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

The living room was a complete mess.

The woman's body was still trembling.

"Medicine?" Zhang Qian repeated the word.

She looked at the woman who had given birth to her.

He was pale and thin, with blackened teeth, and trembling all over. He was the kind of person you only see in legal education news.

A chilling guess took shape in Zhang Qian's mind.

"What kind of medicine are you talking about?"

Zhang Qian's voice trembled, her eyes fixed on her.

Before the woman could answer, the aunt standing by the wall burst out:

"Zhang Jirong! You have no conscience at all!"

Aunt waved her hands in the air:

"You actually let her touch those things?! To control her and force her to sell herself!"

"You make that kind of money without any conscience!"

Zhang Jirong leaned against the coffee table, listened to his aunt's accusations, and turned his head to look at Zhang Qian.

Seeing the incredulous look in Zhang Qian's eyes, he finally smiled.

"Ha ha ha ha."

He never intended to resist; instead, he planned to use the most disgusting facts to break Zhang Qian down.

Seeing Zhang Qian like this now, he felt very comfortable and finally revealed the truth:

"What's wrong with it?"

"She went out to sell herself, and gave me all the two thousand she earned in a day."

"I used 500 to buy her medicine, and I used the rest to gamble and win big. That's the best way to get rich."

"It's not too late to sell her now. In two years, looking like this, nobody will want her for two hundred yuan!"

The air inside was so stuffy it was hard to breathe.

Zhang Qian stood there, her legs trembling.

She looked at the smug man on the ground, and then at the trembling woman beside him.

My head is buzzing.

"Am I really your biological child?"

Zhang Qian was distraught and murmured softly.

She looked down at the dust on the floor.

"Why can other children grow up happily...?"

Zhang Qian bit her lip, tears streaming down her cheeks:

Why was my childhood such a mess?

She raised her head, her blue hair disheveled, and pointed at her biological mother, questioning her:

"When I was twenty, my own mother still wanted me to sell things to pay for her medicine..."

The woman ignored Zhang Qian's pain.

When the discomfort hit, all she could think about was the medicine.

"Is it alright, Qianqian?" The woman leaned forward. "Go help your mother earn some money, just for a few days..."

"Get out!" Zhang Qian roared uncontrollably.

She stretched out her hands and pushed hard.

The woman was weak and fell flat on her backside when pushed.

"Get out of here!" Zhang Qian shouted, pointing to the door.

The woman sat on the ground, not in a hurry to get up.

She turned her head, her gaze sweeping over the imported cherries and Lego toys on the ground, finally settling on the high-end skincare gift boxes.

Her mind raced, calculating.

She quickly got up from the ground and dusted off her pants.

"Don't you dislike Uncle Jirong?"

The woman lowered her voice, her tone strangely ingratiating.

She pointed to Zhang Jirong, who was slumped beside the coffee table:

"Then how about..."

"Will your mother kill him for you?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jirong's laughter abruptly stopped.

He glared at the woman in front of him and began to curse:

"You crazy woman! What are you saying? I feed you and give you cigarettes! You want to kill me?"

The woman didn't even glance at Zhang Jirong.

She stared intently at Zhang Qian, her eyes burning with fervor.

"I'll kill him for you, and then you can buy medicine for Mom, okay...?"

The woman pointed to the pile of gift boxes:

"Look how rich you are now. Mom saw the gifts you gave me; they were all high-end items."

"From now on, you just need to buy some medicine for Mom every day. Mom doesn't need food, clothes, or a house."

"Or..." The woman thought of a good idea and clapped her hands:

"You can ask your boyfriend for money and then use it to buy medicine for your mom!"

"He's probably fucked you raw by now. Even if it's only 1000 at a time, he could still scrape together 100,000 or 200,000, enough for Mom to live on for a long time!"

After he said that, no one in the living room spoke.

Zhang Qian opened her mouth wide, but couldn't utter a single syllable.

Even Zhang Jirong, who was on the ground, stopped cursing and looked at the crazy woman.

Bai Li sat on the sofa, goosebumps rising all over his body.

This is the worst quagmire, beyond redemption.

Zhang Qian looked at her biological mother kneeling on the ground.

Seven years ago, the woman who tricked her into stealing class funds was simply indifferent and selfish.

Women today are even more unfamiliar than they were back then; they are absolute monsters.

"Blood is thicker than water, Qianqian."

Seeing that Zhang Qian didn't respond, the woman started to play the emotional card:

"After all, your mother gave birth to you."

This sentence became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

"You guys have already used it all up!"

Zhang Qian broke down and roared.

Her eyes were red-rimmed, her chest heaving violently, and she pointed at the woman's nose and shouted.

"You know what?"

"You used it all up when we were kids!!!"

"You deserve what you're like now!"

After releasing all the emotions that had been suppressed in her heart for more than ten years, Zhang Qian felt completely drained.

She staggered back two steps.

Bai Li stood up, stretched out his arm, and caught her steadily.

Zhang Qian leaned against Bai Li's chest.

She buried her face in Bai Li's chest, clutching his clothes tightly with both hands.

The sense of dependence that followed despair was completely released.

Only when she was with this man could she feel like a human being.

"Big brother, I'm tired..."

Zhang Qian's voice was weak, filled with exhaustion and pleading.

She raised her head, her red and swollen eyes looking at Bai Li, her eyes no longer holding any hope for family affection.

"Could we let them...?"

"Disappeared from my and my aunt's world."