened up suddenly, like a streetlamp flashing in the rain.

She sniffed, raised her chin, and snorted, "Then you'll regret it. I'm going to eat you out of house and home."

Su Xiao looked at the expression on her face.

She appeared fine on the surface, but there was a deep sadness in her eyes that she was trying hard to suppress.