Liu Dazhuang was furious, but he didn’t dare take his anger out on others. In the end, he vented it on his own daughter, grabbing Liu Qianqian and dragging her away.
“Waaah… Dad, it hurts… be gentler…”
Ruanruan stood there watching when someone suddenly patted her on the shoulder. She turned around and saw Chen Hai.
“Ruanruan, that child Liu Qianqian is unlucky to be born into that kind of family. Don’t feel guilty about it. Some things are simply beyond our control.”
Ruanruan nodded and whispered softly, “I know. But hitting children is still wrong. I plan to go report it to the Women’s Federation director. They’ll definitely handle it.”
Chen Hai froze for a moment, then couldn’t help giving her a thumbs-up.
“You’re amazing.”
Ruanruan smiled shyly.
Even though Liu Qianqian was a bad kid, she was still a little koi with good fortune. She couldn’t just stand by and watch other kids being bullied.
Chen Hai didn’t want to continue such a heavy topic, so he changed the subject with a smile.
“Thank you, Ruanruan. With your guidance, I actually ranked ninth today! I never even dreamed I’d do that well!”
“Old Chen, what’s going on?” someone nearby asked curiously after hearing him.
Chen Hai didn’t hide anything and explained directly.
“I’m usually a complete ‘empty-handed fisherman.’ I can never catch anything, and my wife always complains about me. Yesterday I ran into Ruanruan. She saw me fishing all day and gave me a few tips. Today we agreed to fish together again, and well… here we are.”
“Whoa!” The people around looked at Ruanruan in shock.
They had been wondering how such a tiny child could keep ranking first.
Lin Dayong was only a small official, so it was impossible for him to bribe the staff to fake the results.
But with Chen Hai’s testimony, it proved that Ruanruan had really earned first place with her own fishing skills.
Still… could such a chubby, fair, and pretty little girl really know how to fish?
A quick-witted man immediately asked, “Ruanruan, could you teach me some fishing tricks? You see… my ranking isn’t very good.”
Ruanruan lifted her head and said in her soft childish voice,
“Uncle, fishing is very simple! You just need to choose the right bait. Different fish like different bait. Oh, and before fishing, you also need to prepare a bait spot.”
Everyone suddenly looked enlightened.
After all, they had never even heard of the idea of preparing a bait spot.
Food itself was already scarce for families to eat!
“Ruanruan, could you personally fish tomorrow and guide us a bit?”
Ruanruan patted her little chest proudly, the two small buns on her head bobbing up and down.
“No problem, Uncle! Just come find me tomorrow.”
When Lin Dayong arrived, he saw his daughter surrounded by a crowd.
If they hadn’t been laughing and chatting, he might have thought Ruanruan had caused trouble again.
He walked over quickly, only to find everyone greeting him.
“Dayong, you’re really lucky to have such a well-behaved and sensible daughter!”
“Dayong, if you’re free the day after tomorrow, let’s have a fishing competition between our two units!”
Lin Dayong politely responded to everyone and finally reached Ruanruan’s side. Lowering his voice, he asked,
“Why are they all surrounding you and praising you like you’re the center of attention?”
Ruanruan snorted proudly.
“Guess!”
“Because you’re pretty and cute, and everyone likes you?”
Ruanruan immediately brightened like a puppy wagging its tail and confessed happily.
“That’s the main reason! Another reason is that tomorrow I’ll personally teach them how to fish.”
Lin Dayong frowned.
A bunch of grown men asking a tiny girl for guidance?
No… it was probably because his daughter ranked first, and those men suspected something fishy about her results. But since they couldn’t ask directly, they pretended to ask for advice.
He reached out and tugged gently at her little hair buns.
“Ruanruan, you’re amazing.”
Chen Hai, who stood nearby, laughed.
“Dayong, I really envy you for having such a beautiful and clever daughter.”
“Hahaha! Your son is great too. By the way, Dahai, why don’t you come to our house for dinner later? We caught too many fish recently and can’t finish them all. You can also teach me some fishing tricks!”
“Sure!” Chen Hai thought for a moment and agreed.
His wife had gone back to her parents’ home today. He had originally planned to eat casually at a state-owned restaurant anyway.
Besides, he genuinely liked Lin Dayong. The man might have a few small schemes, but his character wasn’t bad.
“Then I’ll go home first.”
“Alright.”
On the way back, Lin Dayong suddenly took out a plush puppy toy.
“Ta-da! Daughter, do you like it?”
“Wow! It’s a puppy!” Ruanruan excitedly grabbed it, the little buns on her head bouncing again. “Dad, is there only one?”
“Of course. You’re my only precious daughter!”
Lin Dayong felt that trading one jin of grain coupons with his comrade for this plush toy was completely worth it.
He knew Ruanruan would love it.
Meanwhile, Liu Qianqian’s situation was far worse. She wasn’t as lucky as Ruanruan.
“You worthless girl! I must have committed some terrible sin to give birth to a debt collector like you!”
A woman’s sharp voice rang out as she beat and scolded Liu Qianqian.
Just thinking about how her husband had spent one hundred yuan only to bring back a pile of fish made her heart ache so badly she almost cried.
One hundred yuan was the savings their entire family had painstakingly accumulated!
She didn’t dare scold her husband, so Wang Guihua vented all her anger on Liu Qianqian.
Liu Dazhuang took a sip of wine. He was also heartbroken about the money.
Nearby, their son Tiedan happily munched on crispy fried small fish.
“Beat that useless girl to death! Mom, I want a big chicken drumstick!”
Wang Guihua viciously pinched her daughter again.
“Tiedan, our family won’t have any chicken for months! It’s all this useless girl’s fault for costing the family a hundred yuan!”
“Waaah!”
The moment Tiedan heard that, he burst into loud sobs. He even threw the fried fish in his hand at his own mother’s face.
“You’re bad! I want a chicken drumstick!”
When Wang Guihua saw her son crying, she immediately stopped hitting Liu Qianqian and hurried over to hug him.
“My precious baby, don’t cry! At worst we’ll make that useless girl go curry favor with Lin Ruanruan and have her take your sister fishing!”
Liu Dazhuang also spoke up.
“Liu Qianqian, this is all because you couldn’t control your mouth and provoked Lin Ruanruan! Otherwise she wouldn’t have exposed what I did! I’m telling you—if you can’t get Ruanruan’s forgiveness, don’t come back to this house.”
Liu Qianqian clutched her injured arm and looked helplessly at her parents and brother.
“Dad… I’ll go apologize. Please don’t abandon me!”
“Hmph!” Wang Guihua snorted coldly.
“Then hurry up and apologize! You really have no sense at all. I must have the worst luck in eight lifetimes to give birth to a daughter like you!”