Infinitely Criticizing the Villain for Being Like My Ex-Boyfriend

"Are you really going to study there?" Xu Aiyong was holding two grey jackets that he had just altered, and stared at Xiaoping with some concern.

"Yes." Xiaoping was slowly packing his things. All the things added together could not even fill up a large basket.

"I've asked Brother Sixi about it, and that school is not very decent! I heard there are a lot of bad guys who are good at bullying people!" Xu Aiyong pinched his clothes, as if he wanted to persuade him not to go, but he didn't know how to start.

"But that's the only place willing to accept me. It only costs $1.30 a month including food and accommodation, and I heard that there are three classes every week taught by teachers invited from regular schools." Xiaoping was obviously well prepared. He took out the little money his parents had left and asked someone to help find a school in the town. He planned to save money and get into college.

"I have to go out eventually, and I have to go out." Xiaoping's voice was very calm. "It doesn't matter if I'm not serious. As long as I can study, I can get into university."

In his life, Xu Aiyong had never heard anyone talk about getting into college so easily, but he knew that Xiaoping could do it because his parents were very promising high school students who were good at making money, and Xiaoping knew a lot of words.

But he has no parents, so this path will be difficult for him.

"Thank you." The two looked at each other in silence for a long time, and Xiaoping suddenly spoke.

Xu Aiyong was stunned, stammered twice, and pretended to be stupid: "There are only two coats, I can't wear them anymore, my mother bought new ones for my brother, it's a waste to throw them away, I might as well give them to you."

Xiaoping knew very well what kind of times this was. He had to sew the waistband of his trousers several times before continuing to wear them, not to mention these small jackets that looked sturdy and durable and were filled with cotton.

"It's not about this." Xiaoping took the jacket from his hand, looked straight at Xu Aiyong, and said softly: "Luo Zi was sleeping at home, and someone covered his head and broke both legs."

This incident caused a big stir. Luo Zi was furious and used many connections to try to find the person responsible, but he found no clues.

"What did you say?" Xu Aiyong was stunned. "Oh, that incident was quite a big deal. It's okay. We haven't done anything wrong. We are not afraid of him coming after us."

Xiaoping smiled, as if he understood everything, and said, "Yes, don't do anything that would make you feel guilty."

There was a knock on Xiaoping's door, and a irritable head poked in.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time, why haven't you come out yet?" Xu Guifen muttered in complaint. She has changed her speaking habits and no longer uses the rustic "an" and "nong". She is trying hard to learn to speak like city people.

It just still sounds a bit lame.

"What are you waiting for us for?" Xiaoping looked at her and stopped what he was doing with some confusion.

"Take pictures! A photographer from the city is here!" Xu Guifen raised her voice excitedly: "You can take pictures with just a scoop of bean flour!"

"I have no face." Xiaoping paused, lowered his head and continued to pack.

Xu Aiyong pulled his arm and went out: "I heard that students in town need ID photos to go to school! Take one now, so you don't have to worry about it later!"

Now, Xiaoping was moved.

Xu Guifen had heard a long time ago that a photographer was coming, so every day when she cooked, she would steal a handful of bean flour from the jar at home. Gradually, she had saved up a bucketful of it and was able to take photos by herself.

"You have to go to school." She tried to pronounce the words correctly, "You can't wear my clothes, I'll give you a photo!"

So the three of them discussed for a long time and decided to take a group photo.

"Let's sit a little further away." Xu Guifen instructed, "We can have a group photo, and if we cut it, we can still have individual photos!"

"Are you done?" The photographer poked his head out impatiently.

"Yeah! That's good!" Xu Guifen responded loudly.

"Click"

In a somewhat low-quality black-and-white photo, three young boys and girls in rustic clothes were smiling shyly and awkwardly.

Later, when Xiaoping went to the town, he paid someone to take a new ID photo for him.

He couldn't bear to cut up this photo.

……

"Did your parents leave anything for you?"

Now Zhang Chunliang can talk to Xu Er freely about his deceased parents. The topics are relatively common and do not involve sensitive issues. Xu Er's reaction is not as big as before.

He chopped a sweet little melon, scooped out half of the flesh and put it in a bowl, pushed it in front of Xu Er, and handed the clean rind under the table.

The big dog grabbed it in one bite and put it in its own dog bowl - the most beautiful ceramic bowl Zhang Chunliang found at Xu Er's house.

The dog's newly grown teeth were sharp enough for it to chew on crispy foods such as fruits and vegetables, so from then on, Zhang Chunliang and Xu Er could only hear the continuous "crunching" sound of gnawing on melon rinds.

Xu Er covered his ears in annoyance, but was worried that he couldn't hear Zhang Chunliang's voice clearly. He could only stare at the big dog chewing the melon rind with a gloomy look for two seconds, then turned his head away and answered.

"Yes, I left a lot of things behind."

Zhang Chunliang paused while chewing the melon, raised his head, and looked at Xu Er expectantly: "What are these?"

Xu Er sat seriously and thought for a moment. He stretched out his palm and counted carefully with Zhang Chunliang: "One hundred and seventy-nine and sixty cents of hunger (debt). My father had three torn Zhongshan suits. My mother patched two of them for him, but they were made of red cloth, and he refused to wear them because they were ugly. My mother didn't leave anything behind. She exchanged them for Mao Zedong's banknotes before she died. She paid off some of the debt. I think there was a piece of silver jewelry that was secretly put into my cloth tiger's stomach."

"Then how did you find out?" Zhang Chunliang listened to him patiently and asked back.

"I burned it." Xu Er awkwardly picked up a piece of melon soaked in honey with chopsticks and handed it to Zhang Chunliang's mouth. "I burned everything they left behind."

Zhang Chunliang put the melon into his mouth with a somewhat lost expression, but he did not question Xu Er's behavior of burning his parents' belongings.

Although he did not say it explicitly, Zhang Chunliang could guess how much suffering a young child would have to face with the sudden death of his parents.

"Can debts be burned?" Zhang Chunliang smiled. He was a little curious about how the young Xu Er paid off such a huge sum of money.

"No." Xu Er thought for a moment, "My father can't read, so they secretly changed the number on the IOU. In fact, they didn't owe that much."

Xu Er must have gone through a lot of hardship to get a reasonable amount of the debt from this group of cunning villagers, and then worked hard to pay off the money step by step.

Zhang Chunliang felt sorry for his situation and was about to comfort him when he heard him say -

"I couldn't pay it back, so I burned their house down at night while they were sleeping."

Xu Er became addicted to feeding the baby. He picked up another piece of melon and put it to Zhang Chunliang's mouth with great interest.

"Let them also have a taste of what it feels like to owe so much money and be chased for debt," he concluded.