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Ye Ruru used foul language that was extremely offensive.

Zhang Ran suddenly appeared out of nowhere and slapped Qiu Shanglin across the face, causing her fair skin to flush red.

Qiu Shanglin froze, staring at her with a gloomy expression.

Xia Lin released Ye Ruru with a pained expression, took a step to his sister's side, and cursed, "Are you fucking looking for death?!"

Shang Lin remained silent for a moment, her face grim. Her tongue traced a line in her mouth, the taste of blood filling it and unconsciously arousing her. Oh no, I think I'm getting a little excited. The clamor of the crowd was shut out from her thoughts; she subconsciously wondered, why did I fight with them? She couldn't remember.

But I remember she slapped me.

This is the first time in my second life that I've been slapped in the face.

After scolding Zhang Ran, Xia Lin looked at his sister worriedly and found her absent-minded, as if her soul had drifted away from the playground. He was so frightened that he shook and called out, "Sister, sister!"

She snapped out of her daze and saw Zhang Ran staring at her with venomous eyes, while Ye Ruru kept cursing.

With a blank expression: "Slap her back."

He was startled. What happened to my sister? Did she get brain damage from the beating? She hates boys hitting girls, why is she suddenly acting like this?

Shang Lin stared at him expressionlessly and repeated, "Slap her."

While Xia Lin was still hesitating, Li Changsheng strode over and slapped him across the face. The sound was crisp and loud, and everyone was stunned.

Li Changsheng was still dissatisfied, his icy gaze sweeping over Qiu Xialin: "Are you a blockhead? How are you going to protect your sister?"

Ouyang Linhao was furious: "Immortality!"

Ji Yunwen was caught off guard and Ye Ruru broke free again. She rushed up to fight Li Changsheng, but Changsheng didn't stop. With a crisp and loud slap, he delivered another slap.

Ye Ruru stood there dumbfounded.

The slap was loud, and the sound echoed in his heart. Qiu Shanglin thought. "What I did seems a bit wrong. Look, everyone else is trembling, they're probably very resentful, right? If you're resentful, come and bite me, hit me, throw a tantrum! I won't fight back, at most I'll just be testing the effects of Li Changsheng's years of martial arts training… It seems like I'm abusing my power… No, I asked my younger brother to help me hit people, not Li Changsheng, he wanted to hit people himself…"

As Li Changsheng forcibly dragged her away, a voice echoed in her mind: The world is so vast and full of wonders...

The fight started inexplicably, and it ended inexplicably as well.

In a letter to Gu Zhiyuan, Qiu Shanglin described it as follows:

"Afterwards, I asked myself, why did I throw the ball at someone? Because she threw it at my friend."

What does it matter to me if she hits my friend? It's none of my business.

Why would I smash it?

Because she hit my friend.

It's none of my business.

Then why did I smash it?

This description took up half a page, and just as Gu Zhiyuan was about to tear it up in anger, other text finally appeared:

"Later I figured it out. There was no reason to beat her up, because I wanted to beat her up. But that reason wouldn't make sense to outsiders, it would make me seem too domineering, so I made up a reason."

For example: You have a flower in your garden, and one day someone picks it. Not only does she pick it, but instead of appreciating it, she throws it on the ground and stomps on it right in front of you. Don't you think you should curse her?

Gu Zhiyuan thought about it and realized it made sense.

"Zhao Di cried for a long time, saying she was sorry to me. She was too polite; I should be the one apologizing to her. After this, her conflict with them deepened."

Changsheng blamed me for being too impulsive. When I got home that night, my mom saw the bloodstains on my hands and got angry. She questioned how they took care of the girls and insisted on going to the school to confront them. I persuaded her to stay. She's too domineering; that's not good.

Nobody reported it to the teacher, otherwise they would have been punished. Afterwards, Ji Yunwen apologized to me, which was completely baffling. What did it have to do with him? But he insisted he was wrong, so I didn't say anything. If apologies were enough, what would we need the police for? He clearly did nothing wrong, yet he still apologized, and to make amends, he fetched hot water for me every day. Tell me, am I just naive, or has the world changed too fast?

Zhang Ran and Ye Ruru excused themselves to be sick and took two weeks of sick leave. Ouyang Linhao and Changsheng talked again and again, endlessly, seriously affecting his studies. Afterwards, neither of them mentioned apologizing, and the matter was simply swept under the rug.

Xia Lin? He was brutally beaten by Chang Sheng, leaving him bruised and swollen.

He was the most tragic victim in this fight. Youthful recklessness only happens once; honestly, fighting can be good for your physical and mental health.

Since starting high school, I've been feeling very repressed. Once, I threw a tantrum, not caring about my image, and I felt all the bad luck in me evaporate. No wonder boys like to fight; it turns out it serves this purpose.

"By the way, are you coming over for winter break? Let's go get into a fight together."

After reading the letter, Gu Zhiyuan shivered in the closed room.

His reply was only one line long: "Violence is bloody and the easiest to overcome. I think you are better suited to spiritual victory."

He quickly received a reply: "After listening to your advice and considering it deeply, I've made a decision with your encouragement. I've somehow managed to spread the news of Ouyang Linhao breaking into the girls' dormitory to Ye Ruru's arch-enemy. Ouyang Linhao's negotiating partner is no longer Changsheng..."

Gu Zhiyuan waited for a long time but still didn't receive the next letter. Finally, unable to contain his curiosity, he called to inquire. Li Changsheng answered the phone and said she had gone to take a shower.

When Gu Zhiyuan asked about what happened next, Changsheng remained silent for a long time before saying: They each received a major demerit.

Gu Zhiyuan sighed repeatedly, "The most poisonous heart is that of a woman."

Changsheng fell silent again, then said: Qiu Shanglin said it was your idea.

Gu Zhiyuan was speechless and choked with emotion.

marital breakdown

The usually quiet living room of the Qiu family was unusually lively today. A small goldfish in the transparent fish tank on the coffee table peeked out from behind the small, artificial rock formation. Since the three Qiu siblings started junior high school, the house had been quiet for a long time, and the goldfish hadn't quite adjusted. It curiously peered outside the fish tank.

Although I didn't go out, our living room is quite big, and today so many people suddenly flooded in, each taking up a corner, leaving no room for the little one, who had to stand in the corner... Oh no, someone's smoking! Someone come quick and strangle that smoker! Oh dear, so many people are smoking...

Carrying the bottle to refill the adults' tea, Shanglin received praise from several female relatives she rarely saw. She accepted it all with a sweet smile and retreated to a corner.

Qiujia Village is now like a bustling vegetable market, with all sorts of rumors circulating constantly. Since the greenhouse vegetable industry in Qiujia Village became more established, relatives rarely have time to gather and chat. The women are busy tending to the delicate seedlings in the winter and rarely gossip about village affairs. When they finally have a chance, they grab each other's hands and arms, eagerly sharing the tales they've accumulated over the winter.

Xia Lin, impatient with the adults talking, pulled Chang Sheng away to the study and called her sister in when she had a moment: "What's going on?"

The study door wasn't closed properly, and through the crack, Aunt Qin was sitting on the sofa to the side, covering her face and crying, while several close women offered their words of comfort.

Aunt Qin is the third daughter of the son of Qiu Shanglin's grandfather's younger uncle. Sounds a bit confusing, right? Let's sort it out: Grandpa Qiu calls Qiu Qin's grandfather "younger uncle," Qiu Jianguo calls him "uncle-grandfather," and Qiu Shanglin calls him "great-uncle-grandfather." Qiu Qin's father is Qiu Jianguo's great-uncle, and Qiu Qin is Qiu Jianguo's cousin, one generation removed from his own family... Still don't understand?

It doesn't matter, as long as we know that she is a distant relative of Qiu Shanglin, beyond the fifth degree of kinship.

In rural areas, family blood ties are highly valued. In Qiujia Village, the custom is that those within five degrees of kinship are considered close relatives and visit each other regularly. Once outside five degrees of kinship, unless the two families have a particularly close relationship, they are considered distant relatives and do not visit each other much, even if they live close by.

The Qiu family's situation was somewhat unique. Grandpa Qiu and his uncle were close in age, practically brothers who had grown up together through thick and thin. Just as they were about to settle down and start their own families, bandits ravaged the area, and several close cousins and brothers tragically perished. Looking around the village, although almost everyone shared the surname Qiu, they had very few true relatives. This made the uncle and nephew exceptionally close. After Qiu Qin and her siblings were born, their father also passed away, leaving behind the elderly and the young, all relying on Grandpa Qiu and his adult brothers for support. The younger generation was also exceptionally close to each other.

Qiu Jianguo has no younger sister, but he treats Qiu Qin and her sisters as his own.

Qiuqin married a man who worked as a temporary laborer in town. He came from an even more remote mountain village, but he was clever, hardworking, and capable. Qiuqin's mother, hoping to find a son-in-law who would live with her family, helped them settle down in Qiujia Village. Now they live a fairly good life, with a six-year-old son. Qiuqin's husband worked at Xinglong Company for a while, but his ambition grew, so he stayed in the provincial capital to run his own business. Aunt Qin stays home to take care of the child. Last year, she also signed a contract with a vegetable company to build a vegetable greenhouse and hired his close relatives from his hometown to help grow vegetables. They are earning more and more money, and their lives are getting better and better. However, her husband's ambition is also growing.

Uncle Qin had been away from home for a year, and he couldn't stand his wife's aging appearance. He was having an affair with a girl who had graduated from a vocational school and was assigned to the provincial supply and marketing cooperative, and he kept saying he wanted a divorce.

Qiuqin is gentle on the outside but strong on the inside. Despite her petite and delicate appearance, she is actually very stubborn. Her husband is pressuring her to divorce him, but she refuses to do so, and because she is ashamed to tell others, no one in the same village knows about it.

It wasn't until someone in the village overheard the rumors and asked Qiu Jianguo that she realized she couldn't hide it any longer and finally told the truth: her husband and his mistress had been together for six months.

Qiu Jianguo was furious and confronted his brother-in-law several times. He was bewitched by the vixen and insisted on a divorce, saying that the child must stay with him.

The Qiu family naturally couldn't let an outsider bully their daughter. The close relatives needed to sit down and discuss this disgraceful matter, and also figure out what to do.

Qiuqin remained adamant that divorce was impossible. She would rather die than divorce him—even if her husband never came home, she would still hold the title, the family wouldn't fall apart, and no one could laugh at her and her daughter.

Qiuqin clutched the handkerchief handed to her by someone. The handkerchief, of poor quality, was already soaked with tears. Her delicate face had been worn down prematurely by the heavy farm work and trivial housework. Her skin was rough, and her hair, which had been tied up under the wind and sun, had lost its girlish luster and become yellow and rough.

Shang Lin looked at her through the crack in the study, feeling a pang of sadness.