Going home for Chinese New Year, I squeezed onto a bus with three energetic young women.

"Young man, here you go."

The old man stubbornly tried to stuff the wad of money into Bai Li's hand.

Bai Li's fingers touched the loose banknotes.

It wasn't much money, just five yuan, one yuan, and a few worn-out twenty-yuan notes.

The edges were curled up and it smelled musty from years of wear.

But in Bai Li's eyes, these mere few hundred yuan were far more valuable than his bank card containing millions in cash.

Chen Tingting stood there for two seconds, then burst into tears without warning.

She used to fight until she was bleeding but never uttered a sound, and she was even a tough woman who dared to confront thugs with a bottle of liquor. Now, she was sobbing uncontrollably.

"Grandpa! I don't want money!!"

Chen Tingting rushed over in two steps, grabbed the old man's wrists with both hands, and her voice was completely hoarse.

"I didn't come back because I was wronged! I came back to bring good news, sob sob..."

She cried so hard she was hiccuping, and even snot was bubbling out of her nose.

"I can earn my own money now!! Legitimate money! Being an actor is a respectable job!"

The old man had spent most of his life toiling in the fields and simply couldn't believe that his granddaughter could have such a prestigious job.

He assumed his granddaughter had been upset outside and had run home to comfort him.

"Don't argue with Grandpa, take it!"

The old man glared at him, still trying to push the money away.

Bai Li raised her hand and pushed the money back into the old man's palm.

My fingertips brushed against the cracks and calluses, creating distance between us.

"Yes, sir, we didn't come back for money."

Bai Li spoke gently and enunciated clearly.

"Tingting is now working with me on web dramas, and she's doing very well. She has a stable income every day."

Bai Li glanced at the girl beside him who was sobbing uncontrollably:

"I brought her back this time so that you two can have a good life from now on."

After hearing this, the young women standing nearby couldn't sit still any longer.

Li Jiaxin grabbed the expensive wine box from the table, strode forward, and handed it to him:

"Yes! Grandpa, look!!"

Lin Xiaoshuang held her newly bought Redmi phone in her hands, her baby face full of seriousness:

"Tingting bought all of these things with her own money!"

Zhang Qian carried a thick plastic bag full of beef and mutton chops and placed it directly on the square table:

"We don't hang out on the streets anymore; everyone has a proper job now!"

A pile of fine wines and meats, along with brand-new electronic products, were laid out before me.

The red background and gold lettering of the Fenjiu liquor packaging were quite eye-catching in the dim light.

The old man's gaze swept over the items on the table, then he raised his cloudy eyes and asked uncertainly:

"real?"

Can this troublemaking granddaughter really afford all these expensive things?

Seeing that her grandfather didn't believe her, Chen Tingting quickly took out her phone from Bai Li's trench coat pocket.

Swipe your finger across the screen twice quickly to open TikTok.

The screen lit up, and images from the first episode of the web series popped up.

She held up her phone and brought the screen right up to the old man's eyes.

"Look! Aren't those me, my older brother, and my sisters in there?"

Chen Tingting sniffed and tapped hard on the screen with her finger on the image of herself appearing in a leather jacket and motorcycle boots.

The old man opened his eyes wide and leaned forward.

The light from his phone shone on his wrinkled face.

The person in the picture really is my granddaughter.

That red hair is definitely right.

Colorful bullet comments floated across the screen one after another, with tens of thousands of thumbs-up likes below.

"My dear wife!"

The old man's voice suddenly rose, and he didn't even care that his cane, which was leaning against the table leg, had slipped to the ground:

"Come quick! Our granddaughter seems to have really made something of herself!"

The old lady was about to boil water when she heard this and quickly wiped her hands and ran in from outside the door.

The elderly couple verbally huddled together in front of the small screen.

Once.

Twice.

The short drama was played three times.

The two elderly people looked at it again and again, even touching the screen with their rough fingers, before they could fully process this shocking news:

[This granddaughter, who was a troublemaker since childhood and didn't even want to study, appeared on television and got back on the right path.]

The old lady's eyes were crinkled with laughter, and her cloudy eyes glistened with tears.

The old man's hand holding the phone was trembling. He looked up and stared intently at Chen Tingting.

That stern face, which had been stern for most of its life, finally softened.

"Oh dear..." The old lady slapped her thigh, her laughter tinged with tears, her eyes softening gently.

"My Tingting has become so successful!"

Chen Tingting could no longer hold back, so she opened her arms and plunged into the space between her grandparents.

She hugged the two elderly people tightly and burst into tears.

"Hmm... my granddaughter has finally... amounted to something..."

She buried her face in her grandmother's coarse cloth clothes, sobbing as she murmured:

"You can finally get some rest now..."

He's always out there swaggering around, with tattoos all over his arms and pierced ears, and he's dyed his perfectly good black hair red.

Deep down, he's just afraid of being bullied.

These few simple words of approval completely shattered the defenses that this spirited young woman was putting on.

She had the confidence to stand in this dilapidated mud-brick house and loudly tell the people she loved most in the world that she could earn money to support her family.

The old man raised his hand and gently patted Chen Tingting's back.

After a long while, the old man turned his head away with red eyes.

"Honey, hurry up and cook!"

The old man turned to look at Bai Li and the girls:

"I guess the kids haven't had lunch either."

"Okay, okay." The old lady nodded kindly, wiped her eyes with her apron, and turned to leave.

"We're here to help!!" Lin Xiaoshuang shouted, raising her hands high, and flicked her yellow-haired little tuft of hair.

Li Jiaxin and Zhang Qian quickly rolled up their sleeves and followed.

Three stylish young women, dressed in trendy clothes and sure to turn heads on the street, chattered excitedly as they escorted the old lady toward the kitchen.

Before long, the sounds of chopping vegetables on a cutting board and sizzling oil hitting a pan filled the yard, along with a long-lost aroma of cooking.

Only Bai Li and Chen Tingting remained in the main room.

Chen Tingting wiped away the tears on her face with the back of her hand, turned around and grabbed Bai Li's trench coat sleeve.

"Come on, let me show you my childhood treasures!"

She dragged Bai Li into the small cubicle inside the inner room, as if presenting a treasure to someone.

The room was small, with a wooden bed placed against the wall.

Chen Tingting squatted down and pulled a dusty tin biscuit box out from under the bed.

Open the rusty lid.

It was filled with glass marbles, a plastic doll missing an arm, Ultraman cards with a folded corner, and two pieces of chalk used to draw grids on the ground.

Chen Tingting casually grabbed a handful of marbles and proudly showed off her spoils.

"This fickle one, I won it in a fight with Er Gouzi from the east end of the village back then! That kid wouldn't give it to me no matter what, so I pinned him down in a mud pit and beat him up."

She gestured excitedly to indicate the name.

Then, she took out a paper butterfly with only half a wing remaining:

"I folded this when I was in second grade. It was confiscated by the teacher, so I climbed through the window into the office and stole it back."

She pulled Bai Li along and recounted those chaotic childhood memories one by one.

Bai Li stood aside, listening patiently.

To outsiders, she may seem like a troublemaker, but to her family and loved ones, she's just an ordinary girl who longs to share her little secrets.

After an unknown amount of time, sunlight slowly climbed up the earthen wall through the window frame.

The sound of girls carrying plates came from the kitchen, followed by Lin Xiaoshuang's loud shout.

"Dinner's ready!!"

Chen Tingting reluctantly closed the cookie box and carefully tucked it back under the bed.

"Let's go, let's eat first!" She took Bai Li's arm and walked out.

A square table with peeling paint was set up in the middle of the courtyard.

Long benches have already been set up.

The food on the table was steaming hot.

The cooked beef I bought was cut into a thick plate, dressed in a glossy, tempting salad, and topped with chopped cilantro and minced garlic.

Next to it was a large iron pot of milky white mutton soup, with slices of meat bubbling around and sprinkled with bright green scallions.

The staple food is steaming hot white flour buns.

Four porcelain bowls were laid out, and next to them was a shallow plate containing hard-boiled white-shelled eggs.

"It smells so good!" Lin Xiaoshuang and Li Jiaxin exclaimed in unison, swallowing hard.

Chen Tingting ran to get a stool and gestured to the elderly couple:

"Grandpa and Grandma, please sit down and eat too."

Everyone sat down around the square table.

Having traveled for half a day and not eaten well in the morning, these young people were starving.

Bai Li picked up a piece of cold beef salad with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth.

The meat is firm, with a tangy and spicy flavor that whets the appetite and has a very authentic taste.

Chen Tingting broke a steamed bun in half and ate it with large bites of beef.

Zhang Qian held the bowl and drank the soup in big gulps.

The group ate heartily, enjoying the delicious farm-style meal with every bite of their chopsticks.

But after only a couple of bites, Bai Li realized something was wrong.

The generous plate of cooked beef was placed in the center of the table.

The elderly couple didn't even reach for their chopsticks once; they just kept their heads down silently.

Bai Li glanced at the shallow plate on the table again.

I boiled a total of five eggs.

Bai Li just took one, and the four girls each took one.

The plate is empty.

The two old people had nothing there.

Bai Li put down her chopsticks.

This is a square wooden table.

The elderly couple sat in a spot with their backs to the kitchen, where the view was somewhat dim due to the backlighting.

Bai Li held the bowl and straightened her back.

While picking up food, his gaze drifted past the rising steam on the table and landed on the porcelain bowls held by the two elderly people.

The second it took to see what was in the bowl.

Bai Li's fingers stopped.

He stood up and noticed that the bowl the elderly couple was holding was completely different from the milky white mutton soup in the other bowls...

Instead... boiled bread cubes soaked in hot water...

......

...