“Lou Xiangwen, do you know? You’re just a useless failure. No matter how hard you try, you’ll never make it to the top.”
A beautiful woman, elegantly dressed and wearing sunglasses, spoke with disdain. Her red-painted fingernails lightly traced across the man’s face before she suddenly slapped him.
“You saw it too, I’m doing great now. I came here just to tell you that we’re done. Stop clinging to me, got it?”
Her gaze flitted over the pale-faced young man, who bore the mark of her slap. Then, she wrapped her arms around the well-dressed middle-aged man beside her, her smile tinged with mockery. “You couldn’t give me the life I wanted, yet you expected me to stick around and chase some ridiculous dream with you? How laughable. Do you know? Every time you talked about your dreams, I felt sick.”
She sneered, ignoring the judgmental stares from passersby. “Brother Xiang personally reached out to have you write a script, but you refused. I told you to compromise, and you wouldn’t listen. Someone was willing to pay you, and you still turned them down. What else can you even do? Live in poverty forever?
“You’re willing to suffer for your so-called dreams, but I’m still young. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in misery.”
A flicker of pain flashed in the young man’s eyes. He couldn’t help but protest, “If I had known what you truly thought, I would have let go long ago. But you… you once said you’d always support my dream. I thought, I thought—”
The woman let out a light chuckle. “Yeah, back then, I also thought you’d make it someday. I figured I could afford to wait a little longer. Who would’ve thought you’d turn out to be such a failure? You rejected the fame and fortune handed to you. Even when Brother Xiang kindly offered to take you as his disciple, you turned him down, acting all high and mighty.”
“Let’s not even talk about everything else,” the young man’s face turned red with fury, and his voice rose sharply. “But you knew, that was my script! I’d been working on it since college—”
“So what if I knew?” The woman sneered. “You’re just a nobody, a broke, insignificant screenwriter. Without connections, without backing, do you really think a good script alone is enough to make you famous?”
She scoffed. “Brother Xiang even offered to credit you, but instead of being grateful, you kicked him out. No wonder you’re in such a pathetic state now.”
Lou Xiangwen clenched his fists, his eyes burning red. “You stole my script and gave it to him! You even destroyed all my drafts!”
“And what if I did? Do you have any proof?” The woman rolled her eyes impatiently. “Everyone knows it’s Brother Xiang’s work now. Do you really think you can get it back?”
As she spoke, Brother Xiang whispered something in her ear, making her giggle flirtatiously. In front of her ex-boyfriend, she playfully smacked the man’s chest. “Oh, stop it, Brother Xiang, you’re so bad—”
But when she turned back to Lou Xiangwen, her expression instantly turned cold again. “Anyway, despite all our unpleasant history, we did date in college. I won’t even ask for breakup compensation, just don’t come bothering me again.”
Brother Xiang took a drag from his cigarette and chuckled maliciously. “Didn’t expect my baby to be so kind. After all the crap he put you through, and you won’t even take a breakup fee?”
The woman gave him a playful shove. “That’s your fault. He can barely afford to eat. Even if I wanted money, he doesn’t have any.”
Watching the scene unfold, Qu Tantan accidentally dropped her candied hawthorn to the ground.
This woman was ruthless. She embodied every classic villainess trope, the gold digger and terrible ex-girlfriend… If only the humiliated man would now shout, ‘The tides will turn in thirty years, never look down on a poor youth!’—this would feel straight out of a web novel.
But this was reality. Under the woman and Brother Xiang’s taunts, the young man was clearly losing control. Just as he tried to step forward in anger, she suddenly kicked him, her sharp heel leaving a long gash on his leg.
Seeing him collapse to the ground, she laughed even harder. “Look at you, Lou Xiangwen, you’re so pathetic! You think you can go against Brother Xiang? Take a look at yourself, do you even deserve to?”
Brother Xiang, for once, showed some mercy, patting the woman’s shoulder to signal her to stop. Then, he looked down at Lou Xiangwen with feigned pity. “Xiao Lou, I’ll say this again, don’t fight against money. If you ever change your mind, give me a call.”
Lou Xiangwen trembled all over, his voice filled with hatred. “Get lost! I will never be your ghostwriter!”
“Fine. Stay proud while you can, I’ll be waiting for the day you come crawling back.” Brother Xiang’s eyes turned cold for a moment. He pointed a finger at Lou Xiangwen before turning away with the woman.
Their arrogance was suffocating. Though the crowd disapproved, they still instinctively stepped aside to let the pair pass.
With the drama over, the audience lost interest. The once-packed space quickly emptied. Some people recognized the Qu family and whispered, “That’s the upstairs neighbor I was telling you about. Never expected…”
Shaking his head, the man seemed about to say something but held back. He patted Father on the shoulder before heading upstairs with his wife.
The once-lively area now felt eerily quiet.
Qu Tantan glanced at the devastated young man, half-kneeling on the ground, his fists clenched as he pounded the pavement in frustration.
A pang of sympathy welled up inside her. She took a small step forward but hesitated, unsure if she should intervene. Just as she hesitated, she felt a gentle push on her back. Looking up, she saw her parents watching her with quiet encouragement.
Without a word, Mother Qu pulled two band-aids from her bag and handed them to her daughter.
Though they didn’t fully understand what had happened, they knew that, in moments like these, an adult’s concern might make things worse, embarrassing the young man and making him want to flee. But a child’s kindness would be different.
Qu Tantan immediately understood. She threw away her fallen candy, then ran forward, holding out her childish yellow duck-patterned handkerchief to him.
Lou Xiangwen subconsciously looked up and saw the little girl staring at him with wide, innocent eyes. She pointed at his face with a look of pure sincerity and said, “Your face is dirty, Brother. Wipe it off.”
Instinctively, Lou Xiangwen shrank back, his body reacting as if to flee. But when he met the little girl’s clear, concerned gaze, he hesitated. He was afraid his dusty self might dirty her.
To his surprise, she showed no sign of disgust. Instead, she seriously pressed his shoulder down and gently wiped the dust off his face. Then, she crouched down and tore open a band-aid.
Lou Xiangwen froze, not daring to move, his breath nearly held as he watched her actions.
The wound left by the woman’s high-heeled shoe still bled, looking painfully raw. Qu Tantan winced in sympathy, letting out an involuntary hiss. Her voice was soft and cautious. “Does it hurt a lot?”
Lou Xiangwen didn’t answer, only his fingers trembled slightly.
Qu Tantan didn’t mind. She used a clean corner of her handkerchief to carefully wipe around the wound before gently applying the band-aid. “This will stop the bleeding for now, but Brother, you should properly treat the wound once you get home. Otherwise, you might have to go to the hospital.
“The hospital is super scary! There are fierce nurses who give bitter medicine. Brother shouldn’t get hurt, okay?”
She made no mention of what had happened before, pretending to know nothing. Then, she beamed at him. “Did Brother accidentally fall down just now? That’s okay, it’s not embarrassing at all.
“When you fall, you just stand up again. There’s no need to be afraid of losing face. Brother is a brave person. No one laughs at the brave.”
For a moment, Lou Xiangwen almost thought she was implying something. But when he saw her earnest, encouraging smile, he realized he was overthinking it.
Even though he knew she was only trying to comfort him over a supposed fall, he couldn’t suppress the sourness in his heart, and his eyes turned red.
When his ex-girlfriend had brought people to humiliate him, he had only felt anger. When they had deliberately shamed him, his fury burned. Even after they left, all he could think about was revenge, making them regret it. There was no time to feel wronged.
He knew people around him were watching, pointing fingers at his misery. And when he thought of the dreams he might never achieve, hatred and despair surged, tempting him toward a dark path. He had been ready to swear vengeance, no matter the means.
But just then, a small hand reached out to him.
In the warmth of a child’s innocent comfort, Lou Xiangwen found himself wanting to cry. The grievances he had pushed aside began to pile up, pressing on his chest, demanding release.
Perhaps it was because she didn’t understand. She had no idea that the Brother who ‘fell’ she was comforting was actually a failure. She wouldn’t secretly mock him for being worse than a dog. That was why Lou Xiangwen felt at ease.
His nose tingled. He wanted to hug the kind little girl, but knowing how dirty he was, he didn’t dare to trouble her. Instead, he simply nodded at her with a pitiful expression.
Qu Tantan had no idea what was going through his mind. She simply thought she had successfully cheered him up. Standing up, she shoved the handkerchief she had used to clean his wound into his hands, smiling brightly. “Brother got my little yellow duck dirty, so you have to wash it and give it back to me, okay?”
Father, who had been watching, saw how the young man, who had seemed so hopeless moments ago, was now holding the adorable little yellow duck handkerchief, looking up at their daughter with a slightly foolish expression. When he exchanged glances with his wife, they both smiled.
“What are you two doing?” Mother Qu approached, her voice warm. “Tan Bao’er, you didn’t bully this Brother, did you?”
Qu Tantan puffed up her cheeks and shook her head solemnly. “Tan Bao’er would never bully anyone! I was just helping, right, Brother?”
Lou Xiangwen looked embarrassed, shaking his head hurriedly. “No, I, I just…”
He was naturally socially anxious, and after what had just happened, he felt even more self-conscious. Now, facing the little girl’s parents, he instinctively felt flustered. He wanted to explain but wasn’t good at lying. “She didn’t bully me. Really.”
Qu Tantan took her mother’s hand. Compared to Lou Xiangwen’s stammering, her words were crisp and clear. “Brother fell down just now, and I helped him with his wound.”
Mother, inwardly pleased with her daughter, turned to Lou Xiangwen with a questioning look.
Lou Xiangwen quickly nodded.
A gentle smile spread across Mother Qu’s face. Praising her daughter, she turned to Lou Xiangwen. “Do you live in this building too? We just moved in and haven’t met the neighbors yet. What a coincidence, right, Old Qu?”
Lou Xiangwen was momentarily stunned. So they were the family who had just moved into the apartment downstairs his.
Father Qu picked up his daughter and whispered, “Our Tan Bao’er is a real little hero.” Then, he subtly nodded at the young man, his expression filled with kindness. “Since we’re neighbors now, let’s take care of each other.”
Facing such kindness from strangers, Lou Xiangwen felt overwhelmed. Somehow, before he knew it, he was walking up the stairs with them, engaged in conversation.
It wasn’t until he stepped into his apartment that he realized, he had agreed to let them bring him some cookies later that evening.
Touching the corners of his mouth, which had unknowingly curled into a smile, he felt a little flustered. His mind was still in a daze, but the cold emptiness from before had vanished.
Maybe there really were good people in this world. Maybe he had just been unlucky. How could he let two people’s actions make him want to take revenge on the world?
Shaking his head quickly, as if trying to shake out all the negativity, Lou Xiangwen suddenly remembered that he would see the Qu family again that night. He smiled to himself, then rushed to the bathroom, eager to wash the little girl’s handkerchief.
He had no time to dwell on the darkness that had momentarily clouded his heart.