"Useless, useless, useless! You useless good-for-nothing! Pretending to go to work every day, but where's the money?"
"You can't even afford the rent, and you expect me to sleep on the streets with you? I raised you for nothing!"
"Useless! I knew you were useless from a young age, a good-for-nothing. I might as well beat you to death and be done with it!"
Father was still lost in the happy life of a young master and a big boss before the fall.
He absolutely could not accept the current life of being ridiculed by others.
So he vented all his pent-up frustration onto Mother and Min'er.
Every time the landlord came to collect rent, Min'er would get beaten.
Today was no exception.
Although he was a drunkard, although he was frail and looked weak and fragile.
When he truly lost his temper, the punches that landed on his body still hurt.
But Min'er didn't cry or scream.
Because she had been beaten so many times, she knew that crying and screaming wouldn't elicit sympathy.
In fact, it might even provoke laughter from the onlookers due to its absurdity.
She just had to endure it.
As he was beating her, Mother, either hearing the commotion or having a premonition, suddenly rushed out from the basement.
Seeing Father beating her precious daughter, she, driven by maternal instinct, hugged her daughter's back like a hen protecting her chick.
"Ah, who told you to hit my daughter? Don't hit my daughter!"
"Let go, you scumbag, you trash! Whoever hits my daughter, I'll fight them to the death! Stop hitting her!"
He dared to stop him?
Father became even more furious, pointing at Mother's scalp and cursing her.
"Good, you're here, saves me from looking for you!"
"You wretched woman, you jinx! Ever since I married you, I haven't had a single good day! You were born specifically to bring me bad luck!"
"I spent so much money to marry you, only for you to give birth to a daughter, and then cause me to go bankrupt!"
"Look at you, this crazy, half-human, half-ghost appearance! I'm sick of it! Today, I'm not only going to beat her to death, but you too!"
"Don't live anymore! How can I turn my life around with a bunch of useless people dragging me down? Let's just end it all today!"
Father cursed and hit Mother, while Mother fought back, babbling protectively over Min'er.
The room was in chaos.
The landlord had known them for a long time and was well aware of their family situation.
He had seen these chaotic scenes many times and was tired of them.
Knowing he wouldn't get any money from them today, he shouted after they had fought for a while.
"Alright, stop fighting!"
Father stopped as if a switch had been flipped.
The landlord looked at them, panting, and said with contempt.
"Every time I come to collect rent, you put on a melodrama. When will it end?"
"This is the last bit of sympathy I'll show you. Don't say I'm heartless. Three days. I'll give you three more days."
"If you can't pay the rent after three days, then get out of here as far as you can."
The landlord left. Jiang Nan Fang spent a long time coaxing her mother until her emotions calmed down, and she went back to sleep.
The food in the room had gone cold, and the rain outside had stopped.
Everything seemed to return to how it was before anything happened.
But Zhan Bei Jue knew that tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.
He definitely wouldn't be able to sleep.
Before he understood Min'er, he didn't feel so much psychological pressure. The more he understood her, the more he realized how much she suffered.
As a grown man, he was instead dragging her down, exploiting her…
He felt so guilty he didn't know what to say.
When Min'er returned, she first asked Zhan Bei Jue to come out of the wardrobe, then numbly sat down on the edge of the bed.
Looking at the cold leftovers, her face was ashen.
"It's cold. But I don't want to heat it up again. Please bear with it and eat it as it is."
It was good enough to have food, what right did she have to say it was a hardship?
Zhan Bei Jue didn't mind the dirty floor. He slowly sat down against the wall on the ground, quietly watching her.
"Min'er, can you tell me what's going on with your family?"
Before, Min'er didn't want to tell him because she felt they weren't close enough for her to reveal so much.
After so much time, her intuition told her that Zhan Bei Jue was not a bad person.
She had brought him into her home, and they were already friends, so there was no point in hiding it anymore.
She sat on the edge of the bed, facing the dim light outside, and smoothed her short hair, which had been messed up by her father.
She gave a bitter smile.
"I don't know how long it's been since I last had long hair, three years? Or four? I've forgotten."
"But as far as I can remember, I always had long, flowing hair."
"Back then, our whole family had just moved to Switzerland. My father was in the import-export business and lived in a big house in the city center."
"Every day, I could not only go to school, dance, and learn piano, but I also had many toys."
"But everything changed the year I was in my second year of high school. Due to my father's mismanagement and the financial crisis, his company went bankrupt, and he was suddenly tens of millions in debt."
"We sold our house back home, the house in the city center, and still owed several million to others."
"My father didn't dare to return to our hometown, feeling ashamed to do so. So he brought us to this town."
"In the beginning, my father and mother still had the fighting spirit to make a comeback, and life was relatively normal. But after trying to invest for a while, the debt grew, and they became decadent."
"Especially my father. He owed money in China and abroad. Facing immense pressure, he took it all out on my mother, scolding or beating her every day."
"Within a year, my mother developed schizophrenia from the stress. My father refused to look for work, and the family had no income."
"To eat, to drink, and to pay for my mother's medical expenses, we had to move into this low-rent apartment."
"I don't know if you are aware, but Switzerland, being a small country, has very strict policies on issuing green cards. The chances of foreigners being able to stay are very slim."
"According to the local authorities, they only issue residency permits to individuals who can bring economic benefits to the region. There are also residency and age restrictions."
"My father went bankrupt, so naturally, we lost our permanent residency. I am now someone without status."
"I can't settle in Switzerland, my passport back home has expired, and my education level is not high. I can only work in small restaurants nearby for extremely low wages to barely make ends meet."
"Not only do I have to pay rent and buy medicine, but I also have to repay my parents' loans…"
"Honestly, when I first saw you, I didn't intend to save you. Because with my own circumstances, I didn't seem qualified to save anyone else."
"But later, I really couldn't stand it. So sometimes, you can't blame me for being heartless, or for not being good enough to you. You can only blame my limited abilities."
"Yesterday, I didn't intentionally try to drive you away. I was in a particularly bad mood, and I don't know what possessed me to…"
Zhan Bei Jue could completely understand her.
Every word she spoke felt like a needle piercing his heart, causing him pain.