Big socks! Do you even understand how you kiss a villain?

"Youyou! Where are you? Come out quickly, you're the last one!"

After a long time, Zuo You finally heard her brother's shouts.

This time, however, she was smarter. Her brother loved to lie to her, and he was definitely going to trick her into leaving. She had to wait until everyone had been found before she went out.

The shouts gradually faded into the distance, and Zuo You, who had been playing on the wall, felt her eyelids grow heavy...

"You little brat! I've fed and clothed you, and you still dare to ask for money? Get lost!"

Inside the alley, Shen Yongqiang stood unsteadily, holding a bottle of liquor, his fierce gaze fixed on the little boy who was cowering in fear.

Despite being terrified, the boy thought of the pen he couldn't hold at all and whispered, "...I want to buy a pen, the cheapest one is only five cents, I only want to buy one."

Snapped!

The bottle shattered at the boy's feet, and shards of glass cut a bloody line across his face. The man, reeking of alcohol, spat and cursed, "You little bastard, born of a mother but raised without one, do you want me to slap you twice?! Bah!"

After saying that, Shen Yongqiang staggered forward and kicked the boy. However, he lost his balance and almost fell. His face darkened, and he angrily kicked and shoved the boy again.

The boy helplessly covered his head, his small body trembling uncontrollably.

Finally, the man got tired of hitting him, spat out a mouthful of saliva, and staggered away.

After he walked away, the boy slowly got up, bent over in pain, and collected the broken pieces of the bottle from the ground to throw away.

The people in the alley watched his thin figure with pity, whispering among themselves:

"What kind of mess has that drunkard made? He beats and kicks such a good kid every day. If I didn't already have two children, I would want to raise him."

"Who can argue with that? A six-year-old child is picking up trash and serving that drunkard every day. He must have had terrible luck in his past life. He would have been better off in an orphanage than here."

......

The chatter behind him didn't subside, and Shen Yan habitually quickened his pace.

That man must have lost money gambling again; he definitely won't get a single penny back. He'll have to figure out how to buy the pen himself.

After getting a snakeskin bag from home, Shen Yan went to the back gate of a residential area and skillfully crawled through a dog hole.

This is one of the more upscale neighborhoods. You can find quite a lot of things in every trash can. The money Shen Yan used to buy shoes last time was earned by collecting recyclables here.

But with so many things to collect, there were also many people who would try to pick them up. He would often be chased away, and sometimes the things he had painstakingly collected would be snatched away in exchange for a few candies or a coin.

He had to go to school during the day, and by the time he came over in the evening, his belongings had been almost completely taken away. He rummaged through several trash cans and only managed to find a few empty bottles and a schoolbag.

However, this was already enough to surprise him. Although the backpack was a bit small, it was still usable, and there were even two brand new pencils inside.

Seeing the cardboard boxes not far away out of the corner of her eye, Shen Yan quickly ran over, afraid that if she was even a little slow, someone would snatch them away.

However, the moment he picked up the cardboard, his pupils constricted, and he took several steps back in fright.

"Brother, did I win?" Zuo You was blinded by the streetlights and finally woke up.

However, as soon as she opened her eyes, she was met with a pair of dark, bright eyes; a boy was staring at her warily.

The other person asked her, "Were you abandoned here?"

Zuo You thought for a moment and shook her head. "I wasn't abandoned here. I hid here on my own. Look, my home is over there!"

As she spoke, she climbed out of the cardboard box and pointed to the tallest building not far away.

Shen Yan nodded without speaking. He hadn't seen clearly just now and thought she had been abandoned as well.

However, after she stood up, he saw clearly that she was completely clean, and he had seen girls in his class wear the princess dress she was wearing, which he had heard cost over a thousand yuan.

Shen Yan, who started collecting and selling garbage at the age of five, already had a concept of money, a number he never dared to even imagine.

"Brother, did you come to see me? But I don't think I've seen you before."

Zuo You wasn't shy at all; after exchanging a few words with him, she called him "brother."

Shen Yan pursed her lips and shook her head, hiding the snakeskin bag in her hand behind her back.

But the girl had already spotted him and ran over happily, looking at him with bright eyes: "Brother, I know, you're here to collect cardboard. There are so many cardboard boxes here, let's collect them together, okay?"

Before Shen Yan could answer, she had already taken the snakeskin bag, which was taller than her, from his hands.

There was no hint of disgust in her eyes. Shen Yan looked at her for a couple of seconds, somewhat at a loss, and whispered, "You hold the bag for me, I'll pick it up."

"Okay!" Zuo You immediately put down the cardboard in her hand and obediently helped him hold the corner of the pocket.

Shen Yan worked quickly, and soon filled the bag to the brim. There was still quite a bit left on the ground, so he pressed the bag down hard, trying to stuff it all in.

A hunched figure slowly approached. Shen Yan panicked and quickly took the bag from Zuo You's hand, hiding it tightly behind his back, his eyes fiercely fixed on the old man approaching him.

"Brother, do you know him?" Zuo You asked, puzzled by his frightened expression.

The old man smiled and said, "Little friend, how about giving the cardboard to Grandpa? Grandpa will take it and exchange it for money."

"No, I need to exchange it for money too." Shen Yan wanted to run away immediately, but when he saw the bewildered girl next to him out of the corner of his eye, he didn't move.

A hint of impatience flashed in the old man's eyes, but he still endured it and said, "Little friend, what you're doing is wrong. Didn't your teacher tell you to care for the elderly? You won't need these cardboard boxes."

Shen Yan stubbornly shook her head and refused.

Seeing this, the old man tried to grab it, but before he knew it, his outstretched hand was shoved away.

"You naughty grandpa, you're not allowed to take my brother's things!"

A little baby stared wide-eyed, angrily spreading out his arms to protect Shen Yan behind him.

The old man had been picking up trash in the neighborhood for a long time and recognized the child as one of the residents. He softened his voice and coaxed, "Little one, Grandpa isn't robbing you. He won't need this cardboard. Grandpa hasn't eaten for three days."

"No way! Get out of here, or I'll call the police to arrest you!" Zuo You shouted angrily, stomping her feet as she shouted to amplify her momentum.

The old man eventually passed away.

Shen Yan never expected that a girl so much shorter than him would help him; a feeling he had never experienced before spread through his heart.

He glanced at the night sky; it was getting late, and he had to go back to cook for that man.

"I'm going home. You should know the way home, right?"

As Shen Yan spoke, he took out a rope from his pocket and put it over the snakeskin bag. He had climbed through a dog hole to get here, but now that he was carrying such a big bag, he couldn't go back the same way.

He could only sneak out when the security guards weren't looking.