Sitting on a bench at the police train station, Song Qiaoxi wiggled her short legs back and forth while holding a bottle of yakult with both hands as she happily sucks the straw.

She was indeed happy right now, after all, only on New Year would the children in the welfare could drink this.

“Joy¹.” [¹brandname of the drink]

Staring at the small white bottle in her hands, she remembered that wonderful taste of sweetness and sourness.

Not long after, there were rushing footsteps and an uproar could be heard in the corridor.

The office door was pushed open with a “bang”.

Hearing the commotion, Song Qiaoxi lifted her gaze and saw two middle-aged people at the door.

The man has a towering build, with a pair of aviator sunglasses on his high-nose bridge, he has curly hair and a beard too, his shirt has two open buttons showing his white skin, and lastly, a pager on his waist. Meanwhile, the woman had her hair braided like Princess Elsa and also wore a blue dress that matches her snow-white complexion, but her gentle and beautiful eyes were red as the tip of her nose.

It’s her mom and dad!

She remembered her father’s name was Song Jianguo, who was a newspaper editor and often worked overtime and was very busy. Her mother’s name was Qiao Qin, she works as a teacher in a higher vocational college, so she works more leisurely during winter and summer. They look exactly the same as in her memory.

Looking at them so dumbfounded, her lips were slightly parted and was too nervous to speak.

Presently, the joy Song Qiaoxi felt earlier was nowhere to be seen as she suddenly remembered that she caused a big disaster today.

Why was she alone at the train station?

The reason for this was, her mom and dad arranged for a preschool class but the original host didn’t want to go.

So what happened was, she took the class all morning but took advantage of the lunch break and tore up a book before she stole some “great unity” aka banknote money from her mother’s wallet, made a “yellow face”²[²curse] and headed straight to the train station, planning to escape to her grandmother’s house in Taicheng, because ultimately, it was still her grandma and grandpa who spoils her rotten, and would do whatever she asks for unconditionally.

But as soon as she arrived at the train station, she couldn’t find the north side, and then she encountered an incident where she was almost abducted by a human trafficker.

Cutting classes, tearing up books, stealing money, and then sneaking out.

Each of these misdeeds in the welfare was equivalent to punishment, which was being locked up in a small room, and Song Qiaoxi was most afraid of this punishment.

The feeling of being in a narrow space where she couldn’t see her own fingers was just too scary, and calling someone all day not knowing if it was already night and day was even more dreadful.

These old and new memories jumbled together making her little brain confused and even her vision blurred.

In a daze, Song Qiaoxi nervously closed her eyes when she saw her mother running towards her in a frenzy.

It’s over, this time was a big deal…

To her surprise, what awaited her was not an angry slap or loud scolding as she imagined.

Instead, it was an unbelievably warm embrace.

The woman’s voice trembled as she was hugged tightly by her mother and said, “Xixi, Xixi, you scared your mother to death. Where have you been? Don’t run around in the future, how can you leave without your mother…”

Her little hand hanging on her side was held by someone, it was her dad.

He smiled with relief and gently squeezed her fleshy wrist, softly reassuring her, “It’s good that Xixi is okay, it’s good that nothing bad happened.”

Having the woman hugging and kissing her, while the man holding her hand made Song Qiaoxi’s head a mess.

Why didn’t she get scolded for doing something very bad? Don’t talk about being scolded, even if she got beaten, she wouldn’t feel wronged.

Was parents’ love for their child this unconditional?

She couldn’t help but remember that what made her most upset in the book was the ending of her parents. Her dad died tragically under the wheels of a dumpster when she was 19 years old, causing her mom to go crazy and hospitalized in a mental hospital.

Just the thought of this sent shivers to her spin.

Overwhelmed, she shook her head and choked as she leaned her head little head on her mom’s shoulder.

Holding back her tears she silently swears to herself, “I won’t run anywhere anymore and I will be with my parents for the rest of my life. I will protect my parents and prevent them from being hurt!”

“Alright, alright, holding your daughter too tightly will make our daughter breathless.”

Dad patted Mom on the back and leaned over to kiss his little daughter’s cheeks.

His curly beard felt itchy and tickled her tender face, Song Qiaoxi smiled shyly and hid in her mom’s arms.

The feeling of being surrounded by love was so blissful that she suddenly feels she have the best parents in the world, and she must cherish them well and love them with all her strength.

After taking notes at the police station and understanding the detailed information, her parents took her with them and thanked the police repeatedly before preparing to go home.

As they were living at the police station, Dad carried his daughter on his shoulder as they walk all the way across the station square to where the family parked their car.

Riding on her father’s shoulder, Song Qiaoxi seemed to have opened up the god’s perspective.

Looking down from a high place, everyone has become smaller, the sunset in the distance was like an oily egg yolk, and the cool evening breeze makes people feel so comfortable.

A strong aroma of oil wafted through the air, and she couldn’t help but sniff, as her stomach was making a “gurgling” sound.

Father Song seemed to have heard it, he supported her little meaty leg with one hand while the other pointed to the fried skewer stand not far from them and asked, “Are young hungry, dear daughter, do you want to eat deep fried sausage ham?”

Sausage ham!

Her eyes lit up as soon as she looked in the direction of where his father was pointing and saw the fried skewer vendor skillfully cutting the ham with a knife, the sausage ham flew into the oil pan as if it had wings.

The skin of the sausage was already fried, and it looks particularly more appetizing after it was lineup in a skewer sprinkled with cumin powder and sesame seeds, it looks crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

Just seeing this made her small mouth drool crazily.

Song Qiaoxi then withdrew her gaze and whispered, “I don’t want to eat.”

Her impression was her mother wouldn’t let her eat roadside stalls, saying it was unclean and she would get an upset stomach after eating.

She doesn’t want to upset her mom.

“Xixi didn’t eat much at noon, it’s already dinner time, our dear daughter must be starving.”

Her dad didn’t seem to hear her words “I don’t want to eat” as he said this to his wife in a pleading tone.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw her mother give her father a helpless look, took out a wallet from her purse, and said to the stall owner, “Boss, sausage ham please and make it less spicy.”

“Okay, fifty cents.” The vendor yelled loudly as he take the knife and started cutting the sausage.

After paying the money, her mother went to the nearby snack bar to buy water and asked the father and daughter to wait.

Song Qiaoxi folded her pair of fleshy hands on top of her father’s head and rested her chin on the back of her hand to hide her fulfilled expression after such adversity and apprehension when suddenly her eyes stopped in one place.

A few meters away from the stall, there sat a thin boy wearing navy striped short sleeves, with a large backpack beside him.

When the police auntie took the statement earlier, about the little boy’s description, she concluded that the person who called the police was Chu Jin.

Her mom and dad also said that they must thank the little brother who saved her.

“Chu Jin, Brother Chu Jin!”

She waved vigorously while still on top of her father’s shoulder.

Seeing that the other party was ignoring her, she got anxious to get off her father’s shoulder, and said in panic, “I saw the little brother who called the police.”

Father Song quickly and carefully lowered her from his shoulder.

As soon as her feet hit the ground, she ran towards Chu Jin’s direction with her two short legs. Her father shouting behind her. “Xixi, slow down!”

Seeing Chu Jin standing up, she speeds up for fear that he would run away again.

When she arrived in front of Chu Jing, he had already picked up his backpack, in a moment of desperation, Song Qiaoxi grabbed the strap of the backpack and leaned her whole body like a tug-of-war.

“Chu…brother Chu Jin, is, is, you call the police to save me, right, and I haven’t said thank you.”

Her milky voice was panting after running.

Chu Jin frowned as he lowered his gaze and stared at her, at the time, Song Qiaoxi happened to look up, this little brother was so thin so he probably doesn’t have the strength to drag her meaty dumpling body to run away, right?

Unexpectedly, the other party suddenly loosened his hand and released the strap of his backpack.

Sitting on the ground with her butt and his schoolbag , Song Qiaoxi held the backpack with her arms and legs like an octopus, refusing to let go.

Father Song finally caught up and picked up his daughter from the ground.

After carefully examining her body for any wounds and confirming everything was okay, she finally handed over the backpack to her dad.

Hiding behind her dad, she grabbed the hem of his shirt with her fleshy fingers and peeked out half of her head to steal a peek.

She saw her father bend down and handed him the backpack, he asked nicely, “Little friend, did you call the police?”

Nodding silently, Chu Jin extended his thin arm to take back his backpack, and the strap immediately pulled out two marks on his thin shoulder.

His face was pale with his eyes hanging down, and his loose collar revealed his thin collarbone.

The little brother’s hands were so beautiful, it was long and fair, and they look like the hands that play piano, she then remembered that more than a year ago in the compound, children could often hear a beautiful sound of a piano.

Listening to her dad talking to Chu Jin, her eyes inadvertently swept to a ghastly scar on his leg.

Song Qiaoxi’s heart skipped, ‘What exactly happened to Chu Jin?’

She tried to remember the book’s content, about what happened to his childhood.

In the original book, Chu Jin was adopted by his uncle after his parents passed away, but not long after, his uncle took away all of his family’s property, his uncle disappeared, and other relatives refused to support Chu Jin on the grounds that they did not take his family’s money.

In the end, he almost died wandering on the streets, and after being rescued, he was sent to a reformatory as a “problem child” to receive an “education”. From then on, he had serious “antisocial” behavior for a long time.

Even after achieving success and fame, the industry’s evaluation of him was nothing more than “extreme behavior”, “vicious methods”, “ruthless characters” and many other descriptions.

Chu Jin used to have all the love in the world, but now he has nothing.

Song Qiaoxi stared wide-eyed at Chu Jin, who looked cold and icy but was very polite when answering her dad’s questions.

She couldn’t associate this little pitiful child in front of her with the blackened villain in the future

He was the future villain, but he was also Song Qiaoxi’s savior.

Subconsciously, she feels like she should do something.

But she was distraught, what should she do?

Hearing that her father recognized Chu Jin and that he was their neighbor in the compound, she became a little excited, especially after hearing that her dad and Chu Jin’s mother had a good relationship and were colleagues when she was still alive.

Her dad’s big hand held the boy’s slender arm, and his voice was filled with rue. “Child, how long have you been outside by yourself?”

By asking this question, he should have guessed what happened to him.

He shook his head silently in answer as he bit his almost pale lips, seemingly not wanting to expose the slightest bit of vulnerability.

“Why did you come up on the roadside? I told you to wait for me in the same place, I can never trust you with Xixi… ai, isn’t he the child of the Old Chu family, why are you here?”

Mother Song’s voice was penetrating like a soprano, carrying a plastic bag and sausage ham in her hand she quickly walked over to them and also recognized Chu Jin.

“Wife, I’ll tell you later.”

Father Song winked at Mother Song, then took the sausage ham and stuffed it into his daughter’s hand.

He then told the two children not to run around as he took his wife’s hand and walked towards the trash can a few meters away and talked in whispers.

The aroma of the sausage ham in her hand was overwhelming but Song Qiaoxi held back her cravings and silently swallowed her saliva, then held the sausage ham high in front of Chu Jin. “Here you eat.”

Chu Jin turned his face away, but couldn’t help and swallow his saliva, he then took a step back, as if deliberately distancing himself from her.

“The fried sausage ham is delicious, you eat it.”

She took a step forward, extending her hands and handing it to him, but accidentally made a big move, and almost lost her balance

Chu Jin subconsciously extended his hand.

“Pop.”

The sausage ham fell to the ground and rolled in a circle, covered in soil, and couldn’t be eaten anymore.

Chu Jin stared nervously at Song Qiaoxi.

And the little girl who looked like glutinous rice was full of grievances, and her big eyes were watery.

Chu Jin felt that she would soon burst into tears, like his uncle’s daughter on his mother’s side who would run to an adult and complain while crying, and it would always be him who was beaten and punished.

He was kicked out of the house by his aunt because his cousin said he stole and drank her yakult.

Even though that bottle of yakult was clearly given to him by that same cousin.

Everyone felt he was a burden and wanted to kick him away like a damaged ball.

No one in this world likes him except for his parents in heaven.

Including this little girl named Xixi.

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