Yin Mingzheng was very beautiful. At the age of fourteen, he had a childish and pretty appearance. His skin was pale. His body had not fully grown, so his skeletal structure wasn’t very large, like a little girl. Due to long-term malnutrition, his whole person was thin and frail, like a weed trying to grow in a dark corner. The stem of the weed was thin and long, and a single puff of wind would cause it to sway wildly.

He was about to turn fifteen. He was one of the oldest kids in Grade 7 Class 3.

Back then, his alcoholic father didn’t let him go to school. The neighborhood committee knew about what kind of person his father was and specially reminded Yin Mingzheng’s adoptive mother to send him to school. It was only after they ensured her that they didn’t need to spend money to send him to school that his adoptive mother finally sent Yin Mingzheng to primary school. Otherwise, Yin Mingzheng wouldn’t have even been able to go to school.

Because of his adoptive parents’ neglect, Yin Mingzheng started attending school one year later than his peers.

As for preschool, Yin Mingzheng didn’t have a chance to attend. His family was too poor, and his adoptive parents were reluctant to waste money.

At the age of three or four years old, when most kids usually went to preschool, Yin Mingzheng wandered around the neighborhood by himself, unsupervised.

Shu Ning was one year younger than Yin Mingzheng. When he was three years old, Shu Ning attended the community preschool, Sunflower Preschool. Several times, as he was playing in the playground, he would see little Yin Mingzheng standing outside the fence, separated by the green belt, staring eagerly at the children in the preschool.

There was a special play area in the community for children in the community to use.

In the afternoon, after preschool, his grandmother would take Shu Ning home. Whenever they passed by the play area, Shu Ning would see Yin Mingzheng sitting on the swing, all by himself.

The community always became lively after school let out, full of children’s conversations and laughter. The children rushed to the play area and quickly occupied the playground’s facilities around Yin Mingzheng.

“Are you going to play?” Grandma asked Shu Ning, wanting to chat with another grandmother she knew.

Shu Ning nodded, “Yes.”

He handed his schoolbag to his grandmother and rushed to the play area as well.

“Hey, this is my swing, get off!”

The young and tender voice made Shu Ning, who was sitting on the seesaw, turn around. He saw a little fatty standing beside the swing with his hands on his hips, shouting at Yin Mingzheng.

Yin Mingzheng lowered his head, revealing his white and soft neck beneath his brand-new blue shirt.

His swing wasn’t as joyful and lively as a child’s swing should be. The arc was very small and the speed was very slow, which made the little fatty extremely unhappy.

“Hey, did you hear me?”

The little fatty raised his hand to push Yin Mingzheng. He was taller than other kids his age, and he was also pretty strong, so Yin Mingzheng was instantly pushed to the ground.

The little villain stood up from the ground, his eyes pitch black. He stubbornly grabbed the chain of the swing and pursed his lips, preventing the little fatty from using it.

The little fatty was really angry and stretched out his hand to push the little villain.

The little villain kicked the little fatty, and the kid fell. He was slightly stunned for a moment before he started to howl.

The sound of crying attracted the attention of the surrounding parents. The little fatty’s grandmother rushed over as though she were flying. She ran to the swing to help the little fatty to his feet.

Now that he had the adults here to support him, the little fatty started howling even harder. He pointed at the little villain and cried, “He hit me! Grandma, he hit me!”

Seeing that it was Yin Mingzheng, the short little old lady immediately cursed at him in her native dialect, “It turns out that it was you, you little bastard! #%￥#…”

Soon, the little villain’s adoptive mother hurried over. Without even asking about the situation, she bowed and apologized to the cursing old lady and repeatedly apologized.

The little villain held onto the swing’s chain with tears in his eyes, but he held it in.

He hadn’t spoken at all the entire time. It was only once his mother arrived that he spoke up, “Mom, he pushed me first.”

“Nonsense!” The old lady denied, “Your child is unbelievable! Sure enough, it’s different when your father’s been to prison. He can just do whatever he wants, huh? Even after hitting someone, he won’t admit fault!”

Shu Ning remembered that the little villain’s adoptive mother was surnamed Zhou. Her name seemed to be Zhou Juan.

Zhou Juan bowed and apologized again. She dragged the villain over and scolded, “Apologize quickly!”

The little villain struggled, “Mom, I only pushed him because he pushed me first.”

“Enough, quickly apologize!” Zhou Juan raised her voice and said sternly.

The little villain thought that, once his mother arrived, he would get fair treatment, but, instead, he was forced to apologize. His expression became more and more aggrieved. In the end, he couldn’t resist the authority of adults and apologized to the little fatty through his tears, “I’m sorry.”

The little fatty held his head up like a rooster who had won the battle.

Zhou Juan took the little villain and hurried away, complaining as she walked, “I told you not to leave the house, you hear me? Running around all day, stirring up trouble!”

When the two of them left, the play area restored its happy atmosphere, and the little fatty sat on the swing with a smug expression on his face.

Shu Ning was too young at that time and didn’t quite understand what was going on. A friend of his whispered in his ear, “I think the clothes Yin Mingzheng was wearing are my clothes.”

Shu Ning responded, “Huh?”

His friend said solemnly, “His dad went to jail for stealing things. He won’t steal my clothes, will he?”

The next day after preschool, Shu Ning and his friends went to the play area to play. Shu Ning’s grandma and Grandma Li were chatting with each other again.

The two kids walked to the play area and saw the little villain sitting on the seesaw.

“Hey, come down, we want to play!” The child shouted.

The little villain sat silently at one end of the seesaw without speaking.

So long as someone sat on the other end, the seesaw would move.

However, no one went up to the seesaw. None of the children wanted to play with the little villain.

This was because the adults had said that the little villain’s father had been to prison before and had a really bad personality. The villain’s upbringing wasn’t good, so they shouldn’t play with him.

Shu Ning’s grandmother had also reminded him several times, for fear that Shu Ning would learn bad things from the villain.

The little villain said nothing.

The kids were very angry.

“Why is he like this?”

“We were here first. Now that he’s taken the seesaw, we can’t play on it.”

“This sucks.”

Shu Ning’s friend stood up, pointed to the little villain’s clothes, and asked him, “Hey, Yin Mingzheng, did you steal my clothes?”

As soon as those words were spoken, several pairs of bright eyes looked at Yin Mingzheng.

Yin Mingzheng was stunned for a moment. Then, he immediately retorted, “No, I didn’t steal your clothes.”

“Those clothes are obviously mine. Grandma bought it for me last month. The hat looks cool, but it’s too big for me, so I didn’t wear it. How come you have it now?” His friend spoke angrily, a puzzled expression on his face.

The little villain explained, “Grandma Li gave it to me.”

His friend’s grandma, Grandma Li, was well-known in the community for being warmhearted and generous.

“Why would my grandma give it to you? That’s my favorite hat!”

“Grandma Li gave it to me.”

The villain would only repeat that sentence.

The argument between the two got louder and louder.

Their voices attracted Grandma Li’s attention, so Grandma Li rushed over. When she heard their argument, she said to Shu Ning’s friend, “I did give the clothes to Yin Mingzheng.”

“Why?” His friend was very unhappy.

“It’s too big for you to wear.”

“No, I don’t want to give it to him!”

“Qiao Qiao, don’t be ridiculous. I’ve already given it to him, you can’t ask for it back.”

“I dont care, I don’t care! I want it! I want it!”

The other children also jeered, “Wow, Yin Mingzheng’s actually wearing someone else’s clothes!”

One of the children piped up, “Last time, my grandma said that Yin Mingzheng’s mom was picking out clothes from the trash can for Yin Mingzheng to wear.”

“Really? Picking out clothes from the trash? So dirty!”

The little villain became nervous and retorted loudly from on top of the seesaw, “It’s not a trash can, it’s for throwing away clothes, it’s not dirty!”

The community had set up clothing donation boxes. Usually, people would leave worn-out clothes in them, and there would be someone to empty it out regularly.

Zhou Juan had once picked out clothes from the donation box and was seen by someone.

“A trash can’s still a trash can! Picking up other people’s clothes and wearing them is gross, gross, gross!”

The children started acting up.

The little villain, with tears in his eyes, got off the seesaw and left with his head down.

“Hey, my clothes!” Shu Ning’s friend was still crying.

The little villain raised his head and looked at Shu Ning’s friend, his eyes red from tears. He took off the blue jacket and threw it at the kid’s feet. Then, he raised his voice and said, “Here, take it back! Who cares about your clothes! Hmph!”

Grandma Li had been troubled by her own little grandson. Originally, she was trying to speak up for the villain, but, now that the villain threw the clothes on the ground in front of her, she was immediately unhappy, “What kind of behavior is this?”

“Grandma, don’t give him clothes in the future.”

Grandma Li rubbed her grandson’s head and said, “Okay, I won’t, I won’t.”

After this incident, the little villain never played in the play area after school let out again. So long as he saw Shu Ning and the others coming, he would immediately walk away silently.

Occasionally, Shu Ning would see him staring enviously at the children from outside the preschool fence.

At that time, the little villain was only four or five years old. He didn’t know how to hide his expression, and he couldn’t conceal the want in his eyes. However, Shu Ning was only four years old at that time and couldn’t understand the look in his eyes.

This was all a long, long time ago. Now that he was suddenly recalling it, it felt very unpleasant.

Shu Ning didn’t have a particularly deep sense of having transmigrated because he had been very young when he transmigrated. Any sense of surprise or shock had long since worn off.

His thoughts at that time were: Did I transmigrate because I was resentful about Yin Mingzheng’s ending in the novel?

So should I take care of him? Change his ending?

No one answered him.

Later, he lost his memory. The things he experienced during that period of amnesia were very real, and he developed feelings for this world. Thinking back to the past again, his feelings for Yin Mingzheng were more complicated now. In addition to the idea of ​​”I should change Yin Mingzheng’s ending” that he had at the beginning, there was now also a layer of “I took part in excluding him and need to make up for it”.

After getting a talking to from the homeroom teacher, several students walked out of the office. Looking at the villain’s thin back, Shu Ning wanted to speak up, but he didn’t know what to say.

Zhang Chao elbowed him and lowered his voice, “What’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you dealing with him now, how long do you plan on dragging it out for?”

Shu Ning stopped, turned his head, and coldly asked, “Is it true that he spread rumors about me?”

Zhang Chao didn’t seem to expect that he would ask such a question and looked away uncomfortably. “Of course it’s him.”

As someone who had been an adult, Shu Ning noticed his strangeness immediately and realized that he had wronged the little villain. He was silent for a moment and said, “Forget it, don’t mention it in the future.”

Zhang Chao was stunned. “You’re not gonna do anything about the rumors?”

“Rumors stop with the wise. As long as I don’t say anything, they’ll go away on their own.”

Zhang Chao fell silent.

The two walked into the Grade 7 Class 3 classroom and sat in the third-to-last row.

The villain sat in the last row by the window, laying down at his desk.

Shu Ning wasn’t sure if he should go over and say hello. The other students around him rushed over and asked him about his injury.

Shu Ning had a good-looking appearance. He was usually sunny and bright and very popular with girls.

One of the girls asked Shu Ning, “What did the homeroom teacher say? Yin Mingzheng really went too far. This time, he should be severely punished!”

Shu Ning frowned, raised his head, and said, “I fell down myself. It had nothing to do with Yin Mingzheng.”