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

Su Xiao walked down the empty street carrying a bottle of soy sauce, the streetlights casting long shadows of him.

The night wind blew in from the Xiang River, carrying the smell of fish and the chill of late autumn.

He zipped up his jacket, put his hands in his pockets, and the soy sauce bottle swayed gently inside the plastic bag.

He has walked this street for many years, more than ten years in his previous life, and he continues to walk it in this life.

The street is still the same street, the streetlights are still the same row of streetlights, and even the loose cement brick on the ground is still in the same place.

He suddenly remembered something.

In his past life, when his parents had just passed away, he was completely dazed.

The seventeen-year-old boy lost his parents overnight. His younger sister was taken away by his second uncle, and he was taken away by his eldest uncle.

That home was like a cookie that had been broken in two, completely shattered.

He didn't know what he should do, or what he was capable of doing.

I sleep at school during the day and stay up all night in internet cafes. When I'm hungry, I eat a pack of instant noodles, and when I'm sleepy, I doze off on the keyboard.

He was in a daze, no different from a walking corpse.

At that time, Wu Mengmeng's mother was still alive.

Her mother's surname is Zhou, Zhou Zhi, and Su Xiao calls her Aunt Zhou.

I usually sell dried goods at the market, such as wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and daylily buds.

When she was young, she had a first love surnamed Lin. The two were together for a while, but broke up because of family opposition.

Uncle Lin went to Shanghai Stock Exchange and built a listed company from scratch. He hasn't returned to Jingcheng for more than ten years.

In his middle age, he suddenly remembered his old lover. After learning that Aunt Zhou had divorced, he traveled a long way back to find her, saying that he wanted to marry her and bring Wu Cheng and Wu Mengmeng to Shanghai to support their education and arrange jobs for them.

That day, Wu Mengmeng came to see Su Xiao, her eyes swollen like walnuts.

She asked him, "Are you going to Shanghai?"

Su Xiao leaned against the cement wall at the entrance of the internet cafe, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and said lazily, "They're only going because of your mother. Why would I go?"

Wu Mengmeng said, "Uncle Lin said he would accept whoever my mom takes care of."

Su Xiao said, "My sister is still here, I'm not going anywhere."

Wu Mengmeng ran away.

Later, Aunt Zhou never made it to Shanghai.

Because Wu Mengmeng refused to leave no matter what, she cried and made a scene, saying that she did not recognize that man as her father and that she wanted to stay in Jingcheng.

Aunt Zhou was worried about her daughter, so she ultimately refused Uncle Lin's offer.

Uncle Lin waited in Jingcheng for a month, coming to the vegetable market every day to help her pack up her stall. The last time he came, he brought a trunk full of things, and his eyes were red when he left.

The night he left, Aunt Zhou sat alone in front of the dried goods stall until late at night, with a bag of unsealed dried wood ear mushrooms in front of her. She picked them one by one, spending the whole night doing so.

What happened next was like a domino effect, one falling and the whole thing falling.

A year later, on that rainy night, Aunt Zhou was packing up her stall and heading home when she was hit and thrown into the air by a speeding truck while crossing the road.

The traffic police said the roads were slippery due to the rain and the driver was fatigued.

Wu Cheng later dropped out of school and went south to Guangdong Province to work. He worked on an electronics factory assembly line for ten years, and later married an ordinary girl there. He never came back for the Chinese New Year.

Wu Mengmeng was taken away by her father before she finished high school.

Su Xiao went to Nanjiang to attend a junior college and never returned to Jingcheng.

He saw Wu Mengmeng again more than ten years later at a street food stall. She was wearing an apron stained with oil and stuffed a handful of candy into his hand.

At that moment, he stood under the streetlight, looking down at the soy sauce bottle swaying in his hand.

If Wu Mengmeng hadn't been so stubborn back then, if she had been more sensible, if she had gone to Shanghai with her mother...

With the wealth of Uncle Lin's listed company, she should be able to attend a good university and become a wealthy young lady in Shanghai.

At least she will never become that woman in the street food stall, wearing an apron, with wrinkles on her face, and always carrying a few cheap candies in her pocket.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing.

Seventeen-year-old Wu Mengmeng made the most impulsive decision of her life, dragging her entire family down a different path.

And part of that decision was because of him, Su Xiao.

He sighed.

White mist drifted from his lips, flickered briefly under the streetlight, and then dissipated.

Having been reborn, he only plans to do three things.

First, take good care of my younger sister, ensure she finishes university safely, and then marry a good man I approve of.

Secondly, to redeem Xu Niannian, so that she no longer has to eat cold steamed buns and wear faded floral shirts, and can walk with her head held high.

Third, make money.

As for others, he helps them within his capabilities.

He hadn't really figured out how to proceed with Wu Mengmeng's storyline.

She was too persistent, like a wildcat that had chosen its direction and wouldn't turn back even after hitting a wall.

If he takes the initiative to reach out to her, will she, like in her past life, tie all her expectations to him and end up with nothing?

But what if he could get her back on track in Shanghai?

Her mother wouldn't have died in the rain, Wu Cheng wouldn't have gone south and never returned, and she wouldn't have married that abusive man.

She can go to big cities.

She could become a rich young lady in Shanghai.

She could have a completely different life!

All of this is contingent on one condition: she must leave Jingcheng.

Su Xiao switched the soy sauce bottle to her other hand and murmured, "A sea of ​​hatred and a sky of love, is it more hatred or love? For me, is it really worth trapping yourself in Jingcheng for the rest of your life..."

……

The next morning, Su Xiao temporarily put the matter of the previous night to herself.

As soon as morning self-study ended, he moved his chair half an inch closer to Xu Niannian, rested his elbow on her desk, and tilted his head to look at her.

Xu Niannian was copying chemical equations into her notebook when she felt his gaze. Her pen paused, and she moved it to the side.

He moved closer again, and she moved away again.

If you move it any further, it will stick to the wall.

"Xu Daidai." Su Xiao rested her chin on her arm and looked at her intently.

"……Um."

Xu Niannian's voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz.

"I want to discuss something with you."

Su Xiao put on a serious expression, as if discussing some important topic, and said, "Tell me, is it okay if I marry two wives in the future?"

Xu Niannian stopped writing.

She looked up, blinked her big eyes twice, as if to confirm whether he was joking.

Then she slowly and very seriously shook her head.

The head-shaking motion wasn't large, but each shake was forceful, as if dealing with a matter of principle.

Su Xiao was secretly laughing so hard she could barely contain herself, but her face still wore that serious, thoughtful expression.

"What if you marry three?"

Xu Niannian's eyes immediately reddened.

It wasn't because she was angry, but because this person had clearly said he liked her, and now he was talking about marrying three wives. She couldn't tell if he was serious or joking.

Her brain couldn't process this information; the CPU overheated.

She lowered her head, her lips slightly pursed, her fingers gripping the edge of the textbook, her eyelashes fluttering several times.

Seeing her like this, Su Xiao quickly moved closer and softened her voice, "Then tell me, how many would be appropriate to marry?"

Xu Niannian raised her head, her eyes red, and gave him a pitiful look.

Then she stretched out her left hand, folded all the other fingers in, leaving only her index finger.

One finger.

She performed the action very seriously, as if afraid that Su Xiao wouldn't understand.

Su Xiao tilted her head and looked at the finger, her heart churning with laughter, but she still put on a confused expression.

"Does this mean you want to marry one person? Then..."

He deliberately dragged out the question, "Will I marry you or someone else?"

Xu Niannian's face immediately turned red.

From the base of his neck to his forehead, his head turned red, looking like a small tomato about to explode.

Her lips moved, but she couldn't say anything.

Then she reached out and gently tugged at Su Xiao's school uniform sleeve.

I only pulled on a tiny bit of the cuff; I didn't dare pull it too far.

She buried her face low, her forehead almost touching his arm, her voice soft and sweet, with a hint of sobbing and pleading.

"You...you shouldn't say anymore."

Su Xiao looked at the hand that was pulling on her sleeve.

Her fingers were clean and white, her nails were cut short, and there were thin calluses on her fingertips from writing.

It was pulled so lightly that he could barely feel it.

But that was all she could do.

She mustered all her courage and could only gently pull him back, begging him to stop making such unsettling jokes.

He reached out and pinched her round, white cheek.

Soft and slippery, it deformed slightly between his fingers.

"How can there be such a lovely girl in the world?" he said.

Xu Niannian's face turned even redder, but she didn't flinch or loosen her grip on his sleeve.

Su Xiao turned her head to look out the window.

Su Xiao, who had been involved in organized crime and worked as a hoodlum before stumbling into becoming a boss, truly longed for a peaceful life at this moment.

In his heart, there were probably only two women in his life: his lover Xu Niannian and his family member Su Wanning.

Little did he know that the peace he longed for would be shattered in the near future by his sister's adoption certificate...