"I don’t need you to care about me!"

After saying that, Cui Chenghuan pushed Cui Min’er and ran off without looking back.

Cui Min’er didn’t have the energy to chase after him, she could only open her mouth and stand there for a long time. Finally, she pulled her sleeves together, somewhat dazed, and turned to walk home.

As she passed by the garbage heap, Cui Min’er saw a backpack with a lot of stickers on it, left alone beside the trash can.

Cui Min’er recognized it as her old backpack, which she had given to Cui Chenghuan after he started school. The original pattern beneath the stickers was of a Sailor Warrior, but evidently, Cui Chenghuan felt embarrassed to carry such a bag to school, so he bought many stickers to cover the pattern.

Although annoyed that her brother wouldn’t listen to her, Cui Min’er still walked over and picked up the backpack. Only when she picked it up did she notice that the stickers were scribbled with all sorts of chaotic handwriting, filled with many words.

The handwriting was clearly not from one person, but the words combined to be so striking:

"Your sister is a J girl!"

"A parasite eating free lunch every day!"

"Mute!"

"A dog boy punished to stand every day..."

Cui Min’er was stunned.

Looking at those extremely insulting words, some seemed to have been scratched by a small knife, becoming blurry, but the overlapping handwriting made it clear they weren’t written all in one day.

Cui Min’er suddenly felt a sharp pain in her heart, almost unable to breathe. She roughly understood why her brother got into a fight with those boys. An overwhelming regret drowned her, making tears flow from Cui Min’er’s eyes.

But when she turned her head, Cui Chenghuan’s trace could no longer be seen. After catching her breath while leaning against the wall, Cui Min’er straightened up, tightly clutching the filthy backpack, and stepped by step walked towards home.

...

Cui Min’er had lived for over ten years at the very top of a slope.

All the shantytowns here were built along the mountains, but even in such dense shantytowns, the place where Cui Min’er’s family lived was one of the worst locations.

The houses in the shantytown underwent no planning, but were instead constructed by the residents themselves in a "make-do" fashion on the usable slopes.

Cui Min’er’s parents moved in relatively late, with fewer choices, they could only build their house on such a neglected hilltop... which also meant that entering or leaving the place took more time.

Quite a few Korean dramas, aiming to reflect real life, shoot scenes in shantytowns, and many protagonists’ backgrounds are set in such slums.

In those dramas, the most direct way to portray poverty seems to be having the protagonists eat instant noodles every day... yet their lives are still colorful, even filled with a romantic hue characteristic of Korean dramas.

But only those, like Cui Min’er, who have truly lived in such a place for many years know that so-called romance has nothing to do with life here.

Here, there were tangible and intangible comparisons among neighbors, pride when a daughter got married, envy when a son found a good job in Gangnam District, cautiousness in not flaunting one’s wealth, and guarded calculations against each other...

Yet there’s none of the warmth and romance found in TV dramas.

Of course, there might still be good people, but Cui Min’er felt that everyone’s life was already so difficult, who would have the energy to distinguish who’s good or bad?

Cui Min’er didn’t have that energy either, so she dreamed of escaping here, just beyond the wall to Gangnam District, where everything she longed for existed.

So when she met Woo-bin, she agreed to his pursuit without a second thought, from being together to getting engaged, it took less than three months.

Her only bit of cleverness, brewed in her upbringing of defensiveness and calculation, shielded her bottom line, preventing her from wavering for Woo-bin’s ordinary "kindness", insisting to wait until after marriage to give her whole self.

For a girl coming from such a place, chastity was the only asset she could present.

Soon, Cui Min’er arrived at the metal-wrapped door. She rummaged in her bag for a long time before remembering that her broken key had long been discarded when she left the house, fearing embarrassment...

Recalling something, Cui Min’er quickly rummaged in the gap of the door, found the spare key left by her parents, and then opened the front door and went inside.

There was no courtyard. Upon opening the door, the "one hall two rooms" layout appeared in view.

Called "one hall two rooms", in reality, each space was separated by simple sliding wooden boards, with a slightly larger ’multi-functional main room’ of about twenty to thirty square meters in the center.

During the day, it was the family’s living room and kitchen, the main activity space for everyone, and at night it turned into a bedroom for Cui Min’er’s grandma to sleep in.

The other two smaller "bedrooms" were used by Cui Min’er’s parents, and another was for a long time shared by Cui Min’er and Cui Chenghuan.

Later, when Cui Min’er went to high school, she protested multiple times, leading her parents to spend extra money letting her board at the high school. Cui Min’er was temporarily removed from such an environment, until when the exchange student opportunity arose in college, she signed the application without hesitation...

"Juncai?"

Perhaps hearing the noise at the door, an elderly voice came from inside.

"Juncai" was the name of Cui Min’er’s father. Hearing the voice was no surprise to Cui Min’er, who responded loudly:

"Grandma, it’s me!"

Soon, an elderly woman emerged from inside, clearly surprised to see Cui Min’er.

"Min’er, weren’t you still in Huaxia? Why did you come back all of a sudden?"

Cui Min’er’s grandma came over to examine her, quickly pulling her to sit down, asking if she was hungry and if she wanted a bowl of instant noodles.

Cui Min’er finally felt some warmth in her heart. Her parents were the most typical parents in such an environment, a bit snobbish, usually stingy, not unloving, but it was hard for Cui Min’er to have much affection for such parents.

In this home, only her kind and gentle grandma could make her feel the warmth of familial love.

But after the warm inquiry, grandma suddenly remembered something, hastily getting up and walking towards the old-fashioned landline telephone.

"I have to quickly call your parents..."

"Why?"

"They haven’t been able to reach you recently, seeming very anxious... Min’er, did you have an argument with your fiancé?"

Grandma was dialing while asking a few questions as she turned back.

The phone card Cui Min’er used in Huaxia was different, as long-distance calls cost extra, her parents usually didn’t call her, instead leaving her messages on the chat software.

Recently, to avoid Woo-bin and to prevent arguments, Cui Min’er hadn’t logged into her chat software account for a long time, so she wasn’t surprised to hear that her parents couldn’t reach her.

But she hadn’t told her parents about her argument with Woo-bin, so how did they know?

Cui Min’er didn’t stop grandma from calling, just curiously asking:

"Why do you ask like that, grandma?"

Her grandma hesitated before speaking, said:

"Your parents have been in poor spirits lately, especially your father, he... seems about to be unemployed."

"Unemployed?"

Cui Min’er was startled, initially thinking "how could that be," but then recalling that her father’s workplace was a factory under Woo-bin’s family business, Cui Min’er closed her mouth.

It had been a month since Cui Min’er last dealt with Woo-bin, it was clear that Woo-bin likely sensed something too...