“Ah…” Zhang Tiejun clutched his right side, where he had been kicked, and cried out in pain.

Lin Xiaoyu tightly gripped her collar, looking down at Zhang Tiejun on the ground with a confused expression.

Then she looked up and saw Qin Ye.

After seeing clearly who had kicked him, Zhang Tiejun held his waist and propped himself up. “Damn, what the hell are you? I advise you to mind your own business.”

Qin Ye twisted his neck, took a step forward, grabbed Zhang Tiejun by the collar, and with his right hand wrapped in cloth, started punching him hard in the face, his expression fierce.

At first, Zhang Tiejun was still shouting insults, but after a few punches, he started crying and begging for mercy.

“Brother, I was wrong, please spare me, brother, boo hoo hoo…”

Despite his pleas, Qin Ye didn’t stop.

He held Zhang Tiejun’s collar with one hand and with the other started pulling down his pants.

“Brother! Brother!” Zhang Tiejun screamed, clutching his pants with both hands.

Qin Ye said, “You wanted someone to take your pants off so you could have a good look and feel? Fine, I’ll take them off for you to touch properly.”

Lin Xiaoyu, still shocked, came back to her senses and quickly covered her eyes with her hands.

“Brother, I was wrong, I really was wrong, I beg you, I beg you…” Zhang Tiejun’s face was swollen like a pig’s head, tears and snot streaming down.

Qin Ye clenched his fist, about to punch him again, but felt disgusted and instead landed a blow to his stomach.

“Ow~” Zhang Tiejun bent over in pain like a shrimp curling up.

Qin Ye released him, shook his right hand, noticing blood was dripping from his palm again.

He ignored it and kicked Zhang Tiejun on the ground, threatening fiercely:

“Lin Xiaoyu is my sister. If I see you bothering her again, I’ll break your damn leg! Got it?” Qin Ye kicked again.

Zhang Tiejun nodded painfully, “Got it, got it.”

No one had told Lin Xiaoyu she had such a powerful brother.

She was usually pretty invisible in class.

Her parents both worked, and she only had a couple of clothes to change into.

Her shoes had holes at the toes, and she never had pocket money.

When classmates ate popsicles, she just watched and swallowed her saliva.

A person like that clearly wasn’t valued much at home, was easy to coax, and if someone treated her a bit kindly, she would be theirs.

Several of Zhang Tiejun’s brothers had gotten girlfriends this way at school.

He had chosen Lin Xiaoyu, thinking that since she ate his popsicle, it was almost certain she liked him.

He thought if he pursued a bit more, maybe buy her a soda, it would work out.

Unexpectedly, Lin Xiaoyu rejected him—and her brother beat him up!

Qin Ye started walking away, but after a few steps, hearing no movement behind, he turned to see Lin Xiaoyu still standing there.

“What are you standing there for? Aren’t you leaving?” His tone was very fierce.

“Oh…” Lin Xiaoyu glanced at Zhang Tiejun on the ground and quickly followed.

Out of the alley, Lin Xiaoyu recalled what had just happened and began to cry again.

Qin Ye walked ahead, hearing her sobbing, and couldn’t help but turn back to scold:

“How dare you cry? Are you stupid? You knowingly went into an alley with a man who clearly had bad intentions toward you. If I hadn’t been there, do you know what would’ve happened?”

If she really was his sister, he would be furious.

Lin Xiaoyu sobbed silently.

Actually, it was she who led Zhang Tiejun into the empty alley, but she didn’t dare say so, afraid Qin Ye would scold her even worse.

She really didn’t expect Zhang Tiejun to be like that. Though he wasn’t good at studying and liked to tease people at school, he shouldn’t be a bad person.

She had been too trusting and had thought too well of him.

“I-I’m sorry,” Lin Xiaoyu choked out an apology.

“Why are you apologizing to me? You should apologize to your mom. If something happened to you, she would be heartbroken.” A mother who cared about outsiders would care even more about her own child.

Lin Xiaoyu wiped her tears, feeling especially guilty toward her mom.

At first, she hadn’t dared to call out because she was afraid that if Zhang Tiejun really did something, she would be a daughter who embarrassed and disappointed her mother.

“Could you please… please not tell my mom about this?” She was too stupid.

She didn’t want her mom to worry after finding out.

Qin Ye saw how pitifully she was crying and said, “I won’t say anything.”

“Thank you, thank you for helping me,” Lin Xiaoyu bowed in thanks.

Your mom helped me too, so let’s call it even, Qin Ye thought.

“Let’s go.” Qin Ye turned and continued walking forward.

Lin Xiaoyu straightened up, about to follow, but noticed that his right hand, wrapped in cloth, was bleeding.

“You’re hurt.”

Was it from hitting Zhang Tiejun?

Qin Ye looked at his hand casually, “It’s nothing.”

“I’ll rewrap it for you.” Lin Xiaoyu caught up and took a clean handkerchief from her backpack.

“No need,” Qin Ye lifted his hand, “This wasn’t injured by that scumbag.”

Lin Xiaoyu said, “Even if not, you still have to rewrap it. This cloth is dirty, it could get infected, and the infection could fester, even cause your hand to rot.”

Seeing how seriously she said it, Qin Ye hesitated a moment and then held out his hand.

“That’s better.”

…

At Lin Family, Yard No. 18

“How embarrassing, it’s really embarrassing.” Lin Yongnian paced back and forth inside the house with his hands behind his back.

Lin Guodong sat on a cooling chair, looking unhappy.

“What’s so embarrassing?” Lin Jianshe held Liu Qin’s hand as they walked into the house.

Lin Yongnian replied irritably, “Your mom set up a dumpling stand at the alley entrance!”

A dumpling stand?

Lin Jianshe and Liu Qin exchanged a glance, both frowning.

Lin Jianshe had picked up Liu Qin from the supply and marketing cooperative.

Coming back from the alley’s end was closer, so he hadn’t seen Li Shuping setting up her stall at the alley entrance.

Lin Jianshe frowned, “What was mom thinking? We gave her all the money we had. Now she’s setting up a street stall at the alley entrance. How will neighbors and people nearby see us?”

He had noticed since moving into the courtyard, neighbors gave strange looks to his mom.

Two sons both with formal jobs, but the mom was running a street stall.

People would think they were unfilial sons.

Liu Qin also frowned, “At her age, going to run a stall? Doesn’t she feel ashamed? She really doesn’t care about the family’s face at all.”

Lin Yongnian shouted, “When has she ever cared about my or you kids’ face? If she cared, she wouldn’t have divorced!”

These days, he and Guodong were the butt of jokes at the factory and couldn’t even raise their heads.

If the factory workers knew Li Shuping had started a street stall, they’d laugh them to death.

Lin Guodong frowned, “I’ll talk to mom tonight to convince her to come home and reconcile with dad. This stall absolutely cannot continue.”

“Dad, don’t be mad at mom. Just accept her back home. You’re the man, be magnanimous. If she stays out there, who knows what trouble she might cause that would embarrass us even more.” Lin Guodong tried to reason.

Lin Yongnian didn’t want to forgive Li Shuping so soon but felt his eldest son was right.

For the family’s face, as a man, he’d be magnanimous and stop quarreling with a woman.

“Alright, you go talk to her. I won’t argue with her anymore.”