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

Su Xiao lowered her head and looked at Wu Mengmeng's upturned face.

Her eyes were bright and clear, covered with a thin layer of mist, like glass that had been breathed on in winter.

There was no aggressiveness or unreasonableness in those eyes, only a quiet, cautious expectation.

He wanted to say no, but his lips moved, and the word "no" got stuck in his throat and he couldn't get it out.

"Yes." His voice was very soft, as if it were being slowly squeezed out of his chest.

Wu Mengmeng froze for a full three seconds, as if she had been put on pause.

Then she suddenly sprang up from his arms, her pigtails almost hitting his face, the tears still in her eyes, and her mouth was already stretched to her ears.

"So you still like me, right?"

Su Xiao looked at her, who seemed to have jumped from cloudy to sunny, and remained silent for a moment before clearing her throat in a serious manner.

"I do like it, but..." He deliberately dragged out his words.

"But what?" Wu Mengmeng nervously grabbed his sleeve.

Su Xiao counted on her fingers, one by one: "The only place you have in my heart now is that of a mistress and a lover."

Wu Mengmeng's smile gradually froze.

She stood there with her mouth agape, taking about two seconds to react before raising both hands to slap him, hitting his shoulders and arms repeatedly.

"You bastard! You son of a bitch! You're the one who's a mistress!"

Su Xiao dodged and laughed at the same time, covering her face with her hands and taking two steps back.

Wu Mengmeng chased after him, hitting him until his schoolbag rolled off the bed and onto the floor, and his pillow was knocked into the corner.

Just then, Su Xiao's phone rang.

He took it out and saw three words lit up on the screen.

Little Lemon.

His expression changed instantly, and his playful grin vanished in a second.

He gestured for Wu Mengmeng to be quiet, cleared his throat, and pressed the answer button.

Her voice immediately became soft and gentle, as if she were a different person: "Hey? Wan Ning, I'm outside. Something came up, I'll be right back."

Wu Mengmeng stood beside him, watching the natural gentleness in his eyes as he turned his head to answer the phone. She felt a slight prick in her heart.

When he spoke to his sister, his tone was soft, his voice gentle, and every word was spoken with patient explanation.

But what about yourself?

He's always been impatient, fierce, and prone to giving perfunctory answers.

She bit her lip, swallowing the sour taste.

Then she cleared her throat.

"Ouch, Su Xiao, you're stepping on my hair!"

Su Xiao's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

He turned around abruptly and glared at Wu Mengmeng, covering the microphone tightly with one hand, silently mouthing "You motherfucker".

Wu Mengmeng winked at him, her lips curving into a wide smile.

A long silence fell on the other end of the phone, a silence more terrifying than any roar.

Su Xiao pushed away Wu Mengmeng's face as she leaned in, anxiously explaining into the phone, "No, Wan Ning, listen to me, that was just now..."

Wu Mengmeng leaned closer again, her voice so soft it could melt your heart: "Oh dear, who are you talking to on the phone? Be gentle, you're hurting me..."

Su Xiao was completely dumbfounded.

He stood there with his mouth agape, phone in hand, feeling like he couldn't clear his name even if he jumped into the Xiangjiang River.

Finally, Su Wan Ning's voice came through the phone.

It was as cold as the first layer of ice that forms on the Xiang River in winter, and each word seemed to pop out one by one.

"You come back here right now."

"Beep—beep—beep—"

The phone hangs up.

Su Xiao put down her phone, looked down at the words "Call Ended" on the screen, and took a deep breath.

Once. Twice. Three times.

He turned around and looked at Wu Mengmeng.

Wu Mengmeng was sitting cross-legged on the bed, looking at him with a grin, her expression clearly saying, "What can you do to me?"

"Are you crazy?! How am I going to explain this to you when I get back?!" Su Xiao practically yelled.

Wu Mengmeng raised her chin confidently: "Your sister is being way too controlling! I just informed her in advance that her sister-in-law will be helping her manage things from now on!"

Su Xiao closed her eyes and pressed her throbbing temples with her fingers.

"ill!"

He didn't want to stay in the same room with this person for another second, so he turned and walked towards the door.

Just as his hand touched the doorknob, Wu Mengmeng called out to him from behind.

The voice suddenly became less arrogant, carrying a hint of probing.

"Su Xiao, are you really not going to work like this anymore?"

Su Xiao's hand was on the doorknob, and she glanced back at her.

"Nonsense, who would like a 'girly' girl?"

After saying that, he opened the door and left without looking back.

When the door closed behind her, Wu Mengmeng was still sitting on the bed, in a cross-legged position.

She stared at the closed door for a long while before lowering her head and muttering something softly.

"But you didn't say that before."

……

In her third year of junior high school, someone spread the rumor that Wu Mengmeng's parents were getting a divorce, which caused quite a stir throughout the school.

Her father cheated on her, and her mother made a scene at the school. The other woman also came. The two middle-aged women were pulling each other's hair and slapping each other at the school gate, surrounded by students in circles.

Wu Mengmeng was standing on the third-floor corridor of the teaching building, leaning over the railing and looking down.

They think that by standing taller, they can stay far away from these troublesome things.

But after that, she couldn't stay at school anymore.

There were a few girls in the class who had always disliked her because she was good at her studies and quiet, and now they had their chance.

One day after school, she was dragged into the girls' restroom. Several girls cornered her in the innermost stall, poked her in the stomach with a mop handle, and slammed her head against the wall by pulling her hair.

Wu Mengmeng leaned against the cold tile wall, neither crying nor resisting.

She's become numb. She's been bullied countless times this semester, and it only took her a month to go from crying and begging for mercy to remaining silent.

The girl in the lead was raising her stick to smash it on her shoulder when the door was suddenly pushed open.

A tall figure walked in from outside, grabbed Wu Mengmeng's arm, and pulled her behind him.

Then he raised his hand and slapped the girl in the lead across the face.

The slap was loud and crisp, bouncing back and forth several times on the tiled wall of the women's restroom.

The girl spun halfway around and fell to the ground, blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.

He spat the cigarette he was holding onto the ground, squatted down, and pressed the cigarette butt against the girl's hand.

The other girls were terrified. They only ever bullied girls like Wu Mengmeng, and had never seen such a fierce scene before. They screamed and ran away.

Wu Mengmeng leaned against the wall, watching the boy's back in front of her.

He threw the cigarette butt into the toilet, turned to look at her, and frowned.

He cursed, "What's the use of good grades if you just stand there and don't fight back when someone beats you up?"

Then he put his hands back in his pockets, kicked the mop handle off the floor, and walked away without looking back.

She stood there, watching his nonchalant figure disappear at the end of the corridor.

Later, she inquired around and found out that the person who saved her that day was Su Xiao from Class 9, a notorious troublemaker in the school.

She spent a week's worth of breakfast money to bribe one of his brothers and extract information from him.

Su Ge likes those brightly colored, energetic young women, the brighter their hair, the better, and the spicier their personality, the better.

She learned how to do makeup from that day on.

The first time I drew eyeliner, my hand was shaking so much I almost poked my eyeball. The first time I dyed my hair, my scalp felt so hot and numb.

She dyed her hair bright green, tied it into pigtails, learned to swear loudly, learned to fight, and covered herself with thorns.

She didn't fill in any of the top high schools in her high school application; she filled in the fifth high school instead.

Because No. 5 Middle School was Su Xiao's destination; his grades weren't good, and he could barely get into No. 5 Middle School.

But who knew that his parents spent money to get him into the top high school.

On the day the results were released, she stood alone at the entrance of No. 5 Middle School for a long time, clutching her admission notice in her hand, watching people come and go on the opposite side of the road.

……

Su Xiao had just stepped out of the hotel when her phone vibrated.

He opened it and saw a QQ message with a pink kitten avatar and the nickname "Cute Tears".

"But your appearance made me, who was often unhappy, secretly happy for a long, long time. I used to always be silent and alone, with a lot of grievances and sadness in my heart. I had no expectations for life and no happiness. Until you entered my life and gently healed all my anxieties. It turns out that there really are people who, just by meeting them, are enough to make me happy."

Su Xiao leaned against the glass door at the hotel entrance and read the message several times.

A cool night breeze blew by, carrying the dryness and crispness unique to late autumn.

He muttered "crazy" under his breath, but his fingers didn't move on the screen. He read the few lines of text in the chat box over and over again.

In that instant, he remembered many things.

The incident in the girls' restroom during his third year of junior high was something he happened to hear while passing by and went in. At the time, he just felt that it was too much to bully someone when a bunch of people were beating one person up...

The girl who fell asleep on his shoulder while staying up all night at the internet cafe had her hair dyed red and green, but even in her sleep she still looked wronged...

The woman at the entrance of the food stall was handing him candy, nagging him about how much weight he'd lost and how he shouldn't drink so much...

He leaned against the glass door and suddenly couldn't help but hum a song.

The tune that drifted from his lips, mixed with the night wind, was a little off-key.

"I like bad girls; I like the thrill of dating."

"You're too naive; all that gentleness is unnecessary."

……

He put his phone back in his pocket, glanced up at the lit window on the third floor of the hotel, and turned to walk into the night.

The song is about bad girls, but she is a good girl.

……

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