Chapter 1: First Encounter

◎ If you can’t afford to offend, you can still afford to avoid ◎

Gu Ying was squatting by the window, weaving red threads, when she spotted her mother, Sun Lan, walking towards the building with a vegetable basket.

As Gu Ying leaned on the bed to stand up and help her mother, she noticed a middle-aged woman with a sky-blue headscarf had suddenly appeared in front of Sun Lan.

The woman had a horse-like face, a large mouth, and a long neck—an odd appearance.

Gu Ying was sure she wasn’t from the family compound.

She had been living there for over a month and had already seen all the neighbors. If she had seen someone with such a distinct look, she would’ve remembered. Her memory was very good.

So, this woman must be a visitor, likely asking for directions.

Sure enough, the woman in the headscarf was asking for directions. She stopped Sun Lan, who looked kind and approachable, and asked politely,
“Excuse me, sister, do you know where Ming Xue’s family moved to? I went to their old place and someone else was there.”

Sun Lan was usually friendly and eager to help, and under normal circumstances, she would’ve given directions right away. But something about this woman’s appearance made her cautious.

“May I ask if you’re a relative of Ming Xue’s family?” she asked warily.

Helping someone find their way was usually a good deed. But if that person had bad intentions, it could turn into a mistake.

The woman’s attitude changed instantly upon hearing Sun Lan’s accent. Her previous politeness vanished and was replaced by arrogant disdain.
“Hah, turns out you’re from out of town.”

“You out-of-towners really are something. If you know the way, just say it. If not, then don’t play riddles with me. Seriously, what’s with all these weirdos today?”

Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked off in annoyance.

Sun Lan was left dumbfounded, her face turning pale with anger.

She took a deep breath, lifted her vegetable basket, and walked home with a stiff face.

Just as she stepped through the door, Gu Ying burst out of the room and ran past her without looking back.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Sun Lan called out.

She rushed outside and saw Gu Ying had stopped the rude woman right in the courtyard.

In the open yard of the compound, Gu Ying stood sweetly in front of the woman and spoke in perfect Mandarin:
“Auntie, are you looking for Ming Xue’s new address?”

The woman had asked several people with no luck. Seeing this seemingly well-informed little girl, she nodded eagerly.
“Yes! Do you know where it is?”

“Yes, she moved a month ago. It’s that building over there,” Gu Ying said, pointing sincerely at a red-painted four-story building in the distance.

The woman wiped sweat from her forehead and smiled with relief.
“Thank you so much, little girl. You’re such a good person.”

“No need to thank me,” Gu Ying replied with an innocent smile.

She kept that harmless-looking smile all the way back home, only to meet Sun Lan’s serious gaze at the door.

Blocking her path, Sun Lan asked sternly,
“Why did you give her the wrong direction?”

Gu Ying withdrew her smile, but there was no trace of guilt on her face, as if she hadn’t done anything wrong. Her expression turned blank and she remained silent, ready to respond with silence.

The two of them stood in a standoff, neither willing to back down.

In the end, Sun Lan sighed. “Did you overhear our conversation just now?”

Gu Ying still said nothing.

Sun Lan had no way to deal with this daughter. She took Gu Ying’s hand and said earnestly, “This isn’t Nancheng, it’s not your hometown. We’ve just arrived here. Don’t stir up trouble.”

“So not stirring up trouble means letting others scold me however they want?” Gu Ying looked up, her face filled with feigned innocence.

Sun Lan knew that this daughter of hers wasn’t as innocent as she appeared. Thinking back to the earlier scolding she received for no reason, though she felt uncomfortable, she still tried to persuade Gu Ying. “It’s nothing to be criticized a little. It’s not like you’ll lose a piece of flesh. Besides, it wasn’t even anything too harsh.”

Back when Gu Ying’s father, Gu Changming, still carried a “stigma,” she’d heard far worse things than this. Compared to those times, this was really nothing.

But Gu Ying just smiled and said, “I only said a few words to her, and none of them were harsh. She even thanked me.”

“You…” Sun Lan couldn’t argue with her and her expression dimmed.

It had been over a month since she brought Gu Ying with her to the machinery factory’s family compound. She’d moved from Nancheng to Beicheng to take care of Gu Changming. Normally, she was extremely cautious, fearing any small mistake would affect Gu Changming negatively.

Gu Changming had only just regained his proper status and secured a good job. Sun Lan didn’t want to be a burden, even if Gu Ying did this to stand up for her. She didn’t want it.

“Xiao Ying, it wasn’t easy for your father to get this job. We’re newcomers here—we shouldn’t get into conflicts with the neighbors or create trouble for your dad. You just lied to someone. What if they find out and come looking for you?”

“They won’t,” Gu Ying said with absolute certainty. “Because she’s going to have bigger problems.”

Sun Lan was stunned. “How do you know that?”

Gu Ying gave a proud smile and teased, “Mom, guess who she is and why she came to find the Ming family?”

At first, Sun Lan suspected the woman had some ulterior motive. Then she thought perhaps she was a relative of the Ming family, here to visit because she heard that Ming Xue had recently fallen and gotten sick.

Sun Lan concluded, “She must be a relative here to check on Ming Xue.”

Gu Ying seemed to expect that answer and shook her head like an adult. “Nope. If she really knew that Ming Xue had fallen sick and came to visit, why did she show up empty-handed? Don’t you bring a gift when visiting a sick person?”

“Besides, she didn’t even know Ming Xue’s family moved a month ago—how could she possibly know about the recent illness?”

Gu Ying’s questions left Sun Lan speechless.

She stammered, “So what are you saying?”

Gu Ying believed the woman was related to the Ming family, but only distantly—probably a clingy, unimportant relative. Otherwise, how could she still not know about their move after a whole month?

This insignificant relative wasn’t here to visit Ming Xue. She likely had no idea Ming Xue had been sick. Most likely, she was here to ask the Ming family for a favor.

She probably often relied on them for little things, and because the favors were small and frequent, she’d stopped bringing gifts when asking for help.

But after Ming Xue fell, her personality had changed a bit. She insisted on breaking off her engagement to that eldest son of the Gui family, Gui Xiwen. The Ming family was already in chaos over it. Now this relative showed up empty-handed asking for help? No way they’d agree.

After laying out her analysis, Gu Ying shrugged. “See? She’s not going to get what she wants. She’ll probably leave angry. She won’t even remember my tiny lie.”

Sun Lan was dazed, swallowing hard—she was nearly convinced by Gu Ying.

After snapping out of it, she scolded, “That’s just your imagination. You think too much.”

Sometimes she wondered where Gu Ying’s clever, scheming nature came from—certainly not from her or Gu Changming.

But after Gu Ying’s long-winded explanation, Sun Lan no longer had the heart to scold her. She remembered something even more important—something she had to warn Gu Ying about.

“Xiao Ying, Ming Xue’s been trying to break off her engagement with Gui Xiwen these past few days. You know who he is, right? They say he’s proud and has a violent temper. Even if you don’t go looking for trouble, he might come looking for you.”

“The whole compound knows about the broken engagement now. Gui Xiwen feels humiliated. He’s not going to let it go. Who knows what he might do.”

“Don’t provoke him if you bump into him. Understand? The factory director’s about to be transferred. His father might get promoted soon. Now is not the time to mess with them.”

Sun Lan was serious, but Gu Ying didn’t seem to be listening. She casually scratched her ear, walked over to the window, and took down a red string hanging on a nail.

Sun Lan frowned, about to scold her for being inattentive, but when she saw the Chinese knot woven from the red string in her hand, she changed her tone and asked, “You made a new friend?”

Gu Ying had always been frail and often stayed home as a child, which gave her nimble hands. She had a habit—every time she made a friend, she would weave a beautiful Chinese knot as a gift.

But she didn’t have many friends. Sun Lan had only seen her do this four or five times in total. She hadn’t expected that just a month after moving to Beicheng, Gu Ying had already made a friend worth giving a knot to.

Sun Lan’s expression softened and she gently asked, “Who are you giving it to?”

“Not telling you,” Gu Ying replied playfully, hiding the knot behind her back and heading for the door. “Mom, I’m going out for a bit.”

Sun Lan didn’t stop her. She just smiled at her daughter’s back and reminded her warmly, “Come back early for dinner.”

“Got it!”

There was no longer any trace of Gu Ying in front of her—only that faint reply lingered in the air.

The wrinkles on Sun Lan’s face smoothed out as a smile filled every crease. She was genuinely happy that Gu Ying had made a friend.

Gu Ying had lived in the southern city all her life, and Sun Lan had worried that bringing her to the northern city would be a difficult adjustment. Unexpectedly, Gu Ying adapted quite well.

Sun Lan thought, For Gu Ying to give away a Chinese knot so soon, the other party must be a kind-hearted girl.

Meanwhile, Gu Ying was cheerfully heading toward the pile of concrete pipes on the open cement ground, holding the Chinese knot in her hands.

She was going to give it to a boy—a kind-hearted boy.

But as she approached the pile, her pupils shrank when she saw the two men sitting casually on the concrete pipes.

The boy she was looking for wasn’t there.

Worse still, she immediately noticed that one of the men was someone she didn’t want to see right now—Gui Xiwen.

Gu Ying had only seen Gui Xiwen once, from a distance, when she followed behind Sun Lan. But even from that one encounter, she could never forget the harshness on his face.

Gui Xiwen liked to keep his hair cut short. He had thick eyebrows, a prominent nose, and the buzz cut made him look even more fierce.

People said he was a university student, but Gu Ying couldn’t see any scholarly demeanor in him—only the thuggish aura of a street punk.

Without a word, Gu Ying stuffed the Chinese knot into her pocket. She recalled Sun Lan’s recent warnings and, without the slightest hesitation, turned around and walked away the moment she recognized him.

If I can’t afford to provoke him, I can still avoid him.

But just as she took two steps, an angry voice, heavy with suppressed rage, rang out behind her:

“Stop right there!”