The middle-aged man stumbled when the little girl tugged at him. He looked down, his face immediately filling with disgust.
He yanked his hand free as if shaking off something filthy.
“Get lost! Don’t touch me!”
“Who doesn’t know your mother, Tang Xuejian, is as ugly as a monster? That lump on her face is disgusting!”
“No man would ever marry your mom. Get lost!”
The little girl was flung to the ground. Her knee struck the steps, and a thin line of blood appeared.
But she bit her lip and didn’t cry out. She only clutched the hem of her skirt with her grimy little hands, her big eyes brimming with tears.
Tang Xuejian?
Lin Yan froze for a moment.
Tang Xuejian… Why did that name sound so familiar?
Suddenly, he remembered.
Wasn’t she the wealthy widow Lin Fusheng and Yang Yuxia had previously pressured him to marry into her family?
So… she was inside this hotel?
Before Lin Yan could think it over, the hotel doors suddenly swung open, and seven or eight brightly dressed little boys came bustling out.
They all looked around seven or eight years old, grinning mischievously, with stones they had picked up from the flower beds clutched in their hands.
The boy leading them spotted the little girl crouching at the foot of the steps and immediately got excited, as if he’d found something fun to play with.
“Hey! Tang Xiaolan! Looking for another man for your mom again?”
Whoosh!
A stone smacked straight into the little girl’s shoulder!
“Ah!”
The little girl flinched in pain, but didn’t run.
The other children immediately joined in, pelting her with stones like raindrops.
“Hahaha! Hit her! Hit her!”
“Tang Xiaolan, your mom’s a slut! She had you before she was married! Aren’t you ashamed?”
“Haha, I heard that if no man marries her mom today, they’ll both be kicked out of the Tang Family!”
“Good! Who’d want to live under the same roof as a monster?”
The stones clattered against the little girl. Several hit her arms, leaving red welts.
She trembled with pain, curling up and covering her head.
But she didn’t run.
Gritting her teeth, she cried out:
“My mom isn’t a slut!!!”
“I have a dad! Mom told me my dad is a great hero!”
The boys fell silent for a second, then burst into even louder laughter.
“A great hero? Hahaha! Then where is your dad? Where’s he now?”
“If you have a dad, why are you searching the whole street for some other man?”
“Liar! You’re just a bastard with no dad!”
The insults made the little girl shake all over. She bit her lip until it bled, but still clutched her head and stubbornly shouted, “I have a dad!”
The boy leading them finished laughing and glanced around, his eyes settling on a half-brick beside the flower bed.
It was huge, almost half the size of his head.
He went over and hefted it, then turned back and grinned at Tang Xiaolan:
“Tang Xiaolan, you said you have a dad, didn’t you? Then have him come save you!”
With that, he raised the brick and swung it toward the little girl’s head!
Tang Xiaolan’s little face went deathly pale with fear.
Just as the brick was about to come down,
a hand shot out of nowhere and clamped around the boy’s wrist.
Smack!!!
A sharp, resounding slap sent the boy leading them flying!
The brick slipped from his hand, hit the ground, and split in two.
The boy rolled across the ground twice, then clutched his face and wailed. In an instant, one side of his face swelled up like a pig’s head.
The other children were so terrified they froze in place.
Lin Yan lowered his hand and looked down at the wailing boy, his gaze cold enough to freeze someone to death.
“You’re really proud of yourself for trying to smash a little girl’s head with a brick?”
The boy leading them clutched his face and scrambled to his feet, snot and tears running down his face, but he still had plenty of nerve:
“Even my dad’s never hit me like that! How dare you hit me?! Do you know who my dad is?!”
Smack!!!
Another slap!
This one was even louder than the last!
The boy spun around on the spot. His other cheek swelled up too, both sides perfectly symmetrical, making him look like an inflated frog.
Lin Yan crouched and grabbed the boy by the collar, lifting him up to eye level.
His eyes were bloodshot, his face full of killing aura.
“A bunch of boys bullying one little girl, and you’re proud of it? And you even brought a brick?”
“I don’t care who your dad is. If you weren’t a kid, I’d beat you to death right here.”
“Get lost!!!”
Lin Yan let go, and the boy landed hard on his backside.
The killing aura and oppressive aura radiating from Lin Yan were more than any child could withstand.
The leader and the other boys didn’t dare talk back anymore. They scrambled into the hotel, crying as they ran:
“Waaah! I’m telling my dad! My dad will kill you!”
Lin Yan couldn’t be bothered with them. He turned to look at the little girl crouching on the ground, trembling.
He tried to soften his voice.
“Hey, are you all right?”
Tang Xiaolan looked up at Lin Yan and stared at him for a moment.
Then, with a thump, she dropped straight to her knees:
“Uncle! Please marry my mom!”
Lin Yan froze.
He had heard her say those words from a distance earlier and thought they were absurd.
But now, seeing up close this little girl covered in bruises, her knee bleeding, yet refusing to run, he suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.
“Get up first.” Lin Yan reached out and pulled her to her feet. “Where’s your mom?”
“Mom’s inside the hotel…” Tang Xiaolan sobbed so hard she could barely breathe. “The Tang Family… the Tang Family wants to kick Mom and me out…”
“Why do they want to kick you out?”
Tang Xiaolan wiped the tears and snot from her face and began to explain haltingly.
It turned out Tang Xuejian was the sole heir designated by the old master of the Tang Family.
After the old master passed away last year, Tang Family relatives from the collateral branches had grown jealous and tried every means to drive Tang Xuejian out so they could seize the Tang Group’s assets.
Tang Xuejian had no choice but to find a live-in son-in-law to protect herself and her daughter.
Today’s gathering at the hotel was supposed to be the engagement ceremony between Tang Xuejian and the “Eldest Young Master of the Lin Family.”
But the Lin Family had stood them up!
Not a single person had shown up!
The Tang Family members had erupted on the spot.
“Tang Xuejian! Having a child out of wedlock was embarrassing enough! Now you can’t even find a live-in son-in-law?!”
“A woman like that doesn’t deserve to stay in the Tang Family!”
They seized the opportunity to make trouble, forcing Tang Xuejian to hand over her shares or they would throw her and her daughter out of the Tang Family.
So she had run to the hotel entrance, stopping every man who passed by and kneeling to beg.
“Uncle, please marry my mom, okay?”
“Uncle, my mom is really nice. She’s gentle, she can cook, and she never scolds me…”
“Please…”
She had already been rejected countless times.
Pushed down, cursed at, and mocked.
But she had never once given up.
Because she knew that if she gave up, her mom would truly have no one to help her.
Lin Yan listened in silence.
He looked down at the little girl before him. Her knee was scraped and still bleeding, one shoe had come off, and her little face was covered in tears, snot, and dust, but her big eyes remained fixed on him.
Something inside him was suddenly struck hard.
He thought of himself.
Fifteen years ago, when he was sent to the countryside, he had been about her age.
He had been alone too.
No one had cared for him or loved him, and he had been bullied all the time!
“Uncle, please marry my mom, okay?”