I couldn't take it anymore; when I went home for Chinese New Year, the family genealogy book ha

The woman waved her hand dismissively, took out a one-yuan coin from her pocket, and casually tossed it into the broken enamel bowl.

The coin rolled twice at the bottom of the bowl, making a crisp sound.

A cold wind was blowing back into the underpass.

The man wore a tattered cotton-padded jacket that smelled sour, and his hair was matted into hard clumps, covered with dust and dead leaves.

He slowly raised his head.

Beneath the disheveled hair was a face so dirty that its features were unrecognizable.

A pair of gold-rimmed glasses with one half of the lens shattered sat on the bridge of his nose.

These glasses were once his pride as a "top university student," but now they've become a joke about his homelessness.

He was Jiang Xuewen, who once thought highly of himself and looked down on everyone in Jiangjia Village.

"Grandma, that uncle is so pitiful. Should we buy him another hot bun?" The little grandson tugged at his aunt's clothes.

The woman pulled her grandson behind her.

"Why buy steamed buns! This kind of person has hands and feet but doesn't work, spending his days squatting under the bridge begging for food. He brought it all on himself!"

The woman pointed to the huge LED screen on the exterior wall of the shopping mall across the street.

"Look at Village Chief Jiang!"

"Not only did they make a fortune themselves, but they also donated 100 million yuan to build a school cafeteria for poor children!"

"If you study hard, you can work at the company in Jiangjia Village in the future!"

"If you go astray, you'll end up like this beggar, sleeping under bridges!"

The old woman's lecturing voice echoed in the underpass, each word piercing to the heart.

On the big screen, the female reporter's voice was amplified by the loudspeaker and spread throughout the entire intersection.

"Village Chief Jiang! You've used this enormous sum of 100 million yuan entirely to build free canteens in the mountainous areas. This is a pioneering act of personal philanthropy in China!"

The camera zooms in.

Jiang Chen was wearing a bespoke casual suit and holding An Yan, who was in a pink swaddling cloth.

He stood on the high platform, facing hundreds of billionaire business owners below, his posture upright and his aura commanding.

"I, Jiang Chen, am a native of the countryside."

"Every primary school in the mountainous areas funded by my Chiang Kai-shek Foundation must have a large canteen built!"

"I want to ensure that every poor child can eat meat at every meal!"

Jiang Chen's domineering words came from the screen.

The camera then cut to the wealthy people in the audience.

Su Tianhao, the richest man in the provincial capital, stood up and loudly echoed, "My Su Group will invest 50 million!"

Several coal mine owners and real estate tycoons worth tens of billions of yuan eagerly raised their hands.

"I'll donate 20 million!"

"I'll donate ten million!"

Pedestrians and electric bike riders waiting at the intersection for the red light all stopped and looked at the big screen, and gasps of amazement erupted from the crowd.

A white-collar worker in a suit pushed up his glasses and exclaimed loudly to his companion.

"Look at the grandeur of Jiangjia Village!"

"All the top figures in the province rushed to give him gifts, but he didn't accept a single penny; instead, he used his own money for charity!"

"That's true mastery!"

His companion nodded repeatedly, his face full of envy.

"That's right! I have a distant relative who lives right next to Jiangjia Village!"

"According to him, Jiangjia Village is practically paradise on earth now!"

"The village roads are all paved with the finest asphalt, and every household lives in a multi-million dollar luxury apartment!"

"Even the village's street-sweeping aunties get year-end bonuses starting at a million!"

The white-collar workers in suits were practically drooling as they listened.

"My God! This isn't the countryside; it's worse than the rich people in Dubai!"

"If I could have a household registration in Jiangjia Village, I wouldn't even bother with this department manager job; I'd just go back to the village and farm!"

His companion burst out laughing.

"Dream on! Right now, a household registration in Jiangjia Village wouldn't sell for even 100 million on the black market!"

"The village head, Jiang Chen, has set rules so that outsiders can't even get a spot to sweep the streets!"

Every word from the passersby felt like an invisible slap, striking Jiang Xuewen's face hard.

Jiang Xuewen's fingers were trembling violently.

The half-eaten, cold steamed bun in his hand, which someone else had left over, fell with a thud onto the muddy ground.

The steamed bun rolled around and became covered in black sewage.

Jiang Xuewen seemed oblivious.

He stared blankly up at Jiang Chen on the big screen through the half-broken lens.

On the screen, Jiang Chen shone brightly, receiving the adoration of the entire world.

Jiang Xuewen, huddled in a dark and damp bridge hole, was worse off than a stray dog.

More than half a year ago.

Jiang Xuewen, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and a clean white shirt, stood proudly at the village entrance.

He looked at Jiang Chen, who was driving an Audi, with utter contempt, thinking that Jiang Chen was nothing more than an uncultured nouveau riche.

He talked at length about his education and what it meant to transcend social classes in front of the whole village.

He was even jealous of Jiang Chen and secretly wrote a letter of complaint, attempting to dismantle Jiang Chen's business empire.

The results of it?

Jiang Chen didn't even look at him directly.

They exposed his academic fraud in public and ruthlessly expelled him from the village!

After being driven out of the village, Jiang Xuewen arrived in the provincial capital full of confidence, thinking that it would be easy to find a job with a monthly salary of tens of thousands.

Reality, however, dealt him the harshest blow.

The stain of falsifying academic credentials was reported to the entire industry.

Let alone big companies, even the most inconspicuous small workshops would kick him out as soon as they saw his ID card.

He was proud and arrogant and unwilling to do physical labor.

When the lease expired, the landlord dumped the tenant and their belongings on the street.

Even when he worked as a waiter at a restaurant, the boss thought he was all talk and no action and fired him after two days.

Three months.

They forced a self-proclaimed genius into becoming a beggar sleeping under a bridge.

He had been starving for three whole days, surviving by rummaging through the trash for leftover food.

"ah--!"

Jiang Xuewen suddenly clutched his messy head with both hands and let out a shrill scream like a dying wild beast.

The shout sounded particularly jarring inside the bridge arch.

The passersby were startled and quickly backed away.

"What's wrong with this person? Has he gone crazy?"

"Stay away, he might be crazy!"

Jiang Xuewen couldn't hear the discussions around him at all.

His eyes were red-rimmed, and tears mixed with the dirt on his face, washing out two black mud streaks.

Large tears fell down.

He knelt on the ground, looked up at the ceiling, and broke down in tears.

"What did I miss?!"

"I was originally a member of the Jiang family too!"

Jiang Xuewen frantically pounded the cement floor with his hands covered in black mud, splitting his fingernails and drawing blood.

"All I have to do is give in and stop being jealous of him!"

"I could have lived in that big apartment and been receiving millions in dividends!"

"I could have lived a life of luxury with him, driving around in a fancy car!"

The immense sense of loss was like a rusty, dull knife, repeatedly cutting into his pitiful self-esteem.

He was completely overwhelmed by endless regret.

Jiang Xuewen suddenly raised his hand.

Snapped!

A resounding slap landed hard on his left cheek.

This time, I used all my strength.

Half of his face swelled up, his mouth split open, and blood flowed down his chin.

Snapped!

He raised his right hand again and slapped his right cheek.

The remaining half of the lens was blown away and shattered on the ground.

"I'll teach you to be arrogant! I'll teach you to cheat! I'll teach you to look down on others!"

Jiang Xuewen burst into tears and frantically slapped himself repeatedly, left and right.

Snapped!Snapped!Snapped!

The crisp sound of slaps echoed continuously in the cold wind.

The woman was so frightened that she quickly grabbed her grandson's hand and backed away.

"Oh my goodness! This beggar is insane! Quick, get out of here, don't get involved with him!"

The woman, pulling her grandson along, fled the overpass as if it were a plague.

Passersby also took detours, fearing they might get into trouble.

Only a few kind-hearted people tossed a few coins over from a distance.

Jiang Xuewen slapped him dozens of times, and his cheeks were swollen and purplish-red.

He collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

The crying gradually turned into hoarse sobs.

A cold wind blew, and he shivered all over.

At this moment, my stomach let out a long, mournful cry.

Hunger triumphed over the last vestiges of vanity.

Jiang Xuewen lay on the ground, stretching out his hands, which were covered in frostbite and dirt, and groped around little by little.

He clutched the coin the old lady had just thrown into his hand.

He also picked up all the coins that the passerby had thrown away.

Holding those few cold coins, Jiang Xuewen finally came to terms with reality.

He had no way out.

He will never have the right to see that magnificent Jiangjia Village again in his lifetime.

He dared not go back.

I have no face to go back.

Jiang Xuewen stuffed the coins tightly into the pocket of his tattered cotton-padded coat.

He used both his hands and feet to get up from the ground.

They didn't even dare to look at Jiang Chen on the big screen opposite them again.

With his neck hunched and his back stooped.

Like a stray dog, I walked step by step to the trash can at the end of the street, preparing to rummage through it for tonight's dinner.

……

The detention center in the southern suburbs of Qinghe County.

The two tall iron gates slid open slowly to the sides, emitting a dull metallic scraping sound.

The cold wind, mixed with snowflakes, seeped into people's necks.

The detention center guards, dressed in crisp uniforms, stood at the main gate, holding several release certificates in their hands.

"Jiang Haoran!"

The discipline officer called out the names loudly.

"arrive!"

A young man with a green bald head strode out of the iron gate.

He no longer had that exaggerated blond hair.

The flashy bodysuit she was wearing was gone, and she was only wearing a drab old jacket.

Jiang Haoran, the village's war god who used to run rampant at the village entrance, is now as docile as a quail.

The guard handed him the release certificate.

"Be a good person after you get out! Don't keep causing trouble on the streets with your friends all the time!"

The discipline officer reprimanded him with a stern face.

"If I see you brought in for fighting again, next time it won't be as simple as just six months in jail!"

Jiang Haoran took the thin piece of paper with both hands.

He stood ramrod straight and bowed repeatedly.

"Don't worry, government! I will definitely turn over a new leaf! I will never dare to stage an accident or fight again!"

Jiang Haoran loudly expressed his opinion.

I've been working on a sewing machine inside for the past six months.

Discipline brought him down from his arrogance, and the ruthless people inside tamed his temper.

The guard nodded and waved.

Let's go!

Immediately afterwards, three more young men, also with shaved heads, came out.

They were all Jiang Haoran's henchmen who intercepted Jiang Chen's bulletproof RV at the village entrance back then.

The four people each carried a fertilizer woven bag.

The iron gate slammed shut behind them.

A few people stood on the empty roadside, watching the passing vehicles, their faces full of confusion.

One of Xiao Fei's followers was sniffling from the cold.

"Ran-ge, where are we going now that we're here?"

Xiao Fei tucked his hands into his sleeves and spoke in a trembling voice.

"When we went in, we were penniless, and now we don't even have two yuan for the bus fare."

Another henchman sighed and kicked a pebble off the roadside.

"We don't have any relatives in the county town, we can't just start begging for food right after we left, can we?"

The henchmen all stared expectantly at Jiang Haoran.

Jiang Haoran gripped the fertilizer bag tightly in his hand and spun around twice.

For the past six months, he had no idea what had happened outside.

The only clear memory in his mind was Jiang Chen driving an armored vehicle and crushing his sports car.

And then there was Jiang Chen's condescending gaze, looking down on him like an ant.

Jiang Haoran sighed and turned to look at the provincial highway that led to Jiangjia Village.

"Where to? Where else could we go!"

Jiang Haoran slung the fertilizer bag over his shoulder.

Let's see if the village can still take us in!

"Let's go! Brothers, follow me back to the village!"

Xiao Fei shrank his neck and quickly followed.

"But Ran-ge, Chen-ge was so ruthless back then, he didn't even care about family ties and sent us in directly."

Xiao Fei muttered with a worried expression.

"If we just go back like this, what if he gets the security team to beat us up again?"