Li Zhengguo sighed, patting his daughter’s back. His daughter had grown up, her emotions becoming more sensitive.
Good or bad?
Li Weili looked up, her gaze earnest as she looked at Li Zhengguo. "Dad, don't tell Mom. Mom is very tired. She wishes me to live a carefree life until old age. I know, actually, she also wishes she could be such a carefree girl."
Li Zhengguo’s guilt intensified. He hadn't taken good care of his wife, nor his daughter.
"Dad."
Li Weili extended her pinky finger. "Let's pinky promise."
Li Zhengguo extended his pinky finger, hooking it with his daughter’s.
Li Weili dangled her father’s finger, shaking it. "Pinky promise, a hundred years, no take-backs."
Li Zhengguo had no choice but to follow his daughter. "Pinky promise, a hundred years, no take-backs."
Dad always kept his word, and Li Weili smiled with relief.
But she forgot, she couldn't say it, but she could write it.
Li Zhengguo felt he had wronged his wife and certainly wouldn't hide anything from her.
Tian Jing picked up the note and tore it. "It's too late, let's sleep."
Li Zhengguo was surprised. "Don't you have anything to say?"
Tian Jing shook her head. "No. A carefree life is always just a wish; no one can achieve it. Whether rich or poor, it's the same."
"Therefore, childhood is the period of life that humans will always cherish."
"We just need to do what we can, and the rest, they need to experience themselves."
The next day, Li Zhengguo and his wife split up.
Li Zhengguo drove four middle school students who lived farther from school.
Tian Jing walked four elementary school students who lived very close to school.
Then she waited at the elementary school gate for her husband to pick her up.
While waiting impatiently, Tian Jing's restless gaze swept over a very incongruous pair of figures.
One figure was tall, the other short. The short figure was clearly being dragged along by the tall figure.
Their direction led to a dark alley.
Tian Jing quietly followed.
When the tall man turned back, she climbed onto the roof beside the alley.
Seeing that there was no one at either end of the alley, the man threw the short figure he was dragging onto the ground.
"Speak, where did you hide the money?"
The woman’s face was obscured by her long hair. "It's all gone. You gambled it all away."
The man didn't believe her. "Impossible. If you don't tell me, I'll report you to the hospital."
The woman sat up angrily. "Go ahead, report me. I've had enough of you, and I've had enough of being threatened by you."
"You don't care about this family, you don't care about our daughter, and you don't care if my job is kept."
"As long as you have money for your gambling, that's all you care about. If I lose my job, you won't even have enough for your monthly gambling funds."
"Slap!"
The man slapped the woman. "You dare threaten me? If it weren't for you giving birth to a good-for-nothing, would I have ended up like this?"
"Tell me, where is the woman you were helping? I'll go ask her for money. If she doesn't give me money, I'll sue her."
The woman was slapped to the ground, crying. "I don't know, I don't know. I've told you countless times I don't know, but you just don't believe me."
"I wish you would go find her. She could crush you with one hand."
This statement enraged the man. "Nonsense, no one who can crush me with one hand has been born yet."
"That's because you haven't seen it."
"Nonsense, that's because you're a coward."
The woman angrily slapped the ground. "Yes! I'm a coward. Otherwise, I wouldn't be bullied to this extent by you and not dare to report you to the Women's Federation."
"Hahaha."
The man laughed arrogantly. "The Women's Federation can only manage for a while, not forever. I'll admit my mistakes politely, and they'll let me go, won't they?"
"No matter how many times you report me, I'll beat you, and then I'll apologize again. And they'll still advise you to stay with me, won't they?"
"Wuwuwu."
The woman cried heartbrokenly. "If it weren't for our daughter, I would have fought you long ago."
The man bent down and grabbed the woman's hair, forcing her to stand up with his raised arm.
As the woman stood up, Tian Jing on the roof and Li Zhengguo, who had quietly come to find her, saw the woman's face.
The man arrogantly swung her hair. "Fight back, I'm right in front of you, and there's no one else here."
"Fight, kill me, it's my own fault. Hahaha, you coward, you wouldn't dare even if I gave you ten times the courage."
The man's provocation caused the woman, who was protecting her scalp, to fall silent for a moment.
Then, the woman opened her mouth and bit the man's neck.
The man cried out in pain and flung away the hair in his hand.
The woman was also flung against the wall.
Sliding to the ground, the woman felt for a broken brick nearby, gritted her teeth, and lunged at the man.
"Die, go to hell."
The man raised his arm to block the brick coming towards him. With his other hand, he balled his fist, intending to strike the woman's temple.
Suddenly, his arms were pricked by something, and then a numb, powerless sensation spread through them.
The woman, whose arm had been blocked, swung again.
"Die, go to hell."
The numbness in the man's arms had spread to his upper body. Facing the oncoming brick, he exerted great force but still couldn't dodge it.
"Splat!"
The broken brick struck his temple, and blood trickled down from the wound.
The woman's eyes turned red. She didn't notice the man's distress and continued to strike him with the brick, one after another.
Only after the man fell did the woman snap out of it. She bent down, wanting to push the man on the ground.
"Hey."
A voice startled her.
She straightened up and turned, seeing a familiar face.
This was a face she would never forget in her life.
Tears streamed down her face. "It's all your fault, all your fault. If you hadn't come looking for me, how would my family have become like this?"
"You're mistaken."
Tian Jing shook her head. "Your daughter was the catalyst for you all."
"No."
The woman shook her head desperately. "It was the money. I thought I had gotten some money, and if I gave it to him, he would be happy, and he would pay attention to us, mother and daughter."
"Who knew he would take the money and gamble it away? He said he wanted to save more dowry for our daughter. He loved our daughter."
"That only proves you're stupid."
Tian Jing said without mercy. "I told you it was a secret, and you still shared it with your man."
The woman retorted, "Don't you and your man share secrets too?"
"Heh." Tian Jing chuckled. "Your secret was a secret exclusively yours, not a secret shared by you and your man."
"If you had the guts to have a child with him, try it. See if he could still threaten you? You handed him the leverage yourself and then blamed me for finding you?"
Now, this had caused trouble for her. It was truly a bother!
"He's dead because you beat him. If you go to jail, what about your daughter?"
The woman finally remembered the man on the ground.
Seeing the pool of blood under his head, she was so frightened that she wanted to push the man again.
Tian Jing flicked out a vine from her hand, wrapping around the woman's arm. "Do you really want to go to jail?"
The woman was stunned. "I, I can't go to jail. If I go to jail, my daughter will be ruined, her reputation and everything in the future will be ruined."
Tian Jing released the vine. "Then don't touch him. He's barely breathing as it is."
The woman stepped back a few paces and slumped to the ground, crying. "Wuwuwu, I, I killed him? I finally killed him?"
Tian Jing waited for the woman to vent.
After crying for a while, the woman pushed aside her long hair that covered her face. "No, I can't just wait to die. I, I..."
She struggled to come up with a solution.