A writer has arrived in the Chinese entertainment industry.

"What's wrong with him?" Mao Xiaotong asked.

Su Liu stood by the window on the inside of the office, his arms clasped in front of his chest. He looked up, gazing longingly out the window. If you looked closely, you could see he was still clutching his phone, glancing at it every now and then out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't know."

After Dilraba and Mao Xiaotong returned from shopping, they saw Su Liu in this strange posture.

"He's probably throwing a tantrum again."

I think so too.

Mao Xiaotong, being straightforward, went straight over and grabbed his clothes. "What are you doing?"

Su Liu turned to look at her. "Xiao Tong, what would you do if a younger sister suddenly appeared?"

"What do you mean?"

"For example, just an example," Su Liu said, knowing that Mao Xiaotong also came from a divorced family. "If your dad suddenly came back one day and brought you a younger sister, what would you do?"

"Ah—Teacher Su! Your dad's back?" Dilraba suddenly interjected with a surprised look.

"Reba, don't interrupt." He pulled Mao Xiaotong to sit down on the sofa. "Sister Xiaotong, what would you do?"

Mao Xiaotong's expression was calm, and her tone was as flat as a pop-up dialog box on a computer.

Do you know who my dad is?

"I don't know about that."

"When I was little, he didn't want me. In the dead of winter, he threw me into a trash can outside. If my mother hadn't frantically searched for me and brought me back, Mao Xiaotong probably wouldn't exist today."

"Ah." Dilraba is empathetic and thoughtful. After hearing about her experience, she gently took her hand. "Sister Xiaotong..."

"It's nothing," Mao Xiaotong said with a smile. "It's all in the past."

She looked at Su Liu, "You ask me what I'll do? If that scumbag really shows up in front of me, I'll be lucky if I don't slap him across the face."

"What about your younger sister?"

"What kind of sister is she? We wouldn't even let her in."

After saying that, seeing that Su Liu remained silent, she asked again, "Is your dad really back?"

"No, he's dead."

"He's dead? That's good. I just wish my dad would die sooner, but scum always live so long."

"Eek—" Dilraba deliberately shivered, shrinking her neck and exclaiming, "Sister Xiaotong, you're so scary!"

Mao Xiaotong reached out and lifted Dilraba's chin, teasing her like a child, "Good to know, I am very fierce!"

"Hey," she asked Su Liu, "your father died, leaving you with a younger sister?"

"Yes." So he recounted the whole story, including his conflict with his parents and his experience in Chongqing two months prior.

Hearing this, Dilraba exclaimed repeatedly, "How could this happen! Why?" Her family was happy and harmonious, and she could never have imagined such a thing.

"Your situation is a bit different from mine," Mao Xiaotong said. "You and your dad are strangers, but my dad and I are enemies."

"That's hard to say."

"Of course, at least he didn't throw you in the trash."

Su Liu was amused by Mao Xiaotong's words, "Now, is the standard for judging whether a parent is qualified or not just whether they throw their child in the trash can? When a child accuses their parents of not fulfilling their responsibilities, the other party suddenly says, 'That's enough, at least we didn't throw you in the trash can.'"

"Hahaha." Mao Xiaotong laughed and patted his shoulder. "If that's really the case, then this society is doomed."

"Let's stop talking, Reba is already feeling overwhelmed."

"No, I just find it hard to imagine that there are such people in the world. My parents love me very much."

"Speaking of which, you've been signed with the company for so long, don't your parents ever want to come and see you?"

"They complain that it's too far!" Reba pouted. "Sometimes when I call them, they complain that I'm annoying them."

"Oh my—" Su Liu and Mao Xiaotong said, as if they had planned it, with a long, drawn-out tone, "It's really enviable."

Dilraba's face fell, and she gave a speechless look. "Don't be like that!"

"However, if I were really thrown in the trash can, my mom might not necessarily pick me up," Su Liu said with his arms crossed and a downturned lip, looking quite serious.

When Dilraba tries to empathize with others, she doesn't know how to respond to such remarks. But Mao Xiaotong saw through Su Liu, so she reached out and grabbed his chin, then started teasing the child again.

"Poor little brother, I'll take good care of you from now on."

"Come on!" Su Liu raised her hand and slapped his hand away, shaking her head like a rattle drum.

"Haha." Mao Xiaotong stretched and leaned back on the sofa. "What's your sister like?"

"Personality...quite introverted."

"Growing up in that kind of environment, it's normal to be introverted. It's okay if you don't want to get involved; the government should have a series of subsidies for this kind of situation, so you don't need to worry about it."

"Ah—" Dilraba seemed deflated, as if she had a lot of things to say stuck in her throat, and finally managed to squeeze out, "Teacher Su, you really don't care?"

Su Liu shrugged, "I said I didn't want to get involved, but I already have."

"So what's bothering you today?" Mao Xiaotong asked. "Isn't this something from a few months ago?"

Su Liu took out her phone and showed the two of them the text message.

"Parent-teacher meeting?" Mao Xiaotong suddenly remembered something. "Oh, winter vacation is coming."

Dilraba's face was full of anticipation, and her tone was urging, "Teacher Su, are you going or not?"

"Of course I'm not going!" Su Liu retorted as if she had been rude. "Look, this message was sent to me by her friend."

"Really? She didn't post it herself?"

"It wasn't her."

"But isn't that also possible?" Mao Xiaotong said seriously, "Like when you're in school and want to hand a love letter to someone you like, but you're too shy to do it yourself, so you ask someone else to do it for you. Maybe she's too shy to text you, so she borrows a friend's phone to text you." As she spoke, she sighed to herself, "She's such a sensitive and fragile little girl."

Su Liu's lips twitched, and she snorted coldly, "Sister Xiaotong, did you hand someone love letters when you were in school?"

"I don't have any, does Dilraba have any?"

Dilraba waved her hands repeatedly to deny it, "No, how could I possibly hand love letters to someone else?"

"Others always hand it to you, right?"

"No, not at all!"

Su Liu looked at the two of them with a somewhat absurd expression and said, "No, you're making it sound like it's a real thing."

"We actors have to observe life," Mao Xiaotong said, and then began to act. "Now I'm putting myself in your sister's shoes," she muttered, holding her phone, "Should I text my dear brother? Will he find me annoying? Will he hate me...?"

"Hey, hey," Su Liu hurriedly interrupted her, "What dear brother? Stop fantasizing. Besides, Sister Xiaotong, you clearly support my decision to ignore her, right?"

"I didn't support you, it's up to you."

"I support you!" Dilraba raised her hand, as if answering a question in class. "Teacher Su, I support you going to hold a parent-teacher conference for her."

"You hopeless pushover! I'm practically begging to attend her parent-teacher conference, who does she think she is?"

The next day at noon, at Chongqing Jiangbei Airport, the automatic doors slid open, and Su Liu followed the crowd out of the terminal. He looked up at the clear blue sky and sighed, "I should have flown last time."