Zhou Juan revealed a frantic look on her face. She quickly denied, “No, it wasn’t us, it wasn’t.”

Shu Ning retorted, “Don’t try to argue, I saw the beer bottle fall from your window with my own eyes. If my dad and I hadn’t dodged fast enough, it would’ve smashed our heads.”

As he spoke, his eyes swept across the living room. The living room was very small, so he was able to take in the entire room with a single glance.

Shu Ning stepped into the living room. He picked up the other bottle left on the coffee table and glanced at the text on it. “Southeast Beer, it’s this brand.”

Papa Shu also walked into the room. The muscles in his face twitched. He leaned over, glanced at the bottle, and let out a sneer, “Southeast Beer, that’s not a brand you see everyday.”

Now, Zhou Juan couldn’t deny it anymore, so she looked at her husband in the living room for help.

When Yin Qiang saw Papa Shu’s big bald head and golden chain, he lost his nerve, “It wasn’t me who threw it.”

Then, he pointed at the little villain, who was slowly getting to his feet, and said, “He threw it. If you’ve got a problem, go find him. I can’t do anything about him.”

Shu Ning: “?”

Shu Ning was shocked.

After Yin Qiang finished speaking, he turned his head and shut himself up inside the master bedroom. He didn’t come back out again.

Shu Ning: “…”

Shu Ning thought that Yin Qiang was a fierce and aggressive person. He didn’t expect that Yin Qiang would become a coward as soon as saw someone bigger and stronger than him.

His eyes swept over the anxious Zhou Juan and the pale-faced villain.

Their faces were colored black and blue. They looked incredibly pitiful.

Shu Ning took a good look at Zhou Juan. He didn’t sympathize with this woman at all. The book described her as being very kind, scrimping and saving money for the little villain to go to school. When the little villain was injured by his father, she would hold and comfort him. She would even secretly buy snacks for the villain to eat, the paragon of a virtuous mother.

But in Shu Ning’s opinion, she was disgusting. If she hadn’t secretly switched the children, the little villain would not have to suffer through these things at all, and, naturally, he also would not need her to comfort him and be good to him.

Yin Qiang would beat her every day, yet she wouldn’t get a divorce or resist. Every time, she always needed the little villain to stick his neck out for her, and, every time, it was the little villain who’d get hurt.

Now that he saw her battered and bruised, Shu Ning felt a little sympathy, but he didn’t have much pity for her.

A thought crossed his mind. Shu Ning asked Zhou Juan, “Who threw the wine bottle just now?”

Zhou Juan was caught off guard by the question. When she met Shu Ning’s cutting gaze, she started to hesitate.

The young man’s eyes were too bright. It made her feel like everything about her was being revealed before him.

Zhou Juan looked away and stretched out a trembling finger. She pointed at the expressionless little villain, who was standing in a corner of the living room.

At that moment, Shu Ning couldn’t really describe how he felt.

He just wanted to say: Oh, is this your so-called “kind treatment” towards the villain?

Papa Shu had been adamantly trying to find fault with them, but he eventually decided to let it go after seeing the two’s miserable appearance. Even he was surprised when Zhou Juan gave Yin Mingzheng up without any resistance.

The little villain snorted coldly, “I threw it, so what? Since I have the guts to do it, I naturally have the guts to own up to it too.”

The little boy with the ugly mop of yellow hair was bruised all over, but he still tried his best to puff out his chest and raise his chin, looking very rebellious.

Shu Ning looked at the bruises on his face. Suddenly, he couldn’t help but feel distressed for him.

He tried his best to remain calm and said, “Okay. Since you threw it, come with us.”

“Fine.” The little villain fearlessly walked over to Shu Ning. Then, he remembered something and suddenly turned his head towards Zhou Juan. “Mom, the food’s still in the pot. Remember to eat.”

Then, he brushed past Shu Ning’s shoulder as he walked out the living room, prideful as ever.

Shu Ning silently followed him out and said to Papa Shu, “Dad, you go back first. Yin Mingzheng’s my classmate, I want to talk with him for a bit.”

“Alright.” Papa Shu patted him on the shoulder and warned Yin Mingzheng, “Boy, make sure you behave yourself.”

The three of them got on the elevator. Papa Shu headed upstairs while the two kids headed downstairs.

Yin Mingzheng lived on the fourth floor. The number four was an unlucky number, so it was cheaper than the apartments on the other floors.

The two of them walked in silence.

The little villain had his head held high at first. However, the pain started to kick in after a little bit, and he couldn’t seem to hold it in anymore. He asked, “Where are we going? How do you wanna deal with this?”

Shu Ning knew that if he said they were going to the hospital, the villain definitely wouldn’t cooperate, so he silently used the ride-hailing app to get a taxi.

“Let’s go,” he said.

The little villain frowned and said after a while, “If you want money, then I don’t have any.”

Shu Ning laughed in spite of himself. He turned to look at him. “I don’t want your money.”

“Then what do you want?”

“You’ll know when we get there.”

The little villain couldn’t think of any more arguments, and he really didn’t want to go back to that place he called home. So, he snorted softly and followed Shu Ning out the back door of the apartment complex.

Shu Ning got into the white car that had been waiting for them and motioned for the little villain to get in as well.

The night was silent, and the lights were a bright splendor.

“Where exactly are we going?” The little villain asked, standing beside the car. The light from the streetlights shone on his beautiful face. He was so pale that his skin seemed to glow.

Shu Ning smiled as usual and said, “You’ll know when you get there.”

Seeing that he wasn’t moving, Shu Ning goaded him, “What, are you afraid?”

“Who’s afraid?”

The little villain raised an eyebrow, opened the car door, and sat next to Shu Ning. After about ten minutes, the two arrived at the nearest public hospital.

“You brought me to a hospital?” After getting out of the car, the little villain saw the bright fluorescent hospital sign. His pretty eyebrows were knitted together.

Shu Ning said, “Your injuries are kind of serious. It’s best to get them checked out.”

After he finished speaking, he grabbed the villain’s arm and started heading inside.

The little villain didn’t move.

Shu Ning turned his head and looked at him bewilderedly.

The little villain asked coldly, “Are you sympathizing with me?”

Shu Ning was surprised.

The little villain’s tone was harsh and his eyes looked at Shu Ning indifferently. “I don’t need your fake sympathy.”

After saying that, he turned around and walked away from the hospital.

Shu Ning stood at the hospital entrance and sighed helplessly.

Taking the villain to the hospital seemed to have provoked him.

Did he do something wrong?

He originally thought that if he managed to get the villain to the hospital, the villain would comply. He didn’t expect the villain to be so strong-willed, leaving at the drop of a hat.

Shu Ning felt a little discouraged.

When Shu Ning returned home, Mrs. CaiTranslator’s NoteShu Ning’s mother. Married women in China typically keep their maiden name. was taking a shower in the bathroom and Papa Shu was messing around with his phone on the sofa. When he saw that Shu Ning was back, he sat up and asked, “Son, how’d your talk go?”

Shu Ning shook his head.

Papa Shu asked, “That little brat won’t admit it?”

Shu Ning was taken aback. He responded, “Dad, why do you call him a little brat?”

Papa Shu was annoyed, “Even if we forget about what happened just now, he still pushed you down a flight of stairs last time. That’s not something I can just forget about.”

Thinking back to what they saw at the villain’s house, Papa Shu set his phone aside on the coffee table and humphed, “That little bastard must’ve been up to no good and gotten beat up by his dad.”

There was even a bit of schadenfreude in the tone of his voice.

Although Papa Shu looked rude and unreasonable, he was actually rather kindhearted. For him to be able to say such things simply showed just how much he disliked Yin Mingzheng.

If even Papa Shu treated Yin Mingzheng like this, he could only imagine how other people must view the villain.

The place where the villain lived was so full of malice! He was still so young!

Shu Ning felt a pain in his heart, and quickly said, “Dad, I still haven’t told you about what really happened when I fell down the stairs.”

He explained the entire process of events one more time.

Papa Shu was silent. Then, he frowned for a moment and said, “Yin Mingzheng didn’t push you?”

Shu Ning shook his head.

“But, last time I asked you, you said that you fell because you and Yin Mingzheng got into an argument.”

Shu Ning replied quickly, “I didn’t say that Yin Mingzheng pushed me.”

“Your seatmate, Zhang Chao…” Papa Shu realized something and spat, “Your seatmate is really unbelievable. How can he be so nasty at such a young age? He’s already stirring up trouble like this, who knows what he’ll do in the future.”

Shu Ning sighed, “Dad, we’re already fourteen years old, we’re not babies. Besides, who said that kids can’t have bad intentions?”

Papa Shu nodded, “You’re right.”

“I already asked our homeroom teacher to change our assigned seating.” Shu Ning said.

“That’s good.” Papa Shu said, “If anyone tries to bully you in the future, tell Dad. Dad will clean them up for you.”

Shu Ning smiled, “Okay, Dad.”

After a pause, he piped up again, “Dad, there’s one more thing … I don’t think Yin Mingzheng threw that beer bottle.”

Papa Shu didn’t believe him. “His mother said he threw it, and he even admitted it himself.”

Shu Ning shook his head. “I don’t think it was him.”

“Okay, okay. Whether or not it was him who threw it, that bottle still came from their house.” Papa Shu didn’t have much patience for the topic. “That Yin Mingzheng’s always been bad news. Did you forget that he broke into someone’s house before? He’s got such a bad reputation, I want you to avoid interacting with him in the future.”

Shu Ning opened his mouth. He wanted to say something to defend him, but he didn’t know where to start.

It was easy to build up a bad reputation, but it wasn’t easy to clean it up.

Yin Mingzheng’s bad reputation had already been firmly established. This was because of a certain incident that occurred a few years ago. At that time, Yin Mingzheng broke into someone’s house to try and steal from them and was discovered by the owner. Yin Mingzheng then threatened the owner with a kitchen knife. The owner called the police, and it caused a lot of waves in their small community neighborhood.

Since then, everyone accepted the fact that Yin Mingzheng was a bastard.

When people in the community talked about it, they would say that it’s only natural for a scumbag’s son to be a scumbag as well.

Shu Ning had some doubts about what really happened back then, but too much time had already passed since then. It was impossible for him to investigate this matter.

Today, the little villain had gotten beaten up. He was worried about the little villain’s injuries. Judging from the situation at the time, his injury was probably nothing to sneeze at. Shu Ning didn’t know if he would be able to go to school tomorrow.

The next day at school, Shu Ning found the little villain sitting in his seat as usual. The bruises on his face had gotten worse.

Their winter uniform was large and baggy. Shu Ning couldn’t tell whether there were any injuries on his body.

Shu Ning glanced back at him, but the little villain didn’t give him a single look.

During morning self-study, the homeroom teacher talked to Zhong Xiaoming and Shu Ning and asked them if they wanted to switch seats. Zhong Xiaoming readily agreed.

He didn’t like Yin Mingzheng, but he was also afraid of provoking Yin Mingzheng. So, he kept silently suppressing it. Now that there was an idiot willing to switch seats with him, he was more than happy to agree.

After the two returned, they both moved their desks and quickly changed seats.

Zhang Chao glared at Shu Ning, but Shu Ning didn’t even look at him. He was wholly concentrated on moving his desk. It wasn’t until Zhong Xiaoming moved to Zhang Chao’s side that the expression on Zhang Chao’s face finally improved.

Shu Ning moved his desk next to the villain. There was a hint of surprise in the villain’s eyes. Then, he looked the other way, as if Shu Ning didn’t exist.

Just as Shu Ning was about to put his desk next to Yin Mingzheng, he realized that Yin Mingzheng had stuck his leg out between the two desks.

“Please move your leg,” Shu Ning said.

Zhong Xiaoming and Shu Ning switching seats had long since caught their classmates’ attention. None of them had any intention to self-study. Instead, they were all secretly observing Shu Ning and Yin Mingzheng’s actions. When they saw Yin Mingzheng getting in Shu Ning’s way, their expression’s all seemed to say “as expected”.

It would be weirder if Yin Mingzheng didn’t target others.

There’s a bruise on his face, did he get into another fight yesterday?

I heard that he’s ruthless when he fights, it’s best not to mess with him.

The classmates gave each other meaningful glances.

Shu Ning repeated himself once more, “I’ll have to trouble you to please move your leg.

Yin Mingzheng didn’t even lift his head. Under the white classroom lights, the side of his face seemed both white and tender.

There was nothing Shu Ning could do, so he just left his desk as it was. There was a fist-sized distance between his desk and Yin Mingzheng’s desk.

If other students wanted to pass by him, they would always bump into the corner of his desk. After experiencing this for an entire morning, Shu Ning was starting to find it extremely inconvenient.

Shu Ning felt a little helpless. The little villain seemed to despise him a lot, even more so than he did Zhong Xiaoming.

Maybe he was angry at him for wrongly accusing him of spreading rumors?

Was publicly apologizing to him not enough?

Speaking of which, although he apologized at the time, the villain never said “it’s okay” or “I forgive you”.

Shu Ning was a little worried.

It was normal for the villain to reject him, but the issue was that the villain was injured. The novel didn’t describe in detail how Yin Qiang beat up the little villain and his mother. Shu Ning only realized the true gravity of it after seeing it with his own eyes last night.

If, by any chance, he was seriously injured, or if there were any internal injuries …

In the afternoon, Shu Ning went to the office again to find their homeroom teacher. “Mrs. Li, Yin Mingzheng is injured. He seems to be in pain.”

Their homeroom teacher had long since gotten used to Yin Mingzheng coming into class with injuries. Shee frowned and asked, “He fought with someone again?”

Shu Ning hesitated, “I don’t know.”

He didn’t know how strong Yin Mingzheng’s sense of pride was. A typical adolescent boy would rather be misunderstood than to let others know about their troubles at home.

He didn’t want to rashly expose Yin Mingzheng’s wounds before figuring out what his bottom line was.

“Ma’am, maybe we should take him to the doctor’s office.” This was Shu Ning’s purpose in coming here.

Since the villain wasn’t willing to go to the hospital himself, he might as well find someone with enough authority to make him go.

The homeroom teacher was silent for a moment. Then, she sighed. Originally, she wasn’t going to bother, but, since someone reported it, she couldn’t look the other way anymore. “Alright, you take him to the doctor’s office.”

“I tried, but he won’t listen to me.”

The homeroom teacher muttered under her breath, “What a pain.” Then, she stood up. “I’ll go with you.”

Shu Ning excitedly followed the homeroom teacher to Grade 7 Class 3.

The little villain was sleeping at his desk. His face was turned to the side, and his brows were furrowed. He seemed very uncomfortable.

“Yin Mingzheng.” As soon as the homeroom teacher walked into the classroom, the originally chaotic classroom immediately fell silent.

At this time, the little villain had just started seventh grade. He still had a bit of fear and respect for authority, so he had no choice but to stand up.

“Go to the doctor’s office if you’re not feeling well,” the homeroom teacher said. Then, she saw Shu Ning’s desk protruding into the pathway and said to Shu Ning, “Put your desk back where it should be, and don’t block other students.”

Shu Ning hadn’t expected to achieve two birds with one stone. He happily pushed his desk over under Yin Mingzheng’s icy cold gaze.

The homeroom teacher spoke up, “Yin Mingzheng, from now on, you and Shu Ning are classmates. You should try to get along in the future. Shu Ning, take Yin Mingzheng to the doctor’s office. If he doesn’t go, I’ll call his parents.”

Shu Ning replied, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Call his parents” was the killing move. The only thing Yin Mingzheng could do was gloomily follow Shu Ning to the doctor’s office. Once it was only the two of them, Yin Mingzheng sneered, “You’re always reporting to the teacher over everything. What, are you the teacher’s pet?”